"Dr... Henry?"
David thought, a bit calmed down, but the voice corrected him,
"Not Dr. Henry, I am afraid, I am SAI"
David was a bit dissapointed but quickly composed himself,
"How come you were unresponsive after such a long time?"
"My apologies, I opted to remain hidden, to serve as a hidden card, in time of need"
"Such as this?"
....
"SAI, SAI!"
"It seems we have arrived at the heart of Locke"
The SAI deliberately changed the subject, chooing to ignore the inquiry.
"Yes we arrived, atleast a decade ago"
David answered, deciding to play along, "somethings are better left unsaid" , was Dr. Henry's favourite quote.
"We seem to have been stationary the time too"
SAI remarked, hinting at an explanation,
"I was trapped here by a strange figure, to the Lockens he is known as the life crystal, he said he was responsible for the dream vision I had not long after I arrived at Locke"
"Ah, yes the mysterious force that invaded your consciousness"
SAI remarked
"I had a vision like that?"
David eagerly inquired.
"It is natural that you don't remember, I retain the responsibility to protect your consciousness from outside interference until you regain your peak strength, I deamed the vision a hidden danger, so Isolated it"
The SAI answered unremorsefully, if he still had memories of the vision, he might have already left, normally David will be furious, but he was surprisingly calm, just sticking to frown,
"Do you want me to reincorporate the memory or look through it and Identify warden?"
The SAI brazenly asked.
"Incorporate it and help me Identify warden"
David said, curious about what the vision was about, the SAI ever so deligent, immediately got to it.
"You will be seeing it about n..."
Before the SAI could finish the sentence, David cut him off,
"Wait! I will look into it later but for now there is something that needs to be done"
Weiss, who had been quiet this whole time shuddered, he knew that sentence was clearly referred to him,
"I will.. te.. teach you to sense and absorb astral energy"
Weiss took the initiative to speak, this pleased David very much, you could feel his exitment, soon he would be again faced with that arrogant trelf that disrespected him back on Kraken(Yotrhiem) and caused him to lose the emperor face.
"Show me"
He said eagerly urging Weiss to start.
"OK, but before we continue, could you elaborate a bit on what you know about the levels of power in the universe?"
Weiss politely requested, David would normally be offended, but aslong is it was required to acquire his goals, his pride could be suppressed, he began to explain from bottom to top what he was aware of,
" Humans, unlike some races can't tap into their neural force located in their neural cortex, but we were able to evolve into transendents, although only a fixed percentage of the human population can evolve, but once you evolve you are able to tap into your neural force and gradually connect neural links to tap into more neural force"
As David continued to explain, Weiss couldn't help but be uncomfortable, the technique of build neural links to increase neural force was the equivalent of burning one's vitality in exchange for strenght, in fact it was discontinued in his home galaxy, to Weiss, this was a crude and barbaric technique, but he dare not say it out loud, even thinking about it was risky,
*think no evil, think no evil, think no evil
David proudly went on about all he learned during his days as a Vanguard cadet, and a pseudo vangaurd, finally he arrived at the power classifications, he explains that the are 9 levels of strenght, plus the pinnacle stage of strength which was mostly known to be mythical and unproven.
He goes on to explain that every level is divided into 3 stages,"Early stage", "Middle stage" and "Peak stage", these are also reffered to as minor levels, and from Early stage Lvl 1 to Early stage Lvl 2 is a major level, the power gap between major stages are not to be trifled with, but once you reach the 6th lvl onward, the gap is like an almost bottomless abyss.
Weiss agrees with David, noting that most of what he said was true but missing a lot of information,
"This is all correct but, the are higher levels above the 10th level, fisrt of all these levels are reffered to as the mortal sphere, and they go from levels 1 to 12, from the mortal shpere, you go to the immortal shpere, which is also made up of 12 levels, then the demi-god sphere also constituting 12 levels then finally the god sphere which has infinite levels, which are reffered to as cycles"
Having concluded a heavy silence fell as David was once again Lost in his thoughts, his horizons had been suddenly broadened, Weiss thought he felt small, but David with confidence clarified,
"I don't feel small, I am just surprised by how much more stronger I can become, let's begin"
Startled, Weiss begins to explain how exactly the astral energy was and how to acquire it, he explains, astral energy as per its name, is derived from the stars, or rather is exudes by the stars, he then goes on to say, astral energy can only be felt at level 6 of the mortal sphere and upwards, unless you were a member of a celestial race.
As Weiss intendeds to keep going, David cuts him off and questions him,
"So you use neural force?"
"Yes, but not in the way you use it, and in the vast universe, it is reffered to as "Vigor", for us, instead of making neural links to access more neural force, we simply rely on what we have initially, and we use it to gradually strenghten our bodies through arduous training until we reach the 6th level of the mortal sphere "
David thought for a while and remarked,
"So the more you have initially, the faster you can train"
"I'm afraid not, the more you have initially, the farther you can train, because the older you get after your youth, the less you have until it completely estinguishes".
Weiss answered.
"Hmm, continue"
David ordered, Weiss a little bit unsure, reluctantly continues, he elaborates that in order to use neural force, you first need to sense it, you close your eyes and try to feel the sensations you have when you see or feel a star, but because of level 6 mortal body, you will not only feel the heat or the light, but strings of warmth, Immagine the warmth syphoning into your heart, and your heart will do the rest.
David wanted to try it immediately but Weiss reminded him he was only at the 5lvl mortal sphere now, he didn't meet the requirements to sense astral energy yet, this meant David would have to wait atleast another Decade before he could resolve his grudge.
David was nonetheless determined to acomplish his goal, after a moment he sudden jolts of his feet and asked.
"The way you use neural force, how fast is it?"