Half an hour after the first test ended the trio of elders spoke again. "You will now be telported to the second testing area, do not resist." Soon after Alex felt like he was being pulled both up and down, before his surroundings suddenly changed. He was in a compleatly sealed off room, Infront of him was a meditation mat and a block of stone with a note and book next to it. Reading the note it said.
'The second test is where the screening begins properly. The purpose of this test is to see your level of compression. You will sit on the mat and begin to read the technique manual. Over a thirty minute period, beginning from when you stat useing the manual, the stone infront if you will carve itself based on your compression. The shape, definition and size will show your compression. Begin'
"Seems easy enough." Opening the book Alex began to read, it was a rather simple technique called [three paths method] , it split your mind into three paths, that was it. Once he was done reading it Alex decided to not make any changes, as he was worried if he modified the method the rock wouldn't carve itself.
Slipping into the usual trance he had when he cultivated, he began to focus on his mind and its many parts. He already had a technique had a technique that alowed him to focus on more then one thing, but instead of spliting the mind into three parts like the [three paths method], alexs [mind creation] alowed him to use his 'core mind' as a template, and 'copy' it to create a entirely new mind, this mind wouldn't have any individuality and would be under control of the 'core mind' meaning he didn't have to wory about split personalities.
It also meant that he could apply 100% of his mental capabilities to something without limiting his ability to focus on other things, where as the [three paths method] only alowed you to focus on three difrent things with 33% of your mental capabilities. These two things began to interact with each other, each if his 'sub minds' being split into three parts, each of those parts interconnected but seprate, before those sub minds began to conect with each other, becoming a hive mind with alexs mind as the core.
Each mind split into three, before growing into full minds, then split again, growing and growing, linking to each other to form a massive network, but eventually there was to much 'noise', so his main mind split into three, each part becoming a 'core' of their own, forming three spreate hive minds, with the three 'cores' being one truly connected mind. Then thise three split into three, and then they split, and then they split. Eventually forming a truly colossal net work of millions of minds, all working together, sharing informations, combining processing power, growing, forming seprate networks, untill eventually the difrence between a 'cor mind' and 'sub mind' began to fade away.
To the point this massive construct of mental energy became 'one' and a core mind of its own, onky to repat the original prosess again. Once the 30 minutes was up Alex opened his eyes, with them now looking infinitely deep, and looked at the stone.
The shape it took was three sphears connected by small bridges, with each sphere being made up of hundreds spheres of their own, with each if them being made up if more, forming a solid kaleidoscope of sphears. Each sphere had writing on their surface, seemingly nonsensical combinations of words forming broken sentences untill combined with the other spheres to make a seemingly masterful but maddening guide on how to build the kaleidoscope again. It's total size being about the same as a car for the first three orbs. With the final orbs being the size of specks of dust.
"Huh, did I just create an eldrich monument by accident? Neat." Soon he felt that pulling feeling agin, and he was in another room, this one also had a meditation mat and instead of a rock, it had three sticks of unlit incense with another note.
'This test is a test of talent. Simply sit down and begin to cultivate, and the sticks will respond, the higher your talent the more of a stick you will burn, the test will end in 30 minutes or when the insence runs out. You may use either body or qi cultivation, or both if you wish. Begin'
Alex sat down and began to send his qi along the elemental circuits he had made, strengthening them and adding more to them. His body cultivation was entirely automatic at this point, so he thought he might as well develop his circuits, he planed to break through to qi absorbing once every circuit he had reached the most perfect state they could with his curent cultivation. But before he could even properly start he felt the pull again, before he left he saw that the three insence sticks had become a pile of ash with a very large vlod of smoke above them. Just Alex sitting down to cultivate at incinerated all three of them in a single moment.
The third test was difrent from the last two, he was in a large room with a wooden puppet infront of him, a monotone voice spoke from the puppet "this test is a test of combat skill, learning speed, and endurance. Level 1: a singly 2 meridian puppet. Begin."
The puppet then rushed towards Alex with its fist rased, only to be turned into fire wood with one punch. As the wood scraps sunk into the floor, two more puppetswhere raised out of it. " level 2: two 2 meridian puppets. Begin." this time alex threw one puppet into the other, shattering them both. Levels 3 to 5 where the same, with a corresponding amount of puppets. Then only one puppet came out again "level 6: a single 4 meridian puppet. Begin." still, Alex delt with it the same as the the last ones. Levels 7 to 10 follows the same pattern. 2 to 5 puppets with the strangth of a standard 4 meridian cultivator. Levels 1 to 15 where 6 meridians, and 16 to 20 where 8.
Level 21 started difrently though. Three puppets came from the ground this time, all three having more definition then the last puppets, they even had rudimentary faces carved on their heads, with moveing mouths. "Advanced level 1: three advanced 9 meridian puppets. Begin." They where destroyed all the same however. "It realy is a test of endurance, not a single break so far. Oh well." This time 5 puppets came from the ground. "Advanced level 2: five advanced 9 meridian puppets. Begin."
Advanced levels 3, 4 and 5 had 7, 9 and 11 puppets each. Finnaly a very human looking puppet came from the ground, this one was even wearing cloaths, but still had the same monotone voice. "Finnal test. 1 qi absorbing stage 1 puppet. Begin." This one moved substantially faster then the other puppest, it's movements much more fluid. Dodging under its punch Alex landed a punch of his own on its right shoulder, shattering it completely. He then jumped back to dodge the puppets kick, before grabbing its leg and flipping it over him, slaying it into the ground. Alex then placed his foot on the puppets groin and put out the leg and then used it to smash the puppets head in.
Once the puppet sunk into the ground Alex felt the pull agin. This time he was in the open again, with a large gate infront of them that had the sign [purple dawn sect] written on beautiful letters. Behind the gate was a small city, with a mountain behind it. There where two large monoliths infront of the gate with the three elder who where curently meditating to pass the time between them. On the first monument, to the left of the elders, was a list of names and accomplishments. At the top was alexs name and his achievements. 'Comprehension: undeterminable. Talent: undeterminablel. combat: non standard.'
Second on the list was his brother, davin, and his achievements. 'Comprehension: 1st class. Talent: 1st class. combat: undergoing test, curently at 2nd class.'
In third place was someone named issac Glen And his achievements where 'comprehension: 1st class. Talent: 2nd class. Combat: undergoing test, curently at 2nd class.'
Looking at the elders Alex asked, "what does undeterminable and non standard mean?" Hearing this Adrian looked up, suprised to see someone here. "undeterminable and non standard?" Looking up at the left monument he was shocked to see Alex ranks. Looking back at Alex he said "you damn monster. undeterminable means your level is so far above the normal ranking systems that it can't reasonably rank you, basically you are such a high level is dosemt have a levl for you. As for non standard, it means that you can be measured by its normal means, meaning it can't even give you a level. Basically you are such a monster it doesen't know how to even begin. I'm rather interested to see what happens during the aptitude test."
After he said that he went back to meditating. Alex decided to do that same sitting down and testing out his new accidentally upgraded technique.