Chapter 9: Chapter 8: This Tempered World

The base of the black pyramid was truly huge, it took quite some time for them to walk to the side of it. The duo were currently following a Lustrian, the stranger (a librarian?) trailed alongside the smooth black exterior of the building. Suddenly, she stopped and pressed a finger on a lone white circle; following which, a door sized partition slid upwards, revealing the inside.

“This is the staff entrance, just use the regular exit when you’re done.”

Finally, they were inside.

Stelle explained as the duo walked between the narrow bookshelves: “The Sublime Symposium has six floors in total, the first floor is available for everyone, but only rank 2 and above may access the second floor, only rank 3 or above may access the third, etc. This is because each floor represents their respective rank in the value of the knowledge they contain. As you might expect, the security also becomes exponentially more strict.”

“Unfortunately, I only managed to gain permission for us to access the first floor, but if I were allowed to be ill-mannered for just a moment, perhaps this might change if I were to learn of your rank?”

Ugh, this word again: ‘rank’. I initially assumed ‘rank’ had something to do with social status, Mr. Siluvar is rank 5 for example, and he seems rather well off financially. But if she’s asking me, an Artharian, about my rank, then my earlier conjecture must be wrong. This ‘ranking’ system is universal, it spans beyond cultures and countries, but what is being ranked? Intelligence? This library divides itself based on intelligence then? I guess that makes sense?

He obviously doesn’t know what his rank is; Rene scanned for the red light, thank god, it was around eye level, that meant it was on the first floor. He and Saffry had initially placed the scanner on the third floor, but she said it would scan every book from the third floor going downwards.

“Um, it’s fine, I don’t need to go any higher.”

Rene silently breathed a sigh of relief, it had reached the bottom floor in the three days since he was last here; Saffry said it would be around a week before it would finish, he was rather lucky.

“I see, Rene, shall I tour you through this magnificent symposium? I’m quite familiar with it.”

Once again, her courtesy made Rene feel extreme discomfort.

My first priority is the red light, and I know exactly where it is. Hmm, I severely doubt the possibility, but this is a good time to test if other people can see the red light. If I phrase my test as a question, it’ll be open-ended enough so that I won’t seem like an amnesiatic idiot.

By now, they had exited from the maze of shelves and arrived at the center of the library, a large open space filled with chairs and tables. People conversed and read books at their leisure.

“Um, I want to visit the red light, can you see it?” Rene accompanied his question by even pointing at it to make it more obvious. He looked towards Stelle to gauge her reaction: a face of hesitant bewilderment.

“Pardon me, but I’m not sure what you’re referring to, could you perhaps explain further?”

Nevermind, asking this did make him look like an idiot. But at least he didn’t look like he had amnesia.

“Um, nevermind, I’d like to go explore a bit on my own if that’s fine with you.”

When absorbing the fountain light, he fainted. So he didn’t want anyone to be with him when absorbing the library light this time. Although it might have been because of his despair and exhaustion, there was also the possibility of the absorption process being the real cause. Either way, suddenly fainting in front of your employer for no reason was not a good look.

“Very well, I shall wait for you at the Cafe over there” she pointed to some type of coffee shop nearby, it was indoors of course, this library was massive. “Please inform me when you’re done, I can also borrow some books for you in my name.”

With that said, they split off. The grand halls at the library’s center made it easy to travel the most of the distance without getting lost, however at the last stretch, he was forced to traverse the narrow shelves. With the guidance from the red light, Rene found his way through the elusive red text and colorful back covers. Finally, he managed to see it without any obstructions. It danced from book to book, still scanning their pages. Just to confirm, he picked up one of the books and opened it. It was rather hard to do so with only one hand, but as expected, he still couldn’t understand anything.

Rene took a deep breath, and wrapped his fingers around the lustrous ruby. The light quickly faded, as if it was smothered out by his action.

Hm? I don’t feel anything.

Plucking a random book from itself, he opened it with great anticipation. The mess of red scribbles crowded his eyes. Rene froze, his heart sank to his feet. Thoughts raced within his head.

Bloody hell. Was I too early and it wasn’t finished deciphering? Are there multiple written languages? Fuck, I have to sign the contract blind now, I’ll definitely need support if I want to learn a new lang–

Rene groaned as he dropped to the ground, the book he held made a thud as it fell with him. This newly acquired despair made a mess of his brain. The effects of his concussion were still very evident. He held his head while leaning against the shelf.

Wait—this didn’t feel like his usual migraines, there was no pain, instead, there was delirium. It felt like he was transitioning between being asleep and being awake: ‘hypnagogia’, it was called—how strange he would suddenly remember such an esoteric word. He could no longer focus on any singular. Strange bits of information danced on his cerebrum, singing their peculiar songs. His attention was split between a million different things at once and his thoughts faded immediately as they were replaced by the newly formed disjointed disjunct ones.

The colorful books across from him looked hazy and wonky and woozy and wacky and wobbly and weird was he flying? Floating? Sitting? Sleeping? I donn’t know. This sensation was strangely captivating, pretty nice—euphoric like I were taking a great deal of drugs whoops gotta remember to breathe or I’ll fly to heaven for real–

**********

Ughhh

Rene groaned as he shook his head; he immediately regretted doing so, now his brain was plagued by a very real, very painful migraine. Three days was nowhere near enough time to heal his concussion.

This is how I fell unconscious last time…

He picked up the book he dropped;

This better work.

The same red text filled his vision, but a large grin appeared on his face, he scanned through its lines;

[Ironwood: “Lustrious is the land of light, the refulgent sky gleams to blind and impede. But you, with skin so caliginous and dusk, it brings me succor, you remind me of home, of Aphelion.”]

[Arable blushes]

[Arable: “Oh dear sir, your words are too kind, but I am a mere servant, you are a mighty Aspeiral Source. It is not meant to be!”]

[Ironwood: “Nonsense, my dusk! You grant me sight within this blinding world; tell me, what of your strand?”]

[Arable: “My essence is of earth dear sir, common and dull. I am but a mere rank 2, as rare as the soil beneath your feet. What is it that you see in me? Do you perhaps revel in playing with a poor maiden’s heart?”]

[He brushes through her hair]

[Ironwood: “Long ago, I was a farmer. Now, I have become an Aspeiral Source in the strand of life; but never once have I lost my farmer eyes, ones so adept at discerning rich soil. My dusk, come into my chambers, allow me to plant my seed upon your rich, fertile earth.”]

The book was shut with a bang. Rene’s grin disappeared, he hurriedly looked at the title: [Seeking Arable Land by Nia Nova]. Placing the book back, he exited the aisle he was in and glanced at the giant plaque dangling from the ceiling. He could read it now, but somehow he wished he never gained this ability.

EROTIC FICTION, written in bright, bold, red letters. Rene twitched, it appeared to be a rather popular section as well. It just so happened no one was in his aisle, one in which the books of the author ‘Nia Nova’ filled the shelves.

He thanked the lord and Christ above that he decided to send Stelle away first. Rene made sure his hat was still on his head before quickly rushing away. Given the powers of being literate, he would use them to the fullest.

**********

[Long ago, before the sundering, the entire world was a vast sea, islands littered the ocean like sprinkles on ice-cream.]

Rene sat in between the shelves of the ‘History’ section, he held a children’s picture book within his hand. This was an alternative to reading actual history books in which he could only understand every other word. Besides, the pictures were rather helpful for the completely ignorant him. He was currently looking at an image of the world drawn as ice cream, sprinkles and all.

[Humans lived divided upon these islands in tribal communities. However, back then, we weren’t the only intelligent species. We shared the islands with the cold-blooded: they had arms and legs like us, but with scales for skin, sharp teeth, and claws of a lizard.]

The following picture depicted some humanoid reptile creatures wrestling it out with humans dressed in stereotypical barbaric loincloths.

[New islands were hard and dangerous to find but the old islands were slowly running out of resources. Eventually, the cold-blooded went to war with humans due to our differences. Massive wooden ships were used to traverse the sea. However, back then, boats were still powered by the winds; they were more than 100 times slower than our constellations railway. Adding on the vast distances between the islands, the war lasted generations. Hundreds of years past, the blood of millions spilled into the oceans, disappearing into obscurity.]

The next few drawing depicted ‘lizard-men’ arks clashing against humans warships; it really did look like a scene out of a fantasy novel, but apparently this was presented as history; Rene was inclined to believe it however, these lizard-men were small fry compared to the Earthling who came from a planet 4 billion light years away. Still, since this was a children’s book, he took their facts with a grain of salt.

[But then, Unified Earth ascended to become the first Aspeiral Monad. With his unmatched power, he wiped out all of the cold-blooded and saved humanity from the verge of extinction.]

Unified Earth? That a person’s name? Then again, the creator of Arthas is called ‘Resplendent Paradise', I suppose I can’t judge.

Rene conversed with himself as he flipped the page.

[However, though the war ended, humanity left fractured. The once sophisticated information network we established across seas now no longer existed, but the people still lay scattered across the many islands. Unable to communicate, their languages diverged, and cultures separated.]

[Things were made worse by the threat of another intelligent species: the finned. They inhabited the vast oceans and were initially bystanders in the war between the cold-blooded and the humans. But no Monad existed before Unified Earth, his power scared them.]

Accompanying this text was a picture depicting the finned: Humanoid fish-like creatures.

[Large groups of finned would gather together and attack the small isolated human tribes. People also couldn’t escape their small island to join the stronger groups; any ships they built would be sunk by the finned. Everyone was trapped. Despite Unified Earth’s unparalleled strength, he couldn’t be everywhere at once; he could only watch as the rest of humanity slowly trickled away.]

[But nobody had ever witnessed the true might of an Aspeiral Monad before. The finned didn’t know the Monad of earth still had more strength to spare.]

[One day, the lands quaked and the seas shook. Islands began moving together. Unified Earth had pulled together all the islands of the world to form the mainland of today!]

Bullshit. Am I reading mythology? Even for children’s picture books, the ‘History’ section would only contain non-fiction books right? Hmm, I’ve heard the word Monad before, Stelle used it to describe Resplendent Paradise, the creator of Arthas.

Rene opened the dictionary he had beside him. Thankfully the written language was alphabetic with their own alphabetical order. He found ‘Monad’ quickly.

[Monad: The title ‘Monad’ is only given to those who have reached the pinnacle of cultivation and the highest rank phenomenology allows for. They are rivaled only by each other in strength, standing invincible and almighty in their own eras. They hold the power to alter the very world itself. There have only been nine Aspeiral Monads over the course of eleven thousand years.]

He flipped to ‘Unified Earth’.

[Unified Earth: The very first Aspeiral Monad. He created the strand of earth, and ascended as a Monad of earth. Unified Earth brought salvation to the human race by defeating the cold-blooded; by collecting the various islands of the old world and unifying them into one large landmass, he would go on to form the mainland and unite humanity.]

What? The dictionary says the same thing? Moving tectonic plates? How the hell…

He flipped to ‘Resplendent Paradise’.

[Resplendent Paradise: The sixth Aspeiral Monad in existence, and the first Aspeiral Monad post-Sundering. He created the strand of life, alongside many of its substrands, and ascended as a Monad of life. Resplendent Paradise was born in a wartorn Aphelion, of which he united once ascending to become a Monad. He created the current currency system and standardized language for the entire world. Many landmarks of today bear his name, he is most well known for the creation of Arthas, the mystical moving island.]

What? I thought he just founded Arthas, he literally created it? The entire island? Arthas is an artificial island built by one man?

Rene quickly found another dictionary, but their definitions were essentially the same. He flipped to ‘Arthas’.

[Arthas: The mystical moving island created by the Monad of life. This elusive island floats near the periphery of the mainland but is never found in the same place. It is found most commonly in the waters between Aphelion and Lustrious, but there have been eye-witness accounts of it across the continent. Due to the fact its creator was the Monad of life, many have theorized it to be a giant octopus, there have even been accounts of people seeing its massive tentacles spring out of the water, however, these claims are dubious.]

Jesus Christ, this world is completely insane… I-I think I have to re-evaluate the theories I made in the police station…

He flipped to ‘Artharian’.

[Artharian: A race of people native to the mystical moving island Arthas. Since Arthas lies outside the domains set by the sundering, Artharians do not have a common appearance nor a consistent cultivation method, they may have brown skin, white hair and golden eyes, or even white skin, red hair and blue eyes. As a race of people created by the Monad of life–]

Rene’s eyes nearly shot out of his skull, he quickly inspected the book he was reading to make sure he wasn’t reading fanfiction. It was a dictionary in every sense, he checked the definitions for the words he understood and they were all correct. If it was fanfiction, he could only respect the author for their dedication of writing a dictionary.

After rubbing his face and nearly laughing out loud at the absurdity of this world he had been dropped on, he continued reading.

[As a race of people created by the Monad of life, Artharians are considered his children, and are able to visit any of the three regions with minimal drawbacks. However, due to their unique appearances, they are easily recognised.]

Rene closed the dictionary and rested his eyes; he took a few deep breaths.

Shit—my theory of Arthas being an island of Earthlings was completely wrong… Damn, I even blamed the innocent Saffry…

Rene winced at his own thinking.

Ah, guilt has really caused me to go insane, calling the moron who goofed up on the teleport innocent, I’m a lunatic.

Bloody hell, I would’ve been dead by now if I declined the contract. Saffry’s a dunce, these are the people who I should be thankful for.

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Going back to the children’s novel, he continued.

[With his final act, Unified Earth disappeared, never to be seen again. Most think he is gone forever, but some believe his essence still persists beneath our feet, and that he will return someday.]

[It’s that as all the islands shifted, his voice was heard around the globe: “UNIFY EARTH!” He shouted, and so his last words became his name.]

[All of the land in the world had now been unified to form a giant continent, a circle that contained every single person in the world.]

Pictured below the text was a picture of a globe with a single continent on it. It was a near perfect circle and it spanned one third of the planet’s circumference, like someone had stuck a round sticker on a sphere. The rest of the planet was ocean without a speck of land, it was pure blue.

[The people were grateful, the finned were sea-dwelling creatures, they could not last long on land. As long as people stayed away from the edges of the mainland, we would no longer be attacked! They were finally able to meet their friends from other islands without having to sail the vast, dangerous seas.]

[But this era of peace didn’t last long. The common enemy was now gone, there was no reason for people to stay united. Some started to become greedy, they wanted more land, more resources, more power. And now all of the land was in one place, there was no one who could stop the conquerors and dictators, there were no more seas to separate the violence.]

[The continent was too big, no one was able to rule over everything but everyone kept trying, wars would constantly break out. Old rulers would die, only to be replaced with the new, more violent rulers. New buildings would be built, only for them to be burned. New inventions would be created, only to be forgotten. Progress would be made and unmade over and over.]

[In the next ten thousand years after Unified Earth, there would be three more Monads. Each of them would manage to reunite the world under one banner, their influence would last thousands of years. But even though each Monad was invincible in their eras, their influence would still fade with time. When all seemed hopeless, the fifth Monad was born.]

[The fifth Monad managed to change the world forever, but she is also the most elusive. We do not know her real name, face, or even strand. The only clue we have of her identity is from what Resplendent Paradise, the sixth Monad, had once said: “She called herself Eternal Recurrence.”]

[Eternal Recurrence recognised the world was too big and sundered it into three; one dark, one white, and one grey. Along with the land were the people as well, the sector they were born in not only affected their appearance, but also their cultivation style and needs.]

[The dark sector is filled with shadow and dusk. Any outsiders who tries to enter would see only darkness. They would begin to lose all sense of direction and feeling. The people of the dark sector are born with blonde hair, pale white skin, and black eyes. Eternal Recurrence would name this region Aphelion, their people, Aphelians.]

[The white sector gleams with an abundance of brilliant incandescence. Any outsiders who tries to enter would be blinded by the light, their skin would be sunburned even when the sun sets. The people of the white sector are born with black, curly hair, dark skin, and shining golden eyes. Eternal Recurrence would name this region Lustrious, their people, Lustrians.]

[The grey sector is shrouded in mist and smoke. Any outsiders who tries to enter would encounter a grey fog which obscures vision, and when breathed in, causes them to slowly lose their memory. The people of the grey sector are born with the highest range of appearances. Their skin can range from bronze to white, their hair is a mixture of silver and black. Their eyes are grey, but their limbal rings glow in respect to their cultivated strand. Eternal Recurrence would name this region Perenia, their people, Perenians.]

Rene noticed their drawings, these Perenians reminded him of the various asian people of Earth, at least in facial structure.

[The lands were sundered and the world became much smaller, uniting all the people of a single sector became a possibility. Although humankind was divided, they had been more unified than ever. Although wars still occurred, they were much smaller and contained. Finally, over twelve hundred years after the walls were placed, there is peace.]

[Eternal Recurrence gave this world a name as well. With the sundering of the lands, her voice swept through the skies. With her last breath, she spread one final message: “This world, I shall call it—Temperance.”]

*********

The restroom stank to the high heavens, Rene held his breath as he waddled into a stall. The toilet in the public restroom was the same shape as the one in Mr. Siluvar’s mansion, except there was a lid stained with brown covering the hole.

With a piece of paper wrapped around his hand, Rene lifted the lid to his immediate regret; the extreme stench of excrement made his mouth gain smell receptors. He ran out the restroom while dry gagging, holding it til he got back was probably a better idea.

Meeting up with Stelle, they left the library after Rene had asked her to borrow a dictionary for him. He wasn’t so stupid to take any children’s novels with him as it was equivalent to wearing a ‘dunce’ hat; the alternative implication was that he had a fondness towards children’s picture books. Either way, it was not a good look.

The trip back was wordless; he was extremely tempted to ask why all these Monads seem to share the trait of having such goofy-ass names. But after taking into consideration that ‘Resplendent Paradise’, the creator of Arthas, was one of these ‘goofy-ass’ names, he could only hold his tongue.

They got back as the sun was setting, Rene welcomed the solitude of his room where no one was calling him ‘Mr. Spring’ or opening any doors for him.

Sitting down, he examined the papers on the desk, they were the ID documents the police wanted him to fill. Rene sighed, it turns out gaining literacy was not good in all situations.

The first question asked him which sector he was from, Aphelion, Lustrious, Perenia, or Arthas.

From the library, he had learned that pre-sundering, people had relatively normal appearances like that of Earth. People living near the equator had darker skin, and fairer skin if they lived far from it.

However, after the Aspeiral Monad Eternal Recurrence sundered the world, people’s appearances were no longer decided by evolution, nor their genetics, but by which sector they were born in. Apparently, if a Lustrian couple were to have children in Aphelion, their children would come out as Aphelians.

This was some black-magic level fuckery, it went against evolutionary biology at the most fundamental level. But the dozens of books he checked all said the same thing: Appearance was determined by location of birth. He could only reluctantly accept he was no longer on Earth.

Only Artharians were exempt from this rule as Arthas was located outside the walls’ influence. From this fact, Rene had initially considered Artharians to be the ‘original’, ‘natural’ humans from before the sundering. But then he also read about how there were accounts of Artharians having red eyes or blue hair, which were obviously not ‘natural’ colors. Additionally, there were rumors of some Artharians bearing multiple arms or animal ears and tails. Although unconfirmed, Rene had already personally concluded there were no ‘natural’ humans on this planet.

This was why people immediately found out he was an Artharian. Apart from his brown hair and blue eyes, he looked like an Aphelian, but this tiny mismatch in appearance made people immediately conclude he wasn’t from the three sectors; there had been no recorded outliers in twelve hundred years.

An image he saw in the children’s history book surfaced in his mind, it was a map of Temperance from space. It depicted the singular landmass as a perfect circle, its diameter spanned one-third of the globe. With this picture, Rene did some rough calculations of how large the continent was..

Saffry said this world has a surface area twice that of Earth’s, and if the diameter of this continent spans one-third of the world’s circumference, the continent’s radius is the cube root of 2 multiplied by Earth’s circumference of 40,000 km and divided by 6: around 8400 km.

Rene blankly stared at the number in front of him, this continent had an area of around 221 million km squared. 40% more that of Earth’s land area.

These regional walls cross a continent 16800 km wide, spanning an area nearly half of the entirety of Earth’s. They change the appearance of whoever is born in them, affecting dozens of billions of lives, and have altered the ecosystem of each sector at a fundamental level. Finally, they have stood for more than twelve hundred years.

They were supposedly placed by a single person: a ‘Monad’, Eternal Recurrence, just what is she?

Eternal Recurrence sundered the world, Unified Earth assembled the entire continent, the achievements of these two made the mighty Resplendent Paradise, who was only responsible for creating the tiny Arthas look puny in comparison. Still, the difference between a Monad and an ordinary person was like that of heaven and earth.

Rene sighed, there had been no DNA test, the work of an infallible, invincible Monad, plus twelve hundred years of zero outliers had been the true reason behind Mr. Siluvar’s certainty that he was an Artharian.

But I’m not an Arthariannnnnn…..

Rene moaned and planted his face on the table; he was an alien from four billion light years away, this was all a huge misunderstanding, he had been misidentified as an Artharian by pure chance. For the first time in twelve hundred years, there was an error, and the error was him.

With this new knowledge that Arthas wasn’t what he thought it was, Rene no longer had any desire to go there either. In fact, if he stayed in Cessa, there was a chance of being retrieved by Lorn if they send more people to explore this world in the future.

A familiar texture brushed against his face, Rene moved the papers aside and a light glimmering off a shiny piece of paper entered his eyes, it was the silver contract Mr. Siluvar had urged him to sign.

Uncovering the silver slip, Rene’s eyes widened upon reading its details. The terms specified were generous beyond belief, if he were still on Earth, he would have been kissing his employer’s feet by now. And to think he had refused it so casually back in the police station.

25% of all profit earned? Free rent? Free food? Free room service? Unrestricted access to the workshop downstairs? Monthly budget of 500 Solda + extra if required for research? He stopped reading to calm his breathing.

Apart from not knowing how much a ‘Solda’ was, Holy Hell.

“Mr. Siluvar…” Rene murmured while on the brink of tears.

And what had he done to replay the gentleman’s kindness? Apart from acting like human trash, nada.

Thank Christ back at the station he had reconsidered signing it after initially rejecting, there was still something in his dumbass head.

He couldn’t even enter the library without Stelle’s help, just thinking about the consequences of declining made him shiver, wiping away the water that blurred his vision, Rene carefully examined the rest of the contract.

One year duration… Non-disclosure clause… One design at least every month… Some other minor things…

From the dictionary, Rene had also learned months and weeks existed. Months here were the same on Earth, since this world (Temperance) had the identical lunar cycle as Earth. A week was five days instead of seven however, which, to Rene, honestly made a lot more sense.

At the very last line:

[Through the will of blood be bound, I, the Artharian Rene Spring of Arthas, hereby agree to the terms set by one of Aphelian Scyld Siluvar of Fallspar, for a duration of One Year.]

In the lower corner of the contract was a white circle, similar to the one at the entrance of the library.

I’m supposed to drop my blood in there? I suppose Temperance does seem to use blood for identification.

Rene was about to prick his finger with the pen he was using but then spotted a metal spike thing in the corner of his desk.

So that’s what that spike altar officer Stridor gave me was used for…

Unlike what the contract specified, he wasn’t technically an Artharian, but since he could supplement the products of Arthas with Earth’s, he was going to lie, just a little.

Rene sighed as he looked at the scab on his fingertip: the aftermath of being stabbed three times after the library door wouldn’t open. He switched fingers and pricked it with the spike; a single drop of sanguine liquid fell within the white circle.

This was a world of magic, so Rene waited for the contract to glow or change shapes or something, but just like the library door, nothing happened.

The contract wasn’t absorbent like regular paper, the drop of blood kinda just rested on top of it like it would on glass or metal.

Ok… So I just wait for it to dry then?

Fearful that the blood may slide off, Rene carefully placed the contract aside. He moved on to the ID documents and circled ‘Artharian’; it was the only option available to him anyways, as if anyone would believe Eternal Recurrence the almighty missed out on him.

Having an Artharian identity was quite helpful, apparently he was allowed to skip many questions for some reason.

The few questions he needed to answer first asked about his appearance, but just as he was about to write…

Uh…

His hand froze, he knew how to say it, he knew how to read it, but he didn’t know how to write ‘brown hair’ at all. Each time he tried to ask his brain, it would only hurl insults at him.

Bloody hell, the knowledge for writing is stored within that third red light…

He eyed the last remaining red light pulsing outside the window. The sun was setting, there was no way he could reach it today. There was a solution however.

With a sigh, he opened the dictionary beside him and got to work copying down each word he needed.

Age? Weight? Height? Occupation? Current address?

Such questions were a nuisance, Rene had to work and convert the centimeters and kilograms to the local units for length and weight. With the help of a map he found in his room, he managed to answer everything and more—until the last two questions.

The question asking about his strand was optional, but the other one asked for his rank.

As if I know what that is…

He flipped to ‘Rank’ in his dictionary.

[Rank: Ranks are divided based on each fundamental increase in essence density. There are 7 ranks in total, 1-5 are the mortal ranks, rank 6 is when mortal transcends to the Aspeiral, above that are Monads.]

Oh… It wasn’t based on intelligence.

‘Rank 0’ was right below.

[Rank 0: The lowest increment of essence density beyond that of a vacuum. Most of nature consists of rank 0 essence density. The air, for example, has an etheric density of rank 0. Humans, when they are born, have a significantly higher etheric density than that of air, but it is still considered rank 0.]

There was so much more he didn’t know about, like what ‘Essence’, or ‘Aspeiral’ meant, but studying could wait until tomorrow. Rene had just signed the contract and the guilt of appearing so utterly ignorant, useless, and incompetent had made him desperate in producing the design of his first product as soon as possible.

Rene jotted down ‘Rank 0’ in the blank space and closed the dictionary. Collecting the papers, he exited his room and spotted the butler that was standing behind Mr. Siluvar this morning.

“Excuse me,” Rene called out to him, “Please inform Mr. Siluvar I’ve signed it.”

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