With a simple remote button press, music started playing. When he opened his fridge, a few meals were already prepared, and when he brought his blanket and pillow, they had taken on his smell.

All those little details allowed Aven to think about how far he had come in this single month, as well as the few regrets he had formed.

‘I should have tried to go to a few more classes, just to experience what it’s like. I’ll never get to see myself infusing 2 computing units at the same time, the demand is just too high for my mediocre 21 energy cultivation points.’

Bringing up his status to confirm he was still at 21, he was neither phased nor disappointed that after this single point he had gained a few days ago…

Aven Amias

Faction: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Energy Grade: 1

Energy Cultivation: 21/100

Energy Affinity: Tech

Physical Talents: None

Energy Talents: Basic Tech Energy Affinity, Basic Energy Sense

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit

Universal Talents: Unawakened Fairy Ancestry

It hadn’t increased.

Going through a few more regrets he would probably quickly forget about once he left EMATE, he switched the music for a documentary about the Bright Canopy as he started eating a pre-prepared meal.

The world was currently on a massive downward trend, and no one seemed able to explain why it was happening.

Some were saying the current underworld structure was being completely rebuilt, thus every big boss wanted its own part of the newly baked cake.

Some others were saying that the Conglomerate had stepped onto the underworld market and directly bought over a few Canopy branches.

Sorting the truth out from the lies was impossible for Aven with his current power and contacts, so once he understood that the world situation was worsening whether he wanted it or not, he had simply kept his maximum healthy volunteering rhythm.

Until now.

‘Once I become part of the military as a super and start being deployed on missions about the rogue Canopy branches, I’m sure I’ll get what I want.’

Setting his dishes in the dishwasher, he started it and returned to the couch. There, he opened his faction contribution shop and saw the result of 2 weeks of single-minded volunteering.

Faction Contribution Shop: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Faction Authority: Student

Faction Contribution Points: 448 800

Knowledge: Basic Energy Cultivation (2 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Energy Application (2 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Super Biology (2 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Literature (4 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic History (4 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Geography (4 800 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Cooking (4 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Firearms (5 200 FCP)

…

Knowledge: Intermediate Mathematics (28 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Physics (31 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Leadership (35 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Critical Reasoning (36 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Data Modeling (39 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Engineering Management (40 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Biology (45 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Manufacturing (42 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Resources (44 300 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Pressure Management (48 300 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Structural Analysis (48 500 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Industry Skills (50 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Environmental Engineering (65 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Agricultural Engineering (65 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Mechanical Engineering (65 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Civil Engineering (66 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Repair and Maintenance Engineering (66 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Chemical Engineering (67 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Aerospace Engineering (67 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Aeronautical Engineering (67 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Biomedical Engineering (67 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Industrial Engineering (67 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Armament Engineering (67 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Vehicle Engineering (67 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Tactics Engineering (68 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Weapon Engineering (68 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Materials Engineering (68 600 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Mining and Geological Engineering (68 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Construction Engineering (68 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Nuclear Engineering (69 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Combat Engineering (71 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Intermediate Developmental Engineering (75 200 FCP)

‘I’m still shocked by how many fields are taught at EMATE… Why would agricultural engineering be part of the courses available? Isn’t this a military academy?’

Slightly curious but not overly so about the presence of this knowledge, he just relegated it to the very end of the knowledge he wanted to buy. It was even located below the basic cooking knowledge in terms of importance.

‘Anyway, when you have to go, you have to go! I pray to you overlap god! Please make it so that EMATE is really teaching the foundation to everything and all the engineering fields have similarities with each others!’

Starting from the foundation, he finally claimed the first knowledge out of the dozens upon dozens he had planned on claiming.

Knowledge: Intermediate Mathematics (Claim?)

“Let’s freaking go!” Closing his eyes, he accepted this first knowledge.

And as his brain and spirit were once again assaulted by something that was now familiar, everything began to shut down to process this massive assault.

…

Between dreams and reality, Aven vaguely remembered a precise moment when everything changed.

Where before that moment he had alternated every knowledge claim and acceptance with 10-minutes long sessions of recovery in between, past that moment, he started doing a few knowledge claims and acceptances before feeling the need to drink, eat, or take a break.

‘What changed?’

Guided by his instinct, he opened his status.

Aven Amias

Faction: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Energy Grade: 1

Energy Cultivation: 21/100

Energy Affinity: Tech

Physical Talents: None

Energy Talents: Basic Tech Energy Affinity, Basic Energy Sense

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit, Basic Knowledge Integration

Universal Talents: Unawakened Fairy Ancestry

“Hoho~ Interesting,” squinting his eyes in pleasure at the addition of an unknown spiritual talent, he willed its details to appear, quickly correlating its origin and effects.

Basic Knowledge Integration: Following a continuous exposure to great amounts of knowledge, your spirit has naturally adapted your brain configuration to optimize your access to it. Minimally increases your knowledge access speed.

‘At this level, even a slight increase will be enough to change the game.’

Closing his eyes as he started swimming through his ocean’s worth of knowledge spanning so many fields he was sure he would need an hour to write them all down with the most basic description, he didn’t remark any noticeable increases in knowledge access speed, but he was sure it was there.

‘It’s a permanent increase, so maybe I just can’t see it as I don’t have any ways to compare it to my previous access speed? And the fact that I gained this talent just through claiming knowledge… It means there’s potential.’

The presence of a “Basic” before this talent meant that he had a chance to upgrade it as long as he continued claiming knowledge in the future. And he sure planned on continuing doing so.

“3 days… Good timing,” picking up his phone and seeing the current date, Aven nodded to himself. His special arrangement still hadn’t been made, meaning he had some time to prepare himself and integrate his gains.

‘I don’t have anything else to gain at EMATE anyway.’

He opened his faction contribution shop.

Faction Contribution Shop: Eland Military Academy of Technology and Engineering

Faction Authority: Student

Faction Contribution Points: 1 400

Knowledge: Basic Tailoring (6 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Painting (6 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Singing (6 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Dancing (6 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Castela Jargon (6 300 FCP)

…

Knowledge: Basic Filming (8 100 FCP)

His enormous stock of FCP had evaporated, and in exchange, only objectively useless knowledge for him, probably only present due to weirdos hiding inside the student population, remained.

All the others, all the engineering knowledge, all the intermediate knowledge, even a major part of the moderately relevant basic knowledge…

Everything had been integrated into his brain, becoming a part of his knowledge base. The quantity of knowledge overlap had really saved his life, allowing him to thoroughly satisfy his perfectionist self that wouldn't have let go if he graduated without cleaning the entire shop of anything even remotely useful.

Though arguments could of course be made for the singing or dancing knowledge to be qualified as more than simply "remotely useful".

‘How many years would I have needed to learn all of it if not for my innate ability? A decade?’

Boosting his own ego through indirect means, he turned on an electric cooking plate and started making himself a nice meal.

Only a few minutes in did he realize the way he cooked had completely changed compared to before. The way he prepared his potatoes, the intensity of the fire, the quantity of oil and salt, the moment he added garlic and onion, when to break the eggs…

“I’m missing a few herbs, and I need to add butter…” Muttering in surprise, Aven was shocked by how natural and easy it was for him to use his new basic cooking knowledge, making him question whether it had always been like this or if his recent spiritual talent acquisition had something to do with it.

Not dwelling on it too much, he quickly wrapped up his meal and ate it while relaxing before another documentary on the couch.

Once he had finished, he looked at the time once again, knowing for sure what his next destination was going to be, “Still a few hours before the hangar starts its operation again… But why should I be restricted by something like a schedule?”

Finding no cons at getting there a few hours earlier, he started arranging his backpack in a new way from how he had done it in the last few weeks, one that didn’t include any books or entertainment.

Turning off the TV and the lights when he was finished, he left without pausing, his mind filled with so many ideas he had to try that he didn’t think he would be finished by the end of the day.

Stepping into the night, the White still a few hours from pointing the tips of its head over the horizon, Aven realized that a faint drizzle was ongoing. It wasn’t heavy rain, it was just a fog of moisture that would have made him hesitate if he hadn't been a super quasi-immune to such weak cold.

Considering he was now a super though, he ignored it, freed his bike from its parking slot, and rode on it.

All the paths were illuminated and all the buildings he passed by had some lights in them, allowing him to not blindly pedal and eventually drift off a slippery path.

Arriving at the hangar, he didn’t circle around the main entrance this time. The massive entrances were still closed, but a few side entrances were already opened and people were gathered before them.

Finding a bicycle parking slot easily, he got off and looked at a group of people who he recognized from when he had last come to the hangar, more precisely, the steel factory part of the hangar.

“Good morning everyone, good morning Linzey, it’s been a while,” gathering their attraction with an enthusiastic greeting contrasting with the night atmosphere, Aven gathered their attention directly.

“It’s effectively been a while, Aven. Since you decided to stop coming in fact,” ridiculing him instantly, Linzey didn’t spare him from the cruel reality of what he had done during his job-seeking period.

“Well, my innate ability has too much potential for me to respect politeness and civility norms when its effectiveness is at stake,” he didn’t detail more than that, just repeating the same reason he had used previously.

“And I assume you found what you sought then? Why are you back at the hangar so soon? Need some practice?” She directly inquired about why he came here after a few more exchanges without him stating why he was here or why he had approached her.

“Much more than what I had hoped for even!” Aven's smile radiated his confidence and his excitement at the situation, “I already reached the knowledge level necessary to graduate, but before I do so, I wanted to get some practice to prove my innate ability is really that overpowered when it came to learning.”

Raising eyebrows with his comment, even Linzey looked at him in doubt before looking at a certain gruff-looking man who had remained silent until now.

And her glance made him react, “You joined EMATE a month or so ago, right?”

“Exactly so,” he nodded.

“You’re the super who asked for a special arrangement?” He asked a most surprising question that took Aven aback when he heard it.

“Yes, I asked for it 3 days ago… Are you perhaps charged with everything related to supers? Or have you just heard it in passing?” Curious about how such a coincidental meeting could happen, he tried to reduce the possibilities to the most likely one.

“I’m Dane Oneal, and while I’m not in charge of a lot of things, my main mission here at EMATE is to manage everything related to the hangar. So of course I heard of your pre-graduating demand,” introducing himself, Dane then looked at him more intensely, “For you to have made such an outrageous demand, are you that confident?”

“For others maybe it could be outrageous, but not for me,” Aven didn’t blink when he said that, “I don’t have anything else to learn here at EMATE as a student, it's a fact. I’m only taking the chance to review everything I learned while I have the chance, if my demand is refused I’ll just graduate and join the military directly.”

“Harald,” Dane called and looked at a man who seemed content with keeping to his corner near the door, “Make it so that the demand is canceled and guide him through the hangar for a few days, let him show his capabilities and evaluate him.”

“Yes, sir,” sloppily but swiftly saluting, the man named Harald woke up instantly and then looked at Aven for a moment before waving at him to follow, “Let’s go then, show me what you got.”

Surprised at the turn of events, Aven didn’t know how to react in a better way than to just follow this guy, saluting the group in passing, “It’s been a pleasure, have a good day.”

Passing through the side door, a gigantic open space appeared in his vision.

In this humongous open space, hundreds of different production machineries were arranged one after another. Some were arranged in a production line form, some stood alone as they were too unique or secondary.

Looking at all those machineries which only existed to be used with a purely educational objective, Aven’s eyes started scanning through them all, feeling both a foreign and familiar feeling welling inside him.

‘I know… Most of them.’

From a bullet production line to a weapon production line, passing by the vehicle production line, he recognized and even knew how each was designed, with each step of the process being firmly engraved in his mind.

“So, where do you want to begin? I would advise starting with the basic supply area, it’s the area that’s most prized, so blocking it for your use will be a bit of a bother,” Harald, an overall average-looking man, advised him on an optimization.

“Let’s do that first,” Aven nodded and didn’t refute, he would have to try everything anyway, so where he began didn’t matter that much.

The duo ended up walking a few hundred meters while ignoring tens of production machines before they arrived at the basic supply area.

“Where do you want to begin?” Harald asked as there were dozens of choices available.

Looking around, Aven finally fixed his gaze on a certain pretty big but thin machine, “The knives production line.”

His overseer shrugged, letting him decide was just to make the conversation, he didn’t care at all what he wanted to do, he was just here to observe and make it so that he had a smooth tour through the hangar.

Understanding this fact, Aven approached his first-ever production line.

Checking the base cold hard steel material used here, he went through every subsequent step and recognized them all effortlessly.

‘Let’s begin then.’

Starting from the end, he turned on all the consoles that were previously on standby and started navigating through all the production jargon he was faced with on the custom-made exploitation system.

From the final riveting machine to join the future blade with the handle, to the second last laser engraving machine to identify the blade, the second from the start grinding machine, and ultimately to the first water doose and smooth machine.

Starting the process when he was ready, he even had the luxury to infuse his energy inside each step as he understood everything that was involved.

As this was the only production line working, the gigantic hangar area was filled with the sound coming from it.

‘It’s so easy. And my energy infusion is enhancing exactly what I want it to.’

The process of making a single blade took a total of 20 minutes, and at the exit of the final riveting machine, a brand new military utilitarian knife had been created from a piece of knife-shaped cold hard steel.

Taking the knife in his hand, Aven even had the luxury to do a few slashes backed up by some knowledge on how to wield such a knife.

“That was much easier than I expected,” commenting on his performance, he was going to throw the knife in a big pile of them but was interrupted by his overseer.

“Give me that,” Harald extended his hand, “I didn’t see any mistake in your handling of the machines, and considering the efficiency, you infused your energy into some steps, right? Let’s test it then.”

“Test it?” Aven blinked a few times in confusion, then he honestly asked, “Why would it be different from all the other knives?”

It was Harald’s turn to blink his eyes in confusion at being asked this question by… A super, so he very hesitatingly asked, “You… Don’t know?”

“Does… Infusing my energy into the production machines changes something to the end product?” Aven didn’t even try to hide his lack of knowledge, he made the most logical conclusion and hoped it was right despite its very heavy implications.

“Sigh… Well, that’s a very rough way of saying it, but yeah,” Harald reigned in his shock at this incredulous situation of a tech super not knowing one of its energy system's main properties.

Once he went completely over it, he started to explain, “The reason why tech supers are so freaking rich is that if they infuse their energy into a production line from start to finish, the end product can be as high as 50% stronger than what it should have been. And that increase doesn't hang on physical quality or anything.”

Hearing something so foreign and incomprehensible, Aven was completely lost for words as he made a weak defense for his case, “But… All the documentaries I watched… What? Why would the quality increase?”

Harald shook his head, denying any further attempt to seek an explanation, “I’m not a super, I only know that tech energy infusion during the production of something inexplicably increases some properties of the end product. The fact that you don’t know that is strange in itself as its one of the main reasons why tech supers-”

Letting the rest of his words flow through his mind without giving more attention, Aven remembered the many documentaries about tech supers he had watched and the few discussions related to this subject he had had with his half-friends.

‘Now that I think about it…’

Remembering something, it became clearer and clearer by the seconds.

“Oh…” He remembered something, a part of Skylark Dove’s documentary, “Yeah… I remember now… It makes so much sense…”

“Ah, thank god. How could you have just forgotten one of the main aspects of being a tech super? Are you sure you don’t need to go check with a doctor?” Taking his mutter as an admission that he had known from the start, Harald tapped his shoulder in support.

“Yup, I remember,” Aven nodded with an expressionless face before exploding and stamping his foot, “That’s the freaking forcefully elevated product quality, isn’t it?! Why didn’t they all clarify what it meant! There are new supers like me watching their documentaries too! What the freaking freak!”