CHAPTER 105: State of Enlightenment.

Following that, The Sea Lord broke the bond with that Spirit Item and handed it over to me before receiving 9 sets of Spiritual fruits of all five main attributes from me.

Soon after, the Sea Lord signalled the male Atlan, Akor. He then stepped forward, and kneeled on a leg and shouted, "Liege! I am grateful for sparing my life. From now on, I shall serve you till I die."

I didn't expect him to do that even after I said that I don't intend to kill him.

All of them seem to believe that if the Sea Lord hadn't asked for mercy for the male Atlan by promising to have him serve me all his life, I wouldn't have spared his life.

And now, the male Atlan. Akor was fulfilling that promise. I sighed at how the situation turned into and asked the kneeling Akor, "What do you think you are doing?"

"Liege, I am paying my respects. From today onwards I will follow you and protect you with my life." Akor said while thumping a hand on his chest.

"Let me get this straight. You are saying that you want to follow and protect me, but doesn't that mean you have to face something even I can't protect myself against? Are you sure you could do that with your measly strength? I lifted my eyebrows and slightly applied Tier-suppression over him to intimidate him from annoying me.

Akor gritted his teeth and held on before saying with difficulty, "Li...Liege, I will grow stro...stronger!"

Seeing his persistence, I began to read male Atlan's thoughts to see what was going on in his head for him to be adamant about following me.

Back on the way, when I was escorted after I was imprisoned, I only went through the general knowledge about their planet. But now I looked into his life memories.

Unlike most of their planet's Alpha Chosen, who were among the Sea Lord candidates of their generation, Akor was not among the top, but he was the grandson of an earlier generation's Sea Lord.

Because of that, he grew prideful from the praises of others. From his childhood, he admired his grandfather and wanted to become a Sea Lord just like his grandfather, but as he grew up, it became apparent that his talent in combat expertise or military strategy was not enough to become a Sea Lord.

But he didn't give up to his fate and worked harder than any of his peers, but that wasn't enough to even qualify as the possible candidates selected for their generation's Sea Lord position.

That crushed Akor's dreams and not long after that, he was selected as one of the 11 Alpha Chosen of their life planet and that rekindled his hopes of becoming as great as his father one day.

Even though Akor couldn't become the Sea Lord, he believed that with his Grade-7 Water Innate Talent, he would become someone of great importance one day.

Looking at the kneeling Akor, I casually said while increasing the intensity of Tier-suppression to nearly half of its full capacity, "If you can stand straight on your feet under this Tier-suppression, I will think about letting you follow me."

From his memories, I could see that he is hardworking, loyal and prideful, but I didn't believe he had what it takes to pursue true power.

To others, it seemed like I was testing Akor, but what I was doing was to show himself that he was far too weak to follow me. I hoped he would realise that soon and quit bothering me.

Moreover, when we first met, he underestimated my strength and carelessly spewed words, thinking that I was weaker. That behaviour would one day be the cause of his death. I didn't want such a short-sighted one to follow me.

Akor tried to stand, but his body was frozen from the immense pressure of Tier-suppression. Since I only concentrated on Akor, even half the intensity of Tier-suppression was like an unbreakable wall in front of him.

Seconds started to pass, and he struggled to stand up while gritting his teeth as hard as he could. Soon, a minute passed, and he still didn't quit and his body shook like he was shivering in the cold.

Since I had a few more things to discuss with the Atlans, I increased the intensity of Tier-suppression to three-fourths of my full capacity to make Akor quit quickly.

To my surprise, he still didn't give up. When I was about to bring the intensity to its full capacity, the sensed a white glow around him.

Akor's body stopped shaking, and he became unusually calm as a single memory surfaced playing in his mind.

Within that memory, Akor of his younger days sat beside his grandfather, who was lying weakly on a bed. Even though the wrinkled old Atlan was a Sea Lord of two generations prior, he couldn't escape the tragedy of life as he neared his death.

The old Atlan looked at the crying teenage Akor and said, "Little kor, I know that you wish to become a Sea Lord but don't fixate on it in case you couldn't become one in the future. Make it your journey, but not your destination. Let me ask you something, who do you think is the strongest Atlan in the history of Atlanis?"

The teenage Akor listened attentively and replied, "Umm...isn't it you, grandpa?"

The old Atlan gently smiled, "Sea Lord is just a title that comes with responsibility and power but there were many that were stronger than any Sea Lord, and they all pursued hidden treasures on this planet that could help one grow stronger than the limits of our race.

Of Course finding them was not so simple as I put it as they were in the most dangerous locations of our planet. But a few brave individuals of our race went after them and some of them even managed to grow stronger than one could imagine. They were even able to slay huge aquatic beasts with their fists alone. I was lucky to meet one such individual in my lifetime."

The teenage Akor gasped at the words of his grandfather. Even though it sounded hard to believe, he didn't doubt his grandfather.

The old Atlan said as he gazed at the ceiling of the room they were in and said, "Back when I was your age, I wasn't talented at anything that was necessary for becoming a Sea Lord. Because of that, I wasn't selected among my generation's Sea Lord candidates.

But do you know how I became a Sea Lord and even given the title, 'The Strongest Sea Lord'? It was all because of a single decision I made in my life."

While talking about that person the old Atlans' eyes were filled with reverence, "In a military expedition, my whole squad died and I was the only one remaining but in the onslaught of those aquatic beasts, I could only try to escape even though I knew that I would die soon. However, I was lucky enough to stumble across that extraordinary individual's adobe that secluded amidst the turf of aquatic beasts.

He bare-handedly defeated them all and saved me from a near death state. That when the view I had on our world broadened and that the title 'Sea Lord' looked so little in front of them.

From then on, I followed him and trained and learned several things from that extraordinary individual. That was how I grew stronger and became a Sea Lord.

This is something I didn't even tell your father. I said all this to you because even though you aren't talented, your will to grow stronger was something I haven't seen for a long time. "

The old Atlan looked deep into Akor's eyes, "Remember this little Kor, If one day you meet someone so strong that your instincts will tell you that you could never possibly defeat them. If you ever feel their presence itself to be like an insurmountable mountain, then follow that person with all your heart. Even though you couldn't become as strong as him, you will one day reach heights that not many could reach."

Hearing his grandfather's advice, Akor nodded and took those words to his heart.

Akor never experienced what his grandfather explained even when facing the Sea Lord, but under my Tier-suppression, Akor's memory with his grandfather resurfaced.

However, what caught my attention was not his grandfather's unusual advice but MJ's words that rang in my mind, "Master, under your Tier-suppression and his sheer will to follow you, he seemed to have accidentally entered the state of enlightenment so early in the Trial Program."

I was taken aback by the new revelation. The state of enlightenment was something that's hard to enter. Once someone's mastery reaches the peak of Minor Mastery, they need to find their own True Essence and only by entering the state of enlightenment could one improve their respective Minor mastery to Major Mastery.

In Akor's case, as long as he succeeds, his will improve to and break past the '1st Universe Limit'.

Even though the gap between Major Mastery and Minor Mastery seems small, the difference in power was far apart and it was quite hard to attain.

Looking at Akor, who was in the state of enlightenment, I continued to maintain the Tier-suppression since any disturbance at the moment would disrupt his rare chance.

I wanted to see if Akor could really succeed. Other than that, I wanted to see if I could find any clues of entering the state of enlightenment by analysing his condition.