“We have a problem, Miles.” Alex approached when Miles was idly walking back to his villa. He had just left the advanced class and was still in awe. When started by Alex, he jerked back.

“What’s wrong?” He asked as he looked around warily. But they were the only two around.

“Let’s go inside first.” Alex urged him by pulling his arm. They soon entered the mansion and Alex brought out drinks.

“When I went to Maya to thank her for warning us, she said something.” Alex started but he looked edgy.

“She said what?”

“She said that David and his gang couldn’t be General Tian’s men. Because they were from the Starve Cleric.”

Miles looked at Alex in surprise. His first guess was that it was the general’s men wanting to avenge the idiot Tian Ling, but it turned out it was the Starve Cleric. They have been in a truce after Miles revealed he knew some of their secrets.

“Something is fishy about this.” Miles scratched his chin.

“Why? Starve Cleric hates the Marooner as much as General Tian right?” Asked Alex.

“It is true. People really hate you, buddy.” Miles smiled as he bottomed his soft drink. “Let’s go and kill some monster.”

————

“You are getting better and better at this.” Miles shook his head. Alex was getting much better at controlling his ultimate while he still didn’t have the U of the Ultimate.

“Yeah, with that thing I will be much better.” Alex grinned.

“That huh?”

“How about you? Are you trying to form your ultimate? I can give you some tips if you want.” Alex asked.

“Not for the time being. Thanks.” Miles shook his head. He didn’t even have a seed. He probably wouldn’t be able to create an ultimate even if he wanted to. This was his curse of life. He failed to awaken a superpower, then his ancient gene got destroyed, and with it went his element. And later even his seed got destroyed. And the seed was essential to create the ultimate. ‘I will focus on fundamentals. Like Milosh said. Fundamentals are more important than quick powers!’

He already took classes for fundamentals and the tutor showed them how to change the characteristics of their energy. Unlike the form, this technique allowed the energy to have additional properties.

Miles was training in secret for a while now but he still didn’t want to show it to Alex. The tournament was close at hand. He had a few tricks to win this.

“You won the merits from Veil. I won from Zone. Then you won in the Body and Mind Branch classes.” Alex lamented as they were walking. “I need another two wins to catch up. I have to live up to the reputation of Number 1.”

“Tomorrow there is the first Heart Branch Class. You will probably win lots of first in that. I am not that great when it comes to the Heart Branch. Especially elemental changes.” Miles looked at the ground, depressed.

“You are a fucking ungrateful bitch.” Alex looked at him in disgust as he spatted to the ground. “You are a beast already, and you still want more. If it wasn’t for my awesomeness allowing me to create an ultimate as soon as I awakened energy you would beat me down in a single second, yet you are still complaining about how unfair life is.”

“Welp, fair is fair. I have a few advantages.” Miles nodded in contemplation. As he remembered what the Tutor said, “As I already explained several times, the reason why this rank is named Form is that you learn to freely form your energy in this stage. But energy isn’t a substance that can only be shaped, but also changed as well. Although we cannot change our elements, the properties of energy can still be changed.

For example, on its own, energy is formless and attributeless. But when washed by the element, it gets an elemental attribute but also another related to that element. For example, energy washed by fire elemental superpower will have the property of burning. When you punch your enemy the fire elemental energy will burn your enemy.

You cannot change that part but you can still change your energy to something sticky to make it more nuisance for your opponents. If your energy sticks to the area you punched, it will keep on burning your enemies even after you withdraw. Of course, it is not easy. It is quite difficult to change the form of your energy.”

So far, he got the gist of changing the nature of his energy to a sticky substance. He was also learning how to change it to a quagmire-like form. If he could achieve that, any attack would be lost in his energy like it was pulled down in a swamp.

Of course, it was easier said than done. Changing energy to sticky was the easiest step. The others on the other hand were much harder, but he would learn it eventually. He had to. Unlike others, who were training on their elemental abilities, he could only work on fundamentals to catch up.

"Can you finish all the orders before the tournament? It is quite a lot of work, you know." Alex pulled him out of his stupor. Miles looked at him and scratched his chin.

"Probably. I will take a lot of my time but I can cut from sleep. After using the first serums of the F-Series, both my body and mind are much stronger. I can reduce sleep to 3 hours without feeling any discomfort." Miles answered after some thinking. Before using the serums of F-Series, he was still much stronger than others and he didn't need to sleep that much, but 5th serums were much more effective.

"You really are a beast. I am so jealous!" Alex grumbled. "I need to sleep at least 5 hours or I will feel spaced out all day.

"That is because you are not as awesome and cool and smart and ..."

"Just shut up and die, perkele."