David was absolutely ruined from exhaustion after training with Mr. Lester. Both physically and mentally. When he got back to his apartment upstairs, he had crammed his lunch in his face immediately to try to recharge his energy. He also quickly showered in the the bathroom and rested in his bed for a few minutes. He had to get refreshed for his afternoon training session with Gauge.

David's daily training consisted of 6 hours of physical training with Mr. Lester in the morning and 6 hours of elemental training with Mr. Gauge in the evening...with a 1 hour break in between the two training sessions.

Mr. Gauge's training wasn't anywhere near as physically intense as Mr. Lester's beat down. However, the training involved a lot of mental demands on David for the practicing of elemental skills.

Mr. Gauge had been worried that the mental demand on David was too much based on his struggles during the practice. The truth was that David was actually trying to restrain himself the entire time while training his element. Mr. Gauge had him practicing darkness skills continually during the training sessions; however, David had realized that he could do all of these skills with no problem at all. Luckily, he had figured this out while studying the skill book in his own room. On the first day of training, Mr. Gauge had given him the book to familiarize himself before they started training....so no one knew that he had already mastered the entire book in that first night. It was so easy. David was floored because he expected it to be hard. He could chant the skill incantation and execute them easily. David figured it was due to his dark space and the help of the mysterious lady, so he wanted to keep it a secret. He had stayed up that entire night trying to figure out how to reduce his strength so he didn't let his secret slip. He had figured out how to hide his skill level after only two hours of practice.

When David was training with Mr. Gauge, he was actually practicing restraint the entire time. He had learned to subconsciously control his darkness elemental strength to make it seem like he was just starting to learn. This control was actually extremely difficult. David faking his training required him to constantly control and modify the skills to make them seem like they are not functioning correctly. It also required him to double task when practicing. He had to put on an act of practicing a skill while manipulating the skill to failure at the same time.

Today, the training started no different than usual but David started to show signs of fatigue almost right away. He couldn't concentrate. And was so focused on restricting his power that none came out at all.

While feeling physically decent after the recharge, David was still hurting from the mental bombs that Mr. Lester had dropped on his brain. Even though he got Mr. Lester's main point that he is really weak....he was still confused about all sorts of things. That coupled with the duel concentration needed to fake his underperformance in the skills, David was struggling.

David's psychological angst must have been physically noticeable because Mr. Gauge almost immediately stopped him after starting practice. Thinking that David was sick or something, Mr. Gauge checked him out after a few minutes of training in the large office.

"David, what the hell is wrong with you?," Mr. Gauge said with a little concern in his voice, "You look extremely distracted. Did something bad happen today?"

"Mr. Lester told me the truth about Earth's leveling system," David said in a subdued voice said with his head down.

"Oh," Mr. Gauge responded while shaking his head, "I bet he laughed the entire time. He gets a kick out of the whole thing for some reason. Do you have any questions? That idiot does a horrible job of explaining these type of things."

"Yes. I have a ton of questions!" David said enthusiastically after finding a potential source to cure his confusion. He was hoping that Mr. Gauge would be nice and answer all his questions.

"Okay, ask away," Mr. Gauge said in a downtrodden voice before slumping down in his chair. It seemed like he was used to resolving Mr. Lester's mess ups. The two men seem like friends and enemies at the same time. It was weird.

"So....since the Earth level system is just a made up mess, how does the system in The Other work? How do Demi-gods and Gods play into things?," David asked.

Taking a deep breath, Mr. Gauge began.

"Well, first....It is best to dial it back a bit and start with the Foundation Stage. That is the starting point after all. You will need to master a basic body enhancement technique or a basic elemental skill in order to be considered at the beginning of Foundation Stage. This stage is divided into 6 levels that are based on the mastery of the 6 standard skills for each specialty. For example, a Level 3 Foundation Stage would have either learned or developed three fighting skills or three elemental skills in the same specialty."

"Since you are currently just getting started in learning skills, you don't even qualify as a Level 1 Foundation Stage. That's why someone created that stupid other level system. We needed a way to grade people below the Foundation Stage," Mr. Gauge said with an sigh.

"So can people train in two specialties? Mr. Lester was trying to tell me something about elemental mages training in body techniques to keep from dying due to random rocks flying around a battlefield," David questioned with a look of confusion on his face.

"Yes, it is not uncommon for people to train in two specialties if their talent allows for it. The problem with training in two specialties is that your time is divided. Would you like to learn 3 skills in two specialties or 6 skills in one specialty and be on the verge of breaking through to Demigod?" Mr. Gauge was feeling good about himself because he could see that David was looking less confused.

Before David could ask his next question, Mr. Gauge continued, "Foundation Stage peaks at Level 6. At level 6, you would have learned all the basic skills of your specialty and would be focusing on your comprehension toward becoming a Demi-god. This is the stage that William, Lester and myself are at right now. We have each learned all that we can in the realm of skills in our specialty and are attempting to understand our first concept. I focus on Darkness concept, William focuses on the Sword concept and Lester focuses on the Fist concept. It won't be long until one of us starts to get the feeling of understanding in our concept and needs to leave for The Other."

"Wait, Karine had told me a while back that her dad was high-Zero level but wasn't at the peak yet. What's that all about?," David interjected.

"Oh...William probably hasn't told Karine that he mastered his 6th skill. I think he only learned it a few weeks ago," Mr. Gauge said before immediately blurting out, "Don't tell Karine! She will get upset that he will have to leave for The Other sooner. William is probably waiting until a good time to tell her."

"Why does he have to leave? Can't he just stay here and breakthrough?", David asked.

"He really doesn't have an option though. None of us do. We have to go to the Other to breakthrough to Demi-god. Earth doesn't have enough heavenly power to handle a breakthrough."

"And that leads me to a discussion on the next level, Demi-god. Demi-god requires a breakthrough in understanding of either an elemental or physical concept and the presence of a good bit of heavenly power. A Demi-god would be exceptionally strong physically or have slight control over an element.

David interrupted Mr. Gauge again, "Wait, what is heavenly power? This is the first I am hearing of it."

"Heavenly power is what allows us to cultivate. Since no one really knows it's origins, the best way to look at it is oxygen for cultivation. The more you have around you the easier it is to breath. If you have thin oxygen, you would have difficulty breathing. Similarly, you have difficulty cultivating on Earth because the heavenly power is so thin."

"Heavenly power is so great in The Other that it even crystallizes into an assortment of different heavenly stones. That soul-root stone that you destroyed is a odd type of heavenly stone used to detect talent levels."

"Then why don't people just bring a bunch of heavenly stones back to Earth and use them to cultivate?," David asked.

"We can, but it is very very difficult and requires a waste of resources that is unacceptable. The room that you had your talent tested in was specifically designed to contain heavenly energy. If we didn't have the room, the stone would have just dissolved when it was taken out of the special storage container used for transport and housing. When such a high concentration of heavenly energy is placed in our extremely low concentration environment on Earth....it dissolves," Mr. Gauge explained.

"Man, Earth really is a crap hole like Karine said. I thought she was messing with me," David said to himself.

"Not necessarily," Mr. Gauge contested, "Because Earth had such a low amount of heavenly energy, we became pretty good at developing technology and practicing skills. That has allowed us to take off pretty quick once exposed to the better environment of the Other."

"So, you are a Level 6 Foundation Stage? What is keeping you from going to the Other and becoming a Demigod?" David asked. Everything sounded pretty easy to him but he was sure there was some kicker that he hadn't been told yet.

"I do not feel that I have a good grasp on a darkness concept yet. I know all the skills but only have a slight feeling towards a concept of darkness. Once I go to The Other and become a Demi-god...my life on Earth would be some and I am not ready for that yet."

"Now....I'm getting confused again. How are skills and concepts different?" David said with a frown.

"We use chants, hand signs or other mannerisms to concentrate the elemental essence and initiate elemental skills. These skills are done as a placeholder of sorts for actual understanding of a concept. When I execute the Shadow Skill, I use a brief chant to help channel the elemental essence of darkness and move it in my body according to the technique," Mr. Gauge said while standing up at his desk.

Standing very still, he chanted and moved his hand down, "Let the light of the day not reach my feet, Shadow."

With the chant, the room light started to dim to the point that only a little light could be seen.

"See that is a normal elemental skill," Mr. Gauge said.

"If I developed the actual Concept of Shadow, then I wouldn't need to say the chant and make the hand gesture. The Shadow Skill is a part of Concept of Shadow. That is, if you are demigod that completely understands a concept related to an element, then you can just use your will to influence the change," Mr. Gauge finished before sitting back down.

David was very startled. You can't directly use a skill without being a demigod? He has been directly using his shadow skill for weeks. The only reason he hasn't tried using the six darkness skills from the book without the incantations is because the book said they were necessary and he hadn't thought otherwise. Does this mean he is a demigod already? Or is something else going on? Is it related to the 'help' the mysterious woman had given him?

Seeing a look of astonishment on David's face, Mr. Gauge mistook his reaction as something related to the skill he just executed.

"It's okay, David," Mr. Gauge comforted, "Once you get the hand of executing the Shadow skill, you will be able to do something like that too."

David couldn't help thinking to himself, "I could already turn this entire complex into complete darkness if I wanted to...."

"Alright, let's get back to training," Mr. Gauge said then stood up and walked with David out of the office to go train.