The glove mused to itself, waiting for the user to finish the current introspective meditation.

Sadly, there were no more snacks to be gained with ease. The divine messengers had learned to run away as soon as Pef opened his eyes. Spying was a risky business when your target would eat your soul.

Meanwhile, the glove amused itself in creating a chart depicting its user and his stats.

For now, it looked like this:

Veritas Legion Adjutant-User data file

Name: Pef Xi

Alias: Monarch, Emperor, Saint.

Rank: Local universe CIC, Legion Soldier: 3rd class

OS: Standard Veritas Legion Indoctrination method: compatibility 0.063

Race: Homo Sapiens Immortus (improved +14%)

Body stats:

-Strength: 1200. (~2 Gigatonnes)

-Agility: 1677. (~ Mach 17)

-Endurance: 988. (Entangled Soul/Body. Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Intelligence: 144. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Wisdom: 97. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Charisma: 151.

-Ki force: 6300.

Cultivation stats:

-Spiritual affinity: Water 4%, Sword 3%, Void 1%. (Fire, Wind, Thunder, Metal and Earth under 1%)

-Core size: Minor. (1.677 cms radius)

-Core inner volume: Medium. (Ocean world. Ki ingestible pill +2)

-Ki purity: 4%. (~2% transdimensional injection)

-Soul Aspect: Binary-White/Silver. (Combat/Exploration affinity)

-Soul defence: 570. +90% bonus (open meridians 1+11)

-Soul attack: 178. +10% bonus (Veritas Knife modifier +1000)

-Sword Ki abilities: 3%. (One with the Sword stage. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)

-Water Dao abilities: 4%. (Minor Water Domain, ~100 kms radius)

-Void abilities:1%. (Voidsplitter skill. Veritas Knife modifier +200%)

Divine stats:

-Ki sense: Minor. (~2000 kms radius)

-coresense: Negligible. (~900 meters radius)

-telekinetic field: Negligible. (Divine strings manipulation, 2%)

-add-ons: Icesword rune(~1000 Ki), Articice rune(~5000 Ki)

-sword intent: Negligible. (Swordforce stage 1, 14%)

-transmutation/alteration: Minor. (water creation stage 3, fog and ice creation stage 2)

-divination: None/???. (transdimensional injection/soul aberration)

-heartforce: Minor. (Iceheart stage 2. 43% complete)

-kharmic luck: Minor. (Minor reincarnation)

-logopedic dao ability: Negligible. (Soul digestion stage 1, 7%)

-Extra abilities: water clone: stage 1, dojutsu: stage 1, mindforce: Negligible.

It wasn't much, not yet complete, but it did serve to show in clear terms where there was work to be done. And there was plenty of improvement to be made, especially in the decision-making areas.

Sure, the user made plenty of mistakes and those were fun to watch, like observing a cute kitten stumble about...but.

Once they left this cushy planetary cradle and began their journey, these kind of mistakes would not be so easily solved. They may in fact jeopardize the mission. Well...not really. Not until they opened the cosmic door.

Pef was smart enough to realize he wasn't smart enough, so he got himself a command staff, in the shape of his family. Lia and Yuan did make decent advisers.

Still, only his ward could unite the planet under a single ruler. On a planet as tribal as this one, family ties were the most important. Pef should have enough personal ties to draw the druids, the Patriarchy and the Volcanic Cult under his rule. And once that happened...

Pef opened his eyes and glanced around the frozen castle. Then his attention shifted to the vitruvian man drawing, and the attached stats. 'My orange glove...are we in a game?' he asked a bit confused.

'Tchhh! I'm not orange!' the glove replied in an annoyed tone. Maybe it should have kept the user stats for itself.

A weird silence ensued. A minute later it replied in a dignified tone: 'For one such as me, everything around us is numbers. Including you. It's called a numerical reality.'

'Okay. Makes sense for a computer, I guess. So...my Wisdom is kinda low...' Pef replied in a thoughtful voice.

Slowly, he went through all the stats, comparing them with his own image of himself. And he didn't like what he saw. So many things about himself, which he was proud of...and they meant only a minor note.

Often, literally a Minor note in the checkbox.

'You have a lot to work on, Soldier. Luckily, you're pretty much immortal now.' the glove said in a more amenable tone.

Pef nodded, to himself and to glove as well. The drawing looked familiar for some reason, as if he had seen it before, in a dream. He didn't doubt the data in the chart either, as he mostly knew the range of his abilities.

It just...ached...to see his life and achievements so harshly graded.

Water Dao. His proudest achievement was so puny. And he did in fact know how to improve on it.

Condensate to Ice to Liquid. Then Gas and Plasma. There were five states of matter that he already knew about. With a few years of experiments and training he could achieve them all...and complete the Dao of Water. Or at least the initial stages.

He could delve deeper into molecular bonds, and extract hydrogen and oxygen from the ocean, like his stupid friend had done. Improve his telekinesis and transmutation by a rank or two.

Gah. No wonder he was still building castles of ice. Damn Wisdom was under 100!

Also, the concepts implied in the chart were concerning, especially those involving the divine.

Coresense should be his new Saint ranked ability, the one allowing him to detect divine messengers.

But telekinesis? The implications were...amazing. Sure it was a godly ability and he didn't have any clue how to use it...but it was still very promising. For his future.

Not to mention that swordforce, which was not the Force at all.

And then, heartforce? Was that a degree in being cold hearted? Why? What for?

Lastly the mindforce was a clear, if subtle, indication of future mind tricks. Compulsion, domination and so on. Not that having your brain eaten by mind worms wasn't scary anyway.

With a grim determination the Saint summoned the Artus Icicle and observed it for a minute.

"Water Dao, here I come!" he exclaimed then shattered the construct in his fist.

A deluge of insights flooded his mind and soul, a million years of concentrated dao flowing into his meridians and then condensing into his dantian. The sensation was similar to his prior experience of digesting the fire sprite, only this time Pef had a huge advantage.

His inner mind kept an eye on his chart, while the divine insights of Artus were not that foreign. He knew water and knew it well. What he needed was perspective, like a scientist experimenting not for a decade, but for a million years.

Years passed, day and night cycles flickering above him. When Pef opened his eyes and returned to the world, the chart had changed significantly.

-Wisdom: 99. (Veritas Adjutant modifier +1000)

-Ki force: 11000.

-Spiritual affinity: Water 9%, Sword 3%, Fire 1%, Thunder 1%, Void 1%. (Wind, Metal and Earth under 1%)

-Ki sense: Medium. (~6000 kms radius)

-Water Dao abilities: 9%. (Dao Water Domain ~600 kms radius)

-transmutation/alteration: Medium. (water creation stage 5, fog and ice creation stage 4, plasma creation stage 1)

-logopedic dao ability: Negligible. (Soul digestion stage 1, 9%)

-water clone stage 3.

"No way! How can I be still under 100 Wisdom?" Pef yelled in outrage.

'One good decision doesn't make you a sage. You're still the same idiot. But a more dangerous one.' the glove replied with a snicker.

'A dangerous idiot, eh? I can live with that.' the Saint mused to himself.

A quick qi sweep promptly demonstrated his new improved range, encompassing the entire Monarchy at once. Pef grinned. Continental ranged abilities were the hallmark of a true Saint, and now he finally obtained one.

The Monarchs of his family duly noticed being scanned and frowned towards the Tian Mountains. Lia was missing as always, possibly still decrypting reality in her lunar lab, as always.

The construction of Port Wong was finished and the city already populated with 3 million people.

And... Hero was being carried home by an airship.

In a flash, the Saint took off towards the approaching airship.

In a couple of minutes he made visual then tactile contact with the ship.

As he busted into the nacelle he was confronted by a mutilated Guardian, standing watch over the body. "Monarch! We... I'm sorry for your loss." the man said in a surprised then mourning voice.

Pef took note of his wounds, right arm partially chewed off, just like half of face. He will heal in a year at most. But death was harder to heal.

Hero's Monarch ranked helmet was sliced cleanly in half. Nothing a beast or assassin could have produced. Divine skill then. He nodded to his son's comrade then swept the nacelle with his other senses.

His eyes swept left, where the bodyguard stood camouflaged by wooden wall, his cloaked signature only visible to his coresense.

'Report!' he demanded in a coded qi burst.

'Locust beast wave, Sire. Orange Base is gone as well.' the man replied in the same code.

A pang of pain and sorrow almost overwhelmed the Saint, before his heart compressed a bit more. With a last look at the body of his dead son, Pef turned and left the nacelle. Nothing the Sovereign ranked bodyguard could have done against a god, or a Monarch ranked messenger, so no use blaming him.

'His mother will be devastated. You better figure out a way to tell her, and soon.' the glove advised him in a flat tone.

Pef nodded. 'A solution is still being formulated.' He also noticed the glove didn't mention anything about himself being devastated. A quick check to his chart also showed him why. A couple of changes had occurred during last minutes.

-Wisdom: 100

-heartforce: Minor. (Iceheart stage 2. 51% complete)

He would have preferred not to figure out what heartforce did. Not like this. At least he was wiser now.

And then, it was time for retaliation. He had his own skill after all.