Worill sighed before he spoke, “Some regimes in Erkshem and some countries like to… bear down on these kinds of people. Similar the continental feelings that occurred during your time with the people without the second heart. These communities suffer discrimination from their traditions and practices. They’re viewed as beggars and thieves, that kind of thing. You can see the results.” He glanced in their direction.

‘So that was the reason…’ Tus was reminded of a few events in his memory that happened to other people like himself that was similar to this.

“Can we help them?” Tus asked.

Yarla appeared at some point and plainly answered from the side, “We don’t have to. Look at their direction and you’ll see that they’re moving into my regimes’ domain. There, they won’t have to suffer the same.”

Off in the grass, Ruia gave a sigh of relief before she continued her practicing.

“You should get back to training.” Yarla said before she left.

‘Am I supposed to sit here day and night?’ Tus complained to himself.

………

South-East Area of Erkshem, Gem Regime, Lords’ study.

The blue candlelight reflected off of Reveliths chaotic face that changed from wrinkled to middle-age. Even though it was so, his ice cold expression never ceased its prevalence as he looked at the kneeling shadow that had five colored orbs circling around it. The colors were of the Gem Regime’s thorns.

“Lord, what do you think of your daughters’ proposition?” The shadow asked.

Revelith thought for some time before he spoke, “You tested the transcendent and he proved to have value to me, but a problem seems to have shown itself. Branding him would be good for a collar, but his will was forged from two hundred years in Oblivion. More than likely any kind of branding would prove futile, even from me personally.” He paused here and contemplated before he said. “Concerning my daughters’ proposition, I’ll give it a try. If it doesn’t suffice and the proposition shows that his usefulness would be better branded, then I will begin to gather the materials for that old connection. I want you to keep an eye on him and report his progress back to me.” Every time that he said the words ‘that old connection,’ his voice would shake slightly from either excitement or fear.

“As Lord commands.” The shadow, Lyzland Furnerm, said with respect before his body sunk into the ground, leaving no trace.

‘Once I have this weapon firmly by my side, I can finally cleanse this country, and destroy those damned alliance! For killing my wife, they shall have the sky of the Land of Trials fall upon them!’ Reveliths’ icy countenance melted into a saddened expression when he looked at a locket that he wore around his neck. It was an azure color with white patches of clouds that appeared as though they could move in the background at any time.

………

“Oh! I actually got something!” Tus yelled out when the almost-complete moon fully rose.

The reason why he yelled was because he felt an uncomfortable pressure stab into his right thigh and move into one of his second heart veins called the meridian vein. It then abruptly disappeared.

“Congratulations of consciously taking in some earth energy.” Worill spoke from the side. “How did it feel?”

“It was like the feeling of a buildup of gas in the stomach, except it actually moved through the skin.” Tus answered.

“Keep the sense you had when it came into your body and you will attract more. When you get five of those for all three of your attributes once a minute, then you would officially move into half-stassis.” Worill smiled, “Honestly, I thought you would begin getting something like that after another four or five more days.”

“This Rolon always surprises this Rolon.” Tus whispered to himself, just loud enough to pierce into his neighbors’ ears.

“Rolon… I know that you enjoy picking on us like that, but I suggest you stop real quickly.”

‘What is he going to do? Threaten me? I’m like the future god of this place who will make everyone suffer from the annoyance of my presence!’ Tus self-consciously thought to himself before sensing a certain danger. He looked up to see Worill standing with a creepy smile while holding his cane and used one end as a catching point. It moved up and down, repeatedly being caught in his hand with a loud ‘smack’ sound. Tus felt goosebumps form over his skin from the sight. He stood up and did his sequence of respectful poses. He kneeled on both knees, stood up as fast as lightning, bowed ninety degrees, saluted from his head before he kept a fist over his heart. “I apologize for my transgressions!” Tus gave a resolute shout.

Worill who watched this felt at a loss and stopped his intimidation tactic. He scratched his head before he walked into the grass before he announced, “I’m going to check on the new servants!”

The ‘servants’ had a camp of their own that was hidden in the field of grass. They were ordered to keep an appropriate distance away from the ‘recruiters’ camp at all times.

‘No one can handle my sincerity.’ Tus thought to himself as he cockily smiled.

…

Tus continued to train in for hyperstassis and since he got one successful attraction, he came to become more proficient. After two days of persistently sitting with his eyes closed, he found himself drawing in two wisps of external energy every thirty minutes. Even though it was far from officially attaining half hyperstassis, it was still an improvement.

He also found that there were three different experiences he felt when a wisp entered his body. The first that felt like a fart bubble was the earth external energy. The second was an isolated pocket of heat that moved from the top of the skin to the meridian vein. The last was comparable to the other two experiences, but was far more comfortable. Like the cool sea breeze after nightfall.

“What do you think about your reconstruction trial? It’s going to happen tonight.” Gargoyle at some point walked over without making a sound. It then crouched in front of Tus while licking his lips.

Tus slightly opened his right eye to look at the weird thing in front of him before closing it. “I think it will be interesting.”

Gargoyle was surprised, although not at the content of Tus’s response.

In the past few days, Tus maintained mostly silence. As if he was avoiding a problem.

‘He actually didn’t say this Rolon! It is a miracle!’ Gargoyle felt overjoyed at this change.

Tus slightly opened his right eye again when he heard a series of stomps on the ground. What he saw left him speechless. Gargoyle was celebrating the momentous occasion by hopping from one leg to the next, swinging his arms with each step.

“…” Tus closed his eye once more.

After five minutes.

“Do you want to know what will happen to you in the trial or what you need to do?” Gargoyle was done with his dance that earned him strange gazes from the group and asked while crouched like a frog.

“Whatever it is, it will be explained by the overseer.” Tus calmly answered without opening his eyes.

Gargoyle’s inhumane face twitch a bit, “Are you sure you don’t want to know ahead of time? I mean, this could be an opportunity to prepare.”

“Can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“That is because of the trial curse or the back check.”

“The what?”

“If I listen to you talk about the trial, the overseer will change it to something else or directly eliminate me from taking the trials. A way to catch any form of cheating.”

“When I did that, nothing happened.”

“Look at yourself now. You are a monster.”

“…”

The conversation turned into back and forth with Gargoyle’s defeat.

“Why haven’t I heard of this before?” Gargoyle threw a questioning gaze.

“You didn’t do enough research and didn’t ask about the rules when you went through the preliminary role in Oblivion.” Tus said ‘matter of factly.’

“What are you going to do tonight then?” Gargoyle performed an abrupt change of the conversation, not wanting to go forward with the previous one.

“Probably rest mostly until the reconstruction trial begins.”