The next day.

Rowan arose from his bed, sporting a mass of disheveled brown hair. He manipulated his divine energy to bring it back to its original well-kept, wavy, chin-length state. Normally, he would not have had to bother with something as trivial as hair maintenance, but the constant mental strain had forced him into doing what he thought he would never have to do again: sleep. Enduring attacks on the mind from mages apparently only strengthened its ability to resist external threats, but accomplished nothing in terms of improving it in its entirety. Regardless, the mental fatigue only served to slow his progress and annoy him.

He was expecting to be greeted by the perpetually irritated tone of Avy's voice, but received something else instead.

"Good morning, Rowie! Sleep well?" Like a fuzzy little ball of sunshine dropping in to say hello, Voltaire made herself known. It would seem that she would be his tutor for today, which caused him to let out a sigh of relief. The palm-sized spider hanging by her spinnerets could not help but notice. "Uhihi! Things didn't go so great between you two, huh?"

"It could have been better, I suppose. Assigning someone like that dorbel to me, I could only speculate that someone like Jin would be behind it."

"Funny you should mention that..."

He raised an eyebrow. "What? Was it truly him?"

"Er, forget about what I just said! Let's get to teaching you something that's not math today, kay?"

Being the honest soul that she was, Voltaire felt obligated to inform her friend of this slip of the tongue. Barely perceptible mana pulses emanated from Regis members who were willing to establish telepathic connections. Her target was available, per usual. Sorry, Jin!

Huh? You told the guy? Don't sweat it, it's just Avy I'm worried about.

Oh. Okay!

Rowan merely saw the yellow arachnid look off to the side for a moment before returning her attention to him. "So, biology!" She waved one of her arms, summoning a HoloPad bearing another educational program depicting a textbook titled 'Intro to Biology'. "This is something that you could pick up from an encyclopedic info kiosk, but I think you've had enough headaches for one year."

"I thank you for your consideration. It is truly a breath of fresh air to me."

"Oh you," she waved an arm, playing along. "Now, before we flip the page, I want to ask you some trivial questions, is that fine?"

"That would be fine, yes."

"Great! Tell me, what's the smallest creature you've ever seen? What's the smallest thing you've ever seen?"

"That would be..." He clasped his chin in thought. "An ant, and a single grain of sand."

"Ants, hmm? Fun little snacks," she rubbed her mandibles in anticipation. "Maybe I'll have some later. But for now, let's introduce you to an even smaller scale.

"Microbes!" With a motion, the virtual textbook flipped to a page depicting strange, alien-looking blobs. It continued changing pages as she spoke, presenting him with a myriad of different images of organisms. "These little rascals have their own tiny little organs, and they can make you really sick, but they're not all bad; some of them are really important for keeping us alive! There's a whooole bunch of things to learn about in the microscopic scale, like how our bodies function as complex, multicellular organisms, or how extremophiles-"

"A moment! Er, please." Rowan had been listening attentively as the pages flipped about, but it took a moment for the details to catch up to him. The whole process was definitely more efficient with transference technology, he had to admit, but he would rather deal with this inefficiency than constant migraines. Which was why he did not react immediately to the exotic-looking diagrams showing a human body and its various types of cells. Now that he had a moment to think it over, the revelation made him feel conflict and disbelief. "You mean to tell me that I am made out of millions of tiny animals?!"

"Trillions! Did you know, most cells in the human body are replaced with entirely new ones every ten years? Pretty neat!" The lighthearted way in which she spoke about the topic led him to believe that they did not view such a process as disturbing. Yet to one such as he, who had lived his whole life viewing himself as a singular entity, to be told that he was actually a conglomerate of trillions of tiny entities bundled into one? While Rowan could simply choose to not take their word for it, he had little reason not to. Back when he was studying the way of the sword, there were many different styles to learn from and create. Some were better than others, but none were technically 'wrong', which allowed practitioners of any path to glean additional insights from analyzing a multitude of techniques. It was precisely because of this history that Rowan's thought process would not allow him to feel any skepticism towards any technical claims that the members of Regis made, regardless of how much they went against everything he stood for and believed in.

Learning that he was actually trillions of tiny beings was one thing. Finding out that these same beings were no longer the same ones within a mere decade?

"Oh! Right. Uh, try not to have an existential crisis. Umm," Voltaire panicked a bit after witnessing Rowan's sudden mood shift from attentive to crestfallen. She had expected his reaction to be one of interest and enlightenment, not distress. "Well, the cells in your brain never get replaced so you're still you, if uhm, you consider the brain to be... you.

"Are you... alright?" she said, slowly lowering herself down to catch a glimpse of his facial expression.

"But," Rowan spoke all of a sudden, prompting a hasty retreat by the little spider. "How does that make any sense? If my brain was an amalgamation of individual beings instead of a single, whole one, how could they possibly come together and agree to identify themselves as such? It sounds preposterous! Nonetheless, I am certain you will be able to clear up my confusion on this matter. Hopefully it happens soon."

"Oh. Okay, great! I'll go ahead and tweak my planned schedule for you so that we can cover cells sooner than usual. So without further ado, let's move on to the first chapter: 'What is Biology?'..."

The next day.

A flash of divine energy, and Rowan was back to being immaculate. He had had some time to reflect after Voltaire left his suite, and felt that his overreaction was unwarranted.

"It was indeed shocking to learn that bodies are made of trillions of cells, but I feel no different afterwards; I am still me. Dwelling on such a matter would be most foolish," he thought to himself.

After Voltaire brought up the idea of a schedule, it had occurred to him that he was never provided with a curriculum to know what he was going to learn ahead of time, and for how long. Either it was a slip up, or Avy purposely withheld it out of spite. He leaned toward the latter.

Glancing at the holographic digital clock on the wall, he found that it was 07:42, eighteen minutes before his next teacher was slated to appear. He took this time to try out some new foods and listen to some music while waiting. Tapping the 'Surprise me!' option on the control panel next to the suite's materialization node, he retrieved a green-skinned fruit with a fish scale pattern from the machine whose display called it a 'Cherimoya'. He sat on a stool next to the kitchen and enjoyed consuming the morsel while listening to music from the jazz genre, ignoring the cautionary message saying that the skin and seeds contained mild toxins and should be avoided. His body was that of an Arbiter's, after all. He could drink entire lakes of Baseline Mortal poison with reckless abandon and still be completely unaffected.

The time passed by quickly, and when the clock struck eight, a familiar floating figure phased into his living quarters. "Rowan. A good morning to you."

"A good morning to you, as well." If there was one person whom Rowan knew to be unmatched in terms of indifference here, it was Sen. As of yet, he had not witnessed him exhibit signs of joy, anger, sorrow, etc. Therefore, if there were any sort of sensitive or controversial details he wanted to discuss, it would be done with this basketball-sized drone via HoloPad instant messaging.

The crescent-shaped hunk of metal with the likeness of a helmet moved over to one side. "Come. Take a seat at your desk, and we will begin learning computer science." Just like before, while he could speed up the process by using an info kiosk, his disdain for the headaches it caused him was well known by the members of Regis. Knowledge-based disciplines were therefore being delivered to him the old-fashioned way.

"Ah, Sen. Before we go further, I would like to humbly request my curriculum." He decided to take advantage of the opportunity to bring up the subject. It was something he would rather not ask Avy about in case her ire would be raised, nor to Voltaire, as he would prefer not to bother such a friendly personality.

"Acknowledged. Transmitting file to your account now. Review the contents after today's lesson." Login credentials were one of the most basic of internet account security. However, in Equinox, a variety of sensors constantly monitored its citizens for identification purposes, removing the need for passwords and keeping them perpetually 'logged in'.

When Rowan arrived at his desk, the familiar glow from his HoloPad lit up as it came online. Instead of his personalized UI, however, it was stripped down to be a blocky, bare-bones, text-based one. A lone caret adorned the white box being displayed on the screen as he awaited further instruction from his tutor.

"Based on your interactions with Avisec, I have concluded that the best approach to this topic would be a minimalist one." While he appreciated the gesture, Rowan felt perturbed at the drone's motionless bearing. Neutrality could be a good thing, but taking it this far with a lack of movement and visible expressions just felt unnatural to him. "You are disturbed by my current format?" Immediately, Sen readjusted himself to idly undulate, while the red light on his visage dimmed and brightened in accordance to his speech patterns.

Needless to say, Rowan was impressed at Sen's ability to immediately adapt himself to become more palatable. "That is... thank you."

"There have been many recorded cases of individuals' reactions towards certain designs. Drawing from this large sample size of preferences, I may easily rectify most issues one may have with my general demeanor on the spot.

"Moving on. Computer science is the discipline which deals with, as you may have already hypothesized, computers. You will be learning about the myriad steps required to generate your own programming languages and optimize them for maximum efficiency and accessibility. First, you will learn Codec, Regis' standard programming language. We begin with introducing 'classes' and 'variables'..."

These lessons carried on late into the afternoon. Despite this, the twilight that entered from outside the suite's vast windows remained the same as always. Eventually, Rowan grew curious about what exactly learning computer science, and by extension the rest of the Fundamental of Science, truly entailed for him. So far, he felt as if coding in computer science was more akin to learning another language than unlocking any sort of inner potential like one would with martial arts or magic. He decided to sate his curiosity.

"Excuse my interruption," said Rowan in the middle of the drone's lecture on insertion sorting. "But I feel as though I am left in the dark as to what I would gain from learning the Fundamental of Science. Could I trouble you to enlighten me on that?"

"Dwelling on unanswered questions is not unlike what a memory leak does to computers. I will resolve this inquiry of yours, then.

"Records inform me that you have been taught by Ming about what our power ranking system revolves around. The natural cycle, or the cycle of life and death, is a recurring phenomenon part of a larger set of overarching rules we have labeled 'natural law'. Natural law is defined as the way in which a universe would function when stripped of extraneous phenomena, such as magic or martial energy, down to its most quintessential, core components. To study and research science is to unravel the mysteries of natural law, and exploit them for your own use.

"The pursuit of science grants critical analytical skills that may carry over into the other Fundamentals, but the primary advantage that the Fundamental of Science in particular holds over the rest is efficiency. You will learn more about it in the subject matter of metacosmology, the study of the multiverse."

"Intriguing," Rowan had to admit. "And just how does computer science contribute to this efficiency?"

"Programming languages allow you to command a machine what to do or how to 'think'. You acquire the capacity to create simulated lifeforms, or artificial intelligence, all within the limits of your digital medium. They may be improved just like an organic's mind, but their efficiency lies in their ability to be copied as many times as needed."

He felt a familiar onset of unpleasant revelations coming. "What you are telling me... are you implying that the extent of your power lets you craft high level beings en masse?"

"Mass production of units on par with Ascendant Immortals is within the realm of possibility. Constant advancements in technology through innovation raise the quality bar daily. Material and energy shortages are the only stopper to this progression, but even those limitations are inevitably resolved over time."

As expected, the knowledge provided to Rowan gave him epiphanies that made him feel distraught. His face paled at the idea of a mechanical automaton that could not only eclipse him in strength, but be created by the thousands? Millions, even? What hope of survival did he have against that? How could he even protect his friends and family?

"The records did warn me of the statistical likelihood of this outcome. Oh well. Another instance to mark down for the defeatist attitude of 'cultivators' when presented with insurmountable odds, and impending obsolescence."

"You...!" Rowan was flabbergasted. The machine had taken a marked departure from his usual, monotonous tone of voice and replaced it with one that was undeniably mocking. While someone observant could note that it was out-of-place and suspect ulterior motives, the brown-haired youth merely took it at face value. In other words, he felt as though he had been issued a challenge, which ignited a spark of defiance. "No! I am not giving up so easily. Continue on!"

"Resuming lesson." Sen had not been lying when he said that cultivators had a tendency to surrender when they lost hope. Many different archetypes in the same situation would choose to be as much of a nuisance to their enemy as possible or try whatever they could to ensure that the same fate would not befall others. What he did not mention was their commonly occurring propensity for truculence. In other words, the drone had banked on insulting Rowan on the chance that the human would immediately lose his apprehension, and save time on restoring him to a proper mental state of mind. Good thing it happened. One could attribute it to him being a robot, but getting off schedule has always been one of Sen's major gripes.

The next day.

Rowan checked the time. 7:50. Still groggy from yesterday, he plopped his head back down onto his pillow. Four months ago, he was met with surprise after surprise, to the point where he believed he could not be surprised at anything anymore. Boy, was he proven wrong. Then again, he had only himself to blame for thinking that the other Fundamentals would be anything like the Fundamental of Might. Deciding it would not do to be caught off guard yet again, he used this brief respite to brace himself mentally for whomever would be arriving today.

8:08. Rowan was just beginning to stir awake, when suddenly...

"HEY-O! Goooood morning, student!" He was shocked out of bed by a familiar, guttural voice. "Gimme five, buddy! Haven't seen each other in weeks!"

If there was one figure he could trust like a lifelong friend, it was Aron. This stocky, bipedal reptilian had a way with words that had the welcome effect of injecting energy into a conversation's atmosphere, making it more lively as a result. Consequently, he found that Aron had a tendency to shrink back in the midst of heated arguments until they have calmed down.

He cleaned himself up as he made his way over. "It has been too long, my good friend," Rowan met Aron's upraised metallic hand with his own, the foreign greeting having become familiar to him. "To see you as one of my teachers is a great comfort to me."

"HAH! The others haven't been giving you any pleasant experiences, have they?!"

"Ah, Voltaire and Sen were fine," said Rowan while rubbing the back of his neck. "They made me very interested in the subjects they taught, and they have treated me well. I can not say the same for Avisec, however."

Aron's steel visage did not grant him much leeway in terms of making facial expressions, but Rowan could tell that he became very solemn just now. "Hey, buddy. Could you sit down for a moment? I have something a little important to discuss before we get to our lesson for the day."

Taking the painfully obvious hint, Rowan rested himself on a nearby stool. Aron himself remained at his current spot, his stumpy-legged build making it more comfortable to use the floor than a piece of furniture. "So, Avy. I don't blame you for having a rough relationship with the lady. She can get a bit condemning towards people she hates, and it's just plain unrealistic at the moment to expect you to get along with everybody here at Regis. But what is disturbing to me is... well.

"Be honest with me. If Avy were on the level of, say, a 'Peon'. Would you kill her?" So that was what this was about. It would appear as if his actions on day one when he had first arrived have not been forgotten. In his eyes, he viewed Aron as a perceptive, caring individual, so it was not out of the blue for the reptilian to be concerned about his recent behavior.

However, Rowan could not find anything wrong with what he had done in the past. Therefore, he decided to tell the truth. "Without hesitation. We learned to respect our seniors at a young age. To disrespect them would be courting death, as is natural. The strong do what they wish, and the weak are left with no choice but to bend to their will. That is why we 'cultivate' so fervently, so that we may take control of our lives. Our destinies."

"You tell me that the strong in your universe take the lives of others just because they failed to act proper for one moment? Getting provoked like that isn't strength. It's weakness." Aron took a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing. "Stringent law enforcement typically arises from a fear of rebellion. When the leader can be overthrown through collective effort, order becomes necessary. But a leader that doesn't fear the ones under their rule? If they're strong enough to be unaffected by their citizens' measly attempts at dethroning them, then they don't have much tangible reason to be affected by something minor like slander.

"There's a fairly common saying across the multiverse: 'Power corrupts'. And a fairly common response to that is that power doesn't corrupt, it liberates. It grants you sovereignty and jurisdiction on the world around you. Gaze upon the influence you've made on your surroundings, and you'll catch a glimpse of your true self's reflection. Is it a world of reverence and respect? Or is it one of fear and worship?"

"It... I..." Rowan was at a loss for words. He truly wanted to make a retort, but Aron was not a nuisance like Avy nor a virtually emotionless being like Sen. He was a good friend like Voltaire, and for him to be the one to lecture Rowan on ethics meant that something had to be wrong.

The tension in the air was palpable. Aron's primarily blue eyes stared at Rowan from beneath the flat cap-like protrusion coming from the top of his head. Almost a minute passed before the reptilian slowly opened his mouth, and let out a hearty guffaw.

"HAH! Don't sweat the details too much! I just felt like I had to get that out of the way before you ran into some problems in the future. Just... play nice, enjoy life, and everything'll work itself out. Got it? Good! Let's learn some physics!"

Later that night.

It was 22:10. The twilight poured in through the suite's windows. There were shaders that could be activated to block it from coming in, but Rowan did not mind. He himself was currently lying on his back, pondering something that was keeping him from falling asleep. What could have possessed Aron to rebuke him like that? No. He already knew the answer to that. What he was attempting to figure out instead was the message that Aron was trying to get across. Clearly, he had expressed his sharp disapproval of not only his actions, but his attitude.

He wondered what it was that the rest of the members of Regis appeared to see about him that he could not.

'...haven't had anybody so serious since...'

'You have zero concern over their health and well-being?!'

'Pay no heed to such titular matters.'

'Cultivators. Always so brash, so arrogant.'

Did they see his behavior as abnormal? No. He immediately shook his head at that conclusion. If they shunned people based on abnormal behavior, then someone like Jin would have been ousted long ago.

So what was it? He tossed and turned in bed at these questions that nagged at him and kept him wide awake. Words and concepts, including those learned by the info kiosk, were being thrown about in his head with wanton abandon in order to settle this matter. Disrespect? Avy herself was guilty of this, so it could not be. Impatience? Same ordeal. Keeping an open mind? Not quite. Mercy? Tempting, but from what was said earlier, it would appear as though they were not against killing if it ever became necessary.

Gradually, one word bubbled up above the rest: Empathy.

...Empathy? The abililty to understand others and put oneself in their shoes? He could very well say he understood where the seniors he had encountered during his journey back then were coming from. For these lofty individuals, if they were stuck at a bottleneck, then aside from the lives of themselves and their kin, they valued face above all else; only the truly evil or solitary figures would hold no one close to them. Unless a particularly coveting treasure made itself known, of course. Once a situation like this unfurled, then all bets were off, even for the most virtuously reputed.

When it came to dealing with strangers, they only paid heed to equals or superiors, while treating common folk like novelty; only the strong were worthy of their attention. But such motivations were... shallow, now that he thought about it. Why were they so able to kill weak individuals without remorse? Heck, how did people even become purely evil beings in the first place? Greed for treasures? Boredom from peace? The more he thought about it, the less rational reasoning he saw for there to be any death and destruction in Gaea. There was plenty of food and living space, after all. Everyone could just train in peace, could they not? The only threats should have been from feral beasts and natural disasters, not infighting between cultivators.

And to think that Avy, and likely the rest of them, viewed Rowan as 'just another cultivator'. It left a bitter taste in his mouth that he felt needed to be washed away.

Although this only took a moment to describe, a few hours had come and gone. Already, it was 01:04, but he would rather be late making amends than never.

[Rowan: Avisec, do you have a moment?]

The text message was successfully sent through HoloPad. While video chatting and other social mediums were available, the avian had blocked all methods of communication with him besides pure text. Spiteful as she was, she was still required to educate him in mathematics, as mentioned in his curriculum. Someone had to wave the olive branch first, or they would be at each other's necks constantly for the next few years.

[av2: wdyw]

It did not take long for him to receive a reply. While the time suggested that it was in the dead of night, the stationary celestial bodies made it so the denizens of Regis all varied in their own sleep schedules. The members of Regis in particular rarely ever slept, so he was not afraid of backlash from waking the bird up. However, judging by the use of an abbreviation instead of whole words, she was not in the mood to hear from him.

Then again, when was she ever.

[Rowan: I am sorry.]

[av2: 4?]

[Rowan: For yesterday. I hope that you will accept my apology.]

[av2: n]

No? He was dumbfounded at how quickly she brushed him off. Well, not all battles could be won. If she was unwilling to...

...No. If he was unable to get through to her, then the stigma surrounding his origins really would be justified. Tapping relentlessly on the holographic keyboard, he managed to put in more effort and thought into his post.

[Rowan: I just wanted to say that I apologize. For everything. My inability to view your lessons as anything other than a means to an end. My inability to tolerate minor jabs thrown in my direction. I can not deny that the thought of wishing you were dead has crossed my mind multiple times. And I sincerely apologize for all of it. It was all my fault that you had to suffer. I am sorry.]

A lot more heartfelt than he expected, but that was of little concern. What did matter was whether or not he succeeded in getting his intentions across.

Each passing second wreaked havoc on his patience. Instant messaging had that kind of effect on people, he noticed. He began to wonder if even his texts were being blocked now, or if Avy even read his message at all.

After what felt like an eternity, but in reality barely a minute had passed, he got a response.

[av2: Go get some sleep already]

[av2: You have geometry tomorrow]

Still a little cold, but enough to merit a sigh of relief. He flopped backwards onto his bed, satisfied with the outcome. He had expected more, like a return apology, but not everything would play out like what his mind portrayed it to be. Regardless, he was finally able to settle down and drift off into sleep. He had a feeling that he would find himself able to enjoy the days to come, and welcomed that premonition with open arms.