Riding out of the underground parking lot of his building on his bike, Aven had put on music on his headphones and was ready to navigate the street of Serenis until he arrived at his destination.

‘I’ll stop by Sam’s Bakery and buy some pains au chocolat, maybe I’ll offer some to the teacher to prevent a bad mood? Sounds amazing! No way a super can be allergic to something as amazing as a pain au chocolat, right?’

Pushing on his right pedal, his body had perfectly mastered the art of maintaining his balance on a bike and he quickly accelerated and changed gears until he reached the last one, adopting a comfortable cruise speed.

As he had planned, he stopped at the best bakery he had discovered over his numerous bike trips in Serenis and bought 7 copies of the best pastry in existence.

They were fresh out of the oven it seemed, an added quality bonus in his book, so he took his time to properly cushion them inside his backpack before departing again.

Arriving at the city center, he used the sidewalk to taunt the car drivers as he flew by, skipping through stops and red fire at a high speed, going above the limits and endurance he remembered to have.

‘Is my endless energy related to me becoming a grade 0? Yeah, no kidding. What a genius I am!’

Pushing himself a bit more, he arrived at his destination a quarter of an hour early, a respectable time if where he needed to be hadn’t been a supers crash course.

Parking his bike in a conveniently placed bike park, he locked it to a steel bar and headed in the direction of his objective.

Entering the same gigantic sky-scrapper as yesterday, no one obstructed him, and he even easily found signs pointing towards a “Supers Crash Course”, so he followed them and ended up inside a moderately large amphitheater. It could at least hold a hundred people.

‘So supers are rare, hu… What else can I say other than I wholeheartedly agree with that statement?’

The whole amphitheater was empty save from a single person at the main desk, a tall, muscled, tanned, and bearded person looking at him intensely.

Raising his eyebrows in surprise, he headed towards him and put down his backpack on a table in the first row before taking his pastry bag and approaching the not-that-scary guy.

“Hello! I’m here to attend the supers crash course, I didn’t come to the wrong place I think so here’s my all-time favorite pastry,” handing a single pain au chocolat, he took one himself and started eating it after the guy took what he had offered.

“Thank you,” he thanked him before relapsing into silence.

Going back to the first row, he settled himself down until 10 minutes later, with 5 minutes remaining before the official start of the crash course, someone else entered.

Turning his head to look at the newcomer, Aven only saw a middle-aged man in a faux leather jacket, complete with spikes on it to create a perfect biker impression.

After the middle-aged man approached the first row and settled not far from the already settled down Aven.

‘Should I offer one of my precious? I’ll do that when there are only a few minutes remaining on the clock... Yes, I’ll do that…’

When the clock dangerously approached the official starting time of the crash course, he took his pastry bag and handed one to the biker middle-aged man with a smile, and he took it while nodding expressionlessly.

Following that, Aven skipped back happily to his seat as the muscular and bearded man started doing something on his side.

Ultimately, it was 6 pm, and with a total number of 2, the supers crash course started.

“Hello to you two, I’m Sigurd Eskildsen, a grade 3 martial system, and while I doubt you really understand what it means, I’ll make sure you do by the time you leave,” Sigurd started by seriously introducing himself.

And already, that had an effect.

‘Grade 3… That’s a pretty amazing grade, isn’t it? It should be…’

Not letting them dwell on his introduction, he continued, “This crash course will cover the basic knowledge you should have about your innate ability, your energy cultivation, and everything you need to take your first steps at your own pace.”

Using a remote, he changed the screen behind him and directly dived right into the core of the crash course, “The most fundamental thing you need to know and constantly remind yourself of about energy cultivation is that it's not something mystical that cannot be calculated or understood.”

The screen behind him displayed a single white dot in the middle of endless blackness.

“Energy cultivation is all about developing the energy flow already present inside you, the one you acquired after your awakening. As for the cultivation principle behind increasing your energy… It’s utterly simple, so simple in fact that it's ridiculous,” saying that, he took 2 flimsy books out of his large desk and personally handed them over to the 2.

“Energy is not present in the air, it’s also not in the ground, it's only present in life that awoke for yet not completely understood reasons, and as long as you just cycle it as intensely as you can, it’ll grow. It’s that simple. Try it now, you’ll see how simple it is,” not going back behind his desk, he remained in front of the first row, inviting them to do something that sounded crazy.

However, neither of the 2 became outraged, they even did the reverse as they instantly focused on cycling their energy faster.

“The sign you want to see to be proven that you’re doing this right is your energy cycle becoming less dense, or at your stage, it would be less hot and intense,” he helped them by providing guidance.

‘Cycle… Cycle… Cycle…’

Inside his body, Aven felt his energy flow accelerate for seemingly no other reason than him wanting to, and it continued to accelerate until…

‘Oh~ It has decreased.’

His energy flow had already started to decrease, and it was translated to it becoming colder and… Well… Less intense.

After having been convinced that cultivating his energy was that simple, he opened his eyes again and saw Sigurd with a pain au chocolat in hand.

Finding his pastry bag, he followed suit and also picked one, starting to eat it directly. Now there were only 2 remainings, so he stood up and dropped one before the biker.

A few minutes later, the biker opened his eyes, saw the pastry, and started eating it as Sigurd started talking again after finishing his own, “Now that you know everything there is to know about practical energy cultivation, just know that you can test your cultivation level at the first floor of this building.”

He switched to the next slide, this time it was one that started with 10, then went on to 100, then to 1000, so on and so on.

“Grade 0, also called the energy vessel stage, is the stage you’re currently in. Once your energy cultivation reaches 10, you’ll push through your first barrier and become a grade 1, also called the energy cloud stage. And can you guess when you’ll reach grade 2?” He asked the most simple question ever if someone could see the slide just behind him.

“100,” Aven knew no shame and directly gave the answer, he had no reason to hesitate.

“Exactly, you become grade 2 when your energy cultivation reaches 100. When it reaches 1000, you become grade 3. And when it reaches 10 000, you become grade 4. Each grade makes energy cultivation slower though as your energy changes form as you progress to accommodate more power.”

“Now, each grade has its own specificity,” he switched to the next slide, and a chart appeared, one detailing from grade 0 to grade 4, “That’s a bit heavy so I summarized it a bit.”

“Grade 0, the energy vessel stage. It means nothing. Your body is just slightly reinforced, but you can do nothing else with your energy. That’s it,” he dashed Aven’s hope just like that.

“Grade 1, the energy cloud stage. It allows you to finally do something, but this something will only be significant if it’s an energy application corresponding to your affinity. I’ll come to that later.”

“Grade 2, the energy spark stage, is the stage where you’ll try everything. Having an affinity for an energy system isn’t a necessity anymore for trying it out and having good results with it. You’ll become able to launch fireballs, lift a ton easily, or enhance your computer to play the latest games easily.”

“Grade 3, the energy core stage, that’s where I currently am, and at that grade, you can say goodbye to being able to use every energy system unless you use the pure one. Grade 3 transforms your energy affinity into an energy identity, locking it in a certain system while giving you your first energy specialization. I’ll not detail that one here.”

“Grade 4 is the energy aura stage, it gives you a second energy specialization and allows you to demolish tens of grade 3 easily if you’re equipped and prepared.”

Everything that he had said was written on the slide behind him, and once he had finished, he directly switched to the next one.

On this one, a cross was drawn, and 5 words dominated the whole screen: One in the center, and one at each of the four extremities of the cross.

“Here’s a relatively contested diagram of what the energy system is as a whole. It’s scientifically unproven, but it’s a marvel to teach new supers like you,” he derided the diagram and their intelligence without blinking an eye.

“At the center is the pure energy system, it allows the use of energy applications of every other system while also having its own unique ones. Yes, it sounds strong. Yes, it is. No, it’s not above the others,” as if reading their mind, Sigurd answered their questions before they even formed in their mind.

“At one of the extremities is the psy system, an energy system allowing you to use your energy to interfere with others’ spirits. It’s the system I had the least interactions with over my career, so I don’t know much more about it.”

“Opposed to the psy system is the elementalist system. With this system, you’ll become able to transform your energy into a much more advanced and lethal version of it such as fire, water, or anything you can imagine really. The number of applications is staggering, and I’ve seen some crazy things done with this system.”

“On another extremity is the tech system. Using this energy system, your energy can reinforce anything that is not alive and enhance what it does. A steel plate will become more resistant, a computer will work faster, a gun will work better, and a bullet will be stronger… You get it.”

“And opposed to it is the martial system, the system I use, it’s my energy identity, and being able to change your energy identity is unheard of, so I’ll live with it until I die. It’s really opposed to the tech system in that I can use my energy to reinforce anything alive.”

Finishing the basic description of the 5 energy systems, he prepared to switch to the next slide but stopped himself as he remembered something, “Oh, and also. The name of the 5 systems comes from the fairy era, so while the name summarizes them pretty well, they’re not perfect at all.”

Having said that, he switched to the next slide… A big “Innate Ability” text was at the top, followed below by “grade 0 = grade 0” and below it by “grade 1 = grade 1”, and so on.

“Innate abilities aren’t fixed, and they evolve at the same time as your energy grade,” he explained, “As of now, your innate ability is grade 0. Only when you reach grade 1 will it gain something more or become better at what it already does.”

He switched to the next slide, one with a big “The End” written on it.

“Any questions?” Sigurd asked after he arrived at this slide.

Instantly, faster than his shadow, Aven lifted one of his arms and started speaking without waiting, “Are innate abilities all equal? Is there no copy? At least similar ones? Are they categorized? Where can I check to see if mine is amazing or not?”

“Innate abilities, even extraordinary ones, only amount to as much as their owners are worth. Similar ones of course exist. Some people have tried to categorize them all, but innate abilities are a super’s greatest secret, so the resulting endeavor is only useful as a reference,” he answered concisely without thinking about it at all.

But it wasn’t the end of Aven’s curiosity streak as he continued once he got his answers, “Is affinity important? Can it be changed?”

“Yes, your energy affinity is important. No matter what I say or how I turn it, someone with a martial energy affinity will always perform better in the martial energy system. And no, no one has ever reported a success at changing their energy affinity. It’s inborn.”

“Is there a link between my natural energy affinity and my innate ability? That’s my final question,” Aven ended his streak with this question.

“It’s a theory I heard of before, but some people are exceptions to this rule, and they’re not that rare, so the theory is pretty much unproven and its content can only be applied through coincidences,” he didn’t say anything about it being the last question, it clearly didn’t concern him whether it was the last or not.

With the two new supers becoming silent, Sigurd used his remote to turn off the screen projector, “That’s all I have to say. If you want to find your affinity, just head to the first floor and ask for it, same as for testing your energy cultivation.”

‘Well, that was helpful in some ways and useless in some others.’

Getting up, he eyed his last pastry but finally resolved himself. He knew that the current occasion was maybe his sole opportunity to be able to talk with a grade 3 in such a perfect atmosphere, so he handed it to Sigurd.

“In truth, that was my last question related to what I learned during the crash course. If I may ask, if you were back to grade 0, what would you do?” He honestly showed his motive, having nothing to hide.

Looking at him for a few seconds silently, he eventually took the last pastry as he adopted a more thoughtful face, “I would drop all my plans and focus on getting to grade 1 as quickly as possible. It’s only a few weeks even if I’m distracted all along. From there, I would start learning more about my affinity and where I can learn things relevant to my energy system.”

“Thank you for the crash course then, those pastries come from a bakery called Sam’s Bakery if you would like some others. I’ll leave first,” bowing his head ever so slightly, Aven headed towards the door with no intention of stopping.

But a voice echoed from behind, stopping him in his stride, “Only at grade 3 is it considered that one’s innate ability reaches its full potential. So I would make reaching grade 3 my first long-term objective. As for what’s after? That’s something I would decide when I get there.”

“Thank you again for your advice Mr. Eskildsen,” turning and thanking him again politely, he restarted his stride after confirming it was really the end of the piece of advice and exited the amphitheater with much food for thought.

‘So~ Let’s skip uni until I reach grade 1? And maybe start a physical training routine? No, not that one. Explore the 1st floor though? That one I can do now.’

When he reached the massive hall again, he headed towards the elevators and picked one that served only the floors 1 to 20.

As for why he didn’t use the stairs? He couldn’t find them. So he chose simplicity.

Arriving on the 1st floor…

‘A gym? What?’

The elevator had opened upon a large glass window that allowed one to see a massive hall filled with people working out and lots of training devices he had never seen before. Not that he had seen many.

Then he found a sign by searching a bit around.

‘Oh, cultivation and affinity tests. So simple and easy.’

Following the directions indicated, he ended up exiting the glass windows-covered corridor and stumbled on another much smaller hall, except his one was a lot less filled than the gym.

And the signs indicated that the single desk present with the single woman in an office suit behind it was his goal.

So he approached and stated his reason for being here to the woman looking at him funny, “Hello, I’m here to test my affinity and my cultivation, how do I do that, I’m a newly awakened super.”

“I can see that,” she asserted, nearly blurting out her thoughts on him, “Oh, sorry if I offended you, just place one of your hands on top of the desk and you’ll have your result in a minute.”

Doing as she said, he put his left hand on top of the desk and quickly observed how atypical the desk was once he properly observed it.

Totally white, strange engravings, integrated with the floor… Everything combined, this desk wasn’t a desk, it was a test machine.

Following a minute of waiting, the woman behind the test machine finally got something and told him his result, “Your affinity is the tech system, and your current energy cultivation is 2 out of 10, the energy cultivation every newly awakened super has.”

“Thank you, that will be all,” withdrawing his hand, Aven thanked her and left the same way he had entered.

‘Well, now I don’t have to search for other systems online to hide the fact that I already knew my affinity was the tech energy system. And I also confirmed the fact that my status window is correct.’

From this train of thought, he confirmed another thing that made a smile appear on his face.

‘And I’m really a descendant of the fairies.’