“Uncle Adam, how have you been?” Miles greeted his uncle at his laboratory. It was also inside the headquarters, but it was almost impossible to be inside because, without Adam’s permission, no one on the face of Earth could enter there. Not even three generals nor the president. And, Adam wouldn’t permit people most of the time, because he was a workaholic.

“Brat. You finally remembered your uncle.” Adam smiled and walked to hug Miles. Miles didn’t come without notice. He called Adam a day before and said he wanted to visit him. Of course, the place to meet was Adam’s laboratory.

It wasn’t Miles's first time there. He visited Adam many times before and at the time, the laboratory was just a giant warehouse with thousands upon thousands of samples collected from Portal World with a giant workstation in the middle, but now there were many new machines placed around the main workstation and the warehouse even had more samples.

“Now that is hurtful Uncle. I tried to call you before, but you were too busy to answer.” Miles looked at Adam with a hurt expression.

“I was?” Adam looked down in thought and tried to remember.

“He is lying.” A voice came from Adam’s wrist, and Miles smiled sheepishly.

“C’mon Cain, I almost got him this time. Why would you bust me.” Miles chuckled.

“You little brat. Ignoring your awesome uncle and even lying to take advantage of my always busy mind.” Adam looked stern but after a while burst into laughter too. “So, what is your purpose for visiting this time?”

“Can’t I come because I missed you?” Miles asked, but Adam wasn’t taking it. He looked at Miles and cut the crap expression.

“Fine, fine. I was going to use a second mind serum and they said they will test my mind by sending lots of useless information. Then I thought, while I am here, why not learn something useful, right? So I came to ask if you can send me something about botany that might prove useful for me.” Miles asked.

It wasn’t all lies, because Evelyn was in the portal world and would be there for a little while, she couldn’t help Miles this time. And Miles didn’t want to wait to waste his time. He was already behind when it came to the mind serums and waiting for Evelyn to return would lose at least a month.

“Are you sure, Miles?” Adam asked with a frown, “I heard from sis that you already started to learn core forging science, and even started to forge. It is good to know more things, but you cannot learn everything.

No one has that much time or energy, so you have to choose something you want to master.” Adam’s words weren’t empty. The reason why not many ventured into crafting despite it was now easy to learn was because spending time on something else meant less time for training. It also meant leveling up slower.

Of course, not everyone had the chance to learn the best of best formulas Evelyn taught him as Miles did. So they had to learn mediocre techniques, formulas and get hands-on experience by blowing up many times.

Even those techniques and formulas would cost fortunes, so instead of trying to learn crafting most people would choose to train their superpowers and become higher-tiered hunters. But even people with the ability to learn the best techniques and formulas would rarely do so if they had a promising superpower. Because with the money they could earn after cultivating their superpowers, they could buy things they needed or hire a craftsman.

Miles was different. He didn’t have a superpower to train and only had to increase his physical powers. It could be done while hunting or while eating depending on how he was doing it, so it wasn’t taking most of Miles's time, but still, learning another art from the start would cost time even for Miles. Thus, Adam’s warning.

“I am sure, Uncle.” Miles nodded. He was aware of Adam’s worries and thankful for his concern, but he wasn’t going to ignore his training. He just wanted to know it so he could see if using plant-type cores was any different than working on monster cores. And if had an aptitude for it, he could start to work on Superpower serums. After all, he had yet to awaken his powers, and at some point, he had to find a solution for that.

“Alright, since you are determined.” Adam nodded and brought Miles to the psychic chair and strapped him. After choosing dozens of folders filled with his confidential theories and solutions, he was ready to transfer them to Miles’s mind.

This process wasn’t something that could be used on a whim. Miles only used it twice and in two times it strained his brain. That is why in normal cases any information uploaded in this test would be temporary. A hidden code attached to the information would carry that cluster of knowledge to will-be-removed parts of the brain to reduce the strain.

But the information Miles was gaining didn’t have that secret code, so Miles could assimilate and study them to use for himself. That was taxing his brain. That was one of the reasons for his urgent usage of the second Mind Serum.

“Are you ready?”

“I am good to go!” Miles nodded and Adam pressed the button. Information started to appear in Miles's brain, and he filtered them to sort, so he could study them chronologically. But looking through them, Miles understood why Adam was the best biologist in Unity.

His theories even before Mother AI appeared were ahead of the time. He was wondering how monsters had elemental powers, and how they could fuel with bodily energies and theorized there should have been some other element helping them grow their elemental powers. He even requested living monsters but was denied by the military.

Like his sister, he was shut off by his supervisors, and his freedom to think was limited, but when Mother AI appeared, she noticed Adam’s great mind and worked with him directly.

Adam was the first to awaken superpower in humanity, and also received the first wristwatch ever. Miles didn’t know these before, but they were noted in some texts. His scientific breakthroughs after Mother AI’s arrival were mind-blowing. After a few minutes, Miles felt his brain couldn’t take anymore, and signaled Adam to stop.

“Three minutes, twenty-three seconds.” Adam looked at the timer with his mouth agape, “You are really a monster like sis said.”

“How devastating, my mother and uncle call me a monster behind my back.” Miles faked sadness as he shook his head tiredly. Despite using a Mind Serum before, this procedure still put a toll on his mind.

“Stop it, you little beast. You already used the third strengthening serum.” He sighed and said, “You are way beyond fourth Mind Serum, but you still have to internalize the serum for a while, so you cannot use serums tout de suite.” Adam said and removed a serum from one of the drawers. He pulled the protective cover with his mouth and stabbed Miles on his vein without hesitation.

“Nice party trick.” Miles snickered as Adam rolled his eyes.