Kaden stood up. While he was bruised and had probably suffered some internal damage, to him it wasn’t too big of a problem. Sadge, if he had been a true opponent, could have easily killed him, but did not.

“...sir, what exaclty are these techniques and how do they work”, Kaden asked. He wanted to know the basic idea. Perhaps he would be able to learn too and adjust them to his own needs. “Since, you decided to make a show of it, then might I get at least an explanation?”

“Where you are going, you are probable learning even better one’s eventually”, Sadge replied and then started explaining Kaden a bit about the technique. “As for these, the movement skill is called Split Being, you use mana with concept of ‘what if’, so to speak. Such mana would usually be unusable, but this is a simplification of the true deep mana that is far beyond us, concept of superposition, which was once discovered from a remnant of the ancients. Truly clever bastards. They were able to think of something like that with no magic. Anyway, as long as I stick to two or three posibilities I can be in any of them, if they are within one action such as step or jump. As in, what if I took step to left or what if I took step to right? Also can’t involve you directly, since I cannot control your actions.”

What the… Kaden knew mana could make lot of thing possible, but this was not even something tanglible, like fire, force or such things. If he understood it correctly, Sadge could be in several places at the same time. The possiblities entered Kaden’s mind.

“Sure it has a weakness I already hinted at”, Sadge pointed out. “The possiblities multiply mana and control required. Two is fine. Three already is pushing it. Four and you start getting overlapping possibilities and thats a problem. Beyond that would require probably a True Magus and trust me, they got better techniques. Yet, as for our fight, all you rush to single target in front of you. There was no way you could ever hit me.”

“I see, this is useful”, Kaden replied. “I can learn this and become unstoppable within my own cultivation range.”

Sadge had a laughter. “Yeah, right. As for the fighting technique. Its nothing unusual. You might have ran into people who have pretty movements, but thats still just using their own body and ability like a common martial arts would. What if you incorporated magic technique to it? Not just using your mana enhanced body like most would? Its nothing fancy like the Split Being, just mana enchanced twitch movements to increase speed and ‘reverberate’ concept to cause extra damage. Its less of a concern than movement technique. You should be eventually making your own fighting technique. In fact I think you already have basic ideas that you just dont use right. Those mana claws and you can use fire, but you dont put them to use. Think of something. You are supposedly a genius.”

This sergeant Sadge was probably a veteran. Why was he teaching some trash tier weaklings? Could it be that he found it fun? Did Nelsen bring him here for a reason? This specific place? No… none of that mattered at this point. Right now Kaden wanted to learn these skills. He had thought he was very good at fighting. Yet, probably all the gangsters were probably low tier at best, if they were working in the lower layers.

Kaden sighed. Again, in Dashire he thought Channel Opening was strong. In Corand he thought his opponents were the real level. Wrong! WRONG! They are all trash.

Military would obviously not want trash so, in this place he would learn the right way. The true power level.

Sadge walked out of the arena and Kaden came behind him soon after.

“As you can see, an elite is still trash, if you do not know what you are doing!” Sadge shouted at the ‘audience’. “If he is trash, so are you! Do not be trash!”

Kaden felt it was good idea to do whatever Sadge said. This involved mostly Sadge choosing to use Kaden for all kinds of demonstrations. Its not like it was constructive to have Kaden swing a sword since he didn’t even use sword as a weapon nor was he going to. So instead it was best to use him to teach lessons to everyone else and while at it he himself would get a lesson, usually of fighting or something else.

Once daily training was over, recruits had some free time. This time was supposed to be used for eating, cultivating and other such matters. He followed everyone to what was apperently a bunk house. There he was able to choose one of the unused spots. Luckily there were no one else in that particular room.

Kaden was planning on cultivating as usual, but there were some problems he had noted. His core was still condensing and he couldn’t tell how long that would be going on. In fact, it had been slightly difficult to control along the day. He hoped there was nothing wrong with it and everything occuring was natural. He was also somewhat concerned about disturbing whatever was happening and this included using his mana system either.

His thoughts were interrupted, though.

“Hey new kid!” Said one the younger recruits that had appeared at the door to his room. Kaden did not know his name or really even care. He was with group of others. “Your fights with Sadge were awesome! We thought maybe you want to come with us and we’ll show you the places around here!”

Kaden frowned and planned to tell the losers, good for nothing but being cannon fodder, to simply fuck off. Yet, before he said anything, he thought maybe they could indeed show him around. They have been around the military layer longer than he had. They could be used.

If he had doubts about interacting with his core, he could take some time to think of it a bit longer. While it a small exploration trip would be useful.

“Fine, I’ll come with you”, Kaden told them. He didn’t really like interacting with people, but it seemed they were taking the lead and he was perfectly fine following them and observing.

Kaden had some difficulties about being social, so he generally just followed everyone, only answering their questions, but being otherwise silent. No one thought this odd.

He had seen some along the way when Nelsen brought him in, but the group of young recruits seemed to know ways that might otherwise have been easily gone unnoticed. While the entire military layer was prepared to be internal defense line and housed all kind of military facilities, there were some less militaristic parts too. It seemed people always liked to drink, so there were the usual taverns. They were cleaner and more organized than most others he had seen before. Not only that, they looked like they could be turned into fortifications on moments notice.

Kaden had half expected them to stop there, since younger people liked to often drink and have fun. He had seen this already back in Dashire. Yet they continued on their way with the recruits only telling Kaden that there was a tavern that was better than the rest.

He was slightly surprised at the moment he realized he was being led towards yet another inner gate leading into the fourth layer. He wondered for a moment what business they could have there. It was place for richer merchants and lower nobles.

He soon got an answer when they noticed Kaden’s surprise. It seems it wasn’t so clear cut and there were somewhat less lucrative areas if you knew where to look. The group did seem to know exactly where they were going and from the looks, it seemed not all of them were quite as excited as the rest. Apparently the one guy who was leading, the one who had talked to Kaden, wanted to go to that specific tavern and the others were slightly reluctant due to a bit higher prices. They had still decided to come along, though.

As soon as the group walked in through a door into the tavern, it became clear why.

“I see you have brought your friends again, Desti”, said a woman’s voice and a waitress appeared.

“I’ll take any excuse to come see you, Connie!” Answered Desti with a happy voice. “My training is progressing well and soon I am strong enough to hold a position. At that time we can be truly together!”

“Hehehe, Desti, you are always being so strong!” Connie said with a sweet voice. “I’ll look forward to it!”

Kaden felt somewhat annoyed that he had to watch this foolish act go on. The group sat down in a corner where they could order drinks and eat. For a moment Kaden almost decided to not have any part of it, but then stayed after all. There was the matter of learning to socialize and appear normal. That could raise his image and allow him to gain benefits.

Still, it was almost physically painful to Kaden to pretend normal and observe the entire thing happen. That fool, Desti, was completely enamored. The others clearly noticed this too and kept their coin purses tighter, while the woman, Connie, basically fleeced money from Desti who happily went along with it. The other waitresses in the tavern also wanted to take part of the money these foolish young soldiers brought in. Even knowing what was going on, the others still bought more things they really wanted to. Except Kaden.

“When will it end!” Kaden almost screamed in his mind. He had to pretend to be like the others while being tormented in such a way. “How is this even working? Are they stupid? These women aren’t even particularly interesting!”

There was this annoying buzz in his mind that Kaden also tried to ignore. It must have been rising blood presure from the constrained disgust as the waitresses tried to flirt with him so the would hand out his money too! As far as Kaden cared none of them were even acceptable partners. He felt true flirting would be to incinerate the entire area, puffing up and showing his strength. They didn’t even have feathers or beatiful plume to show off!

“What is that buzzin anyway?” Kaden groaned in his mind. “Perhaps I should truly burn this place down to make it stop.”

Despite everything, he supressed that desire. Still the buzzing continued.

Actually, what was the buzz? Kaden’s mind suddenly cleared. He could not determine what the buzz was or where it came from. It did not seem like a sound. He extended mana to sense more carefully, but could not detect anything. Somehow he just felt it. Now that he noticed it, the buzz didn’t seem so annoying anymore. It was just there. Coming from nowhere.

Kaden remained still. It would look odd, if he suddenly stood up and went to look for something.

It was extremely difficult to concentrate on the feeling. If he did, he suddenly slipped and noticed he was thinking and concentrating on something else entirely. Kaden gritted his teeth and decided to come look for it later once he could so unseen. It was clearly something unusual and it seemed no one else had noticed anything. Perhaps they were just too concentrated on other matters to notice, but Kaden doubted that. They were just idiots and it was unlikely they could even sense whatever he was sensing.

What could it be that he senses, but no one else seemed to? Perhaps it was something entirely normal and those whose strength reached high enough could detect it, if they wanted to?

At this time of the waitresses noticed Kaden.

“Oh dearie, would you like to buy some of our famed dishes?” Asked the waitress, interrupting Kaden’s thought process.

“I… I, uh… no, I have had enough”, Kaden said calmly, feeling somewhat annoyed again as he had to pretend to be nice. What was it again that he had been just thinking? These fools and their money wasting and these swindlers? Yes that was it.

Kaden spent a few hours with the group and made the move to leave immediately as he could when others had finally had enough. The torment was over!

Half of the group were slightly tipsy and the rest mourning for their lost money. Kaden was the only one who had survived uscathed!

“Now listen to me”, Kaden said with a clear matter-of-factly voice to the to group with his hands behind his back. He gazed upon rest of the group with a sharp gaze. “I will kill you, painfully, if you ever bring me to this place again.”

The others looked at Kaden silently.

“Do you understand?” Kaden continued.

He got quick and clear nods from everyone. After that Kaden decided to return to the bunk house to observe his core some more. As he walked alone he sighed deeply as he realized he would have to learn all this socializing and acting like normal people. Was it truly necessary.

These were the thoughts in Kaden’s head. As for the buzzing? He seemed to have forgotten that entirely.