A bald man squatting on the ground carefully poked a needle into a hide of leather resting atop a tree stump. Inky black tattoos which appeared much like the diagrams Solera had seen on Chip’s talismans covered his pale skin. He was impossibly muscular, and his every movement carried a sense of great force behind it.

“You can call me Skadi.” The man turned to face them, revealing pupils as black as the tattoos that covered every visible part of his body. Even his face and cheeks were crisscrossed with the strange symbols. Chip gazed at the man with extreme interest, but Solera was still too angry to pay any attention to the proceedings.

“Today, I will be measuring your cultivation levels and power purity.” Skadi spoke in a gravelly voice, walking up and down the line of people. “This way, you free variables can be properly divided into appropriate groups for battle. If any of you wish to be assigned to a specific battalion, speak up now.”

Solera snapped out of his thoughts in surprise. He, a child of merely thirteen years of age, was being assigned to a battalion? He looked at Chianti in confusion. Chianti smiled back and shook her head, indicating that Solera should not speak up.

Obediently, Solera kept silent. So did everyone else.

“No objections, hm?” Skadi smiled, revealing sharpened teeth, covered in glistening fluid. “Very well then. First person, step up.”

A woman with long brunette hair stepped forward as Skadi motioned for a soldier to pick up a pencil and paper.

“Name?” Skadi asked as he grabbed her hand and placed it on top of the leather.

“Juna.” The woman spoke flatly.

“Juna, hm?” Skadi positioned the needle onto her arm. “Age?”

“Eighteen.”

“Juna, you need to cut your hair, it’s --very--” The needle poked into her arm, going a centimeter deep before Skadi pulled it back out. “bad for combat.”

Skadi casually wiped the blood off the needle, motioning for the next person to step up.

“You are class two.” Skadi said coolly. “For your frame of reference, that leather is from a Sundan bull. Their toughness is around class one hundred. Not bad, I would say, for a civilian like you. Now, you. Name?”

The cultivation test proceeded smoothly. Solera wondered how Skadi would be able to precisely judge the cultivation level. Was he actually able to put the same amount of force into each needle stab, for each person? Surely, this was only an approximate judgment!

“Name and age?”

“Chip, fifteen.”

“Class four, young lad. What the hell are you eating?” Skadi laughed, clapping Chip on the back.

Chip shrugged. “Just pills.”

“Heh, you must be rich, although I wouldn’t actually know.” Skadi chortled, motioning for Solera to step forward.

“Solera, thirteen.” Solera muttered before Skadi could ask.

“Thirteen? What’s a baby like you doing here?” Skadi smiled indifferently as he grabbed his hand and placed it onto the leather, before freezing up. The hand was lifted up again for Skadi to peer at.

“E-excuse me, sir?” Solera stammered.

For an instant, Skadi’s black pupils seemed to have a faint green glow in their center. But when Solera focused his gaze on them, it was gone.

“Nothing.” Skadi seemed highly amused by something. The needle suddenly pierced into Solera’s hand, seemingly without any resistance whatsoever. Solera stared at it withdrew, leaving nothing but a minute hole where it had pierced him.

“Class eleven.” Skadi said coolly. “Make sure to get that down correctly, boy.” He waved a hand at the soldier recording all the information. “Eleven, not one.”

Solera returned to his place in line, perplexed by Skadi’s inscrutable actions. After a minute, Skadi had finished determining everyone’s cultivations. The majority of the soldiers were in their early twenties, and were class four or five. A few were class nine or ten. The older ones scored much higher, generally class fifteen to class twenty. One man in his sixties clocked in at class forty, which astonished everyone, including Skadi.

Solera did not know his cultivation level until now, but he knew how the system worked. Every class was ten percent stronger than the previous one! The man was still very far off from the level of a Sundan bull, but he was leagues ahead of the other soldiers. The amount of effort and resources he must have expended on cultivating over the sixty years of his life must have been immense.

This was because cultivation grew exponentially harder as one progressed. After all, it was the resistance the body had against a penetrating force, such as the needle! To halve the piercing power, one would have to double the amount of their cultivation. To reduce the piercing power from fifty percent, to twenty-five percent, one would have to quadruple. To go from twenty five percent to twelve and a half percent, one would have to cultivate eight times the amount!

Increasing defense by ten percent, over and over again, became incredibly hard as one progressed. To have a cultivation of class forty was no small feat.

“You all now know your latent cultivation levels.” Skadi said smoothly. “Remember that when you channel power into your body, your defense can explosively increase for a short amount of time. Most of you will be able to quintuple your cultivation, some more, some less. Never forget about this, it can save your life!”

Skadi walked back to Juna. “Juna, channel something out.” He spoke, grabbing her wrist and holding it out to the tree stump.

“What do I channel?” Juna asked, confused. “Fire?”

“Yeah, that would be fine.” Skadi said.

A flamestream poured out of her hands. Skadi stared intently at Juna’s wrists.

“You can stop now.” Skadi let go of her hands. “Density is 142 Iotas, Juna. You may not be a cultivator, but you are certainly a channeler, hah.”

Juna smiled. “Farm work, sir.”

“Must be excruciating.” Skadi amiably waved the next person forward. “Uh, unlike the cultivation classes, many people seem to be unfamiliar with power purity. Chianti, please.”

Chianti dazzled Solera’s eyes with her smile. “Power purity is equivalent to its density, everyone. As you all know, the Iota is a unit of power, and power takes the forms of various plasmas once it is channeled out from your Lake. What the power purity does, is measure how many Iotas are condensed into a single, tiny thing, called a packet.”

Chianti scratched her head. “I’m not too clear on the details myself, but basically the power purity measures how many Iotas can be squeezed into a single packet. The higher it is, the denser the power, and the more energetic the channeling attack. You all get the basic idea, right? Bigger is better.”

She winked slyly at the crowd. “I’ll have you all know that I’m an important person, with a purity of 329!”

Skadi just snorted. “This woman thinks she is some sort of hotshot. Bah, you are only qualified to be important if your purity is over five thousand!”

“How is that even possible?” Chianti demanded, a disbelieving expression on her face. “I’d like to find a single person with that kind of purity in all of Land!”

“Heh, they should be fairly uncommon in Land.” Skadi smiled. “180, my man. Keep working on it.”

Chip had a purity of 132. Most people were around that range, but Solera…

His purity was a mere forty-six.

Solera stared glumly at his wrists. Perhaps Vinoh should have had him practice channeling more. It was always about cultivation, exercise, swordplay. His cultivation wasn’t even that high, compared to that class forty person.

“Hey, don’t get too down.” Skadi called out to him. “All it takes is practice!”

After they were finished, they were released.

“Expect your battalion assignments within a few hours.” Skadi spoke, his friendly voice growing cold. “In this crisis, everyone must work together, be they civilian, soldier, or even a child. These United Duchies soldiers are ruthless beyond measure. I’m sure everyone has heard about what happened to Fortress Hickory.”

Solera’s gaze instantly darkened. Immediately, Chianti was by his side, patting his shoulder.

“Lighten up, kiddo.” Chianti sighed. “You and Chip are going to stick with me and a few others. That way, I can best ensure your safeties. If Vinoh’s son died on my watch, what would I say to him?”