Once he arrived in the small town of Celeste, one of the greatest places for researching the various energies of the world but lacked any real industry. The last time Nathan had been here his mother had been one of the head researchers, but now she was THE head researcher. And Nathan had no doubts as to if she was deserving of the title.

Turning his gaze to his childhood home, Nathan saw that there had been some renovations. A new fountain, some pretty sculptures, and the trees seemed to be in better condition than ever. Once the car pulled in, the driver stepped out and began directing some other people to help carry in their luggage.

“Sweetie, I know you're just itching to start training but Liz and Tanya won't be ready till tomorrow. Take a day to rest and prepare. Starting tomorrow you will be training every day. Don't worry though, I’ll keep you well stocked on elixirs and such.” She said before directing him to his room. Nathan sat there for a bit thinking before setting up his game console. Reggie said he would get his own so they could play and keep in touch in the future. Playing games and wasting time till tomorrow came, Nathan rested uneasy thinking about his year training at home.

Nathan was awoken by a screaming woman shouting directions. Incoherent thoughts running through a foggy mind led to him being brutally led through his morning routine. Eventually Tanya let up after he almost choked to death on a biscuit during a rushed breakfast on the way to a training hall. Once there he was led through a series of benchmark tests to see where his physical prowess stood. Then spirit and aura tests. Which led to a few confused looks and a hushed exchange.

“Nathan what's up with your aura” Asked Liz, almost astounded.

“I used an etherium technique to make a bunch of aura, but other than that I don't know anything special about my aura. Other than it was naturally quite weak.” He explained. He did not expect to see general outrage and utter shock at such a statement.

“Your saying someone had you use some of your etherium to produce aura?” Came the next question. This time from an infuriated Tanya.

“I mean they gave me the technique, I don't know about ‘had me do it’ but I guess? And I used all my etherium so that I could finally have an aura worth something.” The fact that Liz walked away and picked up her phone finally keyed Nathan into the fact that this wasn’t a good kind of surprise. That and the fact Tanya looked ready to strangle someone.

“Nathan, do you know how valuable etherium is? Only one percent of ather can be used to make etherium. Its the primary ingredient to make cores.”

Nathan shrugged before saying “I didn't know it was the primary ingredient for cores, but is it really that useful. I can do everything a core can by myself.”

“First off, no, cores can allow you to produce insanely useful effects. Your brother Reggie uses a core to manipulate time and space to move super fast. Your mother uses a core to observe and manipulate energy on levels you couldn't hope to understand. Secondly, aura can greatly improved with raw ather. Ather wraps around a strand of aura and forms a strong rope or chain like formation around it. All your technique has done is given you a lot more strands. Which is decent but with twenty-four years of etherium? You could have created an excellent core to give you an ability that you just can't get with aura.” She explained. But she wouldn't be right. Jack wouldn't have just screwed him over right?

“I was given this technique by a high ranking fighter called Myriad, or Jack, in exchange for a soft shield aura technique. There's no way he would have tricked me. He even offered up a cultivation art that could improve my ather intake by twelve times.” He tried, but it seemed as though he could only make her more and more upset.

“The worst a cultivation art can be, and still be called a cultivation art is a ten times increase. He offered you something barely above the worst possible art. If you had taken that, there really wouldn't be any hope. You can't change a cultivation art without serious soul damage. A lack of etherium can be fixed with elixirs but sould damage is much, much harder.” And Nathan crumbled. Again and again. Even when he thought he had gotten a treasure it only turned out to be poison. Eventually Liz came back with news, apparently from his mother.

“So, change of plan. Were going to train his aura to be the most powerful aura ever. Rather than stopping he will continue to convert etherium aura. What that means is that your aura will constantly have new threads and older stronger threads. One big problem pure aura users have is memory. And Nathan has a unique chance to create new strands of aura to teach new things. Soo, lets get on with it Tanya.” She said. Tanya nodded and looked thoughtful for a moment. Nathan didn't really know what to make of it. The best aura? There was no way he would ever have the best anything.

After that they headed over to a part of the facility that was meant for weight training. Nathan was quickly set up at a weight bench with significantly more than he had ever lifted. Almost immediately he was struggling. Liz seemed not to care as she got another weight out from the rack. Wasn't he supposed to be training his-. Nathan lost all train of thought as a ten pound weight smashed into his gut, followed by an almost three hundred pound bar. As his ribs caved in he saw his two trainers simply shake their heads. Nathan groaned in agony as Tanya tilted a drink to his lips. He quickly used the essence from the elixir to heal his chest. Once capable of speech he glared at them.

“I still have wounds from being brutally beaten, and your just going to shatter my ribs like that?” He accused.

“You do not stop complaining. The elixirs you've taken healed them all. And this ones even better. Now this time your going to catch the weight with you aura. And i'm going to drop it on your balls. As motivation of course.” Said Liz. He tried to protest some more but was quickly quieted as Liz leaned in close to him.

“When your mother gave me the job of being your trainer she handed me a list. I cried reading that list, not because of what was written but because of the context. The punishments on that list are so appalling that even the least of them would drive me to practice to the bone. And the punishments are all for you if you slack off.”

Nathan didn't waste anymore time. He couldn't afford to find out what was on that list.