Lance's uniqueness

Attok took a deep breath as he sorted out his thoughts to give the best explanation to Lance.

"Invincible Earth is the last barrier defending our mother Earth from all threats. The universe is occupied by many beings who came into being millions or even in some cases billions of years before us. Some of those beings target earth for various reasons. It is the duty of Invincible Earth to protect Earth from outside threats and let humanity progress on its own path.

For this purpose, a selection is held every year for new candidates. Their places on the Earth are replaced by soul imprint driven constructs so as not to disturb the order of things. The candidates must satisfy a few conditions in order to be selected. In the process that you were selected, the conditions were that you must be a descendant of the founding members and that you must be in strong dissonance with the world that you see.

You satisfied the conditions, so you were selected for a test that would push you to your limit, thus awakening your intrinsic nature.

Intrinsic nature is the core of a being. It is this nature that becomes a deciding factor in their decisions, their actions and even their thoughts. Intrinsic natures can be of various types, with the most common being personality traits.

The goal of finding your intrinsic nature is to assess your ability and potential for cultivation."

Before Attok could continue, he was amazed to find Lance holding his suit and looking up at him with gleaming eyes and a crazed look on his face.

"Really? We can cultivate?", asked Lance with that frenzied look.

To be frank, this was what Lance was looking forward to since finding himself in this strange environment. The possibility of growing stronger. Even though he had experienced Attok's powers, he still needed this confirmation that his wildest dreams would finally come true.

"Yes, we can cultivate.", said Attok as he extracted himself from Lance's arms.

"Cultivation is the process of converting oneself into a high energy being. In essence, it is the transformation of your self and soul into a higher being. It has many paths in many cultures but by the unending sacrifices and toil of generations of IE researchers, the standard cultivation process has been perfected. It gives you the path towards becoming a Legend, like me. The powers that I transferred to you during the test were only a fraction of the total power a Legend wields."

Lance instantly began fantasizing about flying through the air with the blonde he had seen in the pod. It was puzzling why the blonde had appeared in his imagination suddenly, but Lance just attributed it to his hormones.

"Now, getting back to the topic at hand. The intrinsic nature of a being decides the overall strength or ability of one who is following the path. Think of it as the difference between as the gun into which a bullet is being loaded into. The same bullet can travel faster and penetrate deeper if it were fired by a rifle instead of a handgun."

"Cultivation is all about energy. We absorb energy from the universe, first using that energy to build a foundation in us which can house the energy. As we improve and transform this foundation step by step, we grow stronger. Your intrinsic nature decides where you are the handgun or the rifle. In other words, it decides the amplification that energy can go through when it is refined by you."

"Now, coming to our present predicament. The test can only be passed by utilizing your intrinsic nature, either by amplifying the energy given to you by your ancestor through realization, or by the activation of the intrinsic nature unconsciously to save yourself. The latter happens most often.

In your case, you used your nature in the last millisecond before the test ended. Either due to this or the peculiar status of your nature, it was not detected by the system. This is what caused the anomalous condition. With the improvements of the system year on year, it is almost impossible for it to be the second case."

"For the first case to happen, a nature that has not been seen yet must appear. And that is why I am so proud of you! Over the ages, countless initiates have come and gone. In the beginning, such cases were common. Now, it is so rare that it almost always elicits a response from the highest commanding officer! And what is incredible that in your batch, not just one but three anomalous conditions have popped up! This is simply unprecedented in most peoples memory and the whole of IE is abuzz with the news."

Attok suddenly bent down to tie his shoelaces and in doing so coincidentally leaned close to Lance's year. "Quick, tell me what it is. Later on, it might become the most confidential of information.", he whispered.

Lance stared at the old man dubiously. He had been searching through his memories and feeling his body to sense that nature which sounded so special, but so far he had had no luck. As he was becoming frustrated and worried that maybe it was just a fault by the system, he saw the old man bending to tie perfectly tied shoes.

He really wished he could kick this lecherous ancestor of his in his ancestral privates right that moment.