The Changes

As soon as Gigon declared the Ascension Age, he soon disconnected. All races, especially the intelligent races in the Universe, went into an uproar after that. That's because it didn't take long before that special energy began to reach even the most remote corners of their Universe.

Other than that was the fact that the majority didn't even know if there were more intelligent life out there in the Universe or not. Gigon's appearance, together with that energy, was the proof that most of them had been looking for.

Of course, all the races immediately began to work with that special energy. They could feel it even with their bodies, so they had to use it somehow. As for communicating with others, that was basically impossible at the moment. After all, lightspeed has been considered as the fastest thing in existence if one didn't count the expansion of the Universe itself. Simply put, it was too slow of a speed if one hoped to travel to anyone's backyard.

As one could imagine, there were very, very small exceptions. There were a few races that were lucky enough to not go extinct and were born relatively close to each other to the point where even lightspeed wasn't necessary. Once again, these instances were almost nonexistent. The majority was still too far away from each other.

In any case, a technological race immediately started all over in the Universe. All races were looking for a way to utilize this energy. From what they heard from Gigon, this new energy would probably be the solution for the mobility issues they had until now. Everyone was quite hopeful. After all, this special energy was able to cover the entire Universe in just a few weeks at most.

Using lightspeed was no good. After all, once one traveled at that velocity, time would run slower for them. That meant that the beings outside and the ones traveling would be disconnected from each other by who knows how many years. That was a huge issue.

Well, to be honest, that was the concern of lucky races. Though, there was still one huge problem for the majority of the intelligent races...they simply didn't know what to do with the energy.

One must understand that technology was a very advanced stage of a race. Chances are that a race would never develop it even if they were intelligent. Take humans, for example. They've already existed for two million years, but only in the past few hundred years did they finally begin to grasp it.

On the other hand, more than 99% of the intelligent races in the Universe were still in the medieval era. They could build houses, use fire, and things like that. Unfortunately, the discovery of technology, whatever form it might be in their planets, wasn't one of them. First of all, even if they could be considered 'intelligent,' the majority were only at a level of simple communication and basic improvements, even if the conditions were right.

Of course, it didn't take too long before all the races understood a simple principle. They could instinctively absorb that energy into their bodies. Some were quicker to grasp that idea, others not so much. Of course, it wasn't an exception for any of them.

That was just the start, though. Soon, the animals and plants of these planets began to change due to the same reason. It was obviously the 'evolution' that Gigon spoke of. Previous docile animals started to become tougher. As for those that were dangerous to start with, they became even more terrifying.

For example, back on Earth, animals like bears, tigers, lions, hippos, rhinos, and so on had become strong enough that common firearms were almost useless now. This same situation was happening everywhere in the Universe. Humans were far from being the only ones with this issue.

Humans could be considered to be lucky in this regard already. They had completely dominated their own planet. So, except for areas where humans allowed those beasts to exist, they weren't at risk of being taken over. On planets where the intelligent race was still far from dominating their planet, especially those races without advanced technology, this change made their lives into a daily game of life and death.

Of course, there were intelligent races who were better off than humans in this regard. They took control of the situation even faster. It's just that these races were extremely rare since races with technological advancements were scarce to start with.

Nevertheless, all the intelligent races had reached the same conclusion. Use the special energy to get stronger. There would come a time where it would be necessary, so they needed to be prepared.

And just like that, eleven years had passed on Earth. In the end, Earthlings named this new type of energy 'Stellar Energy' since it came from somewhere in outer space. It was a simple name but a very convenient one.

Though, it turns out that using the special energy was harder than they thought when it came to implementing it into technology. There was no equipment made for analyzing it, let alone for using it. Worst of all, all the metals and other materials that humans knew of were useless when it came to this new energy. The only thing they knew was that they could absorb it to increase their bodies' strength.

Unlike mindless animals, humans at least thought about how to use Stellar Energy. They controlled it little by little, finding out the best ways of implementing it to their bodies. Of course, another thing became clear after that. There were those who were good at it—people who simply could absorb and control this energy much better than others.

Once again, the world was made painfully aware of a word that existed shortly after the invention of words, talent! Everyone could use Stellar Energy, but only a few could make good use of it. Naturally, a new occupation was created. It was an occupation that had its own system. Humans called it the Stellar Riser!

Twenty-one years, three months, nine days, and 14 hours after Stellar Energy had appeared, a human had reached what scientists theorized to be the next level of Stellar Energy use, the Stellar Manipulation Level. Of course, humans were not the only ones. Many other races, including those without technology, began to enter a similar level as well. It's just that they named it differently.

Nevertheless, it made one thing clear for everyone. They didn't know where the limit of Stellar Energy use was, which made everyone excited. Time began to pass, and more breakthroughs continued to appear. The new generation used the experience of the old to go further.

However, that was not the only thing that changed.

With that, a new system was put into place. So far, humanity knew of two levels.

The first one was the Stellar Body Transformation Level, which improved one's body beyond normal human limits.

The second level was the Stellar Manipulation Level. At this level, humans wouldn't only be able to control the Stellar Energy inside their bodies, but they could also manifest it outside.

The third came much later and was called the Stellar Foundation Level.

As time went on, more levels were being discovered. Unfortunately, the human race still hadn't found a way to incorporate Stellar Energy into their technology. At most, they could use the existing ones to measure a Stellar Riser's development by analyzing their bodies.

However, one thousand, three hundred, and seventy-seven years later, a new discovery was made on Earth.