Chapter 3 - Required Knowledge is Required

 'I now have more than 10 times the money than I've ever had before.' Veil thought, his emotions akimbo.

He was kicking himself in the butt for not opening the box in his last life. While it probably wouldn't be the same, it was most likely the same idea: inheritance. His account had 150,000FAD in it. Then again, Julian would have still taken it from him...

'Julian.' Veil thought bitterly. 'Once I'm powerful enough, you will see.'

A second notification popped up on his phone. "Subject Verification has been added for house, 'Home.' User 'Sender' now has access to security footage and alerts."

'Sweet.' Veil thought. 'Now I have the power to see if Julian stops by.' His plans were firm. He needed to escape from Julian. He picked up the concealment ring to see how it worked, and put it on his right index finger. It fit perfectly.

It was golden with a blue gemstone. He walked back to the upstairs bathroom and looked in the mirror. "I'm invisible." ...His thoughts left his mouth.

'Well, in this case, I might as well find my way to the college. If I hop on the right bus I can get there before Julian knows it. If I find the professor, I might be able to hide there.'

Julian began to pack his bag and left for his appointment with the professor. While he didn't have any knowledge of this version of earth, he planned on using the phone to cheat. Besides, college is easy if you pay the right people.

He used his phone to find the details for the right bus. There was one arriving nearby that could take him to the college that left in about 45 minutes. He stuffed clothes, water bottles, and some food into his phone's storage space, then got ready to leave the house.

He set the security settings to alert him if anyone came near the house and promptly left it. He then set the house to ultra-lockdown mode, and trudged the road to destiny.

A little while later, a bus appeared at the stop. Logically speaking, it wasn't a bus. It was a giant trailer with tire treads and an electro-slime in the center. But the logo said, "friendly family bus company" and the bus had a cute panda on the side so he was ready to get in.

There was somebody else already waiting, so he didn't take the ring off. The driver opened the door and he slipped right in. He sat towards the back- it would give him room if anyone tried to sit in his seat. The bus was designed to work 24/7 and went in a giant loop throughout the entire metro. There were other buses that went backwards along the same route. While he was sitting there doing nothing, he decided to refresh himself on the differences of this world versus his own. 'First: History of the World' He thought, as he began to command Nano through his phone's command line interface (CLI).

"The Freedom Alliance consists of 72 states in the Northern Freelands..."

Eventually he got the gist of it. Firstly, he wasn't on Earth. He was on a planet called Faera. Secondly, the United States of America wasn't in the Americas. It was in the Freelands. History was mostly the same, except the U.S. managed to annex Canada, as well as several nearby islands. As such it became a much bigger. Because there was so much land, the government began to encourage multiple marriages. The higher up you went in society, the more it became the norm.

"While I am against marrying the wrong person, I am not necessarily against marrying multiple people. As long as I love them with all I am, and they return the same, it's a good thing, right?"

Veil thought about the woman he missed. This time, he might have a shot at winning her hand. If it was her, she was all he needed.

The history lesson continued. Originally, he was from his Earth's Omaha, Nebraska. His family moved from Omaha to Oklahoma City. On Earth, there were two major colleges in Oklahoma. Oklahoma University, and Oklahoma State University. On Faera, There was no such thing as Oklahoma. There was only, "The Crossover Lands." The great metropolis in the center was renamed to, "Crossover City."

Most of the area in Oklahoma is a sample of the nearby geography. Similarly, the Crossover Lands contained a bunch of different biomes sitting right next to each other. Swamps, Desert, Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Plains, Forest, Grasslands, Dunes, Rocky areas, and more besides. Because of the Great Collision in 1939, this land became a hallmark for studying different beasts.

As such, what was once a small college popped up and subsumed the area. Its name is the Golden Alliance College.

The Great Collision was basically World War II. World War 1 had just happened, Shortly after, the world began to rampantly fill with much more ki. Eventually, portals began opening up all over Faera, There were already similar portals, but they were spatial instances made by spatial-ki users and beasts on Faera. They could build their own space and leave it as an inheritance for the next generation, or for private use. Over time, they could produce treasures foreign to the main world.

The new portals, however, led to fully-fleshed out small worlds. Each one had an archetype matching the surrounding area. However, they would come with items, beasts, and laws foreign to the area around them. Eventually, the portals began to leak out into the surrounding area. Once the portals fully matched the area around them, the world would assimilate the small world in full.

Because of this, the world began to fight around the new small worlds, taking what they could before others could use them. Europe went into complete turmoil and war began to touch the entire world.

Nowadays, the Golden Alliance College had become one of the most popular colleges in the entire Alliance. While it was missing some of the major portal types, the sheer number that did exist locally opened up the possibility of collaboration. As such, GAC students could reach as many portals as they desired- as long as they had enough merit points, that is.

While World War II gave the Golden Alliance College its prominence, the much more disturbing part of history was the American Civil War. Traditionally on Earth, it was primarily known as the fight against slavery. However, on Faera it served a very different purpose.

There were two coalitions on the Freelands: what was once North America mostly belonged to the Freedom Alliance, while a lower portion of what was once the United States and Central America belonged to the corrupted Shadow Union. These two groups were constantly at war, but even then there were those who intermingled between the two sides. The atrocities done in the name of justice broke many homes on both sides of the war. Looking at the impartial facts given him by Nano, Veil found himself pondering which ideology is truly right. 'Is it right to show my darkness as an ally of light? Is light light and darkness truly darkness?' Little did Veil know that it remains true throughout the ages of history: that even when an answer to this particular question is found, the question yet remains. 

After studying the new geographical map for a while, he began to feel more comfortable with it and moved onto other knowledge. "Give me knowledge on the Spirit Awakening process, Spirit Cultivation, and Spirit Beasts." He typed in to Nano's CLI.

"Spirit Awakening is the process of becoming a Spirit Awakener. Spirit Awakeners are humans who awaken their Spirit Ki, but Spirit Masters are the ones who use that Ki to contract Spirit Allies. Normally, one awakens by filling their body with Ki until they can sense and hold it inside of them. In this world, most will naturally awaken around the age of 16 years old. Some do it faster or slower, and some not at all. For those who need to awaken but haven't done so yet, they can go to a Government-recognized location and use an Awakening Stone.

At your awakening, your awakening will grant you an affinity or a special mutation. Each affinity/mutation is given to the user by means of the awakening stone itself and the destiny of the awakener. While there are awakening stones that can give an awakener a higher chance of obtaining a specific mutation (or affinity), some awakeners are most likely prone to starting with a 0% chance of obtaining what the stone can offer them. Simply put, a 60% chance times zero still indeed equals zero.

Their affinity decides which pets they are most likely to bond with- a standard tier 0 Grass Skirt Rat led by a tier 1 man with a rat king affinity will dance in circles around a tier 1 Abyss-Footed Rat whose owner has a fire affinity. However, if the owner of the Abyss-Footed Rat can evolve it to the Nether-Striding Rat, which is Tier 3 Nether Fire-type, and the Grass Skirt Rat evolves to Tier 3 as well, the rats will be a much more even match. However, since the Grass Skirt's master uses a Rat KING affinity, it will give him a more major buff. There are advanced affinities, such as nether fire, rat king, dragon emperor, black diamond-ice, etc.

Affinities can include fire, water, earth, air, and metal, but they go much further than the five elements. Also included is weather, thunder, sun, moon, sword, spear, halberd, fog, poison, machine, calculation, blast, dragon, and so much more! There are affinities to as many things as are on the earth.

Mutations are... different. While they aren't physical mutations, they can cause physical mutations. More specifically, they are mutations of the soul. For example, there exists a "calculation" affinity. The affinity exists for an extremely rare type of spirit contract: spirit beasts that can calculate things. For example, a Spirit Abacus. In the past, it was used mostly for logisticians, scientists. strategists, and city planners. In the modern era, this rarer affinity has given rise to an extreme use on the edge of battle. Calculus-affinity awakened spirit masters who have machine-type beasts offer a boost to computation ability!

But there also exists a "calculation" mutation. With it, the awakened spirit master gains a much enhanced ability to calculate. The logical side of their brain doesn't get bigger per say, but it does get much enhanced. Brain matter that once took up 3 computational units now only requires 1%! The magical nature of this is plain to see. There are also other mutations, such as 'Become Elemental,' 'Increased Eyesight,' 'Enhanced Soul Senses,' 'Lightning Speed,' and more!

Everybody starts with their innate affinity. At their first awakening, they gain an additional affinity, or a special mutation. Every 3 great stages another awakening occurs and the ki type changes. Starting at spirit ki, then lord ki. We have also found another type of ki, pure ki. However, there are very few user of pure ki in the entirety of Faera. In the small worlds that collide with Faera, we have come across several civilizations that also have a limit on their awakening levels based on the quality of ki in their world. Based on this assumption, there may be more types of Ki than the three known to our world.

Soul contracts contract spirit allies. While spirit beasts are the primary mention, they can also contract other creatures. We'll start with spirit beasts. Spirit beasts start out as regular beasts. Once regular beasts awaken, they become spirit beasts. Spirit beasts are unlike awakeners.

When an awakener awakens, he or she will still need to eat, sleep, and poop, albeit at a reduced rate. The further they cultivate, the less these needs are required. As for spirit beasts, they no longer need to sleep. They will always be healthy, and sickness will no longer affect them. They receive their needs from Heaven and Faera itself. As for food; it is not required either. However, many breeders and Beast Holders will feed their beasts special spirit foods to induce evolution. 

Beasts have multiple ways of moving forward on the path of cultivation. there is bloodline regression- finding in one's bloodline the power of the most powerful ancients, and also bloodline evolution - taking the powerful attributes of the most powerful for one's self. While these are the most basic principles, the way that these can be utilized exists in a myriad of forms. For example, there are spirit foods, spirit minerals, spirit flames, etc. Sometimes these evolution materials can even become pets themselves!

Once spirit beasts gain a higher degree of spirit cultivation, they will have a potential chance to give that same cultivation to their offspring. The higher the cultivation gets, the more likely the cultivation will transfer. However: the higher the sprit beasts' cultivation, the smaller the chance of reproduction gets. This has been a long-standing problem for breeders, and it is why there are so many breeding bases on Faera.

Simply put, spirit masters evolve by cultivating their ki. In turn, their beasts can use their accumulated Ki to move forward as well; however, it is much faster path to strength to evolve them towards a more powerful beast!

Not all contracted spirit allies are beasts, though. While there are many beasts included as creatures, such as fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, etc, there are also other variations. For example, if an honoured sword accumulates a lot of ki, it can awaken its own spirit and become a spirit sword! And yet the same exists with even an ordinary garden rake. This phenomenon occurs all across the globe. There is also a rare special mutation that some awakeners possess, called "Awakening Transmission Body." It allows spirit masters to use their own spirit ki to awaken anything they want!

In fact, while spirit machine-type pets did exist, it wasn't until a few key awakeners with the "Awakening Transmission Body" created the Machine Technology Awakening Association (MTA) that Machine-type became more common. Once they created aptly named Spirit Factories, a portion of the spirituality of the Factory was pushed into the products, creating the possibility for the more recent wave of machine-type Spirit Ally Masters.

For those who awaken their spirits, there are different tiers of their awakenings. Each Tier, or Great Stage, has 9 minor stages. Every great stage allows for an additional contract slot, and as previously mentioned every 3 great stages changes the type of ki that the awakened spirit master uses.

Tier 0 is for the unawakened. This is also known as the Spirit Ki Formation Stage. In this stage, you have your innate affinity; however, it's pointless to test as you still need to reach the Spirit Ki Holder stage before you can contract a beast. This great stage has 9 minor stages, but they can also be skipped with the use of an awakening stone. This is the only stage that has no detrimental effects for doing so.

Once you become awakened, you reach Tier 1. Tier 1 is the Ki Holder stage. During this stage, your Ki can be held inside the body, and you can naturally grow yourself by absorbing the Ki from the world around you. During this stage the awakener can absorb Ki at the max capacity of their small stage. However, they will lose Ki over time as their bodies are not yet ready to fully hold it. You can also make your first soul contract. 

Tier 2 is the Spirit Ki Warrior stage. In this stage, the body of a spirit master can fully hold Ki, and their entire body will become a repository for it. They can also control the ki to not wander around outside of their bodies. These spirit masters can also use their affinity-enhanced ki to solidify the attributes of their bodies whilst fighting an opponent. They also gain a second soul contract at this time.

Tier 3 is the Ki Magician stage. While a spirit master or spirit beast is in this stage, they can take their ki and use it to attack those around them- outside of their bodies. Ki magicians can also attune their ki attacks to their affinities and the ki types of their pets to maximize their attacks' quality, quantity, and more importantly, form.

Tier 4 is the Lord Ki Commander Stage. When commencing to this great stage, awakeners' spirit ki changes to lord ki, which is about 4 times more powerful than spirit ki. In this stage, the awakener awakens a second time and no longer requires sleep. Sickness no longer affects them, either. More importantly, however, they open up a spiritual space inside their bodies. The aim of this stage revolves around strengthening the spiritual space and attuning it to both one's spiritual companions and their affinities. 

Tier 5 is the Lord Ki King Stage. King Stage spirit masters are given the ability of soul sense, and can manipulate soul ki. Their soul senses have a deep affinity with the strength of their small world space. In this stage, spirit masters focus on the development of their small world. Using soul ki, they can bring in things from outside their small world soul space into the soul space itself. The more ki brought in, the better. However, bringing in objects more powerful than the spirit master's cultivation can break the world, and in turn, the spirit master's cultivation.

Tier 6 is the Lord Ki Emperor Stage. In the Emperor Stage, spirit masters have enough ki to fly without any means other than one's self. During this stage, Emperor awakeners can use the power of laws, both to supplement their battle techniques and their soul spaces.

Tier 7 is the Purity Ki Saint Stage. When commencing to this stage, awakeners' lord ki becomes purity ki, which is roughly 8 times as strong. The goal of this stage is to purify the Soul Space. By separating and strengthening the laws, affinities, and ecosystem of a spirit master's soul space, a spirit master can gain a deeper understanding of the soul space itself. After separating them into parts, they regather them as a whole. After everything is back together, they can duplicate, mix and match the different parts to grow their world. 

Tier 8 is the Purity Saint King Stage. In this stage, one turns their soul space into a spherical world. The growth of this stage is based on the laws used. Some laws, while few, make much stronger worlds than other spirit masters can create by the mere merit of their compatibility. 

Tier 9 is the Purity Saint Emperor stage. To the knowledge of the Freedom Alliance, not one person on Faera has accomplished this stage. As such, there is no information on it."