Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

The last one to enter, the first one to leave…

\'That was quite the interesting lecture, to say the least, but I didn\'t gain any comprehension in souls from it.\' Alex thought to himself.

He was the next one to leave the lecture hall, as he didn\'t see any benefit to interacting with the other students in the class.

Most of them were all older than him, but weaker.

Not to mention, he didn\'t feel like there was any chance of him being able to gain any comprehension into souls from listening to their experiences with it, as they all looked more clueless than him regarding the subject, save for a select few like that well endowed girl.

\'Oh well, he didn\'t really go that in depth into the subject anyway, more so just talking about his own experiences regarding the history of them, which was still interesting to hear. But it was just the introductory class anyway, I have no doubt I\'ll be able to gain comprehension later down the line when we start to get more into the details and theory.\'

***

A few minutes later, Alex returned back to his dorm, his mind refreshed after listening to Dr. Zoric\'s lecture.

He put the matter of souls aside for the time being, as there wasn\'t much he could do about it in the short term.

He couldn\'t rush into things, but he also didn\'t want to have to wait, it was quite contradictory.

\'I guess I\'ll have to focus on my other classes while I wait for next week\'s lesson.\'

Like most of the classes students took, Dr. Zoric only lectured on Soul studies once per week, per year group.

\'However, it looks like my schedule\'s clear for the rest of the day.\'

But Alex couldn\'t even attend any other classes as the first year classes still hadn\'t started yet — starting the next day.

The higher year classes started a week earlier as they didn\'t have anything like the talent, strategic assessments etc.

\'There\'s not really much for me to do with the rest of my day then, other than practising Heart of the Phoenix.\'

Unlike the last time, where he lied to Mira saying he would be practising it, this time he would be doing it for real.

If he managed to condense his energy into the first stage of the technique, then he would receive a much needed upgrade.

\'Time to start with just one finger this time…\'

***

Mira lay back on her bed, covered in sweat and exhausted, as she had just finished a practice session of her own Energy Condensing technique.

Unlike Alex, Mira had chosen a rather regular Energy Condensing technique called the Tri-organ Condensation, which focused on condensing energy into three different parts of her body, rather than one like most other techniques did.

Although the concept sounded rather special compared to Alex\'s, or all of the others that only focused on one.

But in reality, it wasn\'t that special.

By condensing energy into three organs instead of one, it put a lot less strain on her body, as the distribution of pressure was spread out.

With single organ techniques, the act of condensing all of the rampaging, chaotic energy of one\'s body into one specific area would put more strain on that area, requiring an equally strong body to withstand the increased pressure.

But with Mira, her body wasn\'t anywhere near as strong as Alex\'s, nor a lot of the newly enrolled students for that matter, so she chose something different.

The three organs method would split the condensed energy up into three parts, each connected via pathways throughout the body.

It was initially more difficult to advance to stage 1 with this method, as she\'d have to focus on moving her body\'s accumulated energy into three different areas at once instead of one, but the stages after that weren\'t so difficult.

Besides, the benefits of the Tri-organ Condensation technique were also appealing to Mira.

It offered not only balance, but a higher energy capacity, even higher than the single organ techniques offered.

\'I wonder when Alex will return…\'

Mira\'s mind drifted back to Alex, as she thought about how he was acting earlier.

She had taken the Principal\'s advice and stopped spying on him, but that didn\'t mean she wasn\'t concerned for him anymore.

Instead the concern just deepened, as she knew less now than she did before.

Her questions only increased, especially after her chat with the Principal.

\'Oh wait, he\'s already back!?\'

However, she heard movement in Alex\'s house next door, which she immediately attributed to Alex returning from his soul studies lecture.

\'Maybe I should go over and check on him…\'

Mira leapt up from her bed, her exhaustion seemingly gone as she looked energetic enough to run a marathon.

\'Ugh.\'

NovelFire-your-novel-source

But her plans of going over to Alex\'s house right away were struck down by the smell pervading her room.

Specifically, the smell she was giving off.

She was still covered from head to toe in sweat, even if her exhaustion had disappeared.

\'I should shower first… Definitely.\'

***

Half an hour later

Ding!

Alex heard his doorbell ring, which was unusual as nobody should be visiting him, considering he didn\'t know anybody well enough that they should be visiting him…

But when he went and answered it, he was surprised to find Mira on the other side of it.

"Mira? What are you doing here? Why didn\'t you just hop in through the garden, like you normally do?"

Straight away, something seemed unusual about this situation to Alex, as Mira hadn\'t bothered to ring his doorbell or even knock before, as she just prounced right into his dorm just like she did her own most of the time.

\'Wait, why did I do that?\'

Mira realised her mistake as well, but didn\'t let it show on her face.

\'Am I really that hung up over the way Alex has been acting that I resorted to knocking on his door like some courteous visitor?\'

Mira was confused by her own actions.

"Uhh, I just didn\'t know if you were home or not, so I thought I\'d check by ringing the doorbell, hehe."

That was a lie, of course she knew he was home.

"Oh."

Alex didn\'t seem to put much thought into it anyway, to Mira\'s relief.

After the awkward few seconds at the door passed, Mira entered, her eyes darting back to Alex\'s face from time to time.

She was trying to see if she could discern any details of how Alex\'s lecture went from the way he acted, which… worked?

In a way, it did work.

She noticed immediately that Alex was acting much more normal now, which compared the previous night, was a drastic change.

He looked like a fanatic with the way he was researching souls.

"I didn\'t see you this morning, did you go somewhere?" Mira asked.

\'Uhh, what do I tell her…\'

Alex wasn\'t sure how to explain it.