Levi left the rest of the new crew behind. He held the plate of chicken soup, which now felt heavy and problematic, and walked through the back door toward the reception area, which was the only way to find Emi or exit the training room.

He found Ms. Vivian, the administrative head, sitting behind the counter. After a brief nod in greeting, Vivian's eyes drifted downward to the full plate of soup in Levi's hands.

A knowing smile touched her lips. "Miss Emi is upstairs on the second floor". She said.

Levi felt a flush of embarrassment at being caught unable to finish the meal. He gave Vivian a short nod and quickly headed for the staircase.

'At least it's better than what is going to happen to the rest of them'. Before Levi left, the rest of his crew were already forcing the soup down their throat.

Maybe because they didn't want to seem rude by returning food, or of they were just shy. But Levi have metal knowledge of the story. He already knew how they would turn out.

A state of overdose.

He found Emi on the second floor, standing in the open doorway of the kitchen. She had tied on her apron again and was busy kneading dough on a large wooden counter.

Sensing someone behind her, Emi turned around and saw Levi holding the full plate of chicken soup. She gave a knowing smile.

"I see... Too much?". She asked gently.

Levi simply nodded in return. Emi then looked thoughtfully at the dough she was kneading before turning back to him.

"I'm really busy right now. Why don't you help me turn the leftovers into pills?". Without waiting for Levi's answer, she brought out a flat wooden surface.

The surface was covered with numerous small depressions, each shaped exactly like a pill.

She handed it to Levi, then pointed toward a device that looked like a regular microwave. "Pour part of the soup onto the board, then place it in the microwave. Turn it backwards... You can do that, right?".

".... Yes, I can". Levi replied, a strange, slightly annoyed expression on his face. 'What do you mean "you can do that, right?" Do I look that unreliable?'. He grumbled internally for a moment before starting the task.

Levi first placed the wooden surface on the kitchen cabinet. He carefully started pouring some of the thick soup onto the pill-shaped depressions, managing to fill up twelve sections.

He reluctantly placed the leftover chicken pieces in a separate container, not very eager to part with such good looking meat.

He then opened the microwave and placed the wooden board inside.

Levi's expression turned to surprise when he saw the microwave's controls. It had two clear sets of instructions:

Clockwise turning, this represented heat. Turning the dial clockwise would heat up the soup, like a normal microwave.

While anticlockwise turning, this instruction would cause the contents to freeze.

Levi was surprised because reading it in the book was different from witnessing it firsthand.

This dual functionality was a result of recent technological advancements, when the world was plunged into chaos by the arrival of the Constellations.

Fortunately for humanity, technology didn't regress, but technology stalled because only sorcerers could produce origin energy, and it wasn't available in the atmosphere.

Early attempts to inject origin energy into metals to create magical effects failed, as most metals corroded.

But that changed with the discovery of unprocessed gold, unprocessed gold not only had the ability to retain any origin energy put into it but could also produce a small amount of its own.

Crucially, it could also hold transformed origin energy, such as Fire or Ice in the microwave, which is responsible for the freezing and heating effect.

This revolutionized weapon development and also affected household technology, like this microwave.

This discovery became the cornerstone of sorcerer development worldwide. Even starting an organization like the Apex Doctrine required gold.

In fact, Levi was sure that a a low-tier gold mine was beneath the Apex Doctrine headquarters, powering not only their operations and producing it's own electricity.

But also the energy barriers of entire Domains in the world. So if you bought a land and a survey was carried out, you would be given a stupid amount of money.

Enough for your next generation, but the amount to carry out the survey enough was enough for someone to take a loan.

And if after the survey no gold was found, that was your golden ticket to bankruptcy.

This microwave was inlaid with raw or minimally processed gold, allowing it to store and regenerate both Fire and Ice energy for heating and freezing.

This technology was not publicized; only sorcerers had access to it, and even then, in low quantities.

Although gold could hold origin energy, during the process of using it, a little energy would spill out and then corrode the metal casing.

Such as the microwave, a sticker was on the side of the microwave guaranteeing it for six months showed just how fragile, precious and scarce this item was.

Even normal humans in high positions barely have access to it. The normal humans who had this type of technology across the entire globe could be counted on one hand.

Levi was pulled from his deep thoughts about the gold technology by a sharp ding from the microwave. He opened the door and carefully took out the wooden board.

The freezing function of the microwave had perfectly condensed the soup into twelve tiny, solid pills resting in the depressions.

Emi took the board and expertly transferred the pills into a larger, specialized container that could fit snugly inside Levi's pocket.

"The freezing will last about 96 hours". Emi explained. Then she added. "I'll be coming to the training room about every three hours to stir you guys awake so you can take one of these pills before continuing your practice."

Levi's face showed his confusion and a hint of surprise at the thought of Emi constantly checking on them. Emi caught the expression and gave a small slightly embarrassed smile.

"It was all Robert's idea". She quickly defended. "I don't have anything to do with it. He said something about you guys learning from experience so that you guys would take the lessons seriously".

"And also so that you guys could get comfortable asking us for help, since we're family now."

Levi understood immediately. Robert was forcing them out of their shells. Right now, Levi and the other recruits were essentially strangers, and their interactions were limited to cautious nods of acknowledgment.

By creating a situation where they were literally unable to care for themselves during cultivation, Robert was subtly forcing a dependence on the Apex Doctrine family.

Levi smiled faintly in acknowledgment. "I understand now."

He realized it was the same strategy Robert had used moments ago in the training room. Robert could have simply pointed out the little instructions on the scroll.

But he had waited for Levi to reach out and ask for help before teaching him the valuable lesson about scrutinizing information. It was all designed to build trust and dependence on their new "family."

"Well, that sucks". Levi said with a wry smile.

Emi was slightly taken aback. Levi's voice, which had been tight and filled with internal tension since he arrived, was now completely relaxed.

As a Grade 3 Sorcerer herself, she had sensed that underlying tension, but now it had entirely melted away. The content of his words, however, instantly captured her attention.

Levi continued, "Before coming here, the rest of the crew were forcing the soup—"

Before Levi could finish, Emi's face instantly changed, turning sharp and serious. Then, she moved.

One moment, she was standing in front of Levi; the next, she was gone. Levi barely registered a blur.

Astonishment flooded his entire being. 'Despite that insane speed, nothing fell out of place!'. Despite the incredible velocity of her movement, the air pressure had only twisted slightly. Not a single spoon, plate, or piece of dough in the kitchen had been disturbed.

Levi quickly ran out of the kitchen and down to the training room, following the path Emi must have taken. He arrived just in time to see Emi standing in front of the meditating crew or were clearly struggling: Chloe, Jillian, and Judith.

"Barf" Emi commanded sharply. Sending a mental suggestion.

Immediately, the three recruits started to vomit.

Levi also felt a strong, tug in his stomach, but because he wasn't the main target of the her mental command and was far away from the area of effect, he managed to suppress the urge.

He focused on Emi, and his eyes caught a detail: the collar of her shirt was lightly stained with blood. As he wondered how it got there, he felt something wet touch his own hand.

Looking down, he saw blood on his hand, his own blood. Then he felt a sharp sting on his cheek.

He quickly brought his hand to his cheek and saw it was stained with blood, he realized what had happened, his mind replayed the moment Emi had run past him in the kitchen.

Standing so close to her, he had felt something touch him, at that moment he thought it was the wind pressure.

But it was the collar of her shirt flying past him at impossible speed.

'This...'. Levi thought, stunned. This was the true, terrifying power of high-grade sorcerers. He had been injured simply by standing to close to her. Rr

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.