An Unexpected Encounter

While the world was concerned about the war between Earth and an alien civilization, the media released new information.

"The Golden Civilization arrived in our world by the gateway found in the North Pole. The Army arrived too late!"

"Huge losses on the invader's side. Earth is winning the war!"

"The Earth Alliance made a strategic retreat from their base in the North Pole to lessen casualties! Floats of warships are besieging the area to make sure the aliens do not escape onto the land."

"Rumours about the deployment of a Special Ascendant Army from the big families!"

"The military has released new information about the invaders. The invaders are called Golden Civilization or Golden Race and are characterized by being short, the tallest measured being only 140cm. They are also skinny, and their skin has different tones of gold." Ethan White heard the recent news while training.

Lately, he has become used to exercising daily. He did not get mentally drained anymore, but the precondition to absorb Stellar Energy was to reach your limits and exhaust yourself. Therefore, it was still taking a toll on him.

He changed his training routine several times. Ethan White went from weightlifting to practicing basketball for the purpose of strengthening his whole body. He also had read some Apprentice's forums in search of the average time taken to be Ascended. Some opinions differed between the times, but the common consensus was the higher the body's quality, the faster the absorption's speed.

But Ethan White's body quality seemed low. The absorption speed of his body was too low compared to other Apprentices. While other Apprentices could lift 100kg with each hand in one week, Ethan White took almost a month. Now, he also could run for a half-hour at maximum speed, but it was not enough.

"Hell..."

'What? Did my earphones get broken?' Ethan White turned his phone off, and after he finished studying, he walked into the garden.

Today, Ethan White was going to practice jumping. He wanted to jump as many times as possible until he could not hop anymore. He also wanted to assess the farthest distance he could reach after finishing the exercise, using the bridge crossing over the lake. His goal was to get to the other end of the lake in a month.

Ethan White was not a delusional young man. He knew he could not achieve his goal. But when he was helping in a nursing home, a friendly elder told him that to achieve big things in the world, he needed to have big ambitions. Ethan White thought the senior was right. An impossible goal could force him to do his best.

Jumping and jumping over again was his new routine. Luckily for him, there was not anyone else, or they could have confused him as a rabbit.

In the first week, Ethan White only could jump up 2 meters. After thinking, he decided to investigate ways to improve his physical prowess faster. Looking on the Internet, Ethan White found a set of exercises that could help his legs to have more strength at jumping. Following the methods Ethan White watched, he practiced them day and night during the second week.

Through the third week, Ethan White got back to jumping. He noticed a further increase in his absorption speed of Stellar Energy, but it still was not enough to reach even one-third of the bridge. On Sunday, his mark reached 8 meters.

'Maybe I should give up. I will not reach a third of the bridge at this point. Let us not talk about the island in the middle.' Ethan White was biting his nails, with sweat dripping from his forehead. He still wanted to continue. He did not want all his efforts to go to waste.

"...ou c...n bu... n... l..k.. ..his"

'What? How did the earphones I just bought today get broken again?' Ethan White was suspicious. The voice sounded like the one he heard the last time. Checking TheyTube on his phone, Ethan White played a song to find out if his earphones were working. As he already thought, his earphones were fine.

'Then what is the voice I am hearing? A Third Descend? Or maybe it is related to the reason for my appearance to change.' reflexed Ethan White.

"I ... I am n... not t... th... the u....se uni..... ...verse." Repeated the unknown voice.

'Wait, can it hear my thoughts? Just now, it looked like it was replying to me. I can not clearly understand what you are saying! What are you?' thought Ethan White, checking if something was reading his mind.

'''Oh, finally! I was waiting for you to accept my presence. With that damn shield warding off your galaxy, I could not safely contact you. I was obliged to use this method. But as you already saw, without you accepting my presence, there are interferences.''' resonated a powerful voice in Ethan White's mind. Ethan White did not understand almost any single word the stranger said. He had a bunch of questions from what he just heard but decided to focus on asking important ones, afraid the voice would suddenly vanish.

'Are you not from this galaxy? Who are you?' When Ethan White thought about if it was okay for him to ask more questions, he risked it by asking another one, wishing to not cause the mysterious being to be offended.

'''I was waiting for you to ask me who I am. I am the Sovereign of Light, the mighty ruler who governs an entire galaxy! I am the one that defeated the Alliance of the 30 Emperors and set free the repressed Monarchs! And I, want to take you as my disciple.''' proudly claimed the voice. Ethan White could already envision the voice's owner looking at the stars in the sky after telling others about his fame.

'Taking me as a disciple? The Sovereign of Light? Emperors? Monarchs? What is all of that? Senior, I am just an Apprentice with a poor body's quality trying to ascend, awaken an impressive superpower, and shock everyone who looked down on me... I do not deserve to be the disciple of a King...'

'''Sovereign.''' interrupted the Sovereign of Light.

'I do not deserve to be the disciple of a Sovereign...' tried Ethan White again.

'''of Light. Remember, Sovereign of Light, the galaxy's ruler who defeated the evil Emperor's Alliance. I am also on the top one of the Handsome Sovereign Ranking. You would be amazed to see the queue of women trying to be my concubines... it is exhausting.''' interrupted again. Ethan White could already see that this master had an eccentric personality. But he had a good reason to refuse to be his disciple.

'Ehm... Senior, my body has poor quality. I am not even an Ascended... I do not see the reason for a mighty and astounding galaxy's ruler as you to want to take me as a disciple... If you are looking for a talented one, I heard about a guy called Thomas with a fire ability. He seems talented enough to be your disciple.' sighed Ethan White. He did not really want to recommend Thomas to this mighty master, but he was afraid of making him disappointed if he agreed.

'''A fire ability? Talented? Who would want that trash? In my galaxy, I have billions of fire ability Ascenders! What I seek is someone better! Only a genuine talent can be worth to be my disciple.''' The voice was raging, as if a lowly being just insulted his entire family and went to the graves of his ancestors to take a shit on them.

'Me? A genuine talent? One in a billion?' Ethan White's breath stopped. He was shocked to hear these adjectives referring to him! Ethan White even began to suspect the self-proclaimed Sovereign of Light, looking at his surroundings in case there was an Ascended with a mind-talking ability making a prank on him, but he did not see anyone. He was in his house's garden. An Ascended would not infiltrate private poverty and offend a powerful family just to make a prank on him.

'''It is correct. You have what we call a Stellar Body.'''