Fiona

"Morning Leo" said a bright and sunny Ana to a groggy Leonidas. The sky outside was overcast, but that didn't stop the woman from being jolly.

"Ugghhh m~~~", Leonidas said haphazardly. He had only been asleep for 2 hours after the previous day's escapade. When he came back he was brimming with energy so he continued work on the Zoom online platform, which was quickly nearing completion.

"..."

"I'll take that as a 'Morning Mom, you look great today as always'" she said while walking away with a smile on her face.

"Get down for breakfast! I have a surprise for you."

"Ugghh damn it."

"I'm a growing boy."

"I need my sleep."

"The human body is so weak." "Annoying..."

Leonidas complained to himself while dragging his body out of bed.

It was the holidays. He had the most free time in a long time, and he spent it working on his projects. He loved working. It left him fulfilled.

But Ana did not see it that way. As far as she was concerned, Leonidas should be making friends with people his age. He should maybe even be making girlfriends. But all he does is sit in his office doing stuff on his computer.

While Leonidas was munching on his toast, Ana dropped a bomb.

"So we're going to a friend of mine's wedding in Cape Town."

Oof.

"There'll be a lot of kids your age over there. It's a good time to play and make friends."

Leonidas couldn't help but smile awkwardly. He really didn't want to go. People his age were like infants to him. And adults did not take him seriously unless he paid them to do it.

"Do I really need to go?" Leonidas questioned pitifully with puppy dog eyes. But his plans were shattered.

"Yes. And I'm not taking No for an answer young man. We still have a week until then... Oh come on, don't you want to see the beach?"

Leonidas stared blankly at his mother. Did he look like he wanted to see the beach?

"I'm going to work, you stay home and take care, okay?", Ana said as she left quickly before Leonidas could have time for more complaints.

Leonidas could only keep munching on his toast, which oddly tasted dryer than ever.

Whatever, maybe it's the perfect time to accomplish some more goals.

Leonidas had not been slacking in his cultivation. He managed to reach the Noble Realm in 1 month and now, after 3 more months, he was in the 2nd level of the Noble realm.

And now he wanted to open up a new avenue of cultivation.

As previously mentioned, there are 7 energy centres in the human body. These energy centres could be thought of as containers for a type of energy.

The universe has possibly an infinite number of types of energies, but humans, being inferior creations, can only access seven types of energies naturally.

Of course the number increases as long as humans can increase their own resonance with the universe. But that is something for a long long time in the future.

Of course during the alien invasion, humanity, including Leonidas, had only been cultivating spiritual energy, which was located in the spiritual soul, found in the 6th energy center.

This was mainly because it was the easiest to learn and the fastest to cultivate for humans. Humans just have a natural talent for spiritual energy manipulation according to Gaia.

And it's true. Even compared to the Kr'roga, humans outshine even their best and brightest tremendously. This all has to do with the *shape* of the spiritual soul.

The *shape* of the spiritual soul is not necessarily the structure, more like the constitution. What the soul is innately made of. Kr'roga spiritual souls were weaker in talent and thus humans were able to cultivate spiritual energy faster than them.

On the other hand, Kr'roga *Vital Souls* had a better constitution than those of humans. Which meant that it was much easier for the Kr'roga to cultivate *Vital Energy* than it was for humans.

The Kr'roga used that Vital Energy to reinforce their bodies,thus allowing their bodies to reach strengths of terrifying proportions. Warriors could decimate whole communities in hours while Commanders could decimate whole cities in seconds. And all it took is one punch.

Since vital energy not only enhanced their attack capabilities, but also their defensive capabilities, modern weapons paled in comparison to the might of this warriors. That is why some human armies gave up the fight early on. There was no way forward at all.

The energy center containing vital energy was located at the solar plexus. What Leonidas wanted to cultivate was the energy located in the energy center right below the solar plexus, at the navel.

Life Energy. Located in the Life Soul.

It may not sound like much, but Leonidas wanted to understand it because he felt that it may unlock the secrets to understanding more about cell regeneration, reproduction and healing.

He already understood that this was the energy that determined a being's lifespan. The higher a being's cultivation, the more life energy it would receive as a reward from the universe.

But Leonidas wanted to know more. He felt that if he could understand, he could maybe even be able to create a body for Gaia in the shortest time.

Leonidas sat on his bed in the lotus meditative position and started breathing.

"hummm..... Pheeeww...."

"hummm..... Pheeeww...."

"hummm..... Pheeeww...."

He did this until he attained a state of forgetting oneself. When he felt that he was ready he begun.

He consciously tried to feel the energy located inside 2nd energy centre but nothing happened.

Everytime he failed he took the time to forget himself and calm his mind and body. Then he tried again. Trial and error.

And again.

And again.

After hours of work it was already midday, and he had to do other things. And so he structured his days.

In the morning he had breakfast with Ana, if she was around. After that he cultivates his life energy until midday. After making himself lunch, he starts to do whatever work he had to.

Then he makes orders supper or Ana makes supper if she's around. In the evenings, he cultivates his spiritual energy until 2am in the morning.

Days went by. Ana went shopping for suits, which she enjoyed way too much. Tickets were booked and everything was ready.

After 6 days of trial and error he managed to do it. He managed to feel life energy.

This was a tremendous breakthrough.

It meant he could awaken his Life Soul and start cultivating life energy. He'd be the first human, in this time line or the other, to do so.

He isolated his vision to feel the life energy everywhere in his body and he realized something incredible. Every single cell in his body was glowing bright with the orange color of life energy.

'Could it be, that life energy is capable of naturally circulating through cells, giving them the ability to revitalize themselves...'

He looked at his knee which was scarred a few month ago due to a shard of broken glass that fell on the floor and noticed that the life energy flow in that area was strained and depleted.

His brain turned and twisted and thousands of ideas formed in that moment.

'So when a being gets hurt, the body consumes it's life energy to heal those skin cells. But because life energy gets consumed, the cells do not grow perfectly, thus forming scars...'

'Natural healing is too slow. This is because life force is too slow to flow in a normal being. And even after it flows to damaged areas, it's too late. Scar tissue has already formed and there's no need for the extra life force anymore.'

'Holy shit! The ramifications of this information on health sciences and physics is enormous. And there is a natural flow ra-'

"Leonidas my boy, come downstairs and help me with this stuff"

Before he could continue his internal ramblings, his mother knocked him out of his stupor and he got up with a renewed sense of wonder for the universe.

If life energy was so profound, what about other energies...

He could barely withhold his excitement, even as he got down the stairs.

"What, are you that happy to see me... Or is it someone else hehehe...", Ana teased. Leonidas couldn't be bothered to understand the meaning of her words though.

When he walked over, he saw his mother standing and talking to the neighbor, Mr Hendrix. There was a little girl standing next to Mr Hendrix, her curious eyes scanning everywhere while her right hand tentatively grabbed onto the neighbour's pants.

Leonidas observed the girl. Although she was young, she was definitely going to be a beauty who could topple the nation in the future.

She had bright green eyes that shimmered with cunning, and brunette hair that flowed gracefully with the wind. Her facial proportions were perfect from the width of her eyebrows to the size of her lips. She stood confidently with her shoulders straight and her chest out. Even though she was holding onto the man, she seemed to be independent and powerful regardless.

Truly a terrifying lady, she'll become one day

When their eyes met, she smiled almost like she had met her new best friend.

"Leonidas you already know Mr Hendrix. This is his daughter Fiona", Ana said while holding back the urge to wink suggestively. Even though she didn't wink, Leonidas knew fully well what she was thinking.

"Fiona, say 'hi' to Leonidas. You guys are the same age so you should get along am I right?", said Mr Hendrix with a carefree smile on his sunburnt face.

"Hi. It's nice to meet you Leonidas"

"It's nice to meet you too Fiona", said Leonidas with a perfunctory nod of his head. He hated doing this type of stuff the most.

The main reason why he never met this girl in his first life was because of his recluse status. He would lock himself in his room all day if he could.

This was genuinely his first time seeing her. And because of that, he knew that the butterfly effect was in full swing.

"Why don't you get her something to drink while you guys get to know each other", Ana continued to Leonidas.

"Alright!" Leonidas hesitated but agreed anyway.

He grabbed the bags of groceries on the floor and turned around towards the girl.

"What would you like to drink?" Leonidas said as he led her towards the kitchen.

"Hmmm... Do you have milk?" she muttered with a shy smile on her face.

"Sure we do", Leonidas announced blankly. He placed the groceries on the kitchen counter and prepared Fiona a glass of milk before going back to fetch more of the bags of groceries.

Fiona merely sat on one of the chairs surrounding the dining room table in the dining room. She occupied herself with drinking her milk while watching Leonidas pack the groceries away.

After a few minutes of mutual silence, Fiona started

"You're weird..."

"I'm weird? Why would you think that?"

"Because..."

"Because..?"

"You suck at making friends."

"Wow... Well isn't that crazy..."

"My dad told me you're a computer genius. Is that why you suck at making friends?"

"What the? How could... Mom?! Mom..."

He realized that his mother may have been telling people about his actions as any parent would brag about their child. Annoying.

"Pfft... Hahaha"

Leonidas stopped paying attention and continued his packing. He only had a few canned foods left, after which he planned to go back and start his work day.

"Hey, could you help me with my English project? We're meant to make a PowerPoint presentation. I don't know how to make it. Please help me... "

"..."

"Please..?"

"Please..?"

"Pretty Please..?"

Before Leonidas could say anything, behind him came a voice.

"Leonidas agrees, am I right Leonidas?"

Leonidas saw him mom and knew that the decision would be taken out of his hands

"Fine..."

"Yayy thank you. I'll definitely repay you for your help"

"Pfft, my services are way too expensive for you"

"Heh, I can definitely afford it"

Before he could snap back at her, he was interrupted.

"Okay kids, that's enough. Come on Fiona we have to leave. You'll come back next week for the project. Thank you Leonidas. It means a lot. " said Mr Hendrix while walking towards the door

"No biggie, PowerPoint is easy peasy."

"Still. Thank you."

The father and daughter pair left the house while Leonidas and Ana were watching them. After they left, Ana looked at Leonidas mockingly.

"Haha, I see you're good at computers but bad at girls"

"It's not like that. I'm not interested in girls right now. That's all" explained Leonidas matter of factly.

"Still, I hope you can be closer to her. She recently lost her mother. She and her dad moved here from Pretoria after that. She started at a new school and she's been having a hard time making friends ever since."

"..."

Leonidas couldn't be bothered. He just wanted to cultivate peaceful and make money peacefully. But Ana had other plans.

"Leo..."

"Haah... Okay, I'll try"

"That's my boy.", said Ana proudly.

After that, they sat and had lunch together, making sure to talk about how their  days went. No matter what, Leonidas would try to stand by his mother's wishes. But he wasn't hopeful for anything at all.