SIGH

He turned around to see a young lady walking towards him from the end of the hallway and couldn't help but draw a breath.

It was a tall slender girl dressed in a similar tracksuit to his with gunmetal hair that flowed to the small of her back, her cold blue eyes contrasted with the cheery feeling her delicate expression gave off. She stared at his injured hand before finally settling her gaze on his startled face.

"Why would anyone punch these walls, you should know they're made of Durocal", she took his hand in hers and he felt a cooling sensation seep over it for a few seconds before she released it.

"You must be Seris, of class 1A"

"How'd you know" she asked.

"Ice affinity, can't seem to mind her business. I seem to recall a study saying personality influences affinity, doesn't seem to be the case for you."

Her brows arched upwards as she chuckled. "Would you prefer me being a block of ice then, o fallen genius"

A faint light flickered in Midas' eyes before it vanished; "And how'd you know"

"Oh please, I doubt there's anyone who doesn't know who you are in the whole of campus."

He stared at his fist with the thin of film of ice coating it before sighing. "Thanks for this, I'll get it fixed later"

"No problem, and hey..."

Midas turned around.

"...I've heard your story, why haven't you given up?"

Midas stood rooted to a spot when he heard her question. 'That's true, why haven't I given up, it's not like there's any hope of me ever advancing as I am. It'd be a challenge to even place well on the evaluation two days from now, not to mention actually getting into a good academy'

He pondered over this question for what seemed like an incalculable amount of time before a fire lit up in his gaze. He turned towards Seris with a wide grin on his face, his aura billowing.

"I'd have to die before giving up, only death can separate me from my goal."

Seris was speechless when she heard his answer, before breaking into a beautiful smile. "As expected of the fallen genius, this evaluation might not be so boring after all."

...

Midas' aura had become as calm as a lake, a resolute air about him as he walked the streets towards his home. He discarded all thoughts about getting a top placement, focusing everything on getting into a good military academy. Exhausted after climbing hundreds of stairs to get home, he strolled leisurely into the apartment, which was still as dark as it was in the morining.

"Hey kid, you're back."

Midas walked past the living room as his dad's voice echoes from deep within the house.

"Yeah, how was work?"

"Same as always. I got you something, it's on your bed. Oh, and clean up your room, it's a mess."

"Sure thing pops."

Midas walked into his room and saw a small package sitting on his bed. It was a small black steel box with blue lines pulsing faintly on it. His heart rate sped up as he picked it up from his bed. 

It weighed around half a kilo. Picking up a keycard that was placed under it, he pressed it against the top of the box and it released a hissing sound before dismantling into a flat plane and revealing its content which was obscured by the cold fog entrapped within.

"So dramatic" Midas tapped on his bracelet and pulled up the holographic screen.

"Appraise Aether Core"

[Scanning..]

[C-grade Aether Core: 76% functional]

"Really outdid yourself pops" Midas smiled as he walked into the bathroom and turned on the water to fill his bathtub while he dismissed his clothes and removed his bracelet, placing it back on the reading table.

"Time to see what we can get from this" He waited for twenty minutes before the tub became filled with water.

He submerged himself in the ice-cold water in just his briefs as he held the aether core in his hands. Usually, he should have done this procedure under the influence of powerful gravity to excite his cells into a state of hypersensitivity. However, he simply didn't have the credits to rent a training room that had this amenity and he wasn't exactly planning on using this the conventional way.

He had a working theory on his situation, for years he had thought his inability to control his ability was due to physical limitations, as that was what his evaluation stated. This much was true but Midas had exerted his body to its limits and had seen minimal changes to his ability and so he came to a conclusion- his ability was some sort of sensory type ability, albeit of a rare grade, and so he could theoretically take it as a second set of eyes. He deduced that the reason he couldn't control his ability was likely related to the fact that he wasn't born with it and so his brain couldn't acclimatize to having a more powerful vision that overwhelmed the standard it had gotten used to in his sixteen years of life.

So he decided that rather than using the aether stored within the core to further refine his Aether pool, he would use it to raise the capabilities of his brain to reduce the burden it took every time he used his ability.

"Here goes nothing... Arghhhhhhh!!!!!!!" A high pitched shriek escaped from his mouth as he swore like a sailor in his mind.

His father, Nicholas Sullivan, rushed into the room, worry and confusion on his face. "Son, are you okay?"

"Yeah pops, just refining my aether pool, nothing to worry about" Midas lied. Nicholas let out a sigh of relief as he took Midas' word for it and stepped out of the room and back to his work. What he was unaware of was just how dangerous the procedure Midas' was undertaking was.

The brain wasn't something that could be casually experimented on, and if he made any mistakes while he poked around in there and damaged his brain stem, forget being a cripple, he ran the risk of brain death. But none of these were the thoughts running through Midas' mind.

'This is my only chance, I'm betting it all here, I either succeed or I die. No alternatives.'