Concepts

Having washed away his guilt and securing a game plan Alfie planned to officially start his career as a lord. 

The first thing on the menu was summoning his new 100 subjects from the archway. They added fresh talents and an increased labor force. 

Walking towards the archway situated near his manor, he pulled out stacks of tickets. Although before he planned on using the tickets he wanted to use his daily summon. 

For lords who weren't as well endowed as Alfie this daily summon was their only opportunity to gain subjects. 

There was no difference in terms of summoning between a daily summon and a normal ticket summon, but the cost difference was immense. 

In the human domain buying a normal ticket summon was about 50,000 Eden. It'd take a normal hard-working individual at least a year before he could even buy a singular ticket.

That's why for most Lords their daily summon was their lifeblood. Missing just one day of a summon would cost them about a year's worth of work. 

Either way that wasn't much of a worry for Alfie since he practically held thousands just in his left pocket. 

With a simple touch of his hand, the archway began its routine as 9 dimmed-out stars began hovering above. 

As the first star began to light up Alfie could sense the spiritual energy in the Air start to converge upon the location of that star. 

After a second a large amount of the cluster of energy dissipated and was instead replaced by a shining Light. 

Alfie knew that it took much more spiritual energy and much more pressure to make spiritual energy visible, so what was this light in front of him? 

No, he had something fundamentally wrong. The light from his hyper-compressed point was merely a byproduct of his actions, the light from the star was its intended purpose. 

Instead, it seemed that the archway was gathering spiritual energy and converting it directly into light? 

To be quite honest although Alfie likened himself to a researcher, at this moment he couldn't remember what light exactly was. 

He had reached all the way to college and yet he couldn't at the moment tell himself what light was.

 It was something so simple and so omnipresent that he actually didn't think much about the real intricacies of it. 

It took a quick search through his soul for him to remember the answer of electromagnetic radiation. 

Seeing as how there was a constant stream of spiritual energy entering the star it must've been converting it into visible electromagnetic radiation. 

Although spiritual energy particles were extremely tiny like atoms they for sure didn't work like an actual one. 

From his recently recovered memories, he knew that other Lords could manipulate and create other natural phenomena. 

Lighting, fire, earth, all of those sorts of things. And all of those actions required the use of spiritual energy. 

It's possible that spiritual energy simply imitates the natural forces around us but elemental talents aren't the only thing spiritual energy can do. 

There existed talents that encompassed concepts and simple ideas that held no real ground. 

Ivory's ability which he assumed was his Lord's talent was held in the same category. Claircognizance allowed Ivory to essentially have a very heightened and accurate sense of intuition. 

His own talent for Spiritual perfection was a good example as well. What in the hell was spiritual perfection? 

The concept of perfection itself was a concept. Each person held a different idea of it so how was spiritual energy fueling this type of talent. 

Simply put Spiritual energy wasn't imitating the natural world around us, it was something entirely different. 

A general trend among talents was that the more abstract they were the higher the rating. 

The closer a talent was to a concept, the more powerful it was. There simply wasn't a coincidence in that fact. 

Alfie was lost in a train of thought, completely hypnotized by his current enlightenment. 

***

Ivory honestly didn't know why he was on the beach. He was awoken by a foreboding feeling in the dead middle of the night which brought him here. 

Funnily enough, he had started his journey on a beach similar to this. To pass the time he reminisced on the past when he too was a lord. 

He had built an empire that controlled an entire continent, something that should've been impossible so early on. 

He had slain dragons and hydras, but his most satisfying kills were other lords who claimed to be gods. 

When the age of interstellar travel reached his planet, so did challengers of great power. 

He remembered seeing those sci-fi ships high above in the planet's orbit, pointing their lasers and demanding surrender. 

Oh how amusing it was when he sliced apart their entire armada in a matter of seconds. 

Although those days were long behind him, he didn't even know how long it had been since his death. 

He wanted to go back to the settlement to grab some food but this foreboding feeling still remained deep within his heart. 

In the end, he hunted some nearby critters and roasted some good barbeque. It wasn't seasoned nor tasty but it was enough. 

A few hours after his departure he sensed someone gathering a decent amount of spiritual energy. 

It was in the direction of the settlement so he proceeded to climb a nearby tree to gain a vantage point. 

In the vast distance, he saw 10 explosions made up entirely of compressed spiritual energy. 

Seeing that he knew there was only one culprit. The kid had managed to form his first star before the second day even fucking ended. 

 A monster that kid was. A monster. But also a fucking idiot. Had he not killed the surrounding monsters in a 10-mile radius he was sure that there would be monsters invading by now. 

In the end, he would give the boy a lecture on his stupidity once he returned. 

It was high noon by now and for some reason, his intuition screamed at him to stay near the beach. 

To pass the time he began training his body. Although spiritual energy held an innate property to enhance the body, physical training was still required to bring out its full potential. 

Just as he finished up with his 10,001 push up he felt a similar presence converging above the settlement. 

Someone was experiencing a heavenly tribulation in the settlement? That should've been impossible. 

Heavenly tribulations usually occur when someone is ascending into a higher state of existence. Such a phenomenon only happens when going from 3 stars to 4 and 6 to 7. 

It was a perilous situation that required the utmost preparations and mental fortitude. 

Ivory didn't have a single clue why something of that level was happening in a two-day-old settlement. 

He was going to rush back to analyze the situation but that was exactly when he felt the presence of something in the water. 

It felt similar to a dragon but it was missing something very crucial. Its bloodline was simply too thin, more than a dragon it was a simple serpent. 

Now he understood why his intuition urged him to stay on this beach. The exact material he needed for his ritual was rushing towards him. Oh, how he loved his talent. 

***

"Spiritual energy doesn't imitate reality, it bends it to its will." 

With a crackle of energy, the clouds above readied the first of its lighting.