9. Mountain-Stage

Upon forming a Solarin core, that individual would discover the world's element they had an affinity for, and this revelation would be the foundation of their journey to power.

The entirety of the Plain-Stage would simply see the individual understanding the basics of their elemental affinity. To achieve this they'd need practice.

One's Solarin core only granted them the capacity to utilize their element—Sort of like the world's currency to tap into that supernatural ability. Mastery could only be achieved through hard work.

The more practice one had with their element the bigger their Solarin core would get. Practicing one's control depleted their core, and pushing it to its limits forced it to expand.

This is why lots of simple control practices are recommended within the Plain-stage to build a solid foundation.

A person's breakthrough into the next stage is marked by their ability to give shape to their element since it testifies to the fact that the quality of Solarin within them had reached the point of granting shapes to their element.

This next stage was the Plateau-Stage. Only here would the body of the individual begin to experience significant changes.

Solarin can quite literally upgrade the physical body, as such, at the beginning of the Plateau-stage, the individual would find that the energy within his core would begin to affect his body positively.

Speed, durability, stamina, and the rest would experience a refreshing increase, allowing the person much more power than the average human.

Many considered the Plateau-Stage the real start of a person's journey to ascension, and I honestly agree with that thought process.

The entirety of the Plateau-Stage would see the individual focusing more on shaping his element to whatever his mind could birth.

The bigger the shape the harder it was to control and the more Solarin it would require to create, which would further push the individual's core to its limits.

The mark that they had entered the Hill-stage would be their ability to now gather Solarin directly into their core before spreading it to the rest of their body.

Thanks to the fact that Solarin could now affect the body, the next stage would be the ability to directly call upon it to stretch one's core thereby increasing their capacity.

Within the Hill stage, the individual's strength would experience leaps since they could directly force Solarin into their core. At this stage simply practicing one's 'Elemental Craft' wouldn't bring enough results.

In the Hill-Stage, the ability to gather the world's 'Breath' directly into one's core would cause the range of their craft to expand, but only practice would grant them the experience required to utilize that increase efficiently.

In this stage other options apart from just elemental craft begin to come in. Battle-Arts; a training system that focused on further weaponizing the individual's body and core, specifically.

Here individuals master weapons and how to wield them as though they were an extension of their limb.

Finally, the breakthrough into the Mountain-stage would be signified by the individual's ability to create more elaborate manifestations of their elemental craft while affecting a rather significant area.

Upon reaching this stage, the individual's existence would gain a real color, signifying how big and healthy their Core had gotten.

This color could not be faked and showed how the individual had been marked by the world as worthy of crossing over into the next realm. Of course, this is only one amid several other boons.

Mountain-stage 'rebels' or 'Peak-Earth-realm' experts could seemingly outrun the wind and were able to launch attacks capable of shattering boulders in a single strike.

It was also proven that normal steel blades couldn't even dent such individuals. And in terms of speed, they could run ten times faster than the best of horses.

I could personally bear witness to that fact since my might had once been at that stage.

The Mountain stage stood as the peak of human might, the next realm containing far more than most individuals could imagine.

I heaved a sigh as all those details returned to my mind, indeed I could never forget them, but having all that information when not an ounce of might existed in me, hurt.

The orders of the soldier interrupted my thoughts, granting me momentary freedom from my turmoils.

We were provided with brooms, bowls with soapy water, and clothes to scrub away the stained surfaces. I had been tasked with getting water from the only well within the base. Three others were included.

We never bothered to engage in meaningful conversations, everyone was still settling with the fact that that place would be their new home. Only a miracle could save us now.

With the building being no more than 500 square meters it wouldn't take us too long to get done with cleaning.

The entire place had been emptied of any furniture leaving it bare, and we'd sleep on the ground from what I could see.

The gray ceiling stood quite a height from the ground. No one could actually touch it.

After about two hours we were done working and were ordered to wait outside to allow it dry. The other groups had done the same, so we were made to gather outside again.

I took my position at the back of the entire group, uninterested in anyone but myself. By this point, it was well into the evening, and night-time slowly approached, but so did an atmosphere of sobriety.

The guards did not engage us any further, even if they hung around. In the meantime, I collected all the things I had learned today.

The base had no less than 40 armed men, and a significant amount had been dispensed into serving as watchmen, as such there was nearly no corner that didn't have someone positioned there.

Then again, it was war, and the people of Yukov could still gather against that base. They had to remain vigilant to ensure nothing went wrong.

The second detail I noticed was how not many of those soldiers were 'Rebels', but were simply men with weapons.

The third detail was about the layout of the camp's insides.

The path to the hill's top had been visible when Sub-general Ivon had spoken to us, but I figured that castle possessed something powerful enough to mess with our minds since no matter how much I tried to recall where the path had been, my memory became unclear. Pointing at a distortion.