"Honestly Silver, What have you been doing all this time? Surely you should have hit the cap on at least one of your stats by now. Sparky over there is approaching her third. He's a big dummy. Isn't he, little cutie?"

The last few sentences weren't directed at him, but at Omelette, who she had scooped up the moment she laid eyes on him. She had turned one of her hands into a very comfortable waterbed, while the other gently stroked his feathers all the way down his back. The traitorous little beast let out rumbling purrs of delight as he got the attention his magnificence deserved, not even bothering to defend his master when he was insulted.

Seth sighed and gave her an incredulous look as she stole his pet from him, he had already told her the story of how he had lost his arm, gained the little traitor and got a secondary mutation after his extended nap.

"You know damn well why, and do you really need to steal my pet from me too? Is nothing sacred?"

"Aww, I can't help it if he loves me more. I am so lovable and cuddly after all, don't blame him. Maybe if you were more than skin and bones he'd enjoy cuddling with you more."

She turned her head to face him, her expression twisting into that of truly toxic smugness, the type you wanted to smack off their face. After sticking out her tongue and making a few more faces at him, she went back to snuggling her head against Omelette's purring body.

"... I liked it better when you couldn't have expressions."

"Yeah? And I liked it when your eyes weren't so creepy."

"Can you just put him down and get back to the important information?"

Cynthia let out a long, drawn out sigh, as if she were a mopey teenager asked to do… Well anything, before she finally relented. Giving Omelette one last nuzzle, she placed him back in Seth's hood before standing across with him with her arms crossed. Her face physically morphing into a tough and serious expression, a pair of sunglasses manifesting themselves over her eyes, composed completely out of her slime.

She began to pace back and forth, talking like a stereotypical drill sergeant as Seth simply shook his head and chuckled at her antics.

"Alright soldier, listen up. Unless you're a total idiot, by now you'll have noticed that food gives you stats. That's basic stuff. But what you probably didn't know is that different people can get different amounts of stats from the same source.

We don't know exactly why this is, but results are consistent when tested. Sometimes it has to do with power compatibility, such as a fire user eating a fire beast, but not always.

Regardless, no matter who you are, Your Bio stat seems to be the easiest to build up and is usually the first to max out, then it's usually the stat your ability is tied to if it isn't bio. Take a look at your stats, tell me what your bio score is sitting at."

She stopped her pacing, jabbing her finger in Seth's face before snapping impatiently a few times. He held her gaze for a few seconds, giving her a stern look as if he was about to smack her, before they both broke out into smiles. Neither one was able to keep up their serious acts for much longer.

With an instruction to Angel, he brought up his stats to take a look at them, although he didn't expect them to be much too different. The only thing he had eaten since last time was a bit of bear meat and some jerky.

[Name: Sephtis 'Seth' Quinn

Species: Gaian Human

Biological Score: 87 Elemental Score: 66

Spiritual Score: 135 Psychic Score: 50

Mutation - Puppeteers Thread, Spirit Animal

Requitals: Life Lantern, Ravens Raiment, Expeditious Ratreat, Grizzly Reminder

Bonds: Omelette]

"It says here that bio is sitting at… 87. It's my second highest."

"87 huh? Not bad, Not bad. You're close to maxing out then. It won't be long until you hit 100, then you can start focusing on your abilities stat like the rest of us or-"

"Hold up, 100? That can't be right."

Before she could go on any further, Seth cut her off as he glanced between her and his stats. No, that definitely couldn't be right.

"Uh, yeah it is. 100 is the max, no one could go past it. Even sparky hit that limit. Why do you think that it's wrong?"

Unfortunately for the slime girl, her question fell on deaf ears. Seth was too focused on his stats and the serious anomaly contained within them to listen to what she was saying, instead discussing it with Angel in his mind as he stared off into space.

'Is she right? If the max is 100, then what gives?'

[Your status is different from hers. You are in a different phase, or realm, from her and the others.]

'Different realm? Explain.'

[Very well. As you tread the evolutionary path, you will find yourselves separated into different realms of being dependent on your progress. The stage the majority of awakened humans are in is referred to by many names, but is often named along the lines of Tier 0, or the rebirth stage.

You have only touched upon the first step of the true path, your bodies are still being prepared for the first true step. You will be raised to the peak of your species, the ideal performance your species is naturally capable of, then you will be given a challenge in order to transcend.

For reference, some beings that are born from powerful Tier 0s may have their foundations completed in their gestation stage and are born into power. Your companion Omelette, for example, was born at Tier 1.]

'So we are still what… babies wandering blindly, or not even that. Just a foetus waiting to be born again? That's comforting. But even then, why is my soul stat above the threshold?'

[I was getting to that. You are in an intermediary stage, Tier 0.5 if you will. Parts of you are still building their foundation, while others, in this case your soul, have been refined already. While it is not transcendent yet, due to your secondary mutation, it has allowed your soul to be strengthened further before your threshold is met.]

'Huh… So do you know my new threshold?'

[200. Your transcendence will not only affect you, but your Spirit Animal too. Although in what ways it will be affected is currently not known.]

'Good to know… By the way, how many tiers are there?'

[Information classified until you reach the appropriate level.]

Clicking his tongue, Seth shook his head in annoyance. Of course it was 'classified', just typical. Before he could continue his mental conversation with Angel any further, he noticed Cynthia growing more and more frustrated by the second as she was being annoyed.

Only when she saw that his focus was back on her did she give him an irritated and strained smile.

"Anything you wish to share with the rest of the class, Silver?"

"Well, it's like this…"

As he explained to her the long and short of his mental conversation with Angel, Cynthia's face ran through a whole range of emotions. Starting with intrigued, then confused, then excited before finishing on offended at the thought that the tiny, snoozing bird might be more powerful than them.

Thankfully, their respective guardians chimed in that it didn't mean that he was more powerful. Simply that he wouldn't have a break at 100, but if they stagnated for too long… That could quickly change.

He could see by the look on her face that she was having a conversation with her guardian, most likely about the same subject that he was curious about.

'What causes the secondary mutations? Is there a limit?"

[Secondary mutations are caused by intense stress of an unusual degree. It is your body's attempt to adapt to survive.

For instance, your soul was fragmented and held together on the cusp of death. The stress of the situation pushed your body to its breaking point, in which it awakened its potential and pushed itself in a direction that would help you survive.

Unfortunately this type of occurrence is only known to happen once in a lifetime. There have been no documented cases of tertiary mutations. However, it is good you achieved it in the early stages. It is significantly harder to achieve as you advance, as less can threaten you or those that can are more likely to outright kill you.]

He gnawed at his lip as he considered what they had said. It would definitely be better to push as many people as possible to progress their abilities with a secondary mutation. However, just the thought of his own 'process' churned his stomach and kept him awake some nights.

He could still feel the pain deep inside on occasion, despite having nothing wrong with him. A dreadful phantom pain to remind him of the cost of even the smallest sliver of power.

Even if it was for the benefit of humanity and their ongoing survival, how many people would willingly put themselves through that kind of hell to upgrade themselves? Especially when they didn't know what they would get or how useful it would be.

If the mutation tailored itself to the torment they were putting themselves through, then it stood to reason that the better the mutation… the deeper into hell you must travel.

Such was the law of Equivalent Exchange.