Augus and the rest of cultivators had to take a breather, the news they just heard left them unsteady. Augus was the one to ask. “Sir, are we supposed to hear this information? Like, shouldn’t this be classified information?” The others seemed to nod as Augus talked, meanwhile Sargent Williams was relaxed, he answered normally. “You can certainly hear this information as you have sworn an earthly oath. And even if you divulged the matter, only you young cultivators would be actually surprised. Your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents, they all know this day would come, it would be like telling them it rained on winter, an inevitability. One that I’m confident they have been ready for years, because I am.”

  “After the last great war (if you could call it that), mankind knew it would only be a matter of time for us to be overrun. We could only wait for either our destined defeat or try to work towards a miracle and from the looks of it your generation seems to be our miracle.” The group shacked off their confusion and listened attentively to the Sargent.

  “Humanity started pouring resources and hopes onto the next generation since the height of the great war. The first generation, what would be 60 years ago more or less, was thought to be our miracle, but no, they did bought us time, 60 years in fact, but time has ran out. The second one wasn’t as good though they did solidify some of the current systems and plans we have now. Now the third one, your parents probably wasn’t really dazzling, what they did provide was a lot of manpower that could fuel our civilization. Then we get to you-”

  “Excuse me sir, but what exactly was humanity trying to accomplish? What do you mean when you say a generation was good or not?” One of the cultivators asked, his name was Nicolas, a member of the team in third place.

  “Well, we had two main goals when it all started, either train a powerful enough cultivator to end the war or raise an army of less powerful but numerous cultivators. Humanity partially completed the first goal with the first generation who reached the eight realm, though not even them could win against the numerous army the Siphons raise, the bastards tire them out with rabble so that they can’t do lasting damage. The other generations weren’t as good as they didn’t accomplish these goals nor got significantly closer to them. Until your generation.”

  Nicolas continued, still confused. “Although we feel flattered, I can’t seem to see what makes us so special.”

  “There are many differences, but the main one is that you are the first generation to grow into a fully matured Maker system. Before we didn’t have the distinction between Fighter and Maker, they were all cultivators and some had a secondary profession. As the war went on humans realized the need for an specialized growth system at a massive scale, instead of sectal growth or master-disciple, these were effective but not massive enough, and that’s when Makers were differentiated. Even then there was a scarcity of Makers, not many people wanted to focus on a support role when every bit of strength was needed, until a while after the war passed that there was an actual surge of dedicated Makers. Even wasn’t enough, as a profession was something passed from father to child or master to disciple, not something taught and systematized for easier understanding, there were standards but not textbooks, so then came a period of standardization. Your generation is the accomplishment from all these stages of perfection. Those flaws are the reasons why professions like Machinist and World Maker don’t have ranks like the others, the others had hundreds of years of legacy knowledge to construct a standard system.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Nikolai, a member of the team in second place, asked “Machinist weren’t a thing in the pre-Siphon era?”

  “Sort of, they technically appear as a profession before the Siphons arrived but a decade or two at most.”

  This conversation helped Augus develop a better historical timeline, first there was a period of spiritual energy of unknown length, then about 1.500 years (or more) of no spiritual energy. Then comes the pre-Siphon era of 451 years of steady developments with the occasional cultivator wars until the Siphon Invasion which lasted 7 years, that left humanity a recovery period of 5 years until the First Great Siphon war, 30 years later came the second, then 40 years later came the third, the last one. Then comes our development period of three generations (60 years) which seems to be coming to an end, that would make the present the preamble to the Fourth Great Siphon war, the last years to nurture the latest generation, us, into powerful cultivators capable of facing the Siphons.

  “There are emergency plans, which you will come to know in due time.” The Sargent continued. “If we don’t manage to win this last war they will come in effect regardless of the outcome, so be cognizant that this is our last chance and don’t hold anything back when the other organizations call for you.” The group realized this was their departure signal and said their goodbyes to the Sargent.

  The group of winners didn’t disperse immediately, instead they talked about their impressions on- everything.

  The first one to talk was Nikolai. “So, anyone has something to say about what Williams laid on us?”

  “What’s there to say? We just keep doing what we have been until know, just with more pressure.” Answered Nanna, Nikolai’s partner in the assignment, she was, like Jean, in the Nascent soul realm while Nikolai was like Augus in the Golden World realm, though more advanced than Augus.

  Nicolas, a Nascent soul cultivator said. “We could keep in contact, if we are contacted by any organizations we can then contact the rest for help or for a position in the project. We can at least be confident on the skills of the people in this group.”

  Augus finally talked. “I think it’s a great idea Nicolas.” That got him a smiley nod from him. “We could also discuss something that’s been on my mind since the Sargent mentioned the higher cultivation realms. Should we focus ourselves in the World maker part or the cultivator aspect? I know we should at least reach Body reformation realm because the advantages it gives are too necessary no to pursue, but afterwards? Are there any advantages for reaching the seventh realm?”

  Jean answered this time. “It’s not known wether there are any advantages in the Planetary realm for World Makers.” Only then Augus learned the name of the seventh realm. “There hasn’t been many World Makers who have reached it, all the living ones are Fighters or Makers of the other professions.” It seemed Jean had a better understanding of the high realm cultivators than any of them as none made a comment.

  “Then we should make Body reformation our general goal and the first one who reaches Planetary realm informs the others of any upgrades. If we receive any information about Planetary World Makers that would change so please share any news.” That seemed to close the discussion as after agreeing to share information they disbanded, Augus for his side when back to the hotel to end the day, he undressed, took a hot shower and finally let the pressure of the day fade as well as his conscience.

  After waking up he went back to his home with a lot of things in his head to consider. He said hi to his parents, who were quite relived to see him well (despite the regular contact he maintained during the assignment), had lunch with them and just relaxed in their company until the afternoon, when he receded back to his room to think about his future course of actions.