The moment Atlas was almost up and standing again, he lifted his head after hearing the question from Harleks, but soon after he saw something shift in Harleks’ expression, the nonchalant face turning completely different, serious in a way it hadn’t been a moment before.

Atlas frowned as he thought, ’Huh?...could it be he sensed Null?...No, that can’t be, something is different, didn’t the test end just now?’

The moment that thought formed, the surrounding Spirit around him which had been erased because of his Null came rushing back all at once, from Harleks, Atlas frowned as he tried to gauge what was happening, but then —

A brutal crushing force came down at once, the floor cracked beneath him with a sharp CRACK sound, the metal block beneath split apart as if gravity had been multiplied several times over, and Atlas’s whole body was being pressed down without him being able to do anything about it, his Null was still acting as a barrier along his skin but it was only that small immediate area where Spirit could get erased, the crushing force this time was not the same as what came before.

This one felt physical, like something of immense weight was being pressed down on top of him directly, Atlas gritted his teeth and a small amount of blood came from his mouth "Kheuk!" as he thought, ’How is he doing that?...shouldn’t Null erase Spirit?’

His eyes darted upward as he tried to lift his head even slightly, and he saw that the Spirit Harleks had been releasing around him was gone, instead all of it seemed to have been focused and concentrated above Atlas like a massive weighing object pressing down on him from above, only then did Atlas understand that the sheer amount of Spirit and this specific use of it was what caused Null not to react properly, because his attributes including Null were still at 50, he had no way of countering that concentrated mass of Spirit at his current level.

He hated being crushed down like this, but what he was learning from it was what kept him from going into rage and showing his trump cards, ’I see...to reach S-rank, maybe I have to learn something like this too, though I think raising my Attributes further will eventually take me there, it’s still best to understand what it actually is first...’

He could only conclude that much, since he still didn’t fully understand what Harleks was doing, and either Harleks himself would explain it or Atlas would have to ask directly.

After a few more moments the crushing pressure disappeared entirely and Atlas panted heavily, "Khu...Huff...huff..."

Harleks walked toward him as he spoke, "That was impressive, I don’t know what you did but to erase the Spirit surrounding you was the most unbelievable thing I had ever seen, still, now you can see why S-ranks are different right?"

Atlas slowly lifted himself up, his hands and legs trembling slightly, he had forcefully deactivated Regenerative Hide because if the Guildmaster saw him healing on his own it would create more problems than the conversation already carried.

Harleks stopped a meter away from Atlas and watched him stand up properly, his earlier Spirit release was nowhere to be felt now, his expression had returned to its usual nonchalant state though his mind was quietly running through possibilities about what Atlas had done in that moment when the Spirit around him had simply ceased to exist.

Atlas spoke first as he stood steady despite the trembling, "What was that at the end?...I felt a physical force instead of energy crushing me."

Harleks looked at him for a few moments before answering, "Hmm, that was Spirit energy conversion to a physical fundamental force — Gravity Multiplication, every individual who reaches S-rank can do this."

Atlas’s eyes widened slightly as he processed that and spoke, "Gravity Multiplication?" he questioned it because the two S-rank individuals he had encountered before Harleks were Velgrath the Crowbeast and Mark, and neither of them had ever used anything remotely like this in front of him.

Harleks nodded, "Yes, Gravity Multiplication, it is one of the fundamental Natural Force Manipulations that become available only when you reach S-rank, you could call it something like talent that starts from that point, until then you are just a normal cultivator using Spirit in conventional ways."

Atlas frowned as he absorbed that, it made a vague kind of sense, but the more pressing question that had been forming since the pressure lifted was straightforward enough, "How do I reach S-rank then?...and gain that kind of ability?...I mean if you need money for the information I have some, so could you tell me? Or is it classified and not something shared with commoners?"

Harleks looked at Atlas for a long moment before answering, "No, it’s nothing classified, it’s just that commoners never reach the point where this information becomes relevant to them, but it’s not without a price either..."

Atlas narrowed his eyes, "What is it?"

"In your case it would be Information in exchange for information, nothing more and nothing less." Harleks said it directly without circling around the point the way nobles tended to, which made sense coming from a Guildmaster.

Atlas understood immediately what that meant, ’He must want information about my Null, most likely from seeing Spirit get erased around me...’ though he still asked to confirm it, because if that was what Harleks wanted in exchange, he would have to leave and find the information elsewhere, and that was when he thought of Seraphiel Rosaria, she had enough noble influence that she likely had access to S-ranks or knowledge about them, though that was a consideration for later.

"What information do you want then?"

Harleks replied calmly, "Hmm, I wanted the information about what you did just when my Spirit pressure came down on you, but I am already guessing you won’t tell me that and will leave instead, so i would say it’s not totally an information I want...I want to know the truth about what you plan to do when you reach S-rank."

He continued before Atlas could respond, "I am not asking because S-rank means the pinnacle of strength or because I think you could cause trouble, it’s because after reaching S-rank it becomes a bridge to everything that comes after, it acts like the lowest floor of a building, if that foundation is strong then everything built above it will be strong as well, and cultivation becomes significantly clearer after reaching it, though the stages beyond it still take time, it is still the most important milestone anyone can reach, do you understand what I am saying?"

Harleks finished and left Atlas to sit with the meaning of it and answer properly.

Atlas went into deep thought.

He hadn’t given his actual life goal any real consideration beyond revenge, revenge had always been the primary thing sitting at the front of everything he did, it had to be accomplished and with the Codex making his growth possible that goal felt like something that could eventually become reality, that much he was sure of, but what came after that?

And more than that — why was he, the victim, hiding in place of the people who had done this to him, why was he the one living in the shadows and concealing everything about himself while the ones who threw him away lived without consequence, even if he got his revenge someday with overwhelming power what would his life look like after that, was he just going to keep going into ruins and accumulating strength without any other purpose?

Why?

That question began forming and once it started it didn’t stop, and the more it expanded the more something else came with it, emotions that had been sitting buried under the constant motion of survival and growth, rage first, then something that felt more like disappointment, not in anyone else but in himself, for never stopping long enough to ask this, and underneath all of that was something simpler and quieter, the part of him that had always just wanted to live without being looked down on, without being used and discarded, without being somebody else’s tool or trash, he was a person, an actual person, and he had never in his entire life been treated like one, not once, not from the day he was born.

He thought more and the chaotic surface of all of it began to settle, the rage that had been running hot since Ormolio, since before Ormolio, since the very beginning of his life, started cooling from the inside, not disappearing, it was still there and it would always be there, but it was shifting into something colder and quieter and far more controlled than it had ever been before.

Harleks, who had been watching him silently with a sensing ability Atlas didn’t know about, noticed that shift and smiled to himself, ’This is what I wanted to see...boiling rage like that would only get someone with this much potential killed eventually, but this cold rage...this will kill whoever he wants to kill.’

Atlas lifted his head slowly, it had been lowered since the question landed and he had gone quiet with it, and when he spoke his voice came out lower than usual but steady.

"I want to..."