18 Strength Beyond Expectations

Kaden walked up the long stairs leading to the dojo, one single step at a time.

There was no line and for once in this city, changed by the events around it, he didn't have to wait. In fact, the area surrounding the dojo was completely abandoned. Almost like a ghost town. Eerie.

It seemed that a lack of food wasn't enough to get people to join up. Kaden pitied those cowardly people. They were willing to hide behind these walls, cowering behind soldiers and relying on them to survive.

That wasn't a life worth living in his eyes. At the end of the day you may be alive, but you'd be nothing but a peasant. Every day your life was at the mercy of those you depended on to protect you.

If the situation turned even worse, if food became even scarcer, who would be sacrificed first? Not him. No, he would control his own fate, he wouldn't let anybody do it for him.

He finally reached the top of the staircase, where one of the city's bureaucrats was waiting for people to come by. When he saw Kaden, he greeted him amicably and lead him inside of the dojo.

Once inside, the bureaucrat left to go get the instructor. Meanwhile Kaden waited in the lobby, taking in the sights.

So this was a dojo huh? It was pretty much exactly like he had seen them in movies.

Wooden floor panels and sand colored walls with red accents. There were also quite a lot of Chinese decorations hung on the walls. Anyone who knew even a shred about the famous fighters Earth had, would know that this was a branch of Li Jie's dojo.

Soon the bureaucrat returned, bringing with him a scraggly man who was dressed in a red gi.

Kaden frowned a bit at the sight, the man clearly wasn't much for appearances and didn't inspire much confidence. As expected from someone who had been relegated to such a small city to teach.

The man's hair was long and messy, tied up in a sort of bun and ponytail hybrid. A bit of stubble covered his face, but his beard growth wasn't that great.

"Welcome to the Radiant Era dojo. My name is Damien Stone, I'm the instructor," The man cupped his fists and bowed.

Kaden just blinked, not expecting that sort of welcome. He confusedly copied the man's movements, butchering them a bit as he introduced himself, "Kaden."

Short and simple.

"I understand you're here for the test? Just follow me and we can get you sorted right away," Damien gestured for Kaden to follow him.

"Oh just one moment!" The bureaucrat stopped them before they could leave, "Your identification card please Mr. Kaden?"

"Already?" There was a hint of disbelief in Kaden's voice.

He understood that they were desperate, but this was still a bit much. They should've at least let him take the test first to keep up appearances.

"Ahh, well…" The bureaucrat smiled sheepishly.

"Here just take it," Kaden pulled out his card, passing it to the bureaucrat.

Damien just silently watched the exchange. He let them finish up before taking Kaden to the testing room.

The bureaucrat remained behind in the lobby. Kaden was sure that the man would be busy changing his records and getting him a new card.

This new room he now stood in was almost like a carbon copy of the lobby. The only differences were that this room had a few electronic machines scattered around the room.

"This first," Damien stood by a square metal cube with an LCD display on the side, "To begin we'll test your Aether count. It let's us see how much Aether energy is inside of your body. Knowing the count will help us with some calculations later." The instructor gave a short explanation of the machine's function.

"I see," Kaden nodded, "Is there anything I need to do?"

This was all quite intriguing, he didn't even know that a machine like this existed. He was excited to see what the rest of the room's machines were capable of.

"No nothing at all, it's really not too complex," Damien pressed a few buttons on the LCD display.

Shortly after there was a short hiss and a click as a hatch Kaden hadn't noticed before swung open.

"Just step right on in," Damien stepped aside to give him some space, "It's a bit cramped in there, so you'll have to sit down.

"Right," Kaden felt that was easier said than done. Step? It was more like crawl as the opening was small and it was hard to fit his body through it.

When he had finally made it through and sat down inside the cube, his head was only a few centimeters from hitting against the top. He was still a growing boy, hopefully they would make this thing larger before he grew any taller.

The experience made him feel bad for all the ones who were taller than him and had to use the machine.

There was another hiss and click as the hatch swung shut, cutting him off from the outside world completely.

It felt very weird. As soon as the hatch had shut, the cube had been filled with a sort of eerie silence. You could definitely hear a pin drop and hit the floor.

He didn't feel like there was a lot of noise in his day to day life, but as soon as the hatch had shut he could tell the difference.

It was just completely silent.

Or at least it had been for a moment. The silence was broken as a whirring noise began, rapidly increasing in intensity. He hoped that it was just a result of the machine working like it was supposed to.

While the silence had been comfortable and relaxing, this was anything but. He wished he had a pair of earmuffs as he waited.

A few minutes passed before the whirring began to die down, and then there was yet another familiar hiss and click as the hatch swung open again.

"Not so bad huh?" Damien had leaned down to poke his grinning face through the hatch, "You can come out now by the way."

Kaden climbed through the obnoxious hatch once more, they really needed to make a larger version.

Standing up on the outside, he was looking at the LCD display with Damien.

"Hm alright. Look here, see where it says 1.27?" Damien pointed at a bold blue number on the display, "That's your Aether count."

"Is that good?" Kaden asked, watching the number.

"That really depends," Damien shrugged, "The average for someone untrained is around 0.85. It's good if you haven't cultivated, but it's nothing special if you have. Have you?" Damien watched him with interest, awaiting his answer.

"No I haven't," Kaden thought about it for a second before amending his statement, "Well, I've tried."

"But no success?" Damien asked.

"Yeah," Kaden nodded.

No matter what he'd done, he hadn't made any progress on that front at all. That was why this opportunity was so important to him.

"I see, well 1.27 put's you at about novice fighter level. Not bad at all for someone of your level of experience," Damien even seemed impressed.

Kaden felt proud of the assessment, but also surprised. He thought he would've been considered a Non-Practitioner, which was the lowest of the five ranks that he had heard of.

The ranking system began at Non-Practitioner, which really covered anyone who hadn't cultivated Aether at all. Regular people mostly. Then there were Novice Fighters, followed by intermediate, advanced, and then expert.

Maybe there were more, but those were the ones that he knew. After all, from what the aliens had showed so far, Aether was limitless.

Nonetheless, he credited his Aether count to the breakthrough he had first felt back in the boxing gym. At that time, it had felt like there was a sort of seal on his Aether that had been shattered.

He couldn't think of anything else that would put him at his current level.

"So! For the next test, if you would please step up to this machine right here," Damien gestured to a machine that was just a couple of beams connected to a round metallic plate, covered by a soft pad.

"What is it?" Kaden took a look at the machine, but wasn't immediately able to figure out it's use.

"It's a punching machine, it'll register the force of your punch in kilograms. We can do some interesting calculations with that data," Damien smiled, this was his favorite part of the test by far, "Shouldn't need too much explanation here either, just throw a punch whenever you're ready."

Kaden felt good about this test, punching was something he'd done a lot. In the boxing gym he'd spent countless hours, just mindlessly slugging away at a punching bag.

He stepped up to the machine full of confidence, squaring himself against the plate. He felt the Aether move around inside of his body, shifting as he cocked back his arm and sent it flying forward with a swish.

There was a loud bam sound as his hand struck the round pad, followed by a digital beep as the machine recorded the force of his punch.

"792?" Damien gasped in shock, not entirely believing what he was seeing, "That…" He rubbed his eyes.

"What?" Kaden had felt good about it at first, but seeing the instructor act like this now confused him. Had he scored low?

"That's… Good," Damien scratched his temple, "No not just good, it's great. Amazing even."

"Really?" Kaden was happy but not surprised, his punch was something that he was very confident in.

"No you don't understand, this is… Abnormal. I haven't seen anything like it," Damien still didn't quite know what to make of the situation.

"What do you mean?"

Damien cleared his throat, "Usually we can expect a ratio of around 300 to 1 in terms of Aether count compared to the force of a punch. Plus minus a hundred or so. But your ratio is over double that."

"So?… Aren't there great boxers who could do this even without Aether?" Kaden said.

"Sure, technique and the development of your body can bridge the gap a bit. But a double ratio is still extreme, especially for your age. Have you done a lot of boxing? Strength training?"

"Yeah I've been boxing for about a year now. And I've always been athletic," Kaden said, feeling as if that explained everything.

"A year? That's not that long," Damien shook his head, in his eyes Kaden's explanation couldn't cover for the rapid difference. It wasn't enough.

"Call it talent," Kaden didn't understand why Damien was obsessing over this so much. To him this was natural, why wouldn't he be great?

"Maybe. I think this is a bit of a conundrum though, training in boxing for just a year shouldn't be enough to do this," Damien thought about it before shrugging, "However I don't have an explanation either. I suppose we'll just have to keep an eye on it, if the ratio stays in place even as you keep training, something is very weird."

"Whatever," Kaden didn't feel that it was worth making a fuss over. There were always people more talented and genetically gifted than others.

So he was stronger than expected, so what? Damien was making it sound like something strange was taking place, but Kaden always knew that he was destined to do great things.