Silence remained for a few long, drawn seconds as the brigadier general let his request settle.
Seth tilted his head as he stared coldly at the elder. Naturally, he could see through the nonsense — these guys just wanted a method so they could initiate their ascension without him.
It wasn’t that Seth had a problem with this; if anything, they would just be reducing his workload.
"It’s actually quite simple." Seth suddenly started, adjusting to a more comfortable pose in his seat.
Everyone was surprised, especially the three from the ironblood side. Though he did agree to show them a path to ascension, they didn’t believe it wouldn’t come at a cost... especially the ironbloods.
Since the event of Major Grant antagonizing the Apex back at the research facility, the ironbloods had lost all hope of keeping a façade.
They expected the Apex to treat them as foes, or at least give them a hard time — hence why Brigadier General Charles Holmes was here.
In truth, they were here to negotiate and see to it that the Apex team wouldn’t intentionally meddle with the ironblood members’ ascension process or hold back information.
They didn’t know how it worked, but they feared that the Apex team might intentionally hold back on them, which might result in flawed ascensions or inferior products.
As stated, due to their lack of knowledge on the process, they didn’t know how ascension worked or how the initiation process might affect things.
And the lack of knowledge scared them more than anything, especially when they knew very well what they themselves would do if they were in the Apex’s shoes.
So while hearing Seth being so willing to share this information with zero strings attached earned their surprise, their demeanour quickly shifted into suspicion.
And of course, Seth could read all this with a glance. As an awakened, seeing through shackled beings was extremely easy.
Especially due to the unfair advantage of Will — most shackled beings would never unlock the Will stat until their awakening.
And that left them vulnerable, akin to being stripped naked mentally before awakened beings.
General Charles Holmes relaxed his clasped hands on the table and stared intensely at Seth.
"Sir Duskreaver, I can understand how you view our side, and to be frank, we are not the happiest that things have to come to this and we have to rely on your knowledge." He started with a tense but serious warning tone.
"But things have come to this, and for some reason the ones at the top want us to rely on you, the team Apex, for our ascension—" Before he could finish his speech, Seth cut him off.
"I don’t care about what you think or fear. I don’t care that you see us all as an uncontrollable threat." Seth stated with a cold tone, his gaze overflowing with disdain as he continued.
"You think we view your side as anything? That’s a mistake. We literally don’t see you guys at all. Don’t flatter yourself into thinking I would indulge in a petty act of trying to sabotage your people’s ascension or intentionally withhold information to your detriment." He finalized in a cold beat.
His words caused a visible reaction from the ironbloods. Being dismissed as such felt quite... humiliating.
And what made the shame sting more was the fact that Seth had no reason to lie. For what reason would a lion worry about a barking dog?
They might hold resentment, they might see the new bloods as a threat — especially the Apex team — but in the other party’s eyes they were not worthy enough to earn resentment.
This was exactly what made the ironbloods so spiteful. All their superiority, all their authority, their power — gone overnight!
Now they could only sit silently as a teen still wet behind the ears berated them and proceeded to belittle their existence.
Humiliation brewed in their hearts as the shame stung their egos. But that was the reality of their current situation — they could only sit silently and bear it.
Turning to the Alphas, Seth proceeded to explain the process of awakening. "In order to evolve into a higher state of life, a creature needs a boost from the X-cells.
"This micro element can be absorbed from resources like evolution crystals. You absorb enough and your body, if viable, will undergo an evolution of life instantly. But if you absorb X-cells without reaching the determined cap required for an evolution, you will basically be setting a genetic lock on yourself that will forever hinder you from evolving beyond your current state."
He finished this brief explanation and let them digest the information...
An Alpha team member called Robert Ravenclaw couldn’t help but frown as he spoke up, breaking the silence.
"Um, sir—"
Seth interrupted quickly. "Just call me Seth. We’re around the same age; it feels weird being addressed as such."
Robert smiled faintly and nodded. "I just wanted to point out that I myself, out of curiosity, have long tried absorbing an evolution crystal, yet here I am..."
Hearing these words, everyone turned their gazes back to Seth in silent expectation for an answer.
Meanwhile, inwardly Seth frowned. He and his teammates had never used evolution crystals — not even his father. Everyone benefitted from the cosmic nectar.
So Seth had never come across such an issue. But thinking about it critically, he quickly came up with an answer as to why this could be so.
Fortunately, his intelligence was so high and his cognitive processing so fast, he could analyze all this instantly so as not to drag out the awkward silence.
He turned to Robert. "The reason you didn’t could just be because your gene grade puts you at a high benchmark, making your requirements for evolution more demanding. In simple terms, you just need more X-cells. The amount contained in a single crystal wouldn’t be enough to push you to a higher form of life."
Everyone listened attentively, nodding as he finished. Even Robert himself felt the explanation did make sense.
After all, Team Alpha were all Shackled Rank evolvers, yet they were elites that could clear corruption zones alone and within hours.
So it was actually fair that the requirements for such elites to evolve would be higher than the average peak Shackled Rank evolver.
A grey-haired female, Evangeline Warren from the Alpha group, spoke up to ask the last question remaining on everyone’s mind.
"Then how would we initiate a connection with the Origin Realm?"
Seth nodded. "That process is automatic. Your evolution will be completed in the Origin Realm, where you will be transported to a random location within the infinite landscape."
The moment Seth relayed the last few words, everyone frowned. Separation wasn’t something they wanted to sign up for.
And Seth read this. "Fear not. That’s why I’m here, and I assume that’s why the higher-ups insist you come to me for a chance at ascension. I will help make sure all evolvers ascend and arrive at the same region," he explained, assuring everyone.
Seeing no more questions being asked, and finally they understood what he was here for, Seth got to his feet and clapped. "Alright... let’s proceed to the next phase. I don’t have all day."