The Origin Clan quickly went into a relentless preparation period for the deployment.
The first wave of Origin warriors stepped into the vast Training Arena, now shrouded under a golden distortion.
When they realized they had eighty years inside… disbelief turned to awe.
A veteran from the Sizzle Collective stood frozen at the threshold, staring at the shimmering barrier, "Is this real?"
Another warrior, younger, barely past SSS-rank, dropped to one knee. "Eighty years…"
"We could live entire lives in here…"
Murmurs spread through; some wept openly, others simply stood in silence, unable to process what had been given to them.
For most, it felt like divine grace.
Adrian had turned twenty days into eighty years. Eighty years to train, to fight, to rise.
...
Adrian had no intention of wasting the time he'd bought.
From every world under Origin's protection, candidates were selected.
From Earth, top rune masters like Dorian Veylan arrived aboard transport ships, still adjusting to the gravity shift as they disembarked.
Potential defenders followed like, Kai Ashford, Seraphina Valerius, Marcus Steele, Elena Armas, Damon Hill, Lyra Song.
This list of defenders had more than this.
And even candidates like Mira Veylan were brought to the galaxy, though most in this group hadn't even reached B-rank.
Mira stepped off the transport with wide eyes. She stared up at the Origin Construct.
"Father…" she whispered. "Is this… is this real?"
Dorian placed a hand on her shoulder, his own expression unreadable. "Real enough that we're standing in it."
The same was true for other worlds under the Origin Clan. Even Azrael sent candidates from his planet, those who wished to witness the galaxy with their own eyes.
By the end of recruitment, the Origin Warriors numbered 350,000, with another 20,000 assigned to the Inscriber Division.
Before the training began, every single warrior received something new.
Something that had never been sold, not even in the galaxy's markets.
A white-grey Knowledge Sphere.
In the grand assembly hall, rows upon rows of warriors stood in silence as Origin administrators moved through the crowd, handing out the spheres.
Kai touched his, and it dissolved like mist, flooding his mind with comprehension, concepts so vast, so intricate, that he staggered backward, catching himself against a pillar.
Images flashed through his mind. Fire bending into ice, Gravity folding space. Chains of essence flowing seamlessly, one into the next, without pause, without hesitation.
He saw Adrian's hands moving through combat forms.
He saw battlefields with thousands of essence beasts Adrian faced against.
"This…" Kai's voice cracked. "This is… everything."
Beside him, Marcus gripped his head, teeth clenched. "What the hell… what the hell is this?!"
Across the hall, warriors dropped one by one.
It wasn't just teaching.
It was an inheritance.
Adrian configured the knowledge forges to create this type of knowledge sphere. The entire process of generating this many spheres, distributing them to every Origin warrior, took two years.
But it was all inside the time field.
Outside, only half a day had passed.
In the Origin Construct's administrative wing, Varik stared at the reports streaming across his Node, his hands trembling slightly.
"Two years…" he murmured. "Two years of production. Half a day outside."
"And now, Origin is ready to train."
...
When the distribution was complete, the core members gathered to plan the next stage.
The mood was tense. Two years inside the Time Field had passed. Seventy-eight years of preparation still ahead.
Selena was the first to speak.
"Before we start," she said, smiling faintly, "I want to show you something."
Adrian glanced at her. Her expression held something like pride.
She raised her hand.
A soft emerald light bloomed across her arm. Breath of Life.
The mist spread through the hall, carrying the Life Essence. Every being in the room instantly felt it, the surge of Life Essence.
Draven blinked. "That's… Breath of Life?"
Aurelia leaned forward, "Selena… when did you comprehend Life?"
Everyone thought Selena should have comprehended life as her second affinity, and even created her second essence seed to cast the breath of life.
Elara frowned. "Selena… this isn't the time to show off! We're here to—"
Selena smirked. "Oh, relax, Elara. I thought we were friends now. Still bickering like the old days?"
"Bickering?" Elara's composure cracked. "While we've been working for two years straight, you've been locked in your room doing god-knows-what."
Selena's smirk faltered. "Oh? And what did you do, exactly?"
"I trained," Elara shot back. "And I actually helped others! You, on the other hand—"
Thomas coughed loudly. "Alright, that's enough."
Adrian and Thomas exchanged a look. The sight was oddly comforting. Some things never changed.
Selena finally sighed, her teasing fading. Her face turned serious.
"Elara, I didn't lock myself away for nothing. I wasn't just training, I was researching."
The hall quieted.
"I haven't comprehended the Life concept to the point of creating another essence seed," she said calmly. "I only have one essence seed. Gravity."
Aurelia straightened. "Then… how did you just cast a life concept spell with essence?"
Selena raised her right arm, the light fading to reveal an intricate tattoo.
Adrian recognized it instantly. The structure of the Breath of Life spell, etched directly into her flesh.
"That's… the runes for Breath of Life."
Selena nodded. "Back on Earth, we etched a strengthening rune onto flesh but with limiters, as most of our bodies were fragile. But now, after training to withstand void pressure, that limitation is gone."
She rolled up her sleeve, showing the tattoo clearly now.
"I thought, why should I keep burning scrolls when I can etch the spell into my own body? So I tried it with Blackwood Ink."
"I tried etching the Breath of Life rune into myself as a tattoo. The moment I did, the Life Concept rejected me. The pain was unbearable. I couldn't move for months. But while I was bedridden, I kept studying the Life Concept from the Knowledge Sphere, and the more I understood, even just the planetary concept, the less it hurt."
Everyone listened in stunned silence.
"When I reached some basic planetary comprehension, the pain stopped. And when I activated the rune…" She smiled faintly, emerald mist swirling again. "…it worked. Just like a skill scroll. But unlike a scroll, it didn't burn away after one use."
Selric's jaw dropped. "You're saying… you etched a permanent skill scroll into your flesh?"
Selena grinned. "Exactly. As long as I have pure mana, I can cast it endlessly. The Blackwood Ink takes care of mana conversion."
Elara's anger had vanished, replaced by disbelief. "Selena… you might have changed everything."
Selena folded her arms, smirking again. "So? Did I waste my two years, Elara?"
Elara just stared, speechless.
The silence was absolute.
Adrian's mind raced. Skill scrolls were always limited by production and affinity. Even if the Blackwood Ink removed the affinity barrier, the production was hard, resource and time consuming.
Every warrior could only be equipped with a limited number of scrolls.
And a fire user using life skill scrolls would easily reveal the blackwood ink. But with this tattoo, everything changed. It merely looked like someone was casting the spell themselves, and if one just trained and got used to the etched skill's basic concept, then they could use the skill with just pure mana. And only constrained by one's own mana reserves.
Then Selric started laughing, a deep, booming laugh that echoed across the hall.
"So the freak isn't just Adrian, huh? Earth really breeds monsters!"
Septimus chuckled as well, "New generation surpasses the old. It seems the Origin's foundation isn't built by one genius… but an entire lineage of them."
Adrian smiled quietly. Even in the face of war, they had found innovation. Another step forward.
Draven slammed his fist on the table, grinning wide. "This changes the deployment entirely. If we can etch defensive and offensive spells onto our warriors—"
"They won't need to rely on limited scrolls," Kael finished, "They'll have permanent access to high-tier abilities."
Aurelia's eyes gleamed. "We could standardize this. Train our inscribers to etch multiple tattoos safely."
Thomas nodded slowly. "If we start now, we have seventy-eight years to tattoo the entire army and train them to use the new skills."
The tension that had gripped them for two years finally loosened, laughter and relief rippling through the hall.
Selena's discovery was more than a breakthrough.
It was a reminder that even when the galaxy pushed them toward extinction, the people of Earth, the people of Origin, would always find a way to rewrite the rules.