《Parasyte System》


 Chapter 1 - Infected

    Today the ssroom was much more lively than usual, several students around 16-17 years old were standing and chatting happily, some hugging, others simplyughing as they remembered good times and there were also those who were shedding some tears.

    However, that was to be expected, after all, today was thest day of school, many of them would take different paths in life and some would never encounter again.

    "Heh..."

    In the midst of all this, a young man suddenly let out augh, he had ck curly hair along with green eyes and an olive skin, although he wasn''t the tallest in the ss, he still was taller than most of his ssmates.

    The reason of his particrly good mood today was because finally, after waiting for so long, today was the day when everything will change for him...

    ''Now that I have the opportunity to change my life, I must take full advantage of it... The only thing left now is wait for him to arrive!'' He thought, excitedly.

    "Jay!"

    ''Just in time...''

    Turning around to see the person that had called him by his name, Jay couldn''t help but smile inwardly as he saw a tall young man entering the ssroom.

    The young man''s name was Carl, the typical bully who liked to prove his superiority by abusing others weaker than him, although for some reason, it would seem that his only target was Jay, as he didn''t bother anyone else in the entire school.

    Carl had white hair which wasbed backwards, adding his jade green eyes and his slim build, everything came together to form the person known as Carl.

    Unfortunately, it seems that regardless of his personality, the world had been good to him, because not only was his appearance quite good and his family wealthy, he also was... an esper.

    "You are really brave toe here today despite being useless, eh!" He said as he approached Jay''s desk.

    The ''useless'' thing was an insult that Jay had heard several times in his life, since he had not manifested an ability for any of the three sses since he was a child, most people saw him as someone inferior to them.

    Although of course, no one knew that Jay had... changed.

    "Haha, no no, brave ising to school with the grades you have." He answered as he got up of his seat and gave him the brightest smile he could do, "You know, despite this being thest day of school, you were so kind toe and remind them that their grades are not the worst, you really are such a considerate person~"

    Although it was true that Carl excelled in several aspects of his life, studying was not one of them.

    On the other hand, Jay could boast about his grades all he wanted, after all, as a person with no powers, he had a lot of free time, time that he used to study and read all the things he could.

    While his grades weren''t the best in the ss, he ranked nearly to the top.

    "You..." Said Carl, a vein popping on his forehead, it seems that Jay had managed to anger him.

    This was another bad aspect of Carl... he was short tempered.

    *Woosh!*

    Suddenly, Carl activated his ability, causing various wind currents to start swirling around him, even though it was only wind, the pressure they were causing was noughing matter.

    Their ssmates stopped their conversations and backed away when they saw what was happening, making it clear that they were not going to intervene, which was understandable, as it was not worth antagonizing Carl for Jay''s sake.

    Moreover, everyone here was aware of Carl''s strenght, even if they wanted to help, they only would get beaten up by him.

    As for any teacher intervening here, it wasn''t probable, since it was thest day of school, they were all in the teacher''s lounge, enjoying thest day of school chatting with their peers and giving the students time for themselves.

    "What''s happening there?"

    At that moment, the loud but clear voice of another young man was heard by everyone in the ssroom. Although his tone was calm, it carried a certain authority that made everyone present inevitably pay attention to him.

    Fortunately for Jay, if Carl was his personal bully, there was also someone who acted as a hero for him, and in this case, the role fall on this person.

    "James..." Said Carl as he watched a really tall young man with a military haircut make his way through his ssmates to get where Jay and him where.

    Since Jay''s seat was in the front row of the ssroom, all of his ssmates had backed away from Carl and him, pushing some people behind, including James.

    If Carl was tall, then James was a giant, if Carl was handsome, then James looked like a movie actor, adding the great physique he possessed, if both were conquerable characters in a dating simtion game, Jay didn''t think that anyone wouldin.

    James, without a doubt the prince of this school, apart from surpassing anyone of the school when ites to fitness, his fair personality,bined with his lively golden gaze full of determination and confidence which never wavered even against the delinquents of any school, made him earn the undisputed number one ce in the girl''s rankings.

    The reason he was so fair was because hees from a long line of pugilists, and not normal pugilists, but those who worked in the army, that''s also the reason of why he had a military haircut right now.

    "Carl..." Said James as he stood in front of Jay, facing Carl face to face.

    With both of them facing each other, the atmosphere became even more tense than before.

    "If you''re going to beat him up, I also want to join!"

    Suddenly, a girl''s voice was heard loud and clear in the room, momentarily interrupting the tense situation unfolding.

    Then, someone else made their way through their ssmates.

    The person who came out this time was a girl with long blue hair that fell like a waterfall all the way to her knees, she was wearing a white blouse which was unbuttoned at the neck and a skirt that reached her thighs, both revealing the girl''s gleaming white skin.

    Although the girl was quite pretty, her charm went beyond the physical, as she radiated a certain aura that seemed to overshadow everything around her, adding her confident and bright attitude, this girl inmediately managed to make everyone momentarily forget the real conflict that was taking ce in the ssroom.

    As for her height, while it was true that she was short whenpared to Carl and James, she didn''t fall behind too much since she was almos as tall as Jay after all.

    "Sarah? I thought you wouldn''te to school today." Said James as he looked at the girl who had appeared.

    "Well, I suspected something like this would happen and I definitely couldn''t pass up such a good opportunity to give this idiot a lesson."

    "Haha, you really don''t like him, do you?" Answered James while crossing his arms andughing.

    "I just hate bad guys." Said Sarah, giving Carl a cold gaze before lookint at Jay. "Anyway, are you okay, Jay?"

    "Physically I''m better than ever, but the way you''re clenching your fists right now are making me wonder who the dangerous person is here, if you or Carl." He answered before backing away.

    "Indeed, those fists are dangerous even to a pugilist like me." James yed along with him,ughing a bit louder than before.

    "Oi, I came to school just to help you and you make fun of me!" Sarah on the other hand crossed her arms and turned her head to avoid looking at them.

    "DON''T IGNORE ME!!"

    *WOOSH*

    However, before any of them could finish their conversation, Carl released a strong current of wind into the room while, forcing everyone in the room to take a few steps back, everyone except 3 people.

    The first person was obviously...

    "He gets angry really quickly." Said James, whose pupils were now emitting a golden light giving him a mystical air, and that wasn''t all, his body was wrapped in a silver aura which seemed to protect him from the wind.

    The second person was...

    "He''s rude too, we were having a conversation here in case you hadn''t noticed." Said Sarah, who was also surrounded by something, although it wasn''t an aura like James'' but a transparent sphere with a surface simr to that of a soap bubble, which despite appearing weak was quite resistant.

    And finally...

    Jay, the person behind the two living windbreakers.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I appreciate the gesture, guys, but you''re making me look bad..." He said as he walked towards Carl, leaving the security that they both provided.

    "Hey! What are you doing? Get back here!" Yelled Sarah when she saw him walk past in front of her.

    James on the other hand just watched him closely, as if to find out what he had nned.

    ''...Seriously, your senses are just too good, James!'' Thought Jay.

    "Somehow I feel like you''re different today, I hope you know what you''re doing." He said, moving aside so Jay could get closer to Carl.

    "Of course I do, so for now... leave this to me!"

    With those words as the trigger, he ran to Carl with everything he had.

    Seeing this, Cal didn''t even bother to dodge.

    "Pfft, maybe it would be different if James or Sarah came, but do you really think that a good-for-nothing like you can take me on?!" He shouted, obviously not taking him serious at all.

    However, that was understandable, after all, Jay was only a normal human, while Carl was a skilled esper, the difference in power between the too was just too great.

    The next moment, Carl moved his arm horizontally, causing a small but incredibly fast moon-shaped wind current toe flying towards Jay.

    There was no doubt, if that hit him, Jay definitely would have to stay in the hospital for a good time, however, that''s only if it managed to hit him.

    While it was true that it was fast, it was also quite predictable, so Jay inmediately jumped to the right, sessfully avoiding the wind and getting closer to Carl in the process.

    "Ohhh, well done Jay!" James shouted from where he was standing, pping his hands.

    "You can do it Jay! Kick that bastard''s ass!" Sarah also joined, cheering for him.

    ''...I really don''t know if she''s encouraging me or just expressing her displeasure for Carl, haha.'' Thought Jay.

    "...What have I done to you?" Suddenly asked Carl to Sarah.

    "I just hate bad guys so shut up and let him beat you up!"

    Faced with such a strong and direct statement, Carl could only give up.

    ''Hm, something tells me there is a deeper reason than that, but oh well, I''ll leave it forter. First things first, now that I''m pretty close to him...''

    "Ha!" With a war cry, Jay tried to throw a punch towards Carl''s face.

    "Heh, in your dreams, idiot!" Shouted Carl, instantly gathering more wind currents, there was no doubt that Jay wouldn''t get out of this unscathed if any of them managed to hit him.

    Fortunately, he had already thought about what to do in this situation.

    *Tap*

    "...Eh?"

    "..."

    ''They''re pretty quiet, they must be impressed by my surprise move~''

    "Why... Why did you throw yourself on the ground, I haven''t done anything yet..." Said Carl, taken back for Jay''s unexpected move.

    However, while this may seem just a desperate attempt to avoid getting hit, this was part of Jay''s n.

    "...Take this!" He yelled as he quickly grabbed his ankle.

    Unfortunately, even after a few seconds passed, nothing happened.

    "...Hahaha, what are you trying to do, tickle me?" Carl didn''t seem worried in the least that Jay was touching his ankle, "I''m afraid you''re going to need a lot more than-OUCH. Hey, don''t pinch me!"

    ''So that''s what it feels uh... oh well, better for me.''

    "All right, I''m tired of this!" Said Carl before releasing the strongest wind current until now.

    "Ahh!"

    As Jay no longer had the reliable living windbreakers by his side, he was sent flying a few meters.

    "Argh! Damn, Inded on my ass, it''s definitely going to hurt tomorrow..." He said as he rubbed his buttocks before standing up and looking at Carl again, "You know what... let''s call it a draw."

    "...What?"

    Since he had already achieved his goal, there was no reason why Jay should continue "fighting" with him, so he decided to stop at this moment.

    "Well, nevermind, in the end you couldn''t even hit me, and you even dared to act brave?" He said with an arrogant look on his face.

    "But I could touch your ankles! So you better watch them because next time I''m not just going to grab them, you heard me!"

    A good line of intimidation never hurts... at least that''s what Jay thought.

    "...What?" Carl said with a confused look on his face.

    "I said that next time I won''t just touch your ankles, I''ll bit-Ugh!"

    However, before Jay could finish repeating his weird threat, a pair of long and strong arms lifted him up against his will.

    "All right, that''s it, this fight ends in a draw, then, see youter!" Said James as he headed towards the ssroom door with Jay on his shoulder.

    Although it definitely wasn''t the most glorious form of retreat, Jay didn''t have a say on this.

    "Next time I see you I''ll kick your ass myself Carl!" Added Sarah while making a "You''re going down!" expression with her hands as she also headed towards the door.

    "Hey, why can she threaten but not me?" Jay protested.

    "Because your threats are weird!" She answered.

    That way, the three of them quickly left the ssroom leaving behind an entire ssroom full of confused people, what''s more, when they were outside of the ssroom, Jay heard Carl''s say: "What did just happen?!"

    It was to be expected that he was confused, as everything had happened too fast, however, Jay couldn''t care less about how Carl was feeling right now.

    After all, the message he had been expecting all this time finally appeared before his eyes.

    _____________________

    [Host sessfully infected]

    _____________________

 Chapter 2 - Origins

    After his glorious retreat from the ssroom, they left the school grounds and headed towards a street food stands area.

    There was no problem with leaving early since it was thest day of school, in fact, most of the students hadn''t even brought backpacks to school.

    "That was weird, even for you." Said James as the three of them walked down the street.

    "Yep, quite a bit, and that-*munch*-that was your n? Just touch his ankle?" Sarah added as she ate a candy that she bought at one of the stalls.

    Suddenly, she stopped eating and her expression changed to one of realization before saying "...Could it be...that''s what you''re into...?!" And then she took a few steps back...

    ''...Really...?'' Thought Jay as his eyebrow twitched.

    He decided to ignore her for the moment before starting to exin.

    "...Well, the n was just to touch some part of his body, so it''s just a coincidence that it was his ankle." He answered as he crossed his arms. "More importantly, don''t you think it''s about time...you let me down?".

    That''s right, all the way from school to this street, Jay had been carried like a sack of potatoes by the prince of the school.

    "Ah, right."

    *Munch*

    ''You seriously forgot!?''

    "Sorry, sorry, I forgot that I was carrying you, since you''re so light, I didn''t feel the difference." Answered James as he put me down.

    "Wow, you insult my weight while ttering yourself, how skilled."

    "Of course not, you know how we pugilists are-"

    "Yeah, I know, don''t worry, I''m just kidding." Jay knew what he was going to say so it was best to interrupt him before he started exining everything about the pugilist''s story.

    That was because Jay didn''t want to hear it again, he even knew it by heart after all.

    *Munch*

    "If you know so much then you won''t mind exining it to us, right?" James said with a look of wanting to test him on his face.

    He originally wanted to refuse, but seeing the fervent look on Jay''s face, he decided it was best toply.

    "Of course not! Ahem! Long ago, after the Great Proliferation, a man was born...with no special ability... and no capacity to feel the mana in the world...but what he had, was an unwavering determination.

    The man in question set out to train the only thing he had at the time...his body.

    After many tribtions, traveling all over the world, creating training methods that put his life at risk and fighting battles impossible to win, something changed inside him.

    The limit he had as a human being...was broken.

    *Munch*

    The battles that were once impossible were now solved with the lifting of one of his fingers, the trips that used to take him months, now took him just minutes, the training techniques that were once so deadly andplicated for him were now as easy as breathing.

    *Munch*

    That is how the first pugilist in history was born, with pure determination and hard work.

    And his name was... As, The Pugilist Founder.

    Since then, countless people who didn''t born with a special ability or the capacity to feel mana followed his example, and although it was hard and risky, some managed to obtain stenght that far surpassed that of a normal human.

    Of course, it was easier for them thanks to As, who opened the path and shared his knowledge."

    *Munch*

    "Hey, stop eating!"

    *Munch*

    "You..."

    "Alright, alright, I''m done with the candy, you guys want to eat something before we go home~? I know a good ramen restaurant nearby." Said Sarah after finishing the candy she had bought in record time.

    "...you literally just ate and now you want more...? Wow..." Jay said with a surprised expression on my face.

    "Voracious as always eh, as expected from Sarah the glutton..." Said James, ying along.

    "It''s just a sweet, you idiots!"

    "Oh, oh, now that you''re at it, tell the origin of the magicians." James added.

    "Hmm, would you like to do it Sarah?" He said by looking at the girl who was suddenly at another candy stand.

    As Sarah was a mage herself, she knew much better than he did what the origin of mages was.

    "Nope, I''ll give you the honor of enlightening our friend." She said without even turning around.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "All right then! Ahem!" Jay said, assuming again a storytelling posture.

    "Before the first pugilist was born, there was a woman, the word genius would be an understatement to describe her, with academic achievements that would shame the vast majority of the world''s schrs at the young age of 15.

    This woman was particrly fascinated by natural phenomena, and loved even more the espers, human beings who were the living embodiment of those natural phenomena.

    Unfortunately, she had not been born with powers and had not manifested them in her entire life, causing her great disappointment.

    However, she was not someone who was willing to ept things as they were, so determined to find some way to control the natural phenomena she loved so much, she began an investigation, studying ancient ruins, meteors, and the events that changed the world as a result of the Great Proliferation.

    Several years passed and she disappeared from the sight of the world, slowly making the world forget her.

    Until one day, suddenly, the whole world shook, in the sky of the country that now is known as Gliedal, everyone could see the same woman who years ago had amazed the world with her intellect.

    But before people could do anything else, severalplicated and extremely huge circr patterns appeared in the sky, their appearance was mystical and mysterious, then, a huge crack even bigger than the circr patterns opened in the sky, only to disappear secondster along with the woman.

    However, in the short time that the crack had appeared, something had seeped into our world from there, a new kind of energy that wouldter be known as... mana.

    It was as if a current of fresh air was moving through the world, and although many people did not feel it, there were several others who began to perceive this energy, and most importantly, began to make use of it.

    Some imitated the patterns that had appeared in the sky at the moment the crack appeared, others used the mana in their own way, giving birth to many branches of magic, achieving what before only espers could do... control natural phenomena.

    And although that woman did not reappear after the day the crack opened, she is considered the first magician in history and also the reason of why there is mana in this world.

    This woman''s name was...Aphra, The Mage Founder."

    "Hm, she''s not only the first magician but also the reason why there is mana in this world... truly an amazing person." James said with a look of reverence on his face, which was normal, he admired strong people regardless of what ss or gender they were.

    "That''s right, the Founder is truly amazing! And even though you skipped over some details, you told the Founder''s story well!" Said Sarah with a bright and prideful smile.

    "Then, how about you also tell us the origin of the espers next~? I don''t know it very well." James said as he approached another candy stand.

    "Oh, well, the origin of the espers is a little moreplicated," Jay replied as he followed James. "As they were the first ss to appear and since it was a really long time ago, only the first esper is known, and it is not even clear if that person really was the first esper."

    "But you, ah excuse me, give me 3 of those chocte bars, please." James asked the salesman.

    "Make that four." Added Sarah, it seems that the candy she bought in the previous stall was no longer in this world.

    "4 then... thanks, here." After paying the vendor and giving us the candy, James continued. "Ahem, as I was saying, then tell that, there''s still a distance until we arrive to our houses~"

    "Hm, alright~"

    *Munch*

    ''Sarah''s already eating... why am I not surprised...''

    The three of them continued to move forward as Jay started to tell the story of the first esper.

    "It is said that the first esper was a person loved by the world itself. When the world had not yet known the existence of mana or the martial techniques of pugilists.

    A woman was born, blessed with a beauty that was enough to embarrass the most beautiful women in the world.

    A family so influential and powerful that rulers of entire countries didn''t dared offend.

    An intelligence that rivaled the great minds of that time.

    With all the things she had, it was already enough for her to triumph in this life, however, in that year, the Great Proliferation urred, a catastrophe in which the animals of the world began to reproduce at insanely fast rates and most importantly, they began to mutate, bing stronger, bigger and more intelligent, turning into somethingpletely different, monsters.

    Even until now, no one knows the exact cause of the Great Proliferation, but one thing was known, most of the mutated animals were incredibly hostile to human beings, attacking anyone who came into their sight.

    The human race suffered great damage in that time because the weapons they had were not effective against the monsters, and as a result, countless lives were lost.

    Those were desperate times, quite a few countries had fallen and many others were in a precarious situation, forcing them to escape to the ind that now is known as the Altur Country, and that gave them a temporary peace.

    However, the monsters were relentless and managed to reach the ind, then, seeing as they had nowhere else to run, humanity gathered all the remaining military power they had, waging war against the monsters.

    Unfortunately, the monsters were attacking as if they didn''t care about their lives and there were so many of them that they looked like a sea flooding the human army.

    But just when humanity was about to lose the battle, someone appeared in the sky of the battefield.

    She was the daughter of that prominent family, and at the moment she arrived at the battlefield, without even giving the monsters a chance to get close, she disyed her abilities, creating huge hurricanes of fire, provoking earthquakes and enormous thunderstorms thatpletely destabilized the sea of monsters, giving the human army time to escape.

    That way, she single handedly eliminated the sea of monsters.

    ording to the records of the supposed survivors who saw her face the army of monsters, it was as if she was mother nature herself, retaliating against them.

    From that day on, as if it were a domino effect, several people began to manifest special abilities, helping humanity in the fight against monsters and thus creating the ss that would be known as espers".

    "Creating hurricanes of fire, causing earthquakes and thunderstorms...for a pugilist that''s almost impossible to do..." James added.

    "That''s right, even with magic, you can only do one of those things and I doubt that it would be as strong as hers, oh right, you didn''t mention her name~." Said Sarah with her lips a little bit stained with chocte.

    "That woman''s name was Cyra, The Esper Founder."

 Chapter 3 - Interface

    After that session of exnations, they kept walking until they reached their houses, as for the goodbyes for being thest day of school, they were not necessary.

    The three of them were neighbors after all.

    "Well then, see you tomorrow guys, oh and thanks for the sweet James~" Sarah said from her front door as she said goodbye to them.

    Her house was quiterge, it had 2 floors and had a british style, red brick walls along with white decorations that went well with the overall design of the house, it was also surrounded by a small fence, even though it looked a bit old, it didn''t take away from the fact that it was a luxurious house.

    "Bye~"

    "You''re wee and see you tomorrow too, Sarah."

    After they said goodbye to Sarah, she went inside her house, Jay and James kept walking, although only a little more, Jay''s house was next door after all.

    Unlike Sarah''s house, Jay''s on the other hand was quite normal, it was also two-story, white walls, had red roof tiles and some nts outside for decoration, he also had a garage, even though he didn''t have a car.

    "Bye, James~"

    "Bye."

    After saying goodbye, Jay entered his house, as for James, he still had to walk some more to get to his house.

    Not that it was far away or anything, in fact it was right next to Jay''s, or rather, the yard of his house was right next to Jay''s, Jame''s house was so big that only the yard was the size of several houses ced side by side.

    After entering his house, Jay took off his shoes and went through the entrance, which only consisted of the entrance to the garage and a coat rack to leave coats, jackets, etc, although he didn''t use it much.

    Passing the entrance was the living room, a fairly average room, a few armchairs, a TV, a centerpiece and a sliding door that led to the backyard.

    Because Jay liked the concept of open space, this floor was shared by the kitchen and the living room.

    On the left was the staircase to the second floor which is where his bedroom, the bathroom and the room where he did all hisundry were.

    After drinking a bottle of water from the fridge he went upstairs to his room to rest a bit.

    "I''m tired even though I haven''t done anything...weird."

    Once in his room, he jumped on his bed still with his uniform on.

    "Open." He suddenly said, lying on his bed.

    Then, a transparent interface containing some words appeared in front of him.

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System]

    Carrier: Jay Sacrest

    [Status]

    [Hosts] (New)

    _____________________

    This was the reason Jay had risked confronting Carl, as well as the esper skill he possessed.

    However, although he believed that, he wasn''t really sure if this was an esper skill or not since he hadn''t heard of any simr skill before.

    But since the espers were the ones that had the most diversity out of the three sses, he figured that he would have to be an esper.

    As for how he got it, it came naturally about 3 weeks ago.

    It was a normal day, Jay went to ss, hung out with James and Sarah, they went out to eat something, then he came home, did his homework and finally fell asleep, the same routine that he had been following all these years.

    However, the weird things started from there, specifically with what he dreamt about that night.

    He remembered being in a totally dark space, where all he could hear was his breathing, it was as if he was in the middle...of nothingness.

    Everywhere he looked, all he could see was darkness, adding that to the feeling of being suspended in the air, it wasn''t pleasant for him at all.

    Even then, he just thought that it was a weird dream, but just when that idea crossed his mind, he heard a voice.

    "Jay..."

    It was a deep and strong voice that was heard very close, so close that it resonated throughout his entire body, as if it came from inside him.

    He looked around for the person who said that, and that''s when he saw "him".

    In the midst of all that darkness, a pair of little red eyes suddenly opened, staring straight at him.

    "Come..."

    He remembered that for some reason, it''s voice sounded really sweet and convincing to his ears, making him unable to resist... so he inevitably approached.

    Jay felt that it wasn''t a very smart decision, but it was a dream and he wasn''t at his best.

    The closer he got, the more clearly he could see the silhouette of the "person" to whom those red eyes belonged.

    Finally, when he was a just a few meters away from it, Jay managed to see it, it was a small golden worm the size of a thumb, it had very sharp teeth which together with its eyes made it look quite dangerous. Although... Jay couldn''t feel any dangering from it.

    After he got close enough to the worm, his first reaction was, for some reason...to touch it.

    The worm just stood still as Jay''s hand came closer and closer to it, his red eyes following his hand.

    Suddenly, just as Jay was about to touch it, the worm moved, causing Jay to reflexively close his eyes.

    By the time he opened them, the worm was nowhere to be found and Jay was left alone once again in that dark space.

    "Argh!"

    Suddenly, he felt a great pain in his chest, forcing him to press on his chest in a desperate attempt to lessen even a little the intense pain he was feeling.

    Unfortunately, it didn''t help much and the pain just kept getting worse and worse until it became unbearable.

    Just when he was about to pass out from the pain, he heard the voice again...

    "Say it..."

    "What? Argh! What do you mean...?!"

    Jay didn''t know why It was saying that so he just kept pressing his chest, it was a really confusing and painful moment for him.

    "Open..."

    "Open what?!"

    The voice didn''t answer him and just kept saying that, so Jay, without much else to do in that situation, did as the voice told him.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Open!"

    Suddenly, a transparent interface filled with words appeared in front of him.

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System]

    Scanning [Carrier]...5%

    Scanning [Carrier]...17%

    Scanning...

    _____________________

    Unfortunately, he couldn''t see more of those messages as he fainted from the pain.

    By the time he woke up, his chest still hurt, which made him think that maybe it wasn''t just a dream.

    Then, hoping that it wasn''t just a dream, he repeated the same thing he did there.

    "Open..."

    Unexpectedly, it worked, although the message that appeared before him was different from the one that he saw in his dream.

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System]

    Carrier: Jay Sacrest

    [Status]

    [Hosts]

    _____________________

    Jay didn''t sleep or went to school that day because of the excitement je was feeling, instead, he spent all day researching the functions of this so called "Parasyte System".

    What he first discovered was that "Status" showed the physical state of his body in grades.

    The initial state of his body was like this:

    _____________________

    [Status]

    Strength: (E-)

    Agility: (E+)

    Resistance: (E-)

    _____________________

    He was surprised that his physical condition was disyed in this way, and he also felt a little embarrased, his stats were horrible after all.

    Although there were different ways to ssify supers from the different sses, the best known way was by means of letters, from the (F-) rank to the legendary (S) rank.

    (E-) rank meant that he was in worst shape than most of his ssmates and he also was sure that there were even some kids stronger than him.

    The reason why his physical condition was so deplorable was because he didn''t really exercise at all, he preferred to spend his time doing other things like studying, reading or something like that.

    But now that that has changed, he decided to increase his stats, exercising like never before.

    It took him about a week and a half to increase his strength stat, however, he indeed felt that he had be stronger than before.

    As for agility and endurance, although he trained them, he couldn''t increase their rank for some reason.

    Another thing that he noticed was that he felt that the energy he possessed had increased. Specifically, the speed at which he recovered, for example, if he spent 3 hours exercising, he only needed half an hour of rest to exercise another 3, and the same was true for other aspects of his daily life, such as sleeping.

    Although the amount of food he needed also increased a lotpared to before, it was a good thing that he could train faster.

    Then, with that covered, the next thing he researched was the "Hosts" option.

    Initially it showed this:

    _____________________

    [Hosts]

    You currently do not have a host.

    Infect another individual to get a host.

    Parasites Avable: 10 (As a gift from the system, the [Carrier] has been awarded with 10 parasites.)

    _____________________

    That part interested him even more, it was telling me him that he could have "Hosts", and the system even gave him 10 parasites as a gift!

    Jay then started wondering what exactly he could do with the hosts...

    However, no matter how much he thought about it, the only thing that came to his mind was that he had to test it in order to discover more, he just hoped that he wouldn''t have to devour someone or something like that.

    As for the part about having to infect someone else, he didn''t know how to do it or who to do it to.

    So, without much more to do, he decided to put it aside at the moment due to hisck of knowledge and a suitable test subject.

    Luckily, he still could experiment with thest part of the "Hosts" option, the so called "parasites".

    The first thing that came to his mind was to say "out"... but it didn''t work.

    After that Jay tried several more things, like doing weird poses, trying to throw something out of his mouth, putting his hands together, shooting with his fingers...but nothing.

    Finally, he decided to try something simpler and less silly than the above.

    He sat cross-legged on his bed and focused on his body, trying to feel where the parasites might be.

    Fortunately, Jay was able to discover why it hadn''t worked for him before.

    He had tried to get them out of his stomach, mouth, chest or fingers before, and they weren''t there.

    They were in his right arm, the same arm that he touched the worm in his dream with....

 Chapter 4 - Parasites

    Since he had discovered their location, Jay tried to control one of them, the first thing he could think of was to make it go towards his hand, and fortunately, this time worked.

    He felt a little tingling sensation in his arm when it moved to his hand, but it wasn''t ufortable or anything like that, instead, it felt like it was just a natural process, as if... that''s how it was supossed to be.

    When the parasite finally arrived, Jay ordered him to get out.

    Then, a small worm came out of the palm of his hand.

    Seeing this, Jay had a couple of doubts about it.

    First, it looked nothing like the worm in his dream, this one was thinner, smaller and had no eyes, just a few small sharp teeth, his size was about 2 centimeters long, so where did ite from?

    Second, howe this doesn''t hurt at all...?

    Of course, at that moment he decided to leave those questions forter, since he was more interested in the little friend he had on his palm and what could he do with him.

    His motto was "One problem at a time" after all.

    Another thing Jay noticed is that even though themand he gave to the parasite was "get out", it didn''tpletely left his palm, his lower body was still in his hand.

    He wanted to know the reason why so he started trying different things with it.

    What he found out was that the parasite didn''t like being outside his body at all because he seemed to get weaker the longer he was out.

    Jay also discovered that the parasite could enter his body from anywhere other than his head or some intimate part, not because he didn''t try, but because he didn''t want the parasite in those areas.

    And no matter what part of his body the parasite entered from, Jay felt nothing but a little itch.

    Then, he decided to test another parasite, it''s appearance was exactly the same as the first one and it behaved in the same way.

    The next thing that urred to Jay was to test their piercing power, after all, those sharp teeth definitely had to be able to cause a considerable damage, so he bought some meat to see how long it would take them to enter it.

    Incredibly, it didn''t take them even 1 second to get in, and despite not being inside his body, their mobility wasn''t affected at all, it was as if they were fishes swimming in water.

    As for their capacity of damaging the meat... it seems that they weren''t able to do it even if they wanted. After entering, they didn''t leave any wounds on the meat, nor could they eat it or damage it in any way.

    It seemed like their main function was to enter inside the body of someone, not damage it, but Jay was fine with that too.

    The system obviously didn''t recognize the meat as a host either, so he decided to left that kind of test until he got a real host.

    What he tried next was to move them differently, the test site had been his right arm, he ordered the first parasite to move towards his palm and the second one to climb up towards his elbow.

    It turned out well and they both reached their destinations without trouble, proving that Jay was able to control them to do different things at the same time.

    Then he also did the same with the other 8 parasites he had in his arm.

    In this process Jay also discovered something new, the parasites have a "rest mode".

    When he stopped controlling them, they slowly returned to his right arm no matter the part of his body they were in.

    Once in his arm, all they did was stand still, as if they were resting, so he decided to call it rest mode, quite simple.

    Unfortunately, because of school consuming a lot of his time, he only could improve his statistics and do some test with the system functions.

    ***

    Back to the present.

    "But today...I finally managed to get my longed-for host!" Jay said while raising his fist.

    The problem of the host was something that had troubled him from the beginning as there wasn''t a suitable test subject.

    As for Carl, he had a good debate with himself as to whether he deserved to be infected or not.

    He was an idiot, yes, but he was far from being a real criminal.

    Plus, Jay had heard that he sometimes defended some ssmates from other bullies and even acted as an intermediary when there was a fight, it seemed that the only person he had trouble with was him... although Jay couldn''t think of a reason.

    Because of that he was in a bit of a conflict, but in the end he came to a pretty simple conclusion.

    He would infect him but wouldn''t do anything to harm him, just to investigate what his parasites could do with a host.

    So, determined, he spent his days improving the control he had over his parasites and exercicing.

    In the process he couldn''t help but get attached to the parasites, he even called them his little ones because they really were his little ones, he wasn''t really lying or anything.

    That was pretty much his routine until thest day of school finally arrived, the day where he decided to carry out his quite simple n:

    -Seek an excuse to touch Carl and infect him with all the parasites he had.

    "Everything worked out well!" Jay said as he rolled around in his bed...what can I say,

    Even if his reputation at school had taken a turn for the worse, Jay couldn''t care less.

    "Now then...let''s see what''s new in the system, open."

    Finishing his sentence, the interface appeared.

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System]

    Carrier: Jay Sacrest

    [Status]<novelnext></novelnext>

    [Hosts] (New)

    _____________________

    He quickly chose "Hosts" to see what had changed.

    _____________________

    [Hosts]

    Parasites Avable: 0

    A type of host has now been identified:

    [Espers]

    _____________________

    "...This ...is incredible!" He said as he hurriedly got out of bed, the tiredness he felt before had already vanished. "If the system ssifies the hosts by ss... that means I can also infect pugilists and magicians! ...Oh, well, there''s no point thinking about that now, the sses are over and I don''t know anyone else to infect..."

    As quickly as he got excited, he also calmed down.

    He then selected the "Espers" option.

    _____________________

    Espers Infected:

    [Carl Davis]

    _____________________

    Looking at the new window that opened, he quickly selected the only option that was avable.

    _____________________

    [Carl Davis]

    Skill: Wind Control (D) (Assimting)

    Status: Healthy

    Parasites: 10

    Assimtion Status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)

    _____________________

    "...Oh my god..."

    ''If this is the way I think it is...then it''s too good...!'' He thought before jumping towards his bed to roll on it again.

    He calmed himself after 10 seconds.

    ''For now I just have to wait 10 days to be able to pick up my little ones, as far as how I will do it...I don''t think it will be much of a problem...I already know where he lives after all. Since I don''t seem to be able to do anything else with the system at the moment, I will keep repeating my previous routine.

    Jay then took his smart watch from his desk and saw what time it was...

    4:04 pm

    It was still early, enough for an exercise session.

    "Hmm, well, I''d better start now~." He said as he stretched and changed the school uniform he was wearing for morefortable clothes.

    ***

    In the central part of a big city, a continent apart from where Jay lived, where the view of tall buildings was normal, there was a skyscraper that overshadowed any other building as far as height was concerned, and on the highest floor of this building, several people were gathered around a table.

    "Alright, as everyone knows, the admission exams areing up and we have some really exceptional candidates worthy of special attention..." said one of the people sitting at the table, his voice was deep and clear, even though his face was not visible, the silhouette this person had was quite big, over eight feet tall and a thick build.

    "This year there are many promising neersing...but if I had to choose one it would be... Asher Grey... ''Heaven''s Son''. Incredibly good looking, intelligent and a genius when ites to controlling his various powers...totally worthy of his title." Said a slim silhouette with a female voice whose face was also not visible.

    "Hahaha, so it''s one of those three, it was obvious he was going to get your attention, but you''ll have to fight hard if you want him to be your apprentice, you''re not the only one who wants him after all!" Added a small silhouette with a childish voice that was sitting in front of the silhouette with a female voice.

    "Hmph, do you really think anyone canpete with me?" replied the silhouette with the female voice.

    "I''m just telling the truth," said the little silhouette leaning back in her chair and putting her hands behind her head.

    "To me... Jenny Green... ''Little Gaia''." Said an average height silhouette with a female voice that was slow and heavy, as if the person was about to fall asleep.

    "Ohhh, the name of another of those three came out~!" Yelled the small silhouette after she heard what her partner said.

    "Well, it''s inevitable to mention her, when you can handle elementary magic from the age of 4 when the normal is 14 and the exceptional 10, it''s decided that she will be an incredible character." Replied the eight feet tall silhouette.

    "To be honest, I would like topete with you for her, Zena, but elemental magic is not my strong point, too bad," said the small and now visibly depressed silhouette.

    "Finally, does anyone else have any other suggestions?" said again the six foot tall man.

    "Oh, oh! I know~! Since you already mentioned two out of the three big names, how about ''her''?" shouted the small silhouette without any sign of the depression she suffered a few moments ago.

    "Hm, the most promising of all the neers, Valerie Adler... ''Athena''." Replied the eight feet silhouette while stroking his chin.

    Right after he said that, none of the silhouettes in the room could help but feel something at the mention of this name....respect.

 Chapter 5 - Failed Meeting

    "It''s as if she were the embodiment of the word ''Talent''." Said the eight-foot silhouette.

    "Right?! Even her older brother, the famous Andreia Adler, "The Titan", didn''t have that potential at her age!" Replied the little silhouette by getting up from her chair and putting her hands on the table to emphasize what she said.

    "It really seems that the Adler imperial family is full of geniuses, there is not a single one of them who is not a monster in their own way...haaa, if only we had the same amount of geniuses in Beati..." Lamented the silhouette with the female voice as she rested her arms on the table.

    "Oh, oh! How about marrying Andreia? He''s still single, and even though you''re about to turn 30, I think-"

    *BAM*

    Suddenly, the small silhouette fell to the ground as a result of the incredible weight being applied to her, leaving her stuck to the ground.

    "OUCH! WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT, WOMAN!?" Shouted the small silhouette from the ground, slowly standing up while magic circles appeared on her arms and legs, shining intensely and enhancing her physical strength.

    "Hmph, you dare to mention my age, kid..." Replied the silhouette with a feminine voice, standing up while the shadow that covered her body disappeared and revealed a beautiful adult woman with long pink hair and purple eyes.

    She was wearing a tight ck dress that entuated her curves very well, however, despite the great charm that the woman gave off, what was most striking at this moment was that her hands gave off small purple rays as she made the gesture of crushing something.

    "...You actually dared to call me kid...it seems that you are tired of living, eh grandma?" The little silhouette answered as she stood up ignoring the weight she was feeling.

    The shadow that covered her body also disappeared, leaving behind what seemed to be a little girl of 10-12 years old whose arms and legs were full of magical circles that were shining even more than the previous ones. This girl was quite beautiful, although right now her face had a terrifying expression as she watched the woman before her.

    This girl was wearing a ck top with sleeveless straps that exposed her abdomen along with shorts that ended in ck boots, as well as ck leather gloves that had a magic circle on the back of her hand. Unlike the previous woman, this girl had silver hair, which was cut in a bob shape, itbined nicely with her adorable face and her bright blue eyes.

    "Come then, you little brat! Someone should have taught you a lesson long ago!" Replied the woman opening her palms, the small rays in her hands turning into dense purple electric currents, emanating a terrifying pressure that even cracked the table where they were all gathered, indicating that she was serious.

    "You''re going down, old woman!" Replied the girl as several magical circles appeared around the room, the power of these magical circles was considerably high as even the presence of just one of them gave off some pressure, enough to overwhelm any average super, even causing the floor of the room to crack.

    "Ahh...the table...it was made of 8th grade magic wood...and the floor had been reinforced with sacred minerals...what a waste..."

    "..."

    "..."

    Hearing the words of the silhouette with a slow andzy female voice, both of them instantly deactivated their powers.

    "8th grade...magic wood...you say...?" Asked the woman with an incredulous expression on her face.

    "S-sacred minerals...?" Asked the little girl as she looked at the deplorable state of the floor.

    "That''s right, the table is made of 8th grade wood, surely you understand how precious this table was right?" Said the eight-foot silhouette as he looked at the pink haired woman who had asked the question. "As for the sacred mineral floor...I''m afraid I''ll have to tell the principal." He added, giving the little girl a look of pity.

    The woman with pink hair began to calcte in her head how much would it cost her, "8th grade wood, with my current sry...the size of the table...the current market price, I''ll be able to pay for it in...3 months! Great!...DAMN IT!!" she yelled, wanting to crush something but stopping immediately because everything was expensive here.

    The girl on the other hand simply fell to her knees, as for her face, one could only see a look of despair, she had already resigned herself to her fate!

    Leaving these two women aside, the eight-foot silhouette also got rid of the shadow covering his body, revealing arge man in yellow martial arts attire that did little to hide his great muscture.

    Even though he did not have a really handsome face, his honey-colored eyes showed an imperturbable calm that gave him an indescribable charm, as if everything was under his control, he also had short ck hair along with a tanned skin and a prominent beard.

    He stood up and walked to the window of the floor they were on, looking out over the big city.

    "Haa, I spent 2 days looking for a way to look mysterious with the Veils of Shadow and this happened..." Lamented the great man leaning his arm and head against the window.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Now... now... what matters...is that...you made the effort..." Said the female silhouette with the slow andzy voice which had now be a 19 years old girl.

    She had a small bowler hat, ck hair that reached her shoulders, ck eyes that seemed to be able to see through everything, a snow-white skin and a short ck victorian-style dress that reached her knees.

    Although the young woman had the word ''tiredness'' written all over her face, the eight-foot-tall man didn''t care since that was her natural expression.

    The young woman was not small or anything like that, but the man simply made everyone look smaller than what they really were, giving rise to a somewhatical scene of a small girlforting a giant.

    "Now we really can''t discuss about the rookies with the most potential at this meeting...not without the table at least." Said a thin man with gray hair and light blue eyes, he was wearing a white shirt with a light blue checkered tie that matched his eyes and ck pants.

    "Although those three are the most promising, there are still quite a few young people with considerable potential, and who knows, maybe a ck horse will show up..." Said another person, this time a brown-eyed blond man who was wearing a military vest with nothing underneath, leaving his toned body visible, also wearing military pants along with some pretty thick ck leather boots.

    "It would be nice if there was one like that...but anyway, I really hope that most of those rookies will choose our academy." Said the man with sses.

    "And we have to look out for the Laers Guild, those sneaky cowards will definitely try something on the entrance exam." Replied the blond man in military attire, not even bothering to hide the anger in his voice.

    At that moment, the eight-foot man interrupted them to say with total confidence, "Hm, when has our Eitsirc Academy evercked promising students?"

    "As for the Laers Guild...I''d like to see them try something, that way our dear teachers will have a chance to show the world how we deal with such threats."

    Like the eight-foot man said, they could not help but agree that the Eitsirc Academy was the number one when it came to educating supers to be incredible characters, so there was never ack of talents willing to risk their lives to get into the Academy, although the Laers Guild worried them anyway.

    The blond man and the man with sses then turned to see the "reliable professors" that the eight-foot man was talking about...and one was still cursing about being three months short of paying for the table, while the other was now trying to close the cracks in the floor just to fail time and time again...

    ''May heaven help us...'' Both men thought as they made a praying sign with their hands.

    ***

    The day after school ended, Jay was in the middle of his backyard, which consisted of arge grass field with high fences surrounding the entire space, giving Jay some privacy and a lot of space.

    He was only wearing ck sweatpants with nothing on the top of his body, showing off his body, which had some signs that he had been working out really hard.

    "Hufff..."

    Jay exhaled slowly while standing on his hands.

    It was now 2 pm, and Jay had spent the whole morning exercising non-stop, so now he was quite tired and hungry.

    Due to him not having equipment to exercise, he had been doing sit-ups, squats, push-ups and running in his backyard, buttely he had gotten a little tired of it all so he decided to look for different ways to train, this being one of them.

    "That''s...all!" he shouted before he fell to the ground panting due to fatigue.

    "A-Ah, hehe, I can''t feel my arms...in fact, I can''t feel anything..." Jay said from the ground with a silly smile on his face. "But it doesn''t matter, this...is the pain of progress...!"

    He then fell asleep on the floor from the incredible fatigue he was feeling, unaware that someone else was in his yard at this moment.

    "...He has really improved his physique quite a bit...and very quickly...although, he hasn''t changed at all, this idiot, falling asleep in the middle of the yard, he''ll end up with a really bad burn if I leave him here, I''d better take him to his bedroom." Said a girl who had been watching Jay for a while.

    She then waved her wand, which she had taken out from her pocket, gently lifting Jay up using some kind of spell, and entered the house with an unconscious Jay levitating behind her.

 Chapter 6 - Exercise, Some Talk And Spaghetti

    Once inside Jay''s room, Sarah put Jay on his bed, after casting a cleaning spell on him, of course.

    "Why does he train so hard?...He knows that he can''t be a pugilist..." Wondered Sarah, sitting at the side of the bed.

    Sarah was surprised that Jay was trying so hard to improve his physical condition since he hadn''t shown much interest in it before, although it''s not as if she disliked it, he was changing for the better after all.

    "Oh well, I guess I''ll just ask himter~" She said,ing to a conclusion, "Hmm, in the meantime...I''ll cook something, he''ll probably be hungry after exercising for so long...besides I''m a little hungry too, hehe."

    After that, Sarah went down to the kitchen, put on some music and started to prepare a simple dish of pasta, which was quite easy, as the only preparation she needed was to take out her wand.

    For her, cooking had almost nothing to do with manualbor, since she did everything with magic.

    She stood in the middle of the kitchen and started imitating an orchestra conductor, making the ingredients on the shelves and the vegetables in the fridge float out to the kitchen ind.

    After having gathered all the ingredients on the ind, Sarah continued with her imitation, waving her wand in the air, taking out several kitchen utensils along with some bowls and pots.

    Although it might seem like chaos, in reality all the utensils were moving with precision due to the great control Sarah had over her magic, making all the movement in the kitchen really look like a very well coordinated concert.

    That way...Sarah had started her little "concert" in the kitchen.

    ***

    Half an hour had passed and Jay finally woke up, with his energy replenished, although his muscles were still aching a bit.

    "Haaa, what a good nap, I feel like new." he said, quickly rising from his bed as he stretched and looked around.

    After seeing that he wasn''t in the backyard, he wondered who might have carried him to his bed and quickly came to a conclusion, although it''s not like there were many candidates in the first ce.

    Seeing that he was still half-naked, he decided that he might as well take advantage of that fact to take a bath, so he took a change of clothes and went to the bathroom.

    "Nothing like a shower after a good exercise~" he said as he washed himself.

    After about 10 minutes, he got out of the shower and started posing in front of the mirror to see how much had his body changed.

    ''...I can see the results already but... doesn''t it usually take longer...?'' Thought Jay, looking at his somewhat toned body in the mirror, ''Oh well, let''s check my status and see how I''m doing.''

    "Open status."

    _____________________

    [Status]

    Strength: (E)

    Agility: (E+)

    Endurance: (E)

    _____________________

    Jay had discovered this "function" while exercising today, because being upside down was a little boring, he started trying different ways to open the system, and this was one of them.

    "I''ve managed to increase Strength and Endurance to (E) rank, but Agility is still the same...I guess it will take me longer to improve that." He said before putting on the clothes he had brought and leaving the bathroom.

    Just as he wasing out of the bathroom, he was assaulted by a delicious aroma that directly attacked his nose and already hungry stomach.

    *Grr*

    "...Gee, it smells really good, so it''s Sarah, eh." Said Jay before quickly going down to the second floor and heading to the kitchen.

    The first thing he saw when he arrived was Sarah eating an unusuallyrge te of what appeared to be pasta with a type of sauce he vaguely recognized.

    "Oh, Jay, you finally woke up~" She said as she watched him enter as she waved with one hand and continued to put more pasta in her mouth with the other.

    "Hey Sarah, I see you cooked something...and that you''re eating it too...please tell me there''s still some left, I''m starving~" He said, moving towards the nearest pot in hopes of finding food, however, when he opened the lid of the pot...there was nothing!

    "AHHH, WHY, WHY DO YOU LEAVE THE POT ON THE TABLE IF IT''S EMPTY?" Shouted Jay, hugging the pot with a tear in the corner of his eye as he turned his back to Sarah. "Poor pasta, you only lived for a few minutes..."

    "Ahahahah, sorry, sorry, but don''t worry, I did save you a te." Sarah said while taking out a te of pasta that was still steaming from a small leather bag on her waist.<novelnext></novelnext>

    It seems that in order to make Jay believe that she ate it all, she even went to the extent of putting the te of pasta inside her little dimensional bag...

    "...You are cruel anyway..." Jay said as he sat down at the table and grabbed the te of pasta that Sarah had taken out.

    "Phew, it was pretty good, mypliments to the chef." Sarah had enjoyed the food quite a bit even though she had prepared it herself, plus Jay''s reaction had been fun to watch.

    "Oh right, what are you doing here? Shouldn''t you be preparing for the Eitsirc Academy entrance exam, or did you decide to go somewhere else?" Jay asked.

    Although Jay''s question might seem toe out of nowhere, it actually made sense.

    After all, the vast majority of high school supers graduates that wanted to keep developing their skills, such as Sarah and James, had to prepare hard for the entrance exam if they wanted to enter Eitsirc Academy, unless they decided to choose another ce to study...although it was quite unlikely.

    Giving Jay a look of disbelief, Sarah replied, "Of course I''m preparing, I know how hard the exam is!"

    Judging by the look of sincerity on Sarah''s face when she answered, it was clear she was telling the truth.

    Sarah then looked away from Jay, "I only came because I saw that you were working out like a maniac since morning, so like the good friend I am, I came to help you when you copsed in your backyard."

    "Anyway, why do you exercise so much? Do you want to imitate As'' story or something?" Sarah asked with a expression of curiosity on her face as she leaned on the table.

    "Of course not."

    Although As''s story said that he had broken his limits through pure hard work and determination, deadly fights and practicing training methods where the slightest mistake could cost him his life, that was obviously something much easier to say than to do, after all not even today''s pugilists dared to follow such intense training because of how difficult and dangerous it was.

    Countless prominent pugilists who thought they could reach the same level as As by following his training tried, only to get themselves killed, thus leaving a clear warning to all other pugilists, if even for them it was so deadly, then there was no need to mention what would happen to a normal person like Jay.

    "Then why~?"

    "I exercise because there''s nothing else to do until the entrance exam." Jay replied without stopping eating.

    Sarah let out a "Huh?", surprised by Jay''s answer.

    "Oh, I didn''t told you, right? That I''m applying to the Eitsirc Academy too."

    Apparently Jay had dropped a mini-bomb that hit Sarah.

    "Y-you''re applying too?!" Sarah shouted, standing up.

    This time Sarah was really surprised, after all, Jay was someone who didn''t belong to any of the three sses, meaning that he wasn''t a super, yet he said he was going to take the entrance exam that even she who was a skilled magician wasn''t totally sure she could pass.

    "Yes, I just said it." Jay replied casually.

    "B-but it''s a test for Supers!"

    Supers was a term used to group anyone who belonged to any of the three sses, Pugilists, Mages or Espers.

    "I know, but hey, it doesn''t say that normal people can''t apply."

    "Because normal people know they will die if they do!"

    Although the Eitsirc Academy was incredibly famous, causing countless supers from all over the world toe and apply, sometimes causing several of them not to even have the opportunity to participate in the exam due to the limited number of vacancies, they had a policy of letting normal people participate as well if they wanted to.

    That was thanks to some rules set by the main founders of the academy.

    Of course, that didn''t take away from the fact that Sarah was right, the exam was dangerous even for supers, so even though normal people could participate in it, they never did for obvious reasons.

    "Don''t worry, I''ve got the part of the written exam figured out." Jay answered with a smile on his face.

    "What I''m worried about is the physical part!" Shouted Sarah looking directly into Jay''s eyes, "This is no joke, Jay, you could really die..."

    Unlike Sarah''s worried attitude, Jay just calmly said, "I have a n~"

    "...Alright...please listen to me, I know you probably have one, but what if you fail... we''re talking about your life here..."

    Finishing his meal, Jay got up from the table before making eye contact with Sarah and saying with the brightest smile he could give, "When has a n of mine failed~?"

 Chapter 7 - Interface Changes

    After Jay said that to Sarah, she set out to stare him in the eye, and even though she was giving him the most scary look that he had ever seen, Jay did not back down, thus starting a little staring contest to see who had the strongest determination!

    However, the contest onlysted a for a short while because Sarah avoided Jay''s gaze soon after it began.

    "...Haaaaaa."

    Seeing Jay''s stubbornness, Sarah had no choice but to bitterly ept his decision, as she knew that she wouldn''t be able to say anything else that would change his mind.

    "Okay, if you are determined to do this, fine, I won''t insist, but you have to at least tell me what your n is." Said Sarah in a serious tone as she sat down again, somewhat annoyed.

    "Well..."

    ''Obviously I can''t tell you that I have a system which give me parasites capable of infecting any super... wait, I sound totally like a viin!''

    But before he could think about it anymore, Sarah''s terrifying look brought him back to reality, he had to give her an answer, and what he chose to tell her was...

    "It''s a secret!"

    "...I''m going to hit you, and hard..." Threatened Sarah as she lifted one of the couches in the living room with her wand and made it float right above Jay.

    "Wait! Wait! Don''t let it down! It''s a secret, really!" Jay shouted as he covered his head and tried to appease his dangerous mage friend, "I''m begging you, please trust me, everything will be fine!"

    "...You''re not involved in anything dangerous, are you?"

    Seeing that Sarah''s gaze had turned to a suspicious look, Jay had no choice but to tell her something to calm her.

    "Sarah, I understand that you think it''s crazy for me to take the entrance exam, and I also understand that you have your suspicions when I don''t want to tell you my n, but I beg you to trust me, I swear that I will tell you everything in due time..." Jay said with all the sincerity he had, "Also...could you please put the couch in it''s original ce...?" he added with a pained expression.

    While Jay was talking, Sarah had been slowly lowering the couch, to the point where it was practically a hat to Jay.

    "...you better."

    After that, Sarah stood up and waved her wand, causing the couch that was on top of Jay to return to its original position, then she started walking towards the backyard.

    "You''re leaving now?"

    "Yes, seeing that you don''t want to tell me anything." Sarah replied without turning around.

    It seems that she was still a little upset.

    Although she always had a positive and carefree attitude, the fact that Jay didn''t trust her had annoyed her.

    "Why don''t you stay and help me with my exercises?"

    "I don''t want to-"

    Without giving her time to finish her sentence, Jay interrupted her, "You could use me as a target for your spells~!"

    Sarah stopped instantly before turning to Jay and asking excitedly, "Really?!"

    ''Ahh, this will hurt...but at least I''ll be able to exercise more easily with her spells...especially the cleansing one, it''s a real wonder, plus, I''m sure this will improve her mood even a bit.'' He thought.

    "Of course, but you''ll have to help me with my exercises."

    "No problem~!" Replied Sarah visibly more animated than before as she gave Jay a thumbs up pose.

    ''There are still 9 days to go and collect the little ones in Carl''s body...as for the exam...there are 2 months left, although it''s not soon...I''d better train as much as I can...''

    "Then...let''s go to the backyard!"

    That way, Jay''s first intensive magic training had begun.

    ***

    9 days passed quickly, and after Jay''s intensive training, he had managed to raise his statistics much faster than expected, however, he had been worked to death.

    "...haaa...haaa..."

    In the same backyard where he had been exercising his body intensely for the past days, Jay was lying face up on the ground, only wearing a pair of sweatpants with nothing on top because he felt morefortable that way.

    His muscles that were barely visible before were now more pronounced, which made him look a little bit more attractive.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "...I...totally wore myself out...I won''t be able to get up for a few hours but...hehehe...it was...totally worth it..." Said Sarah from the ground with a silly smile on her face before falling asleep due to tiredness.

    In fact, she was almost in the same state as Jay, if not worse, although she wasn''t phisically tired, she had exhausted all her magical power, which was something that hadn''t happened in a long time, after all, Sarah had always been very careful about her mana reserve.

    However, as Jay had told her that today would be thest day he would be her walking target until further notice, she had decided to make the most of thisst training session, a waling target who was willing to receive spells was rare after all!

    And although the half-naked young man and the beauty lying on the backyard attracted attention, what stood out most of all was the state of the backyard.

    There were parts of the backyard where there were small cracks, others where there was ack of grass and there was even a crater with a rock inside in one of the corners...

    "...Well, I think it''s time for me to go pick up my little ones..." Said Jay getting up from the ground with a somewhat tired but happy expression, "...wow, we really made a mess here huh...", he couldn''t help but regret it a little since the one who would have to clean it all up would probably be him.

    "Oh well, never mind, I''ll do itter...first I have to pick her up~"

    After saying that, he took her in his arms princess style and carried her inside the house, for some reason, despite being asleep she let out a small giggle as she was carried to the guest room to rest.

    "Heh, I guess you''re really happy that you were able to use your spells without restrictions eh~"

    After climbing the stairs and arriving at the guest room, he gently put Sarah on top of the bed, seeing her sleeping face, Jay felt a little bad about hiding something as important as the fact that he had awakened as an esper from her, making her worry about him.

    They had been friends since the first grade in high school, including James, and the three of them knew quite a bit about each other.

    Jay even knew what branch of magic Sarah belonged to and also what kind of martial arts James practiced, although he didn''t know because he had researched or something, but because they had told him.

    While it might seem unimportant, that showed how much they trusted in each other, after all, it was like telling the other person what your strengths and weaknesses were.

    But there was an important point to make here, James had only told them what kind of martial arts he practiced, not what fighting techniques he knew or had learned, which was totally understandable, so Jay didn''t feel so bad about not telling James.

    However, with Sarah it was totally different, even though a mage''s spells are something very intimate to every magician, these past days she had shown him what kinds of spells she used, which ones she excelled in and which ones she wasn''t as good at, something even James didn''t know, and even though he hadn''t told her about his "n", she still had showed him her spells...

    There was the possibility that she had done this only because the entrance exam was close and she absolutely needed to test them, but knowing her, Jay was sure that she did it for another reason.

    To show him how much she trusted him...and for that reason, he felt bad.

    "...I promise I''ll tell you everything when I get back...so wait for me a little bit..." Jay said as he watched her sleep before leaving the room.

    A few seconds after Jay left, Sarah slowly opened her eyes and whispered with a small smile, "...you better...", and then she went back to sleep.

    ***

    "Hmm, it''ll take me about 20 minutes to get to Carl''s house...as for the reason of my visit, I''ll make something up on the way~" said Jay putting on his jacket and rushing out of the house, in the direction of Carl''s house. "I''m really intrigued to know what happened to my little ones..."

    The reason he was in a hurry was partly because of the excitement of finding out what his parasites had aplished, but on the other hand, he was intrigued by what the system interface was showing him.

    _____________________

    [Carl Davis]

    Skill: Wind Control (D) (Assimted)

    Condition: Fatigued, Weakened.

    Parasites: 1 (Unstable)

    Assimtion status: 100% (1% per day per parasite)

    _____________________

    Even though the assimtion was over, for some reason, of the 10 parasites that had originally been in Carl, only 1 remained, and on top of that it said that it was in an unstable state, without overlooking Carl''s fatigued and weakened state, of course.

    Because of all of the above, Jay was really interested in going to Carl''s house.

    In fact, when he woke up and saw that Carl''s interface had changed, at that moment he wanted to run out to meet him, however, he was caught by a certain magician who forced him to exercise and be the target of some of her spells, making him have to temporarily postpone the visit.

    But now that he was free...

    "....It''s time for a little visit~!"

 Chapter 8 - Visit To Carl

    "Haaa...haaa...maybe....maybe this...wasn''t a good idea after all...ha...ha."

    After running at full speed for a while, Jay managed to reach a park that was close to the neighborhood where Carl lived, although it had cost him most of his energy, causing him to copse on one of the park benches due to fatigue.

    Fortunately, after resting for a while, Jay recovered a little, he was very grateful to the system for giving him a faster recovery, and he didn''t even asked for it, the system truly was kind!

    "I have definitely improved my physique a lot...in the past I definitely would have fainted of exhaustion on the way."

    Thinking about how he had improved, Jay opened his statistics window.

    _____________________

    [Status]

    (Current limit reached.)

    Strength: (E+)

    Agility: (E+)

    Resistance: (E+)

    _____________________

    "So that was the reason, eh..."

    Thanks to his intensive magic training, Jay had increased his Strength and Resistance statistics as nned.

    However, in the process he had discovered that he could not improve the Agility statistic, no matter how much he exercised, the Agility statistic simply did not improve, not even a bit.

    Seeing that, Jay thought that maybe there was a reason for this, and with the new sentence that appeared at the top of the window, his suspicions had been confirmed.

    "Ugh, well, I''ll worry about thatter, one thing at a time!" Said Jay as he stood up from the bench. "First, I have to visit Carl."

    After saying that, Jay started walking towards Carl''s home, since it wasn''t far from the park, he arrived quickly.

    His house was simr to Sarah''s, and although it was somewhat smaller, it was still a luxurious house.

    *Ring*

    After ringing the bell, luckily the person who answered was the one Jay was looking for...however, his appearance was...quite different from what Jay remembered.

    His hair, once well-groomed and lustrous, was now very unkempt, he had dark circles under his eyes along with a paleplexion and a bad posture.

    ''Wow, he really does look fatigued...''

    "...Jay? What are you doing here...?" asked Carl, surprised to see the unexpected guest at his door.

    He was right to be surprised, after all, the rtionship they both had was no more than that of ssmates, in fact, counting the times that he had bothered him, Jay definitely had no reason toe visit him.

    But before he could continue to think about it...

    "Hey Carl~! Well, I was nearby and since I had some free time, I decided to pay you a visit." Jay replied with a bright smile on his face. "Maybe you have some time to talk?"

    ''Damn, I should have thought a better excuse...but it''s hard when you''re gasping for air!'' Jaymented in his head while seeing the confusion in Carl''s face.

    Carl couldn''t help but think about how weird this situation was, and obviously he was going to turn him down...but for some reason...something inside him urged him to ept the invitation.

    At that moment a small battle took ce between his will and what was inside him...

    "I..."

    In the end...

    "...Yeah...I have time."

    Won what was inside him.

    ***

    After Carl epted Jay''s invitation, he entered his house for a jacket and they went outside to sit on a park bench to talk.

    The conversation between the two began with a question from Jay, who was surprised that everything was going well.

    "Tell me, how have you been?"

    "...I''ve...been better..." Said Carl with a tired voice.

    "Oh my, but at least you''ve been training for the entrance exam, right?"

    "Well...honestly, I''ve been trying to do it...but I''ve had some problemstely..."

    "What kind of problems?"

    "...I...uh...I haven''t been able to sleep very well...my appetite has increased...and worst of all, every time I try to use my ability, I feel like there''s something inside me obstructing it..." said Carl while grabbing his head with both hands, visibly affected.

    ''Why am I telling him this?'' Thought Carl as he questioned the obvious, he really didn''t want to tell him all this information...but for some reason he felt quitefortable with Jay, he felt...as if they were really close.

    "Maybe you''re sick?"

    "No, it''s nothing like that...although it''s not like I know what''s happening to me either...haa, at this rate...I doubt I''ll be able to pass the entrance exam."

    One could feel the helplessness that Carl was feeling at this moment, and this view was something Jay wasn''t used to, seeing Carl who was always arrogant, full of confidence and optimism in this state...it wasn''t pleasant sight for him.

    ''Haa, I guess I''ll help him, maybe his body will recover after I get back my little one...but his confidence...''

    Although he was aplete dumbass towards Jay, he never really hurt him in some way, and while Jay was sure that there was reason as to why Carl acted that way, he didn''t know what was the reason.

    However, he did knew one thing...Carl wasn''t a bad person.

    Then, putting a hand on his shoulder tofort him, Jay said some words of encouragement.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Carl, I''m sure you''ve only had a few bad weeks, we all do, the important thing is that you don''t lose the will to do what you set out to do!"

    "I don''t know..."

    ''Man, I''m really feeling a little bad...but don''t worry Carl, my motivational skills had yet to fail me!'' Jay thought as a small spark ignited in his eyes.

    Getting up from the bench, Jay stood in front of Carl, grabbed him by the shoulders and looked into his eyes before he started his speech, "Remember who you are Carl! You are the strongest esper in the school, the one who is feared by all the espers in other schools!

    "No...I..." Although he was confused as to why Jay seemed to want to encourage him, he couldn''t deny that it felt good to be reminded of his reputation, but before he could answer him, Jay continued his dialogue.

    "Remember the time you stood up to those 3 guys from the rival school?!"

    Some time ago, there was a sports festival at their school, in which many other schools had been invited to participate, because most of the athletes were supers, it was a very closepetition, however, in the end their school had managed to win most of the events that had been held.

    That left several students from the other schools dissatisfied, and although most of them didn''t cause any trouble, there was was a group of 3 supers students that participated but lost, who were made up of 2 pugilists and 1 magician who were upset because they had been disqualified "unfairly" ording to them.

    Although of course, they weren''t disqualified for nothing, they had tried to injure some of their rival yers while they were ying against another school so that their school would have one less opponent, but they were so obvious that a teacher inmediately discovered them, which lead to them being disqualified.

    So, after they were disqualified, they decided to vent out their anger with the captain of the rival team, who was a normal person.

    "Yes..."

    "Tell me, what was the result of that fight?!" Yelled Jay, still looking Carl directly in the eye.

    "I...beat them." Carl replied in a low voice.

    Luckily, Carl had been nearby when that happened, and even though they tried to attack him too...all they got was a refreshing beating from Carl.

    "Louder! What did you do to them?

    "I beat them..."

    "I can''t hear you, damn it!"

    "I..."

    Seeing that Carl was hesitating a bit, Jay decided to give him a final push with a loud scream.

    "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

    "I...!"

    Suddenly, as if something had awakened inside Carl, his ability activated and a strong current of air started emanating from him before he stood up from the bench with his arms pointing up to the sky and shouted at the top of his lungs "I CRUSHED THEM!!".

    *WOOSH*

    The leaves of several nearby trees and bushes felt the brief but strong current of wind that Carl had released, making them move for a few seconds.

    Just at that moment, Jay took the opportunity to p Carl''s neck in a congrattory manner as he said, "That''s right!"

    "This..."

    Suddenly, Carl felt as if the fatigue he had been suffering from for some time hadpletely disappeared, including the obstructions to his ability, in fact, he even felt as if his control of his ability had improved.

    Having already removed his hand from Carl''s neck, Jay asked him, "How are you? Are you feeling better?"

    "I feel... better than ever!" Carl replied with a bright smile on his face, even hisplexion seemed to have improved a bit.

    He then made a swirl of wind in his hand, however, unlike what Jay remembered, this one was considerablyrger, bigger than a basketball.

    "Ohh, it looks like venting worked eh~" Jay said as he watched the swirl, feeling nice after seeing that his motivation skills didn''t fail him.

    ''It looks like it got stronger...it definitely has something to do with my parasites...could it be a side effect...?''

    Seeing that Jay was thinking about something, Carl began to remember that despite he had done nothing but harass Jay at school, Jay hade all the way home to visit him when he was feeling so bad.

    And not only that, he even had helped him to recover and improve his mood, because of all that, Carl felt terrible, so he began to apologize.

    "Jay, uh, I''m...really sorry that I bothered you at school, I...well, was jealous that you could hang out with Sarah and James even though you''re not a super..."

    "I know that''s no excuse to treat you like I did, but still, I''m really sorry for being selfish and an idiot ...I hope you can forgive me..." Said Carl while bowing to Jay.

    ''So that was it uh, thank god, I thought some normal person had stolen his girlfriend or something.'' Jay thought.

    Confirming that Carl didn''t have a personal grudge against him or the normal people of the world, Jay was somewhat relieved, it would be bad for someone strong like him to spend time bullying others who couldn''t defend themselves.

    After all, not everyone didn''t care about this like Jay, and not everyone had friends like James and Sarah who could help them in this situation.

    "It''s okay, I know you didn''t mean it, but I''m d you''re feeling better anyway."

    Seeing Jay''s carefree and sincere attitude, Carl felt a little better about himself.

    "It''s all thanks to you...um, maybe there''s some way I can return the favor...?"

    "Hm, let''s see..."

    Although Carl owing him a favor was a useful thing, Jay didn''t know how he could use that favor now, so he decided to save it forter.

    "How about paying me backter?" Jay said before remembering the message that hade up a few minutes ago and showing a sincere and happy smile, "Right now...I''m good."

    _____________________

    ["Parasite: Wind Control (D)" has been acquired.]

    _____________________

    For some reason, seeing that smile, Carl got a little nervous.

 Chapter 9 - Pizza Talk

    "Haaa...fuuu."

    Inside a huge training room that resembled the interior of a dojo, there were several thick wooden pirs with the smallest measuring a few meters high and the tallest tens of meters, on top of the tallest pir of all, there was a handsome silver-haired young man sitting with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.

    The air in this room felt much cleaner than in the outside and a dense current of energy seemed to run through the whole ce, making any pugilist who entered this room feel instantly revitalized.

    However, if someone who had not strengthened his body with pugilistic methods tried to enter this room, his body would simply not be able to withstand this kind of energy and would end up with broken muscles and bones at best.

    This type of energy was called Qi, it was like the mana of the magicians, but for pugilists, and it was responsible for the incredible physical capacity that they had, being crucial to temper their bodies as well as serving as fuel to be able to use martial skills.

    Although in the history of the founder of the pugilists there was no mention of Qi, many believe that it was because As felt the Qi as if it was part of his body, causing him to feel no difference even when he used it, although it was not a verifiable fact either.

    "...Ha!"

    *BAM!"

    Suddenly, the young man opened his eyes at the same time that he released a scream, disturbing all the surrounding Qi, this effect could only be caused by fighters of a certain level, specifically, when one finally had managed to touch the "limit" of the human body.

    "Haaaa, I finally did it,." said the young man as he stepped off the pir that measured tens of meters in one jump andnded gracefully on the ground.

    He had finally reached the "limit", which was an important step for all pugilists, with this, he had gained more confidence in his chances of passing the entrance exam for the Eitsirc Academy.

    "Well, it''s time for a shower."

    Heading to the back of the room, he reached for arge jade door with some markings on it and opened it. The view that weed him was that of a small hot spring that seemed to be hotter than normal.

    Taking off his clothes, he revealed a body with incredibly defined muscles, his build wasn''t slim nor too robust, just enough to look agile but strong at the same time.

    The next moment, he washed himself before entering the hot spring.

    "Haa~"

    Now in the water, he couldn''t help but let out a sigh because it felt incrediblyforting to be there.

    He had only been inside for a short time and yet he was already feeling all his fatigue fade away, as he rxed, it crossed his mind what could his friends be doing.

    "Sarah...she''s probably training hard for the exam, she''s always been the type who''s very diligent despite acting like she''s not." He said as he remembered his gluttonous wizard friend, "Although...who I''m most worried about is Jay...he hardly ever does anything without an ulterior motive...haa, I just hope he''s not doing anything bad."

    To him, it was weird that Jay had confronted Carl just to touch his ankle, but he decided to ignore that for the moment.

    ''Oh well, they''ll call me if they need help...'' He thought with a smile of resignation on his face.

    That was thest thing he thought about before closing his eyes to rest, enjoying the feeling of the hot springs embracing his body.

    ***

    By the time Jay managed to get home, the sky had already darkened, so he proceeded to enter his house, however, as soon as he entered, he was once again assaulted by a familiar and very pleasant aroma.

    "This...pizza?!"

    Because he had been running for a long time, his appetite was quite big, so he rushed quickly to the kitchen to be able to relieve his hunger a little with such a delicious food.

    When he entered he saw Sarah sitting at the table with a half-eaten slice of pizza in her hand.

    Unlike the athletic outfit Sarah was wearing when they were training, she was now wearing blue pajamas that made her look cuter than usual, although her hair was still as loose and long as ever.

    "Oh, Sarah, thank you for buying pizza~"

    Jay then sat down at the table and grabbed a slice of pizza... or at least he tried to, but just as he was about to do so, the pizza box moved further away from his hand.

    "...Sarah?" he asked, but Sarah didn''t answer.

    "..."

    Jay tried to grab a slice again, but each time he did, it moved farther and farther away from him, to the point where Jay even had to stand up to try. Finally, when the pizza box was floating just a few inches away from the ceiling, Jay gave up.

    "Sarah, you have a fetish for seeing me suffer when I''m hungry or something...?"

    "Aren''t you forgetting something important~?" She finally said, with her eyes half-closed.

    "...Ah."

    Certainly, before going to visit Carl, Jay had promised to tell her what was his n, however, he had wanted to do it at another time, preferably when he wasn''t starving.

    And although he remembered saying that, Sarah had been asleep when he said it...unless...

    "...You were awake, right?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I was tired, yes, but not that tired, besides, didn''t you enjoy taking a girl like me to bed~?" Sarah replied with a small teasing smile on her face.

    "Hey! That can be misunderstood! Your father could be watching us...!"

    Jay reproached her as he remembered how terrifying Sarah''s father was.

    Then he started looking for any animal that might be listening to them in the house, this could seem like the act of a madman, but Sarah''s father was a special kind of magician known as druid, their specialty was that they could control certain types of animals and even some monsters.

    "Don''t worry, I don''t think my father is watching me 24/7, so rx~" She said, not even a bit worried about what Jay was thinking.

    "Well...you''re right, maybe I''m a bit parano-..."

    Just then, Jay saw the head of a small squirrel peeking out of the doorway to the backyard.

    "..."

    "..."

    For a few seconds, the three of them froze there and made eye contact before remembering what that little squirrel meant.

    "GET HIM!!"

    "AAAHH!"

    Sarah quickly pulled out her wand to try to catch the squirrel and Jay ran to the door in a hurry, letting out a war cry, but when he got to the backyard...the squirrel was nowhere to be seen.

    "Oh...oh no...this is bad."

    Said Jay as he fell to his knees, his face showing the expression of someone who had been sentenced to death, in his head passed images of a giant man and a bear ying ser with his body.

    "Gee, you look like you''re in trouble, huh?" Said Sarah with a smile and a look of pity.

    ''THIS IS YOUR FAULT, DAMN IT!'' He thought with a small tear in the corner of his eye, but before he could say anything, Sarah pulled the pizza box down from the roof and offered it to Jay.

    "Don''t worry, I don''t think anything bad will happen, more importantly, how about we talk about what you promised while we eat~?" She said, felling a little bad for what happened, but still wanting to make Jay keep his promise.

    Seeing Sarah''s bright smile apanied by the delicious aroma of the pizza, adding his great appetite, Jay''s anger was immediately appeased.

    ''Haa...I really can''t stay mad at her...let alone the pizza...''

    Then, deciding to put aside the possible consequences of letting that squirrel escape, Jay sat down at the table and grabbed a slice of pizza before he began telling Sarah about his "ability".

    ***

    After half an hour and several slices of pizza, Jay had finished telling Sarah about his ability, now he was seeing what would be her reaction.

    "...Woah, so...you''re an esper after all~"

    Although espers were usually born with their skills, there were really unusual cases where their skills only manifested themselves at a certain age, so it wasn''t so hard to believe Jay''s story.

    Jay had expected a different reaction than what Sarah was showing right now, maybe that she would be a afraid that he would infect her and "take away" her abilities or something like that, however, she didn''t show any of that.

    She just got happy for him and even made a joke about how his ability was perfect for a viin.

    Sarah''s carefree attitude to this had made Jay happy, and had also reaffirmed once again that he could trust Sarah.

    ''And, it''s a good thing that he isn''t involved in anything dangerous...well, nothing THAT dangerous.''

    Sarah was relieved that Jay was not involved in shady things or that he had a suicidal desire, and although there were still several doubts about what Jay had nned to do to make himself strong enough to pass the entrance exam, Sarah was satisfied for now.

    After spending some time talking about Jay''s ability and having him introduce Sarah to a few of his "little ones," it was time for bed. However, when Jay nned to say goodbye to Sarah, she said something that surprised him.

    "Jay...eh...my...parents aren''t home...and I don''t want to sleep alone with how big my house is...so I was wondering if..." she said a little flushed as she yed with her hair, her appearance that of a pretty girl in distress about to ask for something embarrassing.

    However, faced with this scene in which many people''s hearts would race, thinking of the possible oues in which this situation could end, Jay simply pointed to the upstairs before saying, "You can sleep in the guest room."

    "You didn''t even left me finish!"

    "Am I wrong...?"

    "No...but, uh...damn, I''ll get you one day!" Sarah said before going up to the second floor and going straight to bed, leaving Jay alone in the kitchen.

    Luckily, after spending a lot of time with this girl, Jay had developed an incredible ability to deal with this type of situation, the so-called "Resistance to Female Charm," Jay''s strongest skill!

    And that''s how the night when a third person came into contact with the parasites ended, although of course....it wouldn''t be thest.

 Chapter 10 - First Skill!

    On the morning of the next day, after Sarah and Jay had breakfast, he went out to the backyard to see the harvest that he got after patiently waiting for ten days.

    He had not done so yesterday because talking to Carl and Sarah had tired him mentally, so much that he went to straight to bed after she did.

    However, that didn''t take away the fact that he was very excited to see what he could do with the parasite he had recovered.

    Then, after sitting in the middle of the backyard, simply because he thought it looked cool, he said the key words to open the system.

    "Open."

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System]

    Carrier: Jay Sacrest

    [Status]

    [Hosts]

    [Skills] (New Function Unlocked)

    _____________________

    ''...Hell yeah! It''s just as I thought!'' Jay thought as he closed his fists in excitement before selecting the new option that appeared.

    _____________________

    [Skills]

    Currently the user does not possess any special skills.

    Avable Skills:

    Parasite: Wind Control (D) (Ready for assimtion) (Unstable)

    Do you want to assimte this parasite? (Y/N)

    (Warning: The parasite is currently in an unstable state due to a bodypatibility, the rank of the skill may vary. )

    _____________________

    ''...Bodypatibility huh, so I''m not a esper after all...?" He thought, wondering why that had appeared. ''And it says that the rank will vary...oh well, I guess I have to start somewhere~''

    The supers had several ways to ssify their skills, however, the most used and known way was the ssification with letters, which went from (F-) to (S). Whether it was the martial techniques of pugilists, the spells of mages or the special skills of espers, they all shared that system.

    Normally, most people''s skills were in the range of "F-" to "F+", with the difference between them and people with no skills being almost zero, and because it was incredibly difficult to increase this rank if one wasn''t talented, many people decided to look for normal jobs.

    Seeing that Carl''s rank was "D", one could see that he was somewhat talented despite his young age.

    Because the parasite was in an unstable state, even though the skill was "D" rank, it could reach the worst range, which was "F-", giving Jay the ability to throw wind in his face without the need for a fan, which although it sounded convenient, was not what Jay expected at all.

    Unfortunately, even though Jay looked at other system options to see if there was a way to "stabilize" the parasite, he found nothing.

    _____________________

    Do you want to assimte this parasite? (Y/N)

    (Warning: The parasite is currently in an unstable state due to a bodypatibility, the rank of the skill may vary. )

    _____________________

    "Haa...well, I''ll just cross my fingers and hope for the best." Jay said in front of the system window as he closed his eyes in fear of seeing the range he would get after the assimtion, then he selected the "Y" option.

    _____________________

    Beginning assimtion.

    Assimtion Progress: 0%

    Unable to assimte safely...

    Error found: (Carrier''s body is extremely ipatible with the skill)

    ...Proceeding to solve it.

    _____________________

    "Wait, wha-ARGH!!"

    Suddenly, Jay felt great pain throughout his body, at the same time, the parasite he had recovered from Carl began to move from his left arm to the middle of his chest, and right there, Jay clearly felt how the parasite was slowly fusing with him and disappearing in the process.

    "F*CK!" shouted Jay as he fell to the ground, however the pain did not diminish one bit, in fact it got worse, especially in the chest area.

    _____________________

    Assimtion Progress: 30%.

    _____________________

    "HOW IS THIS JUST A ''LITTLE PAINFUL''?!" He shouted as hey face up on the floor while clutching his chest, enduring the intense pain he was feeling right now.

    _____________________

    Assimtion Progress: 60%.

    _____________________

    Luckily, it seemed that the assimtion process was advancing rather quickly, so Jay just had to grit his teeth and hang on a little longer...although it''s not like he had a choice anyway.

    _____________________

    Assimtion Progress: 90%.

    _____________________

    Despite the tremendous pain he was going through, Jay also felt like a refreshing sensation was slowly beginning to appear in his body, in fact, when the assimtion was at 30% it was barely distinguishable, but now it was as noticeable as the sun.

    _____________________

    Assimtion Progress: 99%.<novelnext></novelnext>

    _____________________

    "OH, YOU BASTARD, WHY ARE YOU STOPPING RIGHT THERE?!" Jay shouted indignantly with little tears in the corner of his eyes.

    "Ah."

    Suddenly, as quickly as the pain came, it was gone, and what reced it was the same refreshing sensation he had been feeling, but much stronger this time, so much so that it even escaped his body, giving rise to a small current of air that moved the grass around him.

    The next moment, two system windows appeared before him.

    _____________________

    Assimtion Progress: 100%.

    Rank of acquired skill...(D-)

    [You have acquired "Wind Control (D-)]

    _____________________

    _____________________

    [Hidden Task: "First skill"pleted.]

    [Reward: 10 Parasites]

    Remark: A little but unavoidable step, congrattions to the carrier!

    _____________________

    "...ouch." Jay said, relieved that it had ended, even though he was happy he got almost the best result, the pain he had felt was no small thing.

    However, despite being tired and the fact that his body aching, rest was not in Jay''s ns, at least not today, when he had finally acquired a skill!

    Plus, he had evenpleted a hidden task!

    "The next time I do something like this, I''d better be in bed, I wouldn''t want to pass out from the pain in the backyard"

    Standing up, though still a bit sore, Jay reopened the system interface, wanting to see what had changed, he quickly selected the "Skills" option.

    _____________________

    [Skills]

    Wind Control (D-): (0%)

    Avable Skills:

    Currently there are no skills avable to assimte.

    _____________________

    "...Definitely worth the pain..." Said Jay as he sat back in the center of the backyard while seeing the percentage next to the skill, various ideas taking shape in his head...as for the matter of the hidden tasks, he decided that he would think about itter, it wasn''t as if he couldplete another one right now after all.

    Although the (D-) rank was not something that would make him incredibly stronger, it was much better than the (F+) rank.

    "Now, let''s see how can I use this."

    The first thing that came to his mind was to imitate what Carl did, to make a little swirl of air in his hand.

    Then he put his right hand in front of him and tried to control the refreshing sensation he felt in his body before.

    *Fuu*

    Unfortunately, the only thing he managed to get out was a breeze that moved his hair.

    "...Ok, I honestly don''t know what I expected, I just got this a minute ago." He said while trying to control the energy again, but this time without trying to make a swirl, but simply to create a strong breeze.

    Although espers were mostly talented, that didn''t mean they didn''t spend hours and hours perfecting their skills, after all, even the first esper, Cyra, despite being practically blessed by the heavens, had never forgotten to perfect her skills to the point of exhaustion, which was a well-known fact among the espers.

    Taking that into ount, Jay wanting to run without really knowing how to walk was impossible.

    Then, wanting to test if the percentage next to the skill was what he thought and also wanting to familiarize himself with it, he spent all afternoon training his newly acquired skill, and many hourster he finally came to a conclusion.

    "This will take time."

    "Yep, I think even the fan we have in my house is stronger than you right now." Said Sarah, she was sitting cross-legged, floating about six feet above the ground, no longer wearingst night''s pajamas, instead she was wearing a ck sports outfit which showed her abdomen and enfatized her curves, her hair tied in a long ponytail.

    She had joined Jay after they both had lunch, due to today being her free day, she spent the entire morning watching tv, but after seeing that Jay was training hard, she decided to train for a few hours too.

    She was using a spell which allowed her to remain suspended in the air, although it had no use inbat and one couldn''t fly with it either, it was a great spell to practice mana control.

    Jay didn''t answer to what she said, instead he just started inhaling a lot of air, before blowing hard at Sarah, causing her to slowly move towards the wall of the house.

    This was something he discovered he could do while testing different ways to use his skill.

    Because the spell Sarah was using required a lot of her concentration, she could not activate any other spells that could stop Jay, and deactivating the one she was currently using would take at least a minute, so the beatiful mage simply kept floating in the direction of the house.

    "Oh oh, Jay, uh, help...I''m going to crash...I''m going to crash...I''m going to-"

    *BAM*

    Although the speed at which she crashed was by no means fast, there still was a not very pleasant sound of a person crashing against something.

    In this case, the person in question was a girl who had hit the wall using nothing more and nothing less than her forehead

    Then she slid slowly down, her forehead still making contact with the wall.

    "...Jay..." Said Sarah slowly as she turned her head to look at Jay, her white forehead a little red from the impact, however, although she looked a little pitiful right now, the intention emanating from her gaze was one of anger.

    "...It''s just...I''m doing my best and you say that a fan is stronger than me!" Replied Jay, somewhat frightened by the look he was getting.

    "I''ll do my best to beat you up!" Shouted Sarah as she pulled out her wand and got up off the ground.

    "Come on then, I''m not afraid of you, I''ll make sure to muss up that cute ponytail for you until you get an afro!"

    Despite being scared, Jay decided that if he was going to get beaten up anyway, he might as well try to improve his skills while doing it.

    That''s how the first battle between the strongest human fan in the neighborhood and the great mage Sarah began!

 Chapter 11 - His Advantage

    "Haa...haa"

    In Jay''s backyard, now obscured by the setting sun, there was a young man lying on the ground, his cheeks were swollen and his forehead was a little red.

    He was breathing heavily, but even in that state, his gaze showed a fiery determination, the kind you would see in a knight who would fight to hisst breath for his kingdom.

    Sitting on top of him, there was a girl with a rather disheveled ponytail, almost on the verge of losing its original shape. Although the look of the boy on the ground was intense, the girl did not lose in any way, her blue eyes radiating the confidence of a general that had won the war.

    After having started to "fight", Jay had almost managed to undo Sarah''s ponytail, but unfortunately, the mage Sarah was not an easy opponent at all, and although Jay fought bravely, the result was as expected, him on the ground, and Sarah on top of him with a cocky grin, reaffirming her victory.

    "Haha, you look like a tomato." Said Sara as she looked at Jay''s red cheeks.

    Because of the "crash" that she had suffered earlier, Sarah focused primarily on leaving something simr to him.

    "Well, you look like you just woke up-OUCH!"

    Before he could finish his sentence, Jay was interrupted by a small pebble that hit his forehead hard, causing Jay''s head to be pushed to the ground.

    "That was easy, but, I won''t deny that it was a good exercise, anyway, we''ve already spent a lot of time here,e on, let''s go get something to eat~"

    After saying that, she got up in a good mood due to her sessful "revenge".

    Then she lend Jay a hand to help him get up, although his cheeks were aching a bit, he wasn''t angry or anything, just somewhat tired, and more importantly, he had managed to think of a few ways of utilizing his skill while "fighting" against her.

    Heading inside the house, Jay momentarily ignored the tingling in his cheeks and opened the system interface to see how much his skill had improved after so many hours of training.

    _____________________

    [Skills]

    Wind Control (D-): (1%)

    Avable Skills:

    Currently there are no skills avable to assimte.

    _____________________

    ''I spent all afternoon using it and I only got a 1% improvement...'' Jay thought as he did a few calctions in his head, ''Even if I train all day...I would only get 3% at most...which means that I''ll be able to reach 100% in...a little more than a month....that won''t do...''

    Even if he somehow managed to reach the 100% in less time, although he didn''t know for certain if the skill would level up after that, even in that case it would only go up to the D rank, and there was no way he could survive the entrance exam if he only went with a skill in that rank.

    ''Fortunately there are still 2 months left...NO WAIT, NOW THERE IS ONLY ONE MONTH AND 3 WEEKS LEFT!''

    Now in the living room, Jay copsed on a couch realizing that the date of the exam was slowly approaching.

    "I''m going to go take a shower, can you order something to eat?" Said Sarah as she walked up the stairs.

    "Alright~" Jayzily replied from the couch.

    Now that he was alone, he got some parasites out because seeing them helped him rx a little, then he started to think about what he could do to make himself stronger.

    "Haaa, I can''t train my stats because they are already at the limit and improving the Wind Control skill will take too long...so what can I do...?" He said as he looked at the few parasites on his hand.

    Because he didn''t have much to do, he started checking every option in the system, trying to find something that could help him think.

    However, he couldn''t find anything no matter where he searched, so he simply closed the interface and ordered something to eat, but just as he was about to do so, the parasites in his hand entered his vision again.

    "...Ahhhhh...I''m such an idiot, the answer was in front of me all this time!" He said with a bitter smile and hitting his face with his palm.

    How had he gotten the ability to Control Wind?

    How had he improved his body so quickly?

    What was the advantage he had in this world of supers?

    Was it his talent? His handsome face? His somewhat strong will that allowed him to train for hours on end?

    Of course not! It was the system!

    And it wasn''t the Training System, nor the Strengthening System or anything else, it was the Parasyte System!<novelnext></novelnext>

    A system that gave him parasites that could infect Supers and assimte their abilities!

    So it was really obvious what he had to do.

    "I... have to get more hosts!" He said as he got up from the couch with renewed enthusiasm, "Although...where could I find some...?"

    However, before he could continue his thoughts, someone interrupted him.

    "What did you say~?"

    Hearing a girl''s voice, Jay turned his head and saw Sarahing down the stairs, fresh from the shower, instead of the sports outfit she was wearing a while ago, she had now put on pajamas simr to the one she had worn yesterday night.

    "That was fast..."

    "Well, to be honest I just used a cleansing spell, hehe."

    Seeing her, Jay remembered that he hadn''t ordered the food yet, so he quickly grabbed his smartwatch and ordered some food, Sarah on the other hand just sat on one of the couches and turned on the TV, tuning in to a news channel.

    *Following the news, the crime rate in the outskirts of the city and in the South Zone has been increasing due to theck of police and heroes, as we all know, recently a big confrontation urred between the Heroes Association and the Laers Guild...*

    "Woah, it''s been going up a lottely..." Said Sarah with a little concern in her voice.

    "That''s it!" Shouted Jay excited as he pointed at the TV, which was coincidentally showing some criminals escaping in a vehicle after robbing a pedestrian.

    "That''s what~?"

    "The answer to my dilemma!"

    "Could you please give me some context?" Sarah asked with a curious look on her face.

    Seeing Sarah''s expression, Jay sat down next to her and began his exnation:

    "Well, you know that in order to use my ability, I need a host, right?"

    Sarah nodded to Jay''s question, then he continued, "But there''s a problem, mostly a moral one, and that''s that I can''t just go around infecting anyone I see, first because I''m not really sure what effects my little ones will have on them in the long term and second because it will bring me more cons than pros."

    "Obviously, if you were to do something like that, you''re bound to get caught sooner orter, the Heroes and Hunters are very capable after all."

    "Exactly, but let''s say the people I infect are the people the Heroes have to deal with?" Jay said as he squinted and smiled.

    Sarah then started thinking about it, if Jay used his skill on some viins or criminals, even though it was dangerous, no one wouldin to the Heroes Association that he was taking advantage of the viins!

    Viins was the name given to those supers whomitted crimes, did not follow thew, caused havoc, etc.

    Even in this era when the effects of the Great Proliferation were still being felt, there would always be people who would want to take advantage of their power to do illegal things, the most famous case in the country being the Laers Guild.

    Fortunately, the world had adapted well since the beginning of the Great Proliferation, giving rise to several organizations in charge of maintaining order, one of these was the Heroes Association.

    They were responsible for bringing viins to justice using Heroes, which were supers specifically trained to deal with other supers, and because they had the government as a backup, they were not afraid of any retaliation from any criminal group.

    Thanks to their noble work, the viins were kept at bay, but of course, Jay was not a Hero, so he would have to face consequences if he messed with the wrong person.

    "What if you get in trouble with some dangerous gang or even some Guild...?"

    "I''ll wear a costume!" He said as he put his hands in front of his face.

    Although they were talking about something dangerous, Jay was more excited than worried.

    However, what Sarah thought about this was different, Jay was not at all as strong as a Hero after all, so she couldn''t help but worry, although that worry disappeared soon after because she definitely wasn''t going to let him do something so dangerous...at least not alone.

    "And what are you going to do when you find some criminal, blow on his face?" Said Sarah with a small mocking smile.

    "Regarding that, I think I have the perfect way to attack, in fact, I wanted to see if you could help me with that...like giving me pointers or something." Said Jay while a small wind stream started gathering in his right hand.

    Then, all the wind wrapped around his hand, as if it were a transparent glove that emanated a refreshing breeze, however, what was most striking was that at the tip of the fingers of this "glove", there were some small ws, which although made of wind, looked surprisingly sharp.

    Then, he raised his hand so that Sarah could see it better.

    "....So, what do you think~?" He said, happy that he could do it in the first try.

 Chapter 12 - Upgrading The Wind Glove!

    "Nice~" Said Sarah as she touched the "glove" Jay was wearing on his right hand, although it looked very fragile, it actually gave off some pressure, like a strong air current but in a very small space.

    "Well, while we were "fighting", I realized that the wind I can control dissipates and loses power the further away it is from me."

    Before, because he didn''t want to get beaten up, Jay did everything he could to oppose her magic, thus he used the Wind Control at full power, however, he couldn''t do much even with that.

    When he had trained this skill in the afternoon, he had the suspicions that it was a greatly limited, and after the "fight" with Sarah, it was confirmed.

    First of all, the power of his skill decreased the farther he wanted to use it, proportionally, the energy he had to use also increased, however, when he used the skill near him, like when he had blown Sarah, the power was considerably greater and he didn''t have to spend much energy.

    Fortunately, when Jay was under pressure, like when he was fighting a dangerous mage like Sarah, his mind worked faster than usual, which made him think of various ways to use the Wind Control near him, and this was one of the ways he had thought of.

    "Although...I think it''s still very weak." Sarah added by touching the ws directly and testing their sharpness.

    "Well, it''s actually the first time I''ve done it, so I''m a little surprised it even worked." Replied Jay with a small smile on his face, then trying to make the ws bigger, but it didn''t work, making the whole glove dissipate.

    "Damn, that seems to be my limit."

    "But it seems useful enough, I think you could even create a reinforcement for your whole body if you practice enough. " She said as she sat back down.

    "That would be cool...I''ll train hard to achieve that."

    Even though his biggest trump card was the system, Jay thought that training wasn''t bad at all.

    "And the w thing is necessary...?" She added again, "I mean, right now I think you need to priorize defense over attack."

    "But the ws look cool..." Jaymented a bit.

    However, listening to Sarah''s suggestion, Jay couldn''t help but think that it actually made a lot of sense, so he activated the wind glove again, this time without the ws, increasing the density of the glove a bit, although his opinion that the ws looked cool hadn''t changed.

    Seeing that, Sarah touched it again to check its resistance, even though it was not visible, the air current could be clearly felt to the touch, and in fact, the power of that current had increased, even repelling her hand a little if she tried to go through the glove to touch Jay''s skin.

    "Hoho, now this is much better." Said Sarah looking to Jay''s new glove with an interest filled gaze.

    She was showing such an interest because the vast majority of magicians were quite curious about the skills of esper, and Sarah was no exception, however, since the only decent esper at the school was Carl, she had not had the opportunity to satisfy her curiosity.

    But that had changed now that Jay had basically the same ability, even if it was of a lower rank, it was better than nothing.

    "Now try to increase the size slowly."

    "Alright..."

    Slowly, the current around Jay''s hand grewrger, until it was the size of a boxing glove, and even though Jay tried to increase the size further, he couldn''t do it, he felt that the wind would dissipate instantly if he made it bigger.

    Sarah then tested the glove''s strength again, before making an "as expected" expression.

    "Yep, in this form you exchange power for size, which is not very useful if you ask me, at most, if you hit someone, they will feel a refreshing breeze".

    She couldn''t help butugh a little as she imagined Jay refreshing his opponent with each punch. "Anyway, now do the opposite, first shrink the glove into it''s original size and try to condense as much wind as you can, remember to keep the glove from changing size."

    When Sarah finished her sentence, Jay was already doing that, the "boxing gloves" were getting smaller and smaller until they reached their original size, then he focused on increasing the density of the wind that was surrounding his hand.

    "Alright, this is harder than making it bigger!" Jay shouted as a few drops of sweat formed on his face, this task was proving to be more challenging than expected.

    Unlike before, where Jay''s glove was simply transparent and one could only feel the glove if one touched it, now it was starting to emit some wind around it, even though it was somewhat weak.

    "Wow, now you definitely look like a real esper." Said Sarah as she watched Jay''s hand surrounded by the dense wind current.

    Jay didn''t answer or rather, he couldn''t afford to do it, he was putting all his attention on keeping the condensed wind current in his hand after all.

    Despite the fact that he had spent all afternoon training it, since the Wind Control was something he had gotten recently, that kind of concentration was needed.

    Sarah on the other hand didn''t care much if he didn''t answer, she was more interested in the increasingly dense air current in Jay''s hand.

    ***

    After several minutes of struggling, he reached a point where all the wind he could gather was concentrated in his hand, and his glove ceased to emit wind.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But even if it wasn''t emitting wind currents or some kind of pressure like before, Jay was feeling that right now, his hand was the strongest part of his body.

    "...I did it!" Yelled Jay, seeing his hand that seemed normal at first nce.

    "Alright, now I definitely have to test it''s resistence with one of my spells~!"

    *Ring Ring*

    However, before Sarah could even draw her wand to satisfy her curiosity, the doorbell rang, indicating that the order they made had arrived.

    "...Damn it..!" She said in a bitter tone, "Haaa, well, you keep at it, I''ll go get the food."

    Jay nodded to what Sarah said and began to test his "glove". When he touched it, he felt a strong wind pressure thatpletely repelled his hand, making him unable to touch the hand inside the glove.

    "Wow, although I don''t think I can use it for long, it''s much stronger than before."

    Even though the espers didn''t have Qi, or mana, they still got tired if they used their skills too much or for a long period of time-

    For them, their skills were like a muscle, they had to train a lot in order to familiarize themselves with their skills and increase their energy or find a way to lower the energy consumption.

    "At most, I think I''ll be able to use it only for 30 minutes or so..." He said, feeling how his energy was being slowly drained.

    In fact, what Jay was doing right now slightly surpassed what the Wind Control (D-) could do, that''s why the energy consumption was higher, but of course...

    Although the energy consumption to maintain the glove was high, Jay could ignore it thanks to his quick recovery, but that also meant that if he did demanding things while he had the glove activated, he wouldn''t be able to use it for that long.

    "Well...it''s not like I n to fight for 3 days and 3 nights or anything like that, but I better be careful with my energy consumption." He said as he recalled the battles of some famous pugilists.

    "Ah..."

    And right when he thought about the pugilists, Jay couldn''t help but remember something that was really obvious, but for some reason had escaped himpletely until now.

    "...I don''t know how to fight."

    As a person with no skills, Jay had always been careful not to get into fights with other people, not because he was afraid, but rather because he was at a total disadvantage.

    As for the time when he "fought" Carl, all he really did was touch him before making a tactical withdrawal that wasn''t embarrassing at all.

    Thinking about it, the feeling of sess he had felt due to managing to strengthen the glove quickly disappeared.

    "You just realized that~?"

    Before he could think about it anymore, Sarah came back with a paper bag with burgers and fries inside, putting them on the living room small table, then she took one out for her and Jay.

    "Then how about we call James to teach you something~?" She added again with a burger on her right hand and taking out some fries from the paper bag with the other hand.

    "A-ah..."

    Jay couldn''t help but unconsciously tremble when Sarah mentioned James to teach him.

    There was a reason for that, James had been his teacher for a short time a few months ago, but that short time left mental scars on Jay because of the hellish training he had gone through, which even lead to Jay calling him "James the ogre" because of how barbaric he was.

    As a person with no skills, his strength was very limited, so James had wanted to teach him to be able to dodge most kind of skill or at least to be able run away, which, tranted into training, meant that he had to be a target of practice at his dojo and having to run away from a James that would give him a tremendous beating if he caught him.

    "Haa...I think it''s the only option, we''ll have to do a demonic summoning..." Said Jay with regret.

    However, Jay had to recognize that his methods were effective, so, at the risk of waking up past traumas, they decided to call James the next day.

    ***

    Meanwhile, in James'' dojo, he suddenly sneezed.

    "Achoo!"

    ''...I wonder who''s talking about me....'' he thought before ignoring it and continuing his training.

 Chapter 13 - Overload!

    The next morning, after both had breakfast, Sarah had slept over again, they started training while waiting for James to arrive.

    Although Jay''s statistics could not go any higher, improving his Wind Control was a necessity.

    However, there were benefits to its statistics being at the limit.

    For example, he now could dodge and deflect Sarah''s attacks using his speed along with the wind glove.

    It was rtively easy for him because Sarah had been throwing little stones with her hands at the start as she didn''t really want to hurt Jay.

    But after seeing that he could dodge and deflect most of her attacks, she raised the difficulty.

    "How about this~!" Sarah shouted while throwing a stone the size of a fist, although she hadn''t thrown it using her hand this time, but with her wand...which was worse.

    The stone quickly approached Jay, aiming at his stomach, the speed it was going was much faster than before.

    "Nope!" However, it didn''t get a chance to hit him since Jay deflected it in time with his wind glove before making a proud smile...it seems that he was having fun.

    Sarah was a little surprised that he dodged it, so she decided to a raise the difficulty once more after that.

    "Alright, now I''m gonna get serious...!"

    She then took out her wand and used a spell, causing several stones the same size as thest one toe up out of the ground.

    Seeing that Sarah''spetitive spirit had awakened, Jay knew that he would not get out of this unscathed, and even though he knew he would recover quickly, he still couldn''t help but grieve a little.

    "...It''s going to hurt..." he said as he took abat-ready position...or at least one he consideredbat-ready.

    ***

    Meanwhile, James was on his way to Jay''s house, he had been called in the night before to teach Jay how to "fight".

    "I knew he was nning something...and I''m sure it has something to do with the entrance exam..."

    Although James didn''t know Jay as well as Sarah did, as a pugilist and the heir of a powerful sect, he had seen a lot of people that didn''t feel like normal people to him.

    People that just stood out but not because of their skills, strenght or anything like that...but because they had something special about them, although one could not see what it was...and Jay was one of those.

    Thinking about these things, James quickly arrived at Jay''s house. Even though there was a little bit of distance from his home to Jay''s, it was nothingpared to what he had to go through when training.

    As he was about to knock on the door, he heard some voicesing from the backyard.

    "OUCH!"

    "I-I''M SO SORRY, I SWEAR I DON''T EVEN KNOW HOW THAT HAPPENED!"

    They were the voices of Sarah and Jay respectively.

    "...Could it be that they started without me...?" Said James before jumping onto the roof of the house.

    Even though the house was several feet high, that height was insignificant for a pugilist of James'' level.

    "This..."

    Now in the roof, the first thing he imagined he would see when was that Jay would be lying on the ground after being beaten up by Sarah, but this was totally different than he had imagined.

    Jay was in the backyard, yes, but he wasn''t lying on the ground or anything, in fact, apart from being shirtless, he was perfectly fine.

    Oberving Jay''s upper body, although he wasn''tpletely toned, one could see the effort Jay had put into working out.

    In his right hand, a fairly small whirlwind that surrounded his hand could be seen, that,bined with the determination in his eyes and the fearless grin on his face, made even James feel some pressure for a second, it was as if he was seeing a fearless and proud warrior, ready to give it his all even if he could not defeat his opponent!

    James was impressed by how much Jay had changed in such a short time, although it was true that Jay seemed like someone that stood out in James'' eyes, it wasn''t as if he was strong, so James had always unconsciouslybeled him as someone who needed protection, hence his attempt to "train" him some time ago.

    Momentarily ignoring the fact that Jay seemed to have a wind glove in his hand, James turned his head so he could see the person Jay was facing... and there he saw Sarah.

    She was wearing a ck sports outfit that matched with her long blue hair which was waving in the air, her gaze radiated a faint blue light, on her face, her expression showed an unwavering seriousness, as if she were facing a lifelong rival.

    Several stones were floating around her, illuminated with a blue glow, which indicated that they had been reinforced with mana...at this moment, Sarah''s appearance was definitely that of a beautiful and exceptional sorceress decided to defeat her opponent!

    Seeing the atmosphere in the backyard, even James could feel the pressure that was emanating from both of them, especially from Sarah.

    He had only seen her like this on very rare asions, as for Jay, he had never seen him like this!

    "You really had the guts to throw a stone at me...and you''re even smiling!" Shouted Sarah interrupting James'' line of thought.

    "I swear I don''t know how I did that, and you know that me smiling is a nervous habit!" Answered Jay.

    "It''s toote for apologies, and even if you don''t know, you will find out soon!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Suddenly, all the stones that were around Sarah rushed towards Jay, seeing what was happening, James got worried, those stones really could harm Jay after all.

    "Sh*t...!" Shouted James, rushing to block the stones that Sarah had thrown, however, the stones were going at a very high speed.

    And even though James was a skilled pugilist, with him being on the roof, he wasn''t going to make it in time.

    However, at that moment, Jay moved, much to James'' surprise, he didn''t back up, instead he moved forward to meet the stones!

    Just as James thought that Jay was going to heavily injured, he, with his own eyes, saw Jay deflect the stones using his right hand, not letting even one of them touch his body.

    "...What?!"

    James was incredibly surprised by Jay''s actions, as a pugilist, James had seen this kind of physical ability before, he himself was someone who could not only deflect, but also shatter those stones easily.

    However, the times he had seen that kind of physical ability was in people who were making use of Qi to enhance their bodies and their senses, in other words, only in pugilists, even he was inevitably dependent on Qi.

    That''s why he was so surprised, after all, he could not even feel a trace of Qi in Jay, it was as if his body didn''t need any kind of energy to disy such reflexes and agility.

    After recovering from the initial surprise, he turned to look at Jay again, who had finished repelling all the stones, and this time, something had changed in him, his gaze, which had once given off determination...now had a very faint green light in it!

    ***

    "AHHH, WHY CAN''T I HIT YOUU!!" Shouted Sarah while grabbing her head, visibly frustrated.

    "DO YOU WANT TO SEND ME TO THE HOSP-" Jay tried to answer, but right then, he fell to the ground.

    *Bam*

    Seeing that, both Sarah and James hurried to help him.

    "Jay!"

    "Are you okay?"

    Said both at the same time,ying Jay on his back, James checked his physical condition and confirmed that he had only fainted from exhaustion, causing both of them to breathe a sigh of relief.

    "I think you overdid it a bit." Said James, even though he always thought that the harder a workout, the better, one thing was improving and quite another to get seriously injured in the process, especially when the person concerned had been a normal person until a while ago.

    "Look at what he did to me!" Said Sarah, pointing to her forehead, where one could see a bruise.

    "...Did Jay do that...? How...?" Wondered James, he knew that Sarah was an expert when it came to throwing objects, so dodging or even grabbing objects thrown to her should have been something as easy as breathing for her.

    "...Well, I may have let my guard down..." She said, avoiding his gaze.

    "Then it''s your own fault." He replied, downying the issue, that part wasn''t very important to him right now after all.

    What was important was that Jay had demonstrated a higher physical level than a person without skills was supposed to have.

    The wind that enveloped Jay''s hand could be exined as ate awakening, but that did not mean that his whole body would receive such a significant improvement and even less in such a short time!

    "Sarah..." He said as he suddenly remembered the other part that had caught his attention the most, "Why did Jay''s eyes had an aura...?"

    Aura, that was the name given to the intentions that supers manifested in their bodies.

    It was also a way to demonstrate how much power a super was currently using, in the initial levels, they would only have one way to show their Aura, which would be through their eyes.

    James and Sarah could do it, although they rarely showed it because it was only shown if they were emotionally agitated or if they were using all their power.

    Anyway, they could do it because they had reached the (C-) rank, going through the (D+) rank, which was the minimum required to be able to manifest an Aura.

    Although the Aura in Jay''s eyes had been extremely faint, it could still be considered as one, however, it was impossible for Jay to have reached the (D+) rank in such a short time, so James was quite intrigued by this.

    Seeing the intense look in James'' eyes, Sarah quickly started to think of an answer that could exin everything that had happened.

    "...It..."

    Suddenly, before Sarah could respond, Jay said a few words.

    "Jay?!" They both said at the same time seeing that their friend was waking up.

    "...It was worth fainting..."

    _____________________

    [New Skill Unlocked: Overload]

    _____________________

 Chapter 14 - A Glimpse At A Martial Technique!

    "So, you''re telling me that you went through an awakening some time ago?"

    "It''s the truth, look~" Jay replied by activating his wind glove.

    "And it''s stronger than it looks!" Sarah added, touching the glove.

    After the problem with Jay passing out, the three sat down in the backyard to discuss what had happened, or rather, Sarah and Jay sat down while James interrogated them.

    "Even if it''s ate awakening..."

    While it was true that cases ofte awakening were very rare, it was still possible that Jay had gone through one, James knew that very well so he could ept the "wind glove" that Jay had in his right hand.

    However, what didn''t seemed right was that Jay had manifested an Aura!

    "It could be a side effect of his awakening." Sarah replied, looking at James.

    "Hmm..."

    Listening to what Sarah was saying, James began to think, and saw that it made some sense.

    Of the three kinds of supers, which were Mages, Pugilists, and Espers, the Espers were the ones with the most unpredictable abilities, and it was not umon to hear of some "side effects" of their abilities, in some cases it could be the change of color of the eyes, hair, and in some particr cases, even their bodies changed!

    Therefore, the fact that Jay''s eye color changed every time he used his skill to the limit could fall into that category, meaning that the glow in his eyes wasn''t an Aura, but rather a side effect of his awakening.

    "Haa, well you''ve only just woken up after all, so maybe your body is just trying to stabilize your ability."

    Although he still had some doubts, he decided to leave it there for the moment, he was worried not because he didn''t want Jay to strenghten himself or something like that, but rather because he didn''t want Jay to take some drastic measures just to obtain some power.

    "Now then, you told me you wanted to learn how to fight...?" James asked, changing the subject.

    "That''s right, as you might have guessed, I''ll apply to the Eitsirc Academy too."

    ''Knew it...'' James thought with a bitter smile.

    James was already aware of Jay''s ambition to be a super, however, that didn''t take away the fact that it was incredibly dangerous for him to try something like this, even if he had suffered an awakening, that didn''t mean he could pass the exam.

    After all, the number of supers that ended up heavily injured or worse on the entrance exam was not small, and these were supers that had used their abilities for a long time, so there''s really no need to mention what would happen to Jay if he tried to take the exam.

    However, he also knew that Jay wouldn''t change his mind no matter how hard he tried to convince him, so, seeking help, he turned to Sarah...unfortunately, she only gave him a bitter smile.

    "Haa...well, let''s get started then." He said before getting up as he took off his shirt and stretched, immediately after, his presence changed, he was no longer the handsome and kind young man that Jay and Sarah knew, he had be one of Jay''s traumas again, "This time..."

    "I''ll make sure to teach you well..." He said with a smile that would give even the bravest criminal the creeps.

    Thus, at the request of his longtime victim, James the Ogre had woken up again.

    ***

    "AAAH!!" shouted Jay as he was chased by a tall and muscr half naked man.

    "STOP RUNNING, WARRIORS ALWAYS FIGHT FACE TO FACE!"

    "I don''t even know what you''re teaching me right now!" Jayined with a few tears in the corner of his eyes.

    Fortunately, just as the mass of muscles called James was about to catch up with him, Sarah interrupted them.

    "Come on, stop ying, or at least include me~" Said Sarah, waving her wand.

    *Bam!*

    Jay then fell to the ground while James'' movements slowed down by a lot.

    "...Ouch." Jay couldn''t help but let out a sound of pain because he had fallen face down.

    "Haha, well, it was fun to scare you." James said with augh, ignoring the increased weight on his body.

    ''Damn you...'' Thought Jay from the floor, although he really wasn''t going to get angry, they were just ying after all, plus, he had unlocked a new skill, which made him extremely happy!

    "Um, if you''ll excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom, I''ll be right back!"

    Because he knew that the "training" would be long and torturous, he quickly went to the bathroom to check his new unlocked skill.

    Once in the bathroom, Jay started to do a few poses in front of the mirror before opening the system...it seems that he was getting a little narcissistic...

    "Open Skills."

    _____________________

    [Skills]

    Wind Control (D-): (4%)<novelnext></novelnext>

    Overload (System Ability) (Free Uses 1/2): The parasites inside the carrier''s body temporarily be a part of the carrier''s body, allowing the carrier to double its statistics for 8 seconds in exchange for all the energy avable in it''s body. (Only avable if the carrier''s statistics have reached the current limit and if there are at least 10 parasites in the carrier''s body.)

    Avable Skills:

    Currently there are no skills avable to assimte.

    _____________________

    "Wow..."

    Jay couldn''t help but be amazed at this skill, even though it was only 8 seconds, his stats would double, this was with no doubt an amazing skill!

    "Hm...free uses eh...I guess the reason I don''t feel so tired is because of that...although my muscles feel sore..."

    As Jay had said, the reason he didn''t feel any fatigue or tiredness was because the system had given him 2 free uses, so the first 2 times he used it, the energy wille from the system instead of Jay, but of course, that didn''t mean that his body wouldn''t feld the strain of using his body to the limit.

    As to why he had fainted, it was due to it being the first time his body had been forced to use so much energy and greatly surpass it''s limits, thus excerting a huge pressure on it.

    Seeing that he had unlocked an ability by training to the limit, Jay confirmed his suspicious that there definitely were more functions, even including abilities of the system that he could discover and unlock, which made him quite excited.

    "Anyways, one step at a time, for now....let''s learn how to fight~!"

    Now with a renewed determination, Jay quickly went downstairs and out into the backyard.

    The sight that greeted him, however, was somewhat unexpected.

    "YOU''RE STUPIDLY HEAVY!" Shouted Sarah holding James inches above the ground using a spell with her wand.

    Judging by the beads of sweat running down her reddened face, one could tell she was having a hard time doing it.

    "HOHOHO, YOU CAN''T WIN AGAINST MY STRONG BODY, YOU GLUTTON MAGE!" James responded as he made a pose to emphasize his toned pecs as he floated.

    "...I guess there''s a reason we''re friends eh...." Jay thought as he watched this scene.

    ***

    After the three of them calmed down, James and Jay then began the "training", James first started exining some things to Jay.

    "As I said before, your body is very weakpared to other supers, even if you can cover your hand with your ability, that won''t be enough if you have to face another super or a monster, well, it won''t even be enough to reach the entrance of the Eitsirc Academy."

    What James was saying, although it might seem like a negative thing, was nothing more than the truth.

    Jay''s current body may be in better physical conditionpared to a normal person, however, that only applied to them, inparison to most supers, all of Jay''s aspects werecking.

    He didn''t have a strong physique like a pugilist, he didn''t know any long-range magic spells that would keep enemies at bay, and his skill was incredibly weak for now, that was one of the problems of ate awakening.

    While other supers had already started their journey from childhood, the ones who had ate awakening would have to start years behind, so the effort they had to put in was many times greater if they wanted to follow the path of a super.

    Jay''s case was exactly this, so what martial technique was appropriate for someone with a weak defense and attack power?

    "I''m going to teach you how to dodge!" James shouted with such strong determination that there even seemed to be fire in his eyes.

    James, like many pugilists, was a training fanatic, especially if it was physical training, so he couldn''t help but get excited.

    "...You''re going to hit me again, aren''t you?" Said Jay with a look of resignation.

    "Not this time,st time I had to do it because I wanted to teach you to be able to run away if someone was chasing you, but you wouldn''t take it seriously if I just caught you, so beating you up was necessary." James replied by raising his arms and making an expression of ''It was the only way.''

    "Normally, the easiest way would be to improve your physical condition so your reflexes would improve too, but since we don''t have that much time and you can''t use Qi to improve your body, we''ll have to use another method, try to hit me." James continued.

    "Alright~" said Jay before activating his wind glove and throwing a strong punch at James.

    Even though they were friends, there was not a shred of doubt on Jay''s part, it was partly because James was a pugilist, and an exceptional one at that so even if he hit him, James would only feel a caress.

    On the other hand, when James chased him a little while ago, he had relived some traumatic memories of Jay, so Jay wanted to hit the root of them in an attempt to diminish them even a little.

    However, just as his fist was about to connect with James'' face, he suddenly disappeared!

    "Oh no-gah!" Jay said, knowing what wasing.

    At that moment, someone hit his head with a karate chop, causing Jay fall to the ground.

    "...Ouch"

    "So, what do you think~?" James, on the other hand had a smile on his face.

    "Exactly how did you do that...?" Jay asked very curiously.

    "It''s a foot technique, it''s called Phantom Trace!"

 Chapter 15 - An Interesting Training Session!

    "Although you say foot technique, it still counts as a martial technique, right...?"

    "That''s right."

    "Wow..."

    Jay was impressed to see a martial technique for first time, after all, they were a prizedmodity of every pugilist''s sect, something that would only be given to the sect disciples at a minimum!

    Just as the magicians had spells, the pugilists on the other hand had martial techniques, some were techniques used to defend themselves, like Iron Body, which gave the pugilist a defense simr to that of this metal for a short time.

    There were others with a high offensive power, the most known technique was Fire Fist, which as its name indicated, gave the pugilist the ability to cover their fists in fire, thus increasing his attack power.

    Atst, there were others that had many uses, like Phantom Trace that could be used to increase the speed, agility and evasiveness of the person using it.

    All these techniques were also divided into ranks, depending on their capabilities and the power they demonstrated.

    After hearing what James said, Sarah asked with an ice cream in one hand, no one had seen where she got it, but there it was.

    "Won''t you get in trouble with your sect if you just give it to him...? Because if that''s the case I think we can just buy it..."

    What Sarah had said was true, although James had an important position in his sect, there were some rules that even he couldn''t break, so she wasn''t sure if James giving this to Jay just like that was allowed or not.

    A sect was the name given to therge groups of pugilists who formed an organization, James in fact not only belonged to a sect, he was the heir to one of thergest sects in the country!

    The sect was called "The Emperor''s Gate", an ancient and powerful organization with vast resources, ording to the records, they had served as the personal army of an emperor a really long time ago.

    It even was said that they were the reason the emperor was able toe to the throne, hence the reason for their name.

    "Haha, don''t worry about it, as for the price, consider it as my gift for Jay''s awakening, besides, I can afford these luxuries as the heir~. He replied with a proud smile.

    Although the smile might seem arrogant to some, in reality it was very well justified considering his position in his sect.

    The hierarchy of the sects as to the disciples was divided into three, from the lowest to the highest:

    Official Disciple, they were considered the main force of a sect, here they could receive resources, low level methods of body strengthening and medium level martial techniques.

    As part of the sect, they have to follow its rules and teachings, however, the sect also protects them if they were to encounter any problem.

    Central Disciple, only the most exceptional disciples of the sect could advance to this rank, a great amount of merits and considerable strenght was needed to be elegible for this position.

    But it was all worth it as they received a great amount of resources, techniques and methods of body strengthening of medium and high level, they were a really important part of the sect.

    While one could get away with it if he messed with an official disciple, one would have to pay a heavy price if they wanted to look for problems with some central disciple, since not only the sect protected them, but also the strength of each one of them was considerable.

    Heir, this was a unique position as there was only one heir per sect, being the most talented and exceptional disciple of all, the one who had managed to defeat all the central disciples and umte a huge amount of merits, receiving the greatest amount of resources and ess to all the techniques along with the methods of strengthening that the sect had at its disposal.

    Finally, with his master being the same master of the sect, any outside power had to be careful with a descendant since not only were they really strong, but also because messing with them was the same as messing with the entire sect!

    "Thanks James, I''ll definitely treat you to a nice meal some other time." Said Jay, giving James a thumbs up, "And...is there a requirement to use this...?"

    "There''s no need to repay me, just train hard and I''ll be happy, as for the requirements...yes and no, in order to use the full potential of this technique like I did, you have to use Qi, but you can still use it even if you don''t have Qi, although it will be a bit slower." James exined.

    "Well, if you say so...then let''s get started~!" said Jay, eager to learn how to move even a bit like James.

    "I''ll watch you both from here then~" Added Sarah, who was floating again, since watching them train while she did nothing didn''t feel right for her.

    As for the ice cream she had earlier, it was nowhere to be seen.

    "Alright, then the first thing you have to do is..."

    That way, Jay began to learn his first martial technique.

    ***

    "...Ha...ha...damn" Jay was on the floor, panting from exhaustion.

    The sun had already set, and now the only thing that was illuminating the backyard was the lighting from the living room.

    "Woah, it seems like Jay managed to tire you out eh, James~" said Sarah still floating, while her voice sounded as carefree as ever, she was pretty tired too.

    They had been training for several hours without stopping after all, mostly because Jay seemed to recover incredibly fast, surprising even James, who was a pugilist.

    "This...is also part of your skill...?" He asked.

    "Who...who knows...haha" Answered Jay from the ground, even though he had almost no energy in his body anymore, he had a big smile on his face because he had learned a lot today.

    ''Ha...seriously, who''s the pugilist here, me or you...'' thought James as he smiled bitterly, recalling the training they''d just done.

    The Phantom Trace consisted of six steps, the first two steps were for dodging, the third and fourth were for counterattacking and the fifth and sixth were for fading out just like James did.

    James had started by teaching him the first two steps as they were rather simple to learn.

    One has to know that in order to learn martial techniques, a strong body and considerable mental strength were required because they consumed a lot of energy and concentration.

    James thought that it would take Jay at least a few days to learn the first step, because even though the Phantom Trace technique was not difficult to learn, his body would not have the energy to train much.

    However, who would have thought that even though Jay''s stamina was nothing special, his recovery rate was stupidly high?

    Normally one would rest for an hour or two after using the first and second steps, but Jay only needed a 20 minute break before continuing to train!

    Right then, before James could continue with his line of thought, his smartwatch started to buzz.

    *Buzz*

    "Oh, it seems that my break is over~" Said James before turning off the rm and putting on the shirt that he had taken off on the ground when they started training.

    "T-Thanks foring, James...I...I have some water bottles in the fridge if you want one..."

    "Thanks, but don''t worry, I''ll drink something at my ce, then I''m off guys, see youter."<novelnext></novelnext>

    The next moment, James jumped back onto the roof and then onto the sidewalk, disappearing from the sight of Jay and Sarah.

    "...It looks like he was in a hurry..." Said Jay, staring at the roof of his house.

    "That''s normal, if I''m not mistaken, I think he''s managed to touch the limit, can''t me him for being eager..." Sarah added with one hand on her chin, remembering the moment she tried to lift him with her magic.

    "Wow, that''s fast, as expected of him..."

    Although they both didn''t know exactly what James'' rank was, that he had touched the limit certainly meant he wasn''t too far off the (C) rank, giving them an urge to improve.

    While Sarah was a rank (C-) mage, the difference between rank (C-) and (C) was quite wide, as for Jay...there was no need to mention him.

    "I''ll keep training, and you...?" Sarah asked, herpetitive spirit had awakened once again, making her want to train more even though she was already tired.

    "Haha...I''ll do the same, of course~"

    After saying that, Jay got up slowly while letting out an "ouch", although his energy recovered quickly, the muscle pain from doing something he wasn''t used to was still there.

    A few more hours passed like this, with Sarah and Jay trying their hardest, until finally, their bodies reached the limit.

    "...I...don''t even know how I''m standing right now..." Said Jay, who at this point was standing with a look of disbelief on his face.

    His legs were trembling and it seemed that he might fall due to his instability at any moment.

    "Urgh...just...a little more...!"

    But before he could continue to be amazed by that fact, Sarah''s voice caught his attention, causing Jay to look up, which is where she was right now.

    Although both of them had been somewhat estranged at the beginning of the training, Jay had slowly approached her while practicing the Phantom Trace.

    Sarah was floating above Jay, about 13 ft off the ground, higher than before.

    However, she was very unstable right now, she was trying to get down but she was doing it erratically and slowly, it was clear that she was having some serious difficulties right now.

    The reason this was happening was because Sarah''s mana reserve was almost depleted, she had wanted to push her limits, but unfortunately she had miscalcted, resulting in this scene.

    "...Ah."

    Then, just at that moment, the mana she possessed was no longer enough to maintain the spell, and she began to fall.

    Seeing that, Jay reacted quickly and extended his arms to catch her.

    "I got yo-!"

    *BAM*

    Unfortunately, Jay wasn''t in condition to catch Sarah, so he simply ended up as a shock absorber for her fall.

    "OH MY GOD I THINK MY LEGS ARE BROKEN!" Shouted Jay as his legs screamed in pain, the movement had been too abrupt.

    "I...feel really dizzy....urgh."

    Sarah on the other hand was also suffering, although not from physical pain like Jay, instead she was quite dizzy, in addition to the feeling that her whole body was heavier than usual.

    After a few seconds, they both managed to calm down a bit, and at that moment they realized the position they were in.

    "...Why aren''t you wearing your shirt...?" Sarah asked, looking at Jay''s naked torso.

    "I felt too hot when I was practicing the Phantom Trace...and why did YOU take off your sweatshirt...?" he asked, seeing that Sarah was only wearing a sports top.

    "...Same as you..."

    At this moment, Jay was lying on the floor, without his T-shirt, he was only wearing one of the typical sports pants that he always used.

    Sarah on the other hand was on top of him, with her chin resting on his chest and a sports top that exposed her abdomen and lower back, as well as some ck leggings that entuated her curves.

    "Pfft."

    "Hahahah"

    Suddenly, both beganughing about this situation, until slowly calming down and remaining silent, Jay dropped his head back on the ground while Sarahyed hers on Jay''s chest, both enjoying the breeze in the backyard.

    "I think we went a little overboard...don''t you think...?" Sarah asked, moving her gaze to meet Jay''s.

    "Just a little~?" He replied,ughing a little, raising his head slightly to look at Sarah.

    "Heh, well...maybe more than a little..." She added, alsoughing and with a small smile on her face.

    Being so close, Sarah couldn''t help but look closely into Jay''s eyes, which although they usually looked nothing special, at this moment they were like two emeralds that inexplicably attracted her attention.

    Jay on the other hand had also fallen into the same situation as Sarah, momentarily mesmerized by Sarah''s bright blue eyes that were like beautiful pristinekes.

    With both of them momentarily lost in each other''s gaze, they did not realize that slowly and surely, they were getting closer.

    The distance between each other decreasing, until they could practically feel each other''s breath.

    "Ahem!"

    "AH!"

    "OUCH!"

    However, just at that moment, someone''s voice broke the calm atmosphere, making Sarah float away slightly above the ground with the little mana she had recovered in this short amount of time, and one could see that her white cheeks were a little flushed.

    Jay on the other hand, amid incredible pain, quickly got up before moving away from the voice, he had even used the Phantom Trace to move faster.

    Although it had ended this way, there was no doubt that they would not forget this training session soon.

 Chapter 16 - Unexpected Visitor

    "Hm, I wonder what could have happened if I didn''t appear, ah, it''s nice to be young~" Said a woman who was dressed in a fashionable but elegant way, remembering old times.

    After the scare Jay and Sarah had gone through in the backyard because of the mysterious voice, it turned out that the voice belonged to a woman that Sarah knew very well, so she wanted to exin the situation to her.

    However, before either of them could say anything, the woman snapped her fingers and lifted them both into the air, causing them to float into the living room, which was where they were right now.

    This woman had short blue hair that reached her neck, apanied by a gentle and knowledgeable look, her facial features were very refined and pleasing to the eye, giving rise to a beautiful face and smile that would undoubtedly make the heart of many skip a beat, in her hands she had a small cup of tea that she made for herself a few minutes ago.

    "Ahaha...ouch" Jayughed in response to the woman''sment, right now he was lying face down on one of the couches as he had not yet recovered from the muscle pain.

    "Anyways, now you can tell me how you both ended up in that situation in the first ce...unless it''s a private matter, because if that''s the case..." added the woman with a teasing smile as she left her tea on the small coffe table and looked at Sarah.

    "C-can''t you help us first, auntie Iris, please...?" Asked Sarah, who was also lying on one of the couches.

    "Hum, ok~"

    *Chak!*

    Then, Sarah''s aunt snapped her fingers again, causing two pills to float out of her purse.

    One of these pills was blue while the other was golden, both pills fell into the mouths of Sarah and Jay respectively, momentster, a faint glow momentarily got out of their bodies.

    "Ohh, bless the alchemists..." Said Jay, feeling much better than before as he stood up and began to stretch.

    "Thank you, Auntie~"

    Sarah also sat down on the couch, thanking her aunt for her help.

    Although her voice sounded normal, she was actually a little embarrassed that her aunt had found her in such a situation, so she began to exin what had happened.

    ***

    "Hm...I see...well, next time it wouldn''t be a bad idea to check your surroundings, after all, you don''t know who could be watching~" said Iris after hearing her exnation, then she snapped her fingers again, and a small animal screech could be hearding from the door to the backyard.

    Jay and Sarah then turned to see what it was...and they saw that it was the squirrel that had been spying on them the other day!

    The squirrel, upon seeing them, simply turned his head, avoiding their nces, acting as if he didn''t know them, then slowly floated away against his will until he reached the woman''s side, where he remained floating.

    "Anyway, Sarah, dear, I really don''t mind you spending time with this handsome young man, however, I''m here now, which means we can continue your training." she continued, turning her attention away from the squirrel and inspecting Jay.

    ''Ohh, she called me handsome... nice!''

    Jay couldn''t help but feel a little proud of it.

    "Auntie, give me at least one more day, please!" Said Sarah as she looked at her aunt with pleading eyes.

    She knew that Jay was nning to go to the South Zone soon, so she wanted to stay at least a little while longer to ensure his safety.

    "I''m afraid that''s not possible my dear, you know the entrance exam is very close by now, we have no time to lose."

    However, her plea was firmly rejected by her aunt, so Sarah turned to Jay for help.

    "Jay, help me convince her!"

    "...she called me handsome...hehe~"

    However, he just stood there with a dumb smile on his face and mumbling something.

    ''This guy...!''

    Seeing that Sarah was reluctant to leave, Iris let out a sigh before snapping her fingers again, although this time the target was not the squirrel, but Sarah.

    "Ah, auntie, wait, just one day, please...!" She tried again to convince her aunt, but she knew it was useless, so she changed tactics.

    If she couldn''t help Jay, then she would give him something that could help him, "Damn! Uh, Jay, I left something for you in the guest room, please use iiiit!"

    That was thest thing she could say before she left the living room floating, followed by the squirrel.

    "Then, young man, many thanks for entertaining my dear niece, see youter~" said Iris bowing a little to Jay.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "A pleasure to meet you, miss~!" Jay responded with a bright smile on his face as he also bowed a little.

    It seems that being called miss cheered Iris up, who secondster also went out into the backyard, not before making float another pill that fell on Jay''s hand.

    Iris had obviously noticed that he would be doing something dangerous judging by Sarah''s insistence, which along with Jay''s attitude made her decide to help him a little.

    ''...A regeneration pill!''

    "Thank you very much!" He said, bowing to the woman again, even though she was gone already.

    That way, both Iris and Sarah had left his home, leaving Jay alone with his thoughts.

    He already knew that Sarah would have to leave at some point for serious training, so it was not much of a surprise.

    Plus, the pill that Sarah''s aunt had given him was definitely a really appreciated gift considering what he was nning to do.

    ''...It''s going to be a little lonely without her and James here...''

    They would both be training hard for the entrance exam, so obviously they wouldn''t have time for anything else.

    ''And what happened before... Resistance to Female Charms, you have failed me!'' He thought, feeling betrayed, and to think that he even considered it his strongest skill!

    ''...Well, it''s not as if I didn''t like it so it''s fine...!''

    He then remembered the scene again, making him feel d that his skill was not as strong as he thought.

    "Anyway, I''d better get ready."

    Deciding that he would deal with the matterter, he quickly went up to the second floor to take a shower while considering all the things he had at his disposal right now.

    ''Let''s see...I have the Wind Control skill, although I can defend myself with it, it would be best to avoid a direct confrontation...secondly, I have the Phantom Trace, while I can only use the first and second step for now, it will be what I use the most if I have to face someone...finally, my trump card, Overdrive, I better save thest free use as ast resort...''

    After he got out of the shower and put on some new clothes, he went to the guest room where Sarah had stayed.

    There was a small suitcase next to the bed in which were probably the pajamas she was wearing, but Jay assumed that obviously she hadn''t referred to her pajamas when she said that he had to use it, so he looked on top of the bed where there was a blue cloth bag.

    "They''re...bandages...?"

    After opening the bag, what was inside were what appeared to be normal bandages to the naked eye, however, if one looked closely at them, there were small circles withplicated patterns on them.

    "...My goodness, they are magically reinforced bandages!" He said, visibly impressed.

    Jay then started thinking about how Sarah could have got them, getting the bandages was easy, but the magic circles were not her specialty at all.

    In fact, the branch of magic that Sarah studied had nothing to do with them!

    Right then, Jay remembered that there was actually a verypetent and fearsome person who was actually capable of making those circles.

    "...Her father...haa, I definitely have to invite her to a feast the next time I see her." He said with a smile on his face.

    After picking up the bandages, he went to his room and started dressing for the special ocassion, since he didn''t want to stand out too much and needed to be able to run at any time, he chose dark colored clothes that wouldn''t hinder his movement.

    Resulting in him putting on ck sweatpants, a gray shirt and a ck sweatshirt, the only thing missing now was to cover his face and hands because he didn''t want to risk leaving any way for them to identify him.

    Unfortunately, no matter how hard he searched in his room, he couldn''t find any gloves, mask or anything like that.

    Just when he was thinking about whether he should cut out a shirt to make a mask, he remembered that he had something that could serve his purpose very well.

    After dressing properly, Jay headed to the bathroom to see how he looked.

    In the reflection of the mirror, he could see a young tall man who waspletely d in ck, the only part of his body that was visible was his face, which was half hidden by the hood he was wearing.

    However, the little that could be seen... was his totally bandage covered face, with only his green eyes visible.

    "This... is perfect.. Jay said with a big smile on his face.

 Chapter 17 - Noah

    "Haa...man, I better hurry..." said a young man about 18 years old making his way to his apartment.

    He was passing through an area where there were several stores, but since it waste already, they were all closed, which together with the unkempt look of the sidewalks, buildings and dim lights of the streetmps, it gave the street an appearance that made one feel cautious.

    One could see by the way he was walking that this young man was in quite a hurry, and even though there wasn''t much light in the street, one could still make out certain things about him.

    He had brown hair and a light skin, he was wearing brown pants with a blue sweater as well as a backpack, even though the young man couldn''t be described as handsome, he had a gentle face thatbined with the sses he was wearing made him look like a dedicated college student.

    He had just left his job at a local store which was somewhat far from the neighborhood where he lived, the reason he was in such a hurry was because the neighborhood where he lived was in the infamous South Zone.

    Luckily he was already halfway there, although he didn''t rx a bit anyway, he knew very well that one couldn''t be too cautious here, he had been robbed many times before after all.

    However, there wasn''t much he could do, most of the criminals in this area were supers, and while they weren''t strong or anything, they could definitely beat him up.

    The reason for that was, although he was an esper, his skill was not useful for anything except taking hits, so local criminals often liked to bother him to test the limits of his ability.

    As for the police...they only came here once a week, and unfotunately, today wasn''t the day that they did.

    And about changing his route, sure, he could do it...but the other routes were only more dangerous, not less.

    Therefore, his main goal was to get a good job and raise enough money to move out of this ce, which was a goal he was slowly but surely achieving.

    "I really...want to move out..." He said, stopping momentarily and looking at the darkened sky, that although one couldn''t see many stars, it was still a beautiful sight.

    This was one of the few good things that the South Zone had, there wasn''t as much noise as in the other parts of the city, giving ce to a quiet atmosphere.

    Just then, as if to console this poor young man a little, a shooting star passed by.

    "!"

    The young man was surprised by this and quickly made a wish with all the honesty he had in his heart.

    "Please, I want to move-UGH!"

    *PAM*

    However, he was interrupted by a kick in the back, which caused him to fall to the floor in pain, throwing away his backpack and sses.

    "Noah~!"

    Then, the person who kicked him shouted the young man''s name.

    ''...Damn it.'' Thought Noah as he picked up his sses, it was exactly because he wanted to avoid this kind of situation that he was rushing, unfortunately he had stopped to look at the sky, although he wasn''t sure if that had caused him to be found or not.

    "I see you were in a hurry, you were nning to go home without saying hello~?" said the person as he bent down to be at the same height as Noah.

    The person in question was a man of about 21-22 years of age, he had long, green hair as well as sharp eyes, was thinly built, and looked a little sloppy in general.

    "...What do you want...?" Said Noah, not wanting to make this longer.

    "Come on, there''s no need to be this cold, haven''t we known each other for a while~?" Answered the man, but upon seeing that Noah didn''t want to talk, he added, "Well, you know, I''m a little bit short on cash, and I was wondering if you could lend some to me~?"

    ''Haa, let''s get this over with...''

    Then, he reached into his pockets, pulling out his wallet before handing it to the man before him.

    "Heh, thanks." He said with a grin on his face when he saw that Noah was taking out his wallet, then stretching out his hand towards it.

    ''...''

    At that moment, Noah started thinking, he knew that there wasn''t a lot of money in his wallet because every time he got his paycheck he immediately put most of it in his bank ount, he wasn''t an idiot to carry all that money around after all.

    However...that money was his, it was the little he had to buy groceries and for his transportation!

    He had worked very hard to earn that, he saved a lot on meals, he didn''t indulge in any kind of luxury, and he even always preferred to walk before using any kind of transportation because that cost money too!

    Then, he started remembering...

    How much money had he given to the piece of sh*t before him...?

    For how long...was this asshole going to take his money...?

    Perhaps he worked to keep this good-for-nothing...?

    If things went on like this...how longer would it be, until he finally could move out...?

    Suddenly, rage filled Noah, normally, he was a very calm and easy going person...but after many months, he could not take it anymore.

    Then, gripping his wallet harder than before, he said...

    "No..."

    "...what...?" Asked the guy with long hair, a little surprised, seeing that Noah''s arm had stopped halfway.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I said..." Noah added, slowly getting up.

    The man on the other hand just stared at him, interested in what he was going to do...although his attitude seemed calm, the look in his eyes was starting to turn cold.

    Finally, Noah finished standing and then looked directly at the man before shouting with determination.

    "NO, YOU ASSHO-UGH!"

    "Don''t you f*cking shout at me." Said the man after kicking Noah again, interrupting him, it''s true that he was interested in seeing what he would do, but not to the point where he would let Noah yell at him.

    Although Noah had gathered his courage and had no intention of letting him take his money, the difference in strength was obvious.

    Again in the ground, Noah was holding on to his stomach while coughing, it seems the man had used more strenght than the previous time.

    "I don''t know what kind of idea you had, and to be honest I don''t give a sh*t what you think or say." Said the man, bending over again before lifting Noah by his hair and pushing him against the wall of one of the closed stores and making his eyes meet. "But, if I tell you to lend me money, you have to do it, alright?"

    Noah looked at him, enduring the pain he was feeling right now while grabbing the man''s arm, even though he knew that this man could definitely beat him up, he still red at the man as if he was his worst enemy, his determination didn''t waver.

    Unfortunatle, determination alone wasn''t enough to overpower this man, so Noah felt kinda helpless inside, he didn''t want to give up, but...what else could he do right now...?

    He wasn''t able to beat the man, he wasn''t able to protect what little money he had, and ultimately...he wasn''t able to protect himself.

    But even though that was the case, the anger inside of him didn''t diminish one bit.

    *SLAP*

    "Change that stupid look." Said the man in a serious and somewhat jaded tone of voice after pping Noah, causing his nose to bleed a little.

    However, instead of calming down after the p, Noah simply kept staring at the man...then, suddenly, he thought of a way to "retaliate".

    *PTU*

    And spitted on the face of the man.

    *PAM*

    "GAH!"

    The man obviously didn''t take it well, so he head-butted him, making Noah feel great pain and dizziness.

    But even then, Noah didn''t want to give in, helpless or not, dizzy or not, he wanted to at least make this piece of sh*t pay even a little.

    So, gathering all the strenght on his body, he let go of his arm and tried to scrath the man''s face.

    "...You really don''t learn..." Said the man, visibly annoyed, he then let go of Noah''s hair to grab his neck, with enough force to restrain him, but not enough to choke him.

    Then, he pulled something out of his jacket with his other hand... a knife.

    "F*ck...you!" Noah replied by seeing what the man had in his hands, trying to escape the man''s grip with all his strenght, however, the man''s arm didn''t even budge.

    "Let''s see if you still keep saying that after this..." He said with an annoyed expression on his face and a scary look before he started to cut Noah''s face.

    "AAAAAAARGHH!!"

    No matter how much Noah fought, he could only stand there screaming in pain, madly scratching the man''s arm in an attempt to break free from his grip.

    He had started cutting from the cheeks and was slowly working his way up to his eye, giving Noah an indescribable pain.

    "AAARGHH!!"

    "TRY TO SPIT AGAIN, YOU PIECE OF SHI-!"

    *CLAN!*

    Suddenly, just as the knife was about to reach his eye, the sound of metal hiting against something solid was heard.

    Then, Noah saw the man before him falling to the ground unconscious.

    "Wow, we started out strong, hey, dude, are you oka...I guess not." Said a hooded man, who was also the responsible of the long-haired man falling to the ground.

    "...who...?"

    Noah had also fallen to the ground after the man stopped holding him, but after everything that had happened to him, he was feeling extremely bad, especially his head, everything was fuzzy and staying awake was starting to be really hard for him.

    However, he gritted his teeth and looked up to see who was the person that had helped him.

    Then he saw it, a man totally d in ck, with his face covered by bandages, the only visible part of his face were his green emerald eyes.

    And then.... his consciousness faded.

 Chapter 18 - First Battle!

    ''I know the South Zone has a bad reputation but to encounter this at the entrance...wow, although it''s a good thing, it makes things easier~'' thought Jay after he had knocked out the long-haired man.

    After getting dressed, Jay left his house and headed directly to the South Zone, although it was dangerous, he had already made all the preparations he could in one night.

    Originally, wheb he arrived, he had nned to walk around the ce until he found some delinquent and quickly knock him out with the metal bat he had brought with him, so this encounter had made things much easier for him.

    As for the metal bat, he had brought it because although he had some things to defend himself and escape, hecked a lot of attacking power.

    After knocking the long-haired man out, Jay bent down to inspect the young man''s wounds, although his main goal was to get more hosts, he could not just leave this person like this.

    "Alright, I cleaned up the blood, what''s left now is to stop...the...bleeding...?" Jay said, surprised by what he was seeing.

    After cleaning the blood from the young man''s face, Jay expected to see a painful cut, but the only thing on the young man''s face was a line of pink skin where the knife had passed!

    ''...This guy, he has a passive regeneration ability, this is incredible!'' thought Jay, excited to have found such an unusual ability.

    While the vast majority of the esper''s skills were those that one had to consciously activate in order to use them, that didn''t mean there weren''t other types.

    Esper skills were divided into three types, Actives, Passives and Irregrs.

    Actives, as the name implies, are skills that can only be used when one activates them, Carl''s skill would fall into this category and it was the mostmon type of skill.

    The Passive ones are skills which remain active 24/7, even when the host is unconscious, such as with the young man Jay had in front of him, who even though he was passed out, he was still healing, this type of ability was quite rare to see.

    Irregrs, this type of skill was the most unusual, they had both the characteristics of passive as well as active skills, for example, if a esper had the irregr version of the "Super Strength" skill, then his body would always have super strength, but when he consciously activated the skill, his power would increase much more.

    Since the Irregr skills were really unusual, the first thing Jay thought was that the type of skill the young man had in front of him belonged to the passive category, and if that was not the case...then it would be even better!

    Jay then took the young man''s hand and infected him with a parasite to confirm his ability.

    _____________________

    [Noah Tanner]

    Passive Skill: Regeneration (D) (Assimting)

    Condition: Unconscious, Tired

    Parasites: 1

    Assimtion status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)

    _____________________

    ''So it was a passive skill after all...great!''

    "Ugh..."

    However, before he could finish infecting Noah with all his parasytes, a groan came from the man he had knocked out.

    *CLAN*

    "ARGH!"

    Jay inmediatly hit the man with the bat again, he didn''t know if the man on the ground was a super or not, but he didn''t want to give him a chance to get up anyway.

    "BASTAR-ARGH!!"

    *CLAN*

    The man was trying to defend himself, but Jay was relentless with his hits, since he was aiming mainly at the head, the man hurriedly protected his head with his arms.

    ''Who the hell is this guy?!'' thought the man as he was being whipped with the metal bat.

    Thest thing he remembered was that he was teaching Noah a lesson when he suddenly felt a heavy blow to the head, shortly after, everything went dark for him.

    When he woke up, he was met by another hard blow to the head that almost made him faint again, just who was this guy who seemed to hate him so much?!

    He had tried to get up before, but right when he did, another blow pointed directly at his crotch almost hit him, so he was forced to stay down covering his head.

    ''What a dangerous guy!'' He thought.

    However, he knew that with the way he was attacking, it was only a matter of time until this unknown man got tired, so he only had to hold out for a while longer, fortunately his ability allowed him to temporarily strengthen his arms, making it easier to endure the blows.

    When that time came, all the pain he was feeling in his arms, he would give it back to him by the thousand!

    *3 minutester*

    ''HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT HE HASN''T GOT EVEN A BIT TIRED?'' thought the man on the ground.

    His arms were now numb with pain, and what was worse, the person who was attacking him did not seem to show any signs of fatigue!<novelnext></novelnext>

    *CLAN*

    ''Eh?''

    Fortunately for him, just as the he was about to get up, even at the risk of receiving a blow to the head, he felt the blows were getting softer, although the pace at which they wereing hadn''t slowed down.

    ''Is he finally getting tired?'' thought the man, hopeful.

    Then he looked up just a little to see the person who was attacking him.

    What he saw then was a man dressedpletely in ck, he couldn''t see his face because he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, but what he could see was the weapon he was carrying, it was a metal bat.

    But not a normal one, no, it was a dented metal bat!

    ''...T-That''s why the blows became softer...?'' The manmented internally, thinking he would definitely have to visit the hospital after this.

    After that, the man then decided to stand up, his attacker''s weapon wasn''t as strong as before after all, so he quickly got up while protecting his head with one arm and his crotch with the other.

    "MY MOMENT CAME-GAH!"

    Just as he stood up, a sharp blow fell on his chin, causing him to see stars momentarily.

    ''Ah, shit...'' thought Jay as he looked at his now L-shaped metal bat, it was already quite dented before, but thest blow had made it bendpletely.

    *CLANK*

    Seeing that he no longer had any use for it, he decided to throw it a little farther away so that it wouldn''t get in his way, and then he threw himself at the dazed man, wanting to take advantage of his dazed state.

    "DON''T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, YOU BASTARD!"

    However, the man, despite being dizzy from the heavy blow he had received, had not stopped paying attention to Jay even for a second, so at the moment Jay approached, he threw a blow in Jay''s direction.

    *CLAN*

    The blow, although it did not reach Jay, it did reach a nearby streetlight, which shook heavily after receving that hit.

    ''...That hit was strong...but that means that he''s either a pugilist or an esper with a strengthening ability..'' thought Jay as he looked at the man in front of him before distancing himself from the man.

    It would have been problematic if he had any long-range skills, but that didn''t seem to be the case.

    "COME HERE, YOU BASTARD!" The man shouted, interrupting Jay''s thoughts as he ran towards him, his bruised face showing the anger he felt towards Jay.

    Jay on the other hand stayed in the same ce, changing his posture so that he could use the Phantom Trace at any time.

    The man, who was dizzy and blinded by anger, did not detect anything unusual about Jay and simply thought that he stood quiet for fear, so, when he got closer to Jay, he threw another punch at him.

    As expected, Jay easily dodged the man''s slow attack by moving with the Phantom Trace, however, the man did not stop there and continued to throw punches, slowly cornering Jay.

    Although the blows were not quick, Jay had to be careful as he had seen the power each one carried.

    "F*CKING COWARD!" shouted the man when he saw that none of his blows could hit Jay and thus increasing the speed of his blows.

    Secause his body was in a deplorable state, increasing the speed meant that he was giving it his all at this moment.

    ''This is getting dangerous.'' Jay thought, using the Phantom Trace to the limit of what he could to avoid the st of blows he had to face. ''Come on, think...he''s already very weak...I just need a distraction to knock him out...oh.''

    Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

    Then, using the Phantom Trace again, Jay jumped to the side of the man, this was a kisky move as he would get closer to the long haired man, but Jay still did it.

    "I GOT YOU!" the man shouted after grabbing Jay''s arm after he jumped.

    However, just as the man was about to crush Jay''s arm, he saw that Jay had thrown something on top of him.

    "What the..."

    They were small things but he couldn''t see very well because of theck of light, so he walked away from Jay and looked at his arms closely.

    At that moment, he saw them...worms moving over his arms, some going inside his arms and some about to do it.

    "W-WHAT IS THIS?!" the man shouted in horror as he saw what was happening to him, trying to get the worms out but failing as every time he tried to grab one, it went into his body.

    "H-HELP-!"

    *BAM!*

    His cry for help was quickly interrupted by Jay''s kick, which was covered in wind, causing the man to fall to the ground unconscious again.

    "...This guy is tough for a thin guy...." said Jay, feeling a little tired.

 Chapter 19 - Proliferation

    "...Alright, this confirms it, I definitelyck attacking power..." Jay said after dragging the long-haired man''s body into a dark alley.

    Although he had managed to defeat this guy, it wasrgely because he attacked him by surprise, which together with the precise strikes of the metal bat as well as the Phantom Trace and the distraction of the parasites, had allowed him to win.

    He was also lucky that the man did not have a long-range skill, for example, if instead of a short-range skill, the long-haired man had Fire, Wind Control or something like that, things would have turned out differently.

    As for his special skill, it turns out that Jay''s suspicions were true, he had the active skill "Superhuman Strength (D-)", it was a decent skill that would suit Jay very well indeed, considering hisck of power.

    But since he only had 10 parasites avable, he had to choose one, and in this case, Jay preferred the passive skill "Regeneration (D)", it was too good an opportunity to pass up after all.

    And while "Superhuman Strenght" wasn''t a bad skill, it was toomon between espers, so Jay was sure that he would be able to find something simr in the future.

    As for infecting them both, he could do it if he divided up the parasites he had but...the process would take twice as long and he didn''t have a lot of time left until the entrance exam.

    ''Although, after this I will not be able to infect more people...''. he thought as he recalled the ways he had obtained the parasites.

    Until now, the way he had gotten parasites was because the system had given them to him, the first 10 were a gift from the system, and the 10 he now had were a reward forpleting a hidden task.

    ''I wonder if there''s a way to get them on my own...''

    Just when he was thinking that, a system rm appeared before him.

    _____________________

    [New Mission: Getting more little ones!]

    Description: Since the system is really kind, it has decided to help the helpless carrier, thus the [Proliferation] function has been temporarily unlocked.

    Requirements: Find a suitable host to produce parasites and convert parasites (original) to parasites (esper).

    First Reward: (10) parasites.

    Second Reward: (1) free use of [Proliferation]

    Remark: 1 bes 2!

    _____________________

    ''...Well damn...'' Jay thought, impressed by the message that had just appeared in front of him, ''I really need to investigate how to unlock all the functions of the system...''

    Although this announcement had reaffirmed the fact that Jay did not know the system well, Jay decided to leave that issue for when he returned home, now was not the time to investigate the functions of the system after all.

    ording to the announcement of the system, Jay had to find a suitable host in order to exchange the parasites, the first option that came to his mind was obviously Taylor, the man with long hair.

    ''I wonder if he''s suitable...''

    After returning to the alley where Jay had left him, he again infected him with all the avable parasites he had before opening the interface.

    _____________________

    [Taylor Harbin]

    Skill: Superhuman Strenght (D-)

    Condition: Fatigue, Unconscious, Injured

    Parasites: 10

    Assimtion status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)

    (Requirements to use [Proliferation])

    (Host''s condition must be: Unconscious, Injured...)

    Verifying Host''s condition...

    Requirements...met!

    (Do you want to use [Proliferation]?)

    (Y/N)

    _____________________

    ''Oh, nice~''

    Jay quickly selected the "Y" option and a new window appeared.

    _____________________

    [Proliferation] (Iplete)

    Using the host body as a medium, parasites (original) can multiply and change their affinity based on the host. (The amount of parasites changing varies acording to the host.) (Only avable once per person.)

    [Host body type: Esper)

    Change Avable:

    [1 parasite (original) = 2 parasites (esper)]

    [You currently have 10 parasites (original) and 0 parasites (esper)]

    (Warning: The host will experience great pressure and loss of vitality in the process of [Proliferation].)

    _____________________

    ''...I REALLY have to figure out how to unlock the system functions...'' thought Jay even more determined than before.

    If [Proliferation] was such a good function despite being iplete, then what would the full version look like?

    The next moment, he activated the [Proliferation] function.<novelnext></novelnext>

    After the function was activated, Taylor''s body began to tremble while hisplexion became visibly paler and thinner than it already was.

    ''No doubt the system was not lying when it said great pressure and loss of vitality...''

    After waiting for about 5 minutes, the system window indicating that the [Proliferation] process was over, along with thepletion of the mission popped up in front of him.

    _____________________

    [Proliferation] has been used on [Taylor Harbin] sessfully!

    You have obtained...20 parasites (esper type)!

    [Mission: "Getting more little ones!" has beenpleted.]

    [First Reward: (10) parasites (original) had been awarded to the carrier.]

    [Second Reward: (1) free use of [Proliferation] has been awarded to the carrier.]

    _____________________

    ''Sessfully...it means that the process can fail...?'' Jay thought as he saw the message, as for the reward, it wasn''t that surprising because he had received parasites this way before, although he still felt grateful because this was just what he needed right now.

    Another thing he noticed was that the appearance of these parasites (esper) was different from the original ones.

    Even though the teeth and the shape of the parasites was the same, they had 4 little eyes of a phosphorescent green color, he also felt that their skin color had changed, but he could not see it very well because there was not much light in the alley where he was.

    After leaving the alley with his 30 new parasites, Jay quickly headed to Noah, who was fortunately still unconscious.

    For a moment, Jay considered using [Proliferation] on him, but in the end he didn''t. The requirements for using [Proliferation] were that the host had to be unconscious and injured, but with the ability Noah possessed...it would be a difficult task.

    Therefore, he decided to save the only use of [Proliferation] he had until he found another super with a suitable skill for him.

    Then, after grabbing Noah''s hand, he infected him with the 20 parasites (esper) he possessed, although he could also have infected Taylor with the amount of parasites he had, Jay had no way of finding him after the assimtion was over and he also didn''t want to fight this guy again, at least not until he became stronger.

    When Jay finished infecting Noah, he noticed that the parasites inside him were quite energetic, as if they were in their natural environment, which had not happened before with the (original) parasites.

    "Hm... I feel bad leaving this guy like this, considering that he will also spend about 5 days feeling weak..." Said Jay as he watched Noah, thinking how to repay him, "Oh, I know!"

    Jay didn''t know the South Zone at all, so he didn''t know exactly where he could get more hosts or which parts he should avoid, he certainlycked information.

    However, Noah was a local resident who definitely knew this ce much better than Jay, he might even know more guys like Taylor, who would be perfect candidates to be hosts!

    As to why Noah would help him, Jay was sure that they coulde to an agreement, plus, this way he could also easily find him by the time the parasites had finished assimting his ability.

    Then, Jay started checking to see if Noah had a smart watch or something tomunicate with him...

    But even after carefully searching him, Noah only had his wallet on him, as for his backpack, it only had some books and notebooks inside, nothing that could be used to contact him.

    "...Hm, I''ll have to get him one."

    After he said that, he went back to the alley where he had left Taylor and started to check him.

    While doing so, Jay found that Taylor had a smart watch in his back pocket along with his wallet.

    "Well, since I''m stealing from him anyway..." He said as he pulled the money out of the wallet and then returning the wallet to Taylor''s pocket, having taken the smart watch of course.

    Again with Noah, Jay formatted the smart watch and wrote down the watch''s contact number so he could talk to Noahter.

    As for the money he took from Taylor, Jay put it in Noah''s wallet, as a smallpensation for having kept Taylor busy.

    "Then...all that''s left is to wake him up~" Jay said before he started shaking Noah.

    "...Ugh...who...?"

    After being shaken for a while, Noah woke up somewhat confused, mainly because the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was a man dressed in ck with his face covered in bandages, the same man he had seen before he passed out.

    "Oh, you''re awake, nice, we''ll talkter then, bye~!"

    However, before Noah could think of anything else, the man ran out in the direction of the South Zone exit, leaving behind a very confused Noah.

    "...What just happened...?" he asked himself while rubbing his head, it still hurt a bit.

    Seeing his surroundings, he found his backpack and sses ced next to him, a little farther was a bent metal bat, which was not there before he passed out.

    He couldn''t see Taylor either, but judging by the unharmed state of the man in ck and the bent metal bat, he could already imagine what had happened, and he got a little happy.

    Although he had never seen that man in the South Zone, it was not umon for new criminals to appear from time to time, and a dispute between them was also normal.

    The next thing Noah did was check his wallet, to see how much money the man had stolen, if he hadn''t taken everything already.

    "What...?"

    But to his surprise, when he opened his wallet, not only was his money intact, but he even had a few more bills!

    Right then he also saw something on his right wrist, it was a smart watch!

    "...This...isn''t this the one that Taylor had...?!"

    He was quite surprised by what had happened, apparently the man in ck had not only left him money, but he had also given him Taylor''s watch!

    But just when he was deciding whether to throw away the watch or keep it, a message came.

    [Hey, you better hurry home, Taylor might wake up.]

    "!"

    After reading the message, Noah packed up his things and hurried back to his apartment.. He had a lot to think about, but this was definitely not the ce to do it.

 Chapter 20 - Getting To Know The System Better!

    After arriving home, Jay removed the bandages from his face, torso and hands and put them in the washing machine to use tomorrow.

    "Haa, I definitely should get me a vehicle~" Jay said after taking a quick shower and dropping onto his bed.

    The way he had transported himself from his home, which was in the North Zone to the South Zone, was on foot.

    Even though it was a bit far away, Jay didn''t want to attract attention in any way.

    Besides, since it was already veryte, very few cabs would be willing to pick him up, not to mention that the way he was dressed wouldn''t help him at all.

    Anyway, even though he was physically and mentally tired, Jay was quite happy.

    "Without a doubt...it''s much better to go out and find hosts than to train on my own..." he said as he put on his sleeping clothes.

    Although training had also given him benefits, it could notpare to the harvest of a single night in the South Zone.

    He had not only discovered several things about the system, but he evenpleted a mission and doubled the parasites he had, all in one night!

    "Haa, today was a good day."

    Finally, Jay went to sleep, deciding that he would start researching everything he could about the system tomorrow morning.

    ***

    The next morning, on amercial street in the South Zone, where several stores were located and people were walking on the sidewalks, a young man of about 19 years old, with short gray hair, sharp teeth and a dangerous air around him was checking the surroundings, looking for something.

    The people on the sidewalks seemed to be very cautious of this young man, some even changing sidewalks to avoid even getting close to him.

    The young man was used to this, so he didn''t really care, plus, he was on a somewhat important mission right now.

    The reason this young man was feared by passers-by was because he belonged to a certain organization in the South Zone that was in charge of "protecting and keeping order" in some parts of the South Zone, this particr neighborhood fell under their jurisdiction.

    The mission he had been assigned was to look for another member of the organization who had gone out on patrol the previous night, however, when it was time to report to the base, he didn''t show up, even when they called him on his smart watch, it said the number did not exist!

    Therefore, the boss, thinking that something bad might have happened in his territory, sent some members to look for Taylor, this young man being one of them.

    Although he was somewhat unhappy with his assigned mission, after all, Taylor was considered one of the weakest, if not the weakest of all members, and what was worse, his personality sucked, so many members did not get along with him.

    "Haaa, if it wasn''t for an order from the boss, I wouldn''t be looking for that asshole." he said as he scratched his head.

    "...urgh..."

    "!"

    Just as he finished saying that, he heard a sounding from one of the alleys in that street.

    The young man put up his guard and slowly entered the alley. He didn''t know if what was inside was the person he was looking for or if it was some monster that had snuck into town, but he kept his guard up anyway.

    Although the urrence of monsters entering the city was rare, it did not mean that it did not happen, specially in ces like the South Zone or the outskirts of the city where the security was more scarce.

    The alley was still dark despite being daytime, which added to the dumpster, the bad smell and the garbage bags in ce, made it a good ce to hide or conceal things.

    As he entered the alley, the young man finally saw the cause of the noise and dropped his guard.

    "So this is where you were..." said the young man, looking at Taylor on the ground.

    "Urgh...my...my whole body hurts...f*ck...I feel like throwing up..." replied Taylor, feeling terrible.

    Not only did his whole body hurt, but he was incredibly tired and nauseous.

    "If you''re going to drink yourself until you faint, at least tell us first, you idiot."

    "Colt...? Wh-what are you doing here-OUCH!"

    Taylor had tried to get up, but when he leaned on his arms, an incredible pain came over him.

    "Come on, don''t exaggerate...wow...what happened to you...?"

    Looking closer, one could notice that Taylor''s arms were swollen and purple, it truly looked very painful, his face also had signs of bruising, especially his chin.

    What''s more, hisplexion was much paler and thinner than usual, his appearance was incredibly bad at the moment.

    "I...ouch...I was attacked...it happenedst night...when I was-"

    "Save your strength to talk to the boss, if you were attacked, then this is serious..." Colt said with a serious look on his face, even though he didn''t like Taylor, if he had really been attacked, it was an important issue since it could have to do with one of the other organizations of the city.

    "Okay, uh, c-can you help me up?

    "...Alright."

    Colt then helped him up and they both walked out of the alley towards the base of their organization.

    ***

    Back at Jay''s house, he currently was in the living room, with the system interface open in front of him.<novelnext></novelnext>

    He had gotten up very early because he was really excited to find a way to unlock the system''s functions or at least try.

    "Hmm...no matter where I look, there''s nothing..." Jay said with one hand on his chin.

    Jay had been checking the system functions that were currently avable to him for quite some time, but no matter how thoroughly or how many times he checked them, nothing changed.

    "...There has to be a way...I refuse to believe that there isn''t..."

    Seeing that checking the avable options did not work, he then switched to another method.

    "System, I need information."

    The next method he had on mind was to see if he could activate something by voicemand, in fact, this idea had urred to him a few days after receiving the system, after all, the system interface could be opened with a voicemand.

    However, at that time, seeing that he did not receive an answer, in addition to being busy exercising and doing other things, he left it aside.

    "System, how can I improve the system?"

    "I require information on how to unlock more functions."

    "Tell me how I can unlock more features..."

    Unfortunately, none of his words were answered, although this discouraged Jay a little, he did not give up, he still had several sentences to try after all.

    ''It looks like this will take some time...''

    ***

    After half an hour, Jay had gotten bored of being in the living room so he had gone out to the backyard to exercise a little, although he could no longer raise his stats, it seemed like a healthy way to pass the time, plus he could also train the Phantom Trace.

    "Question, system, improvements."

    Of course, he hadn''t stopped trying to get an answer from the system all this time, and even though he didn''t want to give up, he was gradually running out of options.

    "Open, system, question, blocked functions."

    Then, just when he was about to try another method, he got an answer.

    _____________________

    Answer: The blocked functions of the system are due to the fact that the system is in its initial phase.

    _____________________

    "...I knew it could be done by voicemand!" Said Jay, d that his method had worked.

    As for the system''s answer, although Jay was already expecting something like this, it was good that the system confirmed it.

    "Open, system, question, how to advance system phase."

    _____________________

    Answer: The requirements to ess this type of information have not been met.

    _____________________

    "Heh...I also knew it wouldn''t be that easy..." He said with a bitter smile on his face.

    After that, Jay went into his house and started asking the system various questions, such as, "how to get more skills from the system," "how to get more original parasites," and so on.

    And while the vast majority of those questions were answered with "The requirements have not been met..." he was able to discover some important things.

    First, the reason he couldn''t level up his statistics no matter how much he trained was because the system had acquired the limits of statistics using Jay''s body as a base.

    Which meant that the most Jay could get, ording to his limits, was a grade (E+) body.

    What was the solution?

    Easy, since the system had acquired the limits of Jay''s body, then all that was needed was the sample of a body that had a higher capacity or even better, that had broken those limits.

    Second, another thing that had interested Jay since he got the system was his incredible speed of recovery, although it had been incredibly useful for training, that didn''t stop Jay from wondering what the reason for this was.

    The answer to this had to do with the first parasite Jay had encountered, the one he saw in his dream.

    It turns out that when it entered his arm, it didn''t just stand there and vanish, what it had done was actually fuse with Jay, greatly changing his body to make him a suitable carrier.

    The reason why Jay had so much energy, could improve his body so quickly and was not harmed despite having dozens of parasites in his body was also because of that.

    Although it was a surprising for Jay, in the end he resigned himself to the truth.

    He....was no longer fully human.

 Chapter 21 - Next Objective!

    "...I really don''t feel that different..." Said Jay as he inspected his body.

    Although the system had confirmed that he was not 100% human, Jay did not feel "less human" so to speak.

    In addition, the changes his body had undergone were necessary in order to use the Parasyte System, so even if he had known he would stop being fully human if he agreed to be the carrier of the system, he would have done so anyway.

    "Well, let''s hope it''s not something harmful in the long run."

    Deciding that he would worry about itter if it was harmful in any way, Jay put the issue aside and focused on another of the important things he discovered.

    His body had a limit of esper skills he was able to assimte, specifically, 3 skills, not counting the ability of the system, of course.

    Although this limited him, he wasn''t that worried.

    "Hm, at least the skills I chose aren''t bad at all."

    While "Wind Control" was a somewhatmon esper skill, Jay was happy with it because it was a fairly versatile skill that could help him defend himself, attack or even run away.

    As for "Regeneration", Jay imagined a scenario where he was fighting someone and no matter how much he was injured, his body would heal instantly, no doubt a terrifying scenario for his enemies.

    For the same reason that he only could assimte 3 skills as max, he was also d he didn''t infect Taylor, even though having "Superhuman Strength" wasn''t bad, there were certainly better skills to assimte.

    ''It was a good question and answer session,'' thought Jay, satisfied with the information he had obtained.

    And although he hadn''t gotten an exact answer, he could now organize his priorities better.

    Thanks to the question and answer session, Jay now knew he had to improve the system to unlock more features, but as he couldn''t figure out how to do it, he decided to focus on something else.

    Improve his statistics.

    While his statistics were enough for now, his goal was to be strong enough to pass the Eitsirc Academy entrance exam, where the other people taking the test were supers with years of training, not just South Zone thugs.

    Plus, he could not always be confident that he would be able to sneak attack his opponent with a metal bat, and what''s more, there would surely be cases where not even a firearm could hurt his opponents, so there was no need to mention what a metal bat could do.

    That being the case, improving his statistics was a necessity, so he had to find a pugilist as soon as possible, and the fastest way to do that was...

    [Hey, Noah, you''re done with the info...?* Wrote Jay on his smart watch before sending the message to Noah.

    He had been talking to him since morning, exining what had happened with Taylor, omitting the detail that he had defeated him with a surprise attack and the fact that he had infected him, obviously.

    Apparently Noah had mistaken him for a new thug from the South Zone who wanted to be recognized for his strength, which was why he hadn''t taken his stuff.

    As to why he had given him Taylor''s smart watch and money, Noah assumed that he had left them so that he wouldn''t say anything.

    Jay thought a little about what Noah said and agreed to the part of him being a thug; after all, it was a believable alibi.

    After exining to him what happened with Taylor and that he hadn''t left him the smart watch to buy his silence, Jay had started to convince Noah to help him find strong "rivals" so he could make a name for himself.

    He liked that excuse, so he decided to go along with it.

    At first Noah refused because even though Jay had helped him, that didn''t mean he wasn''t dangerous.

    However, after Jay offered him money in exchange for the information, things changed, which surprised Jay a little, who had even prepared a speech about how he wanted to be strong in order to improve the security of the South Zone.

    [Not yet, but I''ve finished some of it...] Replied Noah before sending a file to Jay.

    "Hoo..."

    Jay opened the file and saw that it was a map which showed the 31 districts that made up the entire South Zone.

    Each of these districts, from number 2 to 31 had a color, some were green and some were purple, making it a colorful map.

    Below the map was a description of what each of the colors meant.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Metal Body (Green), is a group with numerous members, consisting mainly of espers, with some pugilists in their ranks, their leader is a (C) rank esper, the distinctive feature of this group is that they wear a metal earring in their right ear. They have a great rivalry with Wolf''s Fang.

    Wolf''s Fang (Purple), unlike the previous group, most members of this group are pugilists, with a few espers, not much is known about their boss, except that he is a rank (C) super. Although they have fewer members than Metal Body, each one of them is stronger inparison. Because they don''t have many members, they don''t have a distinctive feature among them, or at least not one that I have noticed. They get along very badly with Metal Body.

    ''Hmm, then, my target should be some member of Wolf''s Fang...'' Thought Jay after reading the information Noah had sent him.

    Since Jay already suspected that there were organizations "protecting" the South Zone, he was not so surprised by that fact, the thing that did draw his attention, however, was something else.

    On the map of the Southern Zone, from District 2 to 31, all of them had one color, except for one ce which was in white, District 1, that was strange considering how deep it was in the South Zone and how big this district was.

    [Hey, Noah, why is District 1 white?] Wrote Jay before sending the message to Noah.

    After waiting for a few seconds, a reply arrived.

    [That''s extra information, you''ll have to pay a little more to get it.]

    ''This guy...'' Jay thought with a bitter smile on his face.

    [Alright, tell me.] he said after making a small transfer to Noah.

    [Thanks, and in fact, I don''t know much about the ce either.]

    ''...Have...have I just been ripped off...?''

    *I only know that not only Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang are very cautious with the district 1, even the Heroes Association hasn''t visited that ce in a really long time.*

    ''Uff, I didn''t get ripped off, that''s a relief.'' He thought after reading what Noah just wrote, ''Hm, it definitely sounds dangerous, well, it''s not like I had nned to go that far into the South Zone either...''

    Although Jay needed to get hosts quickly, he knew his limits very well, so he quickly marked District 1 as an area not to go to...at least not now.

    After looking more closely at the map, Jay realized he didn''t have any information about a "worthy rival" for him, so he quickly messaged Noah to ask about it.

    [And do you have the name of someone strong?]

    [You could take on the bosses if you want, I don''t know exactly where their bases are, but they''re most likely in the 2nd or 3rd district.]

    "...Hah, I would definitely die if I did that..." Jay said with a mocking smile on his face.

    One should know that a rank (C) super was able to defeat 5 ranks (D) super simultaneously, so there was no need to mention what would happen to someone like Jay who barely qualified as a rank (D-) super.

    [I want to save the strongest forst...and in fact, I want to face a pugilist now.]

    Obviously he couldn''t say "If I face any of the bosses, I''ll die instantly!" so that phrase seemed appropriate to him.

    [Hm, if you''re looking for a pugilist...I have one in mind, I just saw him when I went to buy groceries, he''s part of Metal Body, he seemed to be looking for someone, probably Taylor, they''re both members of Metal Body after all.]

    [Oh, really? What''s his name?] asked Jay, more interested in the pugilist than in the fact that Taylor was part of Metal Body.

    However, that wasn''t weird, after all, Jay was already determined to get more hosts even if they had some sort of backing, as long as they weren''t too strong of course.

    [His name is Colt, he''s younger than Taylor but he can sweep the floor with him, so you''d better not get too confident.]

    Noah didn''t forget to remind Jay to be careful.

    While he thought Jay was strong, Colt was too, so he thought that if Jay got too confident, Noah would lose a good source of ie as well as a way to give trouble to the local thugs.

    [Rx, I won''t, by the way, send me the ces where I can find him.] He replied before closing the message application and opening an online store.

    ''Now then, I''ll be facing a pugilist...I have to prepare....'' Jay thought as he looked at the items in front of him.

 Chapter 22 - Meeting With The Boss!

    While Jay was busy making his preparations, 2 people finally arrived at one of the deepest parts of the South Zone, the District 2.

    Specifically, arge warehouse which looked abandoned on the outside.

    After a small check, both of them entered the warehouse, although on the outside it looked abandoned, the interior was just the opposite, resembling arge and well-maintained office with only a desk in the middle of the warehouse.

    Behind this desk was a thin man who was wearing pants and a dress shirt as well as some sses, his hair was a shade of gray and was pulled back, with only a small tuft sticking out in front, his face had a cold expression while he went through some papers he had on his desk.

    If someone saw this scene, they would surely think it was a normal office worker, but in reality this person was the boss of Metal Body, a powerful rank (C) esper!

    When he saw that two people had entered his office, the man left the paper he was reading on his desk and looked at them both, inspecting Taylor carefully before looking at Colt.

    "Colt, it looks like you managed to find him, well done." Said the man at the desk with a satisfied tone.

    "It''s nothing, boss." Colt replied humbly, not daring to act rude to the man with sses.

    "I assume you have a report for me, Taylor?"

    "Y-Yes, boss."

    "Alright, Colt, leave us, you can go ask Lars for a bonus."

    "Thanks a lot, boss."

    After saying that, Colt left the warehouse, leaving the man with the sses and Taylor alone.

    "Get started, I want everyst detail."

    "Y-yes."

    This way, Taylor began to exin everything that had happened the night before, although changing the fact that he had wanted to rob Noah and iming that they were simply talking when a stranger attacked him by surprise.

    "Hmm..."

    After listening to Taylor''s summary, the chief began to think about who might have been the attacker.

    ''Uses a metal bat... knows a martial technique and can throw worms...what an unusualbination."

    With these factors and the attacker''s fighting style described by Taylor, the boss was able to discover a few things.

    First, the attacker didn''t have a high attacking power, which is why he needed a metal bat and a surprise attack to defeat Taylor.

    Second, although he knew a martial technique, he was not a pugilist, otherwise, he would not have used a metal bat against Taylor, his fists would have been enough.

    Third, the part about him being able to throw worms and get them into the enemy''s body...he had to inspect this closely.

    "Get closer." Said the boss as he got up from his seat and walked over to Taylor.

    Taylor simply did as he was told.

    The boss then began to inspect Taylor''s physical condition, although his esper ability was not useful for this, being a rank (C) super, all his senses had improved enormously, making him able to see and notice things that others could not at first nce.

    ''...There are no signs of small injuries on his body...just bruises...is he lying...?'' thought the boss after seeing Taylor''s body.

    If a worm had gotten under his skin, the boss thought there would at least be small wounds where they had entered, however, he couldn''t find anything like that, so the possibility that Taylor was lying to him appeared in his head.

    ''No, I don''t think so.''

    But he quickly denied that idea because Taylor had no reason to lie, which led him to think of something else.

    Illusion.

    Although it was unusual, there were espers and mages who had the ability to create illusions to deceive their opponents.

    ''But...it can''t be a mage...if it was, he wouldn''t have needed to attack Taylor from close range, so...it has to be an esper...and while there are no esper with that skill in Wolf''s Fang, I can''t rule out the possibility that maybe is a new member... ''

    Because the few espers that belonged to Wolf''s Fang were quite strong, the boss had collected information about them so that normal Metal Body members would not confront them if they met one.

    Although the worst case scenario would be that the attacker was a new member of Wolf''s Fang, at least in that case the reason would be more or less clear, he beat up Taylor to let Metal Body know that the newer member of Wolf''s Fang was stronger than a normal Metal Body member, although it seemed like an idiotic reason, it wasn''t the first time they did it.

    However, if the attacker was a person unrted to Wolf''s Fang, that was even more unlikely, after all, what was the reason he attacked a Metal Body member?

    Just for some money and a smart watch? Was it worthing all the way to the South Zone to steal those things?

    Or was it someone who had a problem with Metal Body?

    Maybe the problem wasn''t Metal Body but Taylor?<novelnext></novelnext>

    With the personality he had, it was obvious he would have some enemies.

    Maybe it was just a kid with a heroplex who wanted to prove his strength by defeating some thug?

    ''Haaa, how annoying.'' thought the boss, looking at Taylor.

    "...Hm?"

    Right at that moment, the boss noticed something else about Taylor, although his appearance was terrible due to his injuries and tiredness, there was something else that caught his attention, his face was a little different than usual...almost as if...he had aged a little.

    "...Take a few days off, make sure you get some rest."

    But he just took it as if Taylor just had a really bad night.

    "Y-yes, boss, thanks."

    After Taylor left, the boss sat back down in his desk chair while letting out a sigh.

    ''I''ll have to send someone to investigate this." He thought before reading the paper he had left on the desk again.

    ***

    After several hours, the sun had already set, Jay had been training all afternoon while waiting for the things he had bought to arrive.

    However, now that it was night, he stopped training and entered his house to rest.

    "I know it''s necessary but...I think I''ve spent more money these days than I have in the whole past month..." He said with a bitter smile.

    Because he didn''t have much time, he had asked for the immediate delivery option, which cost considerably more, if we added up what he had paid Noah for the information and the price of the things he had bought, his savings had been hit hard.

    "...Maybe I should start to rob the guys I infect..." He said while grabbing his chin.

    After thinking that, he sat on one of the couches to watch TV and ask some questions to the system from time to time.

    Because today wasundry day, most of his clothes were in the washing machine, so he was only wearing some grey sweatpants that he used when he worked out.

    "Hm, I wonder what I should do for dinner...?"

    *Bzz*

    Just when he was thinking about whether to order pizza or make something quick, an rm went off on his smart watch, indicating that the purchase he had made had arrived.

    "Wow, that was fast." Said Jay as he got up and headed to the entrance.

    ***

    "Hm, hm~"

    In one of the offices of Jujusen, one of thergest emercepanies of the world, a girl was watching several screens at once, each of these screens showed different drones carrying packages.

    The girl had a special controller in front of her that could control several drones at the same time, which along with her esper skill, made it possible for her to focus on making different deliveries simultaneously.

    Her appearance was that of a young woman of about 19-20 years of age, she was slim in build and had a rather attractive face thatbined very well with the sses and hood she was wearing.

    Right now she was doing her job as usual while listening to some music and humming a little.

    "Ho..." Said the girl while watching one of the screens, where appeared a couple kissing in a somewhat secluded ce, not knowing that a drone was watching them.

    Although this girl seemed normal, she actually had a rather strange hobby, which was...spying on people!

    Obviously, Jujusen did not allow this kind of behavior, but the girl did it in such a way that thepany did not suspect anything.

    "The man is not so bad..." She said again with a smile on her face.

    While her hobby was "spying", if there were any good-looking guys, then she would be more than happy to pay a little more attention to them, in fact, she even had a folder of pictures of all the good-looking guys she had photographed in all her work time.

    "Too bad I can''t get a good look at him because of the girl~"

    She then stopped looking at that screen and focused her attention on the others, to see if there was something interesting happening.

    "...Oh...?"

    Just then, she saw something on another screen, a half-naked young maning out to receive the package he had ordered.

    Judging by the look the girl was giving him, it looked like her folder would soon have one more photo.

 Chapter 23 - Attacking Colt!

    "Alright, I''ve got the stuff..." Said Jay as he looked at what he had bought.

    On top of the kitchen table were several objects, including a package of balloons, a metal bat and finally the objects that caught the most attention, a jar with a red powder, another jar with a white powder and arge container that said "Devil''s rage" with a red liquid inside.

    Seeing these things, Jay couldn''t help but feel a little bad for Colt, but he quickly got rid of that thought as it was necessary.

    The reason why he had bought all of these things was because while the pugilists were very resilient, fast and strong, they had a clear weakness when they were low level.

    They were too physically sensitive as they had to adapt to their enhanced senses, this was a fact Jay had researched and even tested before.

    He still remembered the time he had given some buns filled with hot sauce to James... that day, Jay was able to experience first hand how the blows of a rank (D+) pugilist felt.

    "Well, then I better start getting everything ready to use as fast as...possible?"

    At that moment, Jay''s gaze fell on the door leading to the backyard...and on a ck object that seemed to be watching him from the outside.

    But just as Jay noticed it and headed for the backyard, the object quickly escaped, disappearing from his sight.

    "...What...?" He said rather confused, considering whether he should put up a door that wasn''t transparent. "Whatever, I have things to do."

    Since he didn''t see it well, Jay wasn''t sure if it was just his imagination or if there really was something there, so he decided to go back inside his house, deciding that he would worry about thatter.

    ***

    "Woah, that was close~!" said one girl as she drove the drone away after taking a picture of Jay in his kitchen.

    Normally she didn''t take these risks, but because Jay had taken his package and entered his house quickly, she couldn''t take a proper picture, so, reluctant to let this opportunity pass, she had the drone go into the backyard and take a picture of him.

    "Hmm, I wish I could have taken a better picture...but this one isn''t so bad~" she said as she looked at a photo in which Jay was holding the "Devil''s Rage" jar.

    "?Jenny!"

    "?Wah!"

    Suddenly, a voice sounded from outside the room where the girl was working, frightening her and causing her to identally press the delete button.

    "...O-Oh no..." she said as she held her smart watch.

    "What did you say?" asked the female voice outside the room again.

    "N-no, nothing, what did you want to tell me...?"

    "Come to the break room, we ordered some fried chicken."

    "...A-alright, I''ll go in a second..."

    Since she had to erase the photos shortly after taking them so that thepany would not suspect anything, the only copy she had was in her smart watch...copy she had just erased.

    "...Damn." Said the girl before she let out a sigh and put the drones into automatic mode momentarily to go out to dinner.

    ***

    "The bonus was good...but why did they have to send me to take care of the same area as that idiot...?" Colt said as he strolled through the same neighborhood where he had found Taylor. A clear expression of difort was written on his face.

    Judging by the fact that there wasn''t a single soul on the streets apart from him, one could tell it was prettyte.

    As the boss had decided to give Taylor a few days off, the area he was in charge of had temporarily fallen into Colt''s hands, of course, he wasn''t happy to receive such a task because taking care of district 31 was one of the less important jobs.

    The hierarchy in Metal Body was that the more important you were to the organization, the closer you were to district 2, which was where the general base was.

    So doing guard duty in the 31st district and in a ce so close to the entrance was definitely not a suitable position for him, a rank (D) pugilist.

    Of course, this was not a punishment or anything like that, the reason he was here, besides recing Taylor, was because the boss wanted to avoid a repeat ofst night''s situation if he sent someone just as strong as Taylor.

    "...Hm?"

    Suddenly, a faint smell came to Colt''s nose, making him feel a little tingling.

    "...Hot sauce...?" Said Colt trying to find the source of the smell.

    Slowly, his sense of smell led him to the road leading to the city, where the smell was stronger.

    Colt didn''t head for the area, however; instead, he simply stayed where he was with his guard up.

    "!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    At that moment, an object came flying towards him at a considerable speed, but Colt easily dodged it, although he could destroy or catch the object, it seemed safer to simply dodge it.

    "...A balloon...?"

    He had expected it to be something more dangerous like a stone or something since it obviously was thrown at him, but it simply was a balloon filled with something.

    "No, this... is not a simple balloon!" Colt shouted as he walked away from the balloon that emanated a strong smell of hot sauce, causing him to have to hold his nose to avoid tingling.

    However, just at that moment many more balloons began to fall from the entrance to the South Zone.

    Seeing this, Colt moved further away from the entrance, but even as he moved away, the balloons kept falling near him.

    "What the hell?!"

    This was the first time something so strange had happened to him, of course, he had been thrown things before, even some esper skills and other blunt objects, but never anything like this!

    "Just how many balloons does this guy have?!'' Thought Colt as he saw that the balloons keep falling, making him turn around to see if they were stilling from the entrance, but to his surprise, they were no longering from the darkness of the South Zone entrance.

    Instead, a hooded man was picking up the balloons on the ground and throwing them as he chased him!

    ''...So that was why he didn''t run out of them...'' He thought with a bitter smile, which changed to a confident one soon after, ''Anyways, now it''s my turn!''

    Colt then quicklyunched himself into the direction of the hooded man at an incredible speed,ing face to face in just a few seconds.

    "I''ve got you!" Colt shouted, throwing a punch against the hooded man, since they were so close, there was no chance he could avoid his blow.

    The hooded man, seeing that he couldn''t dodge, barely managed to respond with an equal punch, causing the fists of both to collide.

    ''Damn, I feel like I punched a wall!'' Thought Jay after countering Colt''s blow, even though he had his wind glove activated, because he had made "modifications" to inflict more damage on Colt, his defensive capabilities had diminished considerably, making his entire arm hurt, especially his wrist.

    In fact, if he hadn''t had the wind glove activated, Jay had no doubt that he would have some broken bones in his right hand.

    ''!''

    However, Colt wasn''t having a good time either, the fist with which he had hit Jay had a wound on the middle finger, as if something had punctured his finger.

    It wasn''t a deep wound, but it did cause Colt some pain.

    This was thanks to the "modification" Jay had made to the glove, in exchange for making the air current protecting his hand less dense, he was able to form a small wind spike in his knuckles, you could say that he had exchanged defense for attack.

    ''So he''s an esper...'' Colt thought when he saw that Jay had nothing in his right hand but still managed to hurt him

    Jay, on the other hand, taking advantage that Colt was still processing what had happened, stepped heavily on one of the balloons nearby, causing it to explode.

    The strong smell of hot sauce assailed Colt, but although his nose was really itchy and his eyes a little watery, he decided to ignore it and finish off the hooded man quickly.

    He had received some damage before, but thanks to that, he quickly realized the limitations of the hooded man.

    Although he was an esper, why didn''t he use his skill to block his blow instead of countering it?

    Or why did he only caused him such a small wound, when he could easily have done more damage with his skill?

    The answer was easy, he just couldn''t do it!

    Seeing Colt approaching, Jay didn''t hesitate for a second to use the Phantom Trace to escape his reach.

    Sadly, despite using it, Colt still was able to track his every move.

    Finally, after being cornered against a wall, Jay threw onest desperate punch with his left arm aiming for Colt''s face.

    However, Colt simply stopped Jay''s wrist just as it was about to reach his face.

    "Okay, you''reing with me, I''m sure the boss will be interested to know why you''re attacking us." He said, seeing that the hooded man had nowhere else to run.

    Right at that moment, Jay''s left fist, which was being held by Colt, opened, revealing what was inside.

    "!"

    A small sphere of wind with a red dust inside.

    The sphere then turned to dust and went straight into Colt''s eyes.

 Chapter 24 - Territory!

    "ARGH, YOU BASTARD!" cried Colt as he let go of Jay''s wrist and rubbed his eyes because of the terrible pain he was feeling.

    Jay didn''t miss this opportunity and kick reinforced with wind towards the most vulnerable part of Colt at this point.

    His crotch.

    "-!"

    A rather loud but short pained scream came from Colt''s mouth before he fell to his knees, not knowing what part of his body to grab.

    His eyes were incredibly irritated, to the point that he could not bear to open them.

    As for his crotch, he had received a really strong kick that even made him see stars.

    "Y-You...alright, if you want to y like this..." Colt said as he stood up, his legs a little unsteady, although the kick he received was strong and still hurting, as a rank (D) pugilist, he was more resistant to physical blows, so he recovered rtively quickly.

    The most worrisome thing for him was the red dust that had gotten into his eyes, he wanted to open his eyes so he could see where Jay was, but his eyes just wouldn''t listen.

    But even though he couldn''t see, he got up anyway, as he had other ways of locating the hooded man besides vision.

    "Let''s y then!" he shouted as he clenched his fists and both were suddenly engulfed in mes.

    This was the famous "Fire Fists" technique, a martial technique known by almost all pugilists for being as simple as effective.

    Of course, this was to do more damage to the hooded man, not to locate him, that came next.

    Colt then entered a state of total concentration, sharpening all his senses, while he had temporarily lost his sight, not everything was lost, he had a perfect technique for a moment like this after all.

    ''Territory!''

    The moment he finished thinking that, an imaginary circle extended around him, until it reached 6 ft around where he was standing, giving him a clear vision of everything within the circle!

    Territory, it was a (B) rank martial technique which used the senses of smell, hearing and touch to the maximum of a pugilist to detect the surrounding areas, extending for tens or even hundreds of ft, giving the fighter an understanding and control over their surroundings incredibly superior to what they would get if they only used their sight.

    It was a pretty strong and convenient technique, there was even a saying about such a martial technique, "As long as I use Territory, everything is within my reach!"

    Of course, the skill could only show its full potential if used by at least a (B) rank pugilist, so Colt was pretty limited in that respect, only being able to cover about 6 ft around him.

    However, that was scary enough considering that those 6 ft were a space that was totally under his control, not even a fly could pass through his Territory without being discovered by him!

    This ability was also one of the reasons why Colt had decided to stay in Metal Body, even though he was only a rank (D) pugilist, the boss saw potential in him and decided to give it to him as an investment, although only an iplete part, promising that if he improved, he would give him theplete technique.

    *SPLASH*

    Just then, the sound of liquid hitting the ground sounded, and the area of the Territory diminished a little.

    "..."

    Colt didn''t need to think much to find out what had happened, the hooded man had broken another of the balloons, worsening his sense of smell!

    Because Territory used Colt''s senses to detect his surroundings, a worse sense of smell meant a reduction in the controlled area.

    It was clear, if the hooded kept on breaking more balloons, soon the area of his Territory would be greatly reduced, leaving him truly blind.

    For some reason, the only thing he could hear were the balloons being burst, but not the steps of the hooded man.

    Deciding that thinking about it would not fix anything, Colt rushed again to the ce where he had heard the balloon burst, his fists covered with fire ready to finish off the enemy.

    Unfortunately, when he arrived he couldn''t feel anything in the ce except for the hot sauce and the broken balloon on the ground.

    *SPLASH*

    Colt did not have much time to observe them as once again the noise of a balloon being burst was heard, diminishing for the second time the area of his Territory.

    This time Colt used his top speed to get to where the balloon had burst, but the result was still the same.

    ''...This won''t do, I''ll have to switch the Territory.'' thought Colt as he saw that he wasn''t making any progress at all.

    Then he stopped concentrating on his smell and touch to give priority to his hearing, staying still so he could hear better.

    ''Auditory Territory!''

    Again he heard the sound of a balloon being burst, but he decided to ignore it for the moment.

    Although the martial technique "Territory" was normally used with all the senses of a pugilist, it could also be used in such a way that only one of the senses was used, in this case the hearing, making his ears incredibly sensitive to any kind of noise.

    At this point, although Colt couldn''t see, feel or smell anything, there wasn''t a single sound he couldn''t hear!<novelnext></novelnext>

    *Tap, tap, tap*

    ''This guy...'' thought Colt as his mouth twitched.

    He managed to hear his footsteps, yes, but he also discovered why he had not been able to hear them before.

    The hooded man had actually taken off his shoes so that Colt couldn''t hear him!

    ''Well, never mind, it all ends here!'' Colt shouted in his mind as a smile formed on his face

    Then, using his maximum speed again, he ran towards the hooded man and threw another blow, this time with his full force.

    Right at that moment, Jay''s cry resonated strongly in the surroundings.

    ***

    In the West Zone of the city, specifically in the mansion of Sarah''s aunt, there was a huge courtyard that could even be mistaken for a meadow if it weren''t for the dozens ofplicated magical glowing circles of different sizes that were inscribed on the ground.

    These circles were not only there for decoration, but also served different functions.

    Those measuring a few meters were there as a security measure, those measuring several meters served to facilitate the use of mana and there were even some, thergest, measuring tens of meters, that were in charge of collecting the mana from the surroundings and umting it in the backyard, turning it into an area rich in mana.

    It was, with no doubt, a perfect area for any magician below the (B) rank to train.

    "Haa..."

    Sarah was standing and moving her wand from time to time in the center of one of the magic circles that facilitated the use of mana, around her were several iron spheres the size of a basketball floating in an orderly fashion.

    "Very good, it seems you have no problem controlling this amount, as expected of you~" Said her aunt, who was next to her supervising her training.

    "Thank you auntie~" Replied Sarah, who was focused on controlling the iron spheres, although her tone of voice was normal, there were a few drops of sweat on her face, showing that this was demanding even for her.

    Although she had been somewhat reluctant to leave Jay''s house, thanks to the fact that she had left him the bandages and the fact that her aunt told her that before she left she gave him a recovery pill, Sarah felt more relieved.

    "Well, it''s time to increase the difficulty."

    After saying that, Iris snapped her fingers and suddenly all the iron balls became much heavier than before.

    "Urgh!"

    Sarah let out a groan due to the sudden increase in weight, causing the iron balls to stop momentarily and start shaking in the air, as if they were going to fall at any moment.

    "Fuuu...I...can...do it!"

    However, after taking a deep breath and saying that, Sarah quickly stabilized the iron spheres in the air, and although they were now moving much slower than before, she had managed to keep them floating.

    "Well done!"

    Iris congratted Sarah again, writing "Well done" in the air using a spell.

    Although it might not seem much, in reality it was considerably difficult to manage to stabilize such a sudden change in the weight of an object, not to mention that she had to concentrate not only on one, but several iron balls.

    "We''ll keep training like this until you can move them at the same speed as before, then I''ll increase the weight again."

    "Hm, alright!" Replied Sarah, determined to continue the training.

    The reason Sarah always trained with heavy objects was because they were the spells in which she specialized.

    They belonged to a particr branch of magic, which was called Heterodox Magic, this branch had all kinds of spells and was considered the most versatile branch of magic of all.

    While it''s power paled inparison to other branches of magic that specialized in attack or defense, it still was an extremely useful branch.

    It''s versatility was mainly due to the fact that the spells avable in this branch were not only focused on attacking, defending, healing or something like that, but varied greatly in their uses.

    An example of this would be the spells that Sarah was currently using, which also were her specialty, "Levitate" and "Move", thanks to them, Sarah was able to mimic an effect simr to "Telekinesis", an esper skill.

    "If we continue like this, you will definitely be able to reach the rank (C-) before the Eitsirc Academy exam~!" Said her aunt cheerfully as a cup full of tea floated towards her from the kitchen, "And to think that 2 years ago you were just a little rank (E) mage." She added with a slightly nostalgic voice.

    "Well, it''s all thanks to you, Aunt Iris~" Said Sarah with a smile.

    Although she was still worried about Jay, she knew that worrying would not help, so she decided to put even more effort into her training.

    That way, Sarah continued trying her best.

 Chapter 25 - Result Of The Battle!

    "M-my ears..."

    Back in the South Zone, a person was on his knees while holding his ears because of the pain he was feeling, and what was more, the only thing he could hear at this moment...was a buzzing sound.

    This person was obviously Colt, who had received a loud scream from Jay at close range.

    While normally a scream would not have done anything to him no matter how close to his ears it was, he had used "Auditory Territory" to improve his hearing, making him incredibly sensitive to any kind of sound!

    ''Next time at least try to hide what you''re doing...'' Said Jay internally as he looked at the sore Colt.

    Although Jay had been breaking the balloons continuously, he didn''t forget for a second to carefully observe Colt''s actions, after all, despite having temporarily lost his vision, he was still a dangerous pugilist.

    The reason Jay had managed to scream at just the right time was because Colt''s actions had been too obvious!

    Not only did he stand still while ignoring that Jay was breaking more balloons, he also took a stand that shouted "I''m concentrating on listening to you, please wait."

    After seeing this, Jay pretended to keep running to another balloon while actually preparing to let out a scream with all his might the moment Colt got close enough.

    Of course, if his assumption had been wrong, Jay was ready to activate "Overload" immediately and use Phantom Trace to avoid the blow, but Colt would not have let him go so easily, resulting in a close battle where Jay only had a few seconds to defeat him.

    Fortunately his assumption was correct and he didn''t have to face Colt hand-to-hand, in fact, he now even had a perfect opportunity to end this.

    ''Well, I''d better finish this quickly, I''m sure someone wille after hearing my scream.'' Thought Jay as he grabbed a nearby balloon in his right hand and pulled a jar out of his pocket with his left.

    Then he threw the balloon at Colt''s face, aiming at his nose.

    *SPLASH*

    "Argh, shit, my nose!" Colt shouted as he woke up from the little daze he was in, only to feel a horrible stinging in his nose.

    ''Shit, this is bad, Territory!'' Thought Colt, activating the martial technique again and moving away from the ce, afraid that the hooded man might do something else to him, not without first wiping his face, of course.

    However, unlike before, where the size of the circle was 6 ft, now it barely reached 3 ft.

    ''Damn, it shrank and I feel horrible, but...I can still win this, I still have a sense of touch, I must increase that!'' Colt mentally cheered himself.

    The next second, he tore off the jacket and shirt he was wearing, exposing his toned and athletic body.

    Having temporarily lost his sight, hearing and smell, all that remained was his sense of touch, which was what kept his Territory active.

    Thus, in order to increase the contact of his skin with his surroundings, he tore his clothes, making his Territory grow a littlerger.

    Just at that moment, something entered his Territory, heading towards him.

    ''A jar, I must avoid it!'' He quickly thought as he felt the jar, he didn''t know what was the powder inside the jar, but he didn''t want to find out either.

    Because of the red dust and the hot sauce balloons, Colt was sure that anything this guy threw at him would be bad for him.

    However, just as he was about to dodge it, an empty jar suddenly entered his Territory, colliding with the jar headed for Colt, breaking each other and spreading the dust all over his Territory, including his body.

    Colt panicked at that moment, ''Shit, it might be poison!'' he thought, quickly covering his nose to avoid breathing the dust and getting away from the area.

    After moving away, he realized that the powder in the bottle was not poison...but something worse.

    "...Itching powder..." Colt said with a smile without a hint of happiness, his Territory was going practically crazy because of the itching he felt all over his body.

    A few secondster, even though Colt didn''t want to, the martial technique deactivated itself.

    Because Territory worked using a pugilist''s senses, an interference as great as this caused it to stop working at all.

    "...F*ck."

    He couldn''t see anything because of the great burning in his eyes.

    He couldn''t smell anything but hot sauce.

    His ears were still ringing, making it difficult to hear anything.

    As for touch, he still had it, and it worked perfectly judging by the intensity of the itching he felt.

    In short, it was a hopeless situation for Colt.

    But at that moment, something woke up inside him, making him remember that all was not lost, because...

    ''I still have one final technique!'' Thought Colt with determination.

    It was a technique he had promised never to use again because of the consequences it would have, but in a situation like this, he had no choice.

    Then, Colt rxed his fighting stance, leaving both arms free for any movement, the pressure he gave off changedpletely.

    He no longer looked like a cornered man trying to defend himself, he was now more like...a warrior who was willing to give it his all to one final struggle!

    "Hooo..." Colt took a long breath.

    Then he turned around and started running with all his strength!

    "HEEEEEELP-GAH!"

    Unfortunately, his "final technique" was splendidly interrupted by a strong kick to the head from Jay, who had been cautiosly waiting for Colt show an opening.

    *PAM*

    Colt''s unconscious body fell to the ground after receiving Jay''s kick, which had been reinforced by wind right on the part that hit his head.

    "Haaa..."

    Jay let out a sigh after that; it was the first time he had ever been tired both physically and mentally.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''Finally...''

    Although he had made a "n" to defeat Colt, the details had not been clear because he had to make preparations for the battle, so he had to sort out almost everything in the moment.

    And even though everything went more or less well, he couldn''t deny that Colt''s personality yed an important role in this.

    For example, if Colt had kept running instead of facing him, or if instead of grabbing his wrist, he had caught his fist, things would have be veryplicated.

    ''Luckily, it all worked out.'' Jay thought as he dragged Colt into a dark alley.

    After leaving Colt on the ground of the alley, Jay put his hand on Colt''s chest and infected him with the 10 parasites he had.

    After closing the window that indicated he had sessfully infected him, he focused on the part he was most interested in.

    _____________________

    [Colt Darin]

    Body Grade: (D)

    Condition: Unconscious, Multiple Minor Injuries (Temporary Blind...)

    Parasites: 10

    Assimtion status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)

    (Requirements to use [Proliferation])

    (Host''s condition must be: Unconscious, Injured...)

    Verifying Host''s condition...

    Requirements...met!

    (Do you want to use [Proliferation]?)

    (Y/N)

    _____________________

    ''Hm, not much has changed...well, it''s easier for me this way...'' Thought Jay after seeing Colt''s status window before he selected the "Y" option.

    Although he would no longer be able to use the [Proliferation] skill, he would instead be able to elerate the assimtion process and thus break his limits faster.

    Shortly after Jay selected the "Y" option, the same thing happened as with Taylor, Colt''s body began to shake and hisplexion turned pale.

    After waiting for about 5 minutes, a system window appeared indicating that the process was over.

    _____________________

    [Proliferation] has been used on [Colt Darin] sessfully!

    You have obtained...25 parasites (pugilist)!

    _____________________

    ''Ohh, I got 5 extra, great!''

    Right at that moment, all the parasites in Colt''s body became energetic, this reminded Jay of the moment the parasites (esper) infected Noah''s body, with the difference that these parasites were even more energetic!

    Jay didn''t find it strange because it had happened before, but he decided to check Colt''s state window one more time just in case.

    _____________________

    [Colt Darin]

    Body Grade: (D)

    Condition: Unconscious, Multiple Minor Injuries (Temporary Blind...)

    Parasites: 25 (Excited)

    Assimtion status: 0% (2% per day per parasite)

    _____________________

    ''...You know what, I''m not surprised anymore, I''ll just ask the systemter.'' Thought Jay after seeing what had changed in Colt''s state.

    Because the system surprised him time to time again, he''d gotten a little used to it.

    ''Well, it''s time to go, I don''t want to run into any of his friends...oh right, I almost forgot.''

    Suddenly remembering something, Jay went through Colt''s pockets until he found his wallet and took all the money inside.

    ''Nothing should be wasted, hehe.''

    After that, Jay left the alley and headed towards the entrance, not before returning the wallet to Colt of course.

    When he arrived at the entrance of the South Zone, he picked up the bucket he had brought to load all the balloons.

    Since he didn''t have a dimensional bag like Sarah, he had to resort to moremon methods.

    Then, Jay started running towards his house, tired but excited that the day woulde to collect his parasites.

    Thus ended the totally fair battle between Jay and Colt.

 Chapter 26 - Another Meeting With The Boss

    Deep in the South Zone, in the same seemingly abandoned warehouse that served as the base for Metal Body, the boss was inside rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers, an expression of irritation sted on his face.

    Inside his "office", there was Colt along with two other men, these were the guards of the 30th District and also the ones that brought Colt to the base.

    "...How did this happen...?" The boss asked, looking at the deplorable state of Colt, who had arrived the night before thanks to the guards of the 30th District, who went to investigate the 31st District after hearing some shouting.

    Since Colt had been sleeping since yesterday, he only could meet with the boss right now.

    "I''m...really sorry, boss, but the hooded guy beat me..." Colt replied, visibly embarrassed, scratching his neck a little.

    Although several hours had passed since he confronted Jay, the effects of the itching powder and hot sauce still lingered.

    "Give me all the details." Said the boss, although he could imagine what kind of methods the unknown subject had used to defeat Colt, he still wanted to know the specific details..

    "Yeah, uh, it all started when..."

    ***

    ''...How low...'' thought the boss after hearing the whole Colt story.

    He had sent Colt specifically because he was almost immune to surprise attacks, but who would have thought that the attacker would be so shameless as to use such methods!

    ''No...this is my fault, for not predicting this.''

    After analyzing the situation better, the boss came to that conclusion.

    He already knew that the attacker didn''t have enough attacking power to defeat Taylor or Colt, so it was obvious that he would use special methods to defeat his enemies, so it was his fault for not warning Colt about it.

    The only thing that was not clear to him was the fact that the attacker had not used what the boss assumed was his strongest card...his illusion skill, and instead, had shown that he possessed a wind control ability, with which he was able to hurt and blind Colt.

    As to whether that was an illusion...judging by the state of Colt, it clearly wasn''t.

    Then, what was the right answer?

    Did the hooded man have two esper skills...?

    That was extremely unlikely, there were only a handful of espers in the world with multiples skills, so that option was ruled out.

    Then, could it be that the attacker who defeated Colt was not the same person who had defeated Taylor...

    Maybe it was two different people...?

    That would make sense, one with the power of illusion and the other with the power of Wind Control...

    However...their fighting style and appearance was too simr...

    ''Haa...annoying.'' The boss thought after all those questions were formted in his head.

    Fortunately, although Colt had had to spend a painful night, with this the boss already had enough information about the extent of the subject...or unknown subjects'' powers, so he could already send someone suitable to deal with the problem.

    "Now then...did any of you managed to see something...?" the boss asked the two guardians of District 30.

    One of them was a tall, thin man in his 20s with short, wavy ck hair who was wearing a ck long sleeve shirt along with gray pants, he had an attractive face that went very well with his gray eyes.

    "Well, maybe we would have seen something if SOMEONE hadn''t beente because they saw a cat!" replied the ck-haired man as he looked at his partner.

    "Hey! You don''t have to mention that!" quickly responded his partner, who, unlike the ck-haired man, looked much tougher.

    This man, who had a military-style cut, was wearing ck jeans along with a leather vest which exposed his torso and his stocky arms which were even thicker than Colt''s, adding his tough-looking face, all together made him look more intimidating than anyone else in the room.

    "It''s the truth, we were dyed because you were distracted!" said the ck-haired man again.

    "I told you to go first!"

    "And end up like Colt? Hell no!"

    Although what he had said were words one would not expect to hear from a person whose job was to be a guardian, those present were already used to it.

    ''Haaa, these idiots...''

    "Alright, that''s enough." Said the boss, ending the conflict, "Even though you neglected your roles as guardians, since you brought Colt in, I won''t make it too difficult for you...just 50% less in your sry this month.

    "50?! But boss, it was his-"

    The ck-haired man tried to protest, but the boss quickly interrupted him.

    "No buts, you''re both to me here, now take Colt to get his wounds treated, we don''t want him to get some kind of infection, oh right, Colt, take a few days off, it''s my fault you''re like this."

    "...Yes, boss." The guards of the 30th District answered, although the ck-haired man was somewhat unhappy with the punishment, he knew that iming something at this point would be futile.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Thank you very much, boss." Colt said after hearing about the days off.

    After saying that, the three proceeded to leave, leaving the boss alone with his thoughts.

    "He..." Said the chief as he remembered Colt''s appearance, besides his red eyes and nose, there was something else that caught his attention.

    "He also looked like he had aged..."

    Although the first time could be attributed to Taylor having had a very bad night, this time Colt had rested properly, so that excuse was no longer valid.

    Instead, the boss came to another conclusion.

    "They''re taking away their vitality..." He said with a dangerous look, his eyes giving off the aura of a rank (C) super.

    He did not know what they wanted the vitality of their subordinates for or what use they could put it to, but he did know one thing.

    "I must take care of this."

    With those words as hisst, the boss then turned on his smart watch and searched his contact list until he came up with a certain name:

    "Aiden"

    That was the name of one of the few rank (C-) supers that were part of Metal Body.

    ***

    Back at Jay''s house, he was finishing up his housework.

    "Ha, alright, I think that''s all." He said after drying and putting away thest dish he had washed.

    He had spent the entire morning cleaning his house, and because he always liked to leave everything piled up for one day, it had taken quite a while.

    He then took off his dishwashing gloves and went to take a shower, cleaning had made him sweat a little after ll.

    Jay hadn''t yet asked the system why the parasites had a 2% per day bonus instead of the usual 1%, but it was because he liked to keep everything clean and tidy so he wouldn''t have to worryter.

    "Now this is refreshing." He said as he walked down the stairs with a new change of clothes, then he walked over to one of the couches and sat down, not without turning on the TV first as he didn''t like to be in silence.

    "Well, now that everything is clean, let''s get started."

    ''Open, system, question, why is there a 2% per day in the status of Colt?''

    _____________________

    Answer: [Proliferation] uses the host body as a base to create special parasites, if the Carrier infects a host using the parasites created in the body of the host, the assimtion process will be faster.

    _____________________

    "...Hm, I see, that makes sense." Said Jay as he nodded his head.

    It certainly was a really useful information, although it was a shame that he couldn''t use [Proliferation] anymore.

    In fact, if he had known earlier, he might have tried to use it on Noah instead of Taylor, even if it risked waking him up, that way, he could have gone to pick up his little ones today.

    "Oh, well, there''s no point thinking about what I could have done."

    Now with that issue resolved, Jay turned his attention to something else, and that was, the days left to go pick up his little ones

    Jay then turned on his smart watch and checked the date, today was Tuesday of the eleventh month, year 2154.

    Considering that he had infected Noah on Sunday night, counting today there were still about 2 days left, before Jay could harvest his crop.

    ''Hmm, it looks like I''ll still have to wait a little to get Regeneration...''

    However, even though he had to wait a few days, Jay was not at all unhappy, after all, waiting a little while to get such a good skill was totally eptable.

    On the other side, the assimtion process of his other host, Colt, was progressing rapidly; in fact, Jay was nning to visit him tomorrow night, when the assimtion press was already finished.

    ''The problem is that I don''t know where he lives...I guess I''ll have to ask Noah.''

    Just then, his smart watch vibrated, indicating that a message had arrived, and the sender was none other than Noah.

    "Oh, how timely." Jay said with a smile on his face.

    However, when he read the message, his expression changed to one of surprise.

    [Hey, I think you''ll be interested in this. A rank (C) super is the new guardian of District 31!]

 Chapter 27 - Plan To Enter The South Zone

    *Do you know anything else about him...?* wrote Jay.

    *No, I''m sorry, all the ranks (C) supers in the South Zone protect their personal information very well, so normal people really don''t know much about them.*

    ''Hm...well, it''s obvious that their information would be a secret.''

    Jay expected something like that, after all, in a ce like the South Zone, information about the rank (C) supers was probably something confidential that was only known to the gang leaders.

    In fact, although Noah had told him that the boss of Metal Body was an esper, after Noah had done some research, he confirmed that it was only the most widely circted rumor, not a verifiable fact.

    *Anyway, I think it would be best if you keep a low profile for the time being, at least for a while, that way Metal Body will stop being so alert and the rank (C) super will return to his original job, then you can continue to face the remaining low rank supers until you be known as "The Nightmare of (D) Rank Supers" or something like that.* Noah responded before Jay could write anything.

    Because he didn''t want his client/source of ie to suffer any unexpected damage that would prevent him from continuing to hire his services, Noah advised him to stop going to the South Zone, trying to mask it as something beneficial so that he could make a name for himself more quickly.

    *Hm...what you say makes sense, I''ll keep a low profile.*

    ''Good! He''s not as stubborn as I thought.'' Noah thought after reading Jay''s response, somewhat cheerfully.

    He had expected his opinion to be ignored or scorned as it always happened, but this guy seemed to be reasonable!

    Noah''s opinion of him improved slightly.

    In fact, if Jay had a system that could measure people''s favorability, he would have received a [+1 Noah Favorability Point] notice by now.

    *But I''ll go tomorrow night anyway.*

    ''...''

    [-1 Noah Favorability Point]

    Or at least that would be the message that would appear if Jay had another type of system.

    *But didn''t you say you''d keep a low profile...?* Noah wrote again, confused by Jay''s message.

    *That''s right.*

    ''...''

    Then, for about 5 minutes, Jay didn''t send anything else.

    ''But don''t keep me waiting, at least tell me what you mean by that, you bastard!'' Noah thought, somewhat frustrated that another message didn''t arrive.

    With no other option, he sent another message, asking what he meant, and a momentter, a reply came.

    *I have a n, and in fact, I think I need your help on this.*

    ''Ohh, another chance to make money, good!''

    Noah was always happy to make some extra money.

    *How about 100 credits for one night?*

    ''...Eh?''

    ***

    "Ok...I definitely think I could have said it better...haha...ha..." Said Jay after he''d fixed the misunderstanding he''d caused, feeling a little embarrassed.

    What Jay meant by "100 credits for one night" was rted to being able to pick up his little ones tomorrow.

    While it was true that there was now a rank (C) super guarding the entrance to the South Zone, that wasn''t going to stop Jay from entering, much less now that the day of picking up his little ones was so close.

    In fact, Jay had been thinking about what to do when the time came for one of the gangs to send someone to get rid of him since the first day he visited the South Zone, after all, no gang would let its members be defeated one by one by an unknown man.

    However, Jay was not going to stop, so it was only a matter of time until Metal Body did something.

    And finally they did, although they hadn''t sent someone to "hunt him down" so to speak, it was a clear warning directed to him.

    Originally, he nned to do exactly what Noah had said, not to go to the South Zone for a while until everything calmed down, but now that he had the convenient (and expensive) help of Noah, he could think of another "n".

    "Well...now it looks like I''ll have to buy a few more things..." said Jay as he turned on his smart watch again and browsed through Jujusen''s online store.

    While he was at it, he also decided to check how much money he had in his bank ount.

    ''...I definitely have to find a job...'' He thought as he looked at the 3 digits indicating the amount of money he had, about to turn into a 2 digits number.

    ***

    While Jay was trying to find the best products at the best price, a person was standing in a somewhat deep part of a forest in the middle of a small clearing with some trees and the asional bush.

    This young man was tall and had a thinplexion and lustrous white hair that was pulled back, his eyes were a vibrant jade green that gave off an almost imperceptible green glow.

    Although this young man''s appearance was striking, the most impressive thing was the fact that he had one small wind whirl in both hands.

    If Jay was here, he could definitely recognize this young man, it was Carl.

    *Woosh*

    The leaves of the nearby trees and bushes were moving slightly due to all the wind in the area.

    "Ah, shit!"

    Suddenly, the young man lost control of the two whirls in his hands and had to threw them to one of the trees close to him, the whirls were emitting a strong wind current that raised some dust on their way.

    *BAM!*

    When they hit the tree, both whirlwinds dissipated, but not before leaving a considerable mark on the tree, although it still wasn''t visible to Carl because of the dust.

    Carl then moved his hand and a wind current cleared all the dust from the scene.

    At that moment he could clearly see what he had aplished, there were tworge holes the size of a basketball which seemed to have been made from countless cuts in the tree trunk.

    "...Damn..." he said, dissatisfied with his performance.

    While those whirlwinds had been strong, it seems that they failed to meet Carl''s expectations.

    He had been training hard since the day Jay came to visit him, mainly due tot he fact that he had to prepare for the Eitsirc Academy entrance exam, but also because he had a strong desire to want to improve quickly.

    And fortunately for him, he was seeding, although he was still a rank (D) super, he was slowly improving his Wind Control ability, which motivated him to train more.

    However, today was not a normal training day because Carl was feeling different today...he felt like he was just one step away from reaching the (D+) rank!

    That was the reason why he had been trying to use his skill to the limit, creating air whirls much more stronger than normal, unfortunately, just when he felt he was going to make progress, he lost control of them, causing him to have to get rid of the air whirls, just as he had done a moment ago.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "...this way I won''t achieve anything even if I spend the whole night here..." he said with some disappointment.

    He had been trying for several hours, so it was unavoidable that he felt somewhat discouraged.

    "... if doing the same thing doesn''t work...then I just have to try something new!"

    However, the discouragement dissappeared as quickly as it came, and again Carl''s desire to improve encouraged him to keep trying.

    Then, Carl changed the way he used his skill, he no longer tried to control the wind, instead, he began to feel it.

    Normally, what he did was order the wind to do his will, with that method, he had always achieved the result he wanted...except this time of course.

    So, this time he decided to try a different method, instead of ordering the wind, he would go with the flow.

    As silly as it sounded, Carl was willing to try.

    "Haaaa..."

    Then he let out a long sigh, trying to empty his mind, thinking of nothing else but the wind in his surroundings as he sat down and closed his eyes.

    "..."

    Five minutes passed...

    "..."

    20 minutes passed...

    "..."

    1 hour passed...

    "..."

    Normally Carl hated any activity that involved testing his patience, but the feeling that he could gradually feel the wind better and his desire to improve made him wait patiently.

    Until finally, after having waited so long that even the sun had gone down, Carl felt something.

    From the light breezes where he was, to the strong and constant current of wind above the trees, to the wind that passed through each tree, he could feel even the smallest change in all of them.

    This time...Carl felt as if all the wind in the forest was under his control.

    "Urgh...this is harder that expected..."

    Carl let out a grunt, maintaining this state was difficult for him after all, but he persevered and kept going anyway.

    "But, I can do it!"

    Suddenly, all the wind in the surroundings began to gather in a sphere the size of a basketball above him.

    It seemed to want to form a whirlwind simr to what Carl normally did, however, at that moment, Carl interrupted the process.

    "...I need...something stronger!" He screamed as he forcibly changed the shape of the wind that was gathering above him.

    Even though he didn''t have a drop of sweat on his face, the expression he was making showed he was trying his best.

    Then, following Carl''s will, the wind sphere began to get smaller, until it was no bigger than a golf ball.

    Carl was sure that if he used this to attack, he would undoubtedly be able to cause great damage, however, he was still not satisfied with that.

    "Not yet!" He yelled, enduring the pressure that his body was going through due to the extreme use of his ability.

    The small wind sphere then began to stretch horizontally, but this process was not easy, because of therge amount of wind condensed in the sphere, the risk of it losing its shape and dissipating was very high, but Carl miraculously managed to maintain the stability of the sphere.

    "ARGHH, COME ON!" Carl shouted again, concentrating on the wind sphere to the maximum.

    Finally, after some distressing seconds that seemed like hours to Carl, he seeded, the sphere had changed its shapepletely.

    Now it was no longer simply a sphere of wind...but had be a deadly wind spear which swirled and released strong currents of wind around it!

    "IT''S DONEEEE!!"

    At that moment, Carl opened his eyes and let out a scream before throwing the spear into the same tree that he had thrown the two whirlwinds to.

    *BAM!*

    The sound of a small explosion resounded in the surroundings, apanied by a small cloud of dust that was raised by the spear, it seemed that the power of the spear was far stronger than expected.

    After a few seconds, the dust cloud dissipated, allowing Carl to clearly see the effect of his spear...there was a small hole that went right through the tree!

    Considering that the thickness of the trunk was at least 30 inches, the power of the spear had been really strong.

    With no doubt...this was an attack worthy of a rank (D+) super!

    "I...did it...haha." Carl said with a tired expression, but feeling cheerful anyway.

    He then fell to the ground because of the fatigue.

    Even though he was tired, he could barely feel how the energy in his body changed, this was something that happened everytime a super achieved a breakthrough.

    As he was someone who had advanced multiple times, he wasn''t new to this feeling, however, there was something different this time.

    Instead of just a cold sensation all over his body, he could also feel a warm sensation midst all that coldness.

    "Well...doesn''t matter...it feels nice..." He said, deciding to enjoy that new and warm sensation in his chest.

    ***

    Back at Jay''s house, he was training the Phantom Trace in his backyard even though it was night.

    A sour expression could be seen on his face.

    "...Why is it so expensive if the effect is only temporary...?" he said as he remembered his previous purchase.

    However, before he could continuementing, an unexpected notification from the system arrived.

    _____________________

    Congrattions! The [Parasitic Egg] has sessfully hatched in the former host [Carl Gaffner].

    _____________________

 Chapter 28 - Parasitic Egg

    After receiving that notification, Jay went inside and took a quick shower before asking the system about that.

    As for whether he was surprised by the notification, of course he was, but because the system liked to surprise him constantly, he was already used to it.

    ''Open, system, question, what is the parasitic egg?''

    That way, Jay started another small question and answer session with the system.

    ***

    After a few minutes, Jay had finished understanding what the Parasitic Egg was and what it did, and he only had one word to say about it.

    "...Wow..."

    Even though he was already used to the system surprising him, he still couldn''t help but be shocked by the effects of Parasitic Egg.

    First of all, what was the Parasitic Egg?

    As the name implies, it was an egg which contained a special type of parasite. Apparently, when Jay infected a person, there was a small chance that when he recovered thest parasite, it would leave an egg in the host.

    Although it might sound detrimental to the host, it was actually something that benefited them.

    After all, even if the egg was only in its initial state, it still gave the host a 5% improvement in its growth!

    But that was not all, the egg also reacted to the host''s emotions, for example, if the host was in a good mood, then the host''s current power would increase by 5%.

    Furthermore, because the egg seemed to depend quite a bit on the host''s emotions, it constantly made him feel a desire to improve and be stronger, which helped him to ovee difficult moments in his training.

    ''That exins why Carl''s ability seemed stronger at the time and why he advanced in rank so quickly...'' Jay thought as he reviewed the information he had gotten from the system''s answers.

    While those effects were good for the host, what benefited Jay was another aspect of the egg.

    It turns out that the reason the egg gave these benefits to the host was because the stronger the host, the more energy they would use, and the more energy they used, the faster the egg would hatch.

    And the moment the egg hatches, that''s where the egg will show its true potential...which had just happened.

    _____________________

    [Symbiont (Lowest Rank)]

    Host: Carl Gaffner (Esper)

    Skill: [Wind Control (D+)]

    Rtionship with the Host: Indifferent.

    Current Bonus (Host): Growth Improvement (5%), Emotional Strengthening (10%).

    Current Bonus (Carrier): 2% daily increase in [Wind Control ( D-)] (Limit: D+)

    _____________________

    It was an incredible message for Jay.

    After all, despite keeping his Wind Control active all the time, he had only been able to raise the percentage to 10%, which meant he would still have to wait a good while to reach the next range.

    However, now that he had this, the process would speed up tremendously!

    ''Another way to strenghten myself quickly...many thanks, system,'' thought Jay, feeling grateful to the system.

    Although he thought he would have to wait until he could pick up his little ones until he could increase his power, a new way to strenghten himself had practically fallen from the sky.

    As for the benefits Carl was receiving, Jay thought it was appropriate, after all, the more motivated Carl was, the more effort he would put into the training, then the symbiont would be stronger, which in turn would give Jay more benefits.

    It was definitely a symbiotic rtionship!

    "Hm, this a good night~"

    Then, having forgotten that he had almost no money in his bank ount, Jay began to practice his Wind Control while waiting for what he ordered to arrive, the night was still young after all.

    ***

    After training for a pair of hours, the package Jay had been waiting for arrived.

    "...So small and so expensive...." Jay said as he looked the package, a bitter smile on his face.

    On the kitchen table, there was a small box containing colored contact lenses and another small box that said "Magic Dye."

    That''s right, both were objects that would serve to change his appearance, and although it had cost him 230 credits in total, causing Jay to now only have 50 credits left, Jay believed it was a necessary expense.

    While he was not afraid to confront thugs like Taylor or Colt who belonged to a gang like Metal Body, that was because his identity was a secret, so they could not retaliate against him.

    Therefore, although they didn''t know what he looked like and he wouldn''t be discovered even if he came face to face with anyone in the South Zone, Jay preferred to take some extra measures.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Well...then we''d better try things out now~"

    After saying that, Jay took the dye and contacts lense before going upstairs to the second floor bathroom.

    After about 15 minutes, a Jay with blond hair and blue eyes came down.

    Although he had only recently dyed his hai, he gave an impression as if he had been born with that color because there was not a single strand of his hair that was not blond.

    Jay had already looked at himself in the mirror and gave his approval that it was a quality job, satisfied with the performance of the dye.

    But it was something to be expected, after all, the words "Magic Dye" weren''t just the brand name, in fact, it was a special product made by a real alchemistpany, so they really had some magic in them.

    The reason Jay had ordered a product like this was because he didn''t want the super rank (C) now guarding District 31 to know his true appearance.

    Thus, he thought of changing his hair color, that''s why he ordered a hair dye.

    As for it being magical, he didn''t know if a regr dye would leave an odor after it was applied to the hair or something like that, he also didn''t want to risk testing it at a time like this.

    Thus, with the product being something magical, unless the new guardian of the 31st District was a mage, he wouldn''t notice anything.

    As for the contact lenses, those were normal lenses, but Jay thought they wouldn''t attract much attention because many people wore them.

    "Now all I have to do is change my hairstyle."

    Normally his hair was dishevelled since he liked it that way, but if he wanted to change his appearance he obviously needed to change that.

    He then parted his hair to the sides, leaving a line in the middle and arranging his hair so that it fell to the sides.

    "I guess...this will be enough." He said as he watched his blonde version in the reflection of the sliding door leading to the backyard, ''Hm, not bad...hm?''

    At that moment, he noticed something in the backyard, in the midst of all the darkness that was covering the backyard right now, Jay could see what appeared to be a small ck object a few feet off the ground.

    ''Again...?'' He thought as he moved his gaze, pretending not to see the ck object.

    Fortunately, the ck object, which was about to escape, stopped when Jay apparently didn''t notice it.

    ''Just what does it want?'' Jay asked himself, pretending to fix his hair in the reflection of the sliding door.

    But even after thinking more about it, Jay couldn''te to a conclusion as to why he was being watched.

    Of course, there was the possibility that it was Metal Body, who could have discovered him even though he had used a disguise when he went to the South Zone.

    After all, Jay was not a master of disguise or anything like that.

    But...why were they just standing there watching him...and more importantly...why were they so obvious?

    It was almost as if the ck object was eager to see what Jay would do the next moment.

    ''Well...it''s very close...at this distance...I can do it.''

    *BAM!*

    The next moment, he quickly kicked the sliding door out of the frame andunched himself towards the ck object, even using Phantom Trace to increase his speed.

    Seeing this, the dark object inmediately tried to run away, but unfortunately, it was too close to the sliding door, which added to the tremendous speed at which Jay had approached, resulted in it being caught.

    *Buzz*

    "...A drone...?" He said, confused.

    The drone still seemed to want to escape, but Jay was holding it tightly, so it was a futile attempt.

    Looking closer, Jay saw that there was a logo on the side of the drone...which said "Jujusen".

    "...This...is an invasion of privacy...isn''t it?" Jay said as he looked directly into the drone''s camera.

    He was somewhat relieved that the drone was not part of Metal Body, but this created another question, just why was Jujusen watching him...?

    ''No, no, think about it, such a bigpany would not be interested in spying on me...so it has to be the operator, right?''

    After reaching that conclusion, Jay turned off the drone and went upstairs to put the drone in his closet, not before taking out the memory the drone had, thinking that myabe he would be able to discover something inside.

    He then connected the memory to his smart watch.

    Inside the memory, there was only one folder, which had no name, so he decided to open it.

    After opening the folder, Jay was surprised by its contents.

    There was only one video inside....with him as the main character.

 Chapter 29 - Entering The South Zone

    The next day, after Jay had finished his preparations to enter the South Zone, he began to think about how to deal with the person who was spying on him.

    After seeing the video inside the drone''s memory, Jay concluded that it was perfect evidence to use against his personal stalker.

    The video began from the moment the drone left the package containing the two products Jay had ordered on his door and ended when Jay turned off the drone.

    The drone had even recorded how Jay had dyed his hair!

    ''...Since when do I have a stalker...?'' He thought as an ufortable sensation filled his body.

    However, no matter how much he thought about it, Jay could note to a logical conclusion as to why that person was spying on him.

    Then, seeing that there was no apparent reason, Jay came to the following conclusion:

    "It''s got to be one of those ''weirdos'', right?" He said with a bitter smile.

    By "weirdos," Jay meant those people who had hobbies...not very healthy, so to speak.

    "Oh well, at least I know where to go to solve this."

    Fortunately, the drone was not just a simple drone without name, it belonged to Jujusen, a huge and highly regardedpany with multio, and not only that, it also had irrefutable proof that the drone operator was spying on it.

    Although Jay had felt quite ufortable with this, he knew he definitely could get something out of this.

    Obviously, he was talking about money!

    Thinking about it, Jay''s mood improved considerably, almost being thankful to that person for spying him...almost.

    While it was true that the fact that someone had spied on him was not a pleasant thing at all, Jay wanted to look at the bright side of this.

    "Then, I should go to one of Jujusen''s offices to sort this out...but first...I''ll pick up my little ones."

    After saying that, Jay, already disguised, took his backpack and left the house, heading towards the South Zone.

    ***

    At the entrance to the South Zone, quite close to the neighborhood where Jay had defeated Taylor and Colt, unlike the lonely and dangerous look this district had at night, right now there were several open stores, with people walking on the sidewalks.

    All together, it looked like a lively and busy zone.

    Even though the South Zone was a dangerous part of the city, there were still a considerable number of low-ie people living there, which led to people opening several local businesses due to the demand for various products in the area.

    Although people walked normally on the sidewalk, one could tell that they were a little nervous, as if something that made them ufortable was nearby, making them hurry up.

    Every now and then, they would look at a small cafeteria nearby, just to move their eyes in a hurry, afraid that they may attract the attention of the person inside of it.

    "Hm, these cookies taste great." Said one man who was inside the cafeteria as he watched people pass by with a smile on his face.

    Since the windows of the cafeteria wererge, he had a wide view of the neighborhood and the people outside.

    This man''s appearance was simple but stylish, he had gray jeans, a leather jacket and a white T-shirt along with a pair of sunsses, his hair was brown and it was tied up in a ponytail.

    "Thank you, it''s a new recipe." Replied the cafeteria manager, who, unlike the people outside, did not seem ufortable or intimidated in the least.

    The man said nothing else and just kept eating a few cookies in addition to drinking tea from time to time, continuing to observe the outside of the cafeteria.

    If one looked closely, you could see that right now, in this man''s pupils, there was a clear blue glow, totally different to the one Jay or Carl could do, indicating that this man was a rank (C-) super!

    However, the next moment, the glow faded, and the man''s pupils returned to their original brown color.

    Although it was incredibly difficult for Jay and Carl to activate the aura, this man could activate and deactivate it at will very easily, which indicated that he had a really good control over his energy.

    He had activated his aura momentarily to improve his senses and that way feel if there was a strong super in the vicinity, but unfortunately, he could not find anything.

    "Haa...still nothing." He said with a bit of boredom, he had been doing this for quite some time, It was understandable that he was bored since nothing interesting had happened in all that time.

    This man''s name was Aiden, the new guardian of the 31st District.

    Or at least that''s what it seemed to normal people, since the real reason he was there was to catch the unknown man who had defeated Taylor and Colt.

    While it was true that the unknown man attacked at night, the boss thought it would be best to start taking precautions early on, which is why he was keeping a close eye on people passing on the sidewalk even though it was still daylight.

    As to whether the unknown man woulde this way, Aiden was sure he would.

    The South Zone had two entrances, which were in District 31 and 29, Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang territory respectively.

    The difference in these 2 entrances was that at the entrance of District 29, one had to pay a toll to get through, not to mention the fact that in Wolf''s Fang territory, robberies weremon.

    In contrast, at the entrance to the 31st district, anyone could pass without paying a toll, running the risk of being robbed or something like that.

    Taking into ount the fact that the unknown man was wearing an outfit that concealed his identity, it was obvious that he did not want to be discovered.

    Therefore, he had to keep a low profile, so going through the entrance of the 29th district was not a good option as he would definitely encounter problems as soon as he got in.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Hm...?"

    Right at that moment, Aiden''s gaze fell on a certain person.

    A young man who had just entered his field of vision, he had golden hair that looked well taken care of and blue eyes that stood out, as for his attire, he was wearing gray jeans with a brown sweater and a backpack on his back.

    Looking at his features, he could not be described as a handsome man, but he definitely had a peculiar charm.

    ''...His hair looks good...'' thought Aiden, focusing on the young man''s hair, ''I wonder if it''s natural...''

    He then activated his aura again to improve his senses, inspecting this young man.

    Although the young man was across the street, such a small distance was nothing for a rank (C-) super.

    ''...Well, it looks like it is.''

    Aiden was a little surprised, although there were many people with brightly colored hair, such a pure blond was still unusual.

    After confirming that the young man''s hair color was real, Aiden proceeded to check the amount of energy present in the young man''s body, in order to see what rank the young man was.

    This was one of the ways to discover the rank of a super, it was a useful and convenient method to use, although it was only avable to rank (C-) supers or up.

    ''(D-) rank, he''s at Taylor''s level, higher than I expected.'' Aiden thought, a bit surprised.

    Since normally the amount of energy in an average person''s body was in the (F) or (E) rank, this young man''s (D-) rank showed he was a bit strong.

    ''And that backpack...a college student...?''

    When Aiden saw the backpack, he began to think.

    Since the sses for high school were over, judging for the young man''s appearance, he could only be a college student.

    However...he had been in the cafeteria since early morning, around 5 a.m, because he was an early riser, he had arrived very early.

    In fact, he even helped the manager to open the cafeteria, and from that moment on he had been watching the people entering and exiting the South Zone.

    There were some people who entered the South Zone that Aiden hadn''t saw leave, however, all those people had tired faces and work clothes, so the reason they wereing back so early was obvious...they worked at night.

    What was this college student''s excuse, though?

    Had he spent the night in the center of the city due to an intense night of partying?

    Of course not, his refreshed and full of vitality look indicated that he had slept perfectly, so that possibility was ruled out!

    Besides, Aiden was sure he''d remember such fabulous hair if he''d seen it before.

    Then, he was a stranger entering the South Zone!

    Of course, it could be that Aiden hadn''t really saw this young man before but...

    ''...It''s definitely suspicious.''

    After thinking that, Aiden got up from his seat to go and interrogate the young man.

    "Tim!"

    But just then, before Aiden could even get to the door of the cafeteria, a voice was heard outside.

    "I told you to wait for me, this isn''t a ce you can walk through alone!"

    Because the volume of his voice was a little loud, some people turned to the person who had said that, Aiden included.

    It was a young man with sses and lustrous brown hair, he was carrying a backpack just like the young blond man and it was obvious that his words were directed at him.

    ''Oh...Noah.'' Thought Aiden after seeing the person who had yelled.

    Because of his peculiar esper ability, Noah was a little known in the South Zone.

    "You''re just too slow." replied the young blond man with a bored expression on his face.

    "I think you''re the one who''s too fast...well, never mind, we''d better hurry if we want to finish the history project on time." Noah simply ignored his friend''sment and started walking besides him.

    "Alright~"

    After that small exchange, the two continued to walk.

    "So it was his friend...damn." Said Aiden, sitting back in his seat, feeling somewhat disappointed.

    Although he had thought the young blond man was suspicious, with Noah''s appearance, all doubts about his identity were clearly answered.

    "Haa...looks like it''s going to be a boring day...." He said before biting another cookie.

 Chapter 30 - At Noahs House

    After passing through the entrance of the South Zone, both continued walking until they reached Noah''s apartment, and at the moment they entered, both let out a sigh of relief.

    "Man...I thought I was busted." Said Jay, visibly relieved.

    Although they had passed through District 31 sessfully, Jay still clearly remembered how the rank (C) super had been watching him closely, making him feel nervous, and when he got up from his seat, Jay''s heart skipped a beat.

    Fortunately, he managed to keep his cool, and with Noah entering the scene, the super calmed his suspicions and sat down again.

    "...I''ll charge you extra for that." Added Noah, a few drops of sweat visible on his face.

    While it was true that Jay had taken most of the pressure, Noah had been incredibly nervous because he was risking that if Jay was discovered, he would definitely be treated as an aplice and would have nowhere to run!

    ""Haa.."" Both sighed.

    One thing was for sure... it had been a very tense moment for both of them.

    Faced with Noah''s response, Jay just put a sour smile, he already expected Noah to charge him extra for it.

    "Well, make yourselffortable, I guess." Noah added, already calmer.

    "Thanks."

    After that, Jay looked at Noah''s apartment, after passing through the entrance, there was arge room that functioned as a living room on the right side and kitchen at the left, on the left side there was a small hallway with 2 doors that led to what Jay assumed was the bedroom and the bathroom.

    The apartment looked much better than Jay expected, but since it was not really important, he did not pay much attention to it.

    "Would you like something to drink?"

    "Oh, if you''re offering, then a can of soda, please."

    Noah then went to his refrigerator for 2 cans of soda, giving one to Jay before sitting on another couch and taking his own, because he liked to save, Noah only allowed himself one luxury, which was to drink soda asionally.

    "Thank you," he said.

    "That''s five credits."

    "...But they cost 2 credits."

    "That''s right.

    Noah didn''t even try to debate Jay and simply continued to drink his can of soda, although from his attitude...it was clear that the price he stated would remain the same.

    Obviously he hadn''t offered Jay a drink just as a courtesy, he also nned to get some money out of it.

    "Ha...well, never mind, I''ll pay youter, now then, you told me you don''t know where Colt lives?"

    A little afraid that Noah would continue to charge him for other things, Jay quickly changed the subject.

    "Yes, but don''t worry, after some more research I was able to find a person who will be the solution to our problem." Noah replied.

    He then turned on his smart watch and opened a map of the South Zone simr to the one Jay had, but with the difference that this seemed much more detailed.

    Noah then began zooming in on the map, specifically in District 30, until he came to an average looking 3-story house which had a staircase connecting the first, second and third floors.

    "ording to what I have researched, this house is the home of 3 guardians of the Southern Zone."

    After hearing that, Jay gave Noah a strange look, as if to say ''I know you think I''m strong, but this is too much!''

    Jay was right, after all, the only way he could defeat Taylor and Colt was through a surprise attack and questionable methods respectively, so if he had to face 3 guardians at the same time, he would definitely lose.

    But almost as if he had read his thoughts, Noah said, "While this is the home of 3 guardians, you must remember that the guardians work mostly at night...except for those who are resting."

    After some thought, Jay understood who Noah was talking about and what he meant by that.

    "I see, so of the 3 guardians, only 1 is at home when it''s night...and I guess that''s the one that knows Colt''s location?"

    "Exactly, and I''m sure he knows where he lives, but I don''t think the best option is to force him to tell you that." Noah replied.

    "Yes, I think it would be better to avoid that as well."

    Although the first thing that urred to Jay was to go to the house, immobilize the remaining guard and force him to tell him where Colt lives, he quickly discarted the idea because it was much harder to do than it seemed.

    While a surprise attack might work in that situation because no one expects to be attacked in his own home, the best Jay could do would be to knock him out.

    However, this situation would require having the guardian immobilized but conscious...and Jay was not at all confident that he could aplish something like that.

    "The real target is his smart watch, I''m sure he has Colt among his contacts, finding his location after that will be easy."

    Seeing the confidence Noah had, Jay couldn''t help but be somewhat surprised at how capable Noah was.

    "By the way, I think I know who is the guard that is resting, but just to be sure...is Taylor, right?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Jay didn''t know much about the South Zone guards and how often did they rest, but after Noah said that of the three guards, two were working and one was resting, Jay figured that the guard had a very good reason for that...like recovering from a beating.

    "Yeah, you guessed right, after not seeing him for a while, I asked some people and found out that he hadn''t been moved to another district, he was resting, but the best proof is this, look."

    After saying that, Noah closed the holographic map of his smart watch and opened another application which had a panda logo on it, the application was called Palu and was a pretty popr socialwork.

    "Don''t tell me he..." Jay said when he saw what Noah was doing.

    "Yep."

    Right after saying that, Taylor''s profile appeared on the holographic screen of Noah''s smart watch, in his profile there was a recent publication from a few hours ago, the publication showed a television, which was tuned in to an action movie.

    At the top of the post were the following words, "Day off~".

    The post had 3 reactions.

    "How...convenient." Said Jay.

    "It is, oh, by the way, can Ie with you when you go get the smart watch?"

    "...What?"

    This question took Jay by surprise, he didn''t expect Noah to want to do something risky like this.

    Anyway, Jay was thinking of rejecting his request because it was easier to move around by himself, but when Noah saw that Jay seemed to want to say no, he said something that instantly made Jay change his mind.

    "I''ll give you 30% off of the final price of my services."

    "...Deal."

    The two then shook hands with a businesslike smile.

    ''It''s going to be a little harder to move with him along...but for now I have to save as much as I can.'' Jay thought, happy that he could save several credits. ''Plus, with the n I have in mind, he won''t be in danger...I think...''

    "Now, if you''re going to go...then we need a costume for you."

    Jay got up and opened his backpack, which was not filled with books, but with the clothes he used toe to the South Zone, the clothes inside the backpack were tidy and folded so that they did not protrude from the backpack.

    "Well, I call it a costume but it''s really just a pair of sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and something to cover your face and hands." Said Jay as he took the clothes out of his backpack to show it to Noah.

    "I have everything except for the bandages to cover my face." Noah replied as he looked at Jay''s "costume."

    "Hmm...we''ll have to improvise then, get me a shirt you don''t wear and some scissors."

    Noah headed down the small hallway and opened one of the doors, entering his room.

    "If you have a bat or something to attack, bring it too, it will be necessary." Jay added, raising his voice a bit.

    That way, both of them began to prepare to go out that night.

    ***

    Several hourster, when the sun had already set and the only people on the streets of the South Zone were the guards, a man was sitting on a bench in a small park while smoking a cigarette.

    "...F*ck, it still hurts." He said with a bitter expression as he ignored the slight but constant pain he was feeling.

    Both his arms and face looked much better than the day Jay beat him, but he could still feel the pain.

    His mood was somewhat sour because even though the boss had given him a few days off and he had been resting all day, he could not rx at all because of his sore arms and face...and for other reasons too.

    He had been in this park since 8 pm watching some videos on his smart watch to pass the time, but at this moment, he saw that it was already 11:14 pm.

    "...It''ste, I guess I''d better get back..."

    After saying that, he threw the cigarette on the ground and started walking towards his house.

    A few minutester, Taylor arrived at his house.

    He was standing in front of the house, alone, looking at the dark three-story building, this was a normal sight to him, however, at the next moment, he suddenly felt a chill run down his back, as if his senses were telling him something.

    "The hell...?"

    The little light that the streetlights in the vicinity provided were a gift to him, but for some reason, today, Taylor felt the light was much dimmer than normal, causing some thick shadows to form near the house, especially in the back of the house, where there was only darkness as the light from the streetlights didn''t reach that far.

    "...Whatever, must be my imagination." But despite feeling that something was wrong, Taylor ignored that feeling and went upstairs.

    Then, a few secondster, without Taylor knowing it....two silhouettes moved silently through the shadows of the backyard, in the direction of the stairs.

 Chapter 31 - Visiting Taylor

    After climbing the stairs to the third floor of the building, Taylor took out his keys to open the door lock.

    *ng*

    "Ah, f*ck."

    But just as he pulled them out, the keys fell to the floor, making his mood even more sour.

    The next moment, he bent down to pick them up and then opened the door of the apartment where he lived.

    "Home atst..." He said as he entered, seeing his familiar home, which consisted of arge room which served as kitchen, living room and bedroom at the same time, with a small hallway to the right which led to the bathroom.

    Although everything was in the same ce, since the space wasrge, it didn''t look messy or crowded.

    "...Blergh, I smell like smoke...I can''t sleep like this."

    Taylor had nned toe home and go straight to sleep, but after smelling his clothes a little, the distinct smell of the cigarettes he had smoked assaulted him.

    Then, despite the fact that it waste, Taylor went to the bathroom and turned on the bath faucet, since his mood was not the best, he thought that instead of using the shower, it would be better to take a long, rxing bath in the tub.

    His bathroom was also somewhatrge, having enough space for a shower in the corner, a bathtub next to the shower and even a toilet in another corner.

    There was also a sink with arge mirror on one of the walls, as for a washing machine, he didn''t have one, but it wasn''t a problem because there was aundry room in the first floor that the three guardians living there could use.

    Others might say it looked a little empty, but Taylor couldn''t care less about that, in fact, most of the things that were on this floor were already there when he started living in this ce.

    After waiting for a couple of minutes, the tub filled with water, seeing that, Taylor took off his clothes and ced them in theundry basket that was also in the bathroom before getting into the tub, letting out a sigh as he did so.

    This morning he had woken up with an optimistic attitude, thinking that since he had a day off he would use it to socialize with his colleagues and enjoy the day to the fullest, he had even uploaded a photo to his Palu profile.

    Unfortunately, despite his fervent attempts to socialize, he had never really fit in with his fellow guardians, and today was no different.

    However, that didn''t discourage him as it was amon urrence, so he went to talk to some normal Metal Body members.

    Even though he was the weakest guardian in Metal Body, he was still a guardian, which meant that normal members had to respect him and that some would approach him with hopes of improving their position in Metal Body, even if it just was little.

    But when he went and wanted to talk to some of the members, not to mention that today none approached him, the normal members even seemed to give him looks of mockery and contempt!

    Taylor had never been popr at Metal Body, but because of his position of guardian and the fact that the normal members didn''t know exactly how strong he was, they respected and feared him to some extent.

    Of course, all that changed after the news that he had been beaten up spread almost all over the South Zone.

    "That guy...I''ll definitely find him..." He said with a hateful tone, in his mind, everything that had happened was the fault of the unknown man that attacked him, so he directed all his bitterness against him.

    After some time rxing, Taylor washed up and got out of the tub, covering the lower part of his body with a towel that was hanging next to the sink.

    He then started walking towards the door that led into the living room, not without first taking his smart watch, of course.

    "Now then...where could I find..."

    *BAM!*

    "ARGH!"

    But just as he opened the door and walked out of the bathroom, he hadn''t taken even two steps before a hit caused him to lose his bnce and fall backwards onto the bathroom floor.

    "F*CK, IT HURTS!" he shouted in agony as he grabbed his head, which was the second most painful part of his body after his arms.

    Although the bruises on his head were almost gone, they were still there, making this blow much more painful.

    The next moment, Taylor quickly stood up, activating his ability and protecting his head with one hand while he grabbed the towel wrapped around his lower body with the other.

    He had learned from the previous time that if he dyed even a few seconds, he would be giving the enemy time to hit him, so despite the feeling of weakness in his body, the hatred within him drove him tounch himself against the enemy.

    "I''LL FUCKING KILL YOU, BASTARD!!" shouted Taylor incredibly angry.

    At this point, he could see that the person who had attacked him was the same hooded man who had attacked him the other night, but that did not frighten him; on the contrary, it fed his desire to beat him up even more.

    As for the fact that he was almost naked, Taylor didn''t care.

    Because he was using his skill to the fullest and concentrated it on his legs, he passed the bathroom door in just a few seconds, intending to fiercely attack the unknown subject.<novelnext></novelnext>

    When he looked at the figure in front of him, he could see that this time, he didn''t have any kind of weapon on him, so if he could close the distance, since they were inside his house, which was a closed space, he could definitely corner him and defeat him.

    "TODAY I WILL GET MY REVENGE, YOU SON OF A-"

    *CLANG!*

    "-GAH!"

    But unfortunately for him, just when one of his fists was about to hit the unknown man in front of him, he felt a much stronger blow on the back of his head.

    He remembered well this sensation... a metal bat.

    Then, Taylor fell to the ground.

    *Thud*

    Although he was able to take the first blow he received, it had actually done some damage to him, and with this second one, adding to the fact that he hadn''t fully healed, it made everything spin for Taylor, in fact, he didn''t even know how he was still conscious at this point.

    "A-Argh..." He groaned in pain.

    Everything was spinning, Taylor was incredibly disoriented and he was doing his best to stay conscious with sheer willpower.

    But for some reason, ignoring his instincts that were telling him not to, Taylor looked up, even knowing that he was most likely going to receive another hit, he wanted to see exactly what had happened.

    "...T-two...?"

    At that moment, he could see him...no, see them.

    Two hooded men that were looking at him.

    However, before Taylor could think of anything else, another hard hit by the hooded man with a metal bat assaulted him.

    Then, everything faded to ck.

    ***

    After Taylor had passed out, Noah took his smart watch and wrote on the holographic screen.

    [It''s ok that he knows there are two of us?]

    [He would have found outter anyway.] Wrote Jay on his smart watch, they wereunicating in this way because they had agreed to not talk as it was risky if someone heard them.

    Both had obviously realized Taylor had seen them, but Jay didn''t care much that he knew there were two of them, after all, by the time he woke up, he would know he had been attacked by two persons anyways.

    ''But...Noah is verypetent, uh...'' Thought Jay as he watched Noah doing something in Taylor''s smart watch.

    Jay had originally thought about breaking the lock with brute force, but who would have guessed that Noah knew how to pick locks?

    ''No doubt this guy also had his secrets.''

    [Alright, I got it, he has Colt as a friend in Palu.]

    [Great, now how are you going to get his address?]

    [I''ll just send him an invitation to y a Palu game which requires you to activate the location feature.]

    [I didn''t know there were such games...]

    [There are many things you don''t know, anyways, I already sent it to him, now it''s just a matter of time, since he''s online right now, I guess it will take at least five or ten minutes, what do we do in the meantime?]

    They both started to think, and after a few seconds, their gazes fell in different ces.

    Noah looked at Taylor''s unconscious, half-naked body on the floor, and the next moment, a cold smile formed on his face, indicating that he had found something to do while he was waiting.

    As for Jay, he was eyeing all of Taylor''s belongings, eager to find out if there was anything of value in this ce.

    That way, both found activities to pass the time.

 Chapter 32 - Thanks

    ''Surprisingly I only got 75 credits...'' Jay said in his mind as he put the bills in one of his pockets.

    He had searched the entire ce to find money or something of value, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn''t find anything more than those 75 credits.

    Jay thought that by being a guardian, Taylor would have a good sry, but apparently this wasn''t the case...or maybe Jay waste and Taylor had already spent it all, either way, there was no money.

    So, a little disappointed, he turned around to see if his partner was finished with his business.

    [You''re done?] Jay wrote on his smart watch before touching Noah''s shoulder to get his attention.

    Like Jay, Noah had also been entertained by something else...which involved Taylor, several ropes made from cut clothing, duct tape and a permanent marker.

    [Almost, just a few more things to write down.]

    While Jay had been searching the ce, Noah had tied Taylor''s feet, knees, thighs and arms with the ropes he had improvised, as well as taped his mouth, wrapping it several times around his head.

    It was true that Taylor''s ability allowed him to increase his strength considerably, but because he did not train his body, the increase in strength would only be enough to make him as strong as a well-trained bodybuilder.

    However, that would be all, and in addition to the fact that he was currently weakened and Noah had made sure to tie him up multiple times...Taylor wouldn''t be able to break free, at least not without help.

    After doing that, he started writing on various visible parts of Taylor''s body, things like "Die", " Bastard", "Excrement", " Waste of Space", among several other things, his body was so full of those words that it almost looked like a full-body tattoo.

    As for the fact that he was half-naked... Noah didn''t care about that at all, in fact, it almost benefited him, considering what he nned to do in the end.

    Originally he had nned to make multiple cuts on his body, but Noah wasn''t sure if that would wake him up or not, so, in order not to risk it, he nned something else just as satisfying for him.

    [Done.] Wrote Noah on his smart watch after writing onest "Die." on Taylor''s body.

    *Pim*

    At that moment, a notification came to Noah''s smart watch.

    [Just in time, his house it''s a few blocks away, but first help me carry him to the first floor]. Noah wrote as he pointed to the now muzzled Taylor.

    [Ok.]

    Then, they both slowly carried Taylor up to the first floor.

    Once on the first floor, Noah signaled Jay to go to the backyard, where Taylor was dropped off.

    [Now what?] Jay asked, thinking it wasn''t a good idea to just leave Taylor in the yard.

    [I have to find something, so wait a little.]

    After writing that, Noah left the grounds of the house and headed to the left, disappearing from Jay''s sight and leaving him alone with Taylor''s unconscious body.

    ''...I could ask him for another discount, maybe 5%?'' Jay thought, trying to take advantage of the situation.

    As for what he thought about what Noah had nned for Taylor...he didn''t care, to him Taylor was aplete stranger whose well-being didn''t affect Jay at all, so he had no reason to feel bad for him or anything like that.

    Besides, it was obvious that Noah had a big grudge against Taylor, and judging by what Jay had observed the night he defeated Taylor...it was a very well justified grudge.

    Maybe someone could say that that wasn''t the right thing to do but...who told Taylor to mess with Noah?

    Just then, Noah returned, writing something on his smart watch as he walked to Jay.

    [I found it, it''s a few houses away.]

    [What did you find?]

    [A garbage container.]

    ''Oh...''

    Jay had been somewhat intrigued as to why Noah had gagged Taylor, but this resolved his doubts.

    [Let''s go then.]

    With thatst exchange of words, they both began to carry Taylor to the ce where Noah had found the garbage container.

    ***

    *Thud*

    The sound of a heavy object falling on top of something soft and stic could be heard.

    [That''s it.] Jay wrote after throwing Taylor''s body into the garbage container, [Do you have anything else you need help with?]

    Because he didn''t want to risk spending any more time walking the streets of the South Zone, lest he encountered a guardian, Jay was in a bit of a hurry, so he asked Noah that question.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Noah seemed to be concentrated looking at the dumpster, but he still took a moment to write something on his smart watch before continuing to look at the dumpster.

    *Pim*

    Then Jay got a message, it was the location of Colt''s house, along with a message that said [Go ahead.]

    Feeling that the atmosphere had changed and not wanting to dy any longer than he should, Jay simply gave him a thumbs up and started to walk away, although he nned to make a stop at Taylor''s house because they had left the metal bat there.

    Now that he was alone, Noah just focused on seeing the man inside the dumpster.

    "..."

    How many times have he dreamed of this moment...?

    The person who had made his life miserable in this ce, one of the biggest reasons he wanted to move so badly, right now, was beaten, unconscious, and gagged in a dumpster, along with other garbage bags and the asional cockroach.

    Of course, that wasn''t all, there was no way he was going to let him go just like that. What Noah wanted was to make Taylor feel the helplessness that he had felt every time he was a victim of Taylor''s actions.

    That no matter how hard he tries, how much he wants to try to get free, or how much he questions why this is happening to him, he can''t do anything about it...and that no one is going toe and help him.

    That''s why Noah decided to lock him up in this dumpster so he could leave him there for a few days.

    As a South Zone resident, he knew that there wererge garbage dumps which were used by the vast majority of people living in the South Zone, these dumps were cleaned once a week and were in the areas with the most residents.

    However, there were also these garbage containers, which served as an alternative for people who lived somewhat far from one of therge garbage dumps.

    The difference was that these garbage containers were only cleaned once every 14 days because not many people used them, so the amount of garbage they umted was not as much.

    And judging by the amount of trash in the container, Noah could tell that it wouldn''t be that long before the trash collectors came...at most, it would be a matter of 3 or 4 days.

    As for whether someone mighte to dump his trash and find him before the trash collectors, Noah wasn''t so worried.

    Because there were 3 dangerous guardians living in this neighborhood, there were almost no people living here.

    The only concern would be that the guardians who live with Taylor woulde out to dump their trash and find it, but by checking the trash can at the house where they lived, Noah could see that it was empty, which meant that they had recently taken out the trash.

    Meaning...no one woulde in at least a few days.

    ''...Hehe.'' Noah couldn''t help butugh a little, imagining the look on Taylor''s face when he woke up in the dumpster.

    There wasn''t a shred of remorse in his actions, in fact, he even regretted not being able to physically hurt Taylor because he might wake up.

    But for the moment, he knew he would have to settle for this.

    "Haa...It looks like...I''ll have to give him a good discount..." He thought after calming down a bit and letting out a sigh, feeling happy and grateful.

    If someone had told him a week ago that he would be able to do something like this to Taylor in the future, Noah definitely wouldn''t have believed it.

    He knew his limits very well, so it was obvious that trying to rebel against Taylor was something that would only end up in him being savagely beaten, the other night had confirmed this fact.

    He had tried to think of ways to deal with him before, such as ambushing him, or hiring someone to beat him up, but in the end he chose neither option.

    To ambush him...it was very risky, he only had one chance, and if he failed or was discovered, then he was sure that things would not just end in a simple beating.

    As for hiring someone...first of all, who would dare confront a Metal Body guardian?

    And secondly, even if there was someone who was willing to take the job, Noah didn''t have the money to hire such a person, plus there was also the risk that they would simply take the money and notplete the task or maybe even turn him in.

    Therefore, Noah had resigned himself to endure the abuse until he could save enough to move out once and for all.

    He had thought that he only had that one way, that he could only grit his teeth and endure everything that might happen...but today, against all expectations, one of his greatest wishes hade true!

    Tonight, he was able to get even a little revenge on that despicable person named Taylor!

    Of course, he knew he couldn''t have done it alone, he wouldn''t have had the strength or courage to aplish something like this, but here he was, looking at Taylor inside the garbage container.

    This small but wonderful feat for him was due to a person who had suddenly entered his life, a person who gave Noah the help he had longed for...and the help had note from the police, from a friend, or from some hero...but from aplete stranger.

    Perhaps to that person, this was not something important, but for Noah, it was something incredible.

    So despite being aplete stranger to him, Noah could not help but think of a word directed at that person that perfectly expressed what he was feeling at that moment.

    ''...Thanks.''

    Then, taking onest look at the garbage container, Noah closed it, turned around, and started walking in the same direction that Jay had left.

 Chapter 33 - Metal Body

    "Man...I thought it would just be a crappy game, but it''s unexpectedly interesting..."

    Inside Colt''s room, he was lying on his bed ying the game to which Taylor had sent him an invitation.

    The game was quite simple, using the location function of the smart watch, it created a maze based on the surroundings, you started from your neighborhood and had to collect various gems that were scattered all over the map.

    What made it interesting was that it used real images and marked special ces for the yer, such as famous ces, the home of some local celebrities, and even the home of friends who also yed the game when you had unlocked more parts of the map.

    Normally Colt was not one to y any kind of game as he preferred to spend his time training, but because the boss explicitly told him to take the day off, he could not train.

    Nor was he much of a movie watcher, even in his free time, so today he had spent his time trying to find ways to distract himself, such as cooking, reading something, watching a movie reluctantly, cleaning his house, etc.

    Unfortunately, everything was boring soon after he started, so today he had beenpletely bored.

    As for the option of going out and socializing with the other members of Metal Body, although Colt was much more appreciated and respected than Taylor despite not being a guardian, Colt didn''t want to do it as he didn''t like to socialize much unless it was necessary.

    So, with nothing else to do, Colt had tried to spend the day taking nap after nap, which worked very well for the time being, although...maybe it worked too well.

    Since he''d been taking nap after nap since 12 or so in the day, by the time it got dark, he wasn''t even a tiny bit sleepy!

    The pugilists themselves were far more energetic than the supers of other sses, so a well-rested pugilist, even if it was only a rank (D) pugilist, could stay awake for 3 days straight if he wanted to.

    Therefore, despite the fact that it was already 11 p.m, Colt had resigned himself to spending the night lying in his bed staring at the ceiling, regretting his earlier decision to sleep through the afternoon.

    Then, with nothing better to do, Colt decided to see a few inspiring phrases in Palu, it wasn''t a hobby or anything like that but he enjoyed reading those, nd unexpectedly, just when he opened Palu, he receibed an invitation for a game.

    He originally wasn''t going to ept the invitation because he didn''t get along with Taylor and didn''t trust what he could send...but since he had nothing to do and was dying of boredom, he decided to try it once.

    From that moment on, he had been going through level after level, visiting different ces and learning more about Nightown City.

    Who would have thought that what seemed to be a simple Palu game would be so addictive?

    Currently, Colt had a total of 190 umted gems, he only had 10 left to go to the next level, so he was focused on not hitting any walls or bumping into any monsters.

    However, just at that moment, he felt a sudden itch in his nose.

    "Ah-ah-Achoo!"

    Colt let out a loud sneeze, apanied by the sound of him dying in the game.

    "...Haa..."

    Seeing that he had died, Colt just let out a gentle sigh and resigned himself to starting a new game. He wasn''t frustrated or irritated because he had already gotten used to it.

    In spite of having bathed rigorously, he could still feel the itchy powder and hot sauce sometimes, causing him to sneeze or feel an itch in his body from time to time. As for his eyes, he only felt a persistent but very mild itch.

    Although he hadn''t been beaten up like Taylor, he had been left with these effects, which were notparable to the time the attacker used them against him, but they were still somewhat annoying.

    "HEEEELP-!"

    "!"

    But just as he was starting again, he heard a scream, somewhat far from where he lived, but he heard it clearly, it was a cry for help.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Colt quickly got out of bed and headed for the door, grabbing a hoodie on the way and leaving his apartment before heading towards the direction of where he had heard the scream.

    Although he was not a guardian, as a member of Metal Body, the security of District 30, which was under the protection of Metal Body, was also his responsibility, but, well, more than anything, it was due to his sense of justice.

    In fact, the main reason of why he didn''t got along with Taylor, in addition to his disinterest in socializing, was that there were many rumors and testimony from some members that said that they had seen Taylor take advantage of the residents of the South Zone.

    The rumors mostly involved young people, with Taylor often taking money from them or beating them, and although there had been fewer reports of theft by Taylor in the past few months, it was because he had focused his attention on one particr young man named Noah.

    With that as evidence, Colt himself wanted to teach Taylor a lesson for damaging the reputation of Metal Body and was just waiting for the boss to give him the order, but for some reason, the boss didn''t say anything about Taylor''s behaviour, leaving Colt unsatisfied.

    Fortunately, someone did teach Taylor a lesson, and although it wasn''t him, Colt was d about it.

    Colt knew that he was in Metal Body, a gang which took advantage of people living in the South Zone, but the way they operated was not through intimidation or fear like Wolf''s Fang, but through necessity and profit.

    Of course, he didn''t think that he was a good person or something like that, but he just didn''t like when a strong person took advantage of a weaker person, that''s just how he was.

    ''Metal Body...''

    Now that he was thinking about both gangs, Colt remembered the story of Metal Body, which reminded him a lot of the story of a hero who put an end to evil...or at least that''s how he saw it.

    Originally, there were no Metal Body or Wolf''s Fang in the South Zone, instead there were more than ten different gangs, with each upying at least one district, except for District 1.

    In those days, the South Zone was no different from the outskirts of the city, where robberies and kidnappings weremonce, and murders, though not every day, happened too often to be called rare.

    There were several reasons for this kind of chaos, but the main ones were due to an overflow of monsters on the outskirts of the city, which forced the Hunters to take care of them, theck of Heroes because of another attack by the Laers Guild and the police trying to stabilize the situation in the rest of the city.

    With all 3 main forces in charge of the security of the city busy, the gangs that upied the South Zone had a free pass to do whatever they wanted, creating great terror among the inhabitants of that area.

    Fortunately for the inhabitants of the South Zone, a certain group of people came to District 31 from the outskirts of the city seeking refuge from the monsters overflow, and among these people, there was a man named Garel Cranyne.

    That person, upon seeing the type of situation the South Zone was in, knew that he could take advantage of this chaotic situation to his advantage.

    So, determined to change everything, he organized the refugees he came with, who were rank (D+) and (C-) supers and came to an agreement with the people living in District 31.

    In exchange for them getting rid of the gang that upied the district and giving them protection from other gangs, the inhabitants would have to pay something to what Garel Cranyne called "Right of Floor".

    The Right of Floor meant that everyone living in that district would pay an amount of money depending on the type of housing they lived in, if you owned your own home, then you would pay 50 credits per month per person in the home.

    On the other hand, if you rented a floor, then the person who paid was the owner of the building, since the building was theirs, and in terms of payment, it was the same as before, 50 credits per person.

    Of course, there were people who were not satisfied with that, mostly the buildings owners, but they couldn''t really do anything, it was either that or remain at the mercy of other gangs after all.

    After reaching an agreement, neither short norzy, Garel, along with his group of refugees and several local people, expelled the gang that upied District 31 at that time, forcing them to leave the South Zone and establishing their dominance over the ce.

    That''s how one of the strongest gangs in the South Zone, Metal Body, was formed, the name originally was a nickname given to Garel by the other gangs when they saw his ability, but over time the whole group began to be called that way.

    However, that was only the beginning, after he took over District 31, he went on to District 30, 29 and so on, ending the chaos in the South Zone and at the same time strenghtening the organization.

    The other gangs, seeing that Garel''s group was too strong for them to defeat on their own, decided to form an alliance and hire another rank (C) super from the outskirts of the city to help them deal with Garel''s group.

    Unexpectedly, the hired super not only did not help them, but took over the alliance and began a great reform, eliminating the weak and filtering the strong, thus forming a group that could face Garel and even managed to take away several districts from Metal Body....Wolf''s Fang.

 Chapter 34 - Limit Breaker

    ''Although they have been quite calmtely...'' Colt thought as he recalled Wolf''s Fang''s activity over the past few months.

    However, realizing that there would surely be a better time to think about it, he elerated the pace.

    After a few minutes, Colt arrived at the location where he thought he heard the scream.

    It was a neighborhood quite simr to the South Zone entrance in terms of buildings, but it had some fairly noticeable differences.

    While the stores at the entrance were still operating today, the stores in this neighborhood had obvious signs of not having been opened in a really long time.

    Although it wasn''t just the stores, but the whole neighborhood in general had this look of abandonment, which added to the fact that there was only one street light illuminating the neighborhood, made everything look much scarier than usual.

    However, this didn''t surprise Colt in the least, as such views were quite normal in Metal Body-controlled districts.

    It was because most people preferred to live in certain residential areas closer to a Metal Body base for more protection, which left several ces in the South Zone empty of people.

    As there wasn''t much light here, Colt concentrated some Qi in his eyes so he could see better in the dark.

    ''It still hurts a little, but there''s no other way.'' He thought as he looked around, the shadows that enveloped the neighborhood seemed to have diminished a bit thanks to Colt''s improved vision.

    It was a little painful because of what happened the other night, but considering that a person could be in danger, Colt didn''t hesitate to do so, even at the risk of dying his vision recovery.

    ''Where could they be...?''

    At first nce, there was nothing and no one in the neighborhood, but that didn''t mean it was empty. After all, there were a few alleys that would serve as a perfect hiding ce here.

    He then began walking slowly to the first alley on his right, with his guard up and ready in case something came out of the darkness and tried to ambush him.

    Initially he had thought about shouting out if anyone was here or something, but after some thought he dismissed that idea because after the initial shout that got his attention, Colt heard nothing else.

    And even at this point when he was at the scene of the crime so to say, only silence reigned.

    Taking that into ount, Colt came to two conclusions about what could have happened:

    1. The victim has been neutralized by the attacker.

    2. It was just a very bad joke by a resident.

    If it was thetter, then there wasn''t much of a problem, after all, even though he was in the South Zone, people who did that kind of thing were not missing, but if it was the former...then he had to hurry.

    Now just a few steps from the dark alley, Colt peeked out cautiously so he could see inside.

    Sadly, all he could see was a few garbage bags and a few mice around, nothing that was out of ce or indicated that anyone had been here recently.

    ''This alley is clear...''

    Now with one less ce to look, Colt headed for the next alley, still with his guard up.

    After a couple of minutes, to his surprise, even when he finished checking all the alleys, he couldn''t find anyone, just the asional trash bags and metal trash can.

    ''Maybe I''m in the wrong ce...?'''' He thought somewhat uncertainly, ''No...it has to be close, I definitely heard it around here.''

    Although the possibility that it was somewhere else was also high, Colt''s intuition told him that it was definitely in this specific neighborhood, his intuition had rarely failed him, so he didn''t want to leave this ce.

    ''But...if I''m wrong, then I''m wasting valuable time...''

    Colt didn''t know the condition of the person who had screamed for help, but if he assumed that the attacker had actually incapacitated that person, he certainly didn''t do so peacefully, which meant that every second wasted meant aggravating the victim''s injuries.

    ''Haa, I''ll have to go to another...''

    *ng*

    "!"

    At that moment, just as Colt was about to go into another neighborhood, a metallic sound could be clearly hearding from one of the alleys he had checked.

    Colt quickly rushed to the alley, there was nothing in the driveway, so he went deep into the alley, and there he could finally see what had made that noise.

    It was a metal trash can that he had seen before, it had fallen to the ground, scattering its contents on the ground, however, that didn''t matter, what was most striking was that there was also a young man who also seemed to have been inside the trash can!

    "H...help...please..." said the young man in a weak but clear voice as he tried to move towards Colt.

    "Don''t overexert yourself." Colt replied, now in front of the young man, helping him out of the trash can and leaning him against one of the walls in the alley, in a ce that was rtively cleaner.

    ''So he was inside the trash can...that''s why I didn''t found him when I first looked here...''<novelnext></novelnext>

    Now that he looked at him closely, the young man seemed to have bruises on his face, there was even what appeared to be some blood on his lower lip, indicating that he had been beaten recently.

    "Do you have any serious injuries?" Colt asked the young man as he looked for traces of blood on his clothes, although from his condition it was obvious the young man was not well, a beating was one thing and a stabbing was quite another.

    "N-no...just...just a few blows to the head." The young man replied as he grimaced in pain and grabbed his head.

    "Okay, I''ll take you to the nearest hospital anyway, but first tell me what happened."

    The young man''s condition was not very good, but since it wasn''t that bad, Colt wanted to know exactly what had happened before taking him to a hospital.

    "I-it all happened very fast...g-give me a moment please."

    "Don''t worry."

    Seeing that the young man really seemed to be having some difficulty calming down, he didn''t push him and waited patiently.

    After a few seconds, the young man calmed down and began to tell him what had happened.

    "...I-I remember I was on my way home from work, when...suddenly a hooded man appeared in front of me, blocking my way, I...asked him what he wanted and...at that moment h-he attacked me with a metal bat..."

    ''So it was him...'' Colt thought as anger arose within him.

    "I guess it was him who put you in the trash can too?"

    "Y-yes, that''s right, although...oh no, he took my wallet and my smart watch too!" the young man said with a sad expression after checking his pockets.

    It was one thing to attack a Metal Body guard who could defend himself, but it was quite another to attack a normal South Zone resident.

    ''...All of this just for some money...?''

    Since the hooded man was capable of defeating both Taylor and himself, it was quite clear that he had some skills, even if he had aplished it with questionable methods, that did not change the fact that he had defeated them.

    Although he had suffered quite a bit because of the hooded man, Colt did not feel any resentment or resemnce towards him, after all, it was not the first time he had lost a fight, plus, he belonged to Metal Body, a criminal organization, so you could say the hooded man was fighting crime.

    With that into ount, Colt thought that maybe the hooded man was a wannabe hero or something.

    But of course, what was more important to him was that he had beaten up Taylor, something he had wanted to do for a long time, so Colt''s opinion of the hooded man had improved slightly since that night.

    However, right now turns out that the hooded was using his strength to attack a poor resident of the South Zone and had even robbed him?

    ''...It seems that he''s no hero after all...'' Thought Colt, feeling disappointed.

    However, this was no time to be disappointed, there was something more important to do.

    "I''m sorry about what happened to you, but tell me, did you see where he went?"

    "Y-Yeah, now that you mention it, I did see him, he went to the right, and it wasn''t long ago, I-I think if you hurry, you can still catch up to him!" Said the young man with a hurried expression as he slowly stood up and revealed vital information to Colt.

    "You should have said it before!" Colt replied, realizing that he might still be able to catch him, "I''ll be right back, wait here, okay?"

    He then quickly headed towards the exit of the alley, but just before he could do so, the young man put a hand on his shoulder, with his little finger making contact with Colt''s neck.

    "What is it, do you need something else?" Colt asked in a hurry.

    "I-I just wanted to say... t-thank you, sir..." Said the young man, hurriedly removing his hand from Colt''s shoulder.

    "Oh..."

    That was unexpected, for Colt, because of his intimidating appearance, he usually never received a thank you from a South Zone resident, even if he had helped them before, so these thanks, though unexpected, were wee.

    "You''re wee." Colt replied with a smile before leaving the dark alley, feeling a little more motivated to find the hooded guy, he even felt as is the feeling of weakness in his body had disappeared.

    After Colt left, the young man was left alone in the middle of the dark alley, apparently shaking with fear for what had happened...or not.

    Suddenly, a big smile appeared on the young man''s face,pletely different from the frightened and nervous expression of before.

    "Finally... I can finally improve my stats!" Jay shouted mentally as he trembled with excitement seeing the ever-timely notification window of the system.

    _____________________

    You have acquired "Parasyte: Limit Breaker (Body) (D)"

    _____________________

 Chapter 35 - Busted?

    ''Wow, I really didn''t expect everything to go so well...'' Jay thought after he had calmed down a bit, although no one could me him for being so excited.

    Ever since he acquired the system, his stats had been in the (E) rank, after he trained, he managed to increase them to (E+) rank, getting a stronger body than most people his age.

    However, that was not enough for what he had in mind, which was to get more hosts from the South Zone, so he had to learn the Phantom Trace, buy some items and use a metal bat as well as the Wind Control to protect himself.

    That way he had managed up until now, depending heavily on external factors to improve hisck of power, defense and speed.

    Unfortunately, these external factors had a limit.

    The metal bat, though strong, ended up being heavily damaged after a few minutes of continuously hitting Taylor, forcing him to resort to another method in order to defeat him.

    The Phantom Trace, a martial footwork technique that gave him great mobility to dodge hits at close range and even could be used to run away, unfortunately, Jay could only use the first and second steps, resulting in other people to still be able to corner him anyway.

    Finally, the magically reinforced bandages that Sarah had given him, they were incredibly resistant to cuts, Jay had proven it''s defense before, but because his opponents so far had only used blunt force, they had not had a moment to shine.

    Now, however, with the "Parasite: Limit Breaker", Jay would be able to improve his body to Colt''s level, improving his defense, attack and speed all at the same time, just the thought of being as strong as Colt made Jay excited!

    ''Anyway, as good as it is...it would be best to save this to use at home, I don''t want to end up passing out here...''

    Jay clearly remembered what had happened the first time he assimted a parasite, and it was a pretty painful experience that almost caused him to lose consciousness.

    So even though he could assimte it right now, being a parasite that could break the limits of his body as the system indicated, Jay was sure it would hurt as much or even more than the first time he assimted a parasite.

    Then, without wanting to dy any longer, Jay gathered his things, which were inside a small stic bag at the bottom of the metal trash can and quickly changed his clothes before Colt returned.

    "Hm?"

    But the moment he grabbed his smart watch, Jay saw that there was a new message, and the sender was Noah.

    This surprised him a bit because he wasn''t expecting a message from Noah right now since they had nothing to talk about, at least not until Jay got to Noah''s home.

    [There''s trouble, don''t go to my house, let''s meet in this ce instead...]

    "!"

    This message, though short in content, made Jay quite concerned, making his mind work quickly to think of what might have happened...

    ''...It can''t be, we''ve been discovered...?!''

    Although the word "trouble" could mean many things, in this kind of situation, the first thing Jay could think of was that they had been discovered.

    While they had sessfully passed through the entrance, it was quite clear that they had caught the attention of the guard, so although he seemed to have just let them go, perhaps he had followed them or something.

    In that case, the guardian, as a rank (C) super, he could have easily followed them without him or Noah noticing anything...which meant that he could have discovered them.

    Jay quickly wrote a message to ask Noah exactly what had happened as he hurried away from the neighborhood he was in.

    However, even after waiting for several minutes...Noah didn''t answer.

    ''This...is bad...''

    ***

    "Argh, that idiot, always leaving me alone!" Said a tall, thin man with wavy ck hair, visibly upset and nervous as he walked in circles around a small fountain in the center of a dark park.

    This man''s name was Mark and he was one of the two guardians of the 30th District, he was currently patrolling a park which was part of an abandoned residential area.

    This was just part of his job as a guardian, patrolling as he did every night.

    However, like every night, his mood was not the best, that was partly because his partner had left him alone again, this time with the excuse that he had to go to the bathroom desperately.

    "I understand that sometimes you can''t avoid going to the bathroom but in addition to going... you even had to take my damn smart watch!??"

    *Bam!*

    He then kicked a nearby rock and sent it flying, which only fell after traveling several meters through the air.

    The reason why he had taken Mark''s smart watch was because his partner, whose name was Chuck, hadn''t paid the inte service bill for his own smart watch, so if he wanted to have inte, he had to use Mark''s watch.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "That damn bastard...he''s probably not even in the bathroom and he''s justzing around...!"

    Although it might seem that he was quite angry with his partner for beingzy or for taking his smart watch, in reality it wasn''t for none of those reasons, but something else..

    *Tak*

    Just then, Mark heard the sound of a small but solid object falling to the ground.

    "!?"

    He quickly turned in the direction he had heard the noise, a tree a few meters away that was nearby, assuming a position ready to fight...or to flee.

    "W-w-w-who''s there!?" He asked as he shook with fear, looking at what had made that noise. "...Ah."

    It was a small apple.

    ''...It was just an apple...haaa, damn...'' He thought, clutching his chest and sitting on a nearby bench because of the fright.

    That''s right, the reason he was so angry wasn''t because Chuck had taken his smart watch or something like that, but because he had left him alone in such a scary ce!

    Mark had always been very fearful, and this park specifically was a very scary ce for him.

    Unlike a neighborhood which had at least some street lights and if not, the moonlight provided some light to the surroundings, in this park there was only 1 working street light, located right in the center of the park, and what was worse, the moonlight was blocked by all the trees that were there, giving instead many more shadows than illuminated ces.

    "...I-I don''t think I''ll be able to leave the park until Chuck returns..." He said as he sat on a nearby bench and hugged his knees, a small tear forming in the corner of his eye.

    Another reason he was acting so angry before was because he was really afraid of this ce and wanted to give himself courage acting that way.

    After all, he had been trapped in the center of the park for a long time because he was afraid to go into the darkness of the park.

    Normally, a person like him could never be a guardian...but what made him special was not his character, but his ability.

    "It''s getting very cold...well, since it looks like I''ll be here for a while, I''d better do something..." He said as he rubbed his hands together in the cold.

    Then, he took a lot of air and blew on his hands.

    *Woosh*

    At that moment, something strange happened, Mark''s breath, instead of being transparent like that of normal people, was of a visible purple color with some golden sparks in it, in fact, more than wind, it seemed to be dust...

    Slowly, the "dust" began to surround his hands, quickly hardening and taking the form of gloves made of what appeared to be a purple soft material with golden sparks.

    "There, with this my hands will no longer be so cold..." He said with a small smile as he looked at his gloves that served very well against the cold.

    That was Mark''s esper skill, "Ster Dust", this skill allowed him to turn his breath into what he called stardust, a substance that would take the form of whatever Mark wanted, although with certain limits, of course.

    For example, if Mark wanted a ball, then the dust would take the shape of a ball, imitating the physical properties of the ball, on the other hand, if he wanted a knife, that could also be done.

    The limits of his ability was that he could not create anything toorge orplex, so if he tried to create a car or a smart watch, he would fail miserably.

    That was also why the boss had paired him with Chuck, since Mark''s physical ability was deplorable, his role was to be a support to Chuck, who specialized in pure attack, by making him shields, armour or weapons.

    *Shuu*

    "Hm? Another apple...?" he said as he looked at the bush from which the noise hade.

    Because he had been frightened enough by the other apple before, this time he was calmer...although only a little bit.

    "!!!"

    However, the calm he felt quickly faded as he saw what hade out of some nearby bushes.

    A hooded man, looking directly at Mark from inside a bush with his dark face wrapped in shadows.

    ''I... I think I''ll have to make myself some new pants after this too....'' He thought before copsing onto the bench out of fear.

 Chapter 36 - Monster...

    ''No, wait, I can''t faint right now!'' thought Mark, forcibly awakening himself.

    Seeing the hooded man in the bushes had definitely given him a big scare, but Mark knew that if he fainted here, he would bepletely at his mercy and who knows what state he would wake up in.

    He then stood up and distanced himself from the hooded man, even getting into the darkness of the park.

    Although he was still afraid of the park, it was quite obvious what was most dangerous right now.

    "Y-you''re the one...the one who attacked Taylor and Colt, right?!" He asked, raising the volume of his voice, the question itself made no sense since the hooded man''s appearance was the same as Colt described, making it obvious that he indeed was.

    But what Mark wanted to achieve with that question was not to get a confirmation, but to give himself even a little courage to calm his nerves.

    As expected, the hooded man did not answer his question and simply stood there watching him from the bush he was in, seemingly wary of Mark.

    ''Ahhh, shit, shit, shit, of all the guards in the South Zone, this guy had toe after me...and just when that asshole is not around...damn it!''

    Mark was in a panic, after all, he wasn''t half as strong as Colt, yet the man in front of him had been able to defeat him, so there was no need to mention what would happen if Mark confronted him.

    However...

    ''...I-I have to do something.''

    He couldn''t just sit still waiting for the hooded man to beat him up, so he began to think of a way out of this situation.

    Because Mark was sure that the hooded man was stronger than he was, he quickly dismissed the idea of trying to confront him directly, thus thinking how to escape.

    ''If I start running...I''ll be exposed to any attack, even if I use my ability to cover my body, I won''t be able to cover everything...''

    He couldn''t escape and he couldn''t beat the hooded man, this was bad...but fortunately, there was still hope for Mark.

    ''Then...I just have to hold on until Chuck gets back...!'' He thought, filled with determination,

    However, his determination didn''tst long before it was reced by insecurity.

    ''But...would I be able to hold on until then...?''

    Watching the hooded man, Mark could not help but feel intimidated. He waspletely wrapped in ck clothing and had a metal bat in his right hand, while his hands were wrapped in a white bandage.

    As for his face, he could see almost nothing because of the hood he was wearing, but for some reason, Mark thought this was better...maybe what was hidden by the hood was more frightening than the darkness he was seeing right now.

    *Tap*

    "Hiik!"

    At that moment, the hooded man took a step forward, interrupting Mark''s thoughts and causing him to jump backwards due to the fright, apanied by a small strange sounding from his mouth.

    ''Argh, f*ck, no, d-don''t let the fear stop you!'' he shouted in his head, feeling embarrassed by the scream he had let out, the next moment, he realized something, ''Oh...now that he hase closer...he...isn''t that scary...I think.''

    Because the hooded man had gotten closer, Mark could now see him more clearly, diminishing his shadowy appearance and giving Mark a little more courage.

    ''Right...I shouldn''t be so afraid of him, even though he''s strong, he''s not a monster, no matter how intimidating he is...I can do this!''

    *Woosh*

    After thinking this, he assumed abat position and blew strongly on his right arm, until the dust formed a little shield.

    One could notice by the change in his attitude that his fear had diminished considerably.

    However, the hooded man did not make any movement and just kept watching Mark, although now he seemed more interested in his shield rather than in Mark himself, and for some reason...this scared him a little.

    ''...M-maybe I need...a little more confidence...just a little...oh, maybe I can try what Chuck said...?'' Mark thought, remembering what his partner had told him on one of the nights they were patrolling the 30th District.

    ''Come on,e on, remember what he said...!''

    Slowly, the face of Chuck appeared in his head, surrounded by clouds as if he were preaching words of wisdom.

    "In a battle, being afraid is normal, either because the opponent is too strong, is apanied, or simply because he looks intimidating, but don''t worry, in those cases, I have a trick which has not failed me so far..."

    ''This is it!''''

    Those were the words he remembered that Chuck had said, which, fortunately, were perfect for this situation, although Mark still was angry with him, this had undoubtedly caused his anger to diminish.

    Although...for some reason this memory seemed to be a little repressed for him.

    ''Well, it doesn''t matter, this is just what I need, at least you''re good for something, you bastard!'' eximed Mark, grateful to his partner.

    "The most important thing in a battle is to feel that the opponent, no matter who he or she is, is still vulnerable! Therefore, what I always do is imagine the enemy naked, in the most vulnerable state possible, huahuahua!"

    ''...''

    That was why the memory was repressed, just like most of all the conversations he had with Chuck...he always came up with some nonsense like that.

    *Tap*

    "!"

    But before he could even begin to insult his partner, the hooded man got closer to him.

    ''D-damn it, he''s getting closer, I''ll just use it!''

    "You leave me no choice!" shouted Mark to the hooded man.

    The shouting rmed the hooded man a little, who quickly stopped and took a defensive stance, wary of what Mark had said.

    Next, Mark began to intensely observe the body of the hooded man, trying to see even the smallest detail that could help him form an image in his head.

    ''I''ts...it''s working!'' thought Mark, excited because little by little the hooded man''s clothes were disappearing, giving rise to more and more exposed skin, which in turn made Mark feel that the hooded man could also be vulnerable.

    ''Just a little more, almost...''

    He had made good progress, the hooded man now only had the lower part of his body covered, revealing a toned physique for some reason, and now even the lower part was slowly disappearing!

    ''I did it, now he''s naked!'' He said in his mind, feeling a lot more confident, however, now that he was seeing the naked body of the hooded man, he noticed something, ''Wait...what...W-W-WHAT IS THAT...?!''

    Looking at the naked body of the hooded man, specifically the part of his crotch, there was something totally unexpected to Mark...<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I-I-IT''S A MONSTER!" he shouted as he took several steps backwards, scared of what he was seeing and quickly closing his eyes.

    Unexpectedly, and for some very strange reason, a certain part of the hooded man was totally out of line with Mark''s expectations, causing him to feel even more intimidated and destroying the little confidence that he had gathered until now.

    ''ARGH, I CAN''T GET THE IMAGE OUT OF MY HEAD'' Shouted Mark in his thoughts, panicking and grabbing his head.

    On the other hand, the masked man,pletely oblivious to Mark''s concerns, seeing that it was just a bluff, decided to take another step.

    *Tap*

    "W-W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He shouted, in fear.

    This time Mark''s reaction was much more aggressive than before, backing up several meters in one jump, even going deeper into the darkness of the park, the fear he had of the hooded man''s "monster" totally outweighed his fear of the dark.

    However, the masked man did not stop his march, instead continuing to walk towards Mark, approaching him slowly.

    *Tap tap*

    "AHHH, GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!"

    *Tap tap tap*

    "P-P-PLEASE DON''T COME CLOSER!"

    Ignoring his prayers, the hooded man continued to approach him.

    Mark had been steadily backing up, but just at this point, his back hit a tree, indicating that he couldn''t go back any further...he had been cornered.

    "NO, NOOOOOO...!" shouted Mark, desperate, with tears in his eyes.

    Fortunately, in the face of such a frightening situation, Mark''s body had an answer.

    *Pam*

    With a thud, Mark fell to the ground, unconscious and foaming at the mouth... it seems that this situation had been too much for him and his poor mentality.

    ***

    ''...What the hell just happened...'' Jay thought as he watched the now unconscious Mark, quite confused.

    After leaving the neighborhood where he had retrieved his little ones, he quickly headed to the location Noah had sent him, thus arriving at the park.

    However, since the location only marked the park in general and did not specifically said where they were supposed to meet, Jay advanced to the center of the park, which is where he found this man.

    Jay had noticed that apparently he was quite afraid of him for some reason, so taking advantage of that, he wanted to approach him and force him to flee as he didn''t want to confront him directly without preparation.

    But from one moment to the next, this man had be incredibly more rmed, almost in a state of panic, as if he had seen a ghost or something like that.

    Then, thinking he was about to reach his limit and run away, Jay kept getting closer to him, but just then he hit a tree and lost consciousness.

    ''...Am I that scary...?'' He thought, touching his bandaged face.

    *BOOOM*

    "!"

    Before he could think of anything else, the sound of a great explosion resounded in the surroundings, apanied by a brief but clear sh that momentarily illuminated the sky of the South Zone.

    ''An explosion...?!''

    However, the surprises didn''t end there. A few secondster, Jay could hear the shouting of a person who seemed to be approaching quickly.

    "MAAARK, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!" It was a bulky man with a military cut and an overall intimidating appearance. Although he was a little far away, Jay could tell he was carrying something on his shoulder, "OH, AND I CATCHED THE GUY THAT...huh?"

    But after advancing far enough to be only a few meters from the center of the park, the man realized that the person he was talking to was not his partner...but another hooded man.

    ''Noah...?!'' After he got a little closer, Jay could clearly see what the man was carrying, plus the man himself had said so...he had caught Noah, ''So that''s why he couldn''t answer...''

    "I see, so there were two of you, eh..." said the intimidating looking man, without taking his eyes off Jay.

    "..."

    A brief silence reigned since none of them said anything after that...

    Then, suddenly, they both moved quickly, the man pulled Noah off his shoulder and put him in a headlock with his arms, Jay on the other hand picked up Mark and formed a small wind de before putting it close to his neck.

    "Heh, it seems we both thought the same thing..." Said the bulky man with an apparently confident smile.

    "..."

    Although they both had a confident attitude, in reality they were not sure how to resolve this quickly, nor were they going to do anything risky, after all the other party had a hostage ,thus creating a situation where neither side could move.

    They stayed that way for a few seconds, until...

    *BOOM*

    Again, the sound of an explosion could be heard, although this time it was considerably louder than the first one.

    "Urgh, damn it!" Shouted the bulky man as a few drops of sweat appeared on his face, apparently, the explosion had made him really nervous, "...Haa, I don''t have time for this, here''s your partner, now give me mine,e on."

    After saying that, he threw Noah towards Jay, however, Jay didn''t catch him because he was still wary and let Noah fall to the ground with a thud.

    ''...Wow, I wasn''t expecting that...it seems like whatever is happening right now is more important than catching me...well, better for me.'' Jay thought, a little surprised and happy at the same time.

    Seeing that the man didn''t seem like he wanted to fight against him, Jay got up and threw Mark towards him.

    Surprisingly, the man, instead of catching him with his body, simply raised his hand and activated his special skill, "Telekinesis", making Mark float in the air until he arrived at the man''s shoulder.

    "Thanks, oh, by the way, as a thank you for giving Taylor a lesson, I''ll tell you something, get out of here as soon as possible...things are about to get ugly."

    With those words as hisst, the man began to run down the same path he hade, leaving behind a very confused Jay.

 Chapter 37 - Using The Limit Breaker

    "Noah, hey, wake up...!" Jay said as he shook Noah to wake him up.

    After that strange interaction he had with the other guard, Jay didn''t waste a second and took Noah into the backyard of a nearby house, which had a small, five-foot-high wall surrounding it, enough for both of them to hide.

    "U-urgh..."

    Fortunately, it didn''t take Jay long to wake him up.

    ''Finally...''

    Seeing that Noah had already awakened, Jay let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the little wall.

    "!"

    However, just after he woke up, Noah got up and started looking around, visibly rmed, it seems that he still thought that he was trapped by the guardian.

    Without giving him time to do anything else, Jay pulled him by the sleeve of his sweatshirt and forced him to sit down while he showed him his smart watch.

    [Calm down, I managed to rescue you from the guard who caught you.]

    "...Oh, Jay...thanks then." Noah said, visibly relieved.

    [Don''t talk, write on your smart watch, and start by exining to me exactly what happened.]

    [I''m sorry, and, well... after I sent you the message saying that there were trouble...]

    ***

    ''...What a good time I chose to pick up my little ones, haha...'' Jay thought sarcastically, making a bitter smile.

    Turns out that when Noah was on his way to his apartment, he noticed that someone was following him, which surprised him as he had been quite cautious all the way.

    However, he quicklyposed himself and changed his route so that he could lose the person following him.

    But despite having walked for several minutes continuously changing direction, instead of losing the person following him, he had the feeling that even more people were following him.

    Until finally, instead of watching him, they decided to catch him, and they wereing at him from all directions, so Noah had no choice but to run in the one direction where he couldn''t see any of those people, towards the park, that''s when he hurriedly sent that message to Jay, in hopes that he could gain time until Jay arrived.

    However, before he could even get to the park, he ran into a guardian who seemed to be talking to someone on his smart watch, he had a focused expression on his face as Noah remembered, which is why Noah thought he might be able to get through without being noticed.

    Unfortunately, the moment Noah ran up, the guardian noticed him instantly and caught him, not without knocking him out first of course, and all without ending the call.

    As for the people chasing him, they had apparently stopped before Noah met the guard.

    ''Hmm...people who were chasing Noah but avoided the guardian...and the guardian said that they were under attack...''

    Now with Noah''s story and the information the guardian had given him, Jay could make an assumption as to what was happening.

    [It''s Wolf''s Fang, they''re attacking Metal Body.]

    [...Yes, it''s most likely, even though it''s true that things have been quiet in thest few months, it could have been to gather their forces tounch an attack right now...]

    Both agreed with this conclusion, which was the most logical one, after all, who other than Wolf''s Fang would be capable of attacking Metal Body in its entirety?

    [Well, even if they''re not, that doesn''t change the fact that it''s very dangerous to go out there right now.] Jay wrote on his smart watch.

    Judging by the explosions he had heard before, Jay was absolutely certain that regardless of whether they were caused by the collision between two supers or by the use of some explosive, it was still incredibly dangerous for both of them.

    [What do we do then, wait here until tomorrow?] Noah asked.

    [No, we have to leave the South Zone, judging by what the guard said, this will only get worse, and that''s why...I need to do something before we leave, can you open the door to this house?]

    Noah nodded and started trying to open the lock on the back door, even though he would had said something like "It''s 5 credits" or something like that before, he knew that in this situation it would be best to hurry as much as possible.

    As for what Jay needed to do, Noah now trusted Jay more after what he had done for him, so he simply did what he asked without asking, keeping his doubts to himself.

    *Click*

    With that sound, the door opened, and both entered the house, not without first making sure no one had seen them enter the house.

    The interior was as they expected, an empty kitchen in an evident state of abandonment, which led to arge living room devoid of any kind of furniture.

    ''I really would have liked to do it at home...but it seems I have no other choice.'' He thought as he cleaned a ce in the middle of the room with wind.

    [Well, I''m going to do something important here, can you stand guard outside the house?]

    [How much time will you need?]

    [10 or 15 minutes.]

    [Alright, I''ll be outside then.]

    [Don''t shout if someonees, send me a message, so I can attack them while they are unaware.]

    Noah didn''t answer and only gave him a thumb up as he headed to the kitchen to get out of the house.

    ''...I better get started.''

    Then, he opened the system interface and selected the [Status] option, which was the only one that had changed.<novelnext></novelnext>

    This was something that Jay had already checked before, unlike the time he got the "Wind Control" parasite, which appeared in the [Skills] option, this time the parasite appeared in the [Status] window.

    _____________________

    [Status]

    (Current limit reached.)

    Strength: E+

    Agility: E+

    Resistance: E+

    Parasyte: Limit Breaker (Body) (D) (Ready for assimtion) (Extremely Stable)

    Description: This parasite will allow you to break your body''s current limit to achieve greater strength, agility and resistance. (Only useful if Carrier''s body grade is below the (D) grade.)

    Do you want to assimte this parasite? (Y/N)

    (Warning: The (Limit Breaker) parasite will cause heavy damage to the carrier''s body, proceed with caution.)

    (Remark: The parasite is in an extremely stable state, so the Carrier will be able to fully assimte this parasite, achieving the same body grade as the original host, good job, Carrier!)

    _____________________

    ''Oh, so just as there is a risk that the rank can vary if the parasite is unstable, I get benefits if it''s stable...I have to make sure I use the right type of parasite in the future then...'' Jay thought after looking at the information disyed in the system window.

    As for the rest, it was pretty much the same as the message he had seen the first time, except for the remark...apparently the system was getting more talkative.

    ''It''s going to leave me seriously injured...well, I expected that, good thing I brought this...'' said Jay in his mind as he pulled out the small cloth bag Sarah had given him.

    In this little cloth bag, Jay kept the regeneration pill that Sarah''s aunt had given him.

    Because he didn''t know at what point he might be injured while in the South Zone, Jay always carried this small cloth bag in case something bad happened.

    Jay then put the pill in his mouth without swallowing it and selected the "Y" option, preparing for what was toe.

    _____________________

    Beginning assimtion.

    Complete assimtion: 0%

    (Warning: If the Carrier passes out during the assimtion process, the assimtion will be cancelled and will have to start over.)

    _____________________

    ''Well, that''s just great-URGH!''

    Immediately after starting the assimtion, he felt an intense pain in his chest, due to the parasite that had moved there again at the moment of starting the assimtion.

    He then fell to the ground while grabbing his chest with one hand and supporting himself with the other.

    Fortunately, Jay was already prepared for this, although of course, that didn''t mean he didn''t feel an incredible amount of pain right now.

    This time the feeling was different from when he assimted the "Parasite: Wind Control", where he could feel a small, refreshing sensation gradually running through his body.

    In this case, he did not feel any new energy, but rather how all the muscles and bones in his body were slowly changing.

    *CRACK*

    "S-SOMETHING JUST BROKE, DAMN IT!"

    Jay could hear the sound of a bone breaking, he had actually felt that, so he panicked a bit, but fortunately soon after he could feel that the bone repaired itself as if by magic.

    However, as if not wanting to give him time to rest, the next thing that happened was that simultaneously, several muscles in his body ripped, causing Jay to spasm and almost making him swallow the pill he had in his mouth.

    "N-NOT YET, F*CK!" Jay yelled as he tried hard to stop the involuntary spasms he was having.

    In fact, if someone could see his appearance right now, they would notice that at this point, the part of the bandages that covered Jay''s face were no longer white...but now had a certain reddish color due to the blooding out of his eyes.

    Although Jay wasn''t even aware of it because the pain all over his body was incredibly intense, forcing him to put all his concentration into trying not to faint and letting out insults.

    Then, because this moment felt like hours to Jay, he looked at the system window indicating the progress of assimtion, but when he saw the current progress, he could not help but cry blood...literally.

    _____________________

    Complete assimtion: 5%.

    _____________________

    It seemed that this night would be painfully long.

    Unfortunately, there was only one thing he could do.... grit his teeth and hold on.

 Chapter 38 - Recruitment

    "...a..."

    After a few incredibly painful minutes that felt like hours, the torture finally ended.

    However, like the system had warned him before, the process had left Jay in a really deplorable state.

    He was lying on the ground, surrounded by a few blood stains on the floor, which had been thrown by Jay himself, the bandages on his face, which had arrived in the South Zone totally clean and white, were now a dirty maroon color.

    But of course, while his appearance was terrible, it was nothingpared to how his body was.

    Torn muscles, broken bones, torn tendons, and much more.

    The process of the assimtion of the "Limit Breaker" parasite, as its name indicated, was breaking the limits of Jay''s body following the steps that the original host had taken to achieve that result, i.e. Colt.

    As a pugilist, Colt had trained his body hard, pushing it to the limit and gradually tempering his body more and more, until after several months of pure effort, he managed to reach the respectable (D) rank.

    Then the parasite, along with the system, following in Colt''s footsteps, began to intensely temper Jay''s body, greatly elerating the strengthening process that Colt had gone through, from several months to just a few minutes.

    However, a process at such incredible speed consumed an equally incredible amount of energy.

    In fact, even in Colt''s slow and gradual training, strengthening his body also consumed a good amount of energy, but he had no problem with that as he possessed a type of energy full of vitality capable of withstanding the high consumption that his training entailed...Qi.

    Unfortunately, Jay didn''t possess even the slightest bit of Qi, so the parasite, in conjunction with the system, had to improvise.

    There was no Qi?

    Then use all the energy of the Carrier to temperate his body!

    Not enough energy to create new bones, muscles and other parts?

    Then just recycle what we already have!

    That this will leave the Carrier''s body severely injured?

    He knew what he was getting into!

    Thus, the assimtion was sessfullypleted.

    But even though the assimtion was over, Jay couldn''t feel happy...in fact, he couldn''t feel or do anything right now, not even...swallow the pill in his mouth, just lie on his side on the floor.

    This was an extremely bad situation, in the terrible state that Jay was in right now, he desperately needed that pill, and if he didn''t take it soon...maybe he wouldn''t get out of this.

    Slowly, the heat was leaving his body, although he wanted to resist it with all his strength...there was nothing he could do.

    Just then, a notification came from the system.

    _____________________

    Hidden Task: [First Breakthrough] has beenpleted!

    Reward: 10 parasites (original)

    Remark: The first time is always the hardest!

    _____________________

    That was the window that appeared in front of Jay, although of course, due to the extreme tiredness he was feeling, he didn''t have the strength to read the message in front of him, in fact, he didn''t even saw the message that told him that the assimtion had ended.

    He could only keep trying not to fall asleep, because he knew that if he fell asleep...he wouldn''t wake up.

    However, that didn''t stop the system from giving him his reward, causing the 10 parasites of the reward to slowly form inside Jay''s shattered body.

    "!"

    These parasites, the moment they finished formingpletely, immediately felt that something was wrong with Jay''s body, so they began to share their energy with him, giving Jay a breeze of life.

    Unfortunately, even though they were sharing almost all of their energy with Jay, that was only enough to keep Jay from getting worse, nothing else.

    They knew that sooner orter their energy would run out, so they had to do something before that happened.

    Even though they didn''t have a mouth, they could stillmunicate with each other through a mental link they had, quicklying to a decision.

    They would all separate to cover an important part of the body and merge with that part of the Carrier to be able to heal even a little bit that part, that was not their function at all and it might not even work...but in a situation like this, they had no choice but to try everything to save the Carrier.

    If everything went well, they would give the Carrier the opportunity to move around and ask for help from one of the two human beings outside the house.

    Thanks to their innate talents as parasites, feeling living beings was as natural as breathing for them.

    Then, as they continued to share their energy with Jay, they all rushed to the agreed upon parts, such as the brain, heart, lungs, etc.

    Thergest group of parasites was the one going to the brain, with 3 parasites, which moved quickly through Jay''s neck to get to his head.

    *Cha*

    Suddenly, all three stopped just as they were passing through Jay''s mouth.

    They had felt an incredible amount of vitalitying from there, greater even than the energy that could be gathered by 50 of them!

    The three rushed to the mouth, finding the regeneration pill resting on Jay''s right cheek.

    Seeing thisrge sphere brimming with vitality, the three instantly knew what to do and quickly returned to Jay''s chest, telling all the other parasites about what was in the mouth.

    Not wanting to waste another second, they all went to Jay''s mouth to move the sphere to his stomach, where all that vitality could be put to good use.

    After a few seconds and a spectacr teamwork, they did it.

    The pill had reached Jay''s stomach!

    *Woosh!*

    At that moment, a huge wave of vitality came out of the pill as it disolved inside his body, spreading throughout Jay''s body and regenerating everything in its path.

    The parasites could clearly feel it, the Carrier was healing at an amazing rate!

    With this, they couldn''t help but feel relieved and also somewhat happy, after all, this would be a story to show off to other parasites.

    ***

    Unaware of the emotions of the parasites inside him, the almost unconscious Jay, feeling the growing energy in his body, opened his eyes.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "HAAAAA!"

    And the first thing he did was take a great breath of air as he grabbed his throat and stomach, an unbearable thirst and hunger assailed him simultaneously.

    "Haa...water!"

    The next moment, he got up and ran to the kitchen tap, separating the bandages that covered his mouth so he could drink directly from the tap, without caring that the tap had clear signs of not having been used in a long time.

    Unfortunately, not a single drop of water came out of the spout, causing Jay to strongly tighten his grip on the kitchen tap, crushing it.

    He then quickly headed for the front door of the house, guided by nothing more than his survival instinct, which desperately screamed at him to find food and water.

    Not realizing...the message that had been sent to his smart watch.

    ***

    A few minutes before the assimtion process waspleted, Noah was outside the house, leaning against part of the small wall near the exit to the street.

    Because he didn''t want to draw attention to himself in any way, he just sat there quietly, thinking about what Jay was doing inside, but with his hand on the "send" button of a message he wad writen before, in case something happened.

    Judging by Jay''s attitude, it was obvious he was doing something to increase his strength, but Noah didn''t know how he was aplishing something like that.

    ''In fact, now that I think about it...what kind of super is he...?'' Noah thought, remembering what Jay had shown so far.

    That he was a mage was totally out of the question, he didn''t have any kind of catalyst to use spells nor could Noah feel any special kind of energy from him, so that option was out of the question.

    As for whether he was an esper, Noah hadn''t been so sure about this initially because he hadn''t seen him use any kind of ability.

    However, just a few minutes ago he had seen him clean the dust of the living room of the abandoned house using the wind, and this was a esper skill.

    But that created another problem, and that was that...espers didn''t have methods to get stronger temporarily, unless that their esper skill was that.

    In contrast, there was another ss that had an abundance of such methods, the pugilists.

    From burning up your future potential, vitality, blood, and even your life expectancy, there were myriad special methods for them to temporarily getting stronger or even forcibly advancing of rank.

    ''But if he''s a pugilist...how could he control the wind before...maybe he did it with Qi...? No, that wasn''t Qi...'' Noah plunged into his thoughts, trying to find a logical answer to what he had seen.

    "So this is where you were eh~."

    "!"

    Unexpectedly, a man''s voice could be heard from above Noah, who, looking in the direction of the voice, could see a man with short ck hair and a scar on his chin.

    Noah quickly lunged forward in the direction of the house''s entrance, taking advantage of the impulse to move further away from this man, and in the process sending the message he had writen before to Jay.

    "Hahaha, good reaction." Said the man as he jumped over the small wall, staying on top and just smiling at Noah, "But don''t worry, I''m not from Metal Body, I''m not here for revenge or anything like that, in fact, I hate them too~"

    "..." Noah did not answer and just stood on guard, ready to run the moment the man in front of him made a move, although what he had said took him a little by surprise.

    "Heh, a man of few words, as far as I can see...well, it doesn''t really matter, I''ll exin why I''m here, you see, we''ve heard of your small but promising exploits here in the Metal Body district and let me tell you...well done!" The man continued, visibly cheerful, not minding the fact that Noah was not responding to him.

    "While the guard you defeated was a bit trash, the rookie was pretty handy, plus we saw the other guard carrying his unconscious partner...it was you too, right? Man, you''re good." Praised the man before continuing, "Anyways, the offer I wanted to make you was...would you be interested in joining Wolf''s Fang?"

    ''...They want to recruit him...?'' Noah thought.

    Now that he thought about it, he realized that Wolf''s Fang recruiting him wasn''t weird at all.

    Metal Body preferred quantity to quality, while Wolf''s Fang was the opposite, creating a huge gap between the individual power of both sides.

    This is why, despite the fact that the number of Metal Body members was much higher than Wolf''s Fang, they could hold their own as their main rivals in the South Zone, upying a simr number of districts.

    So Jay, who had defeated 2 guardians and a promising member of Metal Body, definitely was eligible to join Wolf''s Fang.

    "Oh, and if you''re wondering what we can offer you if you join...well, we have money, women, and even training methods for pugilists, we know you''re a pugilist too, so it''s certainly not a bad deal at all~!" Said the man as he jumped down from the small wall and approached Noah, extending his right hand. "So, what do you think~?"

    What he said was not a lie, although the districts they controlled had almost no people and they could not charge them for protection like Metal Body, they had other ways of making money, such as trafficking in illegal substances, weapons, women, among many other shady things.

    Noah walked away a little bit the moment the man came down from the little wall, thinking about what he should do in a situation like this.

    ''...I''ve sent the message, I doubt it will take long...guess I''ll just have to y along to distract him...''

    Noah then slowly stretched out his hand to the man, who quickly took it and shaked it with a smile on his face.

    "Great, I knew you''d make the right choice~!" He said as he continued to hold Noah''s hand, "Now then, it''s time for the test!"

    Suddenly, he squeezed Noah''s wrist tightly.

    "Urk!" Noah could not help but groan in pain.

    "Hahaha, I am sorry, but it is necessary, I do not want you to escape before the test begins, besides, I will make it easy for you, you just have to resist one of my blows!

    *Shrr*

    The sound of clothes tearing could be heard clearly,ing from the man before Noah.

    At that moment, Noah saw how gradually, the left sleeve of the jacket the man was wearing was tearing because it could not contain the growing muscles of this man.

    "...Ah, shit, I forgot to take my jacket off again..." Said the man, his arm still growing in size, looking more and more like the arm of a giant instead of a human being.

    ''He''s not a pugilist... he''s an esper...!'' Noah thought, rmed by the sense of danger emanating from the man.

    "Well, you''ll just have to pay meter for the jacket...now then, grit your teeth, rookie!" he shouted, throwing a punch with his huge, muscr arm that was almost six feet long.

    *BAM!*

    But just then, the door of the house was blown off.

    Revealing...a man with his face covered in bandages, whose eyes emanated a dangerous air.

    His gaze quickly settled on the man holding Noah.

    Seeing him, instead of feeling relieved, Noah couldn''t help but think...

    ''Why...why does he look more dangerous than this guy....?''

 Chapter 39 - Test Passed!

    ''...I knew it, this wimp couldn''t be the one who beat the three from Metal Body.'' Thought the man who was holding Noah after seeing Jay.

    This man''s name was Nozar, he was a veteran member of Wolf''s Fang, although he hadn''t yet reached rank (C-), thanks to hisbat experience and his rank (D+) esper skill, he could face most of Metal Body guards directly.

    He had arrived with the other members of Wolf''s Fang who hade to take over this district, however, that was not his goal.

    The story that an unknown pugilist had defeated a guardian and the promising Metal Body rookie had obviously reached Wolf''s Fang''s ears.

    But of course, because neither member of Metal Body was really strong or important, that man didn''t attract the attention of almost anyone...except for Nozar.

    He, seeing an opportunity to recruit a new member, also came to District 30, hoping that perhaps he could find him.

    Fortunately, thanks to a bit of luck and the information of the other members of Wolf''s Fang, he was able to meet this mysterious attacker.

    However, at the time he struck up a conversation with him, he couldn''t help but think that this mystery guy...was too weak to be a pugilist.

    So much so that he had even doubted that he was a pugilist at all or that maybe he had the wrong person.

    That''s why he decided to test him just in case, if he managed to resist one punch, then it was worth recruiting him, and if not... too bad for him.

    However, with the appearance of this new subject, Nozar knew immediately, he was the real hooded man he was looking for!

    ''Hoho, he has a threatening air around him...maybe because I captured his partner....'' He thought, analyzing the person at the door, ''Well, never mind, I''ll consider this a 2-for-1~''.

    Although the person Nozar had captured was quite weak, it would serve as a guarantee that the hooded man would not attempt to attack or escape.

    "Hey, I''ve got your friend here, so don''t-"

    *Woosh!*

    "Woah, alright~!"

    At that moment, without letting Nozar finish, Jayunched himself towards Nozar at an incredible speed.

    To move, Jay had not only used his new grade (D) muscles, but he had even used Phantom Trace to increase his speed even more!

    ''Fast and decisive, nice!'' thought Nozar, quickly tossing Noah aside as he increased the size of his other arm to attack Jay with a punch, ''But even if you''re fast, you can''t match my strength!''

    Since his n to use his partner didn''t work, he had no choice but to physically subdue him.

    "Come then, and see if you can resist one of my punches!"

    Even though Jay was quite fast, Nozar''s esper ability allowed him to erge any part of his body, giving that part a strength and resistance far beyond normal, in fact, one of his punches was enough to make pugilists of the same rank wary of him.

    Then, a sh between the two, even if Jay were a rank (D+) pugilist, was going to end with Nozar''s victory.

    But what Nozar didn''t know...was that Jay''s goal had never been to face that blow directly.

    Just as the fist was about to collide with Jay''s body, he dodged it by a hair without stopping his march towards Nozar.

    "Shit...!" Yelled Nozar, quickly withdrawing his arm to defend himself against Jay.

    Unfortunately, it was toote, in his unbridled rush, Jay had gotten too close to him.

    The next moment, he jumped, with every intention ofshing out at Nozar.

    *BAM!*

    However, when he was in the air, Nozar turned quickly, erging his left arm again and using the momentum to whip Jay, sending him flying against a part of the small concrete wall.

    "Uf, thank goodness I have two arms, eh~" Said Nozar, preparing again to attack Jay, who was now sitting, leaning against the concrete rubble which had been the small wall before, "Remember...you forced me into this~!

    He then began to gather strength in his huge right arm, the already visible muscles bulging even more, demonstrating that he was putting a considerable amount of power into this blow.

    Finally, he ran to get closer and hit Jay.

    *BAM!*

    "...Heh..."

    The sound of an impact was heard, however, it wasn''t the sound of concrete or bones being destroyed, but that of a heavy object being stopped in its path.

    "Wow...you are much more resilient than you look~" Nozar said, seeing what had stopped his attack.

    Jay had stood up, and was clutching Nozar''srge right fist with both arms, just a few inches from his chest, which was now covered only in scraps of cloth, revealing his torso wrapped in bandages, matching the bandages on his face and arms.

    "This is wonderful, rookie~! Let me tell you that you certainly passed the test, I myself will convince the guardians to give you a position of an elite member!" added Nozar, visibly cheerful and excited.

    He had expected a pugilist who relied on pure brute force, but the man in front of him was much more than that, not to mention the fact that he didn''t seem to have anybat training, which meant that he could be much stronger!

    Thinking that he would definitely be an exceptional member of Wolf''s Fang in the future, Nozar could not help but feel happy about the reward he would get for this contribution.

    Then, since he had already proven Jay''s strength, his willingness to fight disappeared.

    "Come on, you can let go of me now, and don''t worry, I didn''t hurt your friend or anyt-OUCH!"

    Without even having finished speaking, Nozar let out a cry of pain, although it was to be expected, after all...Jay had stuck his "ws" deep into Nozar''s fist.

    "You idiot, I''m telling you you''ve already passed the test!" He shouted as he moved his other arm to attack Jay.

    But Jay, seeing Nozar''s other arm approaching, instead of dodging or blocking, did something totally unexpected.

    Using the good grip he had on Nozar''s fist, he pulled him towards him, causing Nozar to let out another grunt of pain, but that was nothing Jay had nned forter.

    Quickly pulling out the ws of his right hand which were embedded in Nozar''s fist, Jay used his ws to vertically cut off Nozar''s face as soon as he came within range.

    *SHASH!*

    "!"

    However, instead of letting out a grunt of pain as before, he just startedughing.

    "HAHAHA, GOOD, DAMN IT!" shouted Nozar, quickly retreating and ignoring the cut on his face before smiling wildly and answering, "IF YOU WANTED ME TO CRUSH YOU JUST HAD TO ASK!"

    Jay didn''t miss that opportunity and continued to cut with his ws, making a bloody mess of Nozar''s arm.

    As for Nozar, as if he didn''t feel the pain, he continued to keep his right arm close to Jay in order to keep him from getting close to him.

    "NOW THEN...!"

    Suddenly, Nozar''s whole body began to tremble as veins appeared all over his body along with several drops of sweat, which mixed with the fresh blood on his face, made it obvious that his body was under great pressure.

    Clearly, this had nothing to do with Jay, but with Nozar, who was focusing all the power of his ability on one part of his body, using it to the limit, which put a very heavy burden on his body.

    "COME ON!!"

    Slowly, his right arm, which was really damaged, began to grow evenrger, from 6 feet...9...13...until finally, it reached 26 feet!

    At this point, he opened his fist, revealing his long fingers.

    *BAM!*

    Nozar''s now almost deformed arm lunged at Jay, quickly catching him.

    His five fingers wrapped around Jay''s body, preventing any movement.

    "ARRGGHH!" Jay shouted, resisting with all he had, releasing several small but sharp wind currents from his body, creating dozens of wounds in Nozar''s hand.

    "Hey, stop that, it f*cking hurts!" Said Nozar, feeling the small cuts on his hand, "You are really troublesome, but it''s no use, once I''ve caught you, you won''t be able to escape, even if you are a rank (D+) pugilist!"

    What Nozar had just used was not a special technique or anything like that, but simply concentrating all of his skill on a certain part of his body, that part being maximized.

    It was quite simr to how Jay used his skill, with the difference that because Nozar''s skill was more physical and he didn''t have as much energy as Jay, he could only use it for short periods of time, and his mobility was greatly diminished by the heavy weight of the affected part.

    However, even though he had these limitations, it did not detract from the fact that it definitely was a powerful movement if used at the right time, just like now.

    "AAARGHH!"

    "Yes, yes, you''re angry, I know, but it doesn''t matter, you''ll calm down after I''ve broken a few bones, after that we''ll go to the base and we''ll get you some..."

    *CLANG!*

    "OUCH!"

    Unexpectedly, before he could finish speaking, he felt a strong hit on the back of his head that made his head spin, since he was concentrating all his energy and skill on his right arm, that left the rest of his body helpless, so he felt the hit even more.

    ? Nozar quickly turned and saw...the other hooded man with a metal bat in his hand.

    "...right...right...there was still the other!" He shouted before erging his left arm for a second and throwing it at Noah, who hurriedly used the bat to defend himself.<novelnext></novelnext>

    *PAM!*

    "UHK!"

    Even though Noah defended himself with the bat, he ended up being thrown a few yards for the hit anyway, but that was normal, considering that Nozar had used his ability to attack him.

    Of course, that had its consequences...the grip he had on Jay loosened up a little.

    "ARGH!!"

    This time the scream came from Jay, who unlike before, when his entire torso was being held by Nozar''s hand, had now managed to free his forearms, holding tightly to one of Nozar''s fingers, digging his ws and pulling even harder than before to free himself.

    "Ahh, fuck, look what you did, you idiot!" Nozar yelled at Noah, who was still lying on the ground.

    While his attitude remained rxed and confident, this situation was proving to be much moreplicated than he initially thought.

    He could easily kill him at this point, but he didn''t want that as it would be a huge waste, why would he want to kill a potential member with so much talent?

    However, for that very reason, the bandaged man had managed to hurt him and force him to use a great deal of power, thereby already trapping him, but just as he was about to leave him unable to move, he received an attack from this man''s partner, causing his concentration to wane and loosening his grip on him.

    ''I''ve got to finish this quickly...ouch, that guy really knows how to use that bat...'' Nozar thought, feeling a little dizzy from the constant blood loss and the metal bat hit.

    Then, his eyes began to glow a faint gray, signaling that he had entered his strongest state!

    His left arm, which was of normal size, began to erge, reaching 10 feet.

    Nozar was feeling an incredible amount of pressure on his body right now, so much so that he felt that if he made any mistakes, his arms would be left in an irreparable state...but he persevered anyway, for him, this risk was necessary.

    He slowly approached the bandaged man, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him with his left arm, he intensely resisted, leaving several deep cuts in Nozar''s arm, but he ignored them instead concentrating on moving his right arm, still transformed, to restrain Jay again.

    This process, though it seemed simple, actually required all of Nozar''s concentration, to keep his bnce, to keep his ability from deactivating, to keep Jay from being released, to control his huge arm.

    Right now, no mistakes were allowed.

    *CLANG!*

    "Ouch...but I knew that you would hit me, so even if-"

    *CLANG!*

    "OUCH! HEY, AT LEAST LET ME FINISH TALK-!*

    *CLANG!*

    "YOU BASTARD!!"

    Unable to do anything against him, Nozar could only take the beating, even if each blow left him more disoriented than before.

    "Urgh, fuck!"

    Finally, he made it, even though he was incredibly bloody and dizzy, he had managed to catch Jay, his fingers were holding firmly to his shoulders, armpits and legs, he felt he had grabbed him badly, but since he was very dizzy, he just had topensate it with strength.

    *BAM!*

    "Ack!"

    Without saying anything else, he used his left arm tosh out at Noah, who flew out until he hit the small concrete wall of the house.

    "That''s what you get...hahaha!" Nozar said, visibly tired. "Now then...I''ll take you to the others...let them take care of the rest, I''m beat."

    *CRACK!*

    "!"

    A sudden pain assaulted his hand, apanied by the distinctive sound of bones breaking.

    The pain woke Nozar instantly, who quickly turned to look at the bandaged man.

    The bandaged man...using his two arms, had broken Nozar''s fingers.

    ''Ah...so this is why it felt weird when I caught him...man, I''m an idiot...'' He thought as he made a bitter smile, regretting not putting more attention to that.

    He also wondered how his fingers could have been broken so easily, as they were reinforced by his ability, they had a considerable amount of strength...but the answer was clear.

    The man with the bandages...also had a faint green glow radiating from his eyes.

    "But...I WILL NOT FALL SO EASILY!!" shouted Nozar, abandoning his n to capture the bandaged man and squeezing his body with all his strenght, trying to crush him.

    "AARGGHH!"

    Jay, on the other hand, also felt the strong pressure on his ribs and legs, so he quickly grabbed the fingers that were holding his ribs.

    Then, the muscles throughout his body became even more bulged than they already were, increasing his strength exponentially.

    *CRACK!*

    "FUCK, STOP DOING THAT!!!" shouted Nozar, holding back the incredible pain he was feeling right now.

    Hearing his loud scream, Jay looked him straight in the eye and grabbed thest finger that was gripping his legs.

    However, this time he didn''t immediately broke it, instead adjusting to get the best possible grip

    "You...shit."

    At that moment, Nozar knew, something very bad was going to happen to him.

    "RAAAAGH!!" Shouted Jay.

    A secondter, in a single jerk, Nozar''s body was lifted into the air.

    It didn''t take him long to figure out what had happened...the bandaged man, using his incredible strength, had lifted him up.

    ''This...isn''t the strenght of a rank (D+) pugilist...'' Thought Nozar, seeing that the bandaged man, who was on the ground still grabbing his finger, had not yet finished with him.

    *BOOM!*

    With that sound, Jay whipped Nozar against the small concrete wall surrounding the house, destroying arge part of the wall.

    "U-urgh..."

    Nozar let out a grunt of pain, he protected himself from the fall using his left arm, but still received a great deal of damage, adding to that the constant loss of blood and the fact that he exceeded his limits more than once in this fight...he was no longer in condition to fight.

    *Tap tap*

    Jay slowly walked over to the bloody mess that was Nozar''s body.

    Because Nozar was in a heavily injured state, all of his energy was focused on healing his body, causing his arms to quickly return to their normal size.

    ''He''sing to finish this...?'' thought Nozar.

    But unlike what he thought, Jay just grabbed one of his arms and started to look at it closely, as if inspecting it.

    "...what are you doing?"

    Suddenly, his ws appeared again, digging deep into Nozar''s arm.

    *CHAJK!*

    "URGHH, YOU...!" Nozar couldn''t help but scream in pain.

    *BAM!*

    "Ack!"

    Jay kicked him in the head because the noise was bothering him, forcing Nozar to stop screaming.

    Although it was just a simple kick for him, for Nozar it was thest straw. He was staying conscious with sheer willpower, but the kick made his body unable to take it anymore.

    "...S-shit."

    With those words as hisst, Nozar felt his consciousness waver.

    The bandaged man had already walked away in the direction of hispanion.

    On the way, he seemed to be...eating something.

    But before Nozar could see anything else, his consciousness vanished.

 Chapter 40 - Traits

    ''F*ck...y-you couldn''t have picked a worse time to...pass out, you idiot...'' Jay thought as he slowly walked down the streets of the South Side, with Noah on his shoulder.

    After defeating the Wolf''s Fang member and...eating something, Jay woke uppletely from the trance he was in and went to check on Noah.

    Even though Noah had received some injuries from the crash and was currently unconscious, he was generally fine, but for some reason, he just wouldn''t wake up, so Jay had no choice but to carry him.

    There were many things to think about right now, such as the fact that he had almost died, that the parasites can move even without him giving them orders, and there was also the little detail of what he had eaten a few minutes ago...but this was not the time for that.

    Then, after taking Noah''s smart watch and looking at his map of the South Zone, he quickly chose the safest escape route for both of them.

    The entrance of District 29.

    While it was true that it was deeper into the South Zone, there was a reason that Jay had chosen that entrance, and that was the fact that Wolf''s Fang forces were currently busy attacking District 30, on the other hand, District 29, being Wolf''s Fang''s territory, would definitely not expect some stranger toe and try to get out of the South Zone at this very moment, so ording to Jay, this was their best option.

    As for returning through the entrance to District 31...Jay dismissed that idea immediately because the explosions he had heard before hade from there, clearly showing that the situation was much dangerous than here.

    But most of all...it was because Distric 29 entrance was closer, and that was an advantage he couldn''t pass on.

    After all, the state of his body was not much better than it was at the beginning of the battle, even though his thirst and hunger had diminished, they were still there.

    A lot of things fused to make him feel terrible, the blows he received from the Wolf''s Fang member, the intense use of Wind Control that drained a considerable amount of his almost empty energy, and although the use of "Overload" didn''t make him faint, it put a great toll on his body.

    He did not know how long he would be able to stay awake, nor how long his body would be able to endure, but he had no choice but to move.

    However, it was not so easy to ignore the burden his body had been through.

    ''...Just...keep moving forward...don''t think ..about anything else...'' He thought, trying to ignore the fact that his body was making strange sounds in addition to the constant pain in his ribs, the tiredness and the incessant feeling of hunger and thirst. ''Just a little more..e on...a little...more...''

    Thus, Jay went even deeper into the South Zone, being as cautious as he could while carrying Noah, fighting all the signs in his body that indicated that he desperately needed to rest.

    Fortunately, it seemed that not all was bad, because just when he felt that he was just about to pass out, a warm flow of energy that seemed toe from inside him woke him up, and although it was really weak, it was like a drop of water in a desert.

    After a few dozen minutes that felt like hours to Jay...they managed to get out of the South Zone, without meeting any other person on all the way.

    Maybe it was luck, or maybe Jay thought right.

    Whatever the case may be, Jay didn''t stop there.

    He kept going, and wouldn''t stop until he reached the longed-for ce he called home, no matter how much his bones cracked or how much his body begged for rest.

    He knew that only when he was there would he finally be able to rest.

    ***

    The next morning, deep in the South Zone, in Wolf''s Fang territory...

    "Urgh..."

    A man''s grunt could be heard.

    "Oh, you''re awake." Said a man sitting nearby in a doctor''s gown, pausing the video he was watching on his smart watch.

    Hearing the man''s voice, Nozar opened his eyes and looked around.

    The walls were white and there were several beds with curtains around them as well as a few medical supplies.

    ''...Damn, haven''t been here in a long time...'' He thought, feeling nostalgic.

    "...Hey doc...long time no-ouch!" He said, sitting on the bed he was in, although he couldn''t do it because his right leg and both arms were in a cast.

    The doc he was referring to was the man in front of him, he seemed to be around 30 years old, had a brown beard that looked like he hadn''t shaved in two weeks and was generally sloppy looking.

    But even though he looked like this, he had always been in charge of treating all the injured members of Wolf''s Fang, including guards, even saving their lives, which indicated that he was quite able.

    "I wouldn''t rmend getting up, there are a lot of things broken in your body." The doctor said before asking the question he had wanted to ask since Nozar arrived at the South Zone infirmary, "Now then, tell me, what exactly did you fight against, none of the others were as bad as you, did you meet a monster there or something? There are like, a dozen w marks on your body, and even a chunk of flesh in your arm is missing."

    Because Wolf''s Fang hadunched an attack the night before, almost all the members who returned were injured, but the one in the worst condition was undoubtedly Nozar, even though he had not been in the main battle!

    "Hahaha, you could say that, yes... it was a monster in a way..." Nozar replied, recalling the battle.

    Although he had been really angry the night before, Nozar was a rather carefree person, so although he was badly hurt by that person, what he felt most, instead of resentment or anger, was the desire to face that mysterious bandaged man again...and pay him back for everything he had done to him.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Anyway, doc, how did we dost night?"

    Seeing that Nozar didn''t seem to want to talk about it anymore, the doc began to exin to him about the oue ofst night''s confrontation.

    "...Man, that''s...that''s just bad luck..." Nozarmented, visibly saddened and momentarily forgetting about the bandaged man.

    The result ofst night''s battle had been...a defeat.

    The reason that Nozar said it was bad luck was because Wolf''s Fang had prepared very well tounch this specific attack, as it would be the first of many, and getting a victory here would positively affect the rest of the attacks.

    The invasion force ofst night had 10 rank (D+) supers, none being weaker than Nozar himself, taking into ount that each Metal Body guard was a rank (D+) super, sending 10 was obviously using a sword to kill a chicken.

    However, who would have thought that instead of a normal guardian, the person guarding the nearby 31st District was none other than one of the Metal Body executives!

    Although he was only one person, he alone guaranteed that the attack had already been a failure, in fact, thank goodness they sent 10 rank (D+) supers, otherwise they definitely would not have returned safely.

    While it was said that one super rank (C-) would be able to defeat 4 super ranks (D+) simultaneously, the truth went a little beyond that.

    There were several factors that exined the big difference between the capabilities of a rank (C-) super and a rank (D+) super, but one of the biggest reasons for this was due to the manifestation of what was known as Traits.

    Traits were the signal that a super had moved up in the life hierarchy, giving the super aplementary skill beneficial to his ss, a skill that directly affected their bodies or, in very rare cases, apletely new skill!

    Regardless of the type of super, whether it was a Mage, Pugilist or Esper, when they reached the (C-) rank, they would always awaken a Trait ording to their ss.

    As for what kind of Trait they would awaken, if one thatplemented their ss, one that strengthened them directly, or if it was a new skill, that dependedpletely on the super...and on some luck.

    For example, in the case of a Mage studying the branch of elemental magic, a Trait could manifest itself in a permanent decrease in the use of mana in all elemental magic spells,plementing his ss.

    In the case of a Pugilist who focused on endurance, a Trait could manifest itself in increased vitality, giving the Pugilist a greater amount of energy and Qi than normal, directly affecting him.

    For an Esper whose skill was Pyrokinesis, his Trait could manifest itself in that the fire he created could take the shape of different objects, such as chains, swords, etc, thus giving him a new skill.

    That was why, despite sending 10 rank (D+) supers, they could only escape.

    "Well, there''s no use in regretting it now..." Nozar said, before asking the Doc, "So, how long will it take me to heal?"

    Hearing that, the doc reached into his robe pocket and approached Nozar a bit before answering him.

    "Let''s see...the most serious thing would be the broken bones, from your fingers, to your arms, to your leg, everything is broken in a certain way, the most advisable thing would be for you to stay here until you recover..."

    "That doesn''t answer my question, doc." Nozar added, looking at the doc with narrowed eyes.

    "Don''t worry, considering that you are a healthy and young rank (D+) super, with the help of some medication, you will be perfectly fine in...3-4 weeks~!" The doc replied with a smile, giving him a thumbs-up.

    "..."

    "..."

    "I can''t wait that long, doc!"

    Right after he said that, he started to move forcibly, trying to free himself from the casts, even biting the one on his arm.

    "I wasn''t asking!"

    *CHAK*

    "Gah!"

    But as quickly as he started, he stopped, or rather, was stopped, by a syringe in his neck.

    "I knew you would get like this, that''s why prepared before you woke up!" Said the doc as he injected Nozar with the green liquid in the syringe.

    "A-ah..."

    Unable to resist, Nozar fell asleep again.

    "Alright, now to give you all sorts of unnecessary medicine to "speed up" your recovery, hehe..." The doc added with an even brighter smile than before, remembering that the more the infirmary had spent on Nozar, the more they could charge Wolf''s Fang.

    Not knowing that he had caused Wolf''s Fang more trouble, Nozar just kept dreamingfortably.

 Chapter 41 - Finally Home

    In the neighborhood where Jay lived, it was currently morning, a few hours after Nozar woke up.

    "...Hng..."

    Slowly, a young man with brown hair opened his eyes,zily inspecting his surroundings.

    The first thing he saw was several pieces of furniture around him, with a small table in the middle of the space and a medium sized TV in front of it.

    "!"

    When he saw the unknown scenario in front of him, his sense of rm was triggered.

    ''Where...where am I...?'' he thought.

    Now standing, another thing that caught his attention was what appeared to be the kitchen of this ce.

    The refrigerator in particr, which seemed to have beenpletely looted, in fact, not even the shelves had been spared, and there was not a single part of the kitchen that looked tidy.

    ''This ce, it''s not mine...let''s see, thest thing I remember is...I was hitting the Wolf''s Fang member...and after he hit me, I lost consciousness...damn.''

    He didn''t know the oue of that battle, but seeing that he wasn''t tied up or in a cage, Noah more or less could guess what had happened.

    ''Jay won...and we made it out of the South Zone...?''

    Although his opponent had been a member of Wolf''s Fang, Noah could not deny that the air around Jay was certainly no less threatening than that of his opponent, so he believed that his chances of winning, after he helped him distract the enemy, were not that low.

    As for the fact that they had left the South Zone, Noah believed that because, judging by the state of the house, except for the kitchen, everything seemed clean and tidy.

    From the furniture, the television, the electronics in the kitchen, even the coats on the coat rack in the entryway, none of those things looked like this house had been abandoned.

    In fact, everything looked better than even his own apartment!

    Such a house was only given to the guardians of the South Zone, and even them didn''t always lived in a house of their own.

    That''s why Noah believed that this house was not in the South Zone, but in apletely different ce.

    Of course, there was also the possibility that they were still in the South Zone and Jay could have taken him to a house that happened to look like a person was living there.

    It was possible, yes, but Noah felt that the first option was more feasible.

    *Shr*

    "?"

    Suddenly, the sound of stic bags reached Noah''s ears, the sound wasing from the kitchen, or more specifically, the kitchen floor, in the space that was hidden from Noah''s view by the ind in between.

    "...Jay...?" Noah asked, slowly approaching the kitchen.

    "!"

    Right after he said that, a head peeked out over the kitchen ind, its cheeks full of something.

    "HM" said Jay, mouth full of food, standing up to get a better look at Noah.

    Noah, seeing that the person in front of him was actually Jay, rxed quite a bit, as that meant they were actually safe...although...the look Jay had was... "different" than what Noah remembered.

    "First of all, don''t talk with your mouth full, and secondly...why the hell are you naked...?" he asked, his left eyebrow shaking from what he was seeing.

    His face, which was now no longer wrapped in bandages, was the same as Noah had seen before, blond hair, blue eyes and a slightly conspicuous appearance in general...everything looked the same...except for the fact that he was naked.

    *Gulp*

    "Wee to my house, and...uh, well, it was really hot before, and since you weren''t awake, I thought it didn''t matter much." He replied, totally unconcerned about being naked in front of Noah, with only the kitchen ind covering his lower body.

    ''This guy...well, at least he doesn''t seem to have any serious injuries, although...I feel that something is wrong with him...'' Noah thought, again feeling relieved that both of them had been able to get out of that dangerous situation in the South Zone.

    And since the question of where he was had already been resolved, the details could wait.

    For the moment, there was something more important to do...

    "Put on clothes."

    "But it''s hot..."

    "..."

    "..."<novelnext></novelnext>

    Convincing Jay to wear clothes.

    ***

    15 minutester.

    "Haa, I still think it''s hot..." said Jay, who was now wearing short shorts and releasing some small air currents to cool down, although he was still a bit ufortable.

    After an argument in which Noah threatened to also get naked if Jay didn''t put on some clothes, he had no choice but to go up to his room and put on those shorts.

    Noah instead asked permission to use the shower because he was starting to smell bad, in addition to a change of clothes.

    When the two were done, they met in the living room, sitting on different couches to discuss what had happened and what they would do next.

    However, before they started, now being able to observe Jay more closely, Noah noticed that Jay''s entire body, although it had quite a few painful looking bruises on different parts of his body, was in very good condition.

    It was simr to the body of a person who had been exercising constantly, with hir arms, legs, pectorals and abdomen marked, giving him a ripped appearance.

    In fact, if someone told him that Jay was an athlete, he would definitely believe it.

    ''Hmm...''

    But even though Jay''s appearance only indicated that the most serious thing he had were the bruises, there was something that didn''t feel right to Noah, which is why he was watching Jay more closely.

    "...Aren''t you looking a little too much...?" Jay said, seeing that Noah hadn''t taken his eyes off him for a while.

    "Your muscles still hurt, don''t they?"

    Noah, instead of answering him, responded with another question, getting up from the couch they were on and approaching him.

    "Of course not, I''m already..."

    *Tap*

    It was interrupted by a light touch on his shoulder, which caused him to freeze momentarily due to the pain.

    "OUCH, fuck, why did you do that?!" Heined, putting his hand on his shoulder while a small tear was peeking out of the corner of his eyes.

    "I knew it...the effects of the technique you used yesterday must still be affecting your body..." Said Noah, ignoring Jay''s im, "But, you''re lucky, my skill may be able to help you in this situation!"

    ''At least that''s what I think...''

    "...Haaa, you should have said so earlier..." Jay sighed, relieved that he no longer had to pretend he was okay, though he was also somewhat surprised by what Noah had said.

    He knew that Noah''s skill was of the passive type, which usually meant that the person had extremely limited control over his ability, so it was really a surprise that Noah could use his skill on someone other than himself.

    Then, Noah, not knowing what Jay was thinking, instructed him to lie on the couch face down, which Jay did slowly and carefully.

    Jay suddenly felt cold hands on his back, the sensation reminding him of the Wind Control Parasite, the next second, the cold feeling spread through his entire body.

    "Ohh, this...is great~" Jay said, feeling his whole body rx, or rather, feeling how every sore part of his body, from his muscles, to his bones and tendons, all were recovering at a slow pace.

    This massage, although cold, was quiteforting for Jay, making him appreciate this moment to the fullest. After all, the only thing he had experienced for quite some time were incredibly painful sensations.

    "Alright, that''s all I can do."

    However, after a couple of minutes, Noah stopped abruptly, sitting on the floor, visibly tired and with a few drops of sweat on his face, showing that this small massage session had cost him a considerable amount of energy.

    "Wow, I didn''t know you could use your skill in this way." Said Jay, standing up and stretching, with his body in a slightly better state than before, "I think you could even work from this."

    "Haha, I don''t think so, just a pair of minutes and I''m ground up, I can only do it once a day at most." Noah replied.

    "Anyway, thank you, I''m feeling better now."

    At this point, Jay was quite grateful to Noah, not only for the fact that he had just given him a really useful massage, but also for the help in the battle the night before.

    The Wolf''s Fang member had undoubtedly been the strongest opponent Jay had faced so far,pletely dominating the battle from the beginning. In fact, if he hadn''t held back from the beginning in order to catch him, Jay was sure they would still be in the South Zone.

    However, even though he had won, the battle had left a great burden on Jay''s body, which had resulted in him fainting from exhaustion as soon as he arrived to the living room, finally giving his body the rest it had been begging for.

    Although things didn''t end there of course, after a few hours of sleep, Jay woke up, incredibly sore, hungry and thirsty, as well as feeling a strong metallic taste in his mouth.

    So neither short norzy, he proceeded to raid his kitchen as if today was thest time he would ever eat and drink in his entire life, ignoring the reason his mouth had that particr metallic vor.

    As to why he had undressed ....he honestly didn''t remember.

 Chapter 42 - Killing 3 Birds With One Stone

    "What are you thinking?" Noah asked when he saw that Jay had gone quiet.

    "Oh, well...about what should I do from now on~" replied Jay, unwilling to tell Noah that the excuse exining his nakedness of "It was too hot" was a lie.

    Of course, what he had said was also an important issue.

    Hearing what Jay said, Noah began to think as well.

    ''I wonder...will it be safe toe back...?'' He thought.

    That was his biggest concern, after all, there was a possibility that when the Metal Body guard caught him, he might have seen who he was...

    But even in that situation, Noah didn''t have anywhere else to go, so he was really struggling with what he should do.

    There was no other option?

    The only thing he could do now was to return to the ce where a gang confrontation was taking ce?

    A ce where there was a risk that they would know that he was an aplice of the man who had attacked the Metal Body members?

    ''Come on, there must be another option...''

    Right at that moment, an idea crossed his mind.

    "Maybe... it''s time to move." He said, seriously considering that option.

    That had long been his goal, and although he would have preferred to wait until he had more money, the situation,bined with his intense desire to leave the South Zone, led to this conclusion.

    The only thing that held him back was the apartment he lived in, specifically all his belongings, mostly college stuff and all the clothes he had there.

    As for the furniture and utensils or things like that, most of them hade with the apartment so he didn''t care much about them.

    But of course, even if he didn''t have toe back for his things plus the fact that he had enough money saved tost for a few months, there was still the same problem as always, he still had to look for a ce to live.

    He had investigated about this a long time ago, and that''s why he knew that the rental prices of apartments in the city or in other areas other than the South Zone were definitely not cheap.

    However, before he could continue to think about it, Jay''s voice interrupted his thoughts.

    "If you''re looking for somewhere to move, I have an empty room upstairs ~" He said, with a smile that expressed his goodwill.

    "R-really?!" Noah shouted, surprised at Jay''s suggestion.

    It was understandable, after all, even though they had a rtionship of client and seller, and the fact that without each other''s help neither of them would have made it out of the South Zone safely was true, they had barely known each other for a few days!

    At that moment, Jay put his hand on Noah''s shoulder, before saying with a look full of gratitude and determination, "Noah, you practically saved my lifest night, there''s no way I won''t help you, even more if I have the means to do so."

    "B-but don''t you think it''s dangerous to let a stranger live here?" Noah asked, stating the obvious.

    "You''re not a stranger, Noah, we''re partners."

    Those words, though simple, carried a clear message in them, a message that moved Noah.

    He had always been ustomed to being treated as someone inferior to others because of his personality and esper ability, often being the errand boy or simr things, but this time, Jay not only recognized that they were not a boss and his henchman, he said that they partners on equal terms!

    "I..."

    Therefore, in front of Jay''s determined gaze, Noah could only admit defeat, although to be honest, this time he couldn''t be more happy to lose.

    "...Thank you very much."

    "No problem, well then, I''ll go get some exercise."

    "Oh, wait, we haven''t discussed the... rent..." Noah said, but he waste, as Jay had already gone out to the backyard.

    Looking at his back, Noah couldn''t help but smile and reaffirm the impression he had of Jay in his mind.

    ''He...really is a good guy...''

    ***

    In the backyard, a few seconds after Jay left the living room, he sat down at his usual training spot and began practicing his increasingly strong Wind Control skill.

    Although on the outside he seemed to be training hard, with his eyes closed and even a few drops of sweat on his upper body, what he was really thinking was something very different.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''I...don''t have to pay him anymore!'' he thought, trying not to smile, feeling happy and relieved.

    This was an issue that had concerned him from the moment he asked Noah to help him pass through the entrance to the South Zone.

    While he had a few credits in his room, that was all the money he had left, and what''s worse, that money wasn''t even close to the amount he was supposed to pay Noah for his services!

    In addition to that, considering the fact that his kitchen waspletely devoid of food right now, Jay was in a difficult situation.

    Fortunately for him, from the moment the guardian of District 30 caught Noah, Jay had already thought about the possibility that his identity had been discovered, so he thought of a few solutions in case Noah had to leave the South Zone while he carried him to the abandoned house.

    However, while he didn''t thought much about that at that moment, that changed when Noah helped him to defeat the Wolf''s Fang member.

    Of those options, the one that was most feasible and beneficial for Jay was to let Noah live with him until he could financially stabilize himself and then be able to move to a better ce, even if it took a few months.

    With that option, by giving him a month or two of free rent, Jay could avoid having to pay him, and not only that, but when that month passed, it would be Noah who would have to pay Jay, generating an ie for him.

    And most importantly, when the parasites were done assimting Noah''s skill, which was tomorrow, Jay wouldn''t have to go to the South Side to find him.

    It was like killing three birds with one stone!

    But of course, that didn''t mean that what Jay had said about them being partners and trusting him was a lie, that part was true, Jay did think of Noah that way.

    As for the issue of whether it was dangerous for Noah to live with him...Jay wasn''t so worried about it because the one who had the most to lose wasn''t him, but Noah.

    ''Now then...I wonder what I should do today...'' Jay thought, leaving the Noah issue aside for the moment.

    He had several things pending that required his attention.

    There was the issue of the Jujusen''s stalker, having to train to get used to his body, investigating further the true capacity of his parasites, and of course, the biggest problem, the inevitable fact that he had consumed human flesh.

    ''Haa...let''s see, it''s 9:17 in the morning...so I''ll train until 1 in the afternoon and then head over to Jujusen''s office to settle this matter once and for all.''

    What Jay chose, following his motto of one thing at a time, was to first familiarize himself with his body, to find out what the current limit of his strength was, after all, he wouldn''t be able to use Overload all the time.

    "Ouch, it still hurts..." he said as he put some force on his arm to form a fist.

    Although Noah had used his ability to relieve his muscle pain, that didn''t mean his body had recovered, so if he used too much force on any part of his body, the pain would quickly return.

    "But...this is nothingpared tost night~"

    Then, with a bitter smile, he got up and started walking towards one of the rocks that Sarah had extracted from the ground when they had both trained some time ago.

    Because the rocks had been a little too heavy to move at the time, Jay had left them there, hoping that at some point they would be useful for testing his strength.

    And that time hade.

    The rock he had chosen was thergest, the size of a car tire, in fact, when Sarah pulled out this rock, Jay had been quite scared, but fortunately, beingrge and heavy, it was much slower than the small ones, so he was able to dodge it...just barely.

    "Woah, it is heavy..." he said, raising the rock to the height of his head with his right hand.

    Although it was a bit difficult for him, Jay estimated that he could carry it for a few minutes without problems, even with his body''s current condition.

    *PAM*

    With that noise, the rock fell to the ground, in the same ce it had originally been.

    "Well, that wasn''t very helpful."

    Now with the knowledge that he could lift small sized rocks, an unsatisfied Jay began to stretch, letting out a sigh.

    *Ssh*

    At that moment, the sound of the grass being trampled came from the entrance of the backyard leading to the front of the house.

    Jay quickly turned to see what had made that sound.

    "..."

    "!"

    Then, he saw a girl with sses peeking out from the side of the wall, her panicked face was red, as if she had been running for a while, but what was most striking...was the fact that she was pointing her smart watch at Jay....

 Chapter 43 - Unexpected Offer

    "So...you''re telling me you were the one controlling the drone...?" Said Jay, feeling a little ufortable while looking at the girl sitting on the couch in front of him.

    "Y-yes, that''s right, I-I''m very sorry..." She replied, looking down at the floor, embarrassed.

    However, while it was true that the girl seemed embarrassed and sorry, that wasn''t the reason of why Jay was feeling ufortable.

    Her head was down, yes, but she asionally looked up to take a look at Jay, who hadn''t changed and was still just wearing his shorts.

    Maybe she thought she was being sneaky when she did, but the reality was far from that as Jay realized right away, and not only that, he also noticed that this girl had a little smile on her face too.

    ''...you don''t look to be sorry at all!'' Jay thought.

    After he had discovered her in the backyard, Jay quickly approached her to ask who she was, at which time he also took the opportunity to see what she was doing with her smart watch...and she was taking pictures of him while stretching!

    Seeing that, Jay immediately guessed who this person was.

    A few secondster, confirming her suspicions and pretending the fact that Jay had caught her taking pictures of him never happened, the girl introduced herself as Jenny, someone who worked in the Jujusen branch of Nightown City, and also the person in chargue of the drone that Jay had caught.

    Jenny in question was wearing a long, simple blue skirt that went down to her knees along with a white blouse that showed off her shoulders and arms while entuating her slim figure, no doubt it was an outfit that suited her.

    She hade to Jay''s house in order to solve the problem about the drone he currently had, or more specifically, about the content that was inside the drone.

    As for the fact that she had sneaked into his backyard...

    ording to her, she had been ringing the doorbell for quite a while, however, even after waiting for several minutes, no one answered, so, not wanting to go home so easily, she wanted to see if anyone was in the backyard of the house, and that''s when she saw Jay.

    Of course, she didn''t mention the fact that she had taken pictures of him.

    Then, not wanting to make this problem any bigger than it needed to be, Jay invited her in.

    And that''s how they got to the current situation.

    "Well, Jenny, right...?" Said Jay, smiling and trying to look as nice as he could in a situation like this, "I can give you back the drone, no problem, but I''m the victim here, so...I''d like some kind ofpensation."

    Hearing his words, Jenny shook and slowly looked up to meet Jay.

    "W-what kind ofpensation...?" she asked, intrigued.

    However, before her more wildest ideas could form in her head, she heard Jay''s voice again.

    "Money, obviously~"

    "Ah...yes, of course..."

    Although she was a little disappointed, in fact that was the most viable and easy option for her.

    "How...how much do you want?"

    Because Jay didn''t know exactly how much to ask in a situation like this, he decided to go for an affordable but slightly high price, two thousand credits.

    He could probably ask for a lot more money, but he didn''t want to leave her bankrupt or that she would have to take out a loan to pay him, even though the girl had an unhealthy hobby, it wasn''t a reason to go that far either, he only wanted to teach her a lesson while making some money after all.

    "Hmm, well, how about two thousand credits-"

    *Pam*

    At that moment, without waiting for Jay to finish, the girl put twenty 100-credit bills on the small table in front of the two of them, the process was smooth and without any sign of the shyness the girl had shown until now, making a slightly loud sound.

    ''...I should have asked for more...''

    Although he felt a little regretful when seeing the ease with which the girl had taken out two thousand credits, he still stretched out his hand to grab the bills on the table.

    ''Well, at least he didn''t ask for an outrageous amount...'' thought Jenny, relieved that the cash she brought was enough to pay for this man''s silence. ''With this, I have some extra money to convince him...''

    The reason she could get that much money out so easily was not because she came from a wealthy family or anything like that, but because she, being an introverted person with a stable job and good pay who was not really interested in spending her money on luxuries or things like that, had saved a good deal of money over time.

    So while two thousand credits was a somewhat high amount of money, taking into ount that this man could ask for even ten thousand and she only would be able to give in, this was a rather cheap price...although, there was another reason why she had given in so easily to this request.

    "Alright, then I guess that''s it, oh, and I''m asking you to please stop spying on me-"

    "E-excuse me!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Gripping her skirt tightly and gathering up all her courage, Jenny interrupted Jay again, this time in a more direct way than thest.

    "...Yes?"

    "Please let me take a picture of you!"

    ''...Didn''t...didn''t I just told you to stop...?''

    ***

    "So that''s what you meant..." Jay said, with an expression of having understood what the girl was talking about.

    It turns out that Jenny, ording to what she had told Jay, had a hobby that focused on photography, and part of the reason she watched certain people without their consent was because she wanted to find the right person to work with.

    She had been looking for someone like that for a long time, but even with the great advantage she had, she hadn''t found anyone who really caught her eye.

    That is, of course, until she found Jay.

    At first she wasn''t so sure about this and justbeled him as just another fit guy...but as time went on, her desire to have even one image of him just grew.

    Which led to her working tirelessly to get a chance to deliver a package to Jay''s house, even if the odds of that were pretty low, her perseverance, or rather, luck, got her what she wanted.

    As for the rest of the story, Jay knew it even better than she did.

    "But if that was the case, you could have approached me directly without using the drone or spying on me...oh, and I won''t give you your money back anyway, take it as a lesson~" Jay said, putting the bills in one of his pockets.

    "Oh, no, no, please keep the money as an apology for what I did..." Added the girl again, bending her head a little, "But, um... what do you think of my offer...?"

    "Hm..."

    Jay began to think, considering the pros and cons of Jenny''s offer.

    Of course, she taking pictures of him meant he would be exposed and so on, but Jay really didn''t care much about that, otherwise he wouldn''t have gotten naked so easily with Noah around, nor would he be wearing so little clothing in front of Jenny.

    What he worried about the most was that this type of activity would definitely cost him time, time that he could spend on other things such as training, improving his skills, etc.

    ''...I think it would be better to refuse this...''

    "O-oh, and I''m also willing to pay for each photo session!" Added Jenny, establishing a strong and irresistible argument for Jay!

    ''But, a little more money would never hurt!'' He thought, quickly changing his mind.

    Jay knew that sooner orter he would have to get a job in order to pay for his ever-increasing food expenses. After all, from the moment that the Parasyte System changed his body, he had started eating more food than usual, but since he had savings and plenty of groceries, he wasn''t worried.

    However, everything had changed in just a few days, his savings and all the food in his house were gone now!

    While yesterday''s situation was notmon, he was not sure if something like this was going to happen again, but it would be better to be safe than sorry.

    Before, he had managed to stay well until now thanks to a certain person very special to him who sent him money every month, who was also the owner of this house, his grandmother.

    Although they did not live together, the main reason Jay had been able to live sofortably until now was because of her, as she sent him money for all his basic expenses every month.

    In fact, because Jay felt very indebted to his grandmother, he had tried to look for work several times before, so that he could be independent and not cause his grandmother so much trouble, but for some reason, he was always fired before he even received his full sry, sending him home with only a small amount.

    Therefore, since he could not work, he had decided to focus on his studies and save a certain amount of money each month, thus managing to gather his savings...which had already been used.

    In addition, there was also the fact that he was going to rent the guest room to Noah, so his debt to his grandmother would only increase...

    With all those points in mind, Jay realized that he would really need the money, so he asked onest question to make sure of his decision.

    "...It won''t take long, will it?

    "U-um, no, just an hour or so a day..."

    "Then...I think we have a deal~" said Jay, stretching out his hand to Jenny, who hurriedly took it and showed an expression of emotion.

    "Thank you very much!"

 Chapter 44 - Blood Pills

    After that conversation, which ended with Jay epting Jenny''s offer, the two talked a little more about things like the pay for every photo shoot, the days when Jenny woulde, and also adding each other''s contact number to their smart watches so they couldmunicate with each other.

    "Then, I''ll be going, thank you very much for your time..." said Jenny, who was now much less nervous than before.

    "Don''t worry, although... it''s a littlete, probably nothing will happen if you go alone...but it''s better to be safe than sorry..." Jay replied, clutching his chin as if worried.

    It really wasn''tte at all, just 1pm, but Jenny didn''t care much about that fact.

    ''M-maybe...he wants toe with me...?!'' she thought, getting a little excited.

    "So...why don''t you go with her, Noah?"

    ''Ah...''

    Sadly, Jay broke her little fantasy once again before it even began, turning his head to talk to Noah.

    "O-oh! Um, a-are you sure...?" Noah replied, stopping to wash the porcin te in his hand, his expression giving away the fact that he was nervous.

    He''d already started cleaning since Jay left the living room, thinking that since he was going to live here, it wouldn''t hurt to help with the cleaning of the house, as to why he was doing it alone, it was because he didn''t want to further bother Jay.

    However, the moment Jay entered the living room with Jenny, Noah immediately focused even more on cleaning, not wanting to interrupt them and giving his best effort to blend in with the surroundings, but unfortunately, the fact that Jenny was considerably pretty did not help him focus at all on his task.

    This was something that happened frequently in Noah''s life, since he was a child he had not been very good with the opposite sex, which got worse over time until it reached the point where Noah felt nervous just talking to a girl, even more so when he thought the other part was attractive.

    "Yeah, and you can buy a few things for dinner while you''re at it."

    Of course, Jay had no idea about this, so he just gave Noah one more reason to leave while he got up and headed to the kitchen to take Noah to the center of the living room before introducing him to Jenny.

    "Jenny, this is Noah, Noah, this is Jenny."

    "...Nice to meet you." Jenny replied, with a slight smile devoid of any kind of emotion.

    "L-L-Likewise!"

    Seeing that exchange of words, Jay couldn''t help butugh a little in his head, ''Looks like now it''s someone else''s turn to be nervous.''

    Momentster, he led them both to the entrance, saying goodbye again to Jenny and giving the confused and nervous Noah a jacket as well as some money to do the shopping.

    Thus ended the first meeting between Jay, Jenny and Noah, although of course, it would not be thest.

    ***

    At the same time that Jenny and Noah were leaving Jay''s house, in the warehouse that served as the base for Metal Body, a meeting between the executives and the boss was taking ce.

    The hierarchy of Metal Body, from the lowest to the highest was, Member, Guardian, Executive and finally, the boss, with the Guardians supervising the Members, and the Executives supervising the Guardians.

    Taking that into ount, the fact that only the executives and the boss were present highlighted the importance of this meeting.

    "It seems they couldn''t wait any longer andunched their attack...I knew they were nning something by staying quiet for so long!" Angrily said one of the people sitting at the round table where all the executives and the boss were.

    The appearance of this person was simr to Chuck''s, wearing a leather sleeveless vest and a military cut, although his face was undoubtedly rougher than the previous one mentioned as he had arge scar that ran from his left eye to his chin, all the way through his mouth.

    "Fortunately Aiden was close by, otherwise they would have really taken over District 30 and 31." Added another of the executives, this time a sloppy looking, skinny man who was wearing jeans and a tank top.

    "Alhough...those bastards are good...they escaped before I could even catch one, tch..." Aiden replied, giving a simple answer before clicking his tongue.

    "What should we do then, increase the security or attack them? Said another member.

    "You idiot, the only option here is to attack!" Replied another of the executives.

    "But if we do that, we will leave several districts without the strength to defend themselves..."<novelnext></novelnext>

    A debate began among the various Metal Body executives, between those who supported the idea of attacking, and others who thought of improving security, thus creating a noisy environment.

    At that moment, the boss, who had been sitting quietly until now watching a folder with several pages full of information about different people of Wolf''s Fang, loudly pped his hands several times to calm the executives.

    "Alright, that''s enough." He said, putting down the folder he was reading and resting his arms on the table.

    After saying that, all the executives present went silent, demonstrating that the boss authority was above them all.

    "Wolf''s Fang has attacked, using a good amount of skilled (D+) rank supers...no doubt they have be stronger in thesest months...but as you know, that is not by far all the power they have." He continued, with a serious expression on his face, "Taking advantage of the opportunity that the police, hunters and heroes are temporarily busy, this is definitely the best time for them tounch an attack..."

    Hearing those words, all the executives nodded in understanding.

    It was no secret that thanks to the overflow of monsters in conjunction with the recent confrontation of the Laers Guild, the forces in charge of protecting the city were busy.

    Adding the fact that the South Zone has never been a major priority for Nightown City, that would give them a week or two in which no one would interfere in South Zone gang affairs.

    "However, that also applies to us." The boss added, showing a slight smile on his face, something that was rarely seen, "While it is true that they have be stronger, you know very well that Metal Body haven''t been idle either."

    After saying that, the boss put his suitcase on the table and opened it before taking took out several small but visibly full cloth bags and throwing them on the table, falling in front of each of the executives present.

    "Medicine pills?"

    Several of the executives raised their eyebrows in surprise, being rank (C-) supers, their senses were quite acute, so they could not help but be surprised by the rich and strong medicinal aroma that these cloth bags gave off.

    But of course, that surprise was not so big, after all, being executives of Metal Body, they had already seen and used medicinal pills before.

    "This... blood pills!?" shouted the executive who looked like Chuck after opening the cloth bag in front of him and pulling out what was inside, once again creating amotion.

    "What did you say?!"

    "Are those really blood pills?!"

    With the first scream, all the executives took out one of the pills to check if what he said was true.

    Now in their hands, they could clearly see the bright red color of the spherical shape pill, even though its size was quite small, nobody could deny that a great amount of energy could be felting from inside the pill.

    Finally, the indisputable proof that they were real, the slight thirst for blood that was emanating from the pill!

    "Th-They are real..."

    "And the quality..."

    Now knowing that the pills were not only real, but also of considerable quality, the executives were quite surprised.

    They could not be med, after all, the price of each blood pill was quite high, of course, that was in ordance with the effects that each one of them gave to the person who took them.

    The blood pill, as its name suggests, used the blood of the person who took it, burning it to the maximum to forcefully squeeze out all the potential and vitality the person had to offer, causing the miraculous effect of a temporary breakthrough!

    And even though it was only usable for supers of the (C+) rank or below, plus the fact that the side effects were extremely severe, no one could deny that the benefits it gave to the person who consumed it were definitely worth it.

    "I have given 5 pills to each of you, keep one for yourself and give the remaining 4 to some members you consider strong enough to defeat a normal Wolf''s Fang member."

    Listening to the boss'' words, all the executives nodded with a determined look.

    They didn''t know the price the boss had had to pay or what he had done to get these expensive pills, but they were sure it wasn''t cheap at all, so they couldn''t afford to let their boss'' efforts go to waste.

    "It''s time for us to show everyone who truly is the ruler of the South Zone!"

 Chapter 45 - Van

    "Damn it..." Said Jay, lying on the ground of the backyard.

    After Jenny and Noah left the house, and now with one less problem to deal with, Jay tried to keep working out a bit to keep testing the limits of his body.

    However, no matter how hard he tried, even though he could move properly and use quite a bit more strength than before, he felt like he couldn''t use the full potential of his body, as if there was something limiting him.

    ''It definitely has something to do with yesterday, haa...looks like I''ll have to wait until I''m fully recovered to train my body...'' Jay thought, a bit dissatisfied at not being able to do more with his newfound strength.

    Without much more to do in the backyard, Jay went inside his house and showered before lying down on the bed in his room, organizing his remaining tasks again.

    ''With the issue of Jujusen''s stalker resolved, and seeing as I''m not able to exercise for the time being, that leaves me free time to test the true capability of my little ones...although it wouldn''t hurt to take a look at the system first...''

    "Open."

    Then, the system interface opened.

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System]

    Carrier: Jay Sacrest

    [Status] (New)

    [Hosts]

    [Skills]

    _____________________

    ''It was about time to take a look at this...'' Jay thought.

    In fact, the first thing he should have done from the moment he had woken up was to check the system interface, but due to the intense hunger, the conversation with Noah and then Jenny''s arrival, he had been somewhat distracted.

    Then selecting the obvious option, his new status window appeared before him.

    _____________________

    [Status] (Weakened)

    Strength: (D) (Currently D-)

    Agility: (D) (Currently D-)

    Resistance: (D) (Currently D-)

    Remark: Since the Carrier''s body is currently in a weakened state due to extreme use, the stats had been limited in order to allow a faster recovery. Any forceful attempt to use the full strenght of the Carrier''s body will lead to a slower recovery.

    Estimated Time For Full Recovery: 1 week, 3 days.

    _____________________

    ''...Okay, I definitely should have seen this before.'' Jay thought as he looked at the status window in front of him.

    Although he already knew that his body was obviously not in its best state, the status gave him a better description of what was going on with his body.

    And not only that, but it even told him how much time he had wait to fully recover, which was something Jay appreciated.

    ''...Hmm...1 week and 3 days huh...''

    Thinking about it, it wasn''t a really long time, so he had no problem waiting, he could even take it as a little break.

    Besides, he only had to wait a bit more till he could pick up the little ones inside Noah''s body, and that would surely speed up his recovery to a great extent.

    Now that he had checked his status, Jay finallymanded some of his little ones toe out.

    ''Come on...'' Jay said in his mind, as he held out his hand in front of him.

    Immediately, small worms with pointed teeth came out from different parts of his arm, with half of their bodies still inside Jay''s body, looking intently at Jay as if they were waiting for him to give them another order.

    Seeing their attitude towards him, Jay couldn''t help but think they were kind of adorable.

    "First of all...thank you so much for your helpst night, without you guys I definitely wouldn''t have made it." Jay said with a smile of gratitude on his face, patting the heads of some of them with his left hand.

    While he didn''t perfectly remember all the details of what happenedst night, the moment the parasites moved the pill from his mouth to his stomach was definitely a memory hard to forget.

    The parasites, upon feeling Jay''s touch, instead of staying still receiving the caresses, quickly moved from his right arm to his left hand.

    "Haha, I guess you don''t like it~"

    Although the parasites had run away from his touch, Jay felt that they had understood he was grateful to them.

    Ordering them toe out again and now with the thanks already delivered, Jay began to think of ways to use the full potential of his little ones.

    In fact, that was something Jay had actually thought about from the moment he had contact with the first parasites he got from the system.

    That was why he had done a small test before to check the parasites'' attacking power on a piece of meat he bought, and upon seeing that they did not do any kind of damage to the meat, he hade to the conclusion that their usefulness would be limited to simply infecting other people.<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, as time passed, he realized that that kind of conclusion had been rather naive, after all, just because they had no offensive capabilities it didn''t mean they weren''t capable of doing other things.

    That had been demonstrated once before in the fight against Taylor, by using the parasites as a decoy, Jay had managed to get the opportunity he needed to end the battle.

    Andst night had been the ultimate test, the parasites, which Jay thought could only move if he gave them an order, actually acted on their own.

    However, that wasn''t all, they also proved to have a much higher level of intelligence than what he expected, acting ording to the situation, and as a result, they had saved Jay''s life.

    Finally, one of the points that most caught Jay''s attention was the ability of the parasites to share their energy with him.

    This was a feature Jay had already seen in the description of the "Overload" ability, but it was a surprise to him to learn that it wasn''t necessary to use the ability for the parasites to be able to share energy with him.

    "Haa...well, I guess I''d better get started..."

    After saying that, he picked up a nearby notebook and began to write down his ideas.

    ***

    At the same time, in a little-traveled area of town, there was a convenience store that was rtively close to the neighborhood in which Jay lived.

    A guy and a girl were walking out of the store, the difference between the things they were carrying was obvious.

    "Unexpectedly, this store has good stuff!" Jenny said as she grabbed a can of grape soda she had bought seconds ago, visibly cheerful.

    "O-oh, y-yeah, that''s nice, right?" A nervous Noah replied, his face a little red, as to whether it was due to the presence of Jenny, who was walking beside him, or the fact that he was carrying a heavy stic bag full of groceries, that was something only he knew.

    ''Why is she following me even now...?!'' Noah wondered, still walking towards Jay''s house.

    It was a reasonable question, after all, it had been quite a while since they were supposed to have parted ways, yet for some weird reason Noah couldn''t fathom, Jenny not only didn''t leave, she had even apanied him to the store!

    At first he thought that maybe it was simply coincidence that they both had to buy groceries at the same time, however, when they entered the store, the only thing Jenny bought was a can of soda and a couple of pieces of gum, so that option was out of the question.

    "Um...Noah, right~?" Jenny asked, interrupting Noah''s thoughts.

    "Y-y-yes?"

    Jenny suddenly speaking to him made him even more nervous than he was.

    "You see...I wanted to ask you a question..." Jenny continued, ignoring Noah''s obvious nervousness and moving a little closer to him.

    ''T-too close!!!'' Noah shouted in his mind, unconsciously taking a few steps backwards, his face blushing.

    "You know..."

    The tone of Jenny''s voice became a little lower, and her face also turned a slight shade of red, as if she was embarrassed of what she was about to say.

    "You know if Jay''s got-"

    *SHRRRRR*

    However, before she could finish that sentence, a van suddenly pulled up beside them and 2 men with their faces covered got out of the van, quickly approaching them both.

    "!"

    Both Noah and Jenny were startled at the sight of this, backing away in an attempt to get away from the strangers in front of them.

    However, the next moment, one of the men hurried towards Noah and inmediately hit him.

    "Argh!" Noah let out a groan of pain due to the blow he received from one of the masked men, which caused him to fall to the ground.

    Without wasting time, the man who hit him quickly put a bag over his head and tied his arms behind his back with what appeared to be a small rope.

    The process was quick and smooth, as if the man had done this countless times before.

    "Noah!" Jenny shouted, immediately activating her ability so that she could remove the man on top of Noah.

    However, the moment she did, the man''s partner stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

    *Bam!*

    Because Jenny had used quite a bit of force in her ability, the man ended up being pushed to the ground, although he got up the next moment.

    "Leave her, we got the one we wanted, let''s go!" shouted the man who had pinned Noah down, now charging him towards the van.

    Hearing that, the man who was confronting Jenny immediately turned to run towards the vehicle.

    "Stop there!" shouted Jenny, again activating her ability to stop either of the two.

    Unfortunately, the both of them were really fast and managed to get into the van before she could do anything.

    The next second, the van immediately elerated as if it didn''t even noticed that Jenny was using her ability to try to stop the car.

    It was toote.

    Just like that, as quickly as they came, they left, leaving a confused and afraid Jenny alone with the stic bags full of groceries spilled on the ground.

 Chapter 46 - The Worst Moment

    Back at Jay''s house, who had left his room a while ago and was now once again in the backyard.

    "Hoo, looks like it''s working~" Jay said, looking at his right arm with a satisfied expression.

    He had been testing the different ideas he wrote in the notebook to find out if they worked or not, there were a few things that didn''t, but this time, just as he had said, it worked, so he couldn''t help but feel somewhat happy.

    However, his joy was quickly reced by a curious expression.

    "...How odd, Noah should have been back by now..." He said, stretching and looking towards the backyard gate that led to the entrance of his house.

    "...Ja...Jay!!!"

    But just then, a girl came into his view...it was Jenny.

    "Jenny?"

    Her dress, which had previously looked neat and tidy was now wrinkled, which coupled with the obvious fact that Jenny was visibly tired, immediately set off an alert inside Jay''s brain that told him something had happened.

    "What happened?" Jay asked after walking over to where she was standing.

    "Haa, it''s...it''s Noah, he''s been kidnapped!"

    "!"

    Hearing what Jenny said, Jay became rmed, but before he could think of anything else, Jenny fell to her knees, unable to stay on her feet because she had been running non-stop.

    "Jenny!" Jay said,ing over to support her, "You look exhausted, we''d better go inside and you can exin everything to me there."

    "O-okay."

    Thereupon, Jay took her in his arms and carried her towards the living room beforeying her down on one of the couches.

    Normally, this would be something Jenny would enjoy, but because of what had happened earlier, she wasn''t in the mood for it.

    "T-thank you."

    "Don''t worry, and more importantly, tell me what happened."

    ***

    ''...Damn...'' Jay thought, with a serious expression on his face.

    After listening to Jenny''s story, which rted how a group of people in a van kidnapped Noah some time ago, Jay already had a theory of who the culprits were.

    It was easy toe up with an answer, after all, the only reason why Noah, who is a normal person, could be kidnapped could only be due to the fact that he was rted to the unknown man who attacked Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang...namely Jay.

    ''And of the two...it can only be Metal Body.''

    Of the two groups, the only one who had contact with Noah while he was in disguise had been Metal Body, or more specifically, the guardian of District 30.

    Last night, Jay had clearly seen how Metal Body''s guardian had caught Noah, and while he had hoped that he hadn''t unmasked Noah, that was just wishful thinking.

    As for why Jenny hade in person, when just texting or calling him on his smartwatch was easier and faster, it was because Jay didn''t anwer...after all, his smartwatch was charging in his room.

    ''Although...those bastards couldn''t have picked a worse time.'' He thought.

    "I...I''m so sorry...even though it happened right in front of me...I couldn''t do anything." Jenny said with a tone of regret, interrupting Jay''s thoughts.

    She had already recovered from her exhaustion, but that had been reced by a sense of guilt at not having been able to help Noah.

    "Jenny, it''s not your fault, in fact, if there was anyone to me, it would be me..." Jay said, making a bitter smile that contained different mixed emotions.

    What Jay had just said, although its purpose might seem to be tofort Jenny, was in fact what he really felt.

    Jay already knew that there was a possibility that Metal Body, having discovered Noah''s identity, might be looking for him, however, what did he do in this situation...?

    Change Noah''s appearance?

    Hide him in his house until things calmed down?

    No, of course not, what he did, instead, was send him out on the street alone...and what was more, if not for the fact that Jenny had apanied Noah longer than expected, Jay would have found out muchter.

    ''...What an idiot...'' Again he thought, marking this feeling deep inside him, ''However...this is no time to mope, there''s something more important to do!''

    He then got up and started walking towards the stairs leading to the second floor, but not before speaking to Jenny.

    "Jenny, if you''re still too tired to go home, you can spend the night here, it''s the least I can do after your help, as for me...I have things to-"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Jay!"

    However, just as he was about to climb the stairs, he felt a little resistance, indicating that something had grabbed him, which added to Jenny''s little scream, hinted at what had happened.

    Bringing his gaze to a corner of his shorts, Jay could see that what was holding him back, it was Jenny''s delicate white hand.

    "Y-you''re not going to call the police?" she said, removing her hand from Jay''s clothing.

    "...It would take too long for them to act, plus...this is a little moreplicated." He replied.

    While the police would be able to solve this problem easily, it would definitely take a good time before they could rescue Noah, and that was in case they had officers avable.

    So, while Jay could go to them and wait, he wasn''t sure if Noah would be safe for an extended period of time.

    "...I-in that case, at least let me help!" She added, looking Jay in the eye.

    ''It seems like she really feels guilty about Noah...but I don''t want to drag anyone else into this mess...'' Jay thought, about to turn her down.

    "I''m sorry, but it''s too dangerous-"

    "I don''t need to go in person, with my skill, I can help from a really long distance!"

    The next moment, the drone on the table began to work even though it had no batteries.

    Jenny''s ability, although it might look like telekinesis, was actually considerably different, while she could move things without the need to touch them, her control over them was not particrly strong, but that was not a problem as her ability focused on distance and control rather than force.

    "I can take control of certain objects and move them at my will, and as long as I have visibility of it, I can still control them so I won''t be in any danger, please let me help!" She said with a look full of determination.

    ''...Isn''t your ability a bit too useful...?'' Jay thought, a bit surprised but quickly epting that fact.

    Since the mostmon abilities that espers manifested were things like Superhuman Strength, Telekinesis, Laser Beams, etc, which gave that there were several espers with the simr abilities, no abilities werepletely the same.

    Therefore, Jenny possessing a variant of Telekinesis that specialized in distance and control instead of strength wasn''t that umon.

    "..."

    Even though Jenny seemed really sure that she wanted to help him and that her ability, judging from what she had said, would allow her to help him without putting herself at risk, Jay still wasn''t convinced.

    However, as much as he didn''t want to, he couldn''t deny that right now, he definitely needed all the help he could get.

    First of all, he was weakened due to the use of Overload and most of all, due to the Limit Breaker, which had caused his body that was supposed to be of grade (D), to be currently limited to grade (D-).

    It might not seem like a big difference, but it was actually a significant decrease to Jay''s power.

    Second, he wasn''t really sure if he could use one of his trump cards, Overload, at this point, so if he encountered someone as strong as the guy fromst night, it would be incredibly difficult to manage to escape, let alone defeat him.

    Finally, the biggest problem, he had already used what was undoubtedly his best trump card, the regeneration pill.

    It was an almost miraculous object that, as its name indicated, was capable of regenerating Jay''s entire body no matter how damaged it was.

    There was no mistake, with Jay in his current state, this was the worst time Noah could have been kidnapped.

    Thus, seeing that someone was willing to help him in this situation, even though he was somewhat reluctant to involve an innocent person in this, Jay was having a debate with himself due to the desperate situation.

    As for the option of abandoning Noah...that thought didn''t cross Jay''s mind even once.

    *Suut*

    Suddenly, the sound of something being tied up reached his ears.

    Once again interrupting his thoughts, Jay could see that what had made that sound was Jenny, or rather, Jenny''s hair, where braid after braid was forming, demonstrating that Jenny''s skill truly stood out in control.

    "A-ah, sorry, it''s just something that happens when I''m nervous..." Jenny said, quickly stopping herself.

    Jay however, didn''t reply and just stared at Jenny''s hair, as if he was totally focused on what he had just seen.

    "...No, that''s...perfect." He replied, shifting his attention to Jenny before continuing, "Thank you, and I''m afraid I''ll have to trouble you for tonight."

    "I-it''s no trouble at all!"

    Hearing her response, Jay couldn''t help but chuckle a little, making him feel a little less tense, though that onlysted a moment, as his expression quickly turned serious again.

    "Then...let''s start our preparations."

    Just like that, without even having time to rest a bit, Jay again began to make his preparations to enter the South Zone.

 Chapter 47 - Kidnapped

    Deep in the South Zone, in another abandoned warehouse, which looked even gloomier than usual because it was alreadyte at night and the moon, on this specific night, had beenpletely eclipsed by the clouds.

    The interior of this warehouse, unlike the one that served as Metal Body''s base, waspletely empty and devoid of trace of human activity, or at least that''s what it seemed at first sight.

    "U-urgh..."

    However, there was a certain part of the warehouse which was in stark contrast to the surroundings, where a nearly naked man stood tied up.

    His build was thin and although he was not very tall, he wasn''t short either, his brown hair was rather unkempt and dirty, evidence of the treatment he had received in the process of being brought to this ce.

    His hands were bound by a rope that was connected to a chain hanging from the ceiling, which forced him to stand and restrained him at the same time.

    Although his appearance was certainly different from normal, if Jay were here, he would definitely be able to recognize this person...it was Noah.

    Slowly opening his eyes, Noah began to survey his surroundings.

    ''W-Where...sh*t...'' He thought, remembering what had happened.

    He tried to move a little but the rope was so tight that it hurt at the slightest attempt to free himself.

    Realizing it was useless, he quickly gave up and instead began to think about what he could do to escape.

    "You sure do recover fast..."

    "!"

    Before he could think about it any further, however, the loud, vibrating voice of a man echoed from inside the warehouse.

    Moving his gaze to where the voice hade from, Noah could see arge sized man surrounded by the shadows from the surroundings.

    Although he could not get a good look at this person, something inside Noah told him that this person was someone with whom he should be extremely careful.

    In fact, the pressure this person was emitting was even stronger than Jay''s and the Wolf''s Fang memberbined!

    "...Who are you...?" Noah asked

    "You''re calmer than expected, I like that." the man replied, seemingly pleased judging by the tone of his voice, "As for your question...my name is Jared, though I doubt you know me by that name."

    ''Jared...?''

    Hearing the name, Noah''s brain began to work quickly, trying to recall if he had ever heard any mention of that name-

    But no matter how hard he thought, just as the man said, he couldn''t remember anything.

    Then, as if the man knew what Noah was thinking, he spoke again.

    "To be honest..." He said, moving a little further forward and leaving the shelter of the darkness that hid his silhouette to approach Noah, "I''m best known for my deeds, for example, the time I took on several rank (C-) supers and made them run away with their tails between their legs."

    ''...''

    "Or for example, the time I defeated a (C) rank Hero, ah, those were good times, you know?"

    Not caring much about what Noah was thinking, the man continued to recount his supposed deeds as he slowly approached Noah.

    Now that he was closer, Noah could see him better, the man was of great size, not only was his body stocky, but he was also quite tall, Noah believed that he must be at least 7 feet tall.

    As for his facial features, he wasn''t able to see them.

    "But without a doubt, what I consider and probably is my greatest deed until now...is taking over an entire organization in just one week..." He said, with a big and proud smile on his face.

    ''...Ah...of the two groups in the South Zone...I had to fall into the hands of the worst...''

    "Haha, looks like now you do know who I am eh, your expression changed quite a bit, you dislike my little organization that much?" the man said again, easily figuring out what Noah was thinking.

    ''If he really is the boss of Wolf''s Fang...I could only try to stay alive as long as possible.''

    "Could I know...how did you find me...?"

    "Oh that, actually it wasn''t us, but these Metal Body guys, they had also thought of catching you and since they seemed to know how to find you, we just followed them, we have good luck, don''t you think?"

    At once, the man pointed towards a corner of the warehouse, where the density of shadows was even greater.

    "They put up quite a fight, but don''t worry, they''ve already been neutralized so they won''t be able to do anything."

    Looking around that corner, although Noah couldn''t see very well due to the darkness, he could vaguely make out what appeared to be threerge lumps hanging from the ceiling.

    Although Noah didn''t know exactly what the man in front of him was referring to with neutralized, remembering the reputation Wolf''s Fang had and their rtionship with Metal Body, he was sure it would be best not to ask.

    As for the fact that the real culprits behind his kidnapping had been the Metal Mody people, Noah wasn''t too surprised by that fact.

    After all, the only person who have discovered his identity was Metal Body''s guardian.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''...But...they even went to this much trouble to catch me...is Jay really that important to them...?'' Noah thought.

    He could understand why Wolf''s Fang, being a gang that preferred quality over quantity, would be willing to recruit a person as strong as Jay who was not only not part of Metal Body, but had even faced them before.

    However, was that important enough for the boss himself to act?

    Of course, there was also the possibility that the man standing in front of him right now was lying and was actually just an executive of one of the two groups...but that didn''t make much sense.

    Noah was already at their mercy, so there was no need to deceive him.

    However, the biggest proof that this man was the real boss was the pressure he was emanating from his body, which reminded him of the time he and Jay passed through the South Zone entrance under the watch of a rank (C) super.

    Except...this time it was much stronger.

    "Oi!"

    At that moment, the words of Wolf''s Fang''s supposed boss brought him back to reality.

    "...Yes...?"

    "You really are a bad listener..." Wolf''s Fang''s boss said.

    He had been talking for a while, but apparently Noah had been so immersed in his thoughts that he hadn''t heard him.

    "Well, never mind, as I was saying...when do you think your friend will be here...?"

    "...What do you mean...?"

    "You know, your friend, the one who actually defeated the Metal Body guys and one of my subordinates."

    "...That''s me..." Noah replied, trying to look as confident as he could.

    "Wow, camaraderie, how adorable." Said the man with a smile on his face, "But don''t try to fool me, both your body and your energy are stupidly weak, it''s obvious you''re not the one who defeated my subordinate."

    The reason Noah had replied that way, despite knowing it was a futile attempt to cover for Jay, was because he knew this situation was...hopeless.

    He was in an unknown part of the South Zone, unable to move, with no way tomunicate with the outside, with no special ability that would allow him to escape this situation.

    Without...power.

    But even if he had it, even if somehow his ability managed to evolve at this very moment giving him the strength to break free...Noah was sure that the man in front of him was more than capable of destroying his hopes again.

    ''...Again, I can''t do anything...'' He thought, remembering the way he had lived his life.

    No friends, no money, and finally...no family, there really wasn''t a ce in this world he could call home...since his home had long since vanished.

    He had always tried to see the better side of things, to see the best in the worst and move on, because that was the only thing he could do.

    Surviving as best he could in this world where the only person he could trust was himself, ducking his head when he was picked on or abused because it would end faster that way.

    With that mindset, no matter what happened, no matter how many times he suffered because of hisck of power, he had kept moving forward, saving money, nning his future and trying to see the better side of his current situation.

    That is, of course, until the night he ran into Taylor.

    That was the one of the extremely few times he resisted, not only to protect the little money he had on him, but also to prove to himself that the only thing he could do was not only to endure whatever happened, but that he could also rebel, that he could also fight!

    But the bitter reality proved him otherwise, that even though he wanted to fight with all his might, it didn''t change anything.

    Fortunately Jay saved him, and not only that, but even gave him a new source of ie as well as helping him with his biggest and most selfish dream, to take revenge on the person who made life impossible for him.

    However, for that very reason, he was in this situation right now.

    He found this situation ironic, he took revenge, but he paid a higher price for it, all for his own weakness.

    ''...I need to get stronger...If I get out of this...I''ll tell Jay to teach me how to fight...'' He thought, trying to cheer himself up a bit.

    *Buzz*

    Suddenly, the sound of a vibrating smartwatch could be hearding from the arm of Wolf''s Fang''s boss.

    After ncing at it, the boss'' expression changed to a smile, the next moment, he answered the call.

    [Boss, there''s trouble, several members of the 29th district have fallen!]

    "Ho, they started earlier than expected, it''s a Metal Body joint attack, right? How many members did they send?" replied the boss.

    Because it was still within the boss''s expectations, he wasn''t that surprised.

    [That''s the thing, boss, it''s not several members, it''s just one person, a young man!]

 Chapter 48 - At The Entrance

    "Woah...this strenght is definitely something else..." Said Colt, who had just defeated another Wolf''s Fang member in a darkmercial neighborhood inside District 29.

    Although his appearance was pretty close to normal, there were certain things about him that stood out.

    For example, there were several visible veins on his arms, as well as one or two on his face, as if his body was under a lot of pressure.

    But without a doubt, the most striking feature was the color of his eyes, where his irises had turnedpletely red, as if they had been dyed with blood.

    Those features were, of course, the result of the Blood Pill that the boss had distributed to all the executives, who in turn distributed them to the most talented members of Metal Body.

    ''Man, I really didn''t expect to be able to defeat some member of Wolf''s Fang so quickly...the effect of the pill really is amazing.''

    In fact, even though Colt was somewhat strong and had some potential, he normally wouldn''t be eligible to receive this kind of pill since he didn''t have the strength to defeat some normal Metal Body member, but due to his contribution in the previous night''s situation, the executives decided to reward him.

    The night before, after he encountered the young man who had been attacked by the hooded man and tried to chase after him, unfortunately, Colt did not encounter the man in question, so he decided to return to the ce where the victim was.

    However, to his surprise, the young man had disappeared, leaving behind a very confused Colt.

    So, thinking that perhaps the hooded man might have kidnapped the young man, Colt proceeded to search the entire area, and although he found no trace of the two, he could tell that something strange was going on in District 30.

    A few minutester his suspicions were confirmed, as several explosions resulting from the confrontation between the Metal Body executive and the Wolf''s Fang group took ce in District 30.

    However, Colt did not join the battle, after all, he knew that with his current abilities he would only be a hindrance to the executive, so he focused on something else...following Wolf''s Fang''s group.

    Although it was risky due to the fact that if they discovered him they could capture him, fortunately they split up so they could escape from the executive, which coupled with the fact that they were literally running for their lives, had increased Colt''s chances.

    As a result, Colt had discovered where two of Wolf''s Fang''s bases were located.

    While this might seem like a small thing, it was actually of great importance because one of Wolf''s Fang''s characteristics was that they changed bases from time to time.

    This is why they were able to protect several districts at the same time despite having few members.

    The executives were quite pleased with this information as it would help them decide where to concentrate their forces.

    So while Colt was not qualified enough to receive the pill, thanks to the contribution he had made, coupled with the fact that Colt was not that weak either, ended up in him being rewarded with a blood pill to be able to join the battle.

    Though only in the Districts near the entrance, of course, as the further you went into the South Zone, the stronger the members of both organizations became, most being of (D+) rank.

    And in that kind of battle, Colt, who was only able to defeat several rank (D) super at the same time thanks to the blood pill, wouldn''tst long.

    "...Hm, I think that was thest...?" He said, seeing the three Wolf''s Fang members in charge of guarding the entrance of District 29 on the ground.

    From their appearance, it was obvious that they had taken quite a beating, as their faces were quite swollen, their clothes disheveled and most of all, they were unconscious.

    ''I always thought surprise attacks were for cowards...but they are surprisingly effective...'' He thought, remembering the way he had defeated them.

    These 3 members had been chatting quietly about their stuff, unaware that Colt had been watching them for quite a while now, waiting for an opportunity to attack them.

    Finally, that opportunity came when one of them went to the bathroom, at which point Colt took the blood pill and quickly immobilized him.

    This obviously alerted the other two remaining members, who went out to look for their partner.

    But Colt was already prepared for it, so the moment they reached a dark alley and separated slightly, he quickly took the opportunity to get rid of another one of them.

    As for thest one, because there was no longer any need to hide, Colt quickly defeated him.

    In that way he had managed to defeat 3 rank (D) pugilists in less than an hour.

    Although they were members of Wolf''s Fang, with Colt in his strengthened state, plus the fact that he was using his rank (B) martial technique and a surprise attack to the fullest, they didn''t stand a chance.

    Colt had been thinking about the battle he had against the hooded man, and while he didn''t n to use as many things as he did, he hade to the conclusion that using surprise attacks and other methods was actually quite convenient.

    "Well, I guess it would be best to tie them up with something before taking them to-"

    *WOOSH!*

    Just at that moment, an object flew swiftly towards Colt.

    "!"

    Colt quickly moved to dodge the object, causing the object instead to continue on its way until it mmed into a nearby building, creating a sizable hole.

    Although the thrown object was small, it undoubtedly carried quite a lot of force, indicating the power of the person who threw it.

    "You dodged it, eh, I guess it wasn''t just luck that you had defeated my brothers." Said a man who was approaching from the opposite direction of where Colt was standing, "But, your streak ends here."

    This man was wearing a tank top that exposed his muscr arms along with jeans, but that wasn''t what was important, it was the pressure he was giving off, which was on a much different level than the supers Colt had defeated.

    The next moment, not caring about what the man said, Coltunched himself at him, activating "Territory" and "Fire Fists" at the same time, his intention was clear, he wanted to defeat this man as fast as possible.<novelnext></novelnext>

    *BAM!*

    The sound of a loud collision could be heard in the surroundings, product of the sh between the fists of both of them.

    ''How fast!'' Colt thought as he saw how quickly the man in front of him had replied.

    But before he could think of anything else, the man turned and threw a kick aimed at his head.

    Colt, who had "Territory" active, could see that instantly, so he immediately proceeded to protect his head.

    *BAM!*

    ''!''

    Even though he had blocked the kick with his arms, he still ended up retreating several steps backwards, indicative of the force contained in that kick.

    "Looks like you''re one of the annoying ones..." Said the man as he saw that Colt was able to block his kick, an annoyed expression forming on his face.

    ''That kick was hard...I''m still feeling the blow in my arm...'' Colt thought, seeing his arm shaking slightly, ''Even with the pill I''m not as strong as a true rank (D+) super, but at least it looks like we''re even...it''ll be hard to beat him though.''

    Even though he thought that, for some reason, instead of feeling scared or having doubts about his victory, all he could feel was more of a desire to want to face the Wolf''s Fang member in front of him with all he got.

    "What''s your name?" Colt asked, speaking for the first time.

    "That''s none of your business."

    "Fine then...I''ll just have them identify your unconscious body when I get you back to base!" shouted Colt, again lunging forward to attack.

    "I''d like to see you try, you bastard!" Replied the man preparing to counterattack, a vein visible on the side of his forehead, apparently what Colt said had upset him.

    *BAM!*

    From that moment on several small shes took ce, filling the surroundings with the noise of fists and kicks constantly shing.

    Although the Wolf''s Fang member had the physical superiority as he was faster and stronger than Colt, Colt wasn''t far behind either due to his great control of the surroundings thanks to "Territory" andpensating for hisck of strength with "Fire Fists".

    Without a doubt, they were tied, and it looked like they would remain that way for quite some time.

    ***

    "U...urgh..."

    At that moment, one of the Wolf''s Fang members that Colt had defeated, a 20 year old man with blonde hair started to wake up.

    "...Ouch, f*ck, that guy hits hard..." He said, getting up and remembering what had happened before he lost consciousness as he grabbed his head, "...Haa, it seems that he''s gone..."

    After looking around this darkmercial neighborhood a bit and not seeing the guy who defeated him, he calmed down a bit.

    "Now then...where are those idiots...?"

    The next problem was that he couldn''t see his other brothers, this seemed a little odd to him because he had been thest one to fall and he remembered that they had been close by.

    He thought that maybe they had woken up earlier and started looking for them.

    *BAM!*

    However, at that moment, the sound of the battle between Colt and the Wolf''s Fang member was heard again.

    The sound wasing from another neighborhood around the corner, so this man quickly rushed over there.

    Reaching the corner, he poked his head around so he could see what was going on.

    ''This...big brother!'' He thought, watching the fight between the guy who had defeated them and his older brother, ''Although, it looks like he''s having trouble!''

    After watching the battle for a bit, he realized that his brother needed a little help with the guy he was facing, so he started thinking about what he could do.

    *Tak*

    "!"

    Right then, before he could put any ns into action, the sound of someone walking came from behind him.

    He quickly turned, and that''s when he saw him, a man dressed entirely in ck, with a hood hiding his face.

    Suddenly, an idea shed through his head, that maybe...his brothers had not gone somewhere else on their own...but that this man had found them.

    The next moment, he felt something wrap around his neck....and momentster, everything went dark for him again.

 Chapter 49 - Only One Left

    *BAM!*

    ''F*ck...I''m starting to get tired already...'' Anthony thought after pulling away from Colt for a bit, taking the opportunity to take a short break.

    They had been exchanging blows for quite a while now, but because they were evenly matched and there were no outside factors interfering with their fight, this had turned into apetition of seeing who could hold on the longest.

    This was something that happened from time to time when two supers of the same rank fought, although it was much more frequent in battles of lower ranked pugilists as they did not have ess to martial techniques that could decide the oue of a battle.

    Therefore, this oue, while annoying to him, was eptable.

    Besides, he had not yet used any martial techniques, so he was not that worried either.

    However, there was something that seemed strange for him.

    ''Just who is this brat...?''

    Anthony remembered the faces and names of most of the rank (D+) Metal Body supers and he had even fought with some of them before.

    But after taking a closer look at the face of the young man in front of him, he was surprised because he didn''t resemble any of the people he knew.

    "Ha!"

    *BAM!*

    His thoughts were interrupted by Colt, who once again rushed to continue attacking him andunched a kick towards his face.

    "...So annoying..." Anthony said after blocking the kick with his arm, throwing a punch to push Colt away again.

    Unlike Anthony, Colt''s movements, although a bit slower than at first, it was evident that he was still full of energy.

    An endurance battle against someone as young as Colt was not something Anthony wanted, so he decided to end things quickly.

    "I wanted to save my energy for one of the guards...but seeing as you''re stupidly annoying, you leave me no choice."

    Immediately after saying that, his eyes began to glow a faint gray color, at the same time his hands were also engulfed in mes of the same color.

    Then, his figure seemed to temporarily fade away.

    "!"

    *BAAM!*

    "Argh!"

    Without giving him much time to be surprised, Colt received a heavy blow that sent him flying, crashing into the wall of a nearby store.

    Anthony however didn''t stop there and chased after him, not wanting to give him a chance to retaliate.

    Even though Colt had Territory activated, it was only enough to see how he was going to be hit, as the speed at which Anthony was moving was too fast for his body to follow.

    The only thing he coud do was desperately put his arms around his head, trying to block the blows that aimed to knock him unconscious.

    Ignoring this, Anthony continued to pummel Colt''s cornered body, with each blow being even faster and harder than thest, causing him to slowly sink into the concrete wall.

    Thissted for a few seconds, until finally, under the flurry of blows, the wall could take no more.

    *CRASH!*

    ''...Urgh...sh*t...'' Colt thought on the floor inside the store whose wall had now been turned to rubble. ''My whole body is hurting...and I''m having trouble breathing...it''s not good..."

    His condition was quite deplorable, there were bruises and burns all over his body from the mes Anthony had attacked him with.

    "Heh, you''re still alive." Said Anthony, who entered through the hole in the wall and cing his foot on top of Colt''s chest, "Now you see, you little sh*t brat? This is what happens when you mess with someone you shouldn''t!"

    "Urgh!" Colt let out a grunt of pain due to Anthony stepping on him hard.

    "F*ck, you only served to ruin my night."

    Anthony''s mood really was bad, not only had he wasted a lot of time with Colt, but on top of that he had also used too much energy in this fight.

    The martial technique he had used was called Rampage, in exchange for using arge amount of energy, it gave the user an explosive increase in power and speed.

    He had been saving it to take on a guardian, but Colt''s appearance ruined his ns, which coupled with the fact that he had defeated his brothers, made his mood quite a bit worse.

    "I don''t even feel like taking you to the base...I wonder if I should just kill you here and be done with it?"

    While Anthony''s words sounded like a simple threat, judging by his attitude, he seemed to mean it.

    "Although...if you beg me for your life, I might spare you, how about it?" Anthony said again, now with a smirk on his face, putting even more force on his leg, pressing hard on Colt''s chest.

    Colt''s lips parted, indicating he was going to say something, seeing this, Anthony''s mood improved a little, as it was entertaining to see something so annoying finally being put in its ce.

    "Go...f*ck yourself!" replied Colt, grabbing Anthony''s leg to stop him from stepping on him any further, squeezing with all his might.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Hearing Colt''s reply, a vein reappeared on Anthony''s forehead, who promptly lifted his leg to stomp hard on Colt.

    "!"

    Just at that moment, he could see something out of the corner of his eye that passed by his side, at the level of his neck, surprisingly, instead of following its path, the object turned in the air to wrap itself around his neck.

    Anthony, seeing this, quickly tried to grab the object, but a hand suddenly grabbed his arm, preventing Anthony from being able to do so.

    At that moment, the object finished wrapping around his neck and began to exert great pressure on that area, at the same time, the hand that was holding his arm pulled back.

    ''He wants to choke me?'' Anthony thought, throwing a kick backwards while with his other hand he tried to remove what was on his neck.

    The kick he threw made no contact with anything, indicating that the person responsible was no longer there or that he had dodged it.

    He then moved away from there, wanting to create distance between them...or at least he tried to, but something was obstructing his mobility.

    Colt was still clinging tightly to his leg, and he didn''t seem to have any intention of letting go.

    ''F*CKING BRAT!!!'' he shouted in his mind as heunched a hard kick towards Colt, which made him forcibly release his grip on his leg.

    Seeing that this was getting dangerous, Anthony immediately activated Rampage and Fire Fists, bringing his silver me coated hands towards his neck in an attempt to tear off or burn the object that seemed to want to choke him.

    However, at the same time, he felt something else clinging to his body, then, before he could think of anything else, the pressure he felt on his neck increased enormously, it seems that the attacker had climbed onto his back.

    While this was ufortable for him, the most important thing now was to get rid of the fabric around his neck., so now anxious, Anthony began to move from one ce to the other as he tried to get rid of the fabric.

    ''What is this material?!'' he thought, impressed by the strength of the fabric.

    Even though it was being exposed to the mes from his hands and Anthony was exerting a lot of force to tear it, the fabric just wouldn''t budge, it was almost as if it was made of a material specifically designed to deal with pugilists!

    The pressure was building more and more, and although he was able to endure it for now, he knew it was only a matter of time before he started to choke.

    ''If I can''t get rid of the cloth, then I just have to get rid of this bastard!'' he shouted in his mind, bringing his hands towards the person on his back.

    *BAM!*

    He started throwing punch after punch towards the figure on top of him, hitting most of them, as well as smashing his back against a wall, all to get that person off his back.

    But as if his blows were as weak as a mosquito''s bite, the person just squeezed even tighter the cloth around Anthony''s neck.

    "B-Bas...tard!" He said, his voice cracking for obvious reasons.

    Gradually, the intensity and speed at which he was thrashing decreased greatly, indicative of dwindling oxygen levels reaching his brain.

    A few secondster, all he could do was scratch his neck in ast desperate attempt to free himself.

    However, not caring about that, the man didn''t let go and instead kept squeezing even harder, as if he had some personal grudge against him.

    Until finally, in this dark store, where the only sounds that could be heard until a moment ago were muffled words, the sound of something falling to the ground was heard.

    *Thud*

    Anthony had fallen to the floor, on his face obvious signs of what had happened.

    Slowly, the cloth around his neck began to loosen, it also looked like it wanted to stop wrapping around his neck, but the man on top of Anthony didn''t let that happen, keeping it there in case he got up.

    ''Damn, this was a lot harder than nned...I guess that''s a rank (D+) pugilist for you...'' Thought Jay, who was still on top of Anthony out of caution.

    He had thought it would only be a little more difficult to when he did it to this guy''s other partners, but even though he used a surprise attack, he managed to cause Jay great damage.

    ''It hurt like hell, but it''s still weaker than the time I used Limit Breaker.''

    While Jay thought that way, the truth was that his whole body was screaming in pain right now, it was just that he...had gotten a little used to that feeling.

    "Hey..."

    Suddenly, he heard the voice of Colt, who was now standing in the rubble of the copsed part of the wall.

    He had a bloody arm, and his overall appearance was pretty bad, but his gaze still contained the same determination as always, on his face a small smile of confidence.

    Turning slowly, Jay saw Colt, and thought.

    ''Okay...he''s thest one.''

    With that, Jay immediately lunged towards Colt.

    However, before he could arrive to where Colt was, he started running away as he screamed!

    "NOPE!"

    ''Again?!'' Thought Jay, momentarily stunned before quickly following him.

 Chapter 50 - Ill Help You!

    ''WOOOOOHHH!!!'' Colt shouted in his mind as he frantically ran through the streets of the 29th district.

    Judging by the look on his face, it was obvious that he was giving it his all.

    The reason he had decided to run as soon as he could get to his feet was due to something very simple....

    He didn''t want to face the hooded man.

    The battle he had had against him was still vividly imprinted in his memories, and it was not a pleasant memory at all.

    On top of that, this guy even seemed to have gotten stronger in this short period of time!

    Therefore, knowing of the methods the hooded was capable of using and not wanting to end up hanging like the Wolf''s Fang member, he quickly tried to flee the ce.

    ''Seriously, I had to say something, I couldn''t just keep my mouth shut!'' he thought, regretting the fact that he had said "Hey" earlier in an attempt to protect his pride a bit by appearing to be stronger than he actually was.

    Although it wasn''t something verifiable, he thought that if he hadn''t spoken at all, maybe he would have been able to escape without the fear of having such a dangerous guy chasing him.

    Just like now.

    Turning his head, he could see the hooded man still chasing him, and he was getting closer and closer!

    He knew that in his current state it would be incredibly difficult to lose him, but he was reluctant to let himself be caught anyway.

    Just like that, a little cat and mousepetition began...!

    "Ack!" shouted Colt after he had stumbled.

    "..."

    Unexpectedly, thepetition ended in such an anticlimactic way before it had even started.

    There was no time for him to recover either as the hooded man took that moment to greatly cut the distance, finally catching up to him.

    ''...God...I''m dumb...'' Colt thought, feeling incredibly embarrased.

    The next moment, he felt something wrap around his neck.

    ''I guess this is it...'' He thought, closing his eyes, preparing to be choked until he passed out like the Wolf''s Fang member...or at least that''s what he hoped would happen, after all Colt didn''t knew if that man was even alive right now.

    ''No, wait, I can''t let him kill me!''

    However, just when he was about to do something, the hooded man forcibly put him to a sitting position and cornered him against a wall, putting one leg on his chest and grabbing the ends of the long cloth around Colt''s neck in case he tried to do anything.

    "Easy, I won''t do anything to you, this is just a precaution." Said the hooded man before continuing, "Besides, is that any way to treat someone who just helped you?"

    The man''s tone exuded a certain calmness and confidence, and while Colt couldn''t identify exactly how old the man in front of him was, he certainly sounded young.

    "M-maybe that''s true, but that doesn''t take away from the fact that you''re an enemy of Metal Body!" Colt replied, feeling even more embarrassed by the fact that this man had saved him.

    "Oh, but I''m not an enemy~"

    Despite the man in front of him saying that, Colt refused to believe it, after all, he had attacked 2 members of Metal Body, himself and Mark, as for Taylor...he was willing to overlook that.

    "So what are you then?!"

    "Just someone who wants to help~"

    ''...Huh?'' Colt thought, puzzled by what the hooded man had said.

    Then, without giving him time to think of more, the man asked a question.

    "Tell me, what rank do you have in Metal Body?"

    While the man''s first statement had puzzled him a bit, this question managed to do sopletely.

    After all, who asked about something like that in the middle of a situation like this?

    "I''m a regr member..." Colt replied, judging that it wasn''t really important information.

    "And the person you just confronted was a normal member of Wolf''s Fang, wasn''t he?" the man continued, "I mean, it was a confrontation between normal members of both gangs...so why did you lose so embarrassingly?"

    "..."

    This statement seemed to have affected Colt as a bitter expression formed on his face.

    "He...he was a rank-"

    "But so are you, at least for now,e on, that''s not the reason~"

    The hooded man didn''t let him finish and instead moved closer to him, as if he wanted Colt to clearly hear what he was about to say.

    "You already know...don''t you? Deep inside you, I''m sure you already know the answer..."

    "..."

    Faced with this, Colt could only duck his head as an unpleasant and bitter feeling formed inside him.

    Just as the man had said, even though he really hated thinking that way, he couldn''t help but end up thinking about it every time hepared his strength to some member of Wolf''s Fang.

    "I saw the fight, from start to finish, it''s obvious you''re under the effects of something that makes you stronger...'' Added the hooded man, "But...he still crushed you, do you know why?"

    Those words angered Colt, who was now clenching his fists tightly, ready to release all the anger he was feeling, even if it cost him dearly.

    "...It''s..."

    However, even though he felt angry, he did nothing, because he knew he wasn''t angry at the hooded man...but at himself, as those words were nothing but the truth.

    "...It''s...because I''m weak..."

    As he finished saying that, his anger greatly diminished, being reced by the same unpleasant and bitter feeling.<novelnext></novelnext>

    His gaze no longer held a hint of the usual determination seen in them, but he couldn''t be med, after all this was a problem that had been guing him ever since he was little.

    However, the masked man''s voice was heard again, this time with a slight tone of reproach in it.

    "Of course not!"

    "...What?" Colt asked, again confused.

    "The reason you lost is not because you''re weak, but because youck martial techniques!" Continued the hooded man, "Think about it, if in the battle earlier you too had the martial technique he used, would you really have lost so easily?"

    "...You think so...?"

    While what he said might have sounded like words of constion, they actually made quite a bit of sense to the now emotionally shaken Colt.

    "I know so, and as a pugilist, I''m sure you know about the difference in power between pugilists because of martial techniques, don''t you?"

    Hearing that, Colt couldn''t help but agree with him.

    Unlike espers and mages, which had different methods of strengthening themselves and various ways of using their abilities, pugilists could only rely on 3 things.

    Their bodies, the amount of Qi they possessed and finally, martial techniques.

    Although the popr belief was that neither was more important than the other and that they had a synergistic rtionship, the reality was somewhat different.

    After all, there was a big gap between two pugilists of the same rank but with a different amount of martial techniques.

    "From the look on your face I can tell you''ve already noticed~" He said, loosening his grip a bit on the cloth surrounding Colt''s neck. "Now then, the question would be what does that have to do with me wanting to help?"

    That was true, even if Colt agreed to what this man had said, that didn''t exin how he was going to help him.

    "Very simple actually, I''ll help you get more martial techniques!"

    "...Huh?"

    Without a doubt, tonight was turning out to be surprise after surprise for Colt.

    ***

    A few hours earlier, at Jay''s house, Jenny and Jay had both finished making the appropriate preparations and were now in the living room talking about the n they were to follow.

    "S-So...you weren''t nning on going in and beating your way in until you find him...?" Jenny asked, with an expression on her face that showed she truly believed that Jay could do that.

    ''...Just what do you think I am?'' Jay thought as his eyebrow rose repeatedly due to his aplice''s statement.

    "While I would love to do something like that, just taking on all the thugs in the South Zone is an incredibly difficult and exhausting task, not to mention the fact that we still have to find the ce where he''s being held captive, so that option is out of the question." Jay said, showing her the map of the South Zone he had on his smartwatch.

    "O-oh, yeah, makes sense." Jenny said, trying not to look too disappointed.

    She would have loved to see Jay wipe out all the crooks in the South Zone in a stunning disy of might and heroism, but Jenny couldn''t deny that what Jay said waspletely true.

    "Fortunately, we won''t have to deal with many people due to the fact that they''ll be busy with their own problems, and that will give us a head start on taking care of what''s our true goal, saving Noah."

    "Hm." Nodded Jenny.

    While Jenny didn''t know all the details of what was going on in the South Zone, she knew enough to understand what Jay was talking about.

    "However, for that we need 3 essential things..." Jay said, holding up 3 fingers to emphasize the importance of what he was saying as he began to exin to Jenny.

    The first of those essentials was to find a way to be able to get rid of the enemies as quickly and with the least amount of effort possible.

    This would have been a hard thing to aplish normally, but thanks to Jenny''s skill, the incredibly strong magical bandages and the new way of using the parasites that Jay had discovered just today, this had be a simple matter.

    Secondly, in order for Jenny to use her ability plus the fact that this would give them an undeniable advantage in terms of real-time information, they would have to use the drone.

    "I see, so...I''ll have to...c-choke them, right?" Jenny asked, feeling a bit nervous and gripping the edges of her skirt again.

    She knew that by offering her help in rescuing Noah might involve doing dangerous things, however, despite the fact that she wouldn''t be taking any risks and that she wouldn''t be there directly, she still couldn''t help but feel scared and nervous by what Jay had just said.

    At that moment, Jay stood up and put a hand on Jenny''s shoulder, looking her straight in the eyes.

    "Jenny, I know you''re scared...to be honest, I am too..." He said, making a bitter smile, "But I just can''t abandon Noah...you''re the only one who I can ask for help, so I''m begging you, please help me."

    After saying that, he prostrated his head against the ground, showing his sincerity.

    Seeing this, Jenny went silent for a few seconds, she had already decided to help him, so seeing Jay do something like this apparently gave her a little surprise.

    However, the next moment, a huge smile formed on her face at the same time her face blushed at an extremely fast pace, her eyes radiating indescribable happiness as she looked at Jay.

    "Don''t worry! No matter what I have to do, you can count on me!" She dered, standing up from the couch as she ced a hand on her chest to emphasize her seriousness.

    The nervousness and fear she felt moments ago had already disappeared to be reced by a fervent confidence.

    Hearing her words, Jay stood up as well, a relieved smile on his face as he once again said, "Thank you."

    "D-d-don''t worry!" Jenny said, returning to her usual shy attitude. "Oh and...you only mentioned 2 points...sorry for interrupting you earlier."

    "It''s fine, and well, thest point has to do with finding out where Noah is..."

    Jenny started to think about how they could do that, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn''te up with anything.

    Maybe they could use the drone to be able to see the South Zone from the air, but the South Zone was too big, that way of searching would definitely take too long, so curious, Jenny again asked another question.

    "And how will we do that...?"

    "We just need to find a guide...and as for how we will do it, just leave it to me~"

    Instead of resolving her doubts, Jay''s response only made her even more curious.

 Chapter 51 - I Can Be A Little Selfish, Right?

    *Tap tap tap*

    The sounds of footsteps echoed in a street of the South Zone which was quite close to the ce where Colt had confronted the members of Wolf''s Fang.

    These footsteps were the product of two men who were making their way through the dark streets of the South Zone, and although they were apparently heading for the same ce, there was some distance between them.

    ''Man...even though he says he wants to help me...I''m still not entirely sure if I should trust him...'' Colt thought, feeling somewhat doubtful, which was why he was following the hooded man with a distance of a few meters.

    After the talk they had after the hooded man caught up with him, the man didn''t end there and proceeded to exin exactly how he was going to help Colt.

    As a result, even though Colt still had his doubts as to why the hooded man wanted to help him, he decided to cooperate anyway, and that was due to 2 powerful reasons!

    Firstly, he didn''t want to face the hooded man, with the state he was in thanks to the confrontation against the Wolf''s Fang member, not to mention winning, evening out in a draw would be an incredibly difficult task for him.

    Besides, even if he somehow managed to win, he was sure that he would have to pay a rather expensive price and would likely end up with his senses being temporarily stunted...again.

    ''Urgh...'' Colt couldn''t help but shudder a little as he recalled the unpleasant and painful sensations he experienced the night he faced the hooded man, ''Although...for that very reason is that every time I think about it the more it seems to me that we''ll be able to pull it off...''

    It was certainly a strong enough motive, however, the main reason Colt agreed was because of the n the hooded man had exined to him.

    The first part of the n had to do with returning to where the 4 Wolf''s Fang members who had already been defeated were and bringing them back to the base to count as a credit to Colt.

    While he could do it alone, there was a risk that he would run into another member of Wolf''s Fang, they were in Wolf''s Fang territory after all, and it would take too much time as he would have to make two trips.

    However, with the help of the hooded man, they could take them all in one trip and they also would be able to take care of any enemy that appeared.

    This alone would already be enough for him to be able to get one or another martial technique and even a possible rank increase, but of course, that wasn''t the whole n!

    "Alright, here we are, I''ll go get the three I left in an alley while you stay and keep an eye on the one inside the shop~" The hooded man said, interrupting Colt''s thoughts.

    "...Alright."

    The hooded man only nodded in response and headed towards another street, leaving Colt alone in the darkness of this neighborhood.

    ''I''d better get started too...'' He thought as he entered the store through the same hole he and the member of Wolf''s Fang had made a few minutes ago.

    As Colt entered, he saw that the man was in the same position in which the hooded man had left him.

    ''He''s not awake yet, good...''

    Colt had been worried that maybe the man had woken up and fled in the time he was being chased, but fortunately that hadn''t been the case.

    *Shhr*

    After tearing the man''s tank top into several strips and using them to tie his arms behind his back, Colt carried him to the sidewalk before sitting down, taking advantage of the fact that the hooded man had yet to return to take a short break.

    Unfortunately, it wasn''t even 10 seconds before the sound of something being dragged reached Colt''s ears.

    "...Way to carry them..." Said Colt, who couldn''t help but smile awkwardly as he saw what was making that noise.

    What was being dragged were none other than the members of Wolf''s Fang, each tied tightly together with cloth ropes made from their own clothes, all of these ropes tied to a white cloth which was the one the hooded man was holding.

    "Is...is it safe to do it that way?" Colt asked, worried that they might wake up due to the rough treatment.

    "This is the fastest way, besides it doesn''t matter if they wake up, I''ll just have to knock them unconscious again~" The hooded man replied, making an expression of squeezing something, "More importantly, bring that guy a little closer."

    Although what the hooded man said scared him a bit, he did as he asked anyway, bringing the Wolf''s Fang member closer to him.

    *Suu*

    Thereupon, the hooded man reached out his hand towards Wolf''s Fang''s member''s neck and two long lines of bandages came out of his sleeve before intertwining around his neck.

    ''...Good grief...'' Colt thought after witnessing what the hooded man had just done, feeling relieved that he hadn''t confronted him.

    "There, with this, even if he wakes up halfway, he won''t pose any danger." He added, not giving much thought to how Colt was feeling, "Well, let''s hurry, can you carry him on your own?"

    "Y-yes, I can."

    "Then lead the way, I''ll follow you."

    Just like that, the increasingly fearful Colt and a seemingly carefree hooded man started heading towards one of Metal Body''s "bases", carrying 4 unfortunate victims.

    ***

    In a certain part of the South Zone, specifically in a neighborhood that was on the border of the 31st and 30th districts, a brown haired young man was leaning against a tall metal fence surrounding a sizable abandoned infirmary.

    Unlike most neighborhoods and streets in the South Zone, there wasn''t even a small streetlight functioning here, creating a rather gloomy atmosphere.

    Though of course, that wasn''t because there was no electricity or anything like that, but because they had all been broken on purpose since this was a somewhat sensitive area for Metal Body.

    "Ahhh, how unfair!"

    Suddenly, the young man''s shout broke the silence that had been reigning in the surroundings until a moment ago.

    "I understand that I''m not strong enough to join the battle and that my duty is to help Mr. Finn guard this ce but...why the hell did they took Fraco?!" He said before kicking the fence, clearly annoyed.

    As a Metal Body member, he was also informed of the confrontation that was taking ce in the deep parts of the South Zone.

    And like many normal Metal Body members, he wasn''t allowed to participate due to not meeting the requirements for it, and this was something that frustrated him quite a bit.

    "Haa...damn..." He said, calming down and sitting in the sidewalk, while this frustrated him, there wasn''t anything he could do about this.

    *Tap tap*

    "Hm?"

    At that moment, the sound of footsteps were hearding from the direction of District 29.

    The footsteps were heavy and slow, as if the person was carrying a lot of weight on top of them.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The young man immediately became alert and stood up to observe the ce from which the footsteps wereing, putting aside his anger.

    "Who is it?!" he shouted, quickly assuming abat stance.

    The next moment, he saw arge silhouette shrouded in shadows due to the severeck of light,ing closer and closer, making it possible for the young man to finally see who it was.

    The oversized silhouette had turned out to be Colt, and although his appearance was not the best, he was steadily advancing, carrying 2 people on each shoulder, in his eyes the same cold determination as always.

    ''So that''s Colt....but what he''s carrying...are they members of Wolf''s Fang?!'' thought the young man, incredibly surprised by what he was seeing.

    If he had only defeated a single member of Wolf''s Fang, the young man would not be so surprised, after all, while it was quite rare for a normal Metal Body member to defeat a member of Wolf''s Fang, it had happened before.

    What was shocking to him was that it wasn''t just one member of Wolf''s Fang, but four of them, so he couldn''t help but ask himself a question.

    ''Just when did Colt get so strong?''

    "Hey...could you stop staring and help me?" Said Colt, who had already approached where the young man was, waking him up from his trance.

    Although it looked like he could keep carrying them for longer, he didn''t want to use more energy than necessary.

    "O-oh, yeah, I''ming!"

    After saying that, he hurried to help Colt lower the unconscious bodies of the 4 Wolf''s Fang members, leaving them on the sidewalk for the time being.

    "All 4 are pugilists, these 3 are normal rank (D) members and this one here is rank (D+), I''m not sure if he''s a guardian or just a normal member." Colt exined, taking the opportunity to stretch his tired body.

    His attitude was confident and straightforward, just like he normally acted, and even though others might think this was somewhat arrogant, to the young man, this just made Colt look even cooler.

    "Is Mr. Finn inside?"

    "Uh, yeah, looks like he''s getting ready to leave though."

    The Mr. Finn they were talking about was the guardian assigned to guard this "base", like all the other guardians, he was a rank (D+) super.

    "Hm, I see, well, I''ll take them inside then."

    "I''ll help!"

    With that, the two began to take the 4 Wolf''s Fang members inside the base.

    However, just as they were about to enter, the door to the base opened to let out a caucasian man in histe 30''s with his most distinguishing feature being a prominent ck beard.

    "Jerry, didn''t I told you to...eh?"

    His expression was one of annoyance and haste, however, upon seeing what the young man and Colt were bringing, his expression instantly brightened.

    "Colt, how timely, apparently not everything tonight is bad news!" Said the man, his tone was quite friendly and cheerful.

    "Mr. Finn, good evening." Colt greeted, bowing slightly.

    "Boss, Colt caught 4 members of Wolf''s Fang!"

    Hearing the young man''s words, Finn''s expression changed to one of surprise, though that onlysted a second before he gave him a thumbs up along with a big smirk, "Way to go kid!"

    "I''m just doing my job, sir."

    Because Finn''s standing in Metal Body was very high even among the guards, Colt didn''t dare be disrespectful to him.

    "Then,e on in, we need to put those guys in a cage before they wake up."

    The next moment, Finn re-entered the base, motioning for Colt and the young man to follow him.

    The interior of this base was somewhat different from the main Metal Body base, which was arge warehouse remodeled so that meetings could be held inside.

    This building instead was an infirmary, although of course it had also been remodeled so that all the rooms, instead of housing patients, housed Metal Body prisoners.

    Making his way through the white main corridor, thanks to the dim light of a small spotlight which was located in the middle of the corridor, it was possible to see other corridors both to the left and to the right.

    At the end of this corridor, there was arge metal gate connecting to the courtyard.

    The 3 of them started walking down this long corridor, with Colt at the end, who was thinking about something while observing the people in front of him.

    ''...Mr. Finn is a rank (D+) esper...he would definitely be able to catch the hooded man...'' Colt thought.

    That was apletely viable option and in fact, what Colt should do at this point.

    After all, while the hooded man had exined a n that would bring many benefits to him, that didn''t take away the fact that he was being sought after by Metal Body...plus he was also a danger to the inhabitants of the South Zone.

    "Hm?" Seeing that Colt had fallen a bit behind, Finn decided to ask him about it, "Is something wrong, Colt?"

    This was the perfec opportunity, if he told him about the hooded man, while he would no longer receive as many benefits, he would still be rewarded by the 4 members of Wolf''s Fang he had brought, and more importantly than anything else, it was the right thing to do.

    "Well..."

    However, at that moment, the same unpleasant feeling he felt when the hooded man interrogated him came back, only this time it was much stronger than before.

    A small struggle between his sense of justice and his desire to be strong took ce inside him, making it harder for him to decide.

    Then, after a few seconds, he made his decision.

    "...No, it''s nothing, I just got a little distracted since I haven''t been here in a long time." Colt replied, easing the doubts of Finn and the young man, who only nodded and continued moving forward.

    ''...In order to be stronger...I can be a bit selfish...right?''

    While thinking that, he started to follow the two men in front of him.

 Chapter 52 - An Incredibly Informative Talk!

    [So, can you see where he is?] Jay typed into his smart watch.

    He was hiding in an alley a few blocks away from the base Colt was currently at, stretching his body as he waited for a response from Jenny, who was watching Metal Body''s base from the sky with the help of the drone.

    [Not yet, the windows are too small, I''ll have to get closer] She replied.

    As she had said, although the building was not a real prison and was only an imitation, it still had basic precautions such as very small windows with metal bars to ventte the rooms while preventing prisoners from escaping.

    [Okay, when you find Noah let me know].

    After writing that, Jay covered his arm again with the sleeve of the sweatshirt he was wearing and began to think about how exactly he was going to get Noah out of there.

    While the hardest part of the whole thing was still toe, he was a little less worried now that he had found Metal Body''s prison.

    In order to discover Noah''s location, Jay had even gone to the trouble of creating a detailed fake n to fool Colt''s fortunately naive mind.

    He had made sure not only that the n was incredibly attractive to Colt, but he had also purposely demonstrated his strength so that Colt would think confronting him was both dangerous and counterproductive.

    Finally, thanks to the timely members of Wolf''s Fang, they gave Jay several bargain chips which added to Colt''s insecurities plus the intimidation Jay demonstrated, resulted in the current situation.

    As for the reason he had told him, Jay didn''t put much effort into it, telling him the same story he had told Noah in the beginning, only adding certain details such as that he realized that the real viin of the South Zone was Wolf''s Fang and that he now wanted to make it up to Metal Body by helping out at this time where they would have a battle against them.

    ''I don''t have much time...but just going in like this would only be suicide...'' He thought, in his head forming various strategies to be able to defeat the people inside the building.

    In fact, the n he had told Colt also contained information about what they would do next after he finished delivering the Wolf''s Fang members, involving Colt leaving the base, which would made it easier for Jay to achieve his goal.

    However, Jay didn''t think for a second that Colt would follow the n and that he would give him away instead, so he had to hurry as much as he could, after all the only chance he would have of defeating them all would be to attack first.

    While he could take care of a weakened Colt and the other young man with rtive ease, what worried him most was the bearded man who suddenly came out of the building.

    He wasn''t entirely sure how strong he was, but judging by the slight sense of rm Jay felt when he saw him, he was sure that he wouldn''t be weak at all.

    And that wasn''t all, there was also the possibility that Metal Body had several prisons and this was one where Noah wasn''t, or that this ce wasn''t a prison at all and Colt had tricked him.

    ''...Haa, at this point I can only hope that he''s here...''

    Unfortunately, these types of risks were unavoidable.

    *ck*

    At that moment, before he could think any further, the door to the base opened, revealing Colt, the young man and the bearded man.

    ''Ah, shit, I took too long.'' He thought, opening and closing his hands to check his strength, ''Alright, I''ll have to take care of those two first, then I''ll use "Overload" on the bearded man, if there''s anyone else inside...I''ll have to take care of him before the effect wears off...''

    After thinking that, a bitter smile formed on his face, everything he had thought of was an easy matter in his head...but he knew very well that a single misstep was going to end in disastrous results.

    At once, Jay set about waiting for them to approach the alley where he had told Colt he would wait for him.

    ''...Hm?''

    However, unexpectedly both the young man and the bearded man walked back into the building, leaving Colt alone, who started walking towards the trap alley.

    Jay was surprised, he didn''t expect Colt to do this at all, after all that was basically giving up all the advantage he had and surrendering himself into the enemy''s hands.

    Wasn''t he worried that Jay could just betray him right here...?

    "Huh? Where is he...?" Colt said as he saw that there was no one in the alley.

    ''...Well, that makes things easier...''

    The next moment, Jay began to slowly approach Colt, preparing a long bandage to immobilize him in the same way he did with the Wolf''s Fang members.

    *Pin*

    Suddenly, his wrist vibrated slightly, indicating that a message had arrived on his smartwatch, so Jay stopped his march and moved a little further into the alley before reading the message.

    [Jay, Noah''s not here!]

    The message, though brief, had managed to cause a small wave of surprise to form inside Jay.

    [Can you see the four guys we immobilized earlier?]

    [Yes, they have all been put in different cells, I could also see several other people in other cells, but none of them were Noah]

    [Check one more time, please.]

    [Okay.]<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''So this really was a prison after all...''

    With the answer Jenny had given him, Jay could rule out the fact that Colt had lied to him, after all, it would be impossible for Colt to have set all this up in such a short time just for the sake of deceiving him.

    ''Argh, it''s no good being paranoid...'' He thought, scratching his head and letting out a sigh, ''Anyway, that he would havee back on his own can only mean one thing...he still thinks the n is still on, I...I can use this.''

    Although he was keeping his cool, he couldn''t help but feel uneasy due to the fact that Jenny couldn''t see Noah.

    His obviousck of information about the South Zone and Metal Body was beginning to emerge, not making it any easier for him.

    ''...Then, I will seize this moment to clear all doubts...'' He thought, forcibly suppressing the feeling of uneasiness inside him.

    The next moment, he began walking towards Colt as he opened a small hole between the bandages on his hands,rge enough to see the center of his palm.

    ***

    "Just where did he go?" said Colt with a confused expression on his face.

    Suddenly, before he could think why the hooded man wasn''t here, he felt a small thump on his neck, apanied by the voice of someone.

    "Hey!"

    "!"

    Colt quickly turned in the direction the blow hade from and when he did, he saw the now somewhat familiar hooded man he had been looking for.

    "Haha, sorry, sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood, since you look pretty tense~" The hooded man said, using the same nonchnt tone as always. "So, did you already get rewarded for the four you delivered?"

    "Please don''t do that, now is not the best time for it..." Colt replied, letting out a small sigh of relief, "And I will when tonight''s battle is over, by the way, we''d better start moving if we want to catch any lone members."

    Thereupon, Colt hurriedly started walking towards the exit of the alley, not wanting to waste too much time as other Metal Body members might be stealing several contribution points from him right now.

    "Hey, hey, take it easy, gotta get some rest first."

    However, the hooded man grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks, and before Colt could say anything, he continued.

    "I know you''re eager to go, but our physical condition, especially yours, isn''t that good, if we just go like this without further ado, we''ll just be going to get beaten."

    Hearing what he said, Colt paused momentarily before sitting down, after all, what the hooded man had said was true, even though he had been putting up a facade that he was fine in front of Finn and the young man, he was actually considerably tired and injured.

    Jay then also proceeded to sit down, somewhat away from Colt, though his goal was not to rest, but to engage him in conversation.

    "You know, I honestly didn''t think you were able to defeat 3 pugilists of your own rank in such a short time, it was pretty exciting to watch~"

    "Oh, um, thanks..." Colt replied scratching his head, not quite knowing how to act in the face of such an unexpectedpliment.

    Just like that, Jay began to converse with Colt, giving him apliment every now and then while finding out more about him.

    Normally it would be a somewhatplicated task as the other party would not be so friendly from the start, however, in the face of Jay''s exceptional conversation making skills, a person with few social skills like Colt couldn''t help but be swept up in his pace.

    Plus, Colt was unexpectedly enjoying this talk a bit.

    Bringing his gaze to Jay, Colt could see the same attire as always, ck sportswear, and where there should be skin, only bandages could be seen, wrapping both his face and hands, only leaving one small part free, his eyes.

    This attire would undoubtedly cause a normal person to feel fearful or at least be on guard, even he himself had felt that the first time he saw him, but for some reason, Colt now found this mysterious figure much friendlier than the vast majority of his Metal Body''spanions.

    In the midst of conversation, Jay would asionally take the opportunity to ask a question about Metal Body, camouging it as a question about what his work routine was like or something simr.

    Colt found Jay''s sudden interest a bit odd, and in fact, a part of him was telling him that he shouldn''t be divulging things about Metal Body so freely, specially to a stranger.

    However, he now no longer saw Jay as a mere stranger, but as a person he had some trust in, so even though he felt a little awkward, he didn''t mind very much sharing some basic information with him.

    In that way, after a few minutes of talking, Jay managed to discover key information about Noah''s abduction and this prison, which coupled with Jenny''s second confirmation allowed him to find out what had happened.

    ''...F*ck.''

    And he didn''t like it at all.

    Noah had been kidnapped by Metal Body, who knew of his true identity, that part was easy enough to guess.

    However, when Colt entered the prison, he chatted a bit with Finn, the person in charge of guarding this prison, and he revealed that his previous sour mood was because a new and special prisoner didn''t arrive today.

    Plus, only a short time ago he heard that the people in charge of transporting the new prisoner had also disappeared, so of course his mood wouldn''t be the best.

    While this just managed to upset Finn, for Jay, this had changed everything.

 Chapter 53 - Victory On One Side, Trouble On The Other

    In a fairly deep part of the South Zone, in a small 2-story building which served as one of Wolf''s Fang''s temporary bases.

    *BAM!*

    The sound of a loud bang could be heard in the vicinity, product of a man punching a person hard enough to send him flying for several meters, forcibly taking him out of the window of the building.

    *ng!*

    "Urgh!"

    This young man couldn''t help but let out a cry of pain as his body was forcibly brought to a halt by mming into a metalmppost, bending it in the process, proving that hisnding had been anything but soft.

    "You don''t know how much I''ve waited for this day, haha." The vibrant voice of a stocky but average height man sounded from the now broken window, "Moreover, I''m not done with you yet!"

    If Colt were here, he could definitely recognize this man as Chuck, the guardian of District 30.

    Just like Colt, several veins were visible on different parts of his body, such as his arms, neck and some on his forehead, and of course, the most striking aspect of all, his blood red eyes.

    It was obvious that he was also under the effects of the blood pill, however, unlike Colt, Chuck had been granted one due to his own strength.

    He then jumped towards the street, only a few meters away from his victim, activating his ability to reduce the damage from the fall as he prepared to finish off the young man in front of him.

    The next moment, before he could even straighten up, a man suddenly rushed at him, it was clear from its speed and posture that it intended to attack him.

    However, before it could even touch a single hair of Chuck, the man''s speed suddenly slowed tremendously, as if he was being restrained by an enormous weight.

    "Sh*t!" said the figure, trying to free himself from this annoying restriction.

    "Hey,e on, don''t be so careless..." Reproached a woman''s voice which came from inside the 2-story building from which Chuck had just jumped.

    This woman had silky ck bowl-cut hair, her skin was olive-colored and she had nted eyes which expressed some disinterest.

    Like Colt, aside from being an esper with the power of telekinesis, she was also under the effects of the blood pill.

    "Oh, thanks for that!" Chuck said, giving a thumbs up to the woman who was exiting the building before turning his gaze towards the figure who had wanted to attack him, "As for you, you didn''t really escape huh, wow, you''re more of an idiot than I thought."

    "F*ck off, you Metal Body scum, if it wasn''t for the drugs you took, we''d be sweeping the floor with you right now!" Replied the man, who had turned out to be a member of Wolf''s Fang which had escaped a few moments ago,

    Both Chuck and the woman didn''t bother to reply to what he said and instead just went about their business.

    Chuck then proceeded to approach the young man who was leaning against the metalntern.

    The woman in the other hand raised her hand as she seemed to squeeze something, exerting force on the neck of this Wolf''s Fang member with her skill.

    "These are thest of them, right?" the woman asked Chuck, turning her head as she slowly suffocated the Wolf''s Fang member.

    "Yep, with that, we would have destroyed 2 bases already, if we keep this up, we can definitely get a nice bonus after this!" Replied Chuck, rather cheerfully.

    Hearing Chuck''s reply, a slight smile formed on the woman''s face, after all, the bonuses the boss gave were by no means small, especially when the achievement had been nothing less than destroying enemy bases.

    In that way, they both managed to wipe out one of Wolf''s Fang''s bases thanks to their personal strength and the advantage that the blood pill gave them.

    This was a scene that was taking ce in quite a few ces in the South Zone, with all the Metal Body members who were eligible to participate in this battle attacking all the Wolf''s Fang bases in their path and wiping out any enemy they saw.

    Taking into ount that each of them were rank (D+) supers boosted with the blood pill, plus the fact that they were all in groups of at least 3 people, they were basically unstoppable against the few members of Wolf''s Fang.

    Judging by this amount of force that Metal Body was using, it was clear that they werepletely determined to wipe out Wolf''s Fang once and for all.

    "By the way... are you sure Mark is okay...?" The woman asked, pointing to a young man who was hiding in the shadows of the building they had emerged from.

    His appearance, while also indicating that he was under the effects of the blood pill, was the same as always, although a bit paler than normal.

    However, his expression was that of a person whose soul had been snatched away, just staring at a nk space as he muttered, "A monster..."

    "Uh...yeah, don''t worry, it''s just that he got a good scare a while back and has yet to recover from that, it''ll wear off in a few days..." Chuck replied, making an awkward smile.

    Even though he had said that, he really wasn''t sure when Mark would be back to his old self.

    ***

    At the same time that Chuck was filling up with worries, deep in the South Zone, specifically in the districts around District 10, the entire area had be without a doubt the most dangerous ce in the entire South Zone.

    *BOOM!*

    One explosion after another resounded in multiple districts, each explosion was apanied by the loud sound of pieces of debris falling to the ground, which obviously came from the surrounding buildings, of which some were even just a step away from copsing.

    The reason for all this destruction was due to none other than the Metal Body executives shing with the Wolf''s Fang guardians.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Normally Metal Body would limit the damage they caused to the surroundings due to it not being beneficial if they destroyed possible homes for the other inhabitants of the South Zone, however, facing Wolf''s Fang guardians and due to not wanting to spend any more time than necessary, they could not afford to limit their strength.

    "AARGH!"

    *BOOOM!*

    Another explosion, this time much louder than the previous times suddenly resounded, apanied by the scream of a man, who flew off until he crashed heavily into a nearby two-story building, breaking a concrete wall in the process.

    "D-damn it..." He managed to say, albeit with great difficulty.

    The hit had undoubtedly been incredibly strong, in fact, it was strong enough to kill a rank (D+) super, but despite that, the man quickly got up, revealing his sorry state.

    Both his clothes and body were stained with blood and several wounds could be seen all around his body, some were even so terrible that not a bit of skin could be seen, only scorched flesh.

    "I have to get out of here as soon as possible...!" The man said, a panicked look was visibly stered on his face.

    However, before he could even take a step forward, two people quickly rushed towards this man, pinning him to the ground and creating arge crack that moved the entire 2-story building.

    This time the man didn''t even have a chance to scream before everything went dark for him, it was not known if he had simply lost consciousness or worse, but the people causing this disaster didn''t seem to care in the least.

    Then, the taller of the two activated his ability, which manifested itself by surrounding his fists with a small energy field, the next moment, he hit the man on the ground with all his strength, sinking his body even deeper into the ground.

    *CRASH!*

    If before it wasn''t clear if the man was still alive or not, now there was no doubt left at all, these two men had finished him off.

    "Alright, that''s another guardian down." Said the person who had finished off this man, whose appearance also made it clear that he was under the effects of the blood pill.

    "Well, let''s meet up with the boss'' group then." His partner replied as he turned on his smartwatch to call their boss.

    These two people were Metal Body executives, and the person they had just eliminated was the guardian of this district.

    Like the other executives, they had been tasked with taking out all the guardians surrounding Wolf''s Fang''s main base, to cut off any reinforcements that mighte from the outside.

    At first they had been expecting much greater resistance, but unexpectedly, the power of the blood pills had been enough topletely overpower this guardian, which it should be mentioned, was a rank (C-) super.

    After waiting a few seconds, the call connected.

    "Boss, we''re done with the District 13 guardian, this turned out to be easier than we thought, you need us to do something else-"

    *Tap tap tap*

    ""!""

    Suddenly, they both heard the sound of footsteps, so they immediately activated their abilities and prepared to receive an attack, cutting off the call with the boss due to the fact that they needed all their concentration for this.

    The taller of the two encircled his arms with the same transparent energy field from before and raised his guard.

    His partner also did the same, with the only difference being that instead of an energy field, a heat of great intensity could be felting from him.

    They stood back to back, that way they would cover whatever direction the attack came from.

    However, after waiting for a few seconds, nothing happened, although they did not let their guard down anyway.

    Just when they were about to move, the taller of the two caught something in the corner of his eye, it was a ck-haired young man who came from above and was throwing a kick towards his partner!

    "Watch out!" he shouted pushing his partner away and taking his ce while raising both arms to block the attack.

    Although it might seem dangerous, since his skill was focused on defense, he was pretty sure he would be able to withstand any kind of attack.

    *CRACK!*

    "Argh!"

    However, despite that, the sound of bones being fractured could still be heard, and not only that, it was even enough to force him to his knees, creating a small crater in the ground due to the strenght of the kick.

    "You!" The next moment, the man''spanionshed out at the attacker.

    Unfortunately, seeing that he wasn''t able to finish off his opponent with a single attack, the young man jumped andnded several meters away from both of them, giving the Metal Body member no chance to attack him.

    "Wow, your friend is pretty tough." Said the young man, with a small smile of arrogance on his face as he assumed a 4-legged stance and gathered strength in his legs, "Be that as it may, since you dared to step into Wolf''s Fang territory, you definitely won''t get out of here...!"

    After saying that, he again lunged at them, only at a much faster speed than before.

 Chapter 54 - Getting Closer

    After discovering that Noah wasn''t actually in Metal Body''s prison, Jay chatted a bit more with Colt before he retrieved his little ones and both headed towards an area controlled by Wolf''s Fang to continue their search for Colt''s contribution points.

    ''...Ahh, how I wish I had another regeneration pill right now...'' Jay thought, following Colt closely.

    Although the situation had undoubtedly be extremelyplicated now that he discovered that Noah was in Wolf''s Fang''s hands, he was still keeping calm and thinking about how to rescue Noah anyway since panicking would not help at all.

    As for how he discovered that Wolf''s Fang were the ones holding Noah, it wasn''t that hard to guess, after all, in the South Zone, who besides Wolf''s Fang would be capable of messing so openly with Metal Body?

    Finally, while he also thought that the information Colt told him might be false, Jay dismissed that idea quickly, not because he trusted Colt, but because he trusted his little ones, who were adamant that Colt was telling the truth.

    The talk with Colt actually not only helped him figure out about Noah''s whereabouts, but also confirmed another of the parasites'' abilities outside of assimting other people''s abilities and being able to power Jay.

    Unlike the time when Jay got the system, he could now feel how he had an even stronger connection with the parasites, being able to more or less discern what they were feeling and what they wanted to express to him.

    He had already had a slight suspicion of this when he infected Carl, but in the absence of other hosts and suitable situations to be able to test this theory of his, he could only wait until the next opportunity to confirm this, which fortunately came when he conversed with Colt.

    While Jay had only tested it on two people so far, he was almost certain that parasites could also affect a person''s judgment to be seen as trustworthy, or at least that was what Jay felt when he spoke with Colt.

    At first Colt had been very cautious towards him, which waspletely understandable and something Jay had noticed right away, however, the moment Jay again infected him with his parasites, his attitude took a 180 degree turn.

    His posture, attitude and the way he addressed Jay, all of them indicated that Colt felt significantly morefortable with him.

    And although it was quite beneficial, it had a very clear limit, it only helped to create a favorable impression of Jay, so things like ordering him around or forcing Colt to tell him personal secrets remained a definite no.

    At least that''s what he thought, since he felt that there was a lot more to discover about this characteristic of his little ones.

    ''Hm...though I doubt creating a favorable impression on someone from Wolf''s Fang is going to be helpful in this situation...''

    After a few minutes, the two arrived at the next district controlled by Wolf''s Fang, however, to their surprise, even after searching through several neighborhoods, they failed to find a single person.

    "Looks like we came toote..." Colt said a bit disappointed.

    Just as he had said, the guardians of this area had long since been defeated by the guardians of Metal Body, as for their whereabouts, neither of them knew nor were they interested in finding out.

    "Don''t you have some way of knowing where yourpanions are?" asked Jay, "That way we could find out where they are and thus avoid those areas."

    "Oh, right." Colt replied, turning on his smart watch before opening Palu and entering into a group chat, "Well, I won''t know exactly where they are, but with this I''ll at least be able to see where they''ve gone...at least that''s what I hope."

    Looking a little closer, Jay could see that this chat group had quite a few members, some even had their profile pictures included, among them there were 2 people he could recognize, one was thepanion of the man who fainted in front of him, and the other was the guardian of the entrance to the South Zone.

    Although there was the asional message from unknown people, the one who was posting and sending images the most was none other than thepanion of the man who fainted, mainly uploading pictures of what appeared to be unconscious Wolf''s Fang members.

    Apparently it was a group chat for all Metal Body members.

    "How...unexpected." Jay couldn''t help but say that out loud.

    Who would have thought that Metal Body, one of the two ruling organizations of the South Zone, the most dangerous ce in Nightown City, would have a group chat where everyone couldmunicate with each other.

    But Jay wasn''t surprised only for that, but also due to the fact that when he and Noah checked Taylor''s smart phone, they didn''t discover anything simr.

    However, taking into ount that someone had thanked him for beating Taylor up, he could already get an idea of why he wasn''t in this group.

    "Hm...not good, looks like all the outer districts have already been cleared..." Colt said after giving the messages a quick nce, "Damn..."

    Colt''s mood got a little worse after this, but there was nothing he could do about it, so he could only go home, at least he managed to catch 4 members, which was something.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But just as he was about to tell Jay to go back, a message from the temporary guardian of the Zouth Zone, Aiden, appeared in the group chat.

    [All those who have finished with their respective districts gather at the center of District 8, we need reinforcements.]

    "!"

    This message managed topletely shake Colt, but it waspletely understandable, after all, District 8 was an area where the Metal Body executives were currently fighting.

    It was a battle where the requirement to enter was to be of rank (C-) at the very least, in no way was a ce where even the elite members of Metal Body could enter.

    And it was for that very reason that this message shocked him, just how bad was the situation there that they even had to call in reinforcements from the obviously weaker rank (D+) members?

    "Apparently the situation in the main battle isn''t good..." Colt said looking at the message on his smart watch, even though he was aware that he would only get his ass kicked, he still wanted to help with all he had.

    *CRASH!*

    Suddenly, they both heard the sound of a heavy object crashing into something, quite simr to when the wall of the store that Colt crashed into copsed.

    However, what struck them most was the fact that in the midst of that noise, they also seemed to have heard a person''s voice.

    The next moment, a message arrived on Jay''s smartwatch.

    [Jay, there''s a confrontation in the next district, it''s 3 people against 2, thetter have just thrown one of them against a building, it seems they are stronger.]

    ''So that''s what it is...nice, if we manage to capture them, I will be able to interrogate them and thus find out where''s their prison, or even if they know where Noah is, but first, we need a n..."

    After reading the message, Jay wanted to tell Colt what should they do, but unexpectedly, he had already started running in the direction the noise hade from.

    "...This guy..." Jay said, smiling bitterly before following him.

    ***

    "Take this!" Shouted an ordinary looking man dressed in sportswear as he threw his fist forward, several stone fragments surrounded his fists, and although they might look like an injury, they were actually part of this man''s skill.

    Faced with this attack, however, his opponent simply dodged it as if the fist was in slow motion and instead sent another punch straight into the man''s ribs.

    Fortunately, the man reacted quickly and covered that part of his ribs with stone fragments, greatly decreasing the damage he received, although the blow still forced him back several steps.

    ''Just where did this guys came from...'' The man thought, raising his hands as he took a close look at the person in front of him.

    This man was a member of Metal Body, while the other was a member of Wolf''s Fang, they were an esper and a pugilist respectively, as for their ranks, both were (D+) rank.

    He was confused because only half an hour ago he and hispanions had taken care of the guards from the previous district, however, these 2 people suddenly appeared.

    Moreover, although they were supposed to have the advantage since they were under the effects of the blood pill, the difference in power between them was clear.

    "Hey hey, are you sure you can afford to wait? I''m sure I broke a few bones when I threw your friend against that building, sorry for that, he was a lot lighter than I thought, haha." Laughed the Wolf''s Fang member pointing to a nearby one story building.

    "Shut the f*ck up, assh*le!"

    Hearing his words, the Metal Body member couldn''t help but get angry andsh out at his enemy, even though he knew he couldn''t hurt him much, there was no other way out of this situation.

    With one of his teammates out ofbat and the other one upied, he had to take care of the man before him by himself, and even though he had fearlessly lunged forward to attack....he knew that the odds of him winning were not high at all.

 Chapter 55 - Teamwork

    "Argh!" shouted the Metal Body member after blocking another kick of the Wolf''s Fang member, which forced him back.

    Although they fought evenly matched at first, the difference in strength had been bing more and more obvious as time passed.

    In fact, the Metal Body member''s arms, which had been covered in stone fragments at the beginning of the fight, now had barely a few fragments protecting his arms, indicative of the damage he had taken.

    Since his skill was mostly focused on defense, the fact that despite having been focused on defending, his arms had still ended up that way was a clear indication of his opponent''s great destructive power.

    He had faced a few members of Wolf''s Fang before, however, none of them had been strong enough to make him feel that he had no chance of winning, however, the man before him was different.

    He knew what would happen if he lost, so this was no longer simply a gang showdown, this was a fight with his life on the line.

    And this, even though he didn''t want to feel that way, inevitably made the Metal Body member feel more and more afraid.

    "Heh, I like that expression, it looks like you already realized the difference between your shitty gang and ours." Said his opponent, an expression of mockery and disdain on his face, "Too bad...it''s already toote!"

    The next moment, he againshed out at the Metal Body''s member at an even greater speed than before due to him using a martial technique that improved his speed.

    Faced with this, the Metal Body member, who couldn''t even deal with his opponent''s normal speed, only managed to generate a few more stone fragments in a desperate attempt to block the attack.

    "Now die, you piece of trash!"

    "COME THEN!!!" Shouted the Metal Body member to give himself more courage as he closed his eyes and put his arms in front of him, gathering all the remaining energy he had to defend himself.

    *BAM!*

    The sound of two objects colliding could be heard, apanied by the sound of something skidding on the ground.

    However, the Metal Body''s member, who had closed his eyes out of fear, was still in the same ce,pletely intact.

    "...What a damn nuisance." Said the Wolf''s Fang member, who had been forcibly forced back a few steps due to the sudden kick he received.

    Slowly opening his eyes, what the Metal Body member saw was that there was someone in front of him.

    It was a stocky young man slightly taller than him, with unkempt but clearly visible white-colored hair along with sharp teeth.

    Although his appearance was considerably bad with bruises here and there, for some reason, looking at his broad back, all he could feel was an indescribable sense of security.

    "Colt!" The man eximed, waking up from the light trance he was in.

    "Hey, I came to help." Colt said, not taking his eyes off the Wolf''s Fang member, cautious of any movement.

    Hearing his words, the man was momentarily relieved, though that onlysted a second before he was again filled with worry.

    After facing him for quite some time, he had already realized the reason why there was such a wide gap between the two despite him being under the effects of the blood pill.

    The man in front of him was not a mere rank (D+) pugilist, but was just one step away from bing a rank (C-) pugilist!

    Although there was no official ranking for this rank, it was a fairly well-known fact between the supers.

    While it was true that when a (D-) rank super advanced in rank to (D) or (D+) there was only a change in the amount of energy they had and could use, that changedpletely if one wanted to advance to the (C) grade realm.

    It was no longer a simple advancement in rank, but aplete step up in the hierarchy of life, gaining absolutely superior power to what a mere rank (D+) super could ever achieve.

    Therefore, although a rank (D+) super apparently only had to take one step to advance to (C-) grade, it was an anormous step, which created that there were rank (D+) supers with much greater power than average supers of the same rank.

    And the person in front of them was one of those supers....

    Just as he was about to warn Colt, the Wolf''s Fang member again moved at tremendous speed.

    Considering that there was only a short distance between them, he arrived practically in an instant beforeunching a kick towards Colt''s face.

    The movement had been incredibly fast, but thanks to having activated Territory beforehand, Colt was able to predict the move, moving to the side to avoid the kick, sessfully avoiding being knocked out as soon as the battle begun.

    He had learned his lesson with the Wolf''s Fang guardian, facing an opponent who clearly had more strength than him, instead of blocking the blows and exchanging damage for damage as he did before, it would be best to dodge whenever he could, avoiding taking unnecessary damage and increasing his chances of winning.

    Of course, the Wolf''s Fang member didn''t stop with just that, he also started throwing several punches towards Colt, aiming mainly at his face, his goal was clear, he wanted to finish Colt off as fast as possible.

    ''He''s strong and fast...but I can still predict where he wants to hit me!'' thought Colt, focusing all his concentration on the opponent in front of him.

    Although he wanted to counterattack, the Wolf''s Fang member simply didn''t give him a chance to do anything, forcing Colt further and further back.

    "Didn''t you came to help? Stop running and face me then!" shouted the Wolf''s Fang member angrily, irritated by the fact that Colt was managing to avoid all of his blows.

    At once, his fists became engulfed in mes as heunched a punch with his right fist, while it looked like a normal punch, Colt could feel that the power contained in it was much greater than before.

    ''It''sing from the right, he''s aiming at my face again!'' Colt thought, moving his body to dodge the iing blow.

    However, just at that moment, the Wolf''s Fang member suddenly turned andunched a kick aimed towards his head.

    Even though Colt had Territory active, the movement had been so fast and sudden that he barely had time to perceive it.

    ''Sh*t...!''

    The distance was too short and the kick was already practically inches away from his face, he couldn''t dodge this even if he wanted to so instead he just gathered all the qi in his body around the left side of his face.

    While that defense wouldn''t aplish much, at least he wouldn''t end up dead.

    However, the kick never actually hit Colt, in fact, it had missed horribly by several inches.

    "What..." Let out the Wolf''s Fang member as he saw this.

    The reason he had missed wasn''t due to hisck of practice or anything like that, while the quick transition from a feint to a kick had resulted in his stance being a bit awkward, for a pugilist of his level, this was a minimal problem.

    What had caused him to miss so embarrassingly then?

    Bringing his gaze back to the sudden sensation he felt just seconds ago in his right leg, what the Wolf''s Fang member could see was a white cloth wrapped around his ankle.

    "What the f*ck-"

    *BAM!*

    "Ack!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Without even letting him finish his sentence, he received a hard punch to his face, forcing him to recoil as he let out a small cry of pain.

    "You piece of sh*t...!" the man shouted grabbing his nose, now visibly more enraged than ever as he grabbed the cloth with his ming hands, wanting to burn it, without taking his eyes off Colt.

    Faced with this, Colt just ignored the man''s shout andshed out at him, he knew how tough that cloth was and who was holding it, so he had to take this opportunity to do as much damage to his opponent as possible.

    Seeing Colt approaching and that for some reason the cloth simply wouldn''t burn, the Wolf''s Fang member became even more exasperated, grabbing the cloth with both hands to tear it.

    While he could have ignored it to focus on defeating Colt, that would be too risky, the force with which it had pulled his ankle earlier had proven to be enough to disrupt his attacks, the consequences that would bring would be obvious so he decided to first get rid of this cloth before doing anything.

    However, no matter how much strenght he put into his arms, the fabric didn''t even show signs of stretching, let alone tearing.

    "JUST WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?" Shouted the Wolf''s Fang member, his face now a deep red color due to all the effort he was putting in, "Argh, whatever, I''ll just have to deal with you first!"

    As soon as he finished saying that, he again proceeded to throw another punch towards Colt, however, he couldn''t even get closer to him, all due to the cloth on his right ankle constantly interrupting his movements.

    While it was quite annoying, the worst part of it all was without a doubt the fact that it did so at the most opportune moment, just when he was about to attack and his posture was most unstable.

    The result of this was that he had already received dozens of hits from Colt, who was now focusing entirely on attacking rampantly like a wild animal due to the fact that he knew that with the disruption of the cloth, no attack from the Wolf''s Fang member would manage to hit him.

    "ARGHHH! YOU CHEATERS!" shouted the Wolf''s Fang member at the top of his lungs forcibly pushing Colt away, his face was nowpletely red in color, although it was no longer due to the effort, but the anger he was feeling at the moment, "SINCE YOU MANAGED TO PISS ME OFF, BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES!"

    At that moment, the Metal Body member''s eyes began to give off a red-colored glow, the atmosphere also became considerably heavier at the same time as all the qi in the area was directed towards him.

    At first the Metal Body member simply wanted to use a martial technique that increased his strength, but something inside him urged him to use even more energy at this moment, which he did.

    Perhaps it was the pressure of facing a skilled enemy,bined with the incandescent anger he was feeling at this moment which aplished something that not even months of training had been able to do.

    It was clear, right now...the Wolf''s Fang member was advancing in grade!

    "HAHAHA, I CAN FEEL IT, YOU BASTARDS ARE ALL GOING TO DIE-!"

    *BAM!*

    "Gah!"

    However, even though this was an important moment for him, Colt couldn''t care less as he continued his flurry of attacks.

    "HEY, DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!" again shouted the man, in an attempt to intimidate Colt, although he didn''t move an inch, of course, this wasn''t because he didn''t want to, but because he was simply incapable of doing so.

    This was because when a super was advancing in grade, taking into ount the enormous change this would generate in that individual''s body, it was necessary not to make any abrupt movements in the process, as there could be irreversible results otherwise.

    Once again disregarding his words, Colt kept on punching and kicking as if there was no tomorrow, slowly doing more and more damage to him.

    ''Phew, fortunately this guy is only a rank (D) pugilist...'' Thought the Wolf''s Fang member, enduring the beating Colt was giving him, ''If it''s only this, I''ll be able to calmly move on, just wait, you little piece of sh*t, I''ll make sure that not even your corpse is left!''

    While Colt''s punches were fast and contained some power, he was certainly capable of withstanding something like this for a few minutes, so he rxed a bit.

    *CRACK!*

    "ARGH!"

    However, an incredibly painful and loud thud apanied by the unpleasant sound of bones being broken suddenly assaulted him, bringing him back to reality.

    Turning his head towards the direction he felt the hit, he could see his first opponent, the Metal Body member, who had attacked him with his stone covered arms, which had almost fully recovered.

    "ALRIGHT, HOLD ON, I''M SURE WE CAN DISCUSS THIS!"

    Now that a true rank (D+) super had joined, he was no longer so sure he could hold out that long.

    *BAM!*

    "!"

    Again he took a hit, although this time, unlike Colt''s light but quick blows or the Metal Body member''s strong blows, he could only describe this sensation with 2 words.

    Incredibly heavy.

    It was so heavy that even him, a pugilist at the top of the rank (D+) couldn''t help but see stars when it hit him.

    In front was Colt, while behind was the Metal Body member, so the hit could onlye from one of his sides, specifically, his right side.

    Slowly turning his head to the right, he could see the one who was undoubtedly the culprit of what had happened.

    A tall young man wrappedpletely in ck clothes, although his face was hidden by a hood, he could still distinguish that he was wrapped in bandages.

    Although the appearance of this young man was peculiar, that wasn''t what caught his attention the most, but the fact that he was holding a huge, thick piece of concrete above his head, the concrete in question was already a bit stained with blood, obviously his own.

    "O-OI, DID YOU REALLY JUST HIT ME WITH THAT?!" The man asked in panic.

    Then, disregarding the Wolf''s Fang member''s words, the three continued their unbridled disy of violence.

    "YOU FILTHY CHEATERS, I SWEAR I''LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"

    *BAM!*

    "ALL RIGHT, LET''S NEGOTIATE, WHAT DO YOU WANT, CREDITS?! I CAN GIVE YOU A LOT OF THEM!"

    *BAM!*

    "P-PLEASE, STOP!"

    *BAM!*

    "STOOOP!!!!"

    *BAM!*

    After a few short but incredibly torturous moments for the Wolf''s Fang member, his body simply could take no more and he copsed to the ground, a bloody mess.

    Thus, the grade advancement of a formidable Wolf''s Fang pugilist was sessfully interrupted thanks to the teamwork of 2 Metal Body members and a guy with a chunk of concrete.

 Chapter 56 - Are You Ok?

    ''So this is the difference in power between a rank (D+) super and someone who is about to be a rank (C-) super eh...'' Jay thought while he tied the Wolf''s Fang member arms with a short piece of his bandages.

    Because Jay was an avid reader, not only were his grades in school better than average, but he also knew things that were not as well known among ordinary people.

    Therefore, he knew that there was a considerable power difference between a rank (D+) super and one who was about to advance in grade, he just...didn''t really think it was going to be that big of a difference.

    As with Colt, Jay had also noticed that the Metal Body member in front of him was also under the effects of a certain drug that strengthened them, and while Jay wasn''t entirely sure, he could estimate that the Metal Body member was stronger than the average rank (D+) super.

    However, even with that, he still took a one-sided beating from the Wolf''s Fang member.

    ''It seems that Noah wasn''t exaggerating when he said Wolf''s Fang emphasized quality over quantity...'' He thought, increasing his caution against Wolf''s Fang members.

    "This guy was really tough..." Said the Metal Body member as he eyed the now unconscious Wolf''s Fang member before turning to speak to Colt. "Good thing you came at the perfect time Colt, I really don''t think I would have survived if it wasn''t for your help..."

    "I don''t think this is the right time to talk, tell me, was he alone?" Colt asked while pointing to the Wolf''s Fang member, disregarding his thanks, though it wasn''t intentional, it was just that there was something more important to do at the moment.

    "Ah, sh*t, that''s right, we must hurry, follow me!" The man said as he started running towards another neighborhood.

    Colt also began to follow him.

    "Hold it right there!" Shouted Jay, getting in front of the two.

    "Get out of the way, if we don''t hurry, Damien might get killed!" The man replied without stopping his advance, an expression of urgency and anger on his face as he swung his arm to push Jay out of the way.

    However, before he could do so, his arm was stopped by Colt, who was right behind the man.

    "The only thing you''ll aplish by heading there right now is to have the Wolf''s Fang member beat you up again, after all, I''m sure he''s just as strong if not stronger than the one we just took down." Jay added, somewhat surprised that Colt had stopped the man, though it didn''t show on his face, "Besides, if the 3 of us go together, he might get scared to face us and run away, if that happens, no one will be able to stop him."

    Jay was fully aware that the oue of the previous fight, while it had ended in his victory, that had been because the Wolf''s Fang member thought that his opponents were only two, which gave him the confidence to keep fighting.

    Instead, had he known that he was actually facing three people at the same time, not to mention running away, he might even have regrouped with his partner, utterly destroying Colt and Jay''s chances of winning.

    It was for that very reason that Jay had decided to catch him with his bandages instead of simply joining the fight, although fortunately he didn''t have to use them to stop the Wolf''s Fang member from running away, that didn''t take away from the fact that it was possible.

    "...So what can we do then?" the man asked, though Jay''s words had bothered him a bit, he couldn''t deny that what he said was true.

    Hearing his words, even though no one could see his face because of the bandages he was wearing, Jay smiled.

    "I have a n~"

    ***

    After a few minutes, in a neighborhood two blocks from where Jay and Colt had helped the Metal Body member, another "battle" was taking ce.

    The appearance of this neighborhood was apparently no different than any other in the South Zone, with 2 and 3 story buildings and the asional storefront adorning one side of the sidewalk.

    However, if one were to look more closely at the sidewalks, the buildings or even the road itself, they might notice that there were sphere-shaped chunks missing from each, it was if someone had scooped a perfect scoop out of them as easily as if it was ice cream.

    "Haa...ha..." The sound of a man''s heavy breathing could be heard amidst the strangely dpidated neighborhood.

    This young man''s appearance was bad, with the left side of his face stained with blood, one eye closed and the torn state of his clothes, which revealed several bruises, it was clear that he was not having a good time.

    In both hands were what appeared to be two spheres made of concrete, but the grip he had on them was somewhat weak, almost as if he was going to release them at any moment.

    "You''re already reaching your limit eh, bastard?" Said the person in front of him with a tone of mockery, it was a man in his early twenties with a rough and stocky appearance, although this person was not tall, he was not short either.

    But without a doubt, what was most striking about this man was that his right arm was missing arge chunk of flesh, as if the same thing that had happened to the surroundings had also happened to his arm.

    "That''s right, I''m getting tired, so why don''t youe closer so we can get this over with?" Replied the young man with an indifferent expression on his tired face, "Or the only knowledge you have in your little brain is how to throw stones?"

    Hearing his taunt, the man''s expression changed to one of anger, but he made no move anyway, as it was too risky to try to get close to this young man.

    It wasn''t because he was weak, in fact, he was only slightly less strong than his partner, who was about to be a rank (C-) super, so he could easily defeat an average rank (D+) super as long as he gave it his all.

    What made him fearful however, was the ability of the young man in front of him.

    Although the Wolf''s Fang member didn''t quite know the details of his ability, with what he had seen so far he had already determined how dangerous it was.

    When they attacked this group of Metal Body, after his partner had sent one of them flying, he alsoshed out at this young man at the same time, not wanting to give him any chance to attack.

    However, the moment he did so, the young man managed to touch his right arm, though of course, since he was a pugilist and his body was much more sturdier than that of a normal human, he decided to ignore it and just concentrated on attacking him.

    It wasn''t until a few secondster that arge amount of blood fell on the ground, apanied by a sudden sharp pain in his arm which made him realize what was happening.

    The young man had used his ability on his right arm, causing arge chunk of his arm toe off and fall to the ground, in the midst of all this, even though he used qi to stop the process, it only lessened the damage a little.

    Seeing the lethality of this ability, he immediately distanced himself from the young man, with such an ability, engaging him at close range was undoubtedly stupid.

    Fortunately, due to the previous flurry of blows he threw at the young man, he had managed to wound him considerably, which added to his speed and the fact that the young man did not seem to be able to attack at long range with his ability, allowed the Wolf''s Fang member to prolong the battle as he threw the asional stone at him, slowly damaging the young man.

    The young man upon seeing this, he also tried to counterattack, using his ability to pull those spheres from nearby buildings, the sidewalk or even the road to throw them at him, however, since the Wolf''s Fang member was really fast, it was quite easy for him to dodge all of them.

    That way, the battle had reached a stalemate where the two couldn''t get close due to the fear that their opponent could do more damage to them.

    "Haa, this is why I don''t like espers at all..." Said the Wolf''s Fang member with annoyance in his tone as he watched the sphere the young man had thrown break into very small fragments as it fell to the ground, making it impossible for him to use them as well.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''Oh well, at least this guy won''t be able to escape, it''s only a matter of time until Counil is done with the other guy and we can kill this bastard.'' He thought, a smirk appearing on his face.

    *Tap tap tap tap tap*

    Suddenly, the sounds of footsteps reached the ears of the Wolf''s Fang member, who quickly turned towards where the noise wasing from.

    ''He?! How is it possible, he actually managed to defeat Counil?!'' He thought in rm as he saw the Metal Body member who was supposed to be fighting his partner running towards him.

    "Damien, I came to help!" shouted the Metal Body member without stopping his march at the same time as he activated his ability.

    "Pol!" shouted the young man with a relieved expression as he saw his partner, also approaching the Wolf''s Fang member to attack him in conjunction with Pol.

    ''Shit, this is bad!''

    Seeing that they were going to attack him from both the front and the back, the Wolf''s Fang member let out a roar before lifting his leg and stomping hard on the ground in front of him.

    *BAM!*

    A small crater formed due to the force of the stomp, preventing Damien from getting any closer.

    However, this was not all as the Wolf''s Fang member immediately activated a martial skill to increase his speed and threw a kick backwards, colliding perfectly with Pol''s fist.

    "Argh!" Pol couldn''t help but scream after he was forced backwards due to the kick containing more force than he expected.

    Only in a matter of seconds, the Wolf''s Fang member managed to repel both of them, immediately taking the moment to distance himself from them.

    ''I see...'' He thought, calming down and regaining the confidence he had initially, ''Even though he defeated Counil, he used up all his energy while doing so...heh, and to think the idiot would send me another weakened prey, I guess I should thank him for this.''

    While it was true that he had panicked before, now that he thought about it, this person''s arrival was not necessarily a bad thing.

    Because of how dangerous the young man''s ability was, he had been afraid to approach, however, now that a meat shield had conveniently arrived, he could finally put an end to this fight.

    The next moment, a faint gleam appeared in his eyes, at the same time as he activated his most useful martial technique in a battle against multiple enemies, Broad Vision.

    The effect of this technique, though simple, was quite effective, giving the user a much better view of his surroundings, allowing him to react in time to whatever was happening in all cardinal directions.

    Without waiting any longer, heunched himself towards Pol and Damien, who had already recovered and were now standing together, waiting for the Wolf''s Fang member to arrive.

    ''Damn, it looks like he got even faster!'' Thought Damien, who was trying to grab the Wolf''s Fang member, although all his attempts ended in failure or interrupted by his own partner.

    Unfortunately for them, the Wolf''s Fang member''s control over the surroundings had risen to apletely different level, causing it to look like a fight between two children and an adult.

    Every time Pol was about to attack, a quick punch would interrupt him, and when Damien wanted to take advantage of this to hit him, the Wolf''s Fang member would push Pol towards him, causing him to have to deactivate his ability every so often.

    "Argh, f*ck!" shouted Pol after being thrown at Damien, causing them both to fall in the process.

    Not wanting to miss this opportunity, the Wolf''s Fang member quickly followed it up with a punch engulfed in mes.

    "!"

    Just then, both Pol and Damien saw something behind the Wolf''s Fang member, a fist, and it belonged to none other than Colt!

    *BAM!*

    "Gah!"

    The next moment, a red colored liquid flew through the air...but unfortunately, this blood was not from the Wolf''s Fang member, but Colt''s.

    "Attacking from behind like a coward, as expected from Metal Body!" said the Wolf''s Fang member, who hadunched a kick before Colt even touched him.

    Thanks to his reflexes as a rank (D+) pugilist, along with the martial technique Broad Vision, defending against an attack from behind was quite easy.

    "Hahaha, I really have to thank Metal Body for just recruiting crap!" The man added,pletely ignoring Colt, who was just getting up.

    However, this wasn''t surprising, since after kicking Colt, he already noticed that he was just a beginner rank (D+) super, so he posed no threat for him.

    "Now then, I''ts time to put an end to-"

    *BOOM!*

    "!"

    Before he could even finish speaking, a sizable object fell from the sky, right on top of the Wolf''s Fang member, creating a small cloud of dust.

    After the dust cloud dissipated, everyone could see what had fallen on top of the man...it was a chunk of concreterge enough topletely cover Wolf''s Fang''s member''s chest.

    "Heey, is everyone okay?"

    Although none of those present had recovered from what they had just witnessed, they still looked up in the direction the voice wasing from.

    When they did, they could see that from the roof of a nearby three-story building, there was a hooded man peering out, waving his hand at them.

 Chapter 57 - Towards District 10

    "C-couldn''t you just warn us before you did something like that...?" Colt said looking at Jay while trembling slightly.

    The "n" Jay had told them was simply to entertain the Wolf''s Fang member as long as possible, as for the details, he had not told them, so it really surprised them.

    After all, even though everyone present were rank (D+) supers, a hit as strong as that was enough to kill them or leave them severely injured at the very least.

    One only needed to look at the Wolf''s Fang member to see this, despite being a pugilist, the type of super most resistant to physical attacks, he had ended up in such a deplorable state anyway.

    "Ahaha, sorry, but don''t worry, next time I''ll definitely let them know~" Jay replied while checking the bloody body of the Wolf''s Fang''s member.

    After he dropped the chunk of concrete, Jay quickly got down just in case the Wolf''s Fang member had avoided it.

    Fortunately, all had gone well, so instead he set out to check him, though of course it wasn''t a normal inspection, he was using the system interface to do so.

    _____________________

    [Evert Trenth]

    Body Grade: (D+)

    Condition: Fatally Injured (Internal Bleeding, Broken Bones...) (Unconscious)

    Parasites: 1

    Assimtion status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)

    _____________________

    ''Hm, although the interface doesn''t tell me anything new, it seems that if I focus more on the parasite instead of the system, I can feel more or less feel how much time left has this guy...'' Jay thought after seeing Evert''s status window, retrieving his little one in the process.

    The fact that the parasites could share energy with him had caused him to broaden his mind, so Jay didn''t forget to try to do more things with the parasite than with the system.

    After all, despite having been using parasite''s energy constantly, the system still did not mention anything about that nor did it recognize it as an ability even though the effects were quite good.

    "By the way...who is this guy?"

    Suddenly, the voice of Damien, who was a little further away next to Pol, was heard, asking a question that despite being necessary had been ignored until this moment.

    "Don''t worry, he''s... oh, actually, I don''t know either." Pol replied changing his expression from one of confidence to one of realization.

    Although neither of them knew all the members of Metal Body due to there being too many of them, they were absolutely certain that there was not one who covered his face with bandages.

    Which meant... this person was a stranger!

    Immediately, both Damien and Pol couldn''t help but raise their guard at this unknown person.

    "Alright, I know you have a lot of questions about me, but how about we chat while we go get your friend?" Said Jay with a bitter smile, knowing that a tense moment wasing.

    "I can assure you that he''s not our enemy...well not anymore at least, so please hear him out." Said Colt.

    After that, although they still distrusted Jay, seeing that Colt trusted him, both Pol and Damien agreed, so they took the Wolf''s Fang member and started to head for their partner.

    Gradually, thanks to Jay''s friendly attitude, Colt''s trust and a little help from their little ones, both Wolf''s Fang members stopped distrusting him, as they had realized that just as Colt said, he was not an enemy.

    If he had any intention of harming them, he could easily have let the Wolf''s Fang members finish them off, instead, he had not only helped them, but had also worked together with them to defeat them.

    Faced with this, both of them could only admit defeat.

    After picking up their partner and waking him up, instead of taking the Wolf''s Fang member him to the prison personally, what these two people did was to call someone else, apparently Metal Body had people specifically tasked with transporting enemies to the prison.

    This surprised Jay a bit because again he did not expect a gang to be so organized.

    As to why Colt had carried the other members of Wolf''s Fang on his own, apparently he, being a normal member of Metal Body, did not enjoy those benefits.

    After waiting for a few minutes, a van with 2 men on it arrived on the scene and took the Wolf''s Fang members away quickly without stopping to chat with anyone, apparently they were quite busy.

    "So, what are you guys nning to do now?" Jay asked to the group of 3 people in front of him, consisting of Pol, Damien and Susilo, the partner of both of them who had recently woken up, as for Colt, he was next to Jay.

    "Well, since one of the executives called us, I''m afraid we have no choice but to head to the central area near District 10." Damien replied, who was apparently the leader of this small group, "Although it''s a pretty dangerous ce right now, we have to go anyway."

    While it could be considered somewhat confidential information, Damien wasn''t too worried about Jay knowing this.

    "Hm, it''s where all the grade (C-) supers from both sides are, right?"

    "That''s right." He replied, a helpless expression forming on his face, he knew that even if they went they most likely wouldn''t make a difference, however, Metal Body had done a lot for him, even getting to the point where he almost considered them his family.

    Therefore, although he was afraid to go, even if he had to run the risk of being killed, he was willing to fight for Metal Body.

    As for hispanions, even if they were not as passionate as he was, they showed that they felt the same way.

    "Oh, but I''m sure you all know that in a battle like this, even if you three give it your all, you won''t aplish much, right?" Jay asked, looking directly at Damien.

    "That''s...true, but we still have to go."

    "You know, what if instead of just gambling it all away like that...why don''t you guys listen to the idea I have?"

    "...What idea?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Jay had been racking his brain to think of a way to rescue Noah without relying on anyone but himself and Colt, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn''t find a way.

    And that only got worse after witnessing the power of Wolf''s Fang members, so he had no choice but to abandon that idea.

    Instead, Jay decided to do something riskier for himself, something that if it went well, besides being able to get Noah back, it would also bring him quite a few benefits.

    Although if it failed...at best he would end up just like Noah, and at worst, the person known as Jay Sacrest would be part of therge number of people killed in the South Zone.

    However, in such a situation, Jay could only hold on to this alternative, only then could he achieve an ending in which both he and Noah got out of this ce safely.

    To do that, the first thing he needed was enough power to not fear facing Wolf''s Fang, while his surprise attack and use of the magically reinforced bandagesbo had been incredibly useful, he had had to rely on other people to serve as a distraction while he did his thing, besides, nothing ensured that there wouldn''t be enemies that could prevent that.

    So what could he do then?

    The answer was right in front of him, in the form of 3 people with enough power to fight a Wolf''s Fang member on their own.

    "It''s simple really, just as we saved you guys, I want you toe with us towards the ces where the other Metal Body members are."

    "Oh...um..."

    "I know what you''re thinking, that you should hurry as fast as possible, however, give it some thought, individually, even with the drug you''re taking, you''re still weaker than Wolf''s Fang members, so you''ll be chickens going to ughter if you go just like that..."

    Jay had said the same thing to Pol a while back, and again he repeated it, for one simple reason...it was still true.

    "Even if me and Colt join you, the only thing that will change will be the number of casualties." Jay said again, not giving Damien time to respond, "Now then, if even 5 supers working won''t aplish anything, what do you think we can do?"

    After asking that question, Jay slowly approached the group, waiting for their response.

    "I...I''m not sure." Replied Damien, who for some reason felt nervous facing Jay''s intense stare which seemed to want to see what exactly he was thinking.

    "Easy! If 5 isn''t enough, we''ll attack with 10, if 10 isn''t enough, we''ll attack with 20!" Shouted Jay to emphasize what he had said.

    Individually, they would all lose to Wolf''s Fang members, but that didn''t matter much as what Jay was looking for was not simply to recruit these three to his temporary group to go deeper into the South Zone, but to use this group of 5 to recruit even more people.

    Faced with Jay''s words, everyone present could only think that he was right, after all, what Metal Body had the most was members, so even if they only counted the amount of elite members, it was still a considerable number.

    "I..."

    Then, before he could finish epting Jay''s request, Jay suddenly let go and looked at the three of them.

    "Remember, while it''s true that the enemy is strong, you aren''t weak either! Just remember all the times you faced them, how manyrades have you lost because of them! Will you let it keep happening!?"

    Jay had raised his voice quite a bit, but not enough to annoy them, just enough to emphasize what he was saying while avoiding anyone wanting to interrupt him.

    "You are part of Metal Body, the dominant force in the Southern Zone, will you let your otherrades and bosses be killed by them?!"

    Inevitably, everyone present could feel something inside them slowly begin to heat up.

    They knew better than anyone else what Wolf''s Fang members were like, ruthless, dastardly and cruel, people who used their superior strength and did not hold back even against normal people, but the moment they encountered someone strong, they were the first to run away.

    "Of course not!" The first to answer was Pol, clenching his fists tightly as he shouted his answer.

    It was obvious that his personality was direct and passionate, so upon hearing those words, he couldn''t help but exim what he felt... a fervent desire to face Wolf''s Fang.

    Of course, although the others were not as passionate as he was, they were not far behind either.

    "That''s right, we won''t allow it!" Added Susilo.

    Seeing that hispanions felt the same way, Damien felt moved, then, he also shouted with a smile, "Well said!"

    "Come on then, it''s time to show Wolf''s Fang that in the face of sheer force, even the elites will fall!" Jay shouted, looking at the four of them.

    ""Yes!"" Replied the Metal Body members in unison, even Colt had joined them, their blood boiling due to the fighting spirit within them.

    Just like that, Jay, along with his temporary team of 5 started heading towards the points where the other Metal Body members were supposed to be, starting with the weakest and ending with the strongest, rescuing several in the process.

    Thanks to the information Damien gave him about the other members, the group chat and the valuable aerial view of the drone Jenny was operating, they managed to find a considerable number of people, although some refused Jay''s invitation despite numerous attempts to recruit them, they were the minority.

    Moreover, therger the group became, the fewer people were reluctant to join, further increasing their recruiting capabilities.

    Finally, after a strenuous use of his social skills along with the support of Colt, Pol, Damien and Susilo, not forgetting of course the parasites that yed a crucial role in making these people more susceptible, Jay managed to recruit an incredible amount of 68 Metal Body supers!

    ''Hm...with this amount, it should be enough to take care of everything..." Jay thought, looking at all the Metal Body members around him, who were taking a break in an abandoned parking lot not so far from the deep districts of the South Zone.

    Suddenly, Jay, who was sitting next to his original group, jumped on top of a car and raised his voice to give his final message.

    "Everyone, the time hase! After tonight, Wolf''s Fang will only be history, let''s go!"

    In response, all Metal Body members shouted in unison.

    Right now, thanks to all the motivation Jay had given them, they all had only one goal in mind... to destroy Wolf''s Fang!

    With those words as hisst, Jay and hisrge group of Metal Body began to head towards the depths of the South Zone, specifically, District 10!

 Chapter 58 - The Two Bosses Meet

    As Jay''s group headed towards District 10 with the sole purpose of destroying Wolf''s Fang, the head of said organization, Jared, was surprised reading the report sent to him by the person in charge of supervising the members of Wolf''s Fang.

    "Heh, looks like I underestimated you too much, Garel..." He said with a smile on his face as he read the number of members with whom contact had been lost these past few minutes, the current number was approaching 3 digits, and still increasing from time to time.

    Because the vast majority of the normal members were supers with highbat standards, he rarely received reports from them.

    And tonight had been no exception, because while they were under a Metal Body attack and several of their bases were assaulted, his men had also managed to take down several enemies, causing the main forces of both sides to be evenly matched.

    As for the true Wolf''s Fang experts, the rank (C-) supers, although they were also in a stalemate at the moment thanks to most of them being at a disadvantage facing 2 people simultaneously, it was only a matter of time before Wolf''s Fang would wipe out Metal Body.

    It was not blind confidence, it was just that he was fully aware that only the strongest Metal Body executives would be able to fight against his experts, who had been trained to exhaustion by himself.

    Therefore, even though he was aware that all the members of Metal Body had consumed a type of drug to strengthen themselves, this only resulted in his subordinates having to work a little harder, it didn''t make Jared worry in the least.

    After all, what they were using was only a temporary enhancement, while the strength of their subordinates was the real deal.

    However, all of a sudden, the person in charge of supervising the Wolf''s Fang members sent him a message, saying that he had lost contact with several of them.

    At first Jared didn''t think much of it, but as time went on, the number simply grew and grew, eventually reaching the current number of almost 100 missing members.

    One had to keep in mind that the total number of Wolf''s Fang members was only in the 300 and a little more, while it was a small amount, all of them were strong enough to be elites in Metal Body.

    Therefore, that almost 100 had disappeared meant that practically a third of his subordinates had been captured, the result was nothing but shocking!

    "Haaa, it was precisely to avoid this kind of situation that I invested so much in them." He said, scratching his head with one hand and a resigned look on his face, "Well, I guess no matter what you do, garbage will always be garbage, there''s a free life lesson for you, kid."

    After saying that, he walked over to the center of the abandoned warehouse, where Noah stood.

    Although his appearance was still the same, hisplexion was much paler and tired, as if he had run a marathon.

    The reason for this was that while Jared had been waiting, he took the opportunity to test Noah''s skills, obviously, inflicting multiple wounds on him, from cuts, to hits and even burns.

    "You know, your skill is pretty good, even though you''re weak right now, with some training you could easily be an elite member of Wolf''s Fang."

    Faced with this, Noah didn''t answer, or rather, he was too tired to do so. While his ability allowed him to regenerate indefinitely, this was quite tiring for him, especially when he did it so many times.

    "Oh well, I''ll let you think about it, I''ll go put an end to this stupid game once and for all."

    After saying that, Jared headed towards arge metal gate leading outside and opened it before stepping out, finally revealing his appearance.

    Short brown hair, white skin and a pronounced beard, with muscles that looked as strong as steel and a presence that totally overshadowed the rank (C-) super that Noah had seen before.

    Finally, the most striking aspect of this man, his brown eyes which inevitably gave off an imposing arrogance, as if nothing in his eyes deserved his attention.

    This was the boss of Wolf''s Fang, one of the strongest supers of the South Zone, Jared.

    Thereupon, he mmed the gate shut with a big bang and set off towards a district close by, where he could feel that his prey was.

    ''Garel... Today is the day you will die.'' He thought, emanating a chilling killing intent from his gaze.

    The next moment, he disappeared in the shadows of the South Zone, leaving Noah all alone in the warehouse.

    ***

    After a few minutes, inside the warehouse, Noah suddenly opened his eyes.

    "...I have to... get out of here..." He said, starting to move his chains.

    Unfortunately, after being used as a guinea pig for so long, he was incredibly tired, so he couldn''t do much in his current state.

    However, something inside him made him want to keep fighting, as if it was telling him not to give up, though it was only a vague feeling, Noah clung to it as if his life depended on it.

    Then, he started moving again.

    Even though he didn''t have the strength to break these chains.

    Even though he didn''t have the energy to try something like this.

    Even though his body was desperately asking for rest.

    "ARRGH!!!"

    Noah persevered, pulling his hands until they began to hurt unbearably, but almost as if he didn''t feel that pain, or rather, as if that pain motivated him even more, Noah used even more force to free his hands.

    "I... I REFUSE TO BE WEAK ANYMORE!!!"

    The sense of weakness and helplessness he had been feeling most of his life surged up again, but not to stop him, instead they became the fuel that fed his anger.

    Anger at people like Taylor, anger at the people who brought him to this ce, and finally, at the person who had tortured him simply because he was bored.

    All of it mixed together in an amalgamation of emotions that were the only thing that kept Noah fighting so fervently.

    Until finally...

    *CRACK!*

    The sound of bones breaking echoed loudly inside the abandoned warehouse, Noah''s hands had been crushed due to the intense pressure of the chains and him pulling so hard.

    However, at the same time as the sound echoed, Noah''s hands were released from their bindings, causing thetter to fall to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

    After such an incredible disy of willpower, it would not be strange if Noah fainted from exhaustion or at least rested for a long time.

    But against all odds, he slowly stood up, from his handsing a very low sound of small solid things crashing against each other.

    His hands, which had just been shattered, were already regenerating.<novelnext></novelnext>

    *Tap tap*

    "I swear... I will be strong." He said, in his eyes an unshakable determination.

    With those words as hisst, he opened the warehouse gate and escaped from the ce which had been both his prison and the ce that served to temper his determination.

    ***

    *BOOM!

    Deep in the South Zone, specifically in District 7, arge 4-story building was currently copsing due to the extensive damage it had sustained.

    Debris was raining from the sky and the biggest source of light in the whole ce wasing from all the fire inside the building, which added to the lifeless bodies around this street, created a catastrophic scene.

    Although these bodies were lifeless, the energy inside them did not dissipate so easily, and judging by the density of it, it could be determined that these bodies belonged to rank (C-) supers!

    In the midst of all this chaos, three people were watching the building slowly fall, even though they were in the risk zone, none of the three were worried in the least.

    Although of course, that was understandable, after all, these people had been the cause of all the destruction in the surrounding area.

    "What''s the situation so far?" asked the person in front, a light-skinned man with sses, slim build, and white hair pulled back with a sharp look, better known as Garel Cranyne, the head of Metal Body.

    As for the men at his side, both were Metal Body executives, the one on the right was named Revad, and worked as Garel''s right hand man, as for the one on the left, his name was Antoin, an executive who came to help them take down this base faster.

    "Yes, even though arge number of elite members had been defeated, only with the guardians and the other executives showing different results, as of a few minutes ago the number of casualties has decreased drastically. In fact, they have even managed to capture a lot of Wolf''s Fang members." Revad replied as he looked at his smart watch, a tone of pride in his voice.

    "Hm?" Garel couldn''t help but be surprised at this.

    He knew that while the strength of the elite members would increase after taking the blood pill, they would still have to pay quite a high price in order to manage to defeat Wolf''s Fang, especially for the elite members, but it wasn''t something that could be avoided.

    "And what is the reason for this sudden change?"

    "Well, apparently instead of continuing in separate teams, most of them have joined together to form arge fighting force, sweeping up every member of Wolf''s Fang they find while advancing to District 10 due to the call of another one of the executives." Replied the man.

    Thanks to the fact that some members had been sharing photos and messages of their aplishments over the Metal Body chat group, plus some that also sent situation reports from time to time, Revad was aware of what was going on.

    ''Hm, how strange...'' Thought Garel, who did not expect that his subordinates were going to defy his orders like that, ''However, since the results are beneficial, I''ll let it go this time.''

    Although he still had a few doubts as to what was the trigger of this sudden union of his subordinates, he decided to investigate the matterter.

    After all, he could sense that a certain person with arge amount of energy was rapidly approaching towards them.

    "Well, now then, you''d better go help the others in District 10, that person ising." Garel said as he rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and took off his tie.

    Hearing their boss'' words, they both knew that the person he was referring to was Jared, Wolf''s Fang''s boss, and although they had full confidence in their boss, they couldn''t help but get anxious.

    "But boss, I''m sure we can help you!"

    "That''s right, if the three of us work together, even he will suffer defeat!"

    Both shouted, wanting to stay to help him.

    They had been part of Metal Body since their childhood, in that time of chaos where gangs dominated the South Zone, two orphaned children like them had nowhere to go, but Metal Body still took them in and raised them until they became powerful rank (C) supers.

    Therefore, they felt greatly grateful to Metal Body, an organization they saw as if it were their family, so even though they knew it would be incredibly dangerous, they wanted to apany their boss no matter what the consequences were.

    "You''ll only get in the way if you stay, so you''d better go help someone who really needs you." Garel replied, ignoring them both, "If you keep insisting, I''ll have no choice but to take away 3 months'' entire pay of your sry."

    Faced with that answer, they both knew that saying anything else would be useless, so they could only grit their teeth and leave, but not before giving him a few words of encouragement.

    "Boss, you can do it!"

    "Kick his ass!"

    Garel only let out a sigh as a slight smile formed on his face, however, that smile onlysted a second before turning into a cold expression.

    "Hm, you would have let them stay, so I could get a little revenge for what you did to my subordinates."

    Suddenly, a man''s vibrant and loud voice echoed in the surroundings at the same time as arge shadow emerged from the darkness of an alleyway.

    The man was Jared, who had a disappointed expression on his face, although he still wanted to chase them, he knew that with Garel in front of him he would no longer be able to do so.

    The next moment, the figure of both of them suddenly became blurred.

    *BOOM!*

    A thunderous noise apanied by a huge shockwave took ce in the middle of the street, shattering the windows of all the nearby buildings and raising a great cloud of dust.

    After a few seconds, the dust dissipated, revealing two figures in the middle of the street.

    "Woah, you''ve certainly gotten stronger, though pitifully I don''t know if it''s because of the drug you''re using or if it''s your real strength." Jared said with a tone of interest in his voice, unlike before, his pupils had now turned a bright golden color.

    "You talk too much, shut up." Garel replied, whose appearance had changed drastically.

    Like Jared, his eyes gave off a distinct glow, but that wasn''t all, his white skin had changed to a metallic shade with spikes protruding from every part of his arms,stly, his hands turned into incredibly sharp ws.

    At this moment, his entire body had be a weapon.

    Giving no importance to his words, Jared just snorted and lunged towards his enemy again.

    *BOOM!*

    Thus, the battle between the two strongest supers in the South Zone, the one that would decide the future of the South Zone, began!

 Chapter 59 - Metal Bodys Strength

    Back to the force made up of dozens of Metal Body members, these, led by Jay, had already reached the entrance to District 10.

    "Wow, they sure made a mess out here..." Said Jay, who was at the front of the entire group.

    In front of them, what had once been simply an abandoned district, was now a ce where seeing buildings with multiple holes, some even with fire inside them and craters in the road was normal.

    ''As expected from rank (C-) supers, they are on apletely different level...''

    While he had seen how the Wolf''s Fang member shattered a wall while hitting Colt, not only were the holes here muchrger, but even the inside of the buildings also had considerable damage.

    [Jenny, are there people in this district?] He wrote in his smart watch.

    [From what I can see, there are only 2 people right now, they are fighting a few blocks away from where you are, oh wait, there is another person a little bit far fom them, though he''s lying on the ground.]

    Remembering what the other Metal Body members had told him, there were supposed to be two executives in this district right now, if two people were facing each other, that meant that the Wolf''s Fang member had managed to defeat one of them.

    ''Well, at least one of them is still fighting, that means we can still win this...'' Jay thought, a little anxious.

    He had been thinking over and over about how he could defeat a rank (C-) super alone with many rank (D+) supers, and although he hade up with a few ways, he knew he would have to pay a high price to pull it off.

    However, if they had the help of a rank (C-) super, it wouldn''t be necessary to go to such extreme measures.

    "Something wrong, kid?" Suddenly asked a small but rather stocky man who was wearing a leather jacket, Chuck.

    "Actually, yes, I just found out where they are fighting and what the situation is, one of your executives is currently fighting with someone from Wolf''s Fang, as for the other, he''s apparently unconscious."

    Chuck and his group had joined them as they were passing through District 11, after they caught a few Wolf''s Fang members and another longer than normal conversation to convince them, Jay had managed to recruit this powerful trio into his group.

    In fact, Chuck and the woman next to him, Anna, were Metal Body guards, so their strength was undoubtedly much greater than that of other elite Metal Body members, as for Chuck''s partner, Mark, his skill was a perfect match for them.

    Although, if there was a problem to mention, it would be that Mark apparently had a certain fixation of looking intensely at Jay, to the point of almost making him ufortable, but for the sake of not creating unnecessary problems, Jay decided to ignore this.

    "Oh great, let me call them then." Said Chuck as he turned to the whole group that was either chatting or inspecting this district, "Hey everyone, gather round, one of the bosses is up ahead and he needs our help, so the boy is about to tell us what the n is!"

    Upon hearing his words, the others also approached, forming a circle with Jay in the middle, by this demonstration it was clear the respect they had for Jay but mainly for Chuck.

    While Chuck had a high enough rank and reputation tomand all the Metal Body members present, he had seen first hand the precision with which Jay couldmand them.

    So instead of taking the leadership, he relinquished it to Jay and not content with that, even helped him with the people who were hesitant to remain in the group.

    What was a capable and reliable partner? This was!

    ''Heh, you say that like it''s so easy.'' Jay thought, finding it somewhatforting that despite knowing he would be facing a rank (C-) super, Chuck''s attitude was still equally carefree.

    However, after looking around, he could see that it wasn''t really just Chuck, but everyone present had that same determination.

    Jay could only theorize simply what it was that Metal Body had done for these people to make them so determined to even risk their lives for the organization.

    Then, shaking off all his insecurities, he began to exin his n, at the same time, everyone listened intently.

    ***

    "Ahh, this is why I hate espers...however, that''s also why I''ll enjoy killing you~" Said the member of Wolf''s Fang, who stood with his wed hands in front of the Metal Body executive.

    There was no hostile emotion in his gaze, in fact, it was as if instead of seeing an enemy, he was only seeing prey, while this was apletely arrogant attitude, he had the qualifications to act that way.

    Proof of this was that in all that the fight hadsted, not only had he not received a single blow, but he had even defeated one of his enemies a good while ago.

    In front of him was the Metal Body executive, Larce, who was currently standing with his fists up, surrounded by an incredible amount of heat, enough to make anyone who came near him sweat.

    While he didn''t look as good as the Wolf''s Fang member with the asional cut here and there, it was nothing he couldn''t stand.

    The reason he had been able tost so long unlike his partner, even though his skill was not focused on defense, was because the Wolf''s Fang member was considerably wary of his ability.

    While his enemy had the advantage in strength and speed, Larce, also being a rank (C-) super, was not far behind either. Moreover, if we added the fact that the control he had over his ability was incredibly precise, it resulted in even the agile member of Wolf''s Fang having to think twice before attacking.

    As for his partner, he didn''t really had the time to worry about him now as a single mistake in this battle would cost him dearly.

    "Ha!"

    Then, since neither of them were in the mood to wait, they immediately lunged at each other.

    Larce using every opportunity he had to try and grab the Wolf''s Fang member and thetter looking for openings to deliver a decisive blow.

    *Tap tap*

    "!"

    However, at that moment, the Wolf''s Fang member suddenly turned towards the right.

    Even though the sounds came from more than a dozen meters away, he still heard them clearly, they were footsteps

    The reason for his acute hearing was partly due to the fact that he was a rank (C) pugilist and his senses were much better than that of other supers of the same rank.

    However, it was mainly thanks to the trait he had received when he advanced in rank, called "Fera", which increased his strength and mobility while enhancing his senses greatly.

    *Chrr*

    "ARGHH!!!"

    Unfortunately, the moment he turned his head, Larce took the opportunity to grab his arm and apply the full power of his ability to it, causing his opponent to let out a cry of pain.

    Throwing a kick against Larce''s chest, the Wolf''s Fang member quickly stepped back, clutching his forearm, which was now a dark red color.

    "You bastard..."

    "Are you sure that you have time to be looking the other way?" Larce asked with a mocking tone.

    To tell the truth, he also thought he heard something, but since the sound was nearly inaudible, he didn''t give it any importance and took the opportunity to attack.

    Then, as if not hearing Larce''s provocation, the Wolf''s Fang member only started looking in all directions with a grim expression on his face.

    Although this seemed strange to Lars, after a few seconds, he too understood why his opponent''s sudden change of attitude.

    *Tap tap tap tap*

    The sound of footsteps that had caught the attention of the Wolf''s Fang member finally reached Larce''s ears as well.

    However, they were not just that of a couple of people, but of dozens of them. And perhaps the aspect that was most surprising, they wereing from all directions.<novelnext></novelnext>

    After a few seconds, the footstepsing from the shadows stopped at the same time that several dozen Metal Body members appeared,ing out from the alleys and quickly forming a circle around the two of them.

    Seeing this, the Wolf''s Fang member had only one response.

    "Pfff, hahahaha! Are you serious? Man, I seriously got worried for a moment there, I thought you had called your executive friends or something, but in the end it was just these wimps."

    It was clear from his attitude that he didn''t take any of the people present seriously, but of course, that waspletely understandable.

    After all, if just one rank (C-) super was strong enough to take care of 10 rank (D+) supers, it doesn''t take much thinking to know what would happen if they faced a rank (C) super, who was much stronger.

    "What are you doing here! Stand down!" Shouted Larce, rmed that so many of the Metal Body members had appeared here, at the same time he started rushed towards his enemy for fear that he would focus his attacks on them.

    "Well, since they''vee, it would be a real shame not to give them a proper wee!"

    Unfortunately, the Wolf''s Fang memberpletely ignored him and rushed towards a particrly crowded group of them,shing out with a kick.

    But unexpectedly, none of them activated their ability to defend themselves and instead quickly backed away as 4 figures suddenly jumped out from behind and stood between the Wolf''s Fang member''s kick and them.

    "NO!" Larce shouted, almost wanting to close his eyes to avoid seeing the result of that kick.

    *BAM!*

    A loud sound could be heard, however, it was not the sound of bones being broken or flesh being torn that Larce expected, it was the sound of two solid objects colliding.

    Then, waking up from his surprise, Larce could see that in front of the Wolf''s Fang member, currently stood 4 burly men holding arge shield over a meter tall and a minimum of 10 centimeters thick.

    The material the shield was made of was one that was very familiar to him. It was Mark''s "Stardust", a material quite famous in the organization for its incredible hardness and lightness, being able to even withstand the blow of a rank (C-) super, with the only w being that its duration was limited, since after the 5 minutes of its creation, this material would turn to dust.

    As for the people behind the shield, Larce also knew them, 2 were pugilists and the remaining two were espers with skills that reinforced their physical ability.

    Although it was hard to believe, these 4 people, with the help of a shield, had managed to stop the kick of a rank (C) pugilist.

    Even if they had been forced to take several steps back and the shield had been left with arge and visible crack that rendered it useless, that didn''t take away the fact that this was an incredible feat.

    "NOW!" Suddenly, a man''s voice rang out.

    Immediately, dozens of attacks flooded the Wolf''s Fang member, which was still in the air.

    From stone fragments, shing wind, and even fireballs, an amalgamation of esper abilities fell upon him.

    Even though he was a rank (C) pugilist and his body was much tougher than that of other supers, in the face of such a flurry of attacks, various wounds inevitably appeared all over his body.

    The Wolf''s Fang member, faced with this, quickly used the shield as a foothold and jumped backwards while using a martial technique to increase his defense.

    "You are all like cockroaches!!" He shouted as he jumped away, though he couldn''t stop the asional attack from stillnding on him anyway.

    As for the fact that they had managed to block his kick, although this had surprised him, he noticed that the shield wouldn''t be able to stop another one.

    Moreover, the people behind had received some damage, so he just needed to attack them again to fully break this shield.

    "What the hell...?!"

    However, after he jumped, for some reason his fall was much slower than normal, it was almost as if someone or something was keeping him in the air.

    He quickly realized what was going on, so he turned his gaze to where he felt those responsible were, and he saw a stocky but short man and a short-haired woman with her hands raised towards him.

    Judging by their expressions, they were trying quite hard to keep him in the air.

    Still, this was normal, since thanks to all the qi in the Wolf''s Fang member''s body, the interference of their abilities was quiterge.

    This also was the reason why even though the control abilities of both espers and mages were quite varied, the pugilists could still avoid being trapped by such methods.

    Immediately, the Wolf''s Fang member released even more qi from his body,pletely throwing off the control of both espers.

    "I swear I''ll kill you all!"

    Unfortunately for him, just before he hit the ground, he felt two arms grab him from behind, wrapping around his shoulders. At the same time, a pair of legs clung tightly to his abdomen, rendering himpletely immobile.

    With his enhanced senses, he could normally have dodged this, however, thanks to the constant interruption of the other espers attacks, his senses were confused.

    "YOU...!!!" He shouted, a deep anger emanating from within.

    At once, an incredibly painful sensation apanied by the sound of flesh being burned spread throughout his body, especially in the parts where his body was being restrained.

    "ARRGHH!!!"

    Although the Wolf''s Fang''s member was moving desperately, the grip Larce had on him was too good. Only, with this alone, taking into ount this person''s endurance, he didn''t know how long he would have mantain this before he managed to subdue him.

    Just at that moment, something white but very thin suddenly appeared in the retina of his eyes, it was a very long piece of cloth that quickly wrapped around the neck of the energetic member of Wolf''s Fang.

    Thetter obviously noticed it, but due to the position he was in, he could do nothing but watch as the cloth did its thing.

    The next second, the same person as before shouted his instructions again.

    "ALL TOGETHER, TAKE A SIDE AND PULL!"

    Then, as if they had all practiced this several times, several people stepped out of the group and grabbed one side of the cloth.

    Although the amount of people who could pull the cloth was not much since the cloth was only so long, each of them were rank (D+) pugilists or espers with abilities that increased their strength, so one could already imagine the immense pressure that was being exerted on the neck of Wolf''s Fang''s member.

    Although he was still conscious, said person, with his body immobilized and numerous supers choking him, had no choice but to activate all the martial techniques he knew.

    From strength enhancement, speed, defense, fire fists and even ice breath, all of them were useless, only causing a little damage to Larce.

    "A...ar...gah..."

    Until finally, after several seconds, all signs of consciousness faded from the Wolf''s Fang member''s face.

    However, none of them stopped squeezing, as if they were waiting for something, as for Larce, he too did not move, afraid to interrupt this scene.

    "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, STOP PULLING!"

    That was the signal, and at the same time that they stopped pulling, everyone could feel the pressure on their bodies disappearing.

    Then, seeing what they had aplished, they couldn''t help but let out a cheer, temporarily filling District 10 with a lively atmosphere.

 Chapter 60 - Here

    After defeating the Wolf''s Fang member and celebrating a bit, all the Metal Body members proceeded to finish their respective tasks.

    Some went to treat Larce, others to retrieve the other executive or to check on the condition of the Wolf''s Fang member, and the remainder stood guard in the vicinity.

    This was a scene that surprised the aforementioned executive considerably, because while he knew that Metal Body encouraged teamwork, it was the first time he had seen so many people cooperate so obediently.

    It was clear that this had not happened naturally, even with Chuck leading this group, it was quite unlikely that they would cooperate like this. Fortunately for him, the person responsible for all this was right in front of him.

    ''Hm...''

    But no matter how much he looked at him, he couldn''t notice anything unusual or outstanding about this person except for his strange appearance.

    Both his energy and physique were at rank (D-) at best, this put him at the lowest levels of even Metal Body, who were known for their very low requirements for joining.

    However, despite the fact that almost everyone present was stronger than him, for some reason they all seemed to pay attention to him without rebutting him even once.

    This caused Larce to suspect that there was something else Jay was hiding.

    ''...Just who is this person?'' he thought as he watched Jay head towards a nearby three story building.

    "Alright guys, apparently we won''t have to use the concrete so you cane down now! As for the concrete chunks, please get those down too, they''lle in handyter!" He shouted towards the roof of the three story building.

    "Okay!" Replied one of them.

    The people on top of the building then proceeded to slowly lower the concrete chunks with some help from Anna.

    ''Those concrete chunks...don''t tell me he had nned to use them too?!'' Larce thought in shock.

    Just as he guessed, Jay had in fact nned to use these concrete chunks when the right moment presented itself, but because his initial n worked, he was able to avoid this extra step.

    "Are you surprised, boss?"

    Suddenly, a man''s animated voice reached Larce''s ears.

    Lifting his gaze to the source of the voice, Larce could see the friendly guardian of District 30, Chuck, who wore a smile of understanding, as if he knew exactly what Larce was thinking.

    "...Well, I''d be lying if I said no." He replied as he shook his head and smiled bitterly, "But tell me, who is this person and how did he manage to convince all of you?"

    One could tell from the rxed attitude of the two in this conversation that they didn''t seem to be boss and subordinate, but more like work colleagues.

    The question Larce asked made quite a bit of sense, after all, while the level of preparation Jay had demonstrated was somewhat admirable, what surprised him the most was the fact that he managed to bring Metal Body together despite being practically a stranger.

    "Well it''s pretty simple really..." Chuck said as he began to rte the short history of Jay''s group.

    Thanks to the fact that he had been talking to the other members of Wolf''s Fang, including Damien''s group and Colt, he had a rough understanding of how exactly it was that Jay had managed to convince most of those present.

    "Hm... I see." Larce replied, sinking into his thoughts.

    After listening to Chuck''s story, he was able toe to the conclusion that this sudden union of his subordinates was due to three important things that Jay made use of.

    First, he used the camaraderie of everyone present as the starting point, including them all in one big group and helping them, creating a good impression with them and identifying himself as a strong ally.

    Second, after helping them, he empathized with the plight of those who had suffered at the hands of Wolf''s Fang and the sense of belonging that each one had with Metal Body while at the same time feeding the anger that each one of them felt.

    Third, as the group grewrger, the pressure they gave off as a group increased, this,bined with the previous two points made those who were alone or in groups of 2 or 3 unable to do anything except go with the flow.

    ''...I wonder if it was nned or if it''s just his natural charisma. Whatever the case, it''s certainly impressive.'' Larce thought, erasing what he previously thought of the hooded man.

    As a Metal Body executive, he had also heard about the incidents that happened a few days ago with Taylor, Colt and Mark respectively.

    However, because this matter was handled personally by the boss and Aiden, Larce simply ignored this new character that appeared in the South Zone... and this was something he now slightly regretted

    ''I wonder if he''s interested in joining us...'' He thought, imagining what it would be like if they had such a skilled member in Metal Body.

    The next moment, he stood up and began to head towards Jay.

    While this wasn''t the most appropriate time for it, he was willing to spend some of his time convincing Jay to join Metal Body.

    ***

    At the same time that Larce was thinking of ways to recruit Jay, the person in question, having finished organizing the rest, was now examining the body of the unconscious Wolf''s Fang member.

    Despite having been strangled with the force of more than 10 rank (D+) supersbined, he was still alive, demonstrating the toughness of a super (C) rank.

    ''I''d better take the opportunity to check his state, who knows when I will have an opportunity like this again.'' He thought as he put his hand on the Wolf''s Fang member''s neck and telling the parasites to enter.

    Immediately, the status window popped up.

    _____________________

    [Anton Nissen]<novelnext></novelnext>

    Body Grade: (C)

    Trait - Feral (Passive): The user has awakened the wild side of his bloodline, giving him senses and physical capabilities on par with that of an animal. +15% to all senses and 20% improvement on strenght and agility.

    Condition: Unconscious, Multiple Minor Injuries.

    Parasites: 10

    Assimtion Status: 0% (0.5% per day per parasite)

    (Warning: As the difference in energy and Body Grade between the [Carrier] and the [Host] is too big, the assimtion process has a high probability of failure).

    _____________________

    ''...So I can even assimte another super''s Trait...?'' Jay thought, amazed at the system''s capabilities.

    It should have been known that each Trait was basically thebination of each super''s efforts and talent, so Jay really didn''t expect to be able to absorb something as personal as that. Even if he wasn''t able to do it right now, that didn''t take away from the fact that it was something incredible.

    Without a doubt, the system kept surprising him more and more.

    As for the requirements to be able to assimte the Wolf''s Fang member''s abilities, while they were much higher than normal, it was to be expected.

    After all, they were no longer talking about a mere rank (D+) super, but a powerful rank (C) super, someone who was a grade and 2 ranks away for the current Jay.

    Taking that into ount, the odd thing would be if he could assimte his abilities just like he did with Carl or Colt.

    ''Haa, I guess I''ll just have to get stronger...'' He thought as he retrieved his little ones.

    Just at that moment, before he could finish retrieving them, a system notification window appeared before his eyes.

    _____________________

    [Hidden Task: "A Glimpse At The Strong"pleted.]

    [Reward: 15 Parasites (Original)]

    Remark: This is just a glimpse!

    _____________________

    Immediately, the 15 parasites formed inside Jay''s body and made their way to where the others were currently, his right arm. Even though they had been created literally a second ago, their capabilities were just as good as the other parasites.

    ''Oh, nice~''

    Although he didn''t expect toplete a hidden task or get any more parasites right now, it was a very wee help.

    ''He...r...e''

    "!"

    However, before he could finish deciding what to do with his new little ones, just when they gathered in his arm, Jay suddenly felt something that made him turn towards the deeper part of the South Zone.

    "This..."

    For a brief moment, Jay was able to feel a faint connection with his other little ones, namely those with Noah, and he wasn''t the only one, his parasites also felt the same, or rather, they felt it even more clearly than he did.

    Although it was brief, apart from the feeling that they were connected, Jay also thought he heard what seemed to be a message saying "here".

    The next moment, the little ones in his arm began to stir like never before, moving back and forth as they all ryed ideas towards Jay, making his head ache slightly.

    He managed to calm them down and organize what they were saying. Among all the ideas, there were 3 words that were repeated more than all.

    Hurry, Help, Weak.

    It was obvious that something very bad had happened to Noah, so Jay immediately changed his ns and decided to talk to the Metal Body executive.

    Now that he knew more or less where Noah was, there was no longer any need to follow up with this group or raze every Wolf''s Fang base they came across as he had nned before.

    But just as he got up and turned around, he bumped into a person.

    "Ah, sorry." Jay said, apologetically.

    "It''s okay, I think it''s my fault for approaching without warning."

    Hearing this loud but clear voice, Jay immediately looked up, and there he saw just the person he was looking for.

    "You seem to be in a hurry, may I ask the reason?" Larce said with a smile.

 Chapter 61 - Rats

    "Oh, well, it''s nothing really, I just thought that now that you were reunited with the other members of Metal Body, it''s no longer necessary for me to keep being here." Jay replied, expressing his desire to part ways with them.

    While it was true that he wouldn''t have made it this deep into the South Zone without the help of the others, he hadn''t forgotten for a moment that the people who kidnapped Noah were Metal Body people in the first ce.

    Thus, Jay really didn''t consider them his allies, simply people necessary to aplish his goal.

    "To be honest I''d like you to keep apanying us, your ideas would be very useful to us." Larce said, cing a hand on his chin, "However, if you don''t feelfortable right now, then I can''t force you."

    He had noticed from Jay''s demeanor that he truly was in a hurry, so while he wanted to talk to him for a while to recruit him, he also had to make sure he didn''t harass him too much.

    "Though of course, that doesn''t change the fact that it''s still dangerous to traverse the South Zone, especially at this time, so I was wondering if you''d let a subordinate of mine apany you?"

    Then, a man approached the two of them. Although his appearance was ordinary, Jay remembered that he was a rank (D+) esper with the ability to throw small fireballs.

    Since Larce didn''t have the time to personally convince Jay right now, he decided to let one of his subordinates apany him towards the exit of the South Zone, taking advantage of the moment to also try to recruit him while making sure nothing bad happened to him.

    After all, at a tense moment like this when Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang were facing off, a weak rank (D-) super could get hurt very easily.

    "Hm..." Seeing this, Jay couldn''t help but frown internally.

    Now that he nned to go towards where he felt Noah was, he didn''t want to expose the real reason why he was in the South Zone to any of the Metal Body members as that would basically be telling them what his weakness was.

    Unfortunately for him, faced with Larce''s suggestion, he couldn''t think of a good excuse to turn it down without leaving a bad impression with them.

    While he nned to cut all ties with them after getting Noah back, it''s not like he wanted to offend a Metal Body executive either, much less now that it looked like said organization was going to get stronger after eliminating so many of Wolf''s Fang''s guardians.

    "Boss, I think it would be better if I were the one to apany him!"

    Suddenly, everyone heard the voice of Colt, who had been carefully paying attention to the conversation between Jay and Larce.

    "Right now Metal Body needs every strong fighter it has, so if anyone here leaves, it will be a diminution of the power you have as a group. However, if I go alone, it really won''t make a difference." Colt continued as he looked at Larce.

    Hearing this, Larce couldn''t help but think that Colt was right. Moreover, he had also heard from Chuck that the first person this hooded man had contact with of all those present had been precisely Colt.

    Taking that into ount, although the security would not be as good as if Jay were with a rank (D+) esper, Colt would undoubtedly have a better chance of convincing him to join Metal Body, so he nodded towards Jay''s proposal.

    Now all that was missing was Jay''s approval.

    "Well, let''s go then. With that said, good luck everyone." Jay said with a smile before slightly bowing towards Larce and then heading towards the South Zone exit.

    Seeing that Jay wasn''t waiting for him, Colt also had to hurry as he quickly said goodbye to Larce and the others.

    ***

    After they had both walked away from the Metal Body group, Jay was getting a little anxious.

    The reason for this was because even though he had been constantly trying to reconnect with the parasites inside Noah, he was not seeding.

    He had also tried to ask the system about this, but unfortunately, the answer he was given was the same as always.

    Faced with such a situation, Jay couldn''t help but wonder why he had been able to momentarily connect with the other parasites.

    He had thought of several things, such as that he had to have a minimum number of parasites for this to work, that perhaps he needed to be at a certain distance from the host, and finally, the reason that seemed most feasible to him.

    It was a desperate method of calling for help from his parasites.

    Because he could partially sense what his little ones were feeling, he was sure that among the amalgam of emotions they conveyed to him, concern was undoubtedly present.

    He already knew how his little ones had acted when he was on the brink of death, resolutely willing to sacrifice themselves just to give him even a small chance of survival.

    So, in the event that they couldn''t give Noah energy to keep him stable or that they couldn''t fuse with him either, the only thing they could resort to in order to keep him from dying would undoubtedly be to call for help.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''Anyway... the only thing I can do for the moment is to go to where I felt he was...'' Jay thought as he let out a sigh and stopped walking.

    "Is something wrong?" asked Colt, who had been walking a little behind Jay.

    The next moment, Jay walked over and suddenly put his right arm on Colt''s neck, pulling him a little closer, "How nice of you to ask, my good friend, Colt~! It''s just as you said, something is wrong and I need your help for this~"

    At the same time he said that, all the parasites on his arm came out to enter into Colt''s neck, while there was a bit of distance, the parasites were able to withstand this easily.

    Despite the fact that he had already convinced Noah to help him before, Jay knew that it would take a good amount of convincing for thetter not to report anything to his teammates while not refusing to apany him.

    As for why Jay used 20 parasites instead of the usual 10, he also wanted to test whether the power of his convincing would increase proportionally to the number of parasites in the body of the person he wanted to convince or not.

    ***

    At the same time that Jay was convincing Colt, someone in arge apartmentplex deep in the South Zone was having trouble.

    "Haa... haa..."

    A person''s agitated breathing could be hearding from one of the staircases leading up to the 4th floor.

    This person was Noah, whose appearance was undoubtedly much worse than when he escaped from the abandoned warehouse where Wolf''s Fang''s boss was holding him captive.

    From his hair which was now full of dust, to his incredibly pale and thin appearance, and finally to the extremely painful bloody wound on his right arm, which appeared to be a bite that had torn off a considerablyrge chunk of his flesh.

    Although the wound no longer bled and was healing slowly, this very process was weakening Noah more and more, his energy now being practically non-existent.

    After escaping from the abandoned warehouse, since he had no clothes and didn''t know exactly where to go either, he had been looking for somewhere to take shelter so he could get some rest and hopefully find some clothes to wear, as this night was especially cold.

    In the process, he came upon this apartmentplex, which was just what he was looking for, not only could he take shelter here, but it was also quite likely that there would be clothes, something he desperately needed if he wanted to get to the South Zone exit on foot, a trip that would take an hour at least.

    So determined and hopeful, he began to check room by room in search of something useful, since he had no proper tool to force the doors, the only thing he could do was to break the locks with a stone.

    While it was going to make quite a bit of noise and would take him a long time to do this, he had no other choice.

    Fortunately for him, the first room he entered had no lock, so he was able to open the door without any problems, finding clothes inside, although they were somewhat torn due to the long time they had been abandoned, it was better than nothing.

    As for any bed in which he could rest, even after searching several rooms, he couldn''t find any in good condition. When he found them, they were destroyed, as if someone had removed everything inside.

    This seemed very strange to Noah, so he decided to stop his search for a bed and go back towards the first room he saw so he could rest even a little on the floor. While it was true that the room was in bad condition, at least it seemed safe enough for no one to enter without him noticing.

    Strangely, when he returned to the room and sat down, he felt weird, as if something was watching him, so he immediately got up and headed for the door, not wanting to risk being in danger.

    However, just at that moment, something came out from inside the shattered bed, it was almost three feet tall and it waspletely surrounded by gray fur along with a long pink tail and red eyes, it was arge gray rat.

    While the authorities of Nighttown City were in charge of cleaning up periodically any kind of monsters that could threaten the citizens, the same could not be said for the South Zone.

    Here the ones in charge of cleaning up the monsters were Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang, although in the case of thetter, due to theirx vignce over their territories andck of manpower, there were several lesser monsters which had made the South Zone their home.

    Before Noah could think of anything, it lunged at Noah, biting down hard on his arm, causing thetter to let out a cry of pain.

    The next moment, Noah clearly didn''t stand still while this happened and gritted his teeth to withstand the pain before kicking the rat and quickly exiting the room, locking the door behind him.

    Thereupon, he quickly made his way towards the exit of the apartmentplex. Unfotunately for him, at the exit there was not one, but several more rats, what was worse, they all seemed as if they were searching for something.

    With no other option, he could only go to a ce where he had enough visibility to avoid a surprise attack or being surrounded, the rooftop.

    However, his body was in apletely deplorable state, so even though he didn''t want to, his body stopped responding to him halfway to the roof, copsing on the stairs.

    At this point, even if any other rats arrived, he could do nothing but watch.

 Chapter 62 - Rank Advancement

    "Hm, it''s weird that we haven''t run into any Wolf''s Fang member so far." Jay said as he walked through the dark streets of the deep South Zone followed by Colt. "And the state of these streets, I don''t think this is just due to neglect..."

    After unexpectedly easily convincing Colt, the two took a grand turn, bypassing the area where Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang were facing each other until they reached the district which Jay remembered had felt the connection, District 4.

    Unlike other urban parts of the South Zone which showed very obvious signs of abandonment andck of human presence, the district they were currently in was on another level entirely.

    There were no streetlights illuminating the road, mainly because there was no electricity in this district, but also because most of the streetlights had been rendered useless. Unlike the district where the Metal Body prison was located, the streetlights were not broken, but the inside of each streetlight, where there were supposed to be wires, waspletely empty.

    That was not all, since they had entered this district, they had seen almost no sign of nt life. And even when they did, they were only small branches or trees that werepletely dry and broken, as if something had been breaking the wood little by little until it left only the shell of an empty trunk.

    "...I knew Wolf''s Fang was a lot more disorganized than us, but I really didn''t imagine it was this bad..." Colt replied with a worried look on his face.

    As a Metal Body member who was in charge of clearing the South Zone of monsters, he knew very well what could be the cause of all this destruction, and for that reason he couldn''t help but be extremely concerned about what he was seeing.

    "They''re Gray Rats, and judging by the damage all over the streets, I''d say there''s at least about 2 or 3 nests, this is bad..."

    Among all the monsters that sometimes crept into the South Zone, the most annoying type to deal with were undoubtedly the Gray Rats.

    With an average size of 1 meter tall, tough fur, ws and sharp teeth capable of easily cutting through flesh like butter, this alone made these monsters already a great threat if they were to encounter any normal human.

    However, what made them truly dangerous was not their deadly physical capabilities, but their incredibly fast reproduction rate, being able to form not only nests, but colonies of rats as long as there was enough food, making their numbers skyrocket.

    Although fortunately this district was considerably far from any settlement of South Zone residents, that did not detract from the fact that they were still a great potential danger.

    "...Let''s hurry then." Jay said as he quickened his pace, Colt nodded and followed behind.

    They were already only a district away from where Jay felt the connection, so even if they walked and took their time, they would arrive fast. Still, Jay decided not to waste any more time.

    After all, even though he knew that Noah would most likely also be in a prison or something simr, he had to hurry as he felt that his body was growing weak with each passing second, most likely for having used more force than he should have when confronting the members of Wolf''s Fang.

    Fortunately for him, now that he had gotten 10 more parasites, the amount of energy the parasites granted him had doubled, making him able to use his body''s true strength temporarily.

    While the effect was limited only to the ce where there were a minimum of 10 parasites gathered and did not help his body''s healing at all, he had no choice but to take full advantage of this.

    *Ping*

    Just then, his smart watch vibrated, indicating that a message had arrived, as for the sender, thanks to the fact that he had turned off all message notifications except for Jenny''s, it was obvious who it was.

    As for why she would contact him at this time, it was because Jay had sent her to investigate the district ahead to see if there were any prison-like buildings. That way they could head straight there without wasting time figuring out Noah''s location.

    Turning on his smart watch, Jay went into shock as he read the message that appeared on the screen.

    [Jay, I found Noah! He''s in trouble!]

    ***

    "Urgh..."

    Back at the abandoned apartmentplex, Noah was still in the same position he had copsed in.

    Thanks to the wound on his arm and his skill working relentlessly, draining his energy constantly, he was finding it harder and harder to stay awake.

    "Eek!"

    Suddenly, the sound of a shriek reached his ears. It hade from the stairs below, and although it couldn''t be heard very close, it wasn''t far either.

    ''...F*ck...'' He thought, again trying to move. Pitifully, he could only lift his arm slightly.

    The shrieking didn''t stop, approaching slowly and noisily, as if it knew a desperate Noah was on the stairs and wanting to make him feel as much distress as possible.

    As ast attempt at wanting to move, Noah began to remember again the moment he escaped from the abandoned warehouse.

    Although it had been an incredibly short timepared to the rest of his life, it didn''t take away from the fact that it had undoubtedly been the only time that he had felt he had control over his life.

    And this small memory that might seem insignificant to anyone else, made Noah strive to superhuman levels.

    Finally, even though the movement was very slow, so much so that it might even seem like he waspletely immobile, Noah, without any doubt, was getting up!

    "Eek!"

    "!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Unfortunately for him, just as he managed to force his body to heed it, a Gray Rat, with red-tinted eyes that seemed to dull all the surrounding darkness to reveal its appearance which seemed even more terrifying than what Noah remembered, had arrived.

    At once, he lunged at Noah, immediately sinking his teeth into the part from which came the irresistible scent that had drawn it here... his arm.

    "AAARGHH!!!"

    Noah couldn''t help but scream out in pain as he weakly grabbed the rat, desperately trying to shake it off. But no matter how hard he pushed, the rat ignored Noah, as if he simply wasn''t here.

    It was an incredibly dangerous situation for him, if this kept up, it would only be a matter of time until the rat would finish eating Noah''s entire arm and start on the other parts of his body.

    However, there was nothing he could do in this situation, his whole body was exhausted, and due to the loss of blood, he was already starting to feel dizzy, the only thing that kept him from passing out in this situation was the intense pain he was feeling right now.

    ''...I.... don''t want to die like this...'' He thought, looking up at the ceiling while ignoring that he was being eaten alive. "I... won''t die like this...!"

    Remorse, fear, helplessness, anger.

    He didn''t know how many times he had felt those emotions in his life, but without a doubt, he had never felt them as strongly as he did at this moment.

    "I WON''T!!"

    All his emotions began to overflow, transforming into a loud yell that momentarily stunned the Gray Rat at the same time as it was heard by all the other rats that were in the apartmentplex.

    The next moment, his body, which no longer had any energy left, responded to him. Multiple veins began to bulge all over his body as he began to tremble, it was clear that something had been triggered inside his body.

    However, what Noah was feeling more than anything else at this moment, was a searing heating from his chest, more specifically his heart, which began to beat frantically, pumping blood throughout his body like there was no tomorrow.

    Immediately, Noah could feel how his whole body began to overflow with energy, although it was no longer only at the level of his muscles or bones, it was something much deeper, almost as if every cell of his body was being filled with vitality again.

    His arm, of which even the bone could be seen due to the Gray Rat, began to heal quickly, simply leaving arge scar in ce.

    At the same time, his eyes began to glow very faintly, showing that the energy within his body had reached a whole new level.

    Right now, thanks to pushing his body to the limit, endlessly healing himself despite not having the energy for it, stimting his body''s sense of survival by not giving up, made Noah''s ability have a spontaneous growth, taking him to the next level.

    From this moment on, Noah was a rank (D+) esper!

    "Now, get off me!" Noah shouted, immediately tapping into therge amount of vitality emanating from his heart, pushing the Gray Rat with all his might, getting up in the process.

    "Eek!"

    The rat let out a squeal due to the sudden change in its prey, however, it quickly recovered and lunged at Noah, intent on finishing him off.

    "Don''t even think about it!"

    Noah of course did not stand still andunched a kick towards the rat, hitting its nose hard, forcing the rat to back away momentarily and taking advantage of this moment to run up the stairs as fast as he could.

    Although he had kicked it, fortunately it hit a sensitive part. Even though he had advanced in grade and consequently his regenerative ability in conjunction with his body had also been strengthened, the Gray Rat still remained a great danger to him, especially in a ce as cramped as this.

    So, he kept running, climbing step after step quickly, now he only had 1 floor to go before he reached the rooftop. In his ears the shriek of the Gray Rat following close behind,

    Regardless of that, he reached the door leading to the rooftop, as it was locked, Noah kicked the door using all his strength.

    *Bam!*

    Fortunately, either because the lock was rusted or because the force Noah used was enough, the door opened with a loud ng, revealing arge rooftop that had no metal fences or any kind of security around the edges.

    Noah didn''t stop to close the door and instead kept running until he reached the edge of the roof, so close that if he took just one more step, he would fall without stopping until he crashed to the ground.

    Even if his skill had improved considerably, he was sure that the best he could achieve would be to prolong his pain until he inevitably died.

    Despite that, Noah wasn''t showing the slightest bit of fear right now, his eyespletely focused on the door, waiting for the Gray Rat to arrive.

    "Eek!"

    Until it finally appeared, quickly running towards him.

    The next moment, it lunged towards Noah at breakneck speed, causing him to lose his bnce and fall backwards with the Gray Rat on top of him, both of them disappearing off the rooftop.

 Chapter 63 - Panic

    "...I guess I didn''t think this through very well..." Said Noah, who was currently dangling from the grate of a window belonging to an unknown apartment, his hand being the only thing keeping him from falling down.

    The moment the Gray Rat lunged at him, Noah obviously wasn''t nning on dying with the rat, but instead pushed it off just before they fell so that he could properly grab onto the metal grating, which he saw when he approached the edge of the rooftop.

    While this did not take away from the fact that this had been a big gamble and that it may not have been the best course of action, he did the best he could think of, which fortunately worked.

    As for the rat''s fate, taking into ount that the apartmentplex Noah was currently in had over 15 stories, one could already imagine the state the rat was in after falling from such a height.

    "Now... how the hell do I get out of here...?" He said with a bitter expression on his face.

    While he had survived the Gray Rat''s attack and his life was no longer in immediate danger, he was in another incredibly dangerous situation nheless.

    *Shass*

    At that moment, the sound of things moving came from inside the apartment whose window was currently being used by Noah.

    Immediately after, red-colored eyes appeared out of the darkness that was visible through the window of the apartment, indicating that there was another Gray Rat inside.

    And judging by the fact that it was desperately pushing his body against the window, it was clear that it was quite interested in Noah.

    ''...Just my f*cking luck...'' Noah thought as he watched this, gritting his teeth due to the frustration he was feeling right now.

    And if this wasn''t enough, he also could vaguely hear the loud squealing of several more rats that were probablying up the stairs of theplex right now, all eager for a bite of his flesh.

    This meant that not only would he not be able to return to the rooftop, but even if he managed to somehow get rid of the rat in front of him, all that would be waiting for him when he opened the door would undoubtedly be even more rats.

    *Crash!*

    The window, which had been holding firm until now, finally shattered, unable to withstand all the pressure the three-foot rodent had been exerting on it, leaving him free passage to get to Noah.

    Faced with this, Noah really didn''t know what to do.

    *BAM!*

    However, just as the rat was about to bite Noah''s fingers, the door came crashing down with a loud noise, making Noah inevitably turn to look at the door.

    There was a person standing over the now shattered door, his face hidden by a hood that revealed nothing beyond his clear green eyes.

    "Jay!" Shouted Noah as a warm feeling spread inside him and a smile formed on his face.

    The next moment, Jay quicklyshed out at the Gray Rat that was about to bite Noah, kicking it hard enough to send it flying into the wall of the apartment.

    Although the rat hadn''t been killed by the kick, it had undoubtedly been hurt pretty badly since it couldn''t move very well.

    "Come on, we need to get out of here fast." Jay said as he grabbed the metal grate and applied all his strength to pull the small metal bars apart, creating a hole big enough for Noah to get through.

    Entering the room, Noah copsed to the floor. Although he hadn''t shown it before, he really had been scared of falling.

    "Can you walk?" Asked Jay, who was paying attention to the rat in case it decided to attack them.

    "Yeah, let''s go." Noah replied, recovering and getting up to follow Jay, both of them leaving the room in a hurry, leaving the still stunned rat behind.

    While there was much they could talk about now that they were reunited again, they both knew this wasn''t the right time for it, so they decided to ignore all useless chatter until they were out of danger.

    Thanks to the fact that they were on the 15th floor, there was quite a way to go until they reached the exit and judging by the squeaking of the rats that Noah had heard a few seconds ago, it was clear that there were many more rats in theplex, causing him to worry.

    However, Jay didn''t stop for a second to think about what route to take or anything like that. Although this puzzled Noah as he knew Jay was not a careless person, when they got down to the 14th floor he could understand why they were moving so quickly.

    Every time they encountered a rat, Jay would give them an urate and strong kick in the nose, sending them away and stunning them for a short time, enough for both of them to keep going down.

    On the other hand, when they encountered a group of 2 or more rats, Jay wouldsh out much more violently, hitting the rats with everything he had until they were either knocked out or far enough away to continue on their way.

    While it was undoubtedly dangerous, thanks to the extremely cut-resistant bandages covering his body and the Phantom Trace which let him dodge all of the rats'' predictable attacks, Jay could afford to take this risk.

    As for why he limited himself to just sending the rats away and not killing them, it was quite simple, he couldn''t kill them even if he wanted to.

    The Gray Rats were monsters that were especially resistant to blunt blows, so even if Jay used all his strength to hit them, he wouldn''t be able to cause serious damage to them.

    ''...As I expected, he really is on another level...'' Noah thought.

    The fact that Jay could deal with so many rats when only one of them was deadly to him still seemed impressive to him, which made him even more determined to be stronger.

    Within a short time, they both made it to the exit of the building. However, before they got out, Jay suddenly took off the hoodie he was wearing and handed it to Noah, exposing his entire upper body wrapped in bandages.

    Although he normally wore a t-shirt underneath the hoodie, this time he had decided to prioritize his agility, so he decided to just use the bandages to cover his upper body.

    "And this?" Noah asked.

    "There''s someone else outside, I''m not sure if they know who you are but I don''t want to take any chances. By the way, don''t say my name in front of him."

    Hearing Jay''s words, Noah said nothing more and just obeyed.

    Finally exiting the building, at least 5 bodies of Gray Rats were scattered around the entrance, all without any sign of life but with visible burn wounds.

    In the midst of it all stood a white-haired, sharp-toothed young man gasping for air, looking incredibly tired.

    "...Colt?" Said Noah, somewhat puzzled.

    Leaving aside the fact that he took care of all these rats on his own, what surprised him the most was that the person Jay had referred to earlier turned out to be none other than Colt, a member of Metal Body.

    "This..."

    "I''ll exin everythingter, for now let''s just get out of here, yeah?" Replied Jay, cutting him off.

    After saying that, they both moved forward to meet Colt.

    As for what they were going to do from now on, it was obvious, they would get out of the South Zone as soon as possible.

    ***

    Meanwhile, in a district quite close to where Jay and the others were. A battle which had been constantly moving was taking ce.

    *BOOM!*

    The noise of an explosion resounded loudly in the surroundings, product of the sh between the main and only protagonists of this fight.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The streets where they passed ended up being shattered, with craters everywhere. In fact, not even the posts or buildings were spared from this trail of destruction, leaving the streets almost unrecognizable.

    "Hahaha, no doubt your metal body has improved quite a bit. You''re even able to cut through my skin now!" Laughed Jared, who paused for a moment to carefully admire the state of his arm.

    Even though he was a rank (C+) pugilist and his body was tough enough to stop a bullet, he still had quite a few deep cuts around his body. The worst part was undoubtedly his fingers, which had now lost their shape and looked like a bloody bundle of flesh.

    Of course, his clothes had been torn to shreds by all the cuts, exposing terrible wounds all over his upper torso. However, as if the wounds had nothing to do with him, Jared simply kept smiling as he looked at his hand.

    "..."

    Garel on the other hand said nothing and just stared at Jared, he knew how much this man liked to talk, so he simply decided to ignore him.

    Although he had managed to do considerable damage to Jared, his condition wasn''t much better either.

    His ws which had once been sharp enough to cut through concrete were now just bent pieces of metal, with several dents around his arms and chest

    While neither had mortal wounds, it was clear that they were fully capable of hurting each other and were seemingly evenly matched for the moment.

    If this fight continued this way, it would be very difficult to predict who the winner would be.

    "Well, as much fun as this was, it''s about time to get this over with." Jared said before mming his fists in front of him, holding them together, his eyes beginning to release a visible amber glow.

    *Shh*

    Immediately, all the qi in the surrounding area began to swirl in his direction, gathering around him and condensing enough for it to be visible.

    As a result, several streams of golden energy suddenly appeared around Jared, dancing around him as if he were the ruler of this energy full of vitality called qi.

    At the same time, his body began to change, his alreadyrge muscles began to swell even more, increasing his stature significantly, reaching 10 foot in height.

    However, the most significant change was undoubtedly the pressure emanating from him.

    Whereas before the pressure Jared gave off was that of a strong, violent and energetic pugilist, now it had totally transformed into that of a wild animal radiating an intense bloodlust!

    Seeing that Jared was using his trump card, Garel knew that if he didn''t use his own soon, he would lose in a matter of seconds.

    Immediately, his eyes also began to give off a glow, his entire body turning to metal, the parts that were previously dented or broken also repairing themselves at a visible speed.

    That was not all, new metal parts also began to form on certain parts of his body, mainly spikes and metal tes in ces to attack and defend respectively, such as his fists, forearms, legs and so on.

    Despite all that, the pressure Garel gave off was still weaker than Jared''s, which was not a good sign for him at all.

    ''...The side effect will be stupidly strong... but I have no choice...'' Garel thought, reaffirming his determination, knowing that he couldn''tpete against Jared using his power alone.

    The next moment, he took out a pill of a beautiful and captivating crimson color whose surface contained some golden lines, as for the medicinal fragrance that came from this pill, not even the regeneration pill that Jay had received a while ago couldpare to this pill.

    From those details alone, one could already sense that this Blood pill was of apletely different quality than the other pills he had given to the Metal Body executives.

    This was Garel''s greatest triumph card as well as the reason why he decided to take on Jared alone despite knowing that he wasn''t as strong as thetter.

    "Argh!" He yelled while grabbing his chest.

    The moment he took the pill, a sudden pain spread around his entire body at the same time as an incredibly violent energy coursed through his veins, damaging everything in its path.

    Even the metal surrounding his body started to vibrate unsteadily, making it clear just how strong the pill''s effects were.

    *BOOM!*

    However, before he could finish the process of assimting the pill, a strong hit sent him flying through the air, strong enough to be at least a dozen meters above the air

    "You''re crazy if you think I''ll let you finish taking that pill!" shouted Jared who was surrounded by pugilistic mes as he jumped to reach Garel, who was still in the air.

    Then, with a strong kick, heunched him towards several buildings, smashing one after another on his way.

    ***

    "Okay, so if we keep going this way, we should be able to get to a shortcut that will take us directly to District 8, after that we''ll have to go around the whole area they''re fighting in, while it will take us longer, it shouldn''t be too hard..." Jay said, showing the map of the South Zone on his smart watch.

    After leaving District 4 due to haste and also because they didn''t want to have to deal with too many Grey Rats, the three met in a 3-story building to discuss what the shortest escape route would be and what they would do to avoid running into members of any gangs.

    Although Noah knew the South Zone better than Jay, he didn''t know where the battle between Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang was taking ce, so he preferred to simply listen to Jay.

    As for Colt, he had also cooperated by giving the information on where the other Metal Body members were, or at least all the ones who used the chat tomunicate. He seemed to be trusting Jay more and more.

    "Okay, now then, let''s get out of-"

    At that moment, Jay suddenly stopped to look down at his bandage-covered arm. The reason for this was simple, the parasites on his arm began to move frantically.

    Although the scene reminded him of when he felt the connection with the parasites inside Noah, this time it was much stronger. At the same time, the parasites once again transmitted their thoughts to him.

    Coming. Energy. Big.

    Those words,bined with the feeling of urgency the parasites were transmitting to him were already enough to put Jay in rm.

    The next moment, however, something that confirmed his suspicions appeared.

    _____________________

    Warning: Tworge and unknown energy sources have been detected in the vicinity!

    _____________________

    ''What?!''

    *BOOM*

    Without even giving him time to analyze the information, a huge explosion urred in the building next door.

    Quickly rushing to the window to see what had happened, Jay, for the first time tonight, panicked.

    On the street were two people, a 10 foot man who was engulfed in pugilistic mes and another smaller butpletely made of metal with spikes and metal tes all over him.

 Chapter 64 - Unexpected Mission

    Hearing the sound of the explosion, Noah and Colt also went to the window to see what had caused the explosion.

    Like Jay, they also went into shock.

    "That''s the boss!" shouted Colt as he saw the metal man.

    "Shhh!!"

    "Ah, sorry..."

    Despite Garel''s appearance being totally different, Colt could still recognize him.

    As for the other person surrounded by pugilistic mes, although Colt didn''t recognize him instantly, simply judging by the pressure emanating from this person along with the fact that he was facing Garel, a rank (C+) esper, he could already get an idea of who it was.

    "...And that''s Jared, the boss of Wolf''s Fang, it seems that he wasn''t lying..."

    Noah also recognized this person quickly, now that he could see him more clearly, there was no doubt, it was the person who had held him captive in the abandoned warehouse, the self-proimed boss of Wolf''s Fang.

    However, instead of fear or anything like that, the only thing Noah felt at this moment was hatred towards this person.

    ''...This is bad'' Jay thought as he signaled Noah and Colt to crouch down and keep quiet.

    Although at the moment the two men seemed to be focused on each other, Jay wasn''t sure they hadn''t been noticed by one of them, especially the pugilist.

    After all, the senses of a rank (C) super were already quite acute, not to mention these two people who were obviously stronger.

    ''Just our luck...'' Jay thought, feeling frustrated.

    While they apparently hadn''t been discovered, he didn''t know how long it would stay that way.

    The next moment, he turned on his smartwatch and set the shared view to the drone Jenny was operating. He had wanted to keep this feature hidden from Colt, but the situation no longer allowed him to keep this to himself.

    There was also a message that Jenny sent just a few seconds ago, saying that two people were rapidly approaching, but thanks to the system''s warning appearing faster, Jay was able to find out before he read it.

    *BOOM!*

    Another explosion sounded again, though this time, instead of looking out the window, the three of them looked at Jay''s smartwatch, which was showing everything from the air.

    The man engulfed in mes hadshed out at the Metal Body boss, sending him crashing into the interior of another nearby building before chasing after him and continuing to beat him savagely, the Metal Body''s boss couldn''t retaliate at all.

    "I had heard that Wolf''s Fang''s boss was the strongest super in the South Zone, but I really didn''t expect there to be such a wide gap..." Colt said as he watched the fight.

    While it was obviously very frustrating for him to see his boss being pushed around time and time again, he knew that even if he got into the fight, all he would aplish was losing his life.

    ''Fortunately, it looks like none of them noticed us...'' Jay thought somewhat relieved to see that the two gang leaders were fighting against each other, while the battle seemed somewhat lopsided, Jay couldn''t care less.

    However, just as he was about to tell Noah and Colt to get out of here slowly, a new system alert appeared before his eyes.

    _____________________

    New Mission: Such energy! Such vitality!

    Description: Two great sources of energy had been detected in the vicinity, as the [Carrier] of the [Parasyte System], it would be foolish not to take advantage of this situation!

    Requirements: Infect and assimte the energy sources (Cores) of the two individuals.

    First Reward: Total Recovery and Improvement of the [Carrier]''s Body.

    Second Reward: (20) Parasites [Type Selectable].

    Third Reward: (1) Iplete Core [Adaptable].

    Remark: Do your best, [Carrier]!

    _____________________

    ''!?''

    After reading this announcement, Jay couldn''t help but go into shock again.

    It was not only because of the great rewards the mission offered, whether it was the recovery and enhancement of his body or the 20 parasites of the type he wanted, both were very good rewards, as expected from such a high difficulty mission.

    However, what surprised Jay the most was the fact that the third reward in the system was actually an Iplete Core!

    His surprise was to be expected, after all, even for him, a person who was fascinated by and had researched the subject of supers extensively, he had rarely read or heard anything about Cores. Of course, this was not because he had not looked in the right ce, but because information about them was extremely scarce, almost considered a secret subject.

    In fact, he could only learnt about them after asking Sarah and James.

    The Core, also known as the Second Heart of Supers, were arge source of energy which formed inside certain supers which were ready to advance to the (B-) grade.

    The type and amount of energy in them varied ording to the type and talent possessed by the super who developed a Core.

    Among their effects were doubling the energy possessed by that super, slowly improving their physique, making them longer-lived than an average super of the same grade, and a lot of other beneficial effects.

    While Cores were not necessary to advance to grade (B-), countless supers who were at the top of the rank (C+) dreamed of being able to form a Core as it would not only make their transition easier and give them a longer lifespan, but also make them much stronger than the average super of the same rank.

    This was why Jay was so surprised, if just the task of finding a super with a Core was incredibly difficult. However, it turns out that right in front of him the system was telling him that there was not only one, but two of them!

    ''...So by power source the system didn''t mean them, but their Cores...'' Jay thought.

    He had originally thought it was because both bosses were one step away from (B-) rank, but thanks to the system''s mission, he could understand why both the system and the parasites reacted this way.

    "Something wrong?" asked Noah who had seen Jay''s expression change.

    "Oh, no, I was just thinking about how we''d get out of here." He quickly answered.

    Noah''s voice brought him back to reality.

    ''...Even though the rewards are really good, we''re still talking about rank (C+) supers, and on top of that they have developed a Core...!'' He thought, the very reason he was seriously consideringpleting the mission was at the same time a big deterrent for him.

    In the end, he made a decision.

    "Colt, I need you to take him to the South Zone exit, as for the bosses, they''re too busy fighting each other to notice you." Jay said as he tapped Colt''s neck, ordering 5 parasites to quickly enter his neck.

    He probably didn''t need to infect him anymore for him to agree to his request, but Jay didn''t want to take any chances anyway.

    Noticing the seriousness in Jay''s tone, even though he wanted to refute, he could only nod his head.

    "Okay, so Noah, I''ve noticed that you have advanced in rank, congrattions. Also, I need you to heal me as best you can, just my legs will be fine." He continued, pointing to his legs.

    Jay had noticed this change as they walked towards this building because Noah''s presence felt stronger than before. And also because he had seen the system interface.

    "I''ll do my best but... you''re noting with us?" Noah asked as he used his ability on Jay''s legs, somewhat confused.

    Thanks to the fact that he had advanced in rank, using his ability on others was no longer as difficult as before, however, the effect was still very limited, so he could only keep it up for about 20 seconds at most.

    "I''ll catch up with youter, and Colt, I''ll stay here to monitor the location of the bosses and also to prevent them from discovering you, the moment you get him out of the South Zone, send me a message and I''ll send you the location, then you know who to call for help, right?"

    "...Yes, I do."<novelnext></novelnext>

    While he had a lot of confidence about his boss, he knew that his opponent could only be just as strong if not stronger, so he obviously wasn''t going to let the battle continue like this.

    After that short exchange between the 3 of them, they parted ways, with Noah and Colt exiting out the back of the building while Jay stayed behind.

    ''...I knew he wanted to make up for what he did to us, but I really didn''t think he was willing to risk himself like this.'' Colt thought, amazed at the determination Jay was showing by staying here to track the location of the fight..

    As for Noah, he was thinking something slightly different.

    ''Even though we haven''t really known each other for that long, and to think that he would do all this so I could escape...'' Noah thought, feeling moved by Jay''s actions.

    They both had mixed feelings about it, and although they wanted to stay to help, one decided to trust Jay and hurry as much as possible while the other knew it would onlyplicate everything if he stayed.

    In this way, without knowing it, Jay had once again improved the opinion these two people had of him.

    ***

    "Well, let''s see what my cards are then..." Jay said after Noah and Colt left, clenching his fists to test how much force he could exert with his unevenly distributed parasites due to infecting Colt with 5.

    The reason he had told Noah to focus on his legs and not his entire body was due to the fact that they were what he was going to use the most, whether it was to flee, run, use the Phantom Trace or even attack, having his legs in an optimal state was necessary.

    Fortunately for him, even though he had only been under the effects of Noah''s regeneration for a few seconds, his legs felt much better than any other part of his body. Though of course, he was still far from 100%.

    He then activated Wind Control to form his familiar wind gauntlet, "Against that guy''s pugilistic mes, I''m afraid only using this along with the bandages will give me any chance of getting close."

    He was aware of the force contained in the pugilistic mes of a rank (C+) super, so in the absence of better protection, he had to improvise.

    ''Finally, I have Overload, I really don''t know what kind of consequences it will bring now that I don''t have more free uses so I''ll only use it as ast resort.''

    Thanks to the fact that he hadn''t had time to test the side effects, he was still quite cautious about using this skill despite the fact that it increased his strength to whole new level. Always leaving it in reserve.

    "Hm, looks like they''ve already gotten farther away, they''ve already reached District 4, how fast...'' Jay said as he looked at his smart watch.

    Immediately, he began to look at the map of the District 4, his expression that of a personpletely immersed in his thoughts.

    ***

    Meanwhile, in the center of District 4, in a neighborhood whose surroundings had been almostpletely destroyed.

    "F*ck, you''re tough..." Jared said, looking at his opponent with even more interest than before without diminishing the terrifying bloodlust he was emanating.

    Even though Jared had been attacking him non-stop, taking advantage of the fact that he was still processing the blood pill, he hadn''t been able to kill him. Though of course, that didn''t mean Garel was unharmed.

    Right now Garely in a crater, his body covered in metal tes and spikes that had been broken all over, revealing his silver-colored skin from which a warm red liquid was pouring out.

    But as if he didn''t care, he just kept clutching his chest, as if what he was feeling right now inside him was much worse than the wounds made by Jared.

    "Heh, how pathetic, if it was going to end like this then I wouldn''t have stopped you. At least that way you would have been able to put up some resistance." Jared said as he approached the crater, the mes in his body burning even more than before.

    He was feeling that each time the energy in Garel''s body was increasing more and more, so even though he knew it was quite unlikely that he would be stronger than him even after he finished consuming the pill, he didn''t want to take such a risk anyway.

    "Eek!"

    However, just at that moment, a shriek reached his ears. Causing him to turn his head slightly towards the direction where the sound came from.

    More than a dozen meters away, stood a Gray Rat, watching everything with his deep red eyes.

    "Ah, even though I told them they had to clean up all the districts from time to time, those idiots don''t pay any attention... Apparently I''ll have to do another cleanup in my gang after this. I hope you have obedient people in Metal Body, Garel, I''ll need themter." Laughed Jared.

    Deciding that he would clean up this districtter, he reached Garel, the next moment, he lifted his foot and ced it on top of his head, applying pressure.

    "Goodbye then, Garel, you weren''t a good match at all."

    *SPLASH!*

    The sound a liquid being sshed could be heard at the same time as Jared crushed Garel''s head.

    Jared then stepped back to begin clearing this district of Gray Rats. However, when he moved his leg, he realized that he was feeling resistance and he immediately realized what was happening.

    What was supposed to be Garel''s blood and viscera had actually turned into a metallic colored liquid which was gripping his leg!

    "You...!" shouted Jared before delivering a strong punch towards Garel''s body.

    *BAM!*

    Unfortunately for him, his fist didn''t touch anything solid, but the same metallic liquid that Garel''s head had turned into.

    Even though he withdrew his hand as fast as he could, it was toote, the liquid had already climbed up both his hand and his leg, slowly spreading all over his whole body.

    "DAMN IT!!!" He screamed as he futilely tried to peel that sticky substance off his body.

    But no matter how much strength he used or how much qi he used to boost his pugilistic mes, it was all useless in front of this metallic liquid, leaving the way free for this substance until it finally covered every corner of his body, only leaving his face free.

    "You''re...dead."

    Suddenly, he could hear Garel''s cold voice, which radiated an unmistakable killing intent. Immediately afterwards, all his senses warned him that he was in grave danger!

    *CHACK!*

    "ARGHH!"

    Dozens of nails pierced every part of his body, going straight through to his muscles, causing him to feel indescribable pain.

    Although this attack hadn''t killed him, he knew that if it wasn''t for the fact that he had used most of his qi to strengthen his body the instant he felt he was in danger, right now his body would be no different than a honeb.

    "!"

    However, just as he was thinking about what to do, he felt sharp teeth dig into one of his calves, taking a bit of skin off. While it wasn''t serious by any means, it had been very annoying.

    ''How could it bite me if I''m coated in this stupid suit?'' He thought,unching a kick towards this rat.

    Grey Rats were especially resistant to brute force blows, however, their resistance had a limit, a limit that a rank (C+) pugilist was fully capable of surpassing.

    Nevertheless, the kick stopped right in front of the rat, his leg shaking intensely as it dripped some blood due to the spikes piercing even deeper than before.

    "I see..." Jared said, a vein in his forehead due to the rage he was feeling at the moment.

    The "metal suit" he was wearing was not going to protect him in any way, but was even going to let the rats bite him as much as they wanted while restricting his movements and taking care of hurting him at the same time.

    "Eek!"

    Many more rats began to appear in the vicinity, attracted by the noise Jared was causing. If Jay or Colt saw how many rats were here, they would immediately flee without looking back, after all, it wasn''t a matter of 8 or 9 rats, there were dozens of them right here!

    Of course, Jared had sensed them long before they appeared in his field of vision, he had nned to deal with all of them after killing Garel. However, now that he was restrained, he regretted this decision.

    "Garel.... son of a b*tch!" He shouted as he lunged towards the rats, ignoring the multiple spikes digging into his skin.

 Chapter 65 - Unexpected Outcome

    "Argh, f*ck, finally..." Jared said, in his voice a tone of noticeable exhaustion and relief.

    After spending a few minutes fighting off the rats with the metallic suit encasing him, Jared had finally managed to get rid of all the rats in the vicinity.

    Though of course, it hadn''t been easy by any means. The biggest proof of this was undoubtedly the blood stains on the metal suit, all belonging to him.

    During the entire time Jared had been fighting the rats, Garel had done everything he could to obstruct his path, not to mention the metal spikes digging into his body over and over again, he had also made tiny but incredibly sharp razor des in strategic ces such as his tendons and neck.

    While this did not achieve its goal of making Jared stop moving, it did help to further limit his movements, as each time he moved, the razors and spikes dug deeper.

    Unfortunately for Garel, even though he had managed to hurt and weaken Jared considerably, he still managed to finish off the rats rtively quickly.

    "I''ll admit, this trick of yours certainly is really good. However, the problem is that you don''t have enough offensive power to kill me. Besides, being in this form must cost you a lot of energy, even if you use your Core at full power, it''s only a matter of time before you return to your original form. " He said with a confident tone before continuing, "And when that happens, I''ll take it upon myself to skin you alive, see if you''re really made of metal or not, heh."

    Hearing this, although Garel didn''t say anything, he couldn''t help but feel bitter.

    What Jared had said was true. Although he had mutated his Trait suddenly thanks to the Blood Pill, bing just one step away from rank (B-), this consumed too much energy, in fact, if it wasn''t for his Core, Garel was sure that he would have long since returned to his original form.

    As for his offensive capabilities, although he wasn''t using his full ability to inflict damage on Garel, he had no choice but to focus most of his ability on restraining him. After all, being in his current form, if Jared decided to run away, he wouldn''t be able to stop him at all.

    It was for that very reason that he had decided to be a "suit", taking advantage of the Grey Rats to try to kill him. Of course, he had already realized that hoping to kill Jared using these weak monsters had only been wishful thinking.

    ''If only some executive were here...'' Garel thought, slightly regretting sending his assistants to other areas.

    Although they were undoubtedly weaker than him and it was obvious that they would lose quickly in a direct fight against Jared, if they had Garel''s help obstructing his movements and constantly wounding him, they would have a very high chance of winning.

    Unfortunately, it was unlikely that they were going to disobey his orders and return.

    ''Then... there''s only one alternative left.... I''ll have to-''

    *Tap tap tap tap*

    "!"

    Suddenly, interrupting Garel''s thoughts and drawing Jared''s attention, they both heard the sound of footsteps. They were not too heavy, but light and quick.

    In any case, neither of them could help but tense up a bit. While the battle right now was at a stalemate where neither could kill or get rid of the other, this could very easily change with the arrival of a person.

    ''Please tell me it''s one of my executives...!'' Garel thought hopefully.

    ''Those footsteps.... Joe? No, they''re too light...'' Jared thought, trying to guess from the sound of the footsteps who this approaching person might be.

    Because they had both ended up in a considerablyrge but not very deep crater, a product of the strength Jared had used against the rats.

    As they couldn''t directly see who it was, they could only make guesses.

    *Tap tap tap tap*

    Finally, a figure appeared, rushing down the crater and running towards Jared.

    ''''...And who is this?!'''' They both initially thought as they saw the unknown man covered in bandages rapidly approaching them.

    However, their surprise onlysted a second before they remembered some detailed reports they had received.

    Although the appearance of this man was somewhat different from what they had read, it''s not like there were many people wrapped in bandages roaming around the South Zone either, so it had to be him.

    Of course, recognizing him was one thing, figuring out exactly what he was doing here was an entirely different matter. Their minds working quickly in order toe to a conclusion.

    Faced with the appearance of the bandaged man, Jared and Garel acted differently.

    ''...He has arrived at the worst moment, it would be better to kill him now!'' Jared thought, tensing his muscles to throw everything he had at the man to finish him off immediately.

    While I had nned certain things for this guy, the current situation was too risky to leave someone like him alive.

    Then, just as the bandaged man entered a suitable distance, Jared lunged at him...!

    Or at least he tried to, as he couldn''t move a single muscle.

    "Garel... you bastard!" He shouted, another vein appearing on his forehead due to the rage.

    Seeing this, the bandaged man quickly passed by the side of the now motionless Garel, although thetter was using all his strength to attack him, the movement was so slow that even if he stood still, it would take several minutes to touch him.

    At the same time, a thin strand of metal began to separate from Jared''s body, heading quickly towards the bandaged man.

    However, it had no chance to reach him due to the fact that he suddenly elerated before climbing the crater and continuing to run like there was no tomorrow.

    "..."

    Both of them were momentarily stunned as they watched him pass by as if he hadn''t even seen them.

    ''Was he... was he just passing by?'' Garel thought after failing tomunicate with him, quite confused by the bandaged man''s actions.

    *RUMBLE*

    At that moment, interrupting Garel''s thoughts, a noise that even made the earth tremble slightly made them turn towards the direction where he bandaged man hade from.

    ""EEK!""

    The loud squealing of dozens of rats filled their ears as they watched one after another rat surround them, some even getting closer and ring menacingly at Jared.

    However, for some reason, none of the rats attacked him, but mecrely kept looking at him as they bared their sharp teeth.

    "...So that''s why he was running...!" Jared said, his words carrying a noticeable tone of anger.

    *BAM*

    Just as he finished saying that, a loud stomp came from the back of the line that the rats had formed, belonging to a particrlyrge rat, almost reaching 2 meters in height.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The moment it appeared, all the other rats in the vicinity unconsciously backed away, as if they knew their ce in front of this big rat. Jared''s expression turning even more sour.

    ''...There''s even a Great Rat here?!'' Garel thought, almost jumping for joy at this pleasant surprise. He couldn''t be med, after all, this was just what he needed the most at the moment.

    An opponent capable of killing Jared.

    He knew that normal Gray Rats wouldn''t be able to do it even if there were 100 of them, however, that changedpletely if they had the help of a Great Rat.

    After all, while the Gray Rats were considered rank (D-)mon monsters, which meant that it only took a pair of supers of the same rank to eliminate one of them easily, a Great Rat was a monster on apletely different level.

    It was the equivalent of two rank (C-) supers!

    Whether it was in physical capabilities or intelligence, the Great Rat far surpassed any average Gray Rat, as if that wasn''t enough, he could alsomand other rats that were weaker than him.

    Although if one had to mention what this monster''s weak point was, it would undoubtedly be his slow speed of movement. Thanks to itsrge and heavy body, although it was fast, it still couldn''tpete with the speed of an average (D) rank super. Making his threat level not so high.

    The next moment, the Rat King, seeing that there was much better prey than the one he was originally chasing, lunged towards the center of the crater regardless of the bloodlust Jared was emanating.

    "SKREEK!!!" Shrieked the big rat loudly, the other rats also squealing in response.

    Then, they all collectively rushed at Jared, who began to move with great difficulty to deal with the dozens of ratsing at him.

    "IT''S NOT GOING TO BE THAT EASY TO KILL ME!" Shouted Jared suddenly, again shing fists and shaking all the qi in the vicinity.

    Suddenly, he stomped his foot heavily on the ground before assuming a fighting stance. The pressure he was emitting also changed, it was no longer a terrifying bloodlust and instead had shifted to a feeling simr to what one would get when seeing a small mountain.

    Imposing!

    That''s the only way one could describe the feeling Jared was giving off at the moment. Even the Great Rat was momentarily intimidated by this, though it quickly recovered.

    Due to therge amount of qi trying to enter his body, Garel had to prevent Jared from being able to recover his energy, so he had no choice but to cover his bodypletely, isting him from the outside.

    The reason Garel hadn''t done this before was due to the fact that if he did, he wouldck the metal to be able to form the spikes and des together, but now that he would no longer be the one in charge of dealing the damage, he could afford to discard the more useless of the two, the spikes.

    Of course, even without that, he could still hinder Jared greatly.

    From that moment on, both supers went into full power, not to mention the fact that they activated their Auras, they were even using their Cores at full power.

    One of them was blind, restricted and with a limited amount of Qi, pushing his body to the limits to fight a monster whose strength was a serious threat to his current self.

    The other was doing multiple things at the same time, coordinating the attacks of all the rats with the times he retracted the metal from a certain part of Jared''s body, maximizing their attacks while using that moment to drive the des even deeper, not forgetting of course to slow him down at all times.

    In this way, with neither of them giving in, this battle that pushed to the limit the two strongest super of the South Zone continued for a while.

    ***

    After an unkown amount of time, the battle finally came to an end.

    "ARGHHHHH!!!" Garel shouted, mming both of his fists downward.

    *BAM!!*

    Although the sound was that of the impact of his fists smashing the ground, mixed into it was the sound of fractured bones, the product of the Great Rat''s skull being broken.

    All around him was only what could be described as a massacre, bodies of Gray Rats were everywhere, all with signs of having been brutally beaten.

    Although Garel did his best to make fighting nearly impossible for Jared, he still failed in his task of killing him.

    "...I will not... DIE TODAY!" Shouted Jared copsing to the ground, his voice hoarse from all the blood he had spit out so far.

    The amount of external wounds he had were onlyparable to the amount of internal wounds on his body. In fact, of all the bloodstains in the crater, most of them belonged to him.

    Although he had managed to survive this, he had paid a very high price for it. Not only was his energy and qi almost depleted, he also felt extremely dizzy from all the blood he had lost.

    As for Garel, he had already reached his limit, his body was vibrating slightly, causing holes to appear in the "metal suit", showing Jared''s bloody skin. It was as if at any moment he was going to return to his original form.

    "Heh, looks like you... lost." Jared said weakly, a smile of victory on his face.

    *Tap tap tap tap tap*

    "!"

    However, before they could do anything else, the footsteps of a person reached their ears.

    Thanks to the fact that they had heard him before, this time they could recognize him almost immediately, it was the bandaged man!

    The only difference would be that now it sounded much faster, it was clear that he was running at an even faster speed than before!

    Instantly, Jared stood up and turned towards the direction in which he could hear the footsteps, because his vision was still covered by Garel, he could only guide himself with that.

    However, just at that moment, his whole body stopped. Or rather, it became so heavy that it even looked like he wasn''t moving.

    "NOT THIS TIME!" Shouted Jared again, activating another martial technique that increased his strength temporarily. Normally he wouldn''t use another martial technique in this state as it would be detrimental to his body, but he wasn''t willing to let the bandaged man do whatever he wanted either.

    *BAM!*

    The sound of a punch hitting something solid could be heard.

    "...What?"

    However, the oue was not what the two grade (C+) super had expected.

    In the middle of the not so deep crater, the bandaged man could be seen resting his fist against Jared''s chest, precisely in a part that the suit did not cover, making direct contact with his skin.

 Chapter 66 - Unbridled

    ''...That was... Phantom Trace?!'' Jared thought in shock.

    As a rank (C+) pugilist, and also as the leader of one of the dominant gangs in the South Zone, he was well acquainted with the vast majority of martial techniques in Nightown City.

    Whether it was to enrich Wolf''s Fang''s repertoire or for his personal use, he paid close attention to ways of acquiring them, sometimes by buying them, sometimes by trading them with other martial techniques and on very rare asions, if the martial technique was too good, by stealing them.

    However, even for him, someone known for his ferocity and dominance, there were certain limits he dared not cross.

    The biggest and most important of those boundaries undoubtedly had to do with thergest force in the city, the sect known as "The Emperor''s Gate".

    Being a pugilist sect with a great history, reputation, power and an incredible amount of experts all over the country, martial techniques were abundant, as for their effects, they were all first ss, even superior than other martial techniques of the same grade.

    Phantom Trace was a good example, not only was this technique rtively easy to learn, but its effects were also much better than most evasion techniques of the same level.

    With this technique alone, thebat standards of all Wolf''s Fang members would be raised even higher, even making them capable of fighting supers one grade higher than them.

    That was how significant the increase in power an excellent martial technique could grant to a pugilist.

    But despite of this, Jared didn''t even dare to think about obtaining the sect''s worst martial technique, let alone Phantom Trace. The reason for this was very simple, he would only be seeking his death if he did so!

    ''However... even if he''s a member of that sect, my life is at stake here!'' He thought, deciding to deal with the consequencester.

    Instantly, he threw another punch towards the bandaged man, but surprisingly, the man recoiled even faster than when he approached, moving away and only stopping when he was at a suitable distance.

    As for chasing him, it would be quite difficult. He had only managed to move like this thanks to the sudden increase in power of the martial technique he used earlier, but now that his strength had stabilized, Garel again restrained him.

    This confused Jared quite a bit, ''...He only got closer to do that?''

    The hit he had felt could not be described as anything other than weak, though he estimated that it would be enough to damage a rank (D+) super, to Jared, who was currently in a strengthened state, it had been no different than a mosquito bite.

    Of course, he wasn''t the only one, Garel was also confused by the bandaged man''s actions.

    ''Well... as long as he keeps helping me...''

    Though he didn''t know his exact motives or what he wanted to achieve, since earlier the man had brought a group of monsters to attack Jared, from that fact alone he could tell that he was not an ally of Jared, and that was enough for him.

    Jared had been thinking about moving again in order to catch the bandaged man, although he had almost no qi to use another martial technique anymore, now that there were several holes in the metal suit, gathering the amount needed to move would only be a matter of a few seconds.

    "Now then... I have to finish him in one move..." He said, looking at the bandaged man.

    ''Not good, I have to do something...!'' Thought Garel, not willing to lose his only "ally".

    However, at that moment, before either of them could think of anything else, Jared fell to his knees on the floor while clutching his chest.

    "ARGH!!" He screamed, his eyes bloodshot and his entire body filled with throbbing veins which looked like they were about to burst.

    Just as he was about to gather qi, a wrenching pain assaulted his chest, specifically the center. The sensation was as if something was trying to rip out his heart andpiercing it at the same time.

    ''What?''

    Even Garel was shocked to see the man who had just finished fighting off a horde of monster rats on his own withoutining even once suddenly falling to the ground with such a horrible expression of pain on his face.

    "YOU... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!?"

    Of course, as a pugilist, his control over his body was incredibly sharp, so he quickly knew what was going on inside him... and it was far worse than having his heart being pierced.

    At this moment, what was undoubtedly one of the most important parts of his body, his Core, was being constantly damaged!

    This was the first time Jared had ever felt anything like this. He had heard rumors that sometimes Cores could be fractured and rendered unusable due to an incredibly strong attack, but this didn''t feel like a fracture at all.

    Although a Core was not a physical organ, but more like a cluster of energy which was intertwined with his heart, he could still feel several "holes" beginning to appear in it.

    Immediately, all the qi in his body started to escape, like a balloon with severals hole in it, losing all the air inside, and the worst part was that he couldn''t do anything to avoid that.

    "AAARGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

    It was no longer a cry of pain, but more of a roar of anger at the frustration he was feeling thanks to the current situation.

    He had managed to create his Core ever since he became a rank (C+) pugilist, several years ago now after an incredible amount of hard work and mostly luck.

    With such a huge benefit, he hadpletely reformed his martial techniques andbat style to use the Core as the basis of all his power, which had proven to be apletely wise decision.

    It was from that point onwards that he started to make a name for himself, although he also had some feats before forming his Core, they were nothingpared to afterwards, having defeated a Hero and creating Wolf''s Fang also happened after that.

    Unfortunately for him, what had made him so strong had ironically be the thing that was hurting him the most.

    Although he tried to control the qi in his body, he was unable to do so. He had spent too much time using his Core, despite being an experienced rank (C+) pugilist, he would need days, if not weeks to be able to adapt to this change.

    Unfortunately for him, Garel was not going to be so kind as to waste this opportunity.

    Although he was shocked, seeing that the amount of energying from Jared was diminishing at such an rming rate, he quickly took advantage of this situation to attack, cutting deep into his chest, leaving a wound running from his right shoulder to his hip.

    *CHACK*

    "YOU...!"

    Faced with this, Jared finally reached his limit.

    "IF I''M GOING TO DIE HERE, THEN I''M TAKING YOU BOTH WITH ME!" He shouted, rising from the ground with great difficulty before shouting the name of a martial technique, "UNBRIDLED!"

    Even though he was feeling immense pain, Jared decided to endure it by gritting his teeth before activating a martial technique that slowly changed the color of his body to red.

    The moment he did so, his body trembled, a sign that he was not in a position to use a martial technique. However, he was emanating a terrifying pressure all the same.

    He was no longer trying to control the Qi inside him, but simply decided to let it escape, even actively ejecting everything he had.

    The next moment, he grabbed the metal suit that was on his body and began to forcibly rip it off.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "GET OFF!"

    His muscles were incredibly swollen thanks to all the force he was using at the moment, along with the pugilistic mes on his body burning at maximum power, his appearance was that of a fire berserker.

    It was clear, he was fully determined to remove what had been restraining him almost since the beginning of this battle.

    As for why the pugilistic mes were still active around his entire body even though he had no control over his qi, that was because what was powering those mes was no longer qi, but Jared''s life force.

    Although it was not as effective as using qi, it could serve as a suitable substitute thanks to the martial technique he had just used, "Unbridled".

    The original purpose of this technique had been to give a power boost using both qi and life force to greatly enhance a pugilist attacks. Some even said that the effect could almost resemble having an artificial Core.

    That coupled with the fact that it was not difficult to learn and that any pugilist with some money could buy this technique, made it an option avable to most pugilists.

    However, even those who learned this technique rarely used it, the reason was very simple, the more they used their life force, the harder it would be for them to recover, taking weeks at best and in the worst case, years.

    Despite that, Jared was using it to the fullest, making it very clear that he no longer cared about the consequences this would bring him.

    ''Urgh, sh*t!'' Garel thought, clinging as tightly as he could to Jared.

    Although it had been very easy to stick to Jared''s body at first, that was because his state was optimal, both his energy and the effect of the blood pill were at their highest, giving him the ability to resist Jared''s tremendous strength.

    However, now that his energy was almost depleted, simply staying in that liquid metal form was already bing very difficult for him, not to mention that the mes were also slowly burning him, consuming even more of his energy to protect his body.

    So, although he resisted with everything he had, he couldn''t help but end up being detached from Jared''s body.

    "NOW GO F*CK YOURSELF!" Jared shouted.

    He thenunched the dense mass of metal that was Garel towards the sky, using the maximum amount of strength avable in his right arm.

    As he knew that physical blows would not work against him while he was in that form, instead of attacking him, he decided to send him away.

    Without wasting any time, his gazended on the bandaged man.

    "..."

    But to his surprise, thetter, had moved quite far away unnoticed. So far even that he was almost reaching another neighborhood.

    "COME BACK HERE, YOU FILTHY RAT!" Shouted Jared as he began to chase him, apparently fighting so many rats had made him unconsciously rte the bandaged man as such.

    Despite being injured and being in no condition to run, he was still quite fast, covering several meters with a single step.

    Normally this would be enough to catch a rank (D) pugilist such as the bandaged man, however, not only could he not close the distance, but it even seemed that this man was slowly elerating, getting farther and farther away.

    ''Even if I have to burn up all the life force in my body, I swear I''ll get you!!!'' Jared thought, a fervent determination in his eyes.

    As for his original target, Garel, he wasn''t worried about him at all. After all, when he returned to its original form, Jared could quickly finish him off.

    ***

    *Tap tap tap tap tap*

    The sound of footsteps could be hearding from one of the streets of District 4, a few blocks away from downtown, product of a person who had just turned a corner.

    This person who only had bandages covering his upper body was currently running at full speed down this street, almost as if he had fire in his feet.

    While one might think that he was just running, he was actually constantly making use of Phantom Trace, which allowed him to run faster than normal.

    ''Keep running, don''t look back, don''t stop for a second.'' Jay thought, feeling extremely nervous.

    Although it couldn''t be seen due to the bandages covering his face, he was sweating profusely due to the nervousness of the situation he was in.

    *BOOM!*

    Behind him, the sound of a wall being smashed through could be heard, causing him to unconsciously tremble.

    "JUST WAIT UNTIL I CATCH YOU, YOU BASTARD!!!"

    The person who looked more like arge mass of muscle than a person and was currently chasing him, not caring how many walls he had to run through was Jared.

    Suddenly, he grabbed arge chunk of concrete from the wall he had just destroyed and threw it toward Jay. Due to the force he had used when throwing it, it quickly catched up to Jay, being only a few centimeters away from crashing into him.

    However, just as he was about to get hit, his feet moved in a particr way that caused Jay to suddenly elerate for a second, moving to the right and easily avoiding the piece of concrete.

    ''Urgh, I won''t be able to use that many more times.'' Jay thought, feeling slightly dizzy.

    What he had used just now was the Phantom Trace, but not the first and second step, which were something he was used to, instead, it was the third and fourth step, namely dodge and counter.

    That was something he had discovered he could do very recently, specifically when he was nning how to aplish the mission the system had given him.

    Since he didn''t feel so confident with just using the basics of Phantom Trace, now that his body had upgraded, he felt he should try it at least once, which fortunately worked, making many parts of his n easier.

    Though of course, each use consumed a considerable amount of his body''s energy and concentration, so he wasn''t going to be able to use them as often as the first two steps.

    *Pin*

    Just then, the sound of a notification came to his smartwatch.

    Poking a hole through the bandages on his arm, Jay was d to read what was the message.

    [Jay, all set, this is the exact location...].

    From that moment on, Jay suddenly changed the way he was running, starting to breathe heavily and getting into buildings or alleys to try to lose Jared, who was still charging like an enraged bull.

    As for the ce he was going to, it was an abandoned high school.

 Chapter 67 - Disbelief

    After a chase that tested the endurance of both participants, they made it all the way to the high school.

    Unlike before when Jared was only some distance away from catching up with Jay, now the situation had undoubtedly worsened for him.

    "Haa..." His breathing was somewhat heavy, a product of the immense fatigue he was feeling at the moment, "Just... how does he have so much energy?!"

    He had been chasing Jay closely, even passing through walls and taking every shortcut he could in order to catch him, all while asionally throwing chunks of concrete or other heavy objects at him to slow him down.

    While this might seem like too much considering that his body had been constantly expelling qi, thanks to his use of Unbridle and his powerful body, he could afford to act in this way without getting tired quickly.

    However, even though the bandaged man''s energy levels definitely indicated that he was a rank (D) super, the stamina he disyed was on apletely different level, making Jared question whether he perhaps mismeasured this guy''s energy.

    Of course, even if Jared was confused, Jay didn''t stop running for a second, getting to the current situation where he had lost sight of him.

    "...I refuse to let that damn rat escape!" He said, reluctant to let the cause of his deplorable state escape.

    Thereupon, he quickly darted towards the entrance of the school, smashing through the worn ss doors and rushing past the lockers to the stairs that led up to the second floor.

    Next to these stairs were other ss doors that revealed the wide, weedy green field that had once served as the school''s recreation and exercise site.

    To both the left and right of thisrge field were the other wings of the high school, which connected to the main building. As for the front, there was a single two-story building separated from the rest which contained various facilities such asboratories, craft workshops and so on.

    Just as he was about to go up to the second floor to smash everything in his pace, he noticed something that made him stop inmediately.

    On top of this separate building, there was a figure standing, looking directly towards where Jared was, as if waiting for thetter to get closer.

    ''...So he didn''t run away...'' Jared thought as he advanced towards the building.

    While he didn''t know exactly why he hadn''t run away, this was a good thing for him, it saved him the effort of having to tear the entire school apart after all.

    Just as he reached the center of the courtyard, the bandaged man''s voice stopped him.

    "Hey, are you sure you''re in any condition to keep chasing me?" Jay said from the roof of the building.

    Although his voice had been clear and deep, it was clear that it belonged to a young person, something that made Jared surprised.

    He had expected the person behind those bandages to have been some disciple of the Emperor''s Gate at least in his early twenties, but now judging by the voice it was clear that he had been mistaken.

    "Shut the f*ck up." Jared replied, his voice imbued with an almost palpable intent to kill.

    Of course, even if the other party was 15, he would still kill him without mercy. Leaving aside the that he had interrupted his fight against Garel, what hurt him the most was without doubt the fact that his Core had been rendered useless.

    "Tell me, what can you give me in exchange for me fixing your Core?" Jay asked, ignoring the killing intent directed towards him.

    "...What?"

    Jared couldn''t help but immediately pause because of what he had just heard. He knew perfectly well that what happened to his Core had to do with the man on top of the building, however, he didn''t imagine that he might also be able to repair the damage.

    Therefore, even though he felt an intense desire to kill this person or that there was a possibility that he was lying, he still decided to stop and listen to what he had to say.

    "What I said, what are you offering me in exchange for repairing your Core?"

    "...Is it possible to repair it?

    "If you don''t believe me, I''ll prove it to you~"

    After saying that, Jay snapped his fingers.

    Immediately, Jared felt a warm stream of energy appear inside his body,ing from none other than his Core.

    Although the amount of energy was minimal, that was normal considering how long he had been expelling energy non-stop.

    "... What do you want then...?" Jared asked with the same tone as before, it was clear that he didn''t trust Jay at all.

    In fact, if it wasn''t for the fact that his Core seemed to work slightly which increased the credibility of what Jay said, right now he would have jumped in to finish him off with no room for negotiations.

    "I need a few things, but first of all, how much money do you have on you?"

    "..."

    "Come on, don''t look at me like that, we all have to get money from somewhere don''t we?"

    A silence reigned around for a few seconds until Jared reached into his pocket before pulling out a leather wallet and throwing it to Jay.

    This wallet was something special, specifically designed to be able to withstand pugilistic mes, cuts, blows, among other things that could damage the contents. Most of his personal items had this type of protection, after all, no one knew when he would have to fight.

    "There should be about 400 credits in there, now what?" Jared said with a fed up expression on his face. Although the price of the wallet had been almost double the money inside, right now he just wanted to get this exchange over with as quickly as possible.

    "Oh, that''s good stuff~" Jay said as he felt the leather of the wallet, "Now then, what brand is your smart watch...?"

    Without another word, Jared also took off his smart watch and tossed it to him.

    "Anything else?" He said, one eyebrow twitching due to the difort he was feeling.

    "Actually yes, there is onest thing~"

    After saying that, Jay pocketed both the wallet and the smartwatch in one of his pockets before continuing.

    "Don''t follow me~"

    The next moment, Jay jumped toward the back of the building he was in, disappearing from Jared''s sight at the same time that the warm energy inside thetter faded away.

    "YOU!!!" Jared shouted, stomping heavily on the ground as heunched himself towards the building, covering the distance of over 20 meters in just a few seconds.

    *BOOM!*

    The walls of the building were easily destroyed by Jared, who emerged from the rubble to observe where Jay was.

    However, just as he left the building..

    *CHACK!*<novelnext></novelnext>

    "!"

    The sound of flesh being pierced was heard.

    Looking down slowly, Jared could see that there was a thin stick-like object made entirely of metal with the tippletely embedded in his chest.

    The person holding this metal stick was none other than Jay, his muscles swollen from the strength he had used to stab Jared.

    *BAM!*

    Jared immediately threw a punch towards Jay, sending him flying for several feet away, his body bouncing off the ground until the energy from the punch ran out.

    "... So he was on your side after all, eh..." Jared said as he looked at the spear, or rather, Garel.

    Being a rank (C+) pugilist, even though he no longer had qi, his entire body was incredibly tough, so much so that no ordinary metal would be able to hurt him no matter how sharp it was.

    In the entire South Zone, there was only one type of "metal" that would be able to hurt him, and that was undoubtedly Garel.

    "...DAMN RATS!!" Shouted Jared as he gripped the spear embedded in his chest hard enough to crush it.

    Of course, Garel did not stand still while this was happening, quickly creating many needles around the part that Jared''s hand was gripping.

    But as if he didn''t feel no pain at all, Jared not only increased the strength of his grip, but even grabbed the spear with both hands.

    At that moment, something appeared in the corner of Jared''s eye, the same person he had thrown flying only seconds ago was now running quickly towards him.

    ''He recovered so fast?!'' Jared thought, now trying to separate his hands from the spear in order to deal against the approaching person.

    However, as if he knew what he was thinking, Garel even decreased the size of the spear''s handle to wrap Jared''s hands in metal.

    "ARGHHH!" With a cry of fury, incandescent mes appeared all over his body, giving him enough strength to free one of his hands from the metal binding just in time to intercept Jay, who had already gotten close enough to be within reach.

    He then stomped hard on the ground in front of him andunched a punch towards Jay at an incredible speed.

    *Woosh!*

    The sound of cutting through the wind was heard, product of Jared''s fist grazing Jay''s cheek, leaving a visible mark on the bandages on his face.

    "THAT DAMN TECHNIQUE AGAIN!!"

    Of course, it wasn''t that Jared had failed, but rather Jay had again used the third and fourth step of Phantom Trace, sessfully dodging Jared''s attack.

    However, the attack had been too fast, interrupting the technique halfway through and causing Jay to lose his bnce momentarily.

    Taking advantage of the fact that Jay''s posture was unstable and that he was very close, Jared immediatelyunched another punch, only this time much stronger and faster than the previous one, so much that not even Garel would be able to receive something like that unharmed.

    But just as his fist was about to m into Jay, he vanished before Garel''s eyes.

    "!"

    *BAM!*

    Before he could think of anything else, a loud impacting from the right shook his head.

    ''-WHAT?!'' Jared thought in rm, not understanding what had just happened and quickly scanning his surroundings so he could find Jay.

    Unexpectedly, the hit had been hard enough to hurt him, so he immediately went on alert.

    *BAM!*

    Another hit to the head made him turn his gaze forcibly, fortunately, although he had taken damage from this, he also was able to discover where the hit hade from.

    Standing to his right was the same bandaged man he hade to loathe in a single night, though now he had one major noticeable difference.

    His eyes were giving off an unmistakable green glow even stronger than that of any rank (D+) super.

    "YOU...!"

    He didn''t know how many times he had shouted that tonight, probably enough to make his throat a little sore, yet the hatred he felt hadn''t diminished one bit.

    Jared again began tounch a flurry of punches towards Jay, not caring that he was hurting himself in the process due to the state of his body.

    Without waiting for the punches toe, Jay again faded in front of Jared''s eyes.

    Seeing this, Jared raised both hands upward before whipping them hard against the ground.

    *BOOM!*

    Another crater was created, muchrger than the one in District 4, evidence of the strenght Jared had used.

    Unfortunately for him, despite the wide range of destruction from his attack, Jay''s figure was nowhere to be seen, all he could see was that there was a thin thread of a silver liquid leading upwards.

    Suddenly, all his senses warned him at once, he was in danger!

    Bringing his gaze to the end of that metallic thread, he could finally see the reason why he felt he was in so much danger.

    The bandaged man had jumped really high, his bright green eyes locked on Jared, and in his hands was what was connected to that silver thread, a metal stick with an incredibly sharp tip.

    Before he could think of what to do, Jared felt his feet being enveloped in an incredibly heavy liquid, making it impossible for him to break free anytime soon.

    Immediately after, Jay''s arm muscles swelled to the max, as if all the energy of his body was being concentrated in his right arm at this moment, but not content with that, even a current of wind began to surround the tip of this metal stick, causing it to spin very slowly.

    He then threw the spear with all his might.

    Faced with this, Jared''s eyes turned red with anger as the mes in his body burned like never before and raising his arms to stop the spearing towards him.

    *BOOM!*

    With a loud sound, the spear pierced the ground, passing first through Jared''s chest.. pinning him to the ground, on his face an expression of disbelief.

 Chapter 68 - At 90%

    Just a few seconds after the spear prated Jared''s chest, Jay''s body also fell to the ground with a thud.

    ''Urgh... maybe... I overdid it...'' Jay thought, trying to move futilely, his gaze hazy and feeling dizzy.

    He had used everything he had when throwing the spear, not only did he activate Overload, but he also used the parasites separately at the same time as he activated his Wind Control to maximum.

    Of course, it was also not to be forgotten that he used the fifth and sixth steps of Phantom Trace three times in a row, putting a heavy load on his body.

    Although the result of that had been even better than what he had initially expected, it was time to pay the price for having exceeded his limits.

    "Just...how...?" Said Jared, who was standing with the spear through his chest, blood trickling from the corners of his lips.

    His surprise was to be expected, after all, he had seen the trajectory of the spear from the moment Jay threw it, even though it was going at a very high speed, it was nothing he couldn''t intercept.

    However, just as the spear was about to m into his fist, it suddenly changed direction to embed itself in his chest, right where the other spear was, with thetter melting to leave the way clear for the spear Jay threw.

    Normally, even for Garel in his best state, it would be incredibly hard for him to hurt Jared to such extent, however, thanks to the first spear opening a deep wound in his chest, this made the task quite easier.

    "Damn... rats!!!" Jared shouted, gripping the spear tightly in his chest in an attempt to pull it out. "I''ll kill you...!"

    Unfortunately, at that moment, Jared''s body suddenly trembled at the same time that his eyes rolled back, blood emanating from them.

    "GAH...!"

    The strong pressureing from him also subsided almost immediately, as if it had never been there in the first ce.

    Right now, Jared, who had been using his body carelessly and dangerously until now, finally fell.

    Of course, this was not just the effect of the spear in his chest, but was more the cumtive effect of many more factors, the spear had only been thest straw.

    First of all, most of Jared''sbat power was used in the battle against Garel and the rats of District 4, although he was able to replenish himself thanks to the immense amount of energy in his Core, his downfall began from the moment Jay infected him with his parasites, altering the functioning of said Core.

    From then on, his body began to suffer due to the suddenck of energy to sustain his strengthened state.

    Despite this, Jared was able to manage to carry on using the "Unbridled" martial technique, literally turning his life force into a recement for the missing qi.

    While the martial technique did not give him enough energy to restore his strength to 100%, it was more than enough to finish Jay off.

    Unfortunately for him, thetter had no intention of getting caught, so using Phantom Trace to its fullest, he managed to stay out of Jared''s reach. Chasing after him also took a good amount of energy from his body, which was already having trouble converting life force into qi.

    Finally, thanks to all of this, what Jay and Garel ended up facing could no longer be considered a rank (C+) pugilist, merely the vestiges of one.

    Slowly, the metallic-colored liquid on Jared''s feet began to reunite with the spear, taking the shape of a slim man.

    After a few seconds, Garel''s entire body appeared, except for his right arm, which was still transformed into the metal spear.

    His condition was quite pitiful, with bruises all over his body and an extremely tired appearance.

    However, his mood couldn''t be better.

    "Finally..." He said as he looked at Jared, a feeling of joy blooming inside him.

    Of course, this waspletely understandable, after all, the biggest obstacle to him being able to take control of the entire South Zone since he created Metal Body, Jared, was right now under his mercy.

    He didn''t know how many times he had fantasized about this moment, but seeing it happen in truth, he could only let out a relieved sigh.

    The next moment, his left arm turned into an incredibly sharp de and he moved it close to Jared''s neck. Even though he was unconscious, Garel didn''t know how long it would take for him to wake up, so he had to make sure he finished him off while he could.

    *BAM!*

    "UGH!"

    Unfortunately, before he could do anything, he suddenly felt a strong impact to his head that made him see stars momentarily. Several shards of concrete then fell from his head, revealing what had happened.

    Just at this moment, as he was about to secure his absolute victory, a considerablyrge chunk of concrete fell on his head!

    That was it, Garel, who also had been holding strong, began to slowly fall forward, his arms returning to their original shape.

    *Bam*

    "N-no...not yet...damn." He said, a reluctant expression on his face.

    But try as he might to get up, his body was no longer up to the task.

    That way, even though he was resisting with all his might, he couldn''t help but give in to the exhaustion he was feeling.

    ***

    "W-well done..." Jay said looking at the drone that was flying above the now unconscious Garel and also was the culprit of what had happened to said person.

    Jay''s body was incredibly sore, but fortunately for him, that didn''t stop him from being able to observe what Garel was doing, at least not much.

    Then, he again decided to move a bit.

    "Argh!"

    However, as soon as he tried, he couldn''t help but let out a small cry of pain, making it clear that his body was in no condition to move at all.

    ''Sh*t...'' He thought, not quite knowing what to do in this situation.

    Without a doubt, this time he had really overdone it. In fact, it was already a miracle that he had been able to stay conscious so far despite the exhaustion he was feeling.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''For some reason, I think I''m getting used to being like this...''

    Without much else to do, he opened the system interface, selecting Jared''s status.

    _____________________

    [Jared Rowe]

    Body Grade: (C+) (Currently C)

    Trait - Union (Passive) (Linked to "Qi Core"): The user has an incredible facility at the moment of merging with certain special objects, allowing him to squeeze the maximum potential of said object. +30% of maximum energy, +30% to energy recovery rate.

    Avable Cores: Qi Core (Extremely Damaged) (Unusable)

    Condition: Unconscious, Extremely Weakened, Seriously Injured, Qi deviation...

    Parasites: 5

    Core Assimtion Status: 90% (Unstable Progress)

    Assimtion Status: 0% (0.4% per day per parasite)

    (Warning: As the difference in energy and Body Grade between the [Carrier] and the [Host] is too big, the assimtion process has a high probability of failure).

    _____________________

    Jared''s status window was somewhat simr to that of the other Wolf''s Fang member, although it had distinct differences, mainly the appearance of new options with respect to his Core.

    As for his Trait, Jay didn''t think it was particrly good, instead, it was quite convenient for Jared, who had developed a Core.

    Unfortunately, that had also been one of the causes, if not the main cause of why Jared''s power had suffered such a sharp decline.

    Instead, if his Trait had been something different, even the moremon type of effect like "Strength Enhancement", Jay had no doubt that things would definitely have ended differently.

    At that moment, the drone lowered until it was level with the ground, with the camera pointed at Jay.

    ''Fortunately, I also nned about what to do in this situation...'' Jay thought as he watched the drone on the ground.

    Immediately, he felt a certain cold sensation envelop his whole body, making his body be much lighter, as if something was pushing him upwards.

    Taking advantage of this, Jay gritted his teeth and began to move much slower.

    "Argh, f*ck!" He shouted after he moved his arm a little, stopping instantly, even for him, the pain was too much, "Haa... this will take some time..."

    After saying that, he gritted his teeth and tried again.

    ***

    *Tap tap tap tap tap*

    A person''s footsteps could be heard deep in the South Zone, specifically in the district bordering District 4.

    Due to the speed at which this person was running, it was clear to see that he was in quite a hurry.

    It took him only a short time to reach the center of District 4, where the sight of dozens of Gray Rat bodies next to thepletely destroyed neighborhood startled him, causing him to stop momentarily.

    Suppressing his astonishment as he shook his head, he continued on his way, observing the trail of destruction that seemed to end at the very ce he was headed.

    After several minutes of non-stop running, he managed to reach the abandoned high school whose entrance had also been affected by the same trail of destruction.

    Entering the high school, the man could not help but notice the sizable crater in the middle of therge courtyard, as if something had used a great deal of force in that specific area.

    Of course, what caught his attention the most was not that, but the hole that was on the second floor of the only building separated from the main school building.

    Approaching this hole, he saw a crater muchrger than any he had seen before in the South Zone, and in the middle of it all, there were 3 people.

    On the left was Garel Cranyne, the founder and boss of Metal Body, thergest gang in the entire South Zone as well as one of the only two rank (C+) supers in the whole ce.

    His appearance was normally that of a neat, cold and calcting man who seemed to have everything under his control, always wearing a white shirt along with dress pants that went very well with his serious attitude.

    But at this moment, the image of a neat man was nowhere to be seen, with bruises and dirt all over his body, he just looked like a poor beaten man.

    A few meters awayy arge and stocky person, upon seeing him, even the man could not help but feel momentarily intimidated, although he managed to recover secondster.

    The person who had caused this reaction was none other than Jared Rowe also known as the strongest super in the entire South Zone, the founder and boss of Wolf''s Fang, the only gang capable of standing up to Metal Body.

    Although his appearance was even more pitiful than Garel''s, with wounds all over his body and a sizable hole in his chest, his body was still imposing.

    Finally, there was one person who did not seem to fit into this scenario at all, a man wrappedpletely in bandages wearing only a pair of sweatpants and just like the two people mentioned before, he also had apparently lost consciousness.

    If there was one thing to highlight about this person, it would definitely be the fact that for some reason, he was firmly holding the heels of both gang leaders.

    Seeing this, the man began to hesitate, his gaze alternating between the bandaged man and the Metal Body boss, it seems that he was having a heated internal discussion in his head.

    Finally, he came to a decision and approached the crater to take a person in his arms.

    Then, as quickly as he arrived, he retreated, leaving behind two people in the crater, a thin but intellectual looking man and arge man with muscles all over his body, better known as the bosses of Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang respectively.

 Chapter 69 - A Well-Deserved Rest

    After an unknown period of time, the only person left in the crater suddenly opened his eyes.

    "Haa!" He couldn''t help but exhale arge amount of air as soon as he woke up.

    He quickly sat up and began to survey his surroundings, the confusion he was feeling was visible on his face.

    ''Am I... alive...?'' Jared thought as he clutched his chest, he knew he had fallen unconscious before Garel, so it really was a surprise that he was alive.

    For some reason, there was no one near him, neither the bandaged man nor Garel, as if they had simply left him there.

    Seeing that, he decided to take advantage of the situation and slowly began to get up. Although his body was still extremely weakened and sore, he knew he had to get out of there quickly, he wouldn''t want other enemies to arrive at this moment.

    "!"

    However, the moment he tried to stand up, he felt a great weight crush his body, forcing him to stay down.

    "...Sh*t." He said as his expression turned incredibly sour.

    He was no stranger to this kind of sensation, in fact, it could even be said that he was very well acquainted with it, this was the effect of an esper using the Telekinesis ability.

    What was worse, the force contained in the ability was noughing matter, Jared could estimate that the person responsible would have to be a rank (C+) super at the very least.

    "Hey, you''d better not try anything weird, ok?"

    A woman''s voice was heard,ing from none other than the top of the separate high school building.

    Turning to where the voice wasing from, even though it was nighttime, Jared could see what this woman looked like.

    Her hair was short and brown in color, her build, though slim, was just enough to be able to perfectly fill out the ck dress suit with red pinstripes she was currently wearing.

    While her face was definitely attractive, the pressure that was emanating from her made it very clear that one would be in great danger if you got close.

    However, what caught his attention the most was not the power this woman seemed to have, but the distinctive outfit she was wearing, specifically the small metal medal which hung from the girl''s neck, which resembled a red colored shield with the word "B-" in the middle.

    ''That shield... it can''t be...'' Jared thought, a feeling of realization and surprise forming inside him as he recognized what organization the person in front of him belonged to, ''What is someone from the Laers Guild doing here?!''

    Although the Laers Guild was an organization of great secrecy due to their criminal nature, there were certain things that people in the underworld knew about them, or rather, that the guild had allowed to be spread.

    One of those things was the fact that the members of that organization, in order to be recognized wherever they went, wore an emblem which contained the rank to which they belonged, which meant that this person was a rank (B-) esper!

    His surprise waspletely understandable, and not only for the woman''s strength, which was enough topletely destroy both Metal Body and Wolf''s Fang easily.

    It was also due to the fact that since the times when the South Zone was divided among several gangs, said guild had not paid any attention to the South Zone at all for two main reasons.

    The first and most important was because they were busy taking control of the outskirts of Nightown City.

    Rather than being a proper part of the city, they were more like small viges a short distance from the city. None of them had a name and very few people lived in them due to the risk of monsters attacking them, making only people with dubious reputations and considerable personal strength willing to live there.

    Although of course, not everything was bad, after all, monsters were not only threats, but depending on the type of monster, each part of its body could be used to create different types of weapons, armaments or even potions and pills, generating an extremely lucrative business only avable to people with the capabilities to take care of monsters.

    Although the Hunters were in charge of taking care of most of the monsters that attacked the city, they did not go very deep into the forests surrounding Nightown City, which was where the monsters came from because of the danger that this entailed, thus giving certain local forces the opportunity to take advantage of the forest to "hunt".

    While the mortality rate of this was stupidly high, if one was strong enough, it was possible to make a small fortune rtively quickly. Of course, this fortune could notpare to what the people who controlled such outlying viges would earn.

    Thepetition for these viges was so intense that even for the Laers Guild, an infamous and powerful criminal group known all over the country, it had cost them a considerable amount of time and resources to take over each of these viges.

    As for the second reason, it was due to none other than the Emperor''s Gate, an organization whose roots were well entrenched in Nightown City and was also known to be a fierce enemy of the Laers Guild.

    Of course, the fact that a member of said guild was here meant that either they had finished taking over the viges, that they had decided to take over the South Zone first, or worse... they were helping Metal Body.

    In either case, it wasn''t a good thing for either him or his gang.

    "Pffft, is it so strange that we''re here~?" Said the womanughing at Jared due to his expression giving away what he was thinking, "Well, to be honest, the local groups on the outskirts were pretty formidable, but after hiring some and showing others who''s in charge, it was all pretty easy. The only thing it took us was time~"

    Since it wasn''t really important information, she didn''t mind telling Jared, who seemed to understand this quickly.

    "...You guys were the ones who gave the blood pills to Garel, right?" He asked, hoping to confirm once and for all whether they were Metal body allies or not.

    He knew that Metal Body''s economic power far exceeded what Wolf''s Fang had at their disposal, but he was absolutely certain that even with that, they wouldn''t be able to be able to afford to buy blood pills for every elite member in their organization.

    As for how he knew that they were using that kind of pill, thanks to the reports he received while he was still busy with Noah, he was quickly able to intuit what kind of method they were using in order to disy such an aggressive power surge.

    "Of course it was us, who else would it be~?" The woman replied nonchntly with a smile on her face. "Though of course, the price was quite expensive, not only will they have to help us with the outskirts of the city, but they will also have to give us a few districts and almost all of your organization''s subordinates that they capture."

    Hearing the woman''s confirmation, plus what was going to happen to the Wolf''s Fang members, Jared''s mood plummeted. Without a doubt, every time the woman spoke, it was bad news for him.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Oh right, speaking of your friend, if you''re wondering why he''s not here, it''s because he was taken away by his subordinates. I think they did well, his appearance was horrible, he looked as if someone had taken all the energy from his body... much like your condition."

    When she finished saying that, the woman stood up and jumped towards the ground, falling delicately and slowly thanks to the precise control she had over her skill,nding right next to Jared.

    She then squatted down to converse with Jared while looking him straight in the eyes, as if wanting to catch even the smallest detail of his reactions.

    "You know, he initially wanted to kill you, but thanks that I got there in time, we were able to avoid that. So we could say that you owe me your life, so I want you to answer me withplete honesty."

    Although the tone of the woman''s voice hadn''t changed at all, her gaze didn''t contain even a hint of the carefree attitude from before, showing that she waspletely serious.

    "Tell me... what happened to your Cores...?"

    ***

    Meanwhile, in one of the rooms of the main hospital of the South Zone, in Metal Body territory, an executive was reading a report to the person currently upying the bed in that room.

    This person''s appearance was terrible, as if he had aged several years in a single night, the color of his skin had changed to an unhealthy white, as for his constitution, if he had been thin before, now it seemed that even a weak breeze would be able to knock this person down.

    This was the current appearance of Garel, Metal Body''s boss.

    "Although we took quite a few losses at the beginning of the battle, everything bnced out after our elite members formed arge fighting force, even getting to the point where they were able to easily take care of every Wolf''s Fang guardian in their path and disposing of most normal members at the same time. Of course, that doesn''t take away from the fact that they had disobeyed their orders to work in teams of 3... but I... think they did well..."

    Thest sentence was said somewhat flippantly, as if the executive was trying to downy that part.

    This was understandable, after all, he waspletely blown away by the performance of the elite members, who were only expected to be able to handle, at most, 40% of Wolf''s Fang''s guards.

    Therefore, knowing the serious nature of his boss, he wanted to appeal that they didn''t have some sort of punishment for disobeying the boss'' orders.

    "...What about... the other executives...?" Weakly said Garel, who was lying prostrate on the hospital bed with his eyes closed, ignoring the concerns of the executive in front of him.

    "Yes, um, along with therge elite group, led by Larce, they also started attacking the remaining high-ranking members of Wolf''s Fang. Although we also suffered some casualties, mainly from the elite group, right now there are only 2 high ranking members of Wolf''s Fang left, these are currently surrounded by the remaining executives and the elite group. I estimate it will take half an hour or so to finally finish them off."

    After saying that, the executive couldn''t help but feel joyful, after all, with most of its members and their leader out of the way, Wolf''s Fang would no longer exist after tonight, leaving the way clear for Metal Body to finally be the one and only true ruler of the South Zone.

    "Hm... thank you for the report, you''re dismissed." Garel replied, seeming satisfied with what he had just heard.

    Without another word, the executive left the room to move to wait outside, as his job was not only to inform the boss of the current situation, but also to stand guard so that nothing unexpected would happen to the boss while he was in the hospital.

    As for why the one who was here was not Revad, Garel''s right hand man, that was because the power of said person was quite high and it was more beneficial to have him on the battlefield than guarding the boss.

    Now without the executive in the room, Garel opened his eyes as he looked at the white colored ceiling with aplicated expression in his eyes, he felt d that they had finally been able to defeat Wolf''s Fang, but on the other hand, the weight of the actions he took to make this happen started to worry him.

    Because he knew very well that Wolf''s Fang''s strength was quite high, mainly due to the high-ranking members and especially Jared, he had resorted to trading with the Laers Guild, epting various conditions from thetter for all the pills they bestowed upon him as they didn''t have enough money to purchase them normally.

    That decision had proven to bepletely right, but now that the fight between the two gangs was all but over, he couldn''t help but think that he had called in a tiger to chase the wolf away.

    ''...I''ll have to find some way to get rid of them in the future...'' He thought, knowing that he would undoubtedly have to deal with this problem.

    While the guild was incredibly influential and had vast resources that could benefit Metal Body, Garel was even more worried that the Emperor''s Gate was going to link them and wipe out both organizations, erasing them from Nightown City.

    Then, deciding to leave that issue for the future, Garel ced his hand on the center of his chest, as if trying to feel the energy inside him.

    Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he could only muster a paltry amount of energy, nothingpared to what he was able just a few hours ago.

    Letting out a deep breath, he removed his hand and ced it where it was previously.

    ''Apparently my Core was also affected by whatever that guy did to Jared...''

    His reaction waspletely different from the one Jared had when he found out that his Core wasn''t going to be able to be used again, but this was somewhat understandable.

    Unlike Jared, who had focused all his attention on his Core already formed years ago, Garel had only formed his a few months ago, so recently that he hadn''t even been able to get the most out of it, only using an estimated 10% of his Core''s potential.

    So, while losing it had been a real shame, it was not an irretrievable loss, even less so if he considered it the price for the bandaged man having helped him defeat Jared.

    What he was truly interested in was knowing exactly what this person''s identity was, what was his ability, and more importantly, what was his objective.

    ''Jared asked him if he belonged to the Emperor''s Gate, but I don''t think I''ve heard that they have any martial technique capable of destroying Cores or stealing vitality... I don''t even think there is such a thing in the whole country...'' He thought, remembering the times he checked Taylor and Colt.

    He originally thought his understanding of this character that appeared overnight was considerably urate, but after tonight, he couldn''t help but feel that what he knew wasn''t even the tip of the iceberg.

    ''Haa... so many things to do... and so little time on my hands....''

    Feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion flood his body, Garel decided to close his eyes to take a well-deserved rest, leaving all the unfinished business for the future.

 Chapter 70 - In Danger

    The next morning, back at Jay''s house, two people were in the living room of said house, although they both had different expressions, one thing they had inmon was the visible tiredness written on their faces.

    ''...I definitely need to get some exercise...'' Noah thought, who was currently lying on one of the couches in the living room.

    Since he had had to carry Jay all the way from the South Zone to here, he had again realized that while his skill had advanced in rank, his strength was still rathercking, as even with Jenny''s help he was barely able toplete this task.

    As for Colt, while he also seemed to want to help bring Jay home, both Noah and Jenny thought it would be best for them to split up at this point, so he stayed in the South Zone helping his teammates after sending the location of the fight to his superiors.

    Thinking about this, Noah couldn''t help but wonder simply what Jay had done to make Colt willing to help them. This was especially true when he remembered that Colt''s reputation in the South Zone was that of a person who didn''t like to interact with anyone, simply focusing on his own business.

    However, said person did not ask about Noah''s identity nor did he try to find out what kind of rtionship he had with Jay in all the way to the exit of the South Zone, it was as if he was not interested in this at all, just focused on doing what Jay tasked him to do, to take him to the exit.

    Once at the exit, they both started to wait until Jay''s message or he himself arrived, but even though they waited for almost half an hour, neither of them arrived, making them worry.

    It was at that point that they received a message from Jenny saying that Jay had passed out, along with the location of where he and the Wolf''s Fang and Metal Body bosses were.

    Upon reading this, Noah expected Colt to immediately alert his superiors, however, instead of doing that, he simply told him to wait there before starting to run back deep into the South Zone.

    After an agonizing hour of waiting, he finally saw Colt again, only this time carrying Jay in his arms and with a drone flying above him.

    Colt''s appearance at that moment looked extremely tired, making it clear that he had been giving his all in order to carry Jay as fast as he could.

    Noah could simply imagine just what it was that Jay had done for Colt to make thetter so trustworthy, going so far as to risk himself in order to rescue him.

    "Hey, I made some coffee, here."

    At that moment, Jenny''s smiling face suddenly appeared in front of him, causing him to immediately stand up because she was so close.

    "Ah, um, thanks!" He said quickly as he took the cup of coffee Jenny was offering him, his red turning slightly red.

    In response, Jenny just smiled and sat down on another couch while also drinking some coffee.

    Although her appearance was quite a bit better than Noah''s, the dark circles under her eyes were still visible, a product of not having slept all night.

    As for her clothes, she was no longer wearing the same dress as yesterday, but now had on a ck t-shirt along with a pair of ck sweatpants, which obviously belonged to Jay.

    Because Jay had anticipated that she would be spending the night here, he had selected clothes that she could wear in case she decided to take a shower or change.

    Jay had also suggested that she could take the time to bring a change of clothes, but Jenny strongly insisted that things were fine as they were and that they didn''t have that much time to worry about minor details.

    Unlike Noah, who was trying to organize his thoughts and emotions regarding the previous night, all Jenny was feeling at the moment was happiness.

    Whether it was for having helped rescue Noah, for having participated in something she had previously only seen in series or movies, or simply for the fact that everything had turned out well, she was happy.

    Only she knew the exact reason.

    "How do you feel?" Jenny asked, genuinely interested to know about Noah''s condition while leaving her coffee cup on the coffe table.

    "Oh, u-um... I''m fine... just a little tired and trying to organize my thoughts about what happenedst night..." He replied, averting his gaze at the end of the sentence.

    It would undoubtedly take him some time before he could process what he had experienced, especially the time when he was held captive at the hands of the Wolf''s Fang'' boss, and also when a Grey Rat nearly devoured him alive.

    "Don''t worry, it''spletely understandable considering what you had to go through~!" She said again as she stood up and headed towards the kitchen, "So, you just focus on resting while I take care of everything else for today!"

    After saying that, a small te with a ham and cheese sandwich on top suddenlynded on the coffee table in the living room.

    Seeing this, Noah couldn''t help but feel a warm feeling spreading inside him.

    "...Thank you..." He said, smiling awkwardly.

    "It''s nothing~" She replied while maintaining the same smile as always.

    At that moment, Jenny suddenly pulled out a small white towel from her pocket and picked up a small bucket that she had been filling with water in the kitchen sink.

    "Now then, I''ll go wash Jay~"

    Then, she quickly walked towards the stairs carrying the bucket of water.

    "!"

    Seeing this, Noah immediately got up from the couch and also ran towards the stairs, arriving just in time to grab Jenny by the arm.

    "...Yes?" She asked, slowly turning her head to look at Noah, though she was still smiling, Noah could feel that her gaze held not even a hint of the kindness she had shown only seconds ago.

    This caused Noah to let go of her almost instantly as he began to exin why he had stopped her.

    "U-Um, it''s just that.... I think... you don''t need to go to such extremes..." He said in a weak voice, clearly intimidated by Jenny''s presence.

    Although his nervousness around women had diminished somewhat thanks to the events ofst night, Jenny was undoubtedly causing it to resurface.

    "Of course it''s necessary, especially at this time when he can''t move and isn''t able to take care of himself!" She said with a tone that indicated she was dead serious, "I''ll take care of cleaning him up, so you just rest!"

    The moment she said that, Noah could feel a slight pressure suddenly increase the weight of his body, apparently Jenny had even momentarily used her ability on him.

    However, this time, faced with a such a stubborn opponent, Noah had a technique that had worked before with Jay, if you can''t against them, join them!

    Noah then gritted his teeth and also raised his voice, "If you insist so much, then I will also apany you to do it!"

    "...Eh?"

    ***

    While Jenny and Noah were arguing on the stairs, the person mentioned in said argument was lying face up on his bed with an indifferent expression on his face.

    "...I wonder how long this will take...?" He said letting out a sigh as he looked at the system interface, or rather, the only system message he could see at the moment.

    _____________________

    Currently all system functions have been temporarily halted due to the [Upgrade] process.

    The [Carrier] is strongly requested to be patient.

    _____________________<novelnext></novelnext>

    After he woke up in his bed and Noah and Jenny told him a summarized version of how he got home, the first thing he did seeing that he couldn''t move at all was obviously check the system to im his reward.

    After all, he had also made sure to infect Garel just before passing out, not forgetting of course to be touching Garel and Jared''s ankles so that the parasites could quickly return to his body when they finished assimting their Cores.

    Although this message undoubtedly meant he hadpleted the mission, it had been too sudden for him!

    It hadn''t even given him time to collect his reward, which was something he was counting on so he wouldn''t be in this deplorable state.

    However, what was undoubtedly worse was the fact that he couldn''t feel not even one of his little ones!

    Normally he could feel where they were thanks to some vague connection he had with them, being able to locate them no matter what part of his body they were in, however, at this moment, it was as if each one of them had disappeared!

    ''Haa... I guess the only thing I can do right now is wait...''

    Without much else to do excepty in his bed unable to move at all, Jay also started to think aboutst night.

    Although he had been in considerable danger, it had undoubtedly been the most productive night of all.

    Not only did he think so because of the fact that he hadpleted the mission, but also because of the incredible mental suggestion abilities his little ones had demonstrated.

    This was also a subject that he had wanted to investigate in depth from the moment he observed Carl''s behavior, but due to the same obstacle as always, theck of test subjects, he had been unable to do so.

    Of course, this changedst night, were what he definitely had no shortage of were people on whom to put this quality of his parasites to test. He also took the moment to observe the abilities of most Metal Body members but finding nothing valuable or particrly useful to him, he simply put it aside.

    Returning to the subject of mental suggestion, Jay had finally been able to figure out more or less how this worked.

    At first he thought that perhaps this ability had to do with the amount of parasites and how long they had been on the host to be able to disy it, but while this was true to some extent, this was governed more by the opinion that said person had of Jay.

    The perfect example of this would be Colt, who despite not trusting Jay at all when they first met, gradually, as thetter''s trust of Jay increased, the easier it was for Jay to influence Colt''s actions and attitude.

    In contrast, on those who had only a slight impression of Jay, such as most of the people he tried to recruit at first, the effect of suggestion was minimal, hardly helping Jay to make these people trust him more.

    In fact, if it weren''t for the fact that he created a strong impression with Damien''s group by helping them when they first met, making the other Metal Body members trust him more by seeing them together, along with fortunately running into Chuck, Jay wasn''t sure he would have been able to gather such arge group.

    Of course, even in Colt, Jay was still pretty sure that he wouldn''t obey everything he told him just because, he needed at least onepelling reason for it.

    Still, Jay was quite pleased with the fact that he was able to figure out how to properly use this incredible ability of his little ones, something that would undoubtedlye in handy in the future.

    ''But man... it really was lucky that the Metal Body''s boss agreed to cooperate with me...'' Jay thought, putting aside the subject of his little ones.

    Although Noah and Jenny had different thoughts about the previous night, Jay had only one word to describe it all.

    Disaster.

    The time could not have been worse for Noah to be kidnapped, with him being weakened, preparations made at thest minute, thinking about what to do on the march and mainly the battle between the two gangs, it had undoubtedly been a disaster.

    Luck also yed a big role here, both with therge number of Gray Rats he encountered in District 4 as well as the Great Rat, but mainly, where he got the luckiest, ording to him, was with Metal Body''s boss, Garel.

    Since he crossed paths with both bosses, Jay hadn''t stopped watching them from the sky with the help of the drone as he thought about how to use the environment as best as possible.

    Originally Jay was having some trouble thinking about how to make contact with both of them in order to assimte their Cores, either because it was too risky or because the effect was not as desired, he could note up with a satisfactory n.

    However, that changed the moment he saw Garel''s sudden change of form, bing an armor-like cage that limited Jared''s power to the maximum, with the only w being its low lethal capability.

    Seeing that, Jay knew he had to move quickly so as not to lose the little time that the Gray Rats that opportunely appeared gave him, so he immediately moved to gather all the rats he could using the District 4 view that the drone had, finally ending up in Jay infecting Jared and thetter throwing Garel into the sky.

    It was from that point on that everything started to depend on luck, he had instructed Jenny to catch Garel no matter where hended, all so that Jenny, using the small microphone built into the drone to tell the Garel that they were his allies and that Jay was currently setting a trap for Jared, along with what he should do.

    Even though Jay had obviously helped Garel before, that didn''t take away from the fact that it was all up to what he decided.

    Fortunately for everyone, Garel quickly understood the situation and cooperated without saying much, making everything even easier.

    "Anyway, I think it would be best not to go back there for a good while..." He said as he let out a sigh and closed his eyes to rest for a while.

    *Bam!*

    However, just then, the door suddenly opened, revealing a girl with her hair tied in a ponytail and wearing ck sportswear, in her hands a small white towel and a bucket of water.... it was Jenny.

    Behind her, Jay also caught a glimpse of Noah outside his room, specifically, on the floor, his hands and feet bound with his freshly washed bandages and looking pleadingly at Jay.

    Without giving him time to see anything else, Jenny quickly closed the door.

    "...Jenny?" Said Jay, a sense of danger growing inside him, "...Could you please exin to me why Noah was tied up...?"

    But as if she hadn''t heard his words, Jenny simply began to walk slowly until she reached his bed, putting the bucket on the floor.

    "J-Jenny?"

    "Don''t worry, I just came to take care of you!"

    "EH?!"

    Immediately, the sheets covering him began to float in the air, exposing his bruised body, only covered by the same sweatpants he had wornst night.

    The towel also began to float above him, wringing out and dropping some cold water on his body, causing Jay to inevitably shiver for a moment.

    "In the first ce, I don''t need it, and secondly, I seriously don''t think that''s how you should clean a person!!!" Jay shouted, feeling truly in danger, on his facerge beads of sweat due to nervousness.

    In response, Jenny moved even closer to his face as she ced a finger over Jay''s lips, "Shh, just let me take care of you~"

    Without removing her finger from his lips, her other hand grabbed the towel and began to run it down Jay''s naked torso, slowly tracing her way down to his lower abdomen.

    *Crack!*

    But just then, the sound of ss breaking was hearding from the window, causing them both to turn to see what had caused it.

    "!"

    Outside the window, all that could be seen was the expressionless face of a girl whose light blue hair was currently waving in the air.

    A secondter, chaos erupted in Jay''s room.

 Chapter 71 - System Upgrade

    "Hm, I see, so that''s what happened~" Said Sarah, who was currently sitting cross-legged on top of Jay''s abdomen, who was still lying on the bed.

    Unlike other days where she was wearing sportswear, this time she was wearing a ck skinny jean along with a white blouse that covered her arms but exposed both her shoulders and a bit of her abdomen.

    Although it was undoubtedly an outfit that fit her quite well, the appearance of the room contrasted greatly with her own.

    There were drawers out of the closet, clothes everywhere, even the bed had been moved a bit, it was definitely a mess.

    But without a doubt, what was most striking about the room were the 2 people in front of her, a young man with brown hair and sses who was currently sitting on the floor with his head down, next to him was a girlpletely gagged with the same bandages that had previously bound the man.

    Obviously, these people were Noah and Jenny respectively, as for the light blue-haired girl and also the one responsible for the chaos in the room, she was none other than Sarah.

    "...Could you get off now?" Jay said, a slight pained expression on his face.

    "No, let this be your punishment for not telling me about all this sooner~"

    Although she didn''t show it in her expression, she was actually somewhat annoyed, at first it was because of the scene she saw as soon as she poked her head out of the window, but after hearing Jay''s exnation, her anger shifted to focus on him.

    To exin why both Jenny and Noah were here, he also had to tell her all about what had happened since she left, keeping her up to date on everything.

    "Seriously, I knew you were going to do something risky but I really didn''t imagine something like this at all!" She said, purposely putting more weight on Jay.

    Jay didn''t have much to say, simply smiling awkwardly as he was scolded by her.

    At that moment, Noah''s voice echoed in the room.

    "Um... excuse me... is Jenny alright...?"

    Even though he had been previously manhandled by her, seeing that said person now looked like a mummy due to the bandages covering every inch of her body except her nose, he couldn''t help but worry.

    "Don''t worry, she''ll be fine, I just need her to go to sleep first, we can''t have someone in her condition walking freely around the house." She replied kindly.

    "Condition...?" Noah asked, somewhat confused by what Sarah had said.

    "Oh, didn''t you notice? This girl is suffering from weakening because she used her ability for too long. It''s amon thing that happens to novice espers, even though her body is in normal condition, take it as if she was under the effect of alcohol."

    As she finished saying that, her gaze again moved to Jay, who averted his gaze to avoid making eye contact with her. He also knew about the consequences of a weakening, but he had forgotten to warn Jenny about this because of everything that happened.

    "Haa... now then, take her into the other room please, I have things to talk to Jay about."

    "Y-yes, right away..." Noah said, quickly taking Jenny in his arms and leaving the room, wanting to escape as quickly as possible from this situation.

    Now that they were both alone, a silence reigned in the room for a short time, specifically until they could hear the sound of Noahing down the stairs after he left Jenny in the next room.

    After making sure that he was in the first floor, Sarah raised both arms before ruthlessly jabbing her thumbs into Jay''s sides.

    "AHHHHHHHH!!!"

    "HOW THE HELL DO YOU MANAGE TO GET YOURSELF INTO SUCH BIG TROUBLE?!!!!"

    The screams from both of them echoed loudly throughout the house, causing Noah and Jenny to unconsciously tremble.

    Right now, the problem of having found Jenny about to do something to Jay was the least of it for Sarah.

    Of course, this was understandable, after all Jay had just told her about the risky situation he had found himself inst night.

    Her aunt had given her a week off from her rigorous training starting today, so she decided toe see him and spend some time doing something fun, but now, her mind was only filled with the worry that Jay could very well have lost his life if he had made a single misstep.

    Thus began a torture session thatsted about 10 minutes or so before the mage in question calmed down.

    "So you won''t be able to move until your ability has finished evolving...?" Sarah asked, who was still on top of Jay.

    "Ouch... and that''s right, which is why I wanted to ask if your aunt had another regeneration pill lying around...?"

    Because he knew Sarah was just worrying about him, he really wasn''t upset, he was even somewhat happy about it, despite the clear fact that his ribs were currently in extreme pain.

    "I''ll ask her but I doubt she has any, they''re quite rare after all. In fact, I''m even surprised she would have given you that pill specifically, on the market it costs something like 70 or 80 thousand credits."

    "!"

    Upon hearing the price of the pill, Jay couldn''t help but break out in a cold sweat. He had assumed it would be quite expensive, but he hadn''t expected it to cost even more than some cars.

    Immediately, his urge to ask Sarah''s aunt for help disappearedpletely.

    "...Better not ask her then, I just have to wait for a while until I can use my ability again anyway."

    "If you say so, that''s fine. Hm, you know, your condition is quite strange, it normally only takes about 1 or 2 hours at most to advance in rank, so a simple skill evolution shouldn''t take that long. Also, the state of your body... even though I feel almost no energy at all, there''s no doubt that you have advanced... how fast."

    As Sarah spoke, her eyes carefully inspected Jay''s body, as if wanting to decipher exactly what was wrong.

    "I''m going to take a look at the energy inside you, ok?" She said, more warning Jay than asking for his permission.

    For this, Sarah didn''t hold back at all and even activated her aura, her eyes giving off a noticeable glow that indicated she was trying her best, and not content with that, even a small magic circle appeared in her irises.

    As a rank (C-) mage, her ability to sense any kind of energy was incredibly high, this was especially true after using a spell to enhance her eyesight, so it didn''t take her long to find something strange inside of him.

    "...W-why the hell is there qi in your body...?!" She asked as a shocked expression formed on her face.

    In her eyes, inside Jay''s body, which was almostpletely devoid of energy, there were two extremely thin streams of energy of a green and gold color running through all the veins in his body.

    The green colored stream was simply Jay''s natural energy, which nurtured his esper ability and also served as a way to gauge what range he was in, there were no problems in this part except that the stream was incredibly weak.

    The real "problem" was in the golden line of energy, better known as qi.

    The reason she was so surprised was because it was a known fact worldwide that the energy of the three sses were extremely ipatible with each other, automatically refusing each other on contact or simply resulting in an explosion if one tried to force it.

    There has been nock of ambitious and talented people in history who tried tobine the best points of the three sses or directly merge the three because of the obvious advantages this would bring.

    However, whether they were initially an esper, pugilist or a mage, they all met the same end, a failure that destroyed their lives, even harming others in the worst case.

    That was what had been proven and what was consideredmon knowledge, but in spite of that, right now, in Jay''s body, these two types of energy were peacefully coexisting as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

    *BAM!*

    "OUCH!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Jenny couldn''t help but punch Jay''s chest again due to the excitement she was feeling right now.

    "Forget that you can''t move, it''s already a miracle you hadn''t exploded!" She shouted as she saw Jay with a smile of excitement on her face.

    ''...There''s qi inside me?'' Jay thought, he was also aware of how dangerous it was, so he was just as surprised as Sarah, ''No wonder the system is taking so long!''

    Now he understood why the system was taking so long, it wasn''t like the usual assimtion of skills he had experienced in the past, this was on apletely different level!

    "...Your ability without a doubt is the first of its kind in this world." Sarah said again as she calmed down and rested her face in her hand, looking fascinated at the two streams of energy in Jay''s body, "Although, for that very reason I think you should be much more careful from now on."

    She knew very well how important and groundbreaking what was happening inside Jay was, so she worried about this too. After all, if some ill-intentioned person or organization got wind of this... she couldn''t even imagine what consequences this would bring.

    Fortunately it wasn''t something that could be noticed by the naked eye, even she, a rank (C-) mage had to activate a special spell to be able to notice it, so it was safe to say that as long as he didn''t receive an in-depth inspection, it wouldn''t be noticed.

    "I wasn''t nning on telling anyone either, but I''ll be careful anyway." Jay replied, understanding Sarah''s concerns.

    Hearing his response, Sarah only let out a sigh before speaking again, "Now then, with that out of the way, even if it''s not the same as a regeneration pill, I think I have something that might help you..."

    Being a mage who practiced heterodox magic, she had ess to a wide repertoire of spells which served for a myriad of different situations, among them were even healing spells, although of course, at her current level, the effect would be no different from a simpleforting massage.

    But luckily for both of them, recently her aunt had taught her how to use a spell called "Revitalization", its effect was simr to that of the energizing pill she had taken a while ago, with the only difference being that this spell had to be used for a considerable time before it started to take effect.

    ''Hm... this spell is especially for treatingck of energy, could it be that aunty knew about this...?'' Sarah thought, finding the convenience of this situation a bit suspicious.

    In fact, thinking back a little further, her aunt had just given her a whole week off, which was precisely the time she estimated it would take for Jay to fully recover using that spell.

    That increased her suspicions that perhaps her aunt already knew of the state Jay was in, which created some questions within her.

    "If you have a method, then I have no choice but to ask for your help."

    Jay''s words brought her back to reality, causing her to lower her gaze to the still half naked Jay.

    ''...Oh well, I guess that can wait~''

    With those thoughts as herst, she ced her hands on Jay''s chest and began to use the spell.

    That''s how Jay''s recovery treatment began, which continued for several days.

    Not only did he have the help of Sarah, but also Noah, who always used his ability on Jay to make sure he was recovering physically.

    Seeing his ability, Sarah was also amazed at how useful and unusual it was, internally praising Jay for getting such a person as a tenant.

    As for Jenny, she quickly returned home after recovering from her weakening, but not before apologizing to both Noah and Jay for her behavior, although she also visited from time to time to help out.

    Finally, Sarah''s week off ended, and with it the recovery of Jay, who could now move his body.

    But the most important thing for him without a doubt was that the system message he had been waiting so long for finally arrived!

    _____________________

    Updatepleted!

    The system thanks the [Carrier] for being so patient!

    The authority of the [Carrier] has been upgraded.

    Current Authority: 1

    _____________________

    After reading the message, Jay got happy before quickly opening the interface.

    The system interface had changed, now it no longer disyed three different options every time he opened the system, instead everything seemed to have merged into one big information window with three options that could be copsed or expanded at any time.

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System] (New)

    Carrier: Jay Sacrest

    [Status]

    Strength: (D+)

    Agility: (D+)

    Resistance: (D+)

    [Hosts]

    ? Parasites Avable: 20 (Type not yet decided)

    Two types of host have been identified:

    [Esper] (+1% improvement in the assimtion process)

    [Pugilist] (+1% improvement in the assimtion process)

    [Skills]

    Wind Control (D-): (70%)

    Core (Iplete): +5% to the total energy of the [Carrier].

    Overload (System Ability): The parasites inside the carrier''s body temporarily be a part of the carrier''s body, allowing the carrier to double his statistics for 8 seconds in exchange for all the energy avable in his body. (Only avable if there are at least 10 parasites in the carrier''s body.)

    Avable Skills:

    Currently there are no skills avable to assimte.

    _____________________

 Chapter 72 - The Attention Of A Giant

    In the outer districts of the South Zone, as always, many people filled the streets, there were those who were on their way to work and also those who were returning home to finally rest after a hard day''s work.

    Of course, not to be forgotten either were the stores that were open on both streets, which saw customers from time to time, although they were not overflowing with customers, they were not doing badly at all either.

    Together they formed the scene of a rather energetic part of the city, though of course this was a somewhat normal scene here.

    However, unlike other days, this time the air throughout the South Zone felt different, if before people felt as if they were afraid that something was going to happen, now they were walking around simply worrying about their own problems.

    It was as if a faint but lingering curtain of worry had finally lifted to never appear over these people again.

    This was the effect brought about by the fact that Metal Body had finally defeated Wolf''s Fang.

    Because the inhabitants of the South Zone feared that a small orrge-scale fight over a territory dispute might break out at any moment, they were always afraid that they might end up involved in something like this.

    Fortunately for them, that and many other things had changed.

    The day after Metal Body defeated Wolf''s Fang, without wasting any time, Garel immediately set to work to take over all the territories controlled by the gang.

    Both he and the executives and guards were in an extremely weak state thanks to the use of the blood pill, but anyway, proving that not only his body was made of steel, but also his will, Garel left the hospital to organize everything.

    After unifying all the territories using the help of the normal members, assigning guards to each zone, distributing the territory that belonged to the Laers Guild and dismantling all kinds of illegal businesses that Wolf''s Fang had, he began a series of reforms over the entire South Zone, repairing several apartmentplexes, roads and other essential businesses to revive the economic development of the South Zone.

    Thanks to the fact that they didn''t fully pay in credits for the blood pills, plus they ended up seizing Wolf''s Fang''s money after looting their warehouses, they still had a good amount of money that they used to finance it all.

    The Laers Guild also noticed this, so they wanted to try to fund some of these projects in an attempt to gain some more authority, but to their surprise, Garel rejected them outright.

    His intention was clear, he would not let them dig their ws any deeper into the South Zone than they should!

    As for the Grey Rat nests he had discovered when he fought Jared in District 4, thanks to Jared eliminating most of them, there were only a few Grey Rats left, which were quickly eliminated by the Metal Body members.

    These constructions generated several jobs for the inhabitants of the South Zone, who were always looking for ways to make extra money.

    Thus, although everything was still under construction and there were countless things left to do, it was only a matter of time until Garel managed to return a functional part of the South Zone.

    In this period of time, Garel was no longer the fearsome rank (C+) super that everyone knew, bing something of a mayor, recognized both by the majority of the inhabitants of the South Zone as well as for other parts of the city.

    ***

    While the South Zone was going through all these reforms, there was one person who had remained unaware of any of this, or rather, without having the opportunity to find out anything about the outside world.

    On the outskirts of Nightown City, in the center of one of the towns farthest from the city, stood a particrlyrge building which resembled a 2-story inn.

    There wasn''t much to draw attention to this building, even when one entered, one could only see the receptionist waiting for a customer toe in.

    However, behind this receptionist''s desk was a secret passageway, one of many entrances which led to a subwaybyrinth that served as a sub-base for none other than the Laers Guild.

    The reason they had made this base so far from the city was because the Heroes Association and the Hunters monitored the surroundings of the city periodically to find out if any monsters were making their way into the city with the help of tunnels.

    This was something that had happened in a number of cities in the past, a nest of monsters suddenly burst out in the middle of the city, catching everyone off guard and generating a horrific death toll.

    Fortunately for the Laers Guild, the monitoring was only focused on the city and its surroundings, not reaching this town.

    Thisbyrinth had been rebuilt so that instead of a maze, it looked more like a cold concrete base that could hold hundreds of workers at the same time.

    In fact, several people could already be seen inside these tunnelspleting the tasks that each one had been given, they were preparing everything so that this base could operate at full power.

    Among all these people, there was a certain woman with short hair and a suit who stood out from the rest, she was walking through one of the lower levels of the subway base, every time she met one of the workers, thetter looked at her with reverence and respect in their eyes, making it clear what her status was.

    After a few minutes, she reached thest level of the base, which was nothing more and nothing less than a huge prison that was separated from the sub-base by arge metal door, both the door and the interior was guarded by several rank (C) supers.

    Upon seeing the woman, without her saying anything, the guards immediately opened the door to let her in, to which she thanked them with a smile that made both guards blush a little.

    Finally, the woman stopped only after reaching a particrlyrge cell which housed the former head of Wolf''s Fang, Jared.

    She then entered the cell, observing Jared, who was chained to the wall with a special type of metal for security reasons.

    His appearance, although better than the time he had fought Jay and Garel, had undergone several significant changes, mainly because of his presence.

    While before he seemed to be a beast that one wouldn''t dare to disturb, now he was just a man ofrge stature who seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

    "Hey, what''s up~?" The woman said after entering the cell, sitting down on a small invisible bench she made with her skill.

    Hearing her voice, Jared only raised his head slightly before replying in a hoarse voice, "...Now what do you want...?"

    While there wasn''t a hint of friendliness in his voice, there was no hostility either, it was a tonepletely devoid of emotion.

    Of course, this was normal.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Being in prison, with nowhere to escape to due to his gang he formed over the years falling apart, with his Core shattered, and with so many rank (C) supers guarding the ce, there was no hope of being able to do anything else except wait until the Laers Guild decided what to do with him.

    "Not much really, it''s just that I had some free time and decided toe and pay you a visit, by the way you can also finish telling me about some of your exploits~" The woman replied with the same carefree tone as always.

    It wasn''t that she had a particr interest in Jared, it was just that it was a hobby of hers to listen to the stories of famous local characters that the guild captured from time to time.

    "I have no more to tell, I''ve told you everything..."

    Because she had alreadye here several times, Jared had already told her in great detail all the important battles he had had in his life, after all, pleasing someone from the Laers Guild would be especially useful to him in this situation.

    "Hm... then how about someone from Nightown City unusual but who is little known~? Surely you must know someone like that~"

    Hearing her words, Jared began to think of people who might fall into the category of "unusual" by the standards of the woman in front of him.

    He thought of several people, from Garel, to some members of the Heroes Association and also the Hunters.

    However, although there were famous personalities, if he had to think of the most unusual person he had encountered in his entire life, it would undoubtedly have to be....

    "...The bandaged man..."

    "...Hm?"

    The woman''s interest immediately rose after hearing what Jared said, since he hadn''t said a name, indicating that even Jared didn''t know his true identity, it was clear that this character was mysterious.

    "I''m taling about the reason I lost to Garel, as well as the person who took shattered my Core..."

    This time his tone was filled with an almost imperceptible killing intent that the woman could detect.

    However, the only thing she took any notice of were hisst words.

    "...Tell me more."

    That way, even though the information he had about Jay was limited, Jared simply began to tell everything he knew, intentionally exaggerating certain things to make Jay seem stronger than he actually was.

    After a few minutes, the woman''s expression changed greatly.

    "Gosh... this definitely goes beyond unusual..." She said as she held her chin and a smile of interest formed on her face.

    Judging from what Jared had told her, she could estimate the bandaged man''s strength to be in the (D) or (D+) rank at best, but putting that aside, there were three points about this mysterious character that caught her attention more than anything else.

    First would be the apparent use of an esper ability despite the fact that his body was clearly that of a pugilist, something that if true, would be unprecedented in all of history.

    Unfortunately, there was no proof of this other than Jared''s own words, so until this point was verified, nothing could be done.

    Second was the bandaged man''s ability to suddenly increase his physical capacity, going so far as to equal the standard of a rank (C) pugilist.

    Although the pugilists had simr techniques, such arge increase could only be found in the higher level techniques, so her surprise was understandable.

    As for the third point, and also the most important, it had to do with the disabling of Jared''s Core.

    Regardless of whether it was the moment the bandaged man caused a qi deviation to Jared''s interior or the moment he caused a current of energy to surge within him, finally reaching the point where it rendered his Core unusable, they were all things that left the member of the Laers Guild incredibly intrigued.

    ''...Just what kind of esper ability did he have to cause something like that...?'' the woman thought, trying to remember when she had seen something like that.

    Several options shed through her mind such as an unique esper ability to destroy Cores or perhaps something much rarer, the ability to control qi without being a pugilist.

    With the limited information he possessed, she could only make such theories.

    As for what had happened to Garel, because thetter had refused to meet with her to discuss any other cooperative matters, she was unaware of it.

    "Hm, that''s certainly the most unusual thing I''ve heard so far, though tell me... why exactly did you kidnap his partner?"

    That was something she couldn''t quite understand, facing an opponent with such rare abilities and also someone who you know next to nothing about, the least you''d want to do would be to provoke him, unless you had the strength to afford something like that.

    "Heh, I just wanted to recruit him and take the opportunity to show him that he shouldn''t let his guard down, if I had known things would end up like this..." When he finished saying that, a bitter expression formed on his face.

    "Hm, alright, thanks for the information, I''ll be sure to look for this person, even if we don''t know his identity, it won''t take long to find his partner."

    With those words as herst, the woman stood up and left the room, a smile of interest stered on her face.

    Apparently, Jay''s actions had caught the attention of a giant iparably more powerful than 10 Wolf''s Fang gangsbined.

    Of course, Jay was unaware of this.

 Chapter 73 - One Cube

    In Altur, the only country that upied therge continent of Cauhaes, specifically in the city of Kluemwood, a huge city that was both the capital of the country and one of the most important metropolises in the world, one could currently feel the excitement in the air.

    While it was a normal urrence for there to be arge number of people roaming the streets, this time the number had grown exponentially, mainly thanks to all the young people flooding the streets.

    If one looked closer, one could see that each of these young people gave off the unmistakable pressure of a super!

    One wouldn''t normally see such a concentration of supers unless it was an incredibly important event, but this time, the event that was about to take ce today definitely warranted such a number.

    After all, today was the one day of the year that the Eitsirc Academy was opening its doors so that all promising youngsters could take the entrance exam.

    This was an opportunity that countless young people around the world could not pass up, not only because of the academy''s fame, but because of what it really meant to be able to get in.

    While the academy was known as the best ce of learning for supers around the world, that of course, was something that was well justified.

    With a terrain that wasparable to that of all Kluemwood City, state-of-the-art facilities and the most qualified teachers that could be found across the globe, these were all things that made up the Eitsirc Academy.

    Undoubtedly, they were quite attractive benefits, but as if that wasn''t enough, they also offered to all their students what was normally only avable to certain families or sects.

    Whether it was spells, martial techniques or special items to increase the espers'' power, everything could be obtained at the academy as long as one did one''s part to perform well.

    Of course, that was only part of all the benefits that could be found at the academy, which could only be described as a meritocracy in all its glory.

    It was currently 10 o''clock in the morning, taking into ount that the exam would take ce at 2 o''clock in the afternoon, these young people had some time to finish registration and walk around the city.

    "Woah, I had already seen it several times on TV... but seeing it in person is something totally different..." Said a blue-haired girl who was watching the streets from inside a room located on the top floor of a 15+ story hotel.

    At this moment, she was wearing short shorts along with a top that exposed her shoulders and arms along with sneakers, if one looked closely at her body, one could see that there were different types of runes which looked like tattoos inscribed on both her arms and legs.

    Although they did not cover her skinpletely, they were stillrge enough to be visible, on each of them running a thin stream of mana.

    "It''s the Eitsirc Academy entrance exam, anything less than this wouldn''t live up to their reputation." Added a tall, stocky, white-haired young man whose appearance made him look like a model.

    Like the girl, the clothes this young man wore were also light, wearing a tank top and sweatpants that didn''t obstruct his movement too much.

    Despite having a rtively normal appearance, anyone who saw him would think twice before even approaching him since at the moment, the impression he gave was that of a sword that could be drawn at any moment.

    Clearly, these people were Sarah and James respectively.

    "Don''t you want to see this too, Jay?" As he finished speaking, the young man turned to look at Jay, who was currently lying on the bed in the hotel room.

    "I will in a moment." He replied as he checked his smart watch, or rather, yed the same game that had been sent to Colt a while back.

    Apparently, this simple but informative game got even better depending on where one yed it, so now that he was in Kluemwood City, there were a thousand interesting locations with a rich history to discover, something Jay was quite interested in.

    Like Sarah and James, his appearance was also different, mainly due to the state of his body, which could be clearly seen due to the fact that he was wearing a simr outfit to James, exposing his strong arms.

    While his body had been in a constant state of change since he obtained the system, the biggest and fastest change was undoubtedly when he advanced to rank (D+), which immediately increased his fitness to where he was now.

    Of course, it was one thing to have the physique of a rank (D+) pugilist, and quite another to know how to use it, which is why most of the time after he recovered was spent on familiarizing himself with his body.

    After the intensive training of the 3 finished, none of them took too long to sort their affairs to travel to Altur, and as they all had the same destination and goal, they decided to travel together.

    As for the money needed for it, for both Sarah and James, these were funded by their respective families, as for Jay, his sponsors were none other than Jenny and Noah, thetter had also been left in charge of looking after the house in the meantime.

    "So, you guys want to go out to eat something while we wait for the exam to start~?" Sarah said as she kept looking at all the people on the streets, "I''ve done some research on what are the best restaurants here~"

    Since they had already registered for the admission test a long time ago, they now had plenty of time to walk around the city or rest if they wanted to.

    "I''m in, we can also take the opportunity to visit some allied sects." Added James, who now had an expression of interest on his face.

    With Kluemwood being one of the best metropolis in the world, it was also home to many incredibly strong pugilist sects, which were only more or just as powerful and influential as the Emperor''s Gate, not less.

    So James, being the descendant of said sect, was obligated to pay his respects towards the Emperor''s Gate''s allied sects, he had even brought gifts for that.

    "Hmm, let''s go then, I also want to check if what this game say is true..." Jay replied, getting up from the bed and stretching a bit.

    Just like that, the three of them left the hotel and joined the youngsters walking the streets, visiting various ces in the city while learning and eating various things.

    ***

    While the three of them were having fun, a certain person was on his way home after buying groceries for the whole week, it was a young man with short blond hair who wore loose clothes and wore a cap to protect himself from the sun.

    "Hm, it feels like it''s getting hotter every year..." He said as he let out a sigh and wiped a bead of sweat from his face.

    This young man was none other than Noah, who had stopped wearing the same clothes as before and had also gotten a haircut in addition to dyeing his hair to avoid being recognized as before.

    After all, this time Jay was no longer here to save him, so he was always extremely careful when leaving the house.

    Now that he was alone with his thoughts, he couldn''t help but think about how only a few weeks ago he still found himself living in the South Zone, his biggest dream being to move out once and for all.

    However, right now he was on his way to the ce he was currently living in, which was much better than his old apartment, and more importantly, it was a ce where he didn''t have any bitter or painful memories.

    Although it was perhaps too early to think this way, Noah felt content with his current situation.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''Hm, although the money issue is still a problem...'' He thought as he put his hand on his chin, ''I guess I have no choice but to take the job Jenny offered me...''

    Although he still had some savings, since he had quit his old job, it was only a matter of time until he ran out of money, which inevitably made him start thinking about looking for a job.

    Fortunately for him, Jenny knew his situation, so she told him about the certain job position at Jujusen that was currently avable, specifically, as a janitor.

    ''I guess I''ll call her tonight...''

    Thinking about it, he quickly reached the neighborhood in which Jay''s house was located, being only a few blocks away from reaching the house.

    But at that moment, before he had even taken 1 step, he suddenly felt a great pressureing from behind him, as if something incredibly dangerous was watching him from behind.

    He immediately tried to turn around, but was stopped by a pinkish mist that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and made him lose control of his body.

    Although Noah didn''t know what was happening, he didn''t take a second longer to activate his aura, causing the irises of his eyes to begin to give off a glow, making him momentarily regain control of his body so that he could see who the attacker was.

    The moment he turned his head, the image of a long-haired man dressed in ck and wearing a mask filled his eyes.

    "Wow, you''re tougher than I thought..." He said, seemingly surprised that Noah was resisting, "Unfortunately, that won''t change anything."

    At once, the man also increased the power of the mist,pletely destroying the weak resistance Noah''s ability was putting up, from this alone, it was clear that this man could only be a rank (C) super!

    *BAM!*

    "Gah!"

    However, before the man could do anything else, his head suddenly mmed into the pavement at a speed that Noah even failed to see.

    Suddenly, his body reared up before mming back into the ground repeatedly, each crash being louder and faster than thest.

    Although the man tried to resist, all he seeded in doing was prolonging his pain until he finally fell unconscious... only to be awakened again by the blows, something that would be repeated several times.

    At the same time the man lost consciousness, the pink haze that was surrounding Noah disappeared, or rather, was dispelled by someone.

    "Are you okay?" A woman asked, her voiceing from above.

    Shaking his head to get rid of the dizziness he was feeling, Noah brought his gaze upwards, specifically upwards from the man who was still still crashing to the ground, finding an adult woman who was dressed in an elegant yet beautiful manner.

    Upon seeing her, the name of another girl popped into his mind, ''...Sarah?''

    The simrities between the woman in front of him and Jay''s close friend were too many to overlook, from the distinctive silky blue hair to the graceful features of both, there was no doubt that they were rted.

    "...Are you Sarah''s sister...?" Noah asked, amazed at the disy of power he was currently observing.

    In response, Sarah''s aunt Iris only smiled before snapping her fingers, causing the long-haired man to finally stop crashing to the ground.

    "A...argh..."

    He could barely let out a groan of pain due to the sheer amount of damage he had taken in this short amount of time. He wasn''t a physical type esper to begin with, which simply worsened the damage.

    "I rmend you close your eyes for a second." Iris said, looking at Noah, who quickly closed his eyes, not wanting to disobey someone with so much power.

    The next moment, Iris raised both hands and snapped her fingers, her eyes lighting up blue momentarily.

    Noah could feel an invisible stream of energy pass through his body, trembling from the sudden sensation, though he was able to keep his eyes closed anyway.

    Immediately, a magic circle appeared on the man''s chest, causing the man''s body to begin to bend unnaturally, over and over again until he took the shape of a cube that still contained the man''s features.

    Noah could have sworn he heard a scream, but because it was too short, he wasn''t sure.

    Throughout this entire process, Iris''s face remained expressionless, as if whatever she was doing was simply normal.

    With another snap of his fingers, the outside of the cube was tinted ck and floated up to her hand, remaining hovering above it.

    "You can look now." She said, looking down at the blond boy who was still sitting on the floor.

    Slowly, Noah opened his eyes, analyzing the spot where the long-haired man used to be and inevitably bringing his gaze to the ck colored cube that was floating in Iris'' palm.

    "Th-that cube, is it...?"

    It wasn''t hard to think about what had happened after he closed his eyes at the sight of the new ck colored cube in Iris'' hands, which was only more evident if one took into ount the short but audible scream he heard a few seconds ago.

    "If you ask if this cube is the man, yes, it is. But don''t worry, he''s not dead, he may be under an incredible amount of pain, but he''s still alive. Sorry for making you hear his scream, I took a bit too long to create a sound barrier."

    In response, Noah just blinked a few times trying to understand what the woman had just said.

    "Hm, you seem to have a lot of questions, how about we go to Jay''s house so I can answer to all of them?"

    "...Please."

    With that, they both headed towards Jay''s house, though not before Iris "fixed" the sidewalk she had destroyed, putting all the shard pieces back in ce, though they were still so weak anyway that if a person stepped on it, it would crumble instantly.

 Chapter 74 - A Big Lake

    After a few hours had passed, finally, the streets of Kluemwood City that were once crowded with young people now had only normal citizens who seemed relieved to be able to walk without having to worry about bumping into anyone.

    As for where all these young people had gone, it didn''t take much thought to figure out what it was.

    At this moment, each and every one of them was inside one of the immense fields of the Eitsirc Academy, a field that had been built specifically to receive the enormous amount of applicants they received every year.

    This was no ordinary field, but one that had been improved countless times to provide as muchfort as possible, from weakening the sun''s rays, to changing the temperature and even improving the qi and mana density in the area, to ensure that the applicants were in an optimal state at all times.

    "Ahh, as expected from the Eitsirc Academy, even an outdoor area like this already has such a high concentration of mana!" A young mage said, an expression offort on his face.

    "With this, I feel my training speed improving rapidly!" Said another pugilist who was currently doing some push-ups.

    For the vast majority of supers, an environment like this was not something they could afford, even there were those who didn''t know that this was possible, so their surprise and admiration waspletely understandable.

    "Hmph..." A young blond man couldn''t help but snort at this, a look of superiority in his eyes. "It''s like they''ve never seen anything like this..."

    Just as there were supers who had no ess to this kind of environment, there were also those who were very well acquainted with this, after all, the children of prominent families, sect descendants or heirs of famous figures were also among the applicants.

    These, due to the facilities they had from a young age, could not help but feel superior to ordinary supers, as mostly the gap in abilities between the two was quite wide.

    After all, a super that received specialized resources and training from a young age had an indisputable advantage over those who did not.

    Though of course, this was something only avable to a small number of supers, so they were in the minority among all groups of applicants.

    "Tch, another spoiled brat..." Said one young girl upon hearing what both people said, apparently annoyed by their behavior.

    "Who said that?" Said annoyed the young blond man as he turned around.

    But when he did, he couldn''t find any culprit due to all the people currently looking at him, causing him to turn around in a slightly more sour mood.

    It was clear that some enmity could be felt between those two groups, who were talking behind each other''s backs. But thanks to the fact that they were only a few minutes away from the start of the entrance exam, no one wanted to create too much trouble and risk being vetoed.

    This was something that had happened only a handful of times in the past, where two hot-blooded individuals decide to create a ruckus and end up not only getting kicked off the Academy grounds, but also being banned from taking the entrance exam ever again, for many, that was a fate no different than ruining your future.

    Finally, there was a third group mixed by people who regardless of whether they had resources or not, did not care about the disputes between normal supers and those who were born with silver spoons.

    Included in this group were three young people who were currently eating some sweets in the shape of swords, which apparently was a specialty of Kluemwood City, although they didn''t know why.

    "Do you think they''ll start with the written test first or the physical?" asked Sarah with real interest on her face.

    "Hm, I hope it''s the physics, I feel like my body is already asking for some action." James replied, flexing his right arm.

    As for Jay, he was still busy ying with the smart watch app.

    *Woosh*

    Just at that moment, a considerably strong breeze swept across the huge green field, causing all the applicants to immediately pay attention.

    Without anyone having noticed, a person had appeared in the air, his appearance indicated that his age was around 30 years old, as for his clothing, he was wearing a simple shirt with dress pants.

    "Good afternoon everyone, my name is Ligim and I will be in charge of supervising today''s entrance exam."

    Despite the distance between him and all the other applicants, plus the fact that he had spoken in a calm and normal manner, everyone present was able to hear him clearly.

    "As you all know, the entrance exam normally consists of two parts, the written and the physical, both of which would be conducted right here, however, because we have seen that the number of entrants from past years have not met certain requirements to stay at the academy, we decided that it would be better to take a general test beforehand to see what level all of you are at."

    As he finished saying that, arge screen showing an ind of considerable size filled with lush vegetation suddenly appeared next to the man.

    "If you''re wondering what this general test is about, it is quite simple. Each of you will be transported to this ind, which is a developing terrain of the academy, there''s only one requirement to pass, survive 1 full day on this ind. Although we have cleared out most of the strong monsters, there are still a few that you must be wary of."

    Immediately, each of the postnts felt their body be incredibly light at the same time that their vision blurred.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Several of the postnts couldn''t help but be amazed at this, especially the mages with a background, who were the most familiar with this sensation and also knew what it was due to.

    ''Large-scale teleportation?!'' thought Sarah, who was also among the people who had experienced this sensation before.

    Everyone''s surprise waspletely understandable, after all, this was a spell of a considerably high level, but despite that, the examiner conjured it without the slightest effort, clearly demonstrating that he could only be at the rank (B) at the very least.

    But before they could think of anything else, everyone''s field of vision changed, the examiner''s voice echoing in each of their ears.

    "Good luck to everyone."

    With that, the wide grassy field was cleft .ompletely devoid of people, leaving only the belongings they each carried on the ground, arranged so that there would be no confusion when they retrieved them.

    ***

    Deep in the lush forest that made up the majority of this ind, a certain ck-haired young man currently sat in the middle of a small stream, an expression of surprise stered on his face.

    "Wow... I really didn''t expect something like this to happen..." Jay said as he slowly stood up and began to inspect his belongings, "Hm, apparently they took everything from me except for my clothes."

    Since the academy wanted to test the power of the applicants and not the background they had, the examiner was only in charge of transporting them, not their belongings.

    Looking around, more and more trees filled his vision, since almost the entire map of the ind showed that it was covered in forest, he had no idea where on the ind he might be.

    "Hmm... well, although it''s only a day, it would be better to stay alert."

    After leaving the river, he decided to climb up to the tallest tree he saw in order to get an idea of where he was.

    While he had no problem staying in this ce, he wanted to get some information anyway. Unfortunately, no matter where he looked he could only see trees, the ind was undoubtedly muchrger than it looked on the map.

    Without much else to do, Jay climbed down from the tree and started walking upstream, practicing his wind control along the way.

    He knew he might run into some other postnt along the way, but he really wasn''t that worried about it, after all, he now had a method of being able to detect if there was anyone near him.

    After having recovered, in the process of familiarizing himself with his body, he also worked on strengthening the connection he felt with his little ones as this would only bring him benefits.

    Leaving aside the abilities of his little ones that he used to the fullest when he was in the South Zone, such as the power of suggestion and energy enhancement, there were other things that Jay focused on.

    By this point, after experimenting for several weeks, Jay had managed to discover other basic abilities of the parasites, most of these being things that they used almost unconsciously but were not fully avable to Jay.

    Among the things he discovered were the mental connection they seemed to have with each other, which allowed them tomunicate without using words, the only bad thing about this was the fact that it only seemed to be avable when he had a certain number of parasites in his body, as to the reason for this, Jay wasn''t sure.

    Another ability, and the one that would undoubtedly be incredibly useful at this time was nothing more and nothing less than the ability that the parasites had to be able to detect any living being in the vicinity.

    Both were abilities he had seen and used in some form in the South Zone, respectively when his little ones ryed their emotions to him and when they detected almost at the same time as the system that two rank (C+) supers were fast approaching towards him.

    Fortunately for him, after his authority in the system leveled up, his connection with his little ones became even stronger than before.

    Originally he could only vaguely discern what his little ones were feeling, but now he could clearly distinguish what they were trying to tell him, although they were still talking in short sentences od two words, it was much better than before.

    As for the "Radar of living beings" they possessed, although Jay could only sense it very faintly and a short distance of 10 meters, if he used it in conjunction with the confirmation from his little ones, it served quite well.

    After an hour of walking through the increasingly steep wooded terrain, Jay finally made it to the source of the river, which was argeke almost as big as a ser stadium hidden by arge number of trees.

    "Hm, this ce isn''t bad at all." He said as he appreciated the pleasant scenery before his eyes, "Although... I don''t remember seeing such argeke on the map of the ind...."

    Suddenly, his sense of rm was quickly triggered the moment he was only a few meters away from theke, causing him to immediately slow down as his expression turned into one of awe.

    Right now, even though his radar''s detection range only covered an incredibly small part of theke, there wasn''t a single inch of water that wasn''t showing signs of life.

 Chapter 75 - Aquga Snake

    Without further thought, Jay quickly backed away, stopping just enough distance away for his radar to work.

    Now analyzing better all the signs of lifeing from theke, he couldn''t help but think of fish, but decided to rule out that option because they were too close together, it was as if they were stacked side by side and sometimes it even seemed as if they were part of the same body.

    Worst of all, even though he was carefully observing theke, he couldn''t see anything out of the ordinary.

    "...No, the parasites wouldn''t go wrong with something like this..." He said as he climbed back up a tree to get a better view of theke.

    Again, he couldn''t discover anything else except that theke looked pretty good from above.

    *Shh*

    Just then, just as Jay was about to climb down from the tree, the sound of bushes being moved reached his ears, causing him to stop.

    "Argh, finally!" Shouted a young caucasian man that suddenly appeared from deep in the forest.

    It was a young man with brown hair who had a slender build and while he wasn''t very tall, he wasn''t short either, his appearance was rather scruffy, as if he had passed through several bushes on his way.

    Like Jay, he had also been following a small stream of water that he found shortly after being teleported to the ind.

    Upon seeing theke, the young man inmediately pulled a small wand from his pocket before he began to quickly draw a blue-colored magic circle in the air near the edge of theke.

    Although the magic circle had quite a few inscriptions inside it, the process was simple and natural, as if the young man had done it countless times.

    After a few seconds, the magic circle waspleted, releasing arge amount of cold air that began to slowly freeze theke, starting from the shore.

    Seeing this, Jay was able to get an idea of what the young man was trying to do.

    ''So he''s nning to set up an elemental zone...'' He thought as he grabbed his chin.

    Out of the 3 main sses of supers, mages had the most methods of preparation.

    For both espers and pugilists, both were incredibly dependent on the terrain they were on in order to use their abilities, which many times was even a deciding factor for the oue of a battle, especially for thetter.

    And while there might be exceptions where both sses could choose a terrain or even change the terrain to their advantage, mages took it to another level entirely.

    The elemental branch of magic was especially good for these feats, being able to change the terrain in an area where a certain element reigned, granting the mage responsible for the area more ease when using spells while affecting people outside of the mage.

    "Hmm, I guess it will take me an hour or two to freeze everything..." Said the young man as he began to walk over the now frozenke shore, "I''d better hurry before someone else arrives..."

    Although the freezing process was fast, due to the sheer size of theke, it would still take a good while.

    *Crack*

    "!"

    Suddenly, both the young man and Jay could hear the distinct sound of ice fracturing, causing the young man to immediately cast another spell to strengthen the ice.

    Unfortunately, at that very moment, the entire surface of theke that had been turned to ice began to fracture at an extremely fast rate.

    "What the hell?!" the young man shouted as he began to run towards the shore, even though he didn''t know what was causing this, that didn''t stop him from wanting to avoid unnecessary dangers.

    *CRACK!*

    A much louder noise echoed in the surroundings, product of all the ice finally breaking, even though the young man had run as fast as he could, his right foot had still been on the ice, so as it broke, his foot inevitably touched theke.

    Or rather, what appeared to be theke.

    Without more than a second having passed, the young man felt a gtinous mass tangle around his leg, holding him firmly in the same ce.

    "DAMN IT!"

    Immediately, the young man''s expression changed to one of anger as his eyes began to glow and he started to move his wand in the air, the mana in the surroundings also stirred, almost as if it sensed the young man''s anger.

    As a result of the young man''s wand movement, several more circles appeared in theke, creatingrge chunks of ice all around, especially on the part near his foot.

    But as if the ice didn''t matter at all, the gtinous mass not only continued to cling to his foot, but even began to pull on it, breaking the ice in the surrounding area easily, as if wanting to sink him into theke.

    Although the dominant expression on the young man''s face was still one of anger, some concern could now be seen mixed in.

    Not wanting to waste any more time, he stopped casting random spells and concentrated on drawing arge magic circle in front of him.

    Because it was no longer being obstructed by anything, the gtinous and transparent mass that was pretending to be theke began to sink him rapidly towards theke, something that made the young man hurry even more.

    Finally, with half of his body in theke, the circle waspleted.

    *BOOM!*

    Arge explosion that turned everything around into ice took ce at the edge of theke, creating a small iceberg about 8 meters high that served as a separation between the young man and theke.

    "And to think I would have to use this so early!" Said the young man as he broke free of the now frozen gtinous mass that had been engulfing him.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Although the young man was still maintaining a normal facade, he had actually spent a good amount of mana on thisst spell, which one might even say it was one of his trump cards.

    *CRACK*

    However, just as he stepped out, all the ice again began to crack, only this time at a somewhat slower rate than before, the only reason the ice hadn''t been shattered yet was only due to its sheer size and hardness.

    Apanying the cracking of the ice, a slight tremor began to shake the surroundings, it was as if something of arge size was beginning to move.

    The young man was already fleeing into the forest, so as he felt the tremor, an uneasy feeling began to form within him, causing his speed to immediately increase considerably.

    On the other hand, Jay, although he could also feel the tremors, was at this moment much more concerned about what his little ones were telling him.

    Because he had moved even further away while the young man was casting his spells against theke, now his personal radar was not working, so he had to rely on his parasites'' detection.

    Of all the ideas being ryed to him, this was the one that kept repeating itself the most.

    ''Large snake.''

    And of course, Jay immediately began to flee, no longer caring if the young mage discovered him, after all, the threat his little ones were describing was far greater than that of even a rank (C) super.

    Although there were arge number of snake monsters, after seeing the gtinous mass that tried to trap the young mage, Jay could already get an idea about which monster this one specifically was.

    *BOOOM!*

    Suddenly, all the water in theke rose up, creating a small temporary rain that fell on the surrounding trees at the same time that it broke up therge chunk of ice that had formed on the shore.

    Quickly, arge amount of gtinous mass began to pour out of theke, shooting in the direction in which the young wizard had fled, catching up with him in a matter of seconds despite the fact that thetter had been running with all his might.

    "Argh, sh*t!" He shouted as he was caught, desperately trying to free himself either with spells or physical force.

    Unfortunately for him, nothing was having any effect on this weird gtinous mass.

    Then, moving as fast as it did to catch the young wizard, the gtinous mass started to return to theke, of which now almost no water could be seen anymore, only a huge amount of transparent gtinous mass.

    However, in the middle of theke, it could be seen that from the deepest part of theke, a huge snake skull began to rise, along with many other bones of different animals that apanied this skull.

    From these bones, Jay could recognize some monsters, such as deers, bears and evenrge cougars, all of these had undoubtedly been ferocious monsters in life.

    At the same time as the young wizard was being led towards the center of theke, this snake made of bones and coated with that gtinous substance began to take shape, reaching a height of more than 20 meters.

    Although the gtinous mass that had trapped the wizard was transparent, the closer he got to the snake, the more it turned a faint dark green color.

    ''It had to be a damn Aqugas snake!'' Jay thought after seeing the full form of the snake, which had greatly lowered the water level of theke.

    Remembering how close he hade toing in contact with theke, he couldn''t help but let a shiver run through his body.

    Of all the types of snake monsters there were in the world, the Aqugas snake was not only strange but also incredibly dangerous.

    Not only did they have arge size, but their bodies also consisted of a gtinous mass which was incredibly resistant to physical attacks.

    Of course, this didn''t mean that it was weak to magic or esper abilities either, it also had resistance to these, only that its defense was not as effective against those types of supers.

    As for it''s method of hunting, it was quite simple.

    It would look for bodies of waterrge enough for its size and then blend in with that body of water to camouge itself, waiting until other monsters came to drink water to pull them and drown them inside it''s slimy body.

    The more monsters it absorbed, the more stronger and bigger it would be. As for the specimen in front of Jay, it was quite clear that it had absorbed arge amount of monsters, making it much stronger than a normal Aqugas snake.

    ''That mage seems to be a rank (C-) mage, but he couldn''t do hardly anything to it anyway...''

    Jay had also seen from start to finish how this mage''s spells, while managing to slow it down momentarily, really did almost no damage to it and only managed to make the snake more angry.

    ''Still... it should be around rank (C) or (C+), it''s impossible for it to be rank (B-)''

    Even though it didn''t change the current situation at all, Jay found some relief in thinking this way, which was quite understandable. After all, a rank (B-) monster was in apletely different league, something only supers of the same rank would be able to deal with.

    "!"

    Just then, Jay suddenly turned and activated his wind control, creating a short wind de and cutting directly toward his right ankle.

    *Chack!*

    The sound of cutting something slimy reached his ears, however, his expression was only one of surprise, the small slimy tentacle holding his ankle was still clinging tightly, with only a slight scratch on its surface.

    ''I still couldn''t cut it!?'' He thought.

    Unfortunately, before he could do anything else, just like the young wizard, his body flew off in the direction of theke.

 Chapter 76 - One Jump

    While Jay and the young mage were having trouble with the Aquga snake, most of the applicants who had been teleported to the ind were also having trouble.

    Whether they were espers, mages or pugilists, all hadnded rtively close to monsters that tested their limits, as nned by the Academy.

    However, there were exceptions to this, where the applicants were not having problemns with monsters... but with other applicants.

    *BAM!*

    A loud bang echoed in a corner of the ind, product of the sh of punches between two people, which even caused several surrounding trees to shake slightly.

    "...I knew it, you''re as strong as I thought!" Said a somewhat striking looking young man as he backed up a few steps, which was also one of the people responsible for the loud bang.

    His hair was a striking red color which went quite well with his yellow amber eyes, as for his body, even though he was mostly slender, clear signs of having worked out could be seen on his body.

    Although the features of this young man''s face could be described as somewhat attractive, itpletely paled when looking at the person in front of him.

    "If you have nothing else to say, then get out of the way." James said as he ignored the young man and started walking in another direction.

    "Hey, wait, we haven''t even finished exchanging a few lessons!" the red-haired young man shouted again as he approached James, obviously wanting to continue to confront James.

    The two had met only a few minutes ago, after James had been teleported to a nearby shore, he made his way into the forest, which is where he encountered this young man, who upon seeing him, immediately proceeded to attack him without another word.

    James of course responded, starting a battle thatsted only a short time, ending with him forcing the young man back, however, that only seemed to have motivated the young man even more.

    Without even turning to look at him, James simply kept walking, ignoring himpletely.

    Suddenly, the young man increased his speed, his fists starting to get covered in pugilistic mes, aiming for James'' back.

    Although it didn''t take him long to do this, the power contained in his fists was no joke, taking into ount that this young man was at rank (C-), even James would note out of this unscathed if he received a sneak attack.

    *BAM!*

    But to the young man''s surprise, before his fist had even touched James, thetter moved at a speed much faster than his own, turning his body to deliver a kick thatnded on his jaw.

    "Gah!"

    *Pam*

    Without being able to say another word, the young man fell to the ground unconscious. Although he was also a pugilist, the power of James'' kick had been strong enough to knock him out.

    "Hm, there really are some pretty reckless people everywhere..." He said as he lifted the young man''s body and climbed up a particrly tall tree to leave him there.

    He had some experience dealing with people like this, whether they were young men who were overconfident or those that wanted to prove their power by defeating others, James had seen both.

    As for a solution to this, a simple beating solved most problems, though of course he always tried not to go to that extent, which unfortunately had only worked a handful of times.

    After making sure the young man wouldn''t fall off the tree, James climbed down, continuing on his way through this dense forest and leaving the young man to his own luck.

    ...

    ...

    "Haa..."

    However, barely five minutes had passed, James suddenly returned and climbed up the tree to grab the young man before climbing down and putting him on his shoulder.

    Originally, he had really wanted to leave him alone, but at the thought that this young pugilist could very likely end up being the prey of some monster, he couldn''t help but feel a little bad, which forced him to return.

    ''Well... I''ll just have to make him faint again if he gets violent when he wakes up...'' He thought as he continued on his way through the forest, being wary of running into some other postnt that could make things moreplicated for him.

    ***

    "Hey, mage...!" Shouted Jay, who was currently clinging to a tree, holding on as best he could to avoid being pulled into theke.

    The situation was undoubtedly bad, even though he had used a wind de to cut the tentacle-like thing, it had already proven to have little effect, so the only thing he could think of to avoid ending up in theke was to cling tightly to this tree.

    On the other hand, although the wizard right now was too busy constantly freezing the gtinous mass that was grabbing him at this moment, he still managed to answer.

    "What do you want?!" He replied, several beads of sweat on his face, evidence that right now he was giving his best.

    "Tell me, how long do you think it would take you toplete your elemental zone?"

    While it was true that Jay had seen that most of the young mage''s spells had close to no effect on the Aquga snake, he was sure this would change if the mage could finish his zone.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Quickly, the young man guessed what Jay was thinking before continuing to concentrate on casting spells.

    "If you can give me 15 minutes, it will be 50%plete, enough to protect us until I finishpleting it!"

    He had seen Jay escape only a few seconds ago and this made a negative impression on him, but right now he couldn''t be picky about any help offered to him.

    Hearing this, Jay immediately started to work, gathering the surrounding wind and wrapping his ankle with it, creating an incredibly small but effective breach between his ankle and the gtinous mass.

    Immediately, a small burst of wind took ce at his ankle, briefly separating Jay''s ankle from the Aquga snake.

    Fortunately, this moment was all he needed to escape the grip, quickly climbing a tree and starting to jump towards another.

    The gtinous mass, as soon as it noticed that Jay had broken free, began to chase him wildly, though it wasn''t all that easy because of all the branches it had to get through.

    "Listen to me, I need you to prepare the big spell from earlier and use it just in time, allright!?" Jay shouted as he was jumping from tree to tree.

    "OK!" Replied the mage.

    Because some time had passed, right now the mage was only a few meters away from reaching the main body of the Aqugas Snake, so seeing that his spells had no effect and that his fate would be the same no matter if he kept using them or not, he decided to do as Jay said.

    Again, his eyes began to glow, the mana in the surroundings gathering into a glowing magic circle whose inscriptions were beingpleted by the second.

    *BAM*

    Dozens of branches snapped where Jay passed by, product of the thick gtinous tentacle that was chasing him, causing him to only be able to flee forward.

    Luckily for Jay, as the tentacle had increased in thickness to be able to break the branches, its speed slowed down considerably, although it was still fast, Jay was able to keep a certain distance.

    This was also because Jay right now was not only using his muscles to the fullest, but he also was using his wind control to be able to decrease the wind resistance around him, increasing his speed.

    As for how he thought of this use, it simply came to him on one of his training days when he was running in his yard, although it was a difficult thing to do and it consumed a low but steady amount of energy, the situation called for its use.

    The reason he didn''t use this to run away earlier was due to the fact that he hadn''t expected the Aqugas snake to be able to move so quickly, a mistake that had created the current situation.

    Also, he wasn''t sure if even with that he would have been able to escape, after all, when he was running on the ground, it was much easier for the snake to chase him since there weren''t as many obstacles as now that he was jumping from tree to tree.

    "!"

    At that moment, Jay again felt another of the tentacles in his radar, this timeing from below and targeting one of his ankles, forcing him to change trees faster, the difficulty of staying in the trees increased exponentially.

    Just like that, Jay had almost made a full circle around theke.

    The snake had foreseen this, so it prepared several more tentacles that were hidden in the trees that Jay would have to pass, waiting for its prey toe and finally capture him.

    However, just as Jay was about toplete his turn, he suddenly darted downward,nding on the ground and resuming its march quickly, running in the direction of theke.

    This caught the snake off guard as it didn''t expect its prey to go straight towards its body, but since it was a good thing, it didn''t care much, just creating more tentacles that came straight out of theke to meet Jay.

    These quickly approached Jay, who didn''t stop for a second, but before they coulde into contact with Jay, thetter let out a scream.

    "NOW!"

    *BOOM!*

    At his signal, the young mage immediately activated his spell, causing the snake to stop because a considerable part of its body had been frozen.

    Since the snake had been bringing him closer and closer to devour him, the young man was close to the main body of the snake, which made his spell much more effective than before.

    Taking advantage of the fact that the snake''s attention was elsewhere, Jay ran to the edge of theke and made the most powerful jump he had done so far, even using the parasites'' energy and his wind control to the maximum for it.

    The reason why he circled theke had been for this, to be at the closest possible distance to the young mage who was now surrounded by ice.

    ''Ah, shit, so even this isn''t enough...!'' Jay thought, being several meters above the air but already beginning to feel that the momentum of his jump was running out.

    Of course, also because the young mage was too deep in theke, even though Jay had jumped quite high, he was still a good distance away from reaching him.

    But as he reached his highest point, an incredible amount of wind began to gather near his feet at the same time Jay''s eyes began to release a faint green glow.

    Just as he was beginning to fall, for a brief moment, an extremely thin stream of air was created right below his feet, gathering in the shape of a square.

    Then, Jay stepped on this square and jumped again!

 Chapter 77 - The Best State To Train!

    After that leap of faith, Jaynded on the block of ice surrounding the mage before breaking the ice with a kick and grabbing him by the arm, again jumping on what little was left of the ice towards the opposite direction from where he hade from.

    "Freeze some of theke to jump!" Shouted Jay, seeing that they would soon lose momentum and fall into theke.

    As for making another wind tform, Jay wasn''t confident that he would be able to do it again, at least not without having practiced a bit more and certainly not when he had another much safer option.

    Taking heed, the mage quickly conjured a magic circle thatnded on theke, creating a small ice tform, just enough for Jay to step on .

    Of course, the Aqugas Serpent did not stay still, but quickly broke through the ice the mage had created to free himself and began to make arge number of tentaclese out of theke to catch the two of them.

    Seeing this, Jay just gritted his teeth and grabbed the mage by the cor of his shirt before flinging him into the air in the direction of the forest, causing thay he fell even faster, right towards the ice tform.

    Thanks to his radar, he could sense all the tentacles no matter where they came from so he could react in time to avoid some of them.

    Unfortunately, even though he activated the wind control to surround the areas of his body that were going toe in contact with the tentacles, he didn''t think he would make it to the small ice tform first.

    *Woosh!*

    Several magic circles suddenly fell around him, freezing the tentacles closest to him and giving him enough time to step onto the tform and jump.

    This had obviously been the effect of the spells of the young wizard, who had been preparing his spells from the moment Jayunched him into the air, spells which had been much more powerful than normal, something that surprised even him.

    ''Haa... thank goodness it worked...!'' Jay thought as he quickly approached the mage, who was just beginning to descend.

    In the brief moment he held him, Jay immediately took the opportunity to infect the mage with a good amount of parasites, which began to share their energy with him to make his spells stronger.

    Because he hadn''t tried it on a mage before, he wasn''t sure if it would work, but fortunately for both of them, it went well.

    *Bam!*

    "Argh!"

    "Sorry about that!"

    Just as they were about to collide, Jay kicked the young mage to get him to shore even faster. Though he took a bit of damage from that, he managed tond faster and quickly rpose himself, starting to cast spells as he began to run.

    As for his anger, while he was showing it on his face, he knew this was not the time for this.

    The Aqugas Serpent also started to move, even more aggressive than before, after seeing that both prey had moved out of its reach, it was obviously quite angry.

    At the same time, arge number of tentacles came out of theke to apany it on its way, several of them evenbining and forming what appeared to be small anacondas of gtinous mass.

    In the face of this, even though the young mage was giving it his all and his spells were currently being strengthened thanks to the parasites, he could only manage to temporarily stop the thinner tentacles.

    Still, he took the time to create another small ice tform for Jay tond on.

    As for why he wasn''t running away and using Jay as a decoy for the Aqugas Serpent, it was because he knew that that n had extremely low odds of sess.

    Originally his physical condition was not sufficient to be able to escape from the snake on his own, and this had been worsened by using so many spells simultaneously, in fact, he could already even feel a slight tiredness weighing on his body.

    Although he still had a long way to go before running out of mana, that he was beginning to get tired was not a good sign at all.

    Lastly, he alsto felt an incredibly unpleasant feeling whenever he thought about it.

    ''Apparently I''m a nicer person than I thought eh...'' Thought the young mage without stopping casting spells even for a second.

    After a few anxious moments, Jaynded on the tform before jumping off onest time, finally reaching the edge of theke.

    But instead of stopping, he simply started running as fast as he could in the direction of the mage, even leaving deep tracks all over his path.

    Seeing this, the young wizard had a sudden bad feeling, but he continued his work anyway to keep casting spells to slow down the thin tentacles that were getting closer and closer to them, even going so far as to create a small wall of ice where thend and theke connected, as if it were a small barrier.

    Then, just when Jay arrived where he was, he suddenly stopped and grabbed the young man by the back of his shirt cor with his right hand and with his left hand grabbing the back of his pants, getting a strong grip.

    "...Sh*t." Said the wizard, realizing what Jay wanted to do.

    Thereupon, Jay spun around twice charging the mage to increase the power of his throw, the muscles in his arms bulging immediately due to the force he was using.

    "Cover...your face!!!" Jay shouted before throwing the mage into the forest.

    "W-WAAAAAAAIT!!!!!"

    With that shout, even though he was reluctant, the mage quickly went into the forest, not encountering any trees only by sheer luck and thanks to Jay having chosen the best route to throw him.

    *CRACK*<novelnext></novelnext>

    Again the sound of ice being broken reached Jay''s ears, indicating that the tentacles had already reached the shore.

    This time Jay didn''t even turn around, he could already feel each and every one of them closing in fast behind him, looking to catch him and return him to theke he had escaped from.

    Of course, Jay wasn''t going to let that happen, so again he gathered all the strength in his body and concentrated it in his legs before leaping towards the nearest tree he had.

    The tentacles immediately changed direction to chase him, the situation was simr to the one only moments ago, only that this time the difficulty was much greater as not only two tentacles were chasing him, but at least a dozen of them.

    However, using the advantage he had since he didn''t have to turn around to know where the tentacles wereing from, he could focus entirely on moving forward.

    Although several times he came close to being caught, he was free thanks to the fact that he could use his wind control to interrupt the movements of the tentacles, creating thin tforms of air that onlysted for a second or even less, but were strong enough to impede their passage.

    Seeing this, the main body of the Aqugas Serpent moved even closer to the shore, being only a few meters away from it, while it wasn''t possible to see what kind of expression it had due to the fact that it didn''t have a face, the pressure it was emitting indicated that it was definitely angry.

    The tentacles became faster and stronger, even bing capable of snapping branches at high speed. This was an effect of the snake''s body being close, as the closer it was, the more strength and control the snake would have over these.

    Still, Jay persevered, changing the way he jumped from tree to tree, even risking running away in a zig zag fashion, but never going too deep into the forest.

    As for the reason of this, that was because right now, the mage had alreadynded and waspleting his elemental zone, so for the moment, there was only one thing Jay could do.

    ''JUST 15 MINUTES, WE CAN DO IT!!'' He shouted in his mind, all his senses rising to the limit due to the dangerousness of the situation, generating him to be in his best state.

    This was something that he had realized he could only achieve in high pressure situations, where he was forced to stay alert at all times.

    The first time he achieved it was in the South Zone, specifically when he was running away from the boss of Wolf''s Fang and also when he fought against said person.

    It was in this state in which he had been able to do things he couldn''t when training on his own, Jay could feel it right now.

    Slowly, whether it was the control he had over his body, the parasite energy, his radar or his wind control, Jay was perfecting everything at the same time.

    ***

    After some time, in the sameke, a quite remarkable change had urred in the surroundings, specifically in a certain part of the dense forest.

    While theke used to be quite circr in shape, now, because the Aqugas Snake had made a path into the forest, a small expanse of theke had been created that entered the forest, giving the snake more mobility.

    However, while this was striking, what was more surprising was that the wooded area in front of the snake currently had dozens of fallen trees, something that had been caused by the snake itself in an attempt to catch its prey.

    As for that prey, as the snake kept moving forward, it also kept moving constantly among the trees.

    His appearance had changed, with some blood stains on his sides and several bruises all over its body, however, his expression was one of total concentration, as if his body was not hurt or tired at all, simply focusing on continuing to jump.

    Behind him came several tentacles that had changed their shape to look more like spears than anything else, making it clear that the snake was no longer looking to catch him, but simply to finish him off.

    Their speed had also increased, only being within a meter of reaching Jay, though they seemed unable to close that distance, so it could be said that he was safe for the time being.

    *Woosh!*

    Suddenly, a much thinner and sharper tentacle appeared from underneath, aimed directly at his neck.

    But before it could make contact, a strong but brief wind interrupted it''s path, causing it''s speed to slow down for a short time, of which Jay took advantage to dodge it and quickly jump to another tree.

    Throughout this process, Jay didn''t turn his gaze for a second, this was no longer just being in his best state, but something that went beyond, it was almost as if he was breaking his limits.

    Regardless of whether his muscles were begging him to stop or his bones were making weird sounds, he continued to move forward. As this was not the first time he had felt something like this, this time it was easier to endure.

    However, his body was truly reaching its limit, even his energy was running out by leaps and bounds, making it clear that he couldn''t take much more.

    Fortunately for him, at that moment, he could hear the mage''s voice.

    "It''s... ready!"

    Jay''s eyes quickly refocused on the surroundings, immediately snapping out of the trance he was in and returning to reality.

    *BAM!*

    "Argh!"

    Unfortunately, waking up so suddenly had its consequences, which came in the form of a momentary incoordination that caused Jay to be struck by one of the spear-like tentacles, creating a deep cut in one of his sides.

    ''Sh*t!'' Jay thought, trying to resume his previous march in order to escape, though failing instantly due to all the tentacles that followed the first one, finally trapping him.

 Chapter 78 - Frost Needle

    Fortunately for Jay, he didn''t have to hold on for long trapped by the Aqugas snake''s tentacles, since before it could pull him towards theke, a strong current of cold wind filled the surrounding area, freezing everything in its path except for Jay.

    ''What control!'' Jay thought as he broke the now frozen tentacles holding him and fled in the direction the wind current hade from.

    As for the cut on his side, he paid no attention to it, after all, it would only take a couple of minutes for it to fully heal thanks to Noah''s useful ability, Passive Regeneration.

    While the strength of the spell had also been somewhat surprising, the area of effect is what truly left Jay shocked.

    After all, to use a spell with such a wide area of effect while avoiding a specific target was something considerably difficult, even Jay wouldn''t be capable of something like that with his wind control.

    Unconsciously, this made Jay think a little better of the young mage.

    *BAM!*

    Seeing its prey again slipping away from it, the Aqugas snakeshed out at the nearby trees, the gtinous mass that made up its body changing color very slowly, bing a much more noticeable green color than before.

    This was not the only change in its body, but all the tentacles that were in theke and inside the forest returned to form part of the snake''s body, also assuming that green color.

    "...Just great, it''s a f*cking variant!" Said Jay when he saw what the snake was doing, without stopping running even for a second.

    Although normal Aqugas snakes always inhabitedkes and couldn''t move around too much as they depended on water, there were always variations between these, with snakes being able to absorb a huge amount of water into their bodies and thus move onnd.

    However, because not all snakes had a body tough enough for it, those variations were much rarer to encounter than a rank (B-) Aqugas snake.

    Unfortunately for Jay and the young wizard, they had just happened to encounter one of those rare Aqugas snake variations.

    Though what they didn''t know was that in reality, until just moments ago, this snake had only been an average Aqugas snake.

    What had triggered this sudden change in it was nothing more or less than the anger that the two of them had provoked in it by escaping so many times.

    In all its life, this was the first time that the snake had encountered prey that was so annoying, even the other predators on the ind, those huge panthers and bears that were over 10 meters long, monsters that the snake wasn''t sure it could defeat, even they weren''t as annoying as these 2.

    Although at the beginning its goal had only been to devour them in order to be stronger, now it no longer wanted that, but simply to finish them off, without caring about the consequences.

    As a result, its body achieved something it had not done before, and that was to adapt itself to be able to advance onnd.

    In that way, the snake began to quickly move towards where Jay was fleeing, its massive body effortlessly sweeping through every tree it came across.

    "If you had warned me instead of running away, none of this would have happened!" The young mage also shouted as he prepared a spell simr to the previous one, while he also was shocked to see that the Aqugas snake was a variant, he could not simply stand still as it approached.

    Although he was at a considerable distance from theke, it was not a problem to hear what he was saying because of how loud he was shouting.

    Unlike before, this time the wizard was inside a magic circle made entirely of snow, around him there were three circles also made of snow which were connected to the one he was in.

    This was also a spell to create an elemental zone, only this one was much moreplicated than the one he had tried to use in theke.

    Because water and ice were extremelypatible elements, the young mage had not had to create overlyplex magic circles or investrge amounts of mana to turn water into ice.

    However, in order to turn the entire surrounding wooded area into an environment suitable for the use of his icy magic, he had to use three different types of magic circles, one to collect mana from the surroundings, one to convert that mana into icy mana, and one to be able to spread that mana in the surroundings.

    As for the one in the middle of those three, that is, the circle in which he was standing, it served for him to be able to coordinate that everything worked correctly, since a single mistake could make him have to start all over again.

    But thanks to luck, or rather, to the young man''s experience with these types of spells, everything had gone perfectly. Proof of this was that around him, specifically about 20 meters around, all the trees had a bit of snow on their leaves, as for the ground, it was no slouch either, as there was even some ice here and there.

    This was the effect of his elemental zone being halfplete, although it was not so visibly impressive, the benefits it gave him at the moment of using his spells were already noticeable.

    *SWOOSH!*

    Another strong stream of wind blew right past Jay,nding directly on the Aqugas snake and slowing its movement for about 2 seconds before it returned to normal.

    "Don''t you have something stronger!?" Jay asked as he saw that this hadn''t had much effect on the snake.

    This spell was actually considerably more powerful than the ones he had used before, being even above the spell he used to freeze the tentacles that were holding trapping him when he was in theke.

    The reason he had not used it so far was simply because he was incapable of doing so without first forming an elemental zone, as this spell relied quite heavily on the icy mana in the environment and not so much on the mage''s control or mana.

    However, right now Jay was asking him to use something stronger, and while he was right, the young mage couldn''t help but get a little annoyed.

    "Fine, but you better dodge this!" He shouted as his eyes began to glow and he gathered all the mana in the vicinity into the tip of his wand.

    Although it resembled the moment he used the spell to freeze a portion of theke he used earlier, this time the movement of the mana was much more violent, even going so far as to put a considerable amount of pressure on his body.

    *Shhk*

    Ice began to appear on the ground around the wizard, spreading slowly until it reached the trees, causing them to crackle, their bark breaking slightly.

    He then raised his arm, at the tip of his wand appearing a small butplicated magic circle that seemed to be the cause of all the changes in the forest.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Time seemed to recede for a second, as all the ice and icy mana in the surrounding area was absorbed by this small magic circle, leaving the forest as it had been before this young wizard had begun to form his elemental zone.

    "Frost Needle."

    Immediately, an extremely thin and short needle of ice, barely reaching 2 inches in length shot out from the magic circle, heading towards Jay, or rather, towards the huge snakeing up behind him.

    After firing, the young mage could not help but wince because his fingers had turned a blue color, which was a side effect of having used so much icy mana at once.

    Seeing this, even though he didn''t know exactly what it was, Jay had a feeling about what would happen if that ice needle touched him... and he didn''t like it at all.

    However, for that very reason, he kept running as if nothing was happening, even slowing down, all so that the snake could get closer and he wouldn''t have time to dodge it.

    Finally, just as the needle got close enough, Jay used the third and fourth step of the Phantom Trace, dodging the needle by the distance of a hair.

    "!"

    At that moment, even though he had clearly dodged the needle, he lost sensibility in his left cheek, which was the part that had been closest to touching the needle.

    ''Just being near it causes this effect...?'' Jay thought as he lightly touched his now frozen cheek.

    Although it hadn''tpletely frozen over, there was ayer of ice on top of it.

    However, Jay was fortunate.

    *BOOM!*

    Due to the sheer size that the Aqugas snake had, the needle not only made contact with it, but even embedded itself deep into its body, turning arge part of its body to ice and causing it to crash into a nearby tree, knocking it down in the process.

    "Great!" Jay said, d to see that the spell had apparently worked.

    However, before more than a second had passed, something incredible happened. Now not only had the snake frozen, but this process was being transmitted to the tree the snake had collided with.

    "...Oh no..."

    At the same time, Jay felt a small crunch on his cheek, the product of it turning to ice at an incredibly fast rate, causing him to worry a bit.

    "IMBECILE, I TOLD YOU TO DODGE!" The young wizard shouted after seeing that the needle almost made contact with Jay, "Get your ass over here before your whole face freezes off!"

    Although he had let out a rather loud scream, the emotion that predominated within him was not one of anger, but of concern, after all, he was the one who really knew best what the effects of the spell he had just used were.

    While the name of the spell might be simple enough, its effects were anything but that, besides its ability to turn everything it touched into ice, what truly made this spell dangerous was that the icy mana contained in the needle would begin to spread itself in the surroundings when it reached its target, only stopping when the mana had run out.

    While the power varied depending on the amount of icy mana contained inside, because the young mage had used all the icy mana he had condensed to create his elemental zone, there was no need to mention how dangerous this needle was.

    In Jay''s case, although he had not made direct contact with the needle, he had been close enough to absorb a small but significant amount of the mana surrounding it, resulting in his face freezing more with each passing second.

    Fortunately for him, there was a quite easy solution for this, which was to extract the icy mana inside his cheek, stopping the process while allowing the young mage to regain some energy.

    "!"

    However, just at that moment, the mage felt a terrible tiredness weighing on his body apanied by a sudden dizziness, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground.

    "Sh-shit..." He said as he tried to get up, his eyes unfocused due to the dizziness he felt, "Just now I have to run out of mana...?"

    While he had thought that this might happen, it still caught him off guard.

    Although "Frost Needle" mostly used the icy mana of the surroundings, the price of using such a spell was simply too high,ing to also use arge amount of mana from the mage using it.

    While this would normally have only been enough to take 50% of mana from him, right now his reserves had already been severely affected thanks to all the spells he had used so far, so the use of "Frozen Needle" had left himpletely depleted.

    Jay again started running to help him, confirming that the mage had run out of energy thanks to his little ones.

    "Hey, are you o-"

    *BOOM!*

    Before he could even finish speaking, a solid object suddenly crashed in front of him, leaving a small crater in the ground.

    Then, without the dust resulting from that crash dissipating, Jay jumped backwards at the same time his previous position was invaded by the same object in front of him.

    Or rather, the part of the Aqugas snake that had separated from the main body, now taking the form of a small miniature Aqugas snake.

    With enemies behind and in front of him and his ally temporarily out ofbat, in addition to the ice that was rapidly freezing his face, the situation was not looking good for Jay.

 Chapter 79 - The First Victim

    The next moment, even though there was a miniature Aqugas snake in front of him, he advanced anyway as several wind currents began to gather at his feet.

    Seeing this, the snake also lunged at him, although it could not drown him as his main body would have done, it was strong enough to be able to slow Jay down tremendously.

    Said person then jumped just as he was about to meet the snake, putting the snake underneath him, and although the snake tried to catch him, it was interrupted by another frail window of wind that was created at Jay''s feet.

    Falling, Jay now had two options, he could either give his all in attacking the snake, or he could keep running until he reached where the mage was.

    While he had already confirmed that his wind shes would not work, he still had a trick up his sleeve that he could use in order to get rid of this one snake, and what was better, it did not involve using Overload.

    Therefore, with the body of the original Aqugas snake currently freezing and unable to move, it would be no problem for him to take the time to eliminate this little snake.

    On the other hand, if he ignored the snake and just continued on his way, it would undoubtedly be a considerably dangerous nuisance that could even get him caught if he was too careless.

    However, what he chose without a moment''s hesitation was to keep running, wanting to catch up with the mage as quickly as possible.

    ''If the snake can split once... nothing guarantees me that it won''t do it again!'' he thought as he kept running.

    It was quite clear to him, facing a monster whose physical properties were so peculiar, as well as breaking the norm of what a normal Aquga snake could do over and over again, Jay already preferred to think of the worst situation.

    A couple of secondster, confirming Jay''s suspicions and also that he had made the right decision, several pieces of gtinous mass fell around where Jay had originally been, turning into small snakes.

    Although the Aqugas snake was currently fighting the freezing process its body was going through, it hadn''t taken its eyes off them for a second, especially Jay.

    The snake had already learned that if they were left to do whatever they wanted, it would mean more trouble for it!

    Jay''s mind then began to work at full power, thinking about what he could do to get out of thisplicated situation.

    If he just kept running and made it to where the mage was, there would be no doubt that all the snakes chasing him would seize the moment to attack them, this was even more the case if Jay stopped to carry him.

    ''I guess there''s no other way, I''ll have to use it... though I''ll have to calcte the perfect moment...''

    He quickly came to a conclusion, and at the same time he did so, his speed began to vary, first decreasing a bit, allowing the snakes that were chasing him to be able to get closer to him, and after a few seconds increasing again, managing to keep a distance.

    ? Although there was not a great distance separating him from the ce where the mage was, he was not close either, so he could afford to make these changes in his march.

    Sometimes the snakes would also have brief, sudden surges of speed to try to catch him, which increased when Jay ran slower, but thanks to his radar and reflexes, he was able to dodge each of these attempts.

    Finally, after repeating this process a few times, the group of snakes, which was previously led by one snake, had now be a group of 5 snakes crawling together, although there was still some distance between each of them.

    ''Not the best, but it will have to do...'' He thought without turning his gaze, just checking the position of the snakes with his radar, ''Well, here I go!!''

    After reaffirming his determination, Jay opened his mouth to slowly take in as much air as he could, causing four streams of wind to appear around his mouth, a steady stream of air slowly filling his lungs.

    He was getting closer and closer to the mage, which made him a little nervous as he had to calcte the exact moment he could use his trump card without losing control of the wind inside him or the exact movement of the snakes.

    Several beads of sweat appeared on his face as he got closer.

    "Oi... you''re seriously bringing those things here?!" The mage asked as he saw that Jay was running towards him with 5 small monsters behind him, causing him to again attempt to raise his wand to conjure a spell.

    A magic circle again appeared at the tip of his wand, glowing a blue color indicating that it was the basic ice creating spell he had first used, since it was quite simple and consumed a small amount of mana, the mage formed magic circle smoothly.

    *Puff*

    Unfortunately, it didn''tst long before one of the lines that made up the circle suddenly deformed, causing the entire circle to copse instantly.

    "...Sh*t!" Said the mage, annoyed at not being able to use even the most basic of his spells.

    Unlike pugilists, who even had techniques to use their life force to keep fighting, mages were iparably more helpless when running out of mana, having only two options to recover, either wait until they could naturally regenerate their mana, or simply use a mana potion.

    The young mage also possessed thetter in his backpack and pockets, but unfortunately, all of them had disappeared the moment he was teleported to the ind. At least he had been left with his wand, which was already extremely useful.

    So, knowing that he could only wait until his mana regenerated, the mage came to the conclusion that right now, the only option he had was to leave his fate in the hands of this stranger whose name he didn''t even know.

    At that thought, he inevitably began to try to draw another magic circle.

    *BAM!*

    At that moment, a person suddenly appeared right in front of him, interrupting his moment of concentration.

    Sure enough, this person was Jay, who right now had a rather puffy chest, indicative that he had taken all the air he could in his lungs.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Hey, the snakes!!!" Shouted the wizard, who had a much better view of the snakes than Jay thanks to still being on the ground.

    However, Jay disregarded his words and kept running, apparently abandoning him, the snakes upon seeing this changed their target and focused on the young mage, who was a much easier prey.

    "...Bastard!!!" He shouted again, several beads of sweat appeared on his red colored face due to the nervousness and anger he was feeling, desperately trying to move to try to flee, although without any sess.

    The snakes advanced quickly, being only a few centimeters away from him, their bodies no longer having the defined shape of a snake and once again turning into tentacles.

    *WOOOSH!*

    "Argh!"

    However, before they could even touch a single hair of the mage, an extremely strong wind current sent them flying several meters backwards, some of them even crashing into trees and unable toe down due to the current continuing.

    The young mage was also affected by this, but he still managed to see what had caused it. Right now, behind him, Jay was letting out all the air he had inside him, focusing especially on the snakes.

    Although it looked like it was totally under control, in reality Jay''s lungs were under a great deal of pain, as they were not used to such an action, but of course, even if they were, the result would be quite simr.

    This was something Jay had initially used quite some time ago with Sarah as a joke, but after his wind control had be stronger as its percentage increased, he had tried to recreate it.

    The result was quite good, showing quite a bit of strength when expelling wind currents, much more powerful than what he would be capable of simply using the wind control alone.

    It only had one bad point, which was the tremendous damage Jay received in his lungs, something that limited its use to only twice a day at most, otherwise, he would have to rest in bed for a long time before his regeneration would be able to heal him.

    Then, before the mage could say anything, Jay put him on his shoulder, causing the wind current to stop and release the snakes.

    *Tap tap tap tap tap tap*

    Jay quickly began to flee, enduring the pain he felt in his lungs, to which the snakes also began to chase him.

    Because he had created a good distance by the time he sent the snakes flying, even though his speed had slowed considerably as he was now carrying the young mage, he was still able to maintain a distance.

    Thus began another chase, although this time itsted longer than the one just a few seconds ago, now that Jay didn''t have to make any stops, he could just keep running without being interrupted, managing to make the snakes stop chasing them.

    Though of course, this was not because the snakes got tired or anything like that, but because as they got some distance away from the main body, their body control became more and more clumsy, indicating that they could no longer get farther away and forcing them to turn back.

    With this sudden stroke of luck, finally, a pained Jay and a young mage with no mana managed to escape from one of the most dangerous predators on this ind.

    ***

    Back in the vicinity of theke, the snake Aqugas, who originally had arge part of his body frozen, now had only a lightyer of frost covering his entire body that looked like small scales, giving it an even more snake-like appearance than what it already had.

    It was evident that it had managed to break free of the spell, but not only that, it even seemed to have gotten something good out of it, with theyer of frost giving him a resistance to the cold as well as making its body more resilient.

    If one took into ount that it had also learned to move out of theke and could now divide its body into small snakes, it could be said that from the encounter it had with Jay and the young mage, the Aqugas snake was the one that had gained the most benefits.

    The snake was also aware of these abilities, but despite this, its mood was not cheerful at all. It had been a while since the snakes it separated from its body had returned, merging with it again and conveying the information that the two preys had escaped out of its grasp.

    At the thought of this, the snake couldn''t help but feel even more annoyed, emitting a pressure that would undoubtedly make any super average rank (C) tremble.

    *Tap tap tap*

    Just at that moment, at the same time as the footsteps of a person were hearding from the forest, in the opposite direction the snake was facing, a young man slowly appeared from the trees.

    His appearance was muscr and healthy, as was to be expected of a pugilist attempting to take the Eitsirc Academy entrance exam.

    The snake stood still for a moment upon seeing this, but that onlysted a second before four gtinous masses fell from its body and quickly turned into other small snakes.

    These snakes then grouped into pairs and headed left and right respectively, circling theke.

    As for the main body of the Aqugas snake, it began to be much thinner,pressing its body as much as it could to stop being huge, inevitably causing its length to increase from 15 meters to 25.

    However, although the length of his body had increased, now the thickness of its body was not much greater than that of a slender tree trunk.

    As for the animal skeletons that made up its body, the snake had decided to leave them in theke the moment it stepped out, so these, without a support, sank to the bottom.

    Without waiting much longer, it slowly began to crawl towards a nearby stream in order to reach theke, going unnoticed in front of the young man''s sight thanks to the fact that its body was now thin but still as transparent as before.

    A few minutester, a person''s scream came from this part of the forest, though it onlysted a couple of seconds before it was forcibly silenced.

 Chapter 80 - A Whirlpool Of Pain

    "Haa...haaa...haaa."

    The sound of a person breathing could be hearding from a certain part of therge forest, somewhat away from theke.

    Leaning his back against a tree, Jay was currently resting, clutching the center of his chest as he breathed heavily, the side effects of having used his trump card were still present in his lungs.

    Gone from his face was the lingering trace of frostbite he''d had only minutes ago, this thanks to the mage taking advantage as he was being carried to absorb the icy mana.

    "Hm, looks like even someone as energetic as you can get tired huh..." Said the mage somewhat surprised, watching Jay from the ground.

    Because Jay was in a hurry to rest, he simply set him down on a part of the ground that looked somewhat morefortable than the entire surroundings.

    The reason the young mage seemed to be surprised was because he had watched Jay dodge for more than a quarter of an hour the slithering tentacles of the Aqugas snake without stopping for a second.

    In addition, he had also carried him for quite a while at full speed before he began to get tired, so the young mage had been somewhat amazed at his incredible physical ability despite being an esper.

    As for the anger he felt at first, it had already faded, what filled his insides now was only relief that he hadn''t been caught by the Aqugas snake.

    ''This guy is undoubtedly much more reliable than he looks...'' He thought.

    After a few minutes, they both seemed to recover slightly, though the mage still couldn''t move, even though he had absorbed the icy mana that had been affecting Jay''s cheek, that amount wasn''t enough for him to fully recover.

    "Ok, I''m ready now, do you have any ideas on where to go from here...?" Jay asked as he stood up and started walking towards the mage, "Oh right, I never asked what your name was..."

    Although he already knew due to having seen his state window, he asked so it wouldn''t seem odd.

    "My name is Kesar Ghale, a mage from the prosperous magical kingdom of Gliedal!" The mage replied, intentionally emphasizing both his name and the name of the kingdom he came from.

    "Ohh, someone from Gliedal, well you certainly live up to its reputation, the spells you used back there were undoubtedly first ss, and my name is Jay, I''m from Beati, as you may have noticed, I''m an esper." Jay said with a smile on his face.

    Jay''s response was rather simple and straightforward, not hiding his intentions of wanting to create a good impression on this mage, which seemed to work as his little ones conveyed that this cheered him up a bit.

    While ttery usually worked on anyone, that was especially true when it came to someone from Gliedal, which was a country known worldwide not only for being the ce historically recognized as the birthce of mages, but also due to the fact that the vast majority of its inhabitants had strong national pride.

    Of course, this was understandable, as the country was strong in every aspect, be it economic, military, cultural and even the quality of life of its citizens, there would be little toin about living in a country like Gliedal.

    The reason for this was mainly thanks to two factors, the first being the royal family ruling over the country fairly and looking out for its citizens, and secondly the vast territories filled with rich mana that endowed the nation with an abundant amount of resources.

    While there were people hailing from Gliedal who were exceptions to this rule, as with any subject, Kesar was not one of them.

    "Beati eh, well, you suree out of the averagepared to the espers I''ve met from there." Kesar added, also praising Jay.

    As the son of a renowned family, he had traveled to several countries to further his knowledge, Beati being one of the ones he first visited due to it being Gliedal''s neighbor, though the impression its people left on him had not been a particrly good one.

    "Thank you, and roughly how long do you think it will take you to regenerate your mana?" Jay asked, wanting to know the estimated time for them to be able to move.

    Even though his little ones were still inside Kesar, they couldn''t know something asplex as how long it would take for him to recover.

    "I''d say about 10 minutes or so."

    Hearing that, Jay put a hand to his chin as he thought about what to do in that period of time, unfortunately, he couldn''t think of anything.

    "If so, then let''s chat while you recover, I''ve always been interested in learning more about Gliedal." Jay said as he again sat down to better listen to the mage.

    With nothing better to do, it wasn''t a bad idea to deepen his knowledge about that country, incidentally it might also improve his rtionship with this unexpectedly reasonable mage.

    "I''d love to... but first change my position please, lying on the floor is starting to get a bit ufortable."

    "Ah, right, sorry."

    Just like that, Jay began a short learning session about Gliedal, the magical realm.

    ***

    *BAM!!*

    A heavy sound echoed in the wooded surroundings of a small mountain, located at the heart of the ind.

    What had caused the sound was nothing more nor less than the body of arge bear which was more than 5 meters long falling to the ground.

    The fur of this bear waspletely ck, with some white lines around its legs and arms, which were extremely burly, indicative of the great strength it possessed.

    Although this monster had fallen, if one got close enough, one could tell that despite the sharp fall it had suffered, it was only unconscious.

    "I really don''t want to kill you, my father has one like you in his garden after all..." Said a blue-haired girl standing in front of this bear.

    This girl was quite beautiful, with a fairplexion and fairly smooth skin that was only interrupted from time to time by several runic tattoos covering both her arms and legs.

    Of course, this girl was Sarah, who unlike Jay and James, had not encountered any postnts the entire time she had been on this ind.<novelnext></novelnext>

    What she had a lot of contact with however, had been the monsters that inhabited this small mountain, this bear being one of them.

    "Hm, I really wonder what''s the point of testing us like this...?" She wondered as she walked over to therge bear in front of her, sitting down in the middle of its wide, furry belly.

    It was quite obvious that she didn''t see the bear as a threat at all, the reason for this was that the bear had no means to attack except for itsrge body and strength, something that already put it at a tremendous disadvantage when facing someone like Sarah.

    Only using the same spells as always, "Levitation" and "Movement", even though the bear was a monster that could easily defeat a rank (C) pugilist, all his movements were stopped by the first spell, then she used both spells to make arge stonee out of the ground and float to position itself on top of the bear''s head, finally falling and knocking him unconscious.

    Instead, what Sarah was most interested in at the moment was finding out what exactly it was that the Eitsirc Academy wanted to test by transporting them all to this ce.

    While the examiner had said that they only had to survive a one entire day, this was something incredibly easy to aplish if one simply stayed hidden in a treetop or if they found a cave and stayed there until the next day.

    Although there would be risks with both options, they would be minimal, especially for supers whose lowest rank was (D+).

    As for the risks one might encounter while navigating this ind, based on the monsters that she had encountered so far, they were nothing special, with this bear being the strongest of them all.

    Therefore, Sarah couldn''t help but think that there was something else that needed to be done in this ce, something like a hidden criteria that they had to meet in order to move on to the next phase or something along those lines.

    Unfortunately, with the limited information she had, she couldn''te to a definite conclusion, only thinking of certain possibilities which would take a while to check out.

    "I guess I''ll just go with my original n for the time being."

    After saying that, she got off the bear and climbed a particrly tall tree nearby.

    The reason she hade to this small hill had originally been so she could get a better view of the ind to get an idea of where she was, the encounter with the bear was just pure coincidence.

    "...It looks like it will take me quite a while to find them..." She said as she saw that in front of her there was only a sea of trees stretching for miles.

    Sarah had also nned to find Jay and James, but seeing that the ind was muchrger than it looked on the map, she was having second thoughts about this.

    "!"

    At that moment, Sarah suddenly jumped out of the tree she was in, the tattoos on her body beginning to give off a faint blue glow, indicative that the mana in her body was beginning to fill these tattoos.

    *CRASH!*

    Half a second after she jumped, the top of the tree she was in was pierced by a slender spear-like object, which undoubtedly possessed an incredible amount of power.

    Sarah then activated several spells in order to be able to detect if there was anyone in her surroundings since even after falling to the ground, she could not see anyone.

    As a few seconds passed, she was able to detect a source of energying from a nearby bush.

    "There!" She shouted, moving her arms as she activated her spells.

    The moment she finished saying that, two smallset of runes located on each of her forearms lit up, activating the spell that was engraved within.

    While the general purpose of the tattoos was to help with mana usage and to be able to regenerate mana faster, they also had other uses, such as being able to engrave spells so they could be used instantly.

    Immediately, the bush was crushed due to the pressure caused by the spell Sarah had just used, but it was unable to trap the person inside as said person jumped out the moment it felt that it was in danger.

    The person who had emerged from the bush was a red-haired girl of about 18 years of age with long hair and a graceful face, although her overall appearance was thin, visible efforts of having exercised could be seen on different parts of her body.

    Without wanting to give her time to think about more, Sarah began to run towards this girl while she made several nearby rocks levitate with the spell engraved in her right arm and moving them with the spell on her left arm.

    Although Sarah didn''t know what this girl''s motives were for attacking her, she decided that she would ask her after she had beaten her up, besides, this would be the perfect opportunity for her to test one of her theories about the requirements of this test.

    In response, the red-haired girl began to back away as she raised her right arm, a spear made of a transparent material slowly appeared in front of her, which she immediately threw towards Sarah.

    *CRACK!*

    Sarah was already prepared, so she only used a rock to block everything the girl threw at her, without stopping her march and increasing the number of rocks that were following her.

    Seeing that none of her spears managed to hit the target, the redhead abandoned the idea of continuing to throw them while fleeing and instead took one of the spears and threw herself against Sarah.

    Unfortunately for her, that was a very bad decision.

    Although she was able to cut through 3 rocks, after the fourth and fifth, she could only focus on defend herself due to the speed and strength they had, worst of all, the amount of rocks didn''t seem to diminish in the slightest.

    Finally, while the girl was busy dealing with the rocks, Sarah reached her and jumped into the air, a particrlyrge rock could be seen above her.

    *Crack*

    The indistinguishable sound of the rock breaking into several fragments could be heard, first into two, then four and so on, only stopping when the rock had now be more than a hundred small stones the size of an egg.

    "Sh*t!" shouted the red-haired girl upon seeing this, wanting to run away with all her might due to the fact that she felt she was in great danger but unable to do sobecasue if she stopped defending herself for a second, therge rocks in front of her would hit her.

    Then, a rain of stones fell on top of her, causing a whirlpool of pain to invade her body.

 Chapter 81 - Nightfall

    As Jay chatted with Kesar as they moved along, James walked through the woods along with the young man he had caught, and Sarah tested her theories for passing the exam with the unfortunate red-haired girl, the afternoon came.

    "Haa... is it just me or do you also think that we''ve been walking in circles...?" Said Kesar, who had a somewhat tired look on his face,

    Even though he had rested less than 15 minutes ago, his physical energy was already starting to deplete again.

    However, he couldn''t be med, he was used to simply spending his time immersed in the study of elemental magic or learning and improving his spells, so a long walk through a forest whose terrain was uneven was quite exhausting for him.

    "It shouldn''t be the case, we''ve been checking the path every so often after all..." Jay replied.

    Although his tone was confident, the reality was that he was also thinking the same thing.

    It had been a couple of hours since they had escaped from the Aqugas snake, during which time they had been walking through the forest so that they could find somewhere else to stay until the next day.

    Unfortunately, no matter how much or which direction they walked, the forest didn''t seem to have an end, creating the false impression that they were walking in circles.

    As for why they were going together, it just came naturally, not that there was much of a problem with this either since teaming up at this point was beneficial to both of them.

    "Ahh, I can''t take it anymore!" Said Kesar as he sat down abruptly near a particrlyrge tree.

    Although he was a rank (C) super and his physical condition was superior to that of a normal person, it was no joke to say that they had been walking all afternoon, so he had inevitably reached his limit.

    Seeing this, Jay couldn''t help but smile ufortably in his mind, if he hadn''t seen his status window beforehand, he really would have thought that this magician was just a normal person.

    ''And to think that a dual mage has such a bad physical condition...'' Jay thought as he once again opened the mage''s status window.

    _____________________

    [Kesar Ghale]

    Mana Control: (C-)

    Elemental Magic - Frost: (C)

    Elemental Magic - Water: (D)

    Trait - Cold Body (Passive): The user has a body which shows its best potential when in contact with cold. +15% power when using cold-rted energy, +50% resistance against cold, +20% improvement to all attributes when in an icy environment.

    Condition: Healthy.

    Parasites: 2

    Assimtion Status: 0% (0.5% per day per parasite)

    (Warning: As the difference in energy between the [Carrier] and the [Host] is too big, the assimtion process has a high probability of failure).

    _____________________

    Now that he was once again ncing at his status window, Jay couldn''t help but continue to be impressed by Kesar''s talent.

    Although the Trait he possessed was basically a perfectplement to his spells and also the reason why he could ignore the cold, what surprised Jay the most was the fact that Kesar could also use elemental water magic.

    ording to the system, even though he could only use it at the level of a rank (D) mage, that alone was an impressive fact in itself.

    He had learned from both Sarah and his own research about the branch of elemental magic that the vast majority of its practitioner mages could only use one element, thismonly being one of the 4 main ones, earth, fire, wind and water.

    However, there were always exceptions to everything, this time taking the form of mages who could not only use one of these elements, but also one of its variants, an example of this being the elemental magic of wood from the element of earth, frost magic from water, among many others.

    Taking this into ount, it was obvious that Kesar belonged to thetter category of outstanding magicians.

    Putting that aside, Jay again focused on the current situation.

    "How about using this stream so that you can establish your elemental zone...?" Jay suddenly said, looking at the small stream of water they had stumbled upon at the moment.

    Since apparently walking around aimlessly wasn''t yielding the best results for what they had nned, the idea of simply establishing the elemental zone in this ce crossed Jay''s mind.

    Hearing Jay''s proposal, Kesar began to consider it.

    The main reason they had been moving after resting was so they could find a body of waterrge enough to be able to establish a strong elemental zone so they could both protect themselves from whatever they encountered, but unfortunately, they had had no luck so far.

    The most they had found was a couple of small streams through which a thin stream of water ran and most likely came from theke that the Aqugas snake inhabited.

    Although these were also bodies of water, they were too small and could not help Kesar at all, making setting up an elemental zone near them the same as setting it up in the middle of the forest.

    "Hmm, I''d at least like to find one a little bigger..." Kesar replied, somewhat reluctantly.

    This was understandable, since doing it in this ce would be difficult and take longer than the time he set up an elemental zone near theke.

    Even though both ces were forests, the surroundings of theke were much wetter than this ce, so it was much easier for him to freeze his surroundings.

    "Ah, I just had an idea." Said Jay, who had been watching the small stream intently.

    "What is it?"

    "If we can''t find a bigger creek, then we''ll just have to create one."

    After saying that, Jay walked over to the stream and activated his wind gloves, changing the shape a bit so that they wererger than normal.

    He then crouched down and began to dig, creating a small path that diverted the stream towards another way, specifically, to the center of a particrly clear area that was nearby.

    *Chak chak chak chak!*

    Because his hands were not the most appropriate tools for it, he had to dig several times in order to make a more or less deep path.

    "Ohh, good thinking!" Kesar said as he saw what Jay was doing before pulling out his wand, "But instead of using your hands, I think there''s something better we could use."

    Drawing a simple magic circle, two ice sticks appeared, unlike the ice he had made earlier, this one looked quite a bit more sturdy.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "...Magic sure is convenient huh..." Said Jay, who was just thinking about plucking a branch from some nearby tree so he could use it as a shovel.

    "To be honest, it''s the first time I use this spell..."

    After that small exchange, they both took the ice sticks and stuck them into the ground to drag them tightly, creating a path much more easily than when Jay was doing with his hands.

    That way, they both began to make changes in the area, mainly focused on the creek.

    ***

    After an hour and a half, the ce that Jay and Kesar had designated as their temporary base was already showing noticeable changes, among them being the fact that in the cleared area there was now arge square hole at least 4 meters long and wide, as for its depth, it was only 2 meters.

    However, although one could only see dirt on both the walls and the bottom of this hole, there was a thinyer of ice covering everything, with a small magic circle located at the bottom that gave off a faint light blue glow.

    On the ground near this hole, there was a path about 50 centimeters deep that connected directly to the stream, its walls also covered by ice that did not melt.

    The only reason that water was not yet flowing through this path was because there was a small piece of ice covering the connection between the dirt road and the creek.

    As for the creek itself, this had also changed, mostly because it no longer followed downstream, but had been blocked by arge chunk of ice.

    This caused the water to umte at one point, but they had also made a small hole for it, also covered with ice.

    This was the product of tireless effort by a young man with a great deal of energy and a mage who tired too quickly to do manualbor but wanted to help anyway by icing everything in sight.

    "Haa, good, I think it''s all finished now, just need to break the blockage and the water will start filling the well." Said Jay, who had now taken off his tank top due to feeling too hot when he was digging.

    Although he could use his wind control to cool down, he preferred to rest naturally as it was moreforting.

    "Hm, we definitely did a great job!" Added Kesar, admiring the small earthen pit before undoing the ice blockage, "Now it''s just a matter of waiting for it to fill up and my elemental zone will finally start to take shape!"

    Just like that, water began to flow into the earthen well, since the stream didn''t have too much water in the first ce, it would take a while before it filled up, but the important thing was that it was already underway.

    As for the magic circle at the bottom, this served the purpose that when the well waspletely filled, all the water that came out would turn to ice, slowly spreading to the surrounding area.

    This was the advantage of having a body of water nearby for a mage who belonged to an elemental branch of magic derived from water magic, only needing a magic circle to do all the work.

    ''...It wouldn''t be a bad idea to find some rank (D) mage to be able to assimte his skills...'' Jay said as he looked at Kaser, quite interested after seeing what he could do.

    Even though the well had yet to fill, he felt the temperature in the surroundings gradually decrease, showing that it was already starting to take effect.

    As for why he wasn''t assimting Kaser''s abilities, it was simply because he would have to use all the parasites he had for it, besides, there was a high probability that the assimtion would fail, just as the system was warning him, and Jay knew very well that the system never lied.

    "Is something wrong?" Kaser asked as he saw Jay staring at him.

    "No, it''s nothing, I was just thinking that magic really is convenient." Jay replied nonchntly.

    Without much else to do, the two began chatting as they waited for the well to fill, causing a couple of hours to pass without any interruptions.

    Thanks to that, slowly but surely, almost at the same time as nightfall, the elemental zone of the rank (C) mage, Kaser, was finallypleted!

    ***

    At the same time that both Jay and Kaser were d that their "line of defense" had beenpleted, other applicants were also relieved that the day was passing without much trouble, especially for those who decided to hide from the moment they were transported to the ind.

    "Heh, this test is simply too easy." Said a slender young man with brown hair who was currently sitting on a branch at the top of a tree, "Now I can just sleep for a few more hours and I''ll have passed the test."

    If anyone else heard what he had just said, they would no doubt think that he was a reckless person at the very least, after all, no one could really guarantee that some monster couldn''t appear at any moment.

    However, this young man could afford this because his esper ability was something special, granting him the ability to hear everything around him much better, from the small stream of water moving on the ground, to the wind lightly moving the leaves of the trees.

    Thanks to this, he had already avoided encountering both postnts and some monsters that passed through this ce.

    "Ah, it seems that nature calls..." He said suddenly, interrupting his happy time and descending from the tree to the small river while unzipping the zipper on his pants.

    *CHAK!*

    "Agh-!"

    Just then, when he was only a meter away from the stream, much faster than he could react, a transparent colored tentacle lunged towards him, wrapping itself around his neck and immediately beginning to exert pressure.

    The young man quickly began trying to free himself, but the tentacle was simply too strong for him. Gradually, despite his fervent efforts, he was losing his strength, until he finally lost consciousness.

    *Thud*

    With that sound, his body fell to the ground, the tentacle ceasing its grip on his neck and returning to the stream.

    The next moment, a thin column of gtinous mass that had the shape of an ice-covered snake rose from the thin stream of water, watching the unconscious young man for a moment before lunging towards him and swallowing him whole, its body growing in size so that it couldpletely cover the young man.

    However, it did not stop there; the snake then began to move slowly upstream, carrying the young man''s body until it reached the sameke from which Kesar and Jay had escaped.

    In the middle of thiske, a particrlyrge concentration of gtinous mass could be seen, which contained not only the pugilist it trapped several hours ago, but several other applicants, unfortunate victims who had either gotten too close to theke or trusted the stream too much.

    Most frightening of all was perhaps the fact that the weakest among them was a rank (C) super.

    Although the Aqugas snake was special, it should also be taken into ount that it could not have managed to catch so many victims in its normal state, but right now it was strengthened, being much faster and stronger than the time when it confronted Kesar and Jay.

    The strengthening was due to nothing more and nothing less than the fact that it had gotten dark, which gave certain monsters an increase in all their attributes, the only consequence of this being that they became much more aggressive than in daytime.

    This was a characteristic that only certain species of monsters possessed, but to the bad luck of the applicants, the whole ind contained this kind of monsters.

    As a result, not only had the Aqugas snake obtained several prey, but other strong monsters had also obtained a considerable harvest.

    For the first time that day, the scales began to tip to the side of the monsters.

 Chapter 82 - A Persistent Snake

    Back in Jay and Kesar''s cold makeshift base, the two were either looking for ways to improve the elemental zone or discussing how they would act should any monsters appear.

    "So, just by theming into the elemental zone range, the icy mana will slow their movements instantly...? That sounds pretty strong." Jay said after listening to Kesar''s brief exnation.

    Although most mages of the elemental magic branch could set up zones ording to the element they were proficient in, the effects of these zones differed ording to the element used, regardless of the mage''s strengthening effect, which was something all zones shared.

    In the case of frost magic, it had the effect of applying a passive freeze to any target that came within range the elemental zone, and this only got worse the closer one got to the center.

    "Unless we run into a rank (B-) monster, then we''ve basically already passed the test." Kesar added confidently, whose appearance had changed slightly, having some ice in both his hair and clothes.

    The ice had begun to form after the surroundings hadpletely finished freezing over, with the trees and ground in the surrounding areapletely covered by ayer of ice that while it wasn''t thick, it also wasn''t thin by any means.

    While this might seem dangerous to Kesar, possibly ending up just like the time he froze his arm after using the "Frost Needle" spell, ording to him, this was only a consequence of having a high affinity for the element of ice and it wouldn''t harm him.

    Anyway, what Kesar said was true, now that he had already formed his elemental zone, there would be very few monsters that would be able to cause him trouble, this was even more the case if one took into ount that he also had Jay as a reinforcement.

    ''And yet... it still seems rathercking...'' Kesar thought, observing his surroundings.

    Although to Jay the elemental zone seemed like a job well done and a fairly secure defense, to Kesar, this could really only be considered something done by a rookie, though of course he didn''t show this distrust to Jay.

    The reason he thought so was due to the fact that he had already seen what a "real" ice elemental zone looked like, and it was nothing like the one he had just set up.

    Coming from a family of mages who specialized in the elemental branch, the mostmon elements used being ice and water, he had been exposed to a lot of spells of these elements from a young age.

    Among them, the spell that had captivated him the most had undoubtedly been the "Tundra", something that only one person in his entire family could achieve, his older brother, a powerful and incredibly talented rank (B) mage.

    At the thought of the "Tundra" spell, what came to Kesar''s mind werendscapes filled entirely with snow and frost, the product of an endless blizzard that froze anything it came in contact with, and in the midst of that frozen hell, only one man stood within aplex magic circle, around him huge icicles of ice that put the spell "Frost Neddle" to shame.

    With such a motivational figure near him,bined with Keser''s proud and hard-working personality, had resulted in him focusing entirely on elemental ice magic despite having more talent towards the water element, even so, he managed to achieve the rank (C-) mage status at the young age of 19.

    Unfortunately, it was for those very reasons that despite acting in a confident manner, there was a taint within him, a mixture of different negative emotions such as the fear of not being good enough, the envy he felt towards his brother, among several other things.

    "Haa..." Kesar let out a breath and shook his head, removing those thoughts from his head, "Anyway, we''re safe."

    "Hm...?"

    The moment Kesar finished saying that, Jay suddenly turned in the direction of the creek due to the fact that his radar seemed to have detected something, though the signal had been somewhat faint and it quickly disappeared.

    As for Kesar, although he also had some detection system inherent to his elemental zone, it paled inparison to Jay''s radar, so he couldn''t notice anything special.

    However, just as Jay was about to move a little closer to the creek so that his radar could truly detect if there was anything inside, suddenly the entire stream of water was filled with the same life sign he had sensed in theke.

    "Get away from the creek!" Shouted Jay quickly as he figured out what was going on.

    "!"

    Barely a second after Jay shouted his warning, at least four transparent tentacles shot out from the creek, targeting the prey closest to them, Kesar.

    Fortunately, thanks to Jay''s warning, Kesar was able to cast a hasty basic freeze spell just in time as he moved away from the stream, the spell transformed the tip of two tentacles into ice, as for the other two, they were slowed down.

    ? "What?!" Kesar said, shocked by what he had just seen.

    His surprise was to be expected, after all, even though he had only used a basic spell, with the reinforcement of his elemental zone, it should have been enough to freeze thempletely, but the reality showed that the effect was much less than expected.

    *Crack*

    With the sound of ice being broken, the tentacles broke free from their ice prison, then, the four tentacles stopped chasing Kesar as he was too far away now, instead, they regrouped in the stream, from which the same monster they had escaped from several hours ago was emerging, the Aqugas snake.

    ''It seems that it managed to found us...'' Thought Jay, who had also moved farther away from the creek.

    However, unlike the huge and intimidating snake that was over 15 meters long and whose thick body wasposed of bones from different monsters they remembered, now its appearance had changed, with its body being much thinner but increasing in length and several patches of bluish scales surrounding its slender body, giving it a much more snake-like shape.

    Still, even though it was no longer asrge as before, the danger Jay and Kesar could feel from being in front of the current Aqugas snake was much greater than before.

    "No way... this thing actually developed a resistance to cold?!" Shouted Kesar in surprise as he observed the bluish scales in the snake''s body.

    Although he wasn''t an expert on monster snakes, he could recognize if a certain object or living being had some sort of resistance to cold, especially when the origins of that resistance were magical, as was the case with the snake''s ''scales''.

    ''Sh*t, this is bad...'' Kesar thought after feeling that a small amount of mana was emanating from each of those scales.

    If it had been a resistance developed simply from being born in a cold environment, the effects of his spells wouldn''t lose much power either. However, the resistance the scales had werepletely different, as it was not simply resistance to cold, but a specific resistance towards ice magic.

    Against something like this, his spells, despite being enhanced by his elemental zone, would undoubtedly be seriously affected.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Thinking about this, Kesar''s expression soured at the same time as a feeling of bitterness began to fill his insides, regretting having used the ''Frost Needle'' spell against the snake.

    "Even if it''s resistant, your spells can still affect it, right?!" shouted Jay suddenly, who had moved to stand in front of Kesar, facing the snake.

    Having been brought back to reality, Kesar replied, "Only to a certain extent, besides, I won''t be able to freeze itpletely like before. In fact, I don''t think the slowing effect will be as effective either... not to mention that..."

    Jay then, noticing that his tonecked confidence and that he was getting flustered, looked at him for a second before quickly reaching over and smacking him on both cheeks with some force.

    *Bam!*

    "Ouch! What are you doing?!" Kesar asked, his cheeks a little red from the hit he had just received.

    "Is freezing him the only way you can use your ice magic?"

    "...Ah."

    Immediately, the realization hit Kesar.

    Just then, the snake againunched several tentacles towards both of them, this time with more strength and speed than before.

    "Make a wall in front, quick!"

    Heeding Jay, Kesar quickly cast a basic ice spell in front of them, blocking the tentacles'' path for a moment.

    "Don''t stop, we have to prevent it from getting too close to us!"

    Unlike Kesar, who had been having second thoughts seeing that the snake developed a resistance to cold, Jay had already been thinking of ways in which they could deal with the snake.

    Although the snake''s resistance meant that several ns they talked about could no longer be used, it wasn''t as if the strengthening Kesar received from establishing his elemental zone had disappeared.

    In the process of talking about facing monsters, Kesar had showed him that his spells, even the most basic of them had improved in quality, allowing him to not simply createrge chunks of ice, but even being able to shape them, just as he was doing just now.

    Without pausing for a second, Kesar kept casting the same ice spell over and over again, creating a long ice wall of about 6 meters high and 10 meters long that separated them from the Aqugas snake.

    While it wouldn''t be enough to stop it indefinitely, it would at least buy them some time, and that would be enough for Jay toe up with a more concrete n.

    "Listen, we won''t be able to beat the snake in a head to head confrontation, the difference in strength is too wide." Jay said hurriedly, watching to see if any tentacles made it through the top of the ice wall.

    The snake''s specialty might be drowning its victims, however, that didn''t mean that was its only strength, as they had seen firsthand earlier how the snake had managed to take down trees as easily as if it was just taking a simple stroll through the woods.

    That coupled with the risk that they could be caught being close to their main body made getting close a definite no, so Jay thought of something different.

    "Fortunately, right now we have an indisputable advantage... and that is that the snake no longer has the terrain advantage!"

    Hearing his words, Kesar couldn''t help but agree with him.

    As special as it was, the Aqugas snake was still a water-dependent monster, even now that it had be considerably more difficult to deal with, it still had to use the stream to get around.

    "Even if it can store water in its body and use it as a reserve, if we don''t let it have contact with the stream, it won''tst long, then it will be abat of attrition, and that''s when we''ll have a chance."

    Judging by what he had just said, it was quite obvious that Jay''s goal was to defeat the snake, something he believed quite possible with the help of Kesar''s amplified spells.

    Although they could also escape at this very moment, he preferred to leave that option as ast resort, after all, they hadn''t spent all afternoon preparing this ce to simply abandon it when problems arose.

    At the thought of facing the Aqugas snake, Kesar hesitated for a moment, but his doubts were crushed by a feeling of determination that arose within him.

    "Alright, let''s do it!" He said.

    *CRACK!*

    Suddenly, the ice wall cracked, the head of the Aqugas snake appearing between arge crack that had appeared in the middle.

    At the same time as the snake emerged from the wall, several pieces of gtinous mass fell from its body, turning into several small snakes whichunched themselves towards the two of them.

    "Come on then, you know what to do!" Jay shouted to Kesar as he turned to face the snakes, "I''ll give you a few minutes so you can freeze the stream, when you''re done, it would be best if you attack the snake from behind!"

    "Okay, got it!"

    After that exchange, they both started moving, Jay to intercept the small snakes and Kesar running in the opposite direction to avoid the main body of the snake and get towards the creek.

    Thus, the second battle between the wizard and esper team against the Aqugas snake began!

 Chapter 83 - Same Trick Doesnt Always Work Twice

    "Come on, you stalker snake, why don''t you try to catch me!!!" Shouted Jay, who was currently running around the forest, always careful not to get out of the range of Kesar''s elemental zone.

    Behind him was crawling none other than the main body of the Aqugas snake at a great speed, it seemed to understand Jay''s provocation and quickened its pace.

    It had already been a few minutes since he had started to "confront" the snake in order to gain time for Kesar, as for the small snakes that were chasing him at the beginning, they had fused with Aqugas snake again after Jay had used them as a test subject for his wind control.

    Like the previous time, he really didn''t want toe into contact with the small snakes, so he just kept dodging them, hitting them with the asional wind cut from time to time or sending them away by blowing with some force.

    Despite their fervent efforts to try to catch him, either by attacking all together or from Jay''s "blind spots", the result was the same, they always missed by a hair.

    Seeing that they were ineffective, the Aqugas snake ordered them back and took matters into its own hands, resulting in the current situation.

    The reason Jay didn''t do this before was because Kesar was in a vulnerable situation and he couldn''t afford to put him in danger, but now that he was alone, that had changed.

    The chase continued for a while, with Jay trying to take any possible turns and even using trees to make sudden leaps in another direction in an attempt to widen the distance between him and the snake.

    However, the Aqugas snake was simply too fast, not only preventing Jay from being able to widen the distance between them, but was even getting closer and closer to him.

    ''It''s definitely faster than before, will it have to do with the size...?'' Jay thought as he noticed the snake''s abnormal speed, a bitter smile forming on his face, ''And it hasn''t hit any trees so far... this definitely doesn''t look good.''

    Just as Jay was thinking, the snake had been avoiding the trees on purpose as smashing them would only slow it down, this was something it had learned very recently with one of its prey that also managed to avoid its initial surprise attack.

    The only constion Jay had was that the snake would asionally slow down as itunched its tentacles in an attempt to catch him, something that failed spectacrly due to the previous training Jay had dodging them.

    ''Looks like I have no choice, I''ll have to climb a tree again.'' Jay thought, looking for a tree that was easy to climb as he ran at full speed.

    Since he had an obvious disadvantage running on the ground, he decided to use the same strategy as before, jumping between trees, where the snake couldn''t personally chase him.

    However, just as he found a suitable tree and was starting to prepare to jump, his radar detected an incredibly fast and thin life signaling towards him.

    "Sh*t!" He shouted as he moved to the side in a rush, even using Phantom Trace''s third and fourth step to avoid a direct hit.

    Due to its speed, there was no way to dodge the attack, so he could only grit his teeth and try to minimize the damage.

    *CHAK!*

    "Argh!"

    A rtively deep cut appeared on his side, product of the tentacle that had beenunched against him at full speed, which didn''t stop until it hit a tree.

    ''Looks like it won''t let me off that easy, huh...'' Jay thought as he quickly resumed his march, taking advantage of the fact that the snake had apparently stopped in order to throw that tentacle. As for the cut on his side, he was used to simply enduring it, especially in that area.

    Although Jay was also aware that the snake had been watching his actions very closely, he really didn''t think the snake''s reaction would be that decisive.

    The snake then began to chase Jay again after the tentacle it threw returned to fuse with its body, the whole process onlysting 2 seconds at most, so Jay couldn''t distance himself too far either.

    While thisst attack had been fast and strong, the Aqugas snake didn''t want to use it too much as it requireda lot of concentration to be able to aim correctly, which meant standing still until the tentacle returned, allowing its prey to be able to distance itself further away.

    However, to prevent this incredibly annoying prey from climbing a tree, the snake was willing to take this risk.

    ''Just how many tricks does this snake have?'' Thought Jay, whose ribs seemed to be a preferred point of attack for the snake.

    While he had decided not to be impressed with this snake anymore, that was a pretty hard thing to do.

    Unfortunately, no matter how much he thought about it, that wouldn''t change the fact that right now he needed to think of something fast so he could hold out until Kesar arrived.

    ''Haa, I definitely need to get stronger, I won''t always be able to escape this way...''

    With those thoughts as hisst thoughts and reaffirming his determination, Jay decided to try to make the most of this situation to once again reach his limits and improve his reflexes.

    Of course, the difference now was that the difficulty had grown exponentially.

    ***

    More minutes passed, until it became a quarter of an hour exactly.

    "TAKE THIS!" Shouted Jay, turning and waving arge branch, hitting an approaching tentacle, sessfully repelling it thanks to the branch being coated in wind so that the tentacle couldn''t hold on to it.

    Without wasting any more time, he resumed his march at high speed, just in time to avoid another tentacle that dug into the ground where he stood.

    His appearance was now a clear indication of how difficult it had been for him to continue escaping from the Aqugas snake, with his tank top now in tatters and exposing much of his torso on which several bloodstains could be seen.

    However, that was not something exclusive to his torso, as those stains were all over his body, even on his face.

    This was a natural oue, after all, they were still onnd, a ce where the snake could move ridiculously well and where there weren''t too many obstacles or shields for Jay to use, increasing the frequency at which Jay received injuries.

    But as if that wasn''t enough, the snake also improved its tactics, learning to better control its fast tentacles to make slight curves at the cost of losing some strength.

    In response, Jay got himself a branch so he could block those attacks, reaching a point in the chase where both parties were pausing to defend and attack respectively.

    "Ouch, this is starting to get dangerous..." Jay said as he kept running, a slight muscle pain assaulting his entire body.

    Even though he still had energy tost for a bit longer, the consequences of having used his muscles to the max a few hours ago were still present, making his body a little harder to control.

    Jay knew this would only get worse as time went on, so he needed to find some way to break this cat and mouse game, especially if this gave him a brief break.<novelnext></novelnext>

    As for the snake, although Jay had the impression that it had be somewhat slower, he wasn''t really sure as the difference was minimal.

    "LET''S GOO!!"

    At that moment, he decided to run at full speed towards a tree, preparing to jump into one of its nearest branches.

    Seeing this, the snake immediatelyunched another tentacle to intercept him.

    However, before it arrived, Jay jumped once, taking off from the ground, and without his momentum slowing even a little, he jumped again, using a transparent air tform as a support.

    Thanks to that momentum, Jay managed to climb the tree while the tentacle simply followed its path until it stuck into the tree trunk, creating a deep hole.

    ''Now, jump like there''s no tomorrow!'' Jay shouted in his head before jumping into another tree at the same time as he let go of the branch he was holding so it wouldn''t affect his bnce.

    *TRRR*

    The sound of something being pressed hard reached his ears, causing him to have to turn towards the source of this particr sound.

    On the ground, the snake Aqugas was rapidly climbing a tree, which produced that sound was nothing more and nothing less than the tree''s trunk being crushed due to the force the snake was exerting on it.

    Apparently, the snake was not at all pleased that Jay had managed to climb a tree, taking its anger out on this unfortunate tree.

    Then, just as it was at the top of the tree, the snake leapt towards another tree making use of its tentacles at a surprisingly fast speed.

    "GIVE ME A BREAK, DAMMIT!!!" Jay didn''t want to see anymore and started to run away, refusing to acknowledge that this snake could also chase him from tree to tree.

    Unfortunately for him, the snake couldn''t care less about what he was feeling and simply continued to chase him, albeit at a slower speed than before and unable to throw tentacles from time to time.

    Due to his familiarity with this sort of thing, Jay was able to secure a slight lead, but as if to prove that he wasn''t going to let it go easy on him, the snake wasn''t far behind either.

    But just as it looked like a new chase was about to begin, Jay suddenly stumbled, causing him to lose his bnce for just a moment.

    ''Sh*t!''

    *BAM!*

    Unfortunately, that moment was enough for the snake to take advantage and hit him hard using one of its tentacles, crashing Jay to the ground.

    "...Good thing I have the body of a rank (D+) pugilist!" Jay said feeling grateful for his body''s resistance, quickly getting up to continue running away before the snake came down from the tree it was in.

    ''Just how much longer until Kesar is done?!'' He wondered.

    It was clear that the snake was learning to deal much better with him, what was worse, he was already far from being at his best, something that made things easier for the snake.

    The reason he had stumbled earlier was also because of this, he was no longer in a position to exert his full strength, so he miscalcted a jump.

    With a heavy sound, the snake came down, practicallyunching itself towards Jay as soon as it had touched the ground, its movement was fluid and efficient.

    Only in a matter of seconds, it managed to reach Jay, however, the Aqugas snake didn''t catch him, instead doing a great twist before again hitting him hard with one of its tentacles.

    Although Jay tried to evade it as best he could, the blow still connected, sending him flying into another tree.

    *BAM!*

    From this action alone, it was clear that the snake did not want to kill him, at least not yet, for if that were the case, it would not have struck him, but would have caught him with its tentacles before drowning him.

    This was because the snake had already realized for a while now that its prey was finally reaching its limits and could no longer put up much resistance, so it wanted to make it suffer to get even for the bad time it had earlier.

    "Ouch... I don''t think I''ll be able to run anymore..." Jay said as he slowly stood up, his left leg shaking a little.

    This time the hit did manage to hurt him, especially his left leg, something that would undoubtedly greatly worsen his mobility.

    The Aqugas snake then slowly advanced, standing in front of Jay and looking down at him from above. Although one couldn''t tell what kind of expression it had due to theck of facial features, one thing was for sure, it wouldn''t let Jay escape.

    "Alright... let''s do this then." Jay said as he got into a position to be able to throw a punch, arge amount of wind gathering around his right arm and legs.

    With the snake being in front of him, he had no choice but to give it his all and create an opportunity to be able to escape.

    In his mind it was simple enough, activate Overload, use the fifth and sixth step of the Phantom Trace to vanish from the snake''s sight and again use the air jump to get as far away as possible, preferably towards the center of the elemental zone.

    ''It has to work...'' He thought, putting more strength into his legs so that he could escape as soon as the snake attacked him, which would be the best time to move.

    Although he hadn''t mastered the air jump and the odds of it failing weren''t low, it was the only way he could think of to get out of this situation.

    *SWOOSH!

    Suddenly, an extremely cold wind current swept the surroundings, focusing especially on the ground where the snake was, several ice thorns appearing where the wind current passed.

    Then, apanying that wind current, a wall of ice appeared in front of Jay, separating him from the snake.

    Finally, his reinforcement had arrived.

 Chapter 84 - Victory Is Within Sight

    *BOOM!

    A loud noise resounded in the surroundings, product of the Aqugas snake having knocked down another tree to get faster to where its prey, Kesar, was.

    After thetter arrived on the scene, preventing the Aqugas snake from finishing Jay off, almost as if it had seen its destined enemy, the snake went into a frenzy, ignoring Jaypletely andunching itself at the young mage.

    This was to the point that even its reasoning was affected, no longer caring about slowing down as it destroyed tree after tree in a forced attempt to catch up faster.

    The reason for this was because the snake remembered perfectly well that of the two escaped prey, the one that actually managed to harm it was not Jay, but Kesar.

    Unfortunately for the snake, it would not have it so easy as to chase Jay.

    *Crack crack crack*

    No matter where the snake passed, several ice thorns would immediately appear, although they failed to slow it down, they were quite annoying for it.

    However, the most important change without a doubt was that little by little, the more ice appeared thanks to the spells that Kesar cast, the more the surroundings froze, from the trees, the bushes, even reaching the ground.

    It was as if now every spell had a weaker effect from the Frost Needle. But ignoring this, the snake simply continued to head towards Kesar.

    Unlike Jay, who''s only option was to flee since he had no way to confront the Aqugas snake, Kesar simply stood still surrounded by four pirs of pristine ice and standing on top of a magic circle, casting spell after spell to interrupt the snake''s path, which was getting closer and closer.

    This small magic post had also been part of the reason he had taken so long, as he did not want to face the snake unprepared.

    The spells took effect instantly, turning into chunks of ice that the snake broke without much effort, quickly reaching where Kesar was.

    Finally, when it was only a few meters away, the snake jumped, ignoring the ice pir in front of Kesar and heading straight for him.

    *BAM!*

    Unfortunately for it, by making a simple flick of his wand, Kesar caused the ice pir to suddenly increase in size, causing the snake to crash hard.

    The Aqugas snake quickly rposed itself from the shock and againshed out at the ice wall.

    *BAM!*

    To its surprise, the ice pir not only didn''t break, but even managed to do some damage to its slimy body due to the force the snake had used to try to destroy it.

    This surprised the snake quite a bit due to the fact that it had previously easily broken arger ice wall than this one, however, despite being smaller, this ice pir was iparably stronger.

    What the snake did not know was that in reality this ice pir was not like the other spells Kesar had used so far, but was on the level of "Frost Needle", that is, it was a spell that he could only use when his elemental zone was fully formed.

    Like many mages of the elemental branch, while Kesar could defend himself decently as long as he had his wand, the power he could show would rise to a whole different level being in his elemental zone as it gave him ess to arge number of spells which were qualified as trump cards, the only restriction being therge amount of mana they required.

    The Aqugas snake quickly realized that it could not prate this ice pir in a short time so it decided to simply climb over it.

    "That was a bad decision!" Kesar said, again waving his wand, this time causing the magic circle he was in to light up.

    At the same time, the four pirs of ice surrounding him trembled briefly before beginning to make shattering sounds.

    A secondter, just as the snake was on top of thergest pir, several ice spikes suddenly erupted from each of the pirs, rapidly closing and piercing the Aqugas snake''s body.

    The snake then began to move frantically, wanting to escape as quickly as possible from that position.

    Although this really wasn''t a serious injury for the snake, what really worried it was the freezing effect that each of the tips of these spikes had, which inevitably dug into a part of its body that contained its water reserve.

    *CRACK!*

    In the face of the snake''s enormous strength, the spikes did not take long to break, although they had already achieved their task, freezing a part of the water inside the Aqugas snake, who had no choice but to spit out the ice inside beforeunching itself towards Kesar once again.

    Although the spikes were also part of the ice pirs, since this was not their main use, they did not have the same resistance as if they had simply remained as part of the pirs.

    This time the attack had indeed seeded in hurting it, but now that it had paid the price for approaching so recklessly, it was now ready to reap the benefits, finally finishing off its prey!

    "Frost..."

    At that moment, Kesar''s eyes began to give off the characteristic glow that indicated he was using everything he had, gathering all the icy mana in the vicinity in the tip of his wand, which was pointing at the snake.

    The Aqugas snake immediately recognized what he was about to do, so fearfully, its body quickly turned around to escape, even causing several smaller snakes to break away from its body so that they could try to buy time.

    *SWOOSH!*

    Unexpectedly, instead of the Frost Needle, what Kesar summoned was nothing less than a stream of icy wind, which froze the small snakes instantly.

    Since the snakes were not connected to the main body of the Aqugas snake like the tentacles, their resistance against frost magic was considerably lower, making it rtively easy to freeze them.

    What he had just done had been a feint, which fortunately worked against the Aqugas snake. Although it could be said that the snake was quite intelligent for a monster, that sometimes worked against it, just as it had just happened.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Now that the snake was somewhat far, Kesar again cast one ice spell after another, as for the ice pirs around him, they returned to their original size and position automatically.

    Seeing that the spell it feared never came, the snake stopped escaping and again turned to Kesar, realizing what had just happened.

    *RUMBLE*

    In a matter of seconds, its anger peaked, its body creating several smaller snakes at the same time that arge number of tentacles emerged from all parts of its body.

    "Haa, here we go then...!" Said Kesar observing that the snake had finally decided to get serious.

    Although he wasn''t sure he would be able to win this battle, victory was already in sight, so the only thing he could do at this point was to go ahead and give it his best.

    ***

    After a few minutes, the effects of the confrontation between a rank (C-) mage and the Aqugas snake began to show in the surroundings, mainly manifesting in destroyed trees,rge chunks of broken ice scattered everywhere and arge number of small frozen snakes.

    It was certainly a chaotic scene.

    As for those responsible for this destruction, Kesar was still standing on top of his magic circle. However, unlike before where his energy seemed enough to fight for hours, it was noticeable that he was quite tired.

    This was normal, after all, he had been using one high level spell after another, although he had a good reserve of icy mana that he had managed to gather from the surroundings, it all had to pass through his body before bing a spell, so the cooling of his body was slowly building up.

    The parts of his body most affected were his arms, especially his right arm, which was the one he used his wand with and was currently of a worrying bluish color apanied by a numb feeling.

    As for the pirs around him, of the four that had originally been protecting him, only two remained, although these had several visible cracks and it looked as if they would break at any moment

    Although they had served as an irond protection that allowed him to face the Aqugas snake without fear, in the face of thetter''s enormous strength and constant attacks, even these extremely hard pirs ended up reaching their limit.

    Of course, his opponent had not been left unscathed either.

    Unlike the initial appearance it had, which was that of a dangerouslyrge snake seeking to simply wipe out whatever got in its way, with tentacles on every part of its body and a small battalion of miniature snakes, now none of that could be seen.

    First of all, its size had been greatly reduced, now only measuring 10 meters long, a product of separating its body into several small snakes time and time again, which was worse, almost all of them ended up being turned into ice, unable to be part of the main body again.

    On the other hand, its tentacles were in better shape, with most of them still intact and only some of them being shorter because they also received freezing spells.

    However, what was most striking was that the inside of the snake, which was once transparent and showed arge amount of water that served as its reservoir, had now shrunk enormously.

    Of course, this was no coincidence as Kesar had focused the vast majority of his spells towards that part of the Aqugas snake, managing to slowly freeze the water inside and forcing the Aqugas snake to expel the ice chunks from its body.

    Just considering the state of both, it might seem that the Aqugas snake was the one that lost the most, however, the fact that Kesar could attack indiscriminately without worrying about his safety was entirely due to the pirs of ice.

    Pirs which were now practically unusable.

    *Crack!*

    With that sound, the remaining ice pirs cracked and their pieces scattered on the ground.

    "...Heh, looks like this is the most I can do at my level huh..." Said Kesar, who had just lost his only defense, "However, I won''t fall without at least freezing half of your body!"

    Although he was now defenseless against the Aqugas snake''s attacks, his expression didn''t have a hint of concern, something very different from what he had shown when he saw said monster for the second time.

    This was because when Kesar saw that his spells did have the desired effect, his confidence slowly increased, to the point where he was no longer really afraid of this particr monster.

    Of course, what he didn''t know was that this hadn''t actually been caused by his own doing, but was an effect of the 15 parasites currently inside him, all of them boosting his confidence and reinforcing all the spells he had used so far.

    This was a measure that Jay had employed when he pped Kesar in order to enhance his power and prevent him from bing nervous again, although the contact they had had been brief, it had been more than enough for him to manage to infect him with all the parasites he had except for about 10 that were necessary in case he had to use Overload.

    Immediately, the snake lunged towards Kesar, who responded with a defiant grin as he prepared a particrly strong spell.

    However, just as they were about to collide, the snake suddenly did something unexpected.

    Its body suddenly split in two, forming tworge snakes of 5 meters in size each which sped towards Kesar.

    "Sh*t!" Shouted Kesar, hastily directing his spell towards the snake closest to him, sessfully impacting it and freezing arge part of it.

    *CHAK*

    "Argh!"

    Unfortunately, the other snake wasted no time and stabbed Kesar in the stomach with the tip of its tail.

    Not wanting to lose the initial momentum, it quickly coiled around Kesar''s body, squeezing his arms with its enormous strength, even getting to the point where the young mage almost felt like his arms were not going to be able to resist anymore.

 Chapter 85 - Again And Again

    Just at that moment, before even 1 second had passed since the snake coiled around his body, a sudden current of energy filled Kesar''s entire body.

    *SWOOSH*

    The surrounding mana began to go crazy, freezing and thawing the forest at an incredibly fast rate.

    "I WON''T GO DOWN THAT EASY!!!" Kesar shouted, his eyes glowing an intense light blue color.

    Although he could no longer move his wand and therefore wasn''t able to use any spell, that didn''t stop him from being unable to affect the icy mana in the surroundings.

    The wands actually functioned as means by which mages could transform mana into various spells, facilitating the moreplicated process when it came to using magic.

    However, when a certain level was reached, the wands stopped helping and instead became a limitation.

    An example of this was Sarah''s aunt, Iris, who to make the mana obey needed nothing more than a simple snap of her fingers. In her case, her entire body had be a means by which the mana could manifest her will much faster and more efficiently, thus requiring no wand or simr object.

    This of course was an incredibly difficult thing to aplish, a product of natural talent and years of preparation, for if a mage who was not prepared for this attempted to use mana with his body as the medium carelessly, even if he was of (B-) rank, the result would be disastrous.

    It was clear that Kesar was still quite far from reaching this level, but still, as long as he resisted falling to the Aqugas snake, he was willing to take such a risk.

    *CRACK*

    Slowly, with Kesar as the final destination of all the icy mana in the surroundings, thetter''s body began to freeze at a visible rate, various shades of blue appearing all over his body.

    The snake was also being affected by such violent concentration of mana, several lines of blue colored energying from Kesar were ravaging its slender body, freezing it even though it had resistance to ice magic.

    Several cracks were appearing every second on the slender body of the Aqugas snake, which was unable to avoid being frozen and instead devoted all its strength into choking Kesar.

    "ARGHH!!!"

    It knew very well that this situation was quite dangerous, but still, the snake could tell how this was incredibly tiring for Kesar, which meant that as long as it could hold on, it will have won.

    "I-I...!"

    Finally, after a few seconds, just as the snake''s body was about to turn to icepletely, Kesar reached his limit.

    "I DON''T WANT TO...GIVE...up...."

    With those words as hisst, he lost consciousness, his eyes losing all their sparkle and the mana in the surroundings ceasing to act crazily.

    Despite being extremely reluctant, Kesar had fallen.

    *Crack crack*

    The Aqugas snake moved slowly, fearful that some sudden movement might break its body, which was now mostly frozen.

    Normally it would replenish those parts of its body using water, but its reserve had long since been frozen, forcing it to have to endure being in this deplorable state.

    However, even if its body was like this, its mood was good, after all, it had managed to defeat the more annoying prey of the two that had escaped.

    With the most dangerous target out of the way, now all that was left for it to do was to wait for its body and other sub-bodies to thaw and fuse with them before finally going after its other elusive prey.

    But in the meantime...

    Without waiting much longer, its head then began to lose its snake form and instead began to erge, all in order to devour Kesarpletely.

    The confrontation with the young mage had undoubtedly left its body pretty damaged, normally what the snake would do in this situation would be to head to a nearby body of water so it could speed up its recovery speed while it ate something.

    However, the snake didn''t have to travel far before it realized that the stream it hade from was frozen. What was worse, it was not a simple freezing as if only the surface had turned to ice, but went beyond that, leaving it with hardly a drop of water in a liquid state.

    Therefore, in order to regain even a little strength, it had no choice but to eat its prey.

    Although this would take a while since it could only wait for its body to dissolve Kesar, this process could be elerated if the Aqugas snake wanted it to.

    *BAM!*

    Suddenly, the Aqugas snake felt a small sized object collide against one of the parts of its body that were most frozen, causing a little crack to form.

    Then, at the same time as the snake turned in the direction where it felt the object hade from, several of those same objects began to rain down on its body.

    Now that it could see better, it realized that these small objects were nothing more or less than stones of various sizes.

    "..."

    Although they were mostly small stones, each one of them had considerable force behind. If this continued, there was no doubt that its body would be torn apart, so the snake quickly located the person responsible for this shower of stones.

    The snake quickly found it, located in one of the branches of a tree, there was the same elusive prey that it had almost managed to catch a while ago, in his hands some stones, which he was throwing without stopping.

    The Aqugas snake immediately threw Kesar to the side before starting to move in the direction of this tree, dodging all the stones that came its way with quite agile movements.

    Jay then, seeing that he could no longer aim properly, switched targets, throwing the stones towards several ice statues that were actually the Aqugas snake'' sub-bodies, shattering them.

    Although this seemed to anger the snake more, causing its speed to increase, Jay continued to destroy ice statues, ignoring this danger.

    After a few short seconds, the Aqugas snake managed to reach the tree, almost at the same time that Jay ran out of stones.

    "You won''t catch me that easy!" Said Jay before leaping from the tree to the ground, choosing as hisnding spot a certain statue that he hadn''t been able to break with his stones.

    *CRASH!*

    The ice shattered from the force Jay had applied uponnding, separating thisrge ice statue in the shape of the Aqugas snake into several pieces.<novelnext></novelnext>

    What he had just destroyed had clearly been the other half of the snake.

    Another tree was again crushed due to the pressure the snake exerted on it, due to some parts of its body being frozen, this also did some damage to its body, however, it did it anyway, it was clear that what Jay had just done had seeded inpletely angering it.

    Without even a second having passed, the snake came down from the tree at an extremely fast speed, heading towards Jay.

    Strangely, thetter did not run away, but also started running towards the snake, several wind currents apanying him in his run.

    Then, just as Jay''s fist was about to collide with the snake''s head, unexpectedly, Jay suddenly turned his body, sessfully dodging the snake.

    Although the movement had been abrupt, for some reason, it felt quite natural and fluid.

    Not wanting to lose momentum, Jay used the spin to power a punch towards the now unprotected and frozen body of the Aqugas snake.

    *CRACK!*

    With that sound, several chunks of ice fell to the ground, leaving a sizable hole in the snake''s body.

    The next moment, Jay received a strong hit that sent him flying, crashing into a tree.

    Despite all the damage it had taken so far and the fact that arge part of its body was frozen, the Aqugas snake was still a monster belonging to the upper ranks of the (C) rank, so it was to be expected that its strength would still be high, especially against a mere rank (D+) super like Jay.

    Ignoring the pain of having hit the tree so violently, Jay quickly fixed his stance before again starting to run towards the snake, a current of wind forming and surrounding his body again.

    "One more time!" he said, not taking his eyes off the snake.

    In response, thetter also lunged towards Jay, moving its body so that it could respond quickly if Jay were to suddenly turn again.

    *BAM!*

    At the same time that Jay flew off into another tree, several chunks of ice fell from the snake''s body, apparently, he had managed to hit the snake again.

    This time the snake was somewhat confused, which was understandable, after all, in the brief exchange, the snake could have sworn that it had hit Jay before he could touch it.

    Of course, what the snake didn''t know was that he had actually managed to hit Jay, but unfortunately, just before he was sent flying, Jay managed to hit him with a punch using the momentum of the wind that surrounded him.

    "If twice isn''t enough, then I''ll do it again and again!"

    Despite what he had just said, he was actually quite hurt, although his regeneration ability was working at top speed to fix the damage, it would undoubtedly take a good while.

    Even then, Jay again decided to throw himself at the snake.

    As for the reason for this, it was because this was the only way he could think of in which he could manage to break the Aqugas snake''s body.

    He had already found that while the damage he could do to it by throwing the small stones at it could umte, he needed the snake to be still for it to work, which clearly wasn''t going to happen.

    Therefore, the tactic of trading damage for damage came to his mind, although he wouldn''t be able to take many hits and had to be extremely careful that the snake didn''t catch him, he was confident that he would manage to do so.

    Right now, with an incredibly weakened opponent, Jay''s fighting spirit increased tremendously.

    Though of course, if he somehow got caught or saw that he was in a bind, he would not hesitate to use Overload to finish off the snake.

    ***

    *BAM!��*

    For a while, the sound of a heavy object crashing into a tree was the only thing that could be heard in this part of the forest, along with the passionate screams of a young man, screams that were getting fainter and fainter.

    It wasn''t long before Jay began to show signs of weakness, even his body which was at the level of a rank (D+) pugilist quickly reaching its absolute limit.

    He didn''t keep a count of how many times he had been hit by the snake, there were several ces on his body that hurt quite a bit, especially his right arm, on which were imprinted visible painful purple marks, as if something had tried to crush his arm, the consequence of not dodging in time.

    However, the pain was secondary at the moment, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and concentrate on the current situation.

    In front of him was the Aqugas snake, whose slender body had now shrunk to a size of only 3 meters, although almost as if topensate, it no longer had a single chunk of ice covering it.

    Thanks to Jay''s relentless attacks, the part of the snake''s body that was frozen had been forcibly shattered, scattering into small chunks of ice that nowy in the ground.

    Even with its ability to split apart, controlling such small pieces of its body was not possible, so just like with the small snakes and the other half of its body, they were already hopeless cases.

    However, even with the incredible amount of damage the snake had suffered, it still seemed to have some energy to be able to finish off Jay, who was once again cornered.

    ''It seems that I have no other choice...''

    Jay no longer had the strength to move, so he could only use his trump card, Overload.

    Immediately, his body was filled with a huge amount of energy that even seemed to want to escape... or at least that''s what Jay expected, but instead of that feeling, what appeared in front of him was a message from the system.

    _____________________

    Activation of "Overload" denied due to the incredibly tired state of parasites.

    Please try again in a few minutes.

    _____________________

    "...Ah, sh*t."

    After saying that, a viscous substance suddenly enveloped his entire body.

 Chapter 86 - Collapse And An Unexpected Repellent

    ''Ah, I messed up big time...'' Thought Jay, who had closed his eyes due to the sudden fright of the snake lunging at him, now only able to feel how his entire body was suspended in a moving gtinous mass.

    This was certainly a pretty bad situation, caused by nothing more and less than his own recklessness.

    Thanks to the fact that he had seen the Aqugas snake weakened and about to fall, coupled with the fact that he believed Overload would work, he had been filled with courage, or rather, recklessness.

    As a result, now the snake had caught him, and it was only a matter of time before he ran out of air, therefore, although he wanted to continue feeling guilty for a while longer so that this lesson would not be forgotten, he had to quickly think of a way to escape this situation.

    ''Now then...''

    However, just as Jay opened his eyes and before he could do anything, he felt everything around him begin to tremble.

    The next, his body immediately began to fall to the ground, the gtinous mass that held him falling with him.

    *Chak!*

    At the same time that Jay''s body crashed to the ground, the gtinous mass holding him dispersed into the surroundings, losing its shape just like a water balloon being popped against the ground.

    "...What?" Said Jay in surprise as he quickly stood up and surveyed his surroundings.

    Right now, his body was covered by what appeared to be the body of the Aqugas snake, or rather, a minimal amount of it, as the vast majority of the snake''s body was scattered on the ground.

    From tail to head, there was no longer any trace of the snake, only the gtinous mass that made up its body, as if the force that was maintaining the snake''s form had disappeared from one moment to the next.

    "Could it be that... the snake..."

    While anyone else might also think that the Aqugas snake had copsed from exhaustion or something like that, Jay knew it was something much more serious.

    "It''s... dead..!" He said, Taking some of the gtinous substance in his hands to better obersve it.

    The most telling sign of this was that neither his radar nor that of his little ones could detect any sign of lifeing from the "body" of the Aqugas snake, indicating that indeed, said monster had finally fallen.

    It had been unexpected and sudden, but nheless, it was a good thing for Jay.

    "Ahh..."

    Seeing this, Jay couldn''t help but let out a big sigh of relief.

    After the intense battle against Kesar, although the monster was still fighting as if nothing had happened, in reality the damage it had received had been quite severe, which was only aggravated by Jay''s reckless attacks.

    To begin with, its body was not made to fight onnd, something that unfortunately the snake didn''t realize even at the end of its life. That way, with no time to recover, expendingrge amounts of energy at every moment to rece herck of water and blinded by her anger, the snake''s fate was already decided.

    "That... definitely was too close..." Jay said, sitting down on the ground roughly, almost letting his body fall.

    He had been keeping calm up until now because the situation called for it, but now that the snake had died, the danger of the situation came to him all at once.

    This was normal, after all, this was the first time he had encountered a monster in every sense of the word.

    While it was true that he had already had contact with certain "monsters" such as the Gray Rats or the Great Rat, these could not be considered true monsters, plus at the time he was more concerned with another type of human monster.

    However, now he had encountered a monster that would be able to obliterate both Jared and the Great Rat, so even though he had been confident only moments ago, the Aqugas snake itself proved to him to the end that this had been a grave mistake.

    And had the snake not copsed at thest moment, Jay wasn''t confident that he really would have been able to escape.

    "This... can''t be considered a victory..."

    After saying that, Jay shook his head and decided to leave those thoughts forter, heading towards the unconscious Kesar, whose body was stuck to a tree in an odd position, his face practically kissing the tree trunk.

    ***

    While Jay was trying to wake up Kesar, in another part of the immense sea of trees, specifically in a ce that was particrly close to the coast of the ind, two people were observing the beach under an atmosphere of silence and darkness.

    One of these two people was a man who was standing in a dignified manner with his hands ced behind his back, the air he gave off was that of someone who had everything under control and an imperturbable calm was present in his eyes.

    Coupled with his incredibly attractive appearance and the faint glow of the moonlight passing through the small spaces between the branches of the trees, this made for a somewhat mystical scene.

    However, what was going through this person''s, or rather, James'' head at the moment was anything but calm.

    ''...Why...why haven''t I been able to find a single monster so far...?!'' James thought, racking his brain as he tried to find a reason why his stay on this ind had been filled with tranquility.

    From the moment he arrived, although he had encountered a few minor monsters such as squirrels or roons, they simply fled when they saw him, a product of being intimidated by the pressure he emitted.

    While not what he had expected upon arriving on the ind, this was still eptable, since if he wanted to catch one, he would just have to chase it down.

    As for why he would want to catch one, that was because he didn''t know if this test had a hidden criteria for passing, and like Sarah, he also had his suspicions about it. The theory that seemed most feasible to him was that he had to do something with a monster, whether it was capture it, defeat it, or something along those lines.

    Therefore, he had hoped to find a strong enough monster while scouring the forest, he wouldn''t lose anything by trying anyway.<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, before he could find a monster worth the trouble, a certain person appeared to interrupt his walk through the forest, forcing him to knock him unconscious and have to carry him out of a sense of responsibility.

    From that moment on, as if that person was a curse, he hadn''t encountered any monsters, he couldn''t even feel a trace of them, almost as if all the monsters in the forest were avoiding them.

    "Boss, I notice a disturbance in your qi, is something wrong?" Suddenly asked the person next to him, the same young man he had defeated and knocked unconscious several hours ago, although he had obviously already woken up.

    While James'' outward appearance indicated that he was calm, being a pugilist, the young man was especially sensitive to fluctuations of qi, which showed James'' true emotional state.

    "...Haa, I told you to stop calling me boss." He replied, letting out a sigh as he turned his gaze towards the young man.

    An extra detail was that when the young man woke up, hepletely abandoned his defiant attitude he had at the beginning and instead started treating James as if he was his superior, making thetter not quite sure how to react.

    "That''s not possible, boss! You have already proven that you are stronger than me, so in order not to further tarnish my reputation and to make amends for my mistake of having behaved disrespectfully towards you, the least I can do is to give you the same respect as a superior!"

    The young man''s voice was filled with a great deal of determination and assurance, as if what he had just said was simply the natural course of things.

    Hearing this, James simply decided to stop insisting and instead started a conversation, asking him if he wasn''t worried that in fact this test actually did have some hidden requirement.

    "I''m not particrly worried, boss! I trust the words of the examiner and for the honor that precedes the Eitsirc Academy, I''m sure that they definitely wouldn''t lie!"

    Gradually, James was realizing exactly what kind of personality this young man had, and to be honest, he didn''t dislike him at all.

    "I don''t think they''re going to lie to us either, but it wouldn''t be a bad idea to have a monster around to test that theory anyway, although for some reason we haven''te across any... what a bummer."

    Even for someone like him, who had an enviable repertoire of high-level martial techniques, he even had techniques for locating his position and seeing beyond the obvious, but none for being able to track monsters.

    Considering the size of the ind, even if he could improve his eyesight so he could see twice as well, it wouldn''t be that useful to him.

    "If you''re talking about the monsters, none of them wille near us since I''ve been using a martial technique to repel them so they won''t bother you on your walk, boss!"

    "..."

    A few seconds passed in silence, during which James only managed to blinked a few times before closing his eyes and looking away.

    ''So he really was the cause all along?!'' He thought, gripping the bridge of his nose with his fingertips.

    When he referred to the young man as a curse, it was obvious he was joking, but as it turned out, he truly was the cause of the problem!

    Then, taking a deep breath, James calmed down and spoke to the young man, "Would you please stop using this technique so I can find a monster then...?"

    It was already quitete, so he didn''t want to spend time arguing or getting upset, besides, he didn''t think the young man had any bad intentions in doing this.

    As for why James hadn''t felt this technique despite having better qi control than the young man, there were countless martial techniques, so he couldn''t be expected to know how each of them worked.

    *BAM!*

    Immediately upon hearing James'' question, the young man mmed his head into the ground at the same time as he prostrated himself on the ground.

    "I''M SO SORRY!" He shouted, not daring to make eye contact with James.

    Seeing this, James knew something was wrong, "What''s the matter...?"

    The young man then exined to him that the martial technique he had been using was special, not having to use qi every moment to show its effects, but it was more like for a certain amount of qi, the technique would stay active for a while depending on the amount of qi used.

    What was worse, the effect spread to any person or object that was in constant close contact with the source of the martial technique, namely the young man.

    "So... how much time left before the technique loses its effect...?" James asked again, his right eyebrow twitching slightly.

    "Since I used it about 20 minutes ago... I''d say at least about four hours."

    *Crack!*

    The ground James was standing on suddenly sank due to him increasing the force he was stepping on.

    "...Haaa..."

    However, the next moment he took a big breath of air and exhaled, forcing himself to calm down.

    "Well, never mind, since it''se to this, I''ll just have to look for a monster on my own, I just have to move faster than they can detect the repellent."

    After saying that, James activated a martial technique to increase his speed and shot off into the depths of the sea of trees without waiting for the young man who was still prostrate on the ground, though soon after, thetter quickly followed him as well.

    Slowly but surely, the night was progressing.

 Chapter 87 - Meeting

    "How is it possible that even after we''ve been running non-stop, we still haven''t been able to find anything...?" James said with a confused expression on his face.

    It could be said that he had traveled more distance in this short time than he had done in the entire day, but even so, the result remained unchanged, with no monster in sight.

    "T-the range of the technique is quite wide, boss! It may be due to that...!" Added the young pugilist beside him, who was catching his breath, tired from trying to keep up with James'' breakneck pace.

    With it being his martial technique, he knew quite well what its effects were, among them being the great range this technique possessed, an aspect which was only surpassed by the main effect of the technique, that is, repelling monsters.

    This was only made worse if one took into ount how acute the senses of the monsters were, especially those that inhabited this ind, whose physical abilities had been reinforced by the night.

    Hearing what he said, James'' expression turned sour, a slight urge to again knock the pugilist unconscious began to rise within him, but it quickly dissipated, being reced with a fed-up sigh.

    Although it hadn''t been long, this was definitely not a good start, and he had been running at high speed.

    ''Maybe that was a mistake too...'' James thought.

    Since he didn''t want to waste any more time than was necessary, he didn''t worry about the noise he was making or hisck of stealth, just looking to run into some monster that had been slow to react to the repellent or the noise or was already t out slow.

    However, it was also possible that in his rampant march, all he managed to do was rm the inhabitants of this forest, something that the more he thought about it, the more it seemed possible.

    ''...Well, if that''s the case, it''s not like I have any other choice, I''ll just have to increase my speed.''

    While not quite up to the level of the young pugilist next to him, James was also a rather simple and straightforward person, a trait that seemed to be shared by most pugilists, though in his case, one could say that his stubbornness was quite a bit greater than that of his fellow pugilists.

    "Then, let''s go that way."

    Without waiting a second longer, James activated another martial technique to increase his speed and agility before choosing a random direction and starting running at full speed.

    "Ah, boss, wait for me!" Shouted the young man, who also activated a martial technique in order to chase after James.

    In that way, although the direction had been chosen at random, the pair of pugilists began to head towards a certain part of this huge sea of trees, unknowingly getting closer and closer to arge body of water.

    ***

    Not so far away from them, another pair of people were making their way to theke, following a small stream of water they had found not long ago.

    The distance separating them was visible, at least about 4 meters, making it evident that they did not trust each other.

    "..."

    Unlike James and the young man, both of whom exchanged words from time to time, these two people werepletely silent, only listening to the sound of their footsteps on the ground and the stream in motion.

    Of course, this silence had a reason which went beyond the fact that they had only met today, specifically, because one of the people did not dare to open her mouth.

    If one paid closer attention, even though it was already dark and the abundance of shadows was a problem to see clearly, one could still see that the arms of the person behind was full of bruises.

    However, those bruises were the most pleasant part, as there were several cuts adorning her legs which although they had already healed, left a painful reminder of what had happened when both of them met.

    ''Really, Myrin, you couldn''t have picked a worse target to attack! '' Thought the person whose identity belonged to the girl who had tried to attack Sarah.

    After she had been brutally hit with the rocks, she didn''t even have time to remain passed out before Sarah forcibly woke her up and tied her up, pacing her for a while while asking her various questions.

    Initially she had thought of trying to break free or at least resist, but faced with the clear difference in strength and technique between the two, she didn''t have a chance to do anything but answer the light blue-haired mage''s questions.

    Finally, when dusk came, Sarah got tired of carrying her and released her bindings, allowing her to walk but still keeping her as a "prisoner", forced to help her in the remaining time of the test.

    Sarah didn''t really need the help due to the fact that she alone was enough to deal with most situations, but the spears Myrin could create were an extremely goodplement to her spells to simply let her go.

    As for whether she could use them, she had already checked a while ago and there was no problem.

    ''Just where did this woman came from anyway...?'' Myrin thought as she watched Sarah''s back, remembering their previous confrontation, in her eyes a faint trace of admiration.

    No matter how many times she reyed that scene in her head, she couldn''t help but be shocked by Sarah''s strength, starting from her reflexes, to her ability to make decisions instantly and finally ending in the control she possessed when attacking, all of them were aspects in which shepletely surpassed her.

    Due to having trained from a young age by attending a special school for espers, along with her natural talent, Myrin''sbat standard was considerably high, this was still the case ifpared to other rank (C-) supers.

    Despite this, she had been quickly defeated by Sarah, and it was quite obvious that thetter had not been serious, making the difference in strength between the two even clearer.

    While Myrin could determine from the amount of energy she could feel within the light blue-haired mage that she was at the level of the (C-) rank, just considering the amount of energy, she also surpassed her, which meant that she was pretty close to advancing in rank.

    Thanks to all these factors that pointed to Sarah not being amon super at all, the one-sided defeat Myrin had suffered earlier started to seem like an inevitable oue rather than a fight in which she performed poorly.

    What caused her more confusion however was that she really didn''t remember there being such a skilled mage on her list of supers to watch out for.

    While it was true that she was a somewhat reckless person, that was a product of the great confidence she had in herself, but even then, she knew very well that there were supers she definitely could not afford to have problems with.

    Therefore, she had made a list of all those young supers who had some kind of power backing them, or already possessed an individual power far beyond her own.

    Making the list was not so difficult since normally, people who were outstanding managed to attract attention in one way or another, this was especially true for the geniuses.

    At the top of this list were undoubtedly the geniuses of all three sses, led by Valerie Adler, the acknowledged most talented and stronger super of the current generation. As for the bottom of this list, there were those supers who had only a little fame.

    She had felt somewhat confident because of this, however, only now did she realize that there were actually people who were not known at all but whose power could far surpass those who were.

    "!"

    At that moment, Sarah suddenly turned her head in a certain direction at the same time as one of the runes on her arm began to glow, activating a detection spell, the same one she used to detect Myrin.

    "Get up a tree, quick!" She shouted, not even a second having passed since she activated the spell.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Myrin quickly stopped being lost in thought and did as Sarah told her out of pure reflex, jumping into a tree and climbing with a great naturalness.

    "Make 10 spears!" Shouted Sarah again, giving Myrin amand which she obeyed without another word.

    Several spears formed of energy then fell from the tree where the esper stood and stuck into the ground near the mage.

    Immediately after, all the runes on Sarah''s body began to light up, strengthening her body and improving her control over mana, simultaneously, the spears around her began to float in the air.

    In the whole process, Sarah had not turned her attention away from the direction she was facing for a single moment, almost as if she was afraid of something unexpected happening.

    Slowly, she shifted her stance, bringing her right arm in front of her, her thumb sticking out slightly so that it functioned as a kind of sight.

    As for her other arm, she raised it to the height of her head and retracted it, clenching her fist tightly, all the spears gathering on top of this arm and gathering together as far as they could go, looking like just one big spear which trembled from time to time due to the force with which they were being held by Sarah''s spell.

    "...Hooo..."

    Said mage then let out arge breath replete with mana, her senses sharpening to the maximum and entering a state of deep concentration.

    Silence then again began to reign in the surroundings for several seconds, but although nothing was happening, Myrin did not dare to make any noise or question the actions of the light blue-haired mage.

    Soon after, she began to hear why Sarah was doing all this.

    The ground began to shake slightly, apanied by the sound of something heavy approaching rapidly towards where they both were,ing from the direction Sarah had been looking from the start.

    However, she did not attack, but continued to wait until the sound came closer and closer, to the point where she could make out the figure responsible for this sound.

    *SWOOSH!

    Without waiting for anything else, Sarah thenunched therge energy spear towards this figure, cutting through the air due to the power and speed contained in it.

    The spear continued on its way without being interrupted by anything, this thanks to the fact that Sarah had calcted well the trajectory it should follow.

    When it reached a certain point, the figure also noticed this dangerous projectile heading towards him, but it was toote to dodge it, only being able to grit his teeth and defend himself as best he could.

    *BOOM!*

    A small explosion followed the crash, sending the silhouette flying away until it crashed heavily into a tree.

    ''It didn''t pierce him?'' thought Sarah, who had seen the impact better than anyone else.

    The spear had made contact, what should have happened next was for it to manage to pierce the figure, but that the person had been sent flying meant that it had failed.

    "BOOOOSSS!!!"

    But before she could think any further, a young man''s shout reached her ears, forcing her attention elsewhere.

    "YOU!" Shouted the young man who witnessed how his "boss" had been sent flying.

    Thereupon, this person, who until now had been hidden by the shadows of the forest, making it somewhat difficult to see him, suddenly began to emanate pugilistic mes from all parts of his body beforeunching himself towards Sarah.

    "Make more spears!" Sarah ordered again to Myrin, who immediately started to work.

    In any case, Sarah didn''t hang around to wait for the unknown man to approach either, but began to part arge chunk ofnd in front of her with her control spell, preparing to intercept the attacker.

    In a matter of seconds, the young man reached where Sarah stood thanks to his great speed, taking a great leap to increase the power of his blow, aiming for instant victory.

    "THIS IS FOR THE BOSS-!"

    *CRASH!

    Before he could connect his fist with Sarah, the ground thetter had prepared rose up right underneath him,nding a heavy blow to this young man''s lower body and causing him to stop momentarily, a pained expression on his face.

    However, the mage did not continue attacking him but grabbed one of the spears that Myrin had just prepared and threw it towards her back.

    *BAM!*

    The spear hit something... or rather, it was caught, by none other than the first figure she had sent flying, which had moved stealthily to position itself behind her in order to attack, although with what had just happened, it was clear that it had not seeded.

    *CRACK!*

    Several cracks then appeared on the ground, a product of the blue-haired mage activating her control spell at maximum power, erecting a wall of earth that separated her from the person at her back.

    However, that was only the prelude to chaos, as a great pressure began to sweep everything in the vicinity, further aggravating the cracks in the ground and forcing the young man engulfed in mes to stay glued to the ground.

    As for the source of it all, Sarah, all the runes on her body were glowing, which were only dulled by the glow of her aura.

    "This power... Sarah?" Suddenly said the figure that had caused this reaction from the mage.

    Hearing her name, the light blue-haired mage stopped momentarily to get a better look at the mysterious figure.

    "...James?"

    After saying that, all the fluctuation of mana in the surroundings ceased its movement.

    ''So they know each other...?'' thought Myrin, who was about to thrust one of her energy spears into the unprotected body of the young pugilist.

 Chapter 88 - Misfortune Haunt Us

    At the same time James and Sarah were talking about their experiences in this test, thest member of this group was currently being carried through the forest by an injured mage.

    "Ouch..."

    "Stopining, I''m not that heavy."

    The appearance of both of them was quite bad, with most of their clothes in tatters and multiple wounds on their bodies in addition to dirt stains that inevitably appeared due to them having contact with the ground the moment they both fell to the ground.

    As for why Kesar was carrying Jay, that was because the damage thetter had taken finally became too much for him to ovee by sheer willpower... or at least that''s what he had told Kesar.

    After the anticlimactic death of the Aqugas snake, Jay moved to help Kesar, but just before he could even attempt to wake him up, his body suddenly stopped responding to hismands and he fell to the ground, apanied by another system message that definitely left Jay shocked.

    [Due to the heavy damage to the [Carrier]''s body, the system has decided to cease all unneeded movements to concentrate on recovery].

    And just like the message said, he wasn''t able to move any part of his body except for his head.

    ''No doubt I have a question session pending with the system...'' Jay thought, remembering the message.

    This was the second message he had received from the system, and simr to the first, it was something incredibly serious that directly affected hisbat ability, so he had no choice but to ask the system about this.

    He had already had another questioning session at home a few days after he had fully recovered, but they had only been basic questions, which had just been demonstrated, were not enough.

    "By the way, theke was around here, right...?" Kesar asked, waking Jay from his train of thought.

    They had been walking for a few minutes in search of theke, as for the reason for this, it was because theke was still the best ce to set up an elemental zone, and now that the snake Aqugas was gone, there would be no problem doing so.

    Although the area where they had faced said monster wasn''t bad either thanks to the small pool they made, making it possible to set up an elemental zone there as well, it had no point ofparison to theke.

    Not to mention of course that the elemental zone Kesar had created was rendered unusable after the rough usage it was subjected to due to Kesar''s actions.

    "I still see the stream, so we must be going the right way." Jay replied, ncing sideways at the moving stream, and as he did so, he couldn''t help but think of Kesar''s performance in the battle against the Aqugas serpent.

    While he had also influenced the oue of the confrontation by buying time with the snake and increasing Kesar''s attack power and confidence with his little ones, the main character in that activity was undoubtedly none other than Kesar, who greatly exceeded Jay''s expectations of him.

    Since Kesar himself had said that his spells would not be effective against the snake thanks to the magical resistance it had developed, although Jay had not shown it at the time, he had also been somewhat worried.

    However, after said mage rescued him from being trapped by the snake, said resistance seemed almost non-existent due to the various methods of attack that Kesar used.

    And even when he used his spells directly on the snake, they still aplished their task, causing Jay to doubt whether the snake really had a magic resistance.

    "Tell me, if the snake had a magic resistance, why were your spells still taking effect?" He asked, trying to satisfy his curiosity.

    Although he knew something about magic, that was only limited to a rather general knowledge, knowledge which obviously couldn''tpare to the exnation that Kesar, an elemental mage, was able to offer.

    "Ah... well I honestly don''t know how to answer you that..." Kesar chuckled, an awkward smile appearing on his face, "I think I simply managed to ovee the amount of damage its resistance could take."

    The Aqugas snake was an exceptional monster, which had caused Kesar to focus entirely on facing it, attacking, blocking, replenishing his mana using his elemental zone, etc.

    As a result, Kesar did not have time to take a more analytical approach to the battle, overlooking several details about said monster, the change in the snake''s frost magic resistance throughout the battle being among them.

    While the increased power of his spells that Jay''s parasites along with the elemental zone gave him also had their merit, the most important thing was that the snake''s resistance was getting weaker and weaker as the mass of its body decreased

    So unfortunately, what started out as full body iron armor for the snake ended up bing simply pieces of cloth that barely managed to protect it.

    "But you know... I also felt a bit different, like more confident, I think that also helped me focus even more on the fight. Of course, I won''t deny that it was quite dangerous at the end, if I hadn''t fainted, it really could have ended very badly..."

    Initially he had been quite nervous, but when he had the Aqugas snake face to face, a sudden rush of confidence and energy filled his body, making him able to think more clearly and decisively.

    Though of course, also thanks to that, he almost took some pretty serious damage when he tried to use mana directly with his body.

    ''The effect of my little ones is as effective as ever.'' Jay thought as he listened to what Kesar said, feeling satisfied with the performance of the parasites inside the mage.

    In that manner, talking but still walking towards their destination, they both reached theke without any problems, though the moment they did, they were greeted by an unexpected sight.

    In the middle of theke which had previously served as the Aqugas snake''s base, there were several people floating in the water, seemingly motionless.

    "...That looks bad..." Jay said, observing the people in theke, "Do you think you can help them?"

    "That''s what I was about to do."

    After saying that, he put Jay on the ground and hurried into theke, swimming towards the center so he could rescue the people there.

    As for why he didn''t use some ice spell to make a path just like he did the first time he got to theke, it was because right now, just as Jay couldn''t move his body due to the injuries he had suffered, Kesar couldn''t use most of his spells thanks to the extreme use he put his body through a while ago.

    By attempting to use mana directly, he put his body''s ability to use mana under extreme pressure, causing it to now be extremely painful and ufortable to use mana, even with the use of his wand. In fact, it was already fortunate that he could move so freely.

    Making a rough calction, he could feel that he would only be able to cast one more spell before all the mana in his body waspletely depleted.

    As for the solution, it was quite simple, he just had to rest for a few days until he was back in an optimal state.

    Of course, this meant that, with Jay immobilized and Kesar unable to use most of his spells, if any monsters were to appear at this time, that would be the end for both of them.

    Strangely, however, neither seemed particrly concerned about this.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The reason for this was simple, both Jay and Kesar decided that they would worry about it when the time came!

    After all, in their current state, they really wouldn''t be able to do much except run for their lives, so there was simply no point in worrying about it.

    After about fifteen minutes, Kesar managed to get all the people out of theke, although as a consequence he also ended up lying on the ground due to the physical effort he had just made.

    There were eight people in total, with two women and the rest being men, their ages ranging from 18 to 24.

    ''Hm... at least it doesn''t look like any of them are in danger...'' Jay thought looking at the people Kesar had pulled out of theke, all showing signs of being alive on his radar.

    He didn''t know how long they had been inside theke, but with all of them being supers, it was clear that a little water wouldn''t kill them either... at least not as easily.

    As for what kind of supers they were, Jay had no way of knowing since he couldn''t infect them.

    "You know...I think.... I should definitely work on my physique more..." Kesar said, regretting not spending more time on improving his physical form.

    However, his words fell on deaf ears as Jay ignored him and suddenly turned his head towards the forest, an expression ofplete seriousness on his face.

    Seeing this, Kesar also stopped making noise and brought his gaze to where Jay was looking.

    Due to the abundance of shadows and the density of the forest, it was quite difficult to see anything, especially for them who were on the edge of theke, which was a few meters away from the forest.

    "Let''s get out of here, quick!" Jay suddenly said, turning to look at Kesar, "Something big ising!"

    Immediately, almost as if the tiredness from earlier had been purely a sham, the young mage stood up and hurried to carry Jay on his back before beginning to retreat towards the opposite direction they had been watching.

    Even though he hadn''t managed to see anything, the urgency in Jay''s voice was all the proof he needed to run away.

    As for the people who were still unconscious, even if he wanted to help them, Kesar''s limit at the moment was only being able to carry one person, and unfortunately for them, that position was upied by Jay.

    *SHHK*

    Then, as if to prove Jay right, the sound of several bushes moving began to be heard, louder and louder, indicative that something was approaching towards them.

    Slowly, Jay could see how arge shadow of over 8 meters came out of the forest, its form was that of arge bear with fur almost as dark as the night itself, its eyes being the only part of its body that was easy to see thanks to the fact that they glowed a dangerous red color.

    ''...Ah, why does misfortune haunt us...?'' Jay thought, an expression of disbelief on his face.

    Unlike how it happened with the Aqugas snake, this time he didn''t know specifically what kind of monster it was, but just judging by the presence it possessed, he was sure that at the very least, it would be at the (C) rank.

    *Swoosh*

    The monster then let out a loud breath that even moved the water and all the bushes near it, the next moment, its gaze fell upon all the unconscious people near theke.

    However, that didn''tst long as what caught its attention more was the pair of people moving rtively fast through the darkness, trying to move deeper into the forest.

    Without wasting any more time, the bear then extended its right arm and suddenly shed the air, causing several air des to shoot out towards the two.

    The move had been simple enough for the bear, but it was quite clear that it contained an enormous amount of power.

    *CRASH!*

    "Argh!"

    It didn''t even take ten seconds for the wind des to reach them, cutting through all the trees that stood in their way and forcing Kesar to stop as a log from one of the cut trees fell right in front of them, causing him to stumble.

    They both fell to the ground, Jay directly smashing his face into the log, while Kesar hit his head hard against the same log, hard enough to inflict as much pain as possible, but not enough to knock him out.

    "D-damn it..." Jay said, his face still being glued to the log since he couldn''t move.

    "Argh, I think my head is open!" Kesar added, clutching his head tightly.

    The next moment, the young wizard gritted his teeth to ignore the pain and hurried over to where Jay was to carry him again, he knew they had to get out of there as fast as they could, so his haste waspletely understandable.

    However, even though it had only been a few seconds, it was already toote.

    *Crack*

    The sound of logs being broken filled this part of the forest as a great pressure began to weigh down on them.

    The giant bear was now only a few steps away from them both.

    *BAM!*

    Suddenly, a silhouette shot out from within the forest, crashing into the bear and forcing it back.

    "Finally, a monster!" Shouted the person who had justnded on the ground after it hit the bear, great relief and excitement could be felt in his voice.

    Fortunately for Jay and Kesar, a person who had the ability to take on this monster had appeared. And what was more, Jay could instantly recognize this person''s voice.

    "James!"

 Chapter 89 - The Only Thing We Can Do

    "Jay? Gosh, what a coincidence." James replied, turning his head in genuine surprise, "I just ran into Sarah as well and she''s on her way, although you know, I think we should save this talk forter."

    After saying that, his gaze again settled on the ck bear, which had already recovered from the initial shock and was focused on James.

    The pressure emanating from the bear now was iparable to before, making it obvious that he had only been toying with Jay and Kesar.

    Of course, James was not far behind, his body immediately being enveloped by ayer of silver energy with some golden tones, his pupils also began to give off a golden colored glow.

    Since he released arge portion of his energy all at once, his presence managed to not only match, but even surpass that of the ck bear, though this was normal considering he was in his strongest state right now.

    He could estimate from the danger he felting from the bear that thetter was in the upper (C+) rank, so he could not afford to be careless.

    Having been raised as the descendant of an ancient and powerful sect of pugilists, hisbat power was anything but ordinary, and this was especially true when mentioning his mentality when fighting.

    For some other people it might be difficult to reach their optimal state, with a mindset ready to engage inbat without fear or any kind of hesitation, however, for James, this was routine.

    *SWOOSH!*

    Therge bear again brandished his ws in the air, creating another wave of wind des, just as with its pressure, this time the wind des were much stronger.

    While it had received an initial surprise due to the sudden attack and thetent danger he could senseing from the silver-haired pugilist, he was not intimidated at all, taking James'' actions as provocation.

    Faced with this, James, instead of backing away or trying to dodge, simply lunged forward at breakneck speed, raising one of his fists so that it made contact with the bear.

    *BAM!*

    When they hit his body, the des made a rtively loud sound, but beyond that, they could not achieve anything, only perhaps slightly dy the pugilist''s march.

    The next moment, the bear''s body shot off in the direction of theke, as a result of James hitting it hard. And not content with that, instead of stopping, James also broke into a run to chase the bear.

    ''...Geez...'' Jay thought as he watched the brief exchange of attacks between James and the big bear.

    It had only been a few seconds, but that had been enough for him to realize his friend''s great fighting strength.

    He had always been aware that James was quite strong, but he hadn''t really expected it to be to this degree, making him even doubt who would win between a confrontation between James and Jared, the former head of Wolf''s Fang and a ranked (C+) pugilist.

    Even if there was the difference in grades and the fact that thetter possessed a Core, Jay still thought that James had a fairly high chance of winning.

    At the same time, it also reminded him of the wide gap in power that existed between the two, while he would have to give it his all in order to escape from a monster like this bear, James could face it head to head and on top of that have the advantage, there was simply no point ofparison between the two.

    ''...I can''t wait to look for more hosts...''

    However, instead of discouraging Jay, this only further increased his desire to be stronger.

    *Thud thud*

    Suddenly, several bodies fell from the sky,nding near Jay and Kesar, who at the moment they saw them, quickly recognized that they were the unconscious people by theke....

    "He even has time to rescue these guys, your friend really is something else huh..." Kesar added as he saw this, taking advantage of the fact that they were now safe to sit Jay up, who had still been stuck to the trunk.

    "BOOSSSS!!!"

    At that moment, another person''s voice reached both of their ears, apanied by a silhouette speeding past them, heading directly towards where James and the bear were fighting.

    "..."

    "...Is he a friend of yours too?" Kesar asked.

    "No, that one I don''t know."

    As with James, this person''s speed had also been too fast for Jay to react in time with his radar, so it took him by surprise.

    Fortunately, judging by what the stranger had shouted, although it was a bit odd, it didn''t sound like he was an enemy.

    A short timeter, while James and the young pugilist were facing the big bear, Sarah and her temporary prisoner also arrived, causing Jay to let out a sigh of relief.

    With James his safety was already guaranteed, but if Sarah was added to the mix, then passing this test would only be a matter of time.

    ''Ah, having trustworthy people around you certainly is a nice thing~!''

    In that way, thinking in a manner corresponding to that of the Parasyte System''s [Carrier], Jay was able to rest for the remainder of the exam.

    ***

    On the morning of the next day, in the same grassy field where all the applicants had been the day before, one person was sitting in the middle, looking at a small map of the ind.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Aside from being quite detailed, the main function of this map was that it allowed one to see the energy fluctuations as well as the life force of each person present in the territory that the map had recorded.

    In this case, the territory recorded was the entire ind, which was a feature that showed that it was a developing territory of the Eitsirc Academy.

    This was a rather convenient advantage for when they had to take exams or simr activities, ensuring that the students had plenty of freedom but also making sure that they were not in too much danger.

    "Let''s see... we started with over 4,500 applicants and now there are less than 1,000.... this is worrying..." Said the same examiner who had teleported all the young people to the ind.

    Despite his normally tired and carefree attitude, even he couldn''t help but be a little nervous seeing these results.

    To tell the truth, although the applicants had never heard of such a thing as a pre-examination for admission by the Eitsirc Academy, that was because it was the first time it had been done.

    The examiner himself also had certain thoughts against this type of test as it was quite dangerous, unlike normal tests where only the amount of energy and the rank each applicant should be in ording to their age was measured, this type of test was much more risky.

    However, since the orders came from none other than the vice-principal, even if heined, he would not really aplish anything, so he could only obey.

    He had resigned himself to this, but now that he was seeing the results of this new test, a feeling of regret began to creep up inside him.

    "...Maybe if I should have talked to the vice principal before this happened..."

    "Haha, I don''t think you would have changed his mind that easily either, you know~?"

    "!"

    Suddenly, a girl''s vibrant voice sounded right next to him, causing him to be startled and stand up quickly.

    "M-Miss Tome, what a surprise to see you around here!" The examiner quickly replied, standing up and bowing slightly to the girl who had appeared at a moment''s notice, on his face a nervous expression.

    To his right, a silver-haired, blue-eyed girl surrounded by a mystical air and appearing to be no older than fifteen had suddenly appeared.

    His surprise was genuine in more ways than one, as the person in front of him was not only the head teacher of all the other magic teachers at the academy, but also because it was incredibly rare to see her under normal circumstances as she was usually on missions outside of the academy that required incredibly highbat power.

    The position of head teacher was quite important, being only three of them in the entire academy, each belonging to one of the three supers sses, and of course, being personalities known worldwide for both their strength and how exceptional they were.

    The examiner did not know the exact reasons why a head teacher, who was one of the most authoritative and influential people in the academy had to do these missions. However, he was sure that behind this tiresome job was a noble reason such as protecting the prestige of the academy or helping in monster invasions.

    As for why he would think this... it was because the examiner, as a magician, also admired this head teacher.

    "Well, I was about to leave the school to take care of other things, but something came up near here and I thought it wouldn''t hurt to take a look at this year''s applicants on the way... though it seems I''m a bit early." Said Tome looking at the huge empty grass field.

    "Oh, yeah, you''re a little early, it''s still about ten minutes before the pre-test is over, though I don''t know if you have that kind of time..." Added the examiner.

    As she looked at the grassy field, nostalgia slowly appeared in her eyes at the same time that her expression became softer, remembering times long gone.

    Although it was almost imperceptible, in the midst of that nostalgia, in the depths of her eyes, there was a small spot of sadness, however, just as fast as it came, it disappeared.

    "You know... you may think that this new type of test is too hard, that it''s too risky or that it''s counterproductive since the number of applicants who make it in will be really low, and I understand that." Said Tome again, "However, if they can''t even pass this, then the only thing they will achieve when they leave this academy will be a quick death. It doesn''t matter if they face monsters or viins, none of them will show mercy when facing them. We don''t want to form meat shields, but Supers who will actually manage to make a difference in this world."

    While her words might seem somewhat harsh, they were filled with a great deal of conviction, something the examiner could not deny.

    As more criminal organizations were appearing and monsters were multiplying out of control, the number of Supers who were willing to face these threats, which had been low since the start, was dwindling more and more.

    There were several reasons for this, starting with the always high mortality rate of these jobs caused by the constant attacks and traps by criminal organizations, the poor support that governments provided to the organizations in charge of dealing with the monsters, and finally, the shortage of supers, something that put even more pressure on the supers who had this kind of jobs.

    Faced with this, the Eitsirc Academy, although it was quite influential on a global level and had a huge amount of individual power in the form of teachers, it unfortunately couldn''t do much.

    "Thus, the only thing we can do in this case is... make them stronger, prepare them for whatever they are going to face in the future!" Added Tome as her final words while smiling at the examiner.

    "...I''m really sorry for questioning the decision of the vice principal and the head teacher!" Suddenly shouted the examiner, again bowing towards Tome.

    Seeing this, Tome just smiled before ruffling the examiner''s hair and saying, "It''s not like you have to obey us in everything, it''s also good that you have your own opinion, you know~"

    This action caused the examiner to blush a little, but fortunately for him, it didn''tst long, as Tome withdrew her hand soon after.

    "Well, I''d like to stay longer to see what this year''s applicants are like, but I must go, duty calls, until next time, Stefan~"

    After saying that, Tome made a ''Goodbye'' sign with her hands, the next moment, her silhouette became fainter and fainter until she finally disappeared.

    "...Ah, I wonder if it''s really necessary for me to wash my hair from now on..." Said the examiner after making sure Tome was really gone.

    *Pin*

    At that moment, his smart watch beeped, releasing the rm that indicated that exactly twenty-four hours had passed since the test began, meaning the time to finish the test and bring all the applicants back had arrived.

 Chapter 90 - Those Who Failed And Those Who Are Not Qualified

    ''Hm... I wonder when exactly I''ll be able to move again...'' Thought Jay, who was now lying on the wide grassy field that served as the waiting area for all the applicants.

    The pre-test had been over for a while now, and shortly after the head teacher had finished talking to the examiner, thetter had transported all the applicants who were on the ind back to this field, regardless of what state they were in.

    As a result, the camp that had been empty for a whole day was once again filled with all sorts of colorful people, although unlike the previous day, there were now quite a few noticeable differences in the vast majority of them, regardless of whether they belonged to the group ofmon supers or those who had some background.

    One thing they had inmon was the state of their clothes, with the vast majority having their clothes torn due to various reasons and looking pitiful, as was the case with Jay and Kesar, then there were those who while looking good in general, there were still traces that showed that they didn''t have an easy time at all, mainly due to their having a dirty and tired look.

    However, they were not the ones who were in the worst condition, since this position belonged to those applicants who presented an immense amount of wounds in their bodies and were about to copse, or were already unconscious on the grass field, making it quite clear that they had lost their battles, in this group were included the people that Jay and Kesar found in theke, who for some reason still did not wake up.

    Of course, while there was such a deplorable side, there was also the other extreme, a much smaller group of postnts whose appearance was pretty much the same as yesterday, indicating that this had been nothing more than a walk in the park for them, in this group were both James and Sarah, as well as several other supers who stood out from the rest.

    "Still can''t move?" Sarah, who was sitting next to Jay, suddenly asked.

    "Nope, nothing yet, I guess I''ll just have to wait..." He replied, letting out a sigh.

    "You know, I had heard that something like this could happen with pugilists, but this is the first time I''ve seen it happen to a esper." Added Kesar, who was also sitting nearby.

    "The same thing used to happen to me when I was a kid due to using more qi than I should have, haha~" Bastjan, the pugilist who had apanied James and now called him boss,ughed.

    "...Isn''t it supposed to be stupidly dangerous for you to use more qi than you should since you can even die if your body is overloaded with qi...?" Myrin asked quizzically, raising one of her eyebrows as she looked at Bastjan.

    "Haha, yes, my parents also said the same thing, but as you can see, I''m still 100% alive!" Bastjan replied with a confident smile on his face and flexing his biceps.

    Thanks to all the chatter of these people, the atmosphere around Jay was quite lively, something that didn''t really bother him at all, though of course, the same couldn''t be said about his two friends, or rather, one of them.

    "...Remind me why you''re all here...?" Sarah asked with an icy tone, in her eyes forming a dangerous gleam.

    While she normally behaved in a friendly and carefree manner with both Jay and James, her attitude changedpletely when she encountered strangers, just as everyone here was.

    Although this type of behavior had been quite reduced at school thanks to the fact that she was already somewhat familiar with the students after years of seeing them, it resurfaced as she was in an environment full of strangers.

    Immediately after Sarah said those words, the first person to react was none other than the person who experienced this side of Sarah first hand, Myrin, quickly fixing her posture and ducking her head.

    As for Kesar and Bastjan, while they didn''t act as decisively as Myrin, they could still sense that Sarah''s tone was not friendly at all, which was only bing more obvious with the slight pressure she was emitting, inevitably making them tense up.

    "Come on, don''t be so hostile, there''s nothing wrong with meeting new people." Said James, who had been quiet so far, trying to mediate between Sarah and the others.

    "Don''t worry guys, she might seem dangerous and threatening... and she is, but she''s really not a bad person, seriously-ouch!" Jay also added, although he had to let out a small cry of pain at the end due to Sarah jabbing one of her thumbs into his side.

    "Who are you calling threatening!"

    Although Jay had to pay a small price in the form of a sharp pain in his right rib, this managed to get the tense atmosphere to quickly rx.

    "Ahem!"

    Just at that moment, a grown man''s voice rang loudly throughout the field, causing all the people present to turn to the direction it came from.

    Floating about 10 meters above the ground, the sloppy-looking examiner reappeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

    "Now that I have your attention, I will proceed to read the results of this test, that is, those who managed to sessfully pass this little test."

    The moment he finished speaking, everyone present focused their attention on the examiner, extremely interested in what he was about to say.

    "As I said before, there was really no requirement to pass this test, with the exception of course, of surviving. Something I''m unfortunately seeing that many of your peers have failed." Said the examiner as his gaze rested on those applicants who were unconscious, "For obvious reasons, we really can''t allow any applicant to die, instead, we take into ount your energy and vitality levels throughout the test to verify whether you managed to ''survive'' or not."

    After saying that, the examiner waved his hand, causing a small transparent window to appear on his side, it was simr to the window in which the map of the ind had appeared, only this time, instead of the map, what could be seen were three small progress bars in red, green and orange, the first and second were full and had a 100% next to it, as for thest one, it was almost empty, with a 5% symbol next to it.

    "What you are seeing right now are my vitality, energy and energy output levels respectively. As you can see, I am perfectly fine in both energy and vitality, as for energy output, it is at a normal level. Now let''s look at that of one of your peers."

    Although the exact details of how these bars worked went beyond what the examiner had just exined, this simple exnation was enough for the applicants.

    The next moment, the examiner again waved his hand, causing the window showing the three bars to change, the percentages changing to 10%, 5% and 1%.

    "This is the window of one of your ssmates who unfortunately could not pass this test, with vitality and energy levels indicating that they''re in a state unfit for any kind of physical activity. The moment the vitality and energy bars drop to these percentages, we conclude that they have failed, then, I use a spell to make sure they remain unconscious while preventing them from being able to take further damage."<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''Hm, so that was it, I already thought it was weird that they didn''t wake up even after all this time.'' Jay thought, ''Anyway, to be able to keep a spell active on such a scale... the Eitsirc Academy is definitely on a whole different level...''

    It was an incredibly difficult task to keep a spell active on arge number of people, especially if these people were supers, and this was still the case even for a rank (B) mage such as the examiner, but despite this, he didn''t seem affected in the slightest.

    There was a reason for this, and that was that in reality, although the examiner was the one casting the spell, he did not have to spend any of his own mana, but could draw on the huge mana reserves of this grass field.

    Unbeknownst to the applicants, even to those mages sensitive to mana movement, the sensation of energy amplification they had felt the moment they entered the grass field was actually not because the Eitsirc Academy had prepared a special ground for them, but it simply was a side effect of being so close to such a huge mana reserve, which was located right under their noses.

    Of course, the examiner had no intention of telling the applicants any of this, after all, it was more beneficial that they thought that he was stronger than he appeared.

    "Now then, I will proceed to separate you ording to the lowest state of your energy and vitality levels during the test."

    After saying that, the examiner waved his two hands, two small magic circles forming on both hands and releasing a visible wave of energy that spread throughout the field, passing through everyone present.

    A secondter, the right wrist of all the postnts began to give off an orange glow

    "Woah, this... feels warm somehow!" Said one pugilist looking at his right wrist.

    "What spell is this...?" Another mage couldn''t help but ask.

    "How interesting, I can''t block it even using my ability." Added an esper genuinely surprised by this wave of energy.

    While everyone was observing the striking glow, another change began to ur in several postnts, with the glowing from their wrists turning different colors such as brown, silver, and finally, gold.

    Before the applicants could express their doubts about this sudden change, the examiner began to exin, "The different colors that appeared on your wrists indicate what your performance was on this test, brown means average, silver outstanding, and gold perfect."

    Taking a quick nce at all the applicants to verify that everything was in order, the examiner then wanted to continue, however, the voice of an applicant prevented this.

    "Excuse me, sir, my color is still orange." Said a somewhat dirty and unkempt looking young man who appeared to be a pugilist.

    "Mine is the same!"

    "Mine too."

    Like a domino piece, the firstment caused several other applicants to join in the first one''s movement, expressing their doubts.

    "Oh right, I''m really sorry, I forgot to mention, if the glow doesn''t change color, then I''m afraid that you are disqualified."

    "!"

    Immediately, the hearts of all the applicants whose wrists were still glowing orange, which were not few at all, were filled with worry.

    "But we''re still awake!" Said the pugilist, one could sense in his voice that he refused to believe what the examiner had just said.

    "Just as I said before, the evaluations are ording to the lowest point both your energy and vitality were at in the test, so even if you now have more vitality than a pugilist who reached grade (A), it would be the same. Although of course, if you want me to give you a more concrete reason, I can do that."

    Because the examiner noticed that the pugilist was not satisfied with what he had said, he also added thatst part.

    "Please show me the reason."

    Without waiting any longer, the examiner let out a brief sigh before the window beside him changed again, now showing the image of the same pugilist but in a deplorable state, lying on the wall of a cave and staring nkly, his body full of wounds andpletely devoid of the pressure that a super would emit.

    This was the result of having faced a monster and losing the fight, forcing him to run away and hide, waiting for him to regain energy to either continue running away or perhaps attempt to face the monster once more.

    "At that point, your injuries were too severe for you to even move, without my help, you wouldn''t have even been able to get out of that cave. If you had such a hard time staying alive, even if you remained conscious throughout the test, I''m afraid you''re not ready to receive the academy education yet."

    "I..."

    Faced with this, the pugilist could not refute again, bringing his gaze down due to the embarrassment he was feeling.

    The examiner was also feeling somewhat bitter, but it was at times like this that he had to remain strong, after all, this was for the very welfare of this pugilist.

 Chapter 91 - Trinity Pillars

    After watching the video where the pugilist was in such a sorry state along with the examiner''s exnation, things became quite clear to both the pugilist and all the other applicants whose wrists kept giving off an orange glow, making them feel frustrated.

    "Again, I''m really sorry, I should have mentioned that among the first things I said." Said the examiner.

    On the other hand, both Jay and Kesar were sweating profusely as they looked at their wrists, fearing that the brown color they currently had would suddenly turn an orange color.

    The reason for their concern was, of course, because they knew that using the criteria the examiner had just mentioned, the performance of both was extremely questionable.

    Both had used their energy to the limit repeatedly, Kesar even going so far as to pass out several times and Jay receiving a system message for going too far overboard, both ending up at a point where they were practically normal people walking around the ind.

    As for the fact that they could had ended up in a state as bad as the pugilist, it didn''t worry them, after all, it hadn''t really happened.

    ''And despite using all of our energy, we haven''t been disqualified...?'' Jay wondered, thinking about the answer to this question, ''Could it be... that my little ones kept us at an eptable level of energy and vitality at all times?''

    The moment he thought that, he seemed to have found the answer as it was quite feasible.

    Although they were his little ones and he shared a sort of mental connection with them, Jay and they were not the same individual, so even if he was tired, that didn''t necessarily mean his little ones were, which allowed them to be able to share their energy with him.

    This was a characteristic that Kesar had also been able to enjoy, directly influencing his spells.

    ''The only thing that doesn''t sit right with me is that the system told me they didn''t have enough energy to use Overload... though of course, that doesn''t mean they didn''t have any energy to share...''

    Soon after, Jay decided that there was really no point in thinking about it any further since hecked information, so he saved his curiosity for his questioning session with the system.

    As for Kesar, he came to the conclusion that thanks to his elemental zone, his energy levels were kept at the minimum eptable, and even though he fainted a couple of times, due to Jay being with him, it didn''t take him long to recover each time.

    "Anyway, for those of you who are taking the exam for the first time and have been disqualified, don''t leave yet, you can stay and watch the rest of the exam and thus better prepare for next year."

    Although a good number of applicants had been disqualified by failing this pre-exam, they still had another chance next year as the academy allowed two attempts per person, as for those who wereing for the second time and were disqualified... unfortunately they would have to look for another academy to study at.

    After that, the applicants who had already failed twice began to withdraw, while those who wereing for the first time, like the pugilist who asked the question, stayed.

    "Well, let''s proceed then with the next and penultimate part of the exam, although all of you have passed the pre-test and already have half a foot inside the academy, I remind you not to be confident, as the disqualified numbers may increase after this test."

    As he finished speaking, the examiner then brought his hand upward before bringing it down roughly, as if he was tugging on something.

    While it had seemed like a simple act, all the applicants, especially the mages, could sense that the examiner had used a considerable amount of mana in that seemingly simple movement.

    *BOOM!*

    The next moment, a huge object at least 50 feet tall descended from the sky and crashed to the ground, sticking firmly and creating arge cloud of dust.

    *BOOM!*

    However, before the postnts could see what it was that had fallen, two objects simr to the first also fell from the sky, sticking to the sides of the first object and further increasing the size of the dust cloud.

    "Are those... stone pirs?" Commented a dark green-haired young woman whose wrist was glowing a golden hue, indicating that she was one of the few applicants who scored a perfect score on the previous test.

    As a pugilist with exceptional tracking skills, being able to see through the dust clouds before they dissipated was something extremely easy for her.

    "Could it be that the next test is that we must break these pirs?" The young girl asked again.

    "Haha, youngdy, even if I were to attempt to break them, it would take at least a decade for me to even scratch them." Replied the examiner,ughing at the young girl''s naivement.

    *SWOOSH!*

    Turning his hand slightly, the cloud of dust immediately dissipated, finally revealing the figure of the stone pirs to all the applicants.

    They had seen that each of these was 50 feet tall, but after sticking into the ground, their height diminished to about 10 feet, though of course, that did not diminish the mystical air that surrounded each of these pirs.

    Their shapes, although they were those of pirs, had marks that divided them into three sections, although these marks were rough, as if instead of being made by a skilled craftsman, it was actually the product of a very clumsy giant.

    The next thing that caught the eye of the applicants was the color of each of them, being an incredibly dark ck which created a great contrast with the surrounding grass.

    Finally, and perhaps what had impressed the applicants the most, was that each of them could feel that there was an extremely small but condensed amount of energy in each of the pirs.

    Starting from the right, this pir radiated an energy brimming with vitality that if the applicants were not seeing that it was a stone pir and were only guided by their senses, they would undoubtedly mistake it for a real pugilist.

    The same happened with the other two pirs, the one in the center giving off a refreshing breeze of energy simr to that of an esper and thest pir on the left releasing a mystical mana.

    "These pirs... a-are they...?" Said one of the applicants who was near said constructions, captivated with the appearance of the pirs.

    All the other applicants then turned to the examiner because they were just as curious, if not more curious than the young man who had asked the question.

    Seeing this, the examiner smiled before beginning to speak, "Yes, they are, we call them Trinity Pirs, artifacts of unknown origin that date as far back as the Great Catastrophe. I''m sure a lot of you have heard of them."

    With the examiner''s confirmation, a new wave of excitement swept over all the applicants.

    Of course, this reaction was understandable; after all, they were standing before what were probably the best objects for assessing individual talent in the world.

    Although the examiner was also able to discern what level each of the applicants was at with his keen sensitivity to perceive energy, he had noparison to the ability of the pirs.<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, their excitementsted a rather short time as the examiner hurried them along.

    "Okay, now I need you to separate into three groups, mages, espers and pugilists and approach the pirs one at a time for your talent evaluation."

    Everyone present then proceeded to heed him, gathering into groups of their respective sses and approaching their corresponding pir, forming a line with those with perfect scores at the front, those with excellent scores in the middle and at the end those with average scores.

    As for Jay, being someone who had both the physical body of a pugilist and the skills of an esper, he had two choices.

    Fortunately, with Sarah''s help, he had already thought of a solution for this type of situation.

    From other people''s view, what was undoubtedly going to be more visible and easier to exin was his wind control, partly because the ability itself was quite shy and also because it was something Jay used on a daily basis, not just when he was in a dangerous situation.

    On the other hand, although he also possessed a far superior physical ability than any esper with a non-physical ability, it was overshadowed by Jay''s abundant use of Wind Control.

    Therefore, he had decided to pass himself off as an esper with a good physical build, as for the qi within him, Jay had also found a way to hide it.

    Bringing his gaze to his chest, specifically to the center, although he couldn''t see it directly, he could sense that a certain parasite particrly plumper than the rest was there, in a state of indefinite rest.

    A few days before they came to take the entrance exam, he and Sarah had both racked their brains trying to find some way to conceal this fact.

    Although Sarah could turn to one of her family members for help, she really didn''t want to do this because of the risk this could mean for Jay, it wasn''t that she didn''t trust her family, she just didn''t want to risk putting Jay in danger.

    Luckily, Jay remembered a certain property that the parasites proved to have when they assimted the cores of the Wolf''s Fang and Metal Body bosses, which was, of course, being able to absorb energy.

    Neither short norzy, Jay immediately put this idea to test, and with Sarah''s confirmation, the qi in his body had been sessfully hidden, with the only cost being that the parasite containing this energy had to be kept at rest at all times.

    ''Rx, it should be enough... it will definitely turn out fine...'' Jay thought, trying not to get nervous, closing his eyes and going to his happy ce.

    ''...Is it really okay for him to take the test in that state...?'' Kesar wondered, who was watching as Jay was standing only thanks to the help of Sarah''s levitation spell.

    ***

    While Jay was busy with his thoughts, a group of people were gathered in a certain part of Kluemwood, specifically, in the room of a karaoke bar.

    There were four people in total, three men and one woman, judging by their appearance, they appeared to be simple college students having a good time, with one of the men singing a song at the top of his lungs and the others talking amongst themselves.

    However, the content of the conversation was anything but normal.

    "Hm, and to think their security was actually so high, in the end none of our spies were able to infiltrate that damned ind." Said one of the men, his most distinctive features being his dark hair and sses.

    "That''s the academy for you, even if it''s just terrain in development, the difficulty is the same as invading a higher ranked martial sect." Commented another of the men, this time one with blond hair and a rough appearance.

    "Be that as it may, we must decide whether to follow the rest of the n or retreat, the longer we spend hesitating, the more risk we run." The woman added, one could tell in her voice that she was really worried.

    These people were nothing more and nothing less than executives of the Laers Guild, as for the n they were talking about, this one referred to trying to invade the ind where the examination of the applicants had taken ce.

    The objective was quite simple, just like other criminal and even some non-criminal organizations, the Laers Guild also had their eyes on the secrets of the Eitsirc Academy''s almost divine ability to be able to turn almost any terrain into domains where they had absolute control.

    Of course, not to mention analyzing the Eitsirc Academy''s controlled grounds, just getting close without being part of the student body or a faculty member was an incredibly difficult and dangerous task.

    Fortunately for them, they had an opportunity every year, an opportunity in which people from outside the aforementioned educational institution could enter, and with the academy''s own permission.

    The Laers Guild had also set to work, sending some "applicants" to try topile information.

    This was something they had done before, and they even had some students who made it into the academyst year and were constantly passing information to them.

    However, for some reason, this time, none of their fake applicants had contacted them so far.

    "Ahh, that definitely hit the spot~" Said the remaining man who had been singing passionately, unlike hispanions, he didn''t look the least bit worried about this situation, "Take that expression off your faces, especially you Ca, nothing is going to happen. The academy can be intimidating, but don''t you forget that we''re not simple supers either."

    After saying that, he intentionally allowed his energy to escape from his body, emitting the unmistakable pressure of a rank (B) super!

    Hearing his words, along with the man''s confident attitude, the others also rxed a bit.

    "Such great words."

    "!"

    Suddenly, the high-pitched, soft voice of a person was heard in the room, causing the people inside to quickly bring their gazes to where the voice came from.

    In the center of the small room, unnoticed by anyone, a 12-year-old girl had appeared, a mocking smile stered on her face.

    As trained supers, their speed of response to unexpected situations was incredibly high, taking less than a second for spells, pugilistic mes and bolts of energy to attack this girl.

    "Heh." In response, the girl only let out augh.

    Immediately, with her as the source, an incredibly thick darkness spread throughout the room, blocking out all light and sound in the room.

 Chapter 92 - Disgust

    In the same karaoke room, only a few seconds after the room had been enveloped in darkness, it took no time at all for the darkness to dissipate, gathering again towards the center, that is, where the girl was.

    The next moment, the darknesspletely disappeared and the girl emerged from it, in one of her hands was the bloodied body of the woman who had previously upied this room.

    As for the girl, her expression had changed from one of pride to one of disgust.

    "Cowards with shameful and disgusting tactics. Puh!" She said, going so far as to spit on the floor out of the disgust she was feeling.

    Even though she had managed to catch one of her targets, she was clearly not at all happy.

    The "battle" really didn''tst long, mainly thanks to the wide difference in strength between the girl, or rather, the head teacher of the Eitsirc Academy''s magic branch, Tome Acore, and the Laers Guild executives.

    Even if thetter were rank (B) supers, the oue would remain unchanged in the slightest.

    However, apparently these people were already aware of this fact, after all, the moment Tome enveloped them in her spell of darkness, meaning that they no longer had a chance to escape, they, without hesitating even for a second, proceeded to purposely decontrol their energy.

    This action caused their bodies to enter a state of imminent self-destruction, if one took into ount that the energy within them was by no means small as all of them were rank (B) supers, it was already easy to imagine how dangerous the explosion of not one, but all four of them at the same time would be.

    Of course, Tome did not stand idly by, but quickly forcibly stabilized the bodies of all four using her own mana. Normally, this would be enough, but for some reason, the moment Tome interacted with the energy inside them, their bodies wentpletely haywire, exploding immediately.

    Due to how sudden and unexpected this reaction had been, she was only able fully concentrate to stabilize the energy thus saving one of the four people, the lucky one... or unlucky one depending on one you looked at it, this time being the only woman of the group.

    "Laers Guild..." She said, one could notice that in her voice, there was an incredible amount of contempt and disgust.

    What caused these emotions in Tome was not the fact that these people were part of the guild or that they had tried to enter the academy with dark intentions, in fact, that was really the least of it.

    What really bothered her however, was how little human lives seemed to matter to said organization, using four people as if they were mere disposable objects.

    *Ring*

    At that moment, before her emotions reached the point where they could almost solidify, her smartwatch began to beep.

    As if this sound brought her back to reality, Tome shook her head before letting out a sigh and answering the call.

    "Hey, I felt arge energy fluctuation in Kluemwood, that must mean you''re done, right?" Said a woman''s voiceing from the small technological device.

    "Yes, I''m done... although I was only able to secure one person, the others self-destructed, what''s more, they did it with a technique that even I haven''t seen so far." Tome replied, beginning to describe exactly what had happened, emphasizing the strange energy she felt inside these executives.

    Although her emotions had caused her to get a little out of control, she managed to calm down quickly, after all, she knew what reporting these events was more important than whatever it was she was feeling.

    "Strange energy that reacts violently and elerates the process of self-destruction? Alright, I''ve got it written down, I''ll notify the vice-principal and I''ll also start investigating it personally." Said the woman again, although she wasn''t finished, "By the way, I know this must have made you sick, soe to the manor, so you can rest for a while after so many missions."

    The woman knew Tome well enough to know that her mood had taken a turn for the worse after whad had happened, so she wanted to cheer her up even a little.

    "I appreciate the offer, but I really can''t afford to waste much time, I still have a lot of missions toplete before I can pay off the debt I got from standing up to that stupid violent old woman." Tome said, looking out into the non-existent horizon of the room with an expression of a person serving a sentence.

    "I managed to get cupcakes baked by Zena~" The woman said again.

    Immediately, Tome''s ears pricked up, though her expression didn''t change nor did she stop looking at the horizon, her body made it clear that thisst sentence had caught her attention.

    "Well... I think I can afford a little break..."

    With those words as herst, Tome then proceeded to make her way to a certain ce away from the city, not without first restraining and hiding her prisoner, of course.

    ***

    Back at the Eitsirc Academy, the talent examination was still in progress, the atmosphere in the surroundings was somewhat bustling due to the fact that the applicants couldn''t help but chat among themselves about the results of the people who had already been evaluated.

    Thanks to that fact, everyone had been able to see more exactly how these pirs worked.

    An applicant had to approach their corresponding pir, then, they had to press their hand against the pir and release their energy at a steady pace.

    And it was at that moment that the pir would begin to change, depending on the applicant''s results.

    First, there was the grade the applicant was in, which was indicated by the three big lines on the body of each of the pirs, one line at the bottom, the next one in the middle, and thest one at the top.

    If the bottom line was illuminated, it meant that the applicant was in rank (D), if it was the middle one, it meant rank (C), and the top part was rank (B).<novelnext></novelnext>

    Next was the talent, or rather, the potential of each of the applicants, although the way in which each pir evaluated a postnt differed due to ss differences, that did not affect the results at all.

    For example, in an esper, only one aspect was evaluated, which was the potential of his ability itself, in a pugilist, it was the quality of his body and his affinity with qi, as for mages, it was both the affinity and the control they had with mana.

    It was in this assessment that the pirs differed, with the pir for espers beginning to give off a green glow from the cracks in their body when a postnt touched it, just as if they were veins and the energy of a postnt was blood, the more "veins" that lit up, the better the esper''s potential.

    The pir for pugilists on the other hand, the moment it came in contact with a pugilist''s qi, a golden colored sh would appear inside, and depending on the purity of the color and the size of the sh, the pugilist''s potential was judged.

    Finally, the pir for mages, this had a small circle inside severalrger circles, for a total of seven circles, which lit up in a blue color when a mage released their mana into the pir, starting with the smallest circle and expanding outward.

    Although the way of evaluating was different depending on the pir, the scores were divided in a manner quite simr to that of the pre-test, starting with Average, Outstanding, Excellent and Special.

    So far, the evaluations had been positive, with most of the postnts achieving the Outstanding and some even the Excellent grade, although that was to be expected since those who had been evaluated first were none other than the postnts who had obtained a perfect score on the pre-test.

    Of course, while those postnts were carefree thanks to their results, that was not the case for the others, who felt pressured by seeing such good results, and that the examiner had said he would disqualify more people if they got a double Average grade only made it worse.

    However, they could do nothing more than mentally prepare for the evaluation.

    After a few minutes, Sarah''s turn came, so she proceeded to calmly advance to her corresponding pir, cing her hand on it before releasing her mana.

    "Ah, Miss Abner, for best results, I need you to focus all your attention on the pir, so you will need to release the levitation spell you are using." Said the examiner suddenly, stopping Sarah.

    Hearing his words, the mage turned her head slightly to look at Jay, who apparently knew what wasing and just smiled, making it clear that he didn''t really mind.

    *Pam*

    With that sound, Jay fell to the ground, causing other applicants to look at him strangely, though he only let out an "I''m fine" in response.

    The next moment, somewhat more rxed due to Jay''s attitude, Sarah released her mana into the pir.

    *Chhk*

    Immediately, a bright blue liquid lit up the circle, continuing to the second, third and so on,ing uninterrupted all the way to the fifth circle, which was the point where Sarah seemingly reached her limit, a few beads of sweat running down her face.

    "Hm, a good handle for a mage in the (C-) grade, with a strong but controlled mana flow, not bad at all." Commented the examiner, "Excellent talent."

    "Still... I''m not done yet!" Sarah said suddenly, raising her voice at the same time as the mana inside her kicked in to the limit.

    At that moment, the flow of mana that was filling the pir and barely seemed to be able to fill the fifth circle moved wildly, filling the sixth circle almost forcibly.

    Unfortunately, without even a second having passed, all the circles went out at the same time, indicating that Sarah was no longer able to keep it up.

    However, the examiner''s expression changedpletely upon seeing this.

    "...Apparently I judged too early, you undoubtedly possess a Special grade talent. You will continue to maintain your perfect score." He added, smiling kindly.

    It was not only the examiner who was surprised, but all the other applicants were also impressed to see this, it was the first time someone had gotten a Special rating after all.

    Faced with this, Sarah only let out a satisfied sigh before bowing slightly to the examiner and returning to the field along with the other applicants who had already been evaluated, not before lifting Jay up again with her levitation spell of course.

    ''I knew she wasn''t a normal mage...!'' Thought Myrin, who had been watching Sarah''s evaluation closely, excited that her suspicions had been confirmed as true.

    Even among those with perfect scores, she had been the first to achieve that grade, so she hastily added Sarah''s name to her list and ced her in the "Top 100 supers I should watch out for."

    The evaluations continued, with the applicants consciously trying to do their best to achieve a Special score after seeing Sarah''s example, though of course this was easier said than done.

    Finally, it was the turn of the person both Jay and Sarah were most looking forward to.

    A tall, silver-haired, serious-looking young man then began to walk toward the pugilist''s pir, attracting the attention of most of the applicants.

    The reason he attracted the attention of the others was not only because of his appearance, but also because it was as if he had appeared from one moment to the next, making them only now be aware of his presence.

    ''James Mahar, descendant the Emperor''s Gate... such a young age and he''s already able to hide his presence from other supers, how promising.'' Thought the examiner, watching as the young man approached.

    Under the watchful eye of all present, this pugilist began his evaluation.

 Chapter 93 - Without Knowing It, A Desire Grows Inside

    Not caring much about the stares of the others thanks to the fact that he was already used to this kind of attention, James advanced until he reached the pir.

    *SHN!*

    As soon as his hand made contact with the pir, a shimmering glow emerged from its center, a pristine golden color so powerful that if someone who hadn''t seen the pir''s original color saw it right now, they would definitely think the pir was golden in the first ce.

    "This..." Seeing this reaction, even the examiner was greatly surprised, not knowing exactly how to react.

    This was clearly an evaluation worthy of the special grade, which would make it the second case all day, however, what was more impressive was that unlike Sarah, this time the applicant was able to maintain this state for longer,sting approximately 10 seconds before the glow dissipated.

    However, although the examiner felt quite well that the pir approved of James, he was not the only one who could sense this, but all the pugilists present, especially those in the (C) rank, were aware that at this moment, it was difficult to distinguish where James'' qi began and where the pir''s qi ended.

    "WAY TO GO BOSS, SHOW THEM WHO''S IN CHARGE!!!" Bastjan shouted, in his eyes fervent mes of admiration and not caring at all that the people around were looking at him strangely.

    ''Geez, just having one person with Special ranking is already a good thing, but now that there are two, it looks like we''re having good luck this year.'' Thought the examiner, trying to hide his smile of joy.

    This was normal, after all, the more talented the applicants were, the more beneficial this would be for the Academy.

    "Ahem, your evaluation is Special, and just like Miss Abner, you will still keep your perfect score." Said the examiner, coughing to disguise his surprise.

    As pleased as he was, he couldn''t show favoritism in front of the other applicants... at least not openly.

    "Thank you." With those words, James also retreated to where Sarah.

    His attitude was somewhat simr to that of the aforementioned mage, one could even say he went further, acting nonchnt towards the results of his evaluation, as if it was something he already knew would happen.

    Despite the stares of all the applicants on him, James never once looked back, except of course at Bastjan, to whom he only signaled to stop being so loud, as he had not stopped shoutingpliments at him.

    Of course, this attitude, coupled with his talent and appearance, made some people inevitably think that he was arrogant, and using that as a basis, a feeling of animosity grew within him.

    Though of course, not everyone was like that, but there were certain people who saw this attitude differently, as if it was a quality that further highlighted how striking James was.

    "Well, let''s get on with it, there are still many to be evaluated."

    After saying those words, the focus of attention that had been James so far shifted back to each applicant approaching the pirs for evaluation.

    Now that the number of applicants who got perfect scores in the pre-test had been reduced to less than 10, it meant that the turn of those who scored lower than them wasing up.

    Of course, there were a couple of surprises first, though, as of thesest few applicants with perfect scores, 2 of them also got a special ranking on their pir assessment.

    Coincidentally, they were a mage and a pugilist, with the mage looking like a schr who came from an influential family and the pugilist a simple tough and energetic looking girl.

    Like James, these two people also immediately earned themselves a ce on Myrin''s list of dangerous people.

    Other than that, the evaluations went on smoothly and quickly, a couple of hours passed until finally it was the turn of Sarah and James'' "partners" respectively, who despite trying their best, only managed to get an Outstanding rating, not bad at all, but they couldn''t help but feel a bit bad about this.

    After this, they spent another two hours with the pirs working at full power, eventually reaching the most numerous applicants, those who had scored Average in the pre-test.

    And it was only then that it was the turn of the person who had also caught the attention of the other applicants but not because of his appearance or the pressure he was emitting, as had been the case with James and Sarah.

    Instead, it was mostly due to the attention he was receiving from thetter two, also starting with his apparent inability to be able to move on his own, having to resort to the help of a levitation spell from the light blue-haired mage and ending with the fact that the person who was helping him get to the pir was none other than James.

    Because of this, the attention of the applicants was also focused on him, eager to know what made this person special.

    "...Oh, that''s odd, an energy overload, I guess something like that can still happen...even if you possess such a small amount of energy." Commented the examiner giving Jay a nce.

    He had long noticed the unusual state of this applicant, but it was only now that he observed him carefully that he could tell that the cause of Jay not being able to move his body was because all the muscles in his body had be overloaded with energy.

    As a teacher and also as a rank (B) mage, he had seen this kind of condition before, although this was the first time he had seen it happen to a rank (D+) super.

    The reason was simple, and that was that a rank (D+) super did not normally have the amount of energy to be able to overload his body to such an extent.

    However, it was still possible, so the examiner didn''t think much of it and set about helping him, pulling out a small vial with a green colored liquid inside and passing it to James.

    "It''s a simple recovery potion for espers, you''ll recover quickly if you drink it."

    Hearing his words, James didn''t hesitate long and helped Jay take it.

    "Ohh, this is good!" Jay replied getting up as he staggered around, slowly feeling the control he had over his body increase more and more, "Thanks!"

    Just then, without another second passing, a transparent window appeared in front of him, indicating that the system had a message for him.

    _____________________

    [Emergency Mission: Dangerous Meddler!]

    Description: Due to the interruption of a third party, the process of synchronizing the [Carrier]''s body with the new system parameters received a huge energy boost, speeding up the process tremendously. Unfortunately, this will also put a huge load on the [Carrier]''s body.

    Requirements: Stay conscious for 5 minutes.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Reward: Full Synchronization.

    _____________________

    ''...That doesn''t sound goo-''

    *SHK!*

    "ARGH!"

    Without even waiting for Jay to finish his thought, all control of his body suddenly returned at once, however, it came apanied by an indescribable pain that assaulted every fiber of his being, forcing him to fall to his knees and putting his arms on the ground for support.

    The sensation was simr to when he received the Wind Control skill, but much more painful, though fortunately for him, it didn''t quite reach the level of when he assimted the [Limit Breaker].

    "Jay!"

    Seeing this, both James and Sarah immediately became concerned and moved to be able to help him, however, the person they were worried about suddenly raised his hand to stop them.

    "I-I''m fine!" He managed to say, an expression of difort stered on his face.

    Then, Jay stood up with great difficulty, a product of his body being in incredible pain, but gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain, he proceeded to slowly advance towards the pir of espers, under the watchful eyes of everyone present.

    However, while the postnts were also somewhat puzzled by Jay''s sudden copse, there was one person who was even more surprised.

    ''...What just happened?'' Thought the examiner, truly confused by what he had just seen.

    The moment Jay took the potion, what should have happened was that he simply recovered, however, although he did seem to have regained the ability to move, this also caused a violent reaction in his body, which made even standing up difficult for him.

    Therefore, wanting to know the exact cause of this reason, the examiner immediately took a close look at Jay''s body.

    Few things in this world could remain hidden from the sight of a rank (B) mage, so what was going on inside Jay''s body was exposed to the examiner.

    A few secondster, the examiner turned his gaze to the small ss vial in which the healing substance had been.

    ''...Could it be that the potion was defective?''

    That was the conclusion he came to after observing that there was really nothing strange about Jay''s body, so his attention inevitably fell on the cause of this reaction, the potion.

    "I''m extremely sorry, it seems that the potion I used was defective, and I''m afraid that it might affect your performance in this test, since it was my mistake then you can rest until your condition improves." Said the examiner, feeling guilty for what just happened.

    Although normally people with high status eithering from their backing or their individual power were incredibly proud, this was not the case with the examiner, even though he had all the qualifications to be one, he knew how to recognize when he had made a mistake.

    "Examiner, excuse me but wouldn''t that be unfair to everyone else?" Suddenly asked a young man who was standing with the other applicants who had already finished their evaluation, "I mean, taking away the potion thing, he ended up in that state on his own, so he should take the consequences of his actions. If you allow him to dy his evaluation, then you should also allow all of the other applicants to rest until they are in an optimal state."

    Hearing these words, the postnts present could not deny that it made sense, although they did not know why this young man was speaking for their benefit, they also did not think it was wrong to support this.

    Of course, even if they agreed, the one who had the final decision was the examiner, who while respected the opinions of the applicants, would not let his decision be swayed so easily.

    "This time it was my fault, so-"

    Before he could finish answering, however, Jay raised his voice, "Please let me take the evaluation right now!"

    This took both the examiner and the other applicants by surprise, after all, they could all see that he was having quite a bit of difficulty even standing up, and now that the examiner wanted to help him, he actually decided to refuse this help!

    "...Are you sure?" The examiner asked.

    "Yes, I am." Jay replied, smiling as beads of sweat trickled down his cheeks and his body was constantly shaking.

    James wanted to protest as well, but seeing the look on Jay''s face, he knew it would be pointless, so he just stayed close in case something bad happened.

    "...Haa, well, if that''s the way you prefer it, then please proceed."

    With those words as a trigger, Jay began to release his energy into the pir, watching as a few small "veins" slowly filled up.

    Since he had to concentrate on fighting the sensation of pain that ravaged his body at the same time he inserted his energy into the pir, his consciousness became increasingly blurry.

    One thing that did not change, however, was the smile on his face.

    There was a reason why he had decided to refuse the examiner''s help, and that was due to nothing more and nothing less than the fact that at this moment, he felt his potential was at its highest.

    In such a tense and unfavorable moment, the nervousness he was feeling at the beginning disappeared long ago, being forcibly reced by the pain-driven motivation in his body!

    *SHNN*

    The number of veins illuminated on the pir continued to increase at an inconsistent rate, with Jay''s energy sometimes illuminating 2 veins and other times more than 7, sometimes even turning off some and turning on others, creating an unusual sight for all the applicants.

    Finally, after about 10 seconds of arduous efforts, the pir determined the rank of Jay''s talent.

 Chapter 94 - New Shackles But Also A Badge

    "Talent...Excellent!" The examiner said, alternating his gaze between the pir for espers and Jay.

    The reason he was watching Jay so closely was because his use of energy was rather odd.

    Normal would be a steady flow, which depending on the power of the esper would cause the speed and amount of veins in the pir being filled to be different.

    As to why that would be normal, it was because all espers had gradually gotten used to their innate abilities, giving them generally good control over their energy.

    In contrast, Jay''s evaluation had been rather spotty, it was almost as if he didn''t know how to control his energy and was doing it purely on instinct, in fact, the examiner was sure that this was the case.

    However, even with this, although there was undoubtedly an eye-catching show, Jay did not qualify for an Excellent score.

    Then, why had the examiner said that Jay possessed Excellent grade talent when he didn''t really qualify?

    Simple, because even managing his energy with pure instinct, Jay hade incredibly close to reaching the Excellent standard, and ultimately, at all times remained at the standard of the Outstanding grade.

    While he had told all the applicants that the evaluation was going to be entirely dependent of the pirs, there were exceptions where he had to step in because it would be a waste not to take advantage of a stone that had the potential to be a diamond.

    "A-alright, thanks~!" Jay said, his gaze somewhat unfocused after giving his best for this evaluation, both physically and mentally.

    He then tried to take a few steps away from the pir, however, he didn''t manage to take even one before his body began to fall.

    Fortunately for him, James caught him before he hit the ground.

    "Thanks for that too..."

    With that, they both quickly retreated back to where Sarah and the others were.

    Although the applicants kept their attention on the pair for a little longer, it didn''tst long before they lost interest and focused on the remaining evaluations.

    ''Hm...''

    Except for a certain person, the same young man who had earlier objected to Jay resting before taking his evaluation, his gaze still focusing on said person, in his eyes an obvious interest, as if he was trying to decipher Jay.

    As for his appearance, he was wearing a simple white shirt along with ck cks that went well with his rtively long hair of the same color which was tied back in a small ponytail, if one added to that his height of at least 6''4" plus his slender and handsome physique, it created quite an attractive image.

    Although he didn''t quite reached James'' level, he would certainly give Carl some hardpetition!

    "!"

    However, the next moment, his gaze immediately shifted to focus towards Jay''s side due to the fact that he felt a great pressure heading towards him, as to the source of this pressure, it was none other than Sarah, who had clearly noticed the young man''s actions.

    "Oh, how scary..." Said the young man, his demeanor being in stark contrast to what he had just said.

    It was clear that he really wasn''t afraid of Sarah, but since he didn''t want to draw suspicion on himself or even get into unnecessary trouble with this particr mage, he averted his gaze.

    Thus a few minutes passed, with Jay remaining in a state where he could lose consciousness at any moment but somehow being able to endure.

    Finally, after those torturous minutes passed, the message Jay was waiting for appeared before him.

    _____________________

    [Emergency Mission: "Dangerous Meddler!"pleted.]

    [Reward: Full Synchronization.]

    Remark: Serves you right!

    _____________________

    The moment Jay''s eyes finished reading the contents of the message, he instantly stopped feeling that unpleasant sensation and instead felt as if his entire body quickly warmed up before cooling down in a matter of seconds.

    Fortunately for him, everything was back to normal, with ''everything'' referring to the control he had over his body, though of course, Jay wasn''t so convinced of this.

    ''I doubt the system put me through this for no reason...'' He thought, still not getting up due to wanting to get some rest after being under so much pressure, ''Open, system, question, exactly what did you just synchronize?''

    Then, to clear up his doubts, he asked the system a question, which, to his surprise, was answered truthfully.

    _____________________

    Answer: Due to the [Carrier]''s repeated attempts topletely exhaust all the energy reserves of his body, greatly neglecting his safety, the system decided to create a limit for the use that the [Carrier] will be able to give to his body.

    For more information, please open the [Energy Usage] status window.

    _____________________

    Upon finishing reading the message, Jay immediately opened the status window, although it was the first time he had done so, the system understood his intentions perfectly.

    _____________________

    [Energy Usage]

    Current Energy Expenditure: 5%/hour - Normal-Stable.

    Energy Recovery: 5%/hour - Normal-Stable.

    Avable Energy Quantity (AEQ): 85% - High-Stable.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Avable Amount of Energy (Parasitic): 80% High-Stable.

    Description: These parameters show the most important aspects about the [Carrier]''s energy usage, it is expected that from now on, using the help of this window, the [Carrier] can be more careful with its actions.

    Warning: If the [AEQ] ever drops below 5%, the system reserves the right to take control of the [Carrier]''s body to ensure its survival.

    _____________________

    ''...Ah, this... now this is unexpected...'' Jay thought, a helpless smile on his face, not convinced if this new function would be beneficial to him.

    Unfortunately, he couldn''t change this new system function, after all, he knew better than anyone that the system did things its own way, and even if he was the [Carrier], he could only abide by the rules.

    Although of course, he wouldn''tin either due to the fact that the culprit of the system creating this new window was himself, who time and time again put himself in danger and wanted to break his limits, not caring too much about the consequences.

    As a result, the system had put him in shackles that would most likely stay with him for quite some time.

    ''Hm, well, I guess I''ll just have to figure out better how to use my energy for the time being.''

    While he was interested in pushing all of these functions to their limits to test their uracy, especially the one about the system possessing his body, this was not the time to do so, so he just had to settle for sitting back and waiting for the exam to be over.

    "Hey, exactly... what did you just do...?" Sarah suddenly asked softly, quietly enough so that only Jay could hear her.

    "What do you mean?"

    "...Your energy justpletely changed, normally it runs rampant throughout your body, but now it''s like it''s flowing in an incredibly smooth and controlled way." She said as her gaze focused on Jay''s chest, in her eyes a small magic cirble to get a better look inside.

    Hearing her words, Jay turned his gaze to see if anyone else had noticed this, but to his luck, only Sarah had focused her attention on him.

    "I''ll tell you when we''re alone." He replied, also whispering, though now more interested in what Sarah had just said.

    He could feel how these new parameters changed something in his body, and this was confirmed by the system, but until he tested the specific effects this brought, he would have no way of knowing to what degree his body had changed.

    Though of course, that didn''t stop him from fantasizing and starting to simte scenarios in his head.

    Seeing Jay again lost in thought, Sarah just let out a sigh and brought her gaze back to the remaining applicants being evaluated, she didn''t really cared about them, but with nothing better to do, she would have to endure.

    As for James, despite having been close to both Jay and Sarah, due to a certain young pugilist who kept asking him questions about his training, he didn''t notice the change in Jay''s body.

    A few more hours passed, and finally, the evaluations were over.

    Unfortunately, although arge number of applicants managed to avoid getting a double average score and thus not be disqualified, the talent test was simply too cruel, destroying the chances of hundreds of applicants.

    Thus, the applicant pool, whose numbers on the first day were in the thousands, had now been reduced to less than one ninth, leaving just a little over 900 applicants in the field.

    Seeing this, the examiner couldn''t help but feel a bit sorry for the postnts, but he quickly shook off that feeling and prepared to deliver his final message.

    "To everyone here, let me congratte you, you have proven to rise above the challenges we have set for you and prove that you are truly ready to forge your own destinies."

    Although the tone of voice the examiner was using was normal, all the applicants unconsciously became emotional.

    Of course, this was understandable, after all, the person who was congratting them at this moment was a rank (B) mage, andst but not least, because his words meant that they had seeded in passing the entrance exam of the best educational institution for supers in the world!

    "As of this moment, you are all students of the Academy!" Shouted the examiner.

    After saying that, he swung his arm horizontally,unching another wave of energy that swept through the bodies of everyone present.

    But unlike the first time he did this, this wave of energy was moreplex, having several effects imbued in it.

    Firstly by eliminating the residue of mana in the body of the postnts, getting rid of the light bracelets on their wrists, secondly by filling them with energy and even healing them slightly, and thirdly, what was undoubtedly the most striking effect, forming small fireballs in front of each of the postnts.

    These fireballs had different colors, the vast majority being red, a few silver and a handful being gold.

    Then each of these fireballs began to get smaller and smaller, releasing crackling sounds in the process, as if they were not just fireballs and were actually burning something inside.

    Slowly, the mes faded, revealing what was inside them.

    "They''re badges!" Shouted an excited postnt who recognized the object inside his fireball.

    With his shout, everyone else present became excited to see that just as he had said, the fireballs contained badges inside.

    Obviously, these badges were not normal, they were nothing more nor less than the unmistakable symbol by which a student of the Eitsirc Academy could be identified.

    In a matter of seconds, the fireballs dissipated,pletely exposing the badges.

    Their size was notrge at all, barely reaching 5 centimeters in height and 4 in width, as for their design, it was quite simple, having the shape of a shield and 3 spaces of equal size inside, with one space being upied by a sun, another by a moon and thest space by what appeared to be a miniature mountain.

    Of course, these three symbols, which were the logo of the Eitsirc Academy, were not randomly chosen shapes and had a meaning that had to do with the three sses of supers, or rather, their founders.

    The sun represented the espers, and especially their founder, alluding to the fact that she was a light of hope for the human race when they were at their darkest moment.

    The moon represented the mages, again, emphasizing the founder, who despite staying in darkness almost all her life, at the moment she came out, she managed to shine as brightly as the sun.

    Finally, the mountain, representing the pugilists, but most of all the founder and the ideal that all pugilists admired, that no matter what kind of difficulties he encountered on his way, he would remain as firm, persevering and imposing as a mountain.

 Chapter 95 - Two Night Meetings

    "For some reason... even though it onlysted a day, it felt like it was a lot longer, don''t you think?" Said Jay, who was lying on the bed of his hotel room.

    After each of the remaining applicants had received their badges, there was no reason for them to remain on the academy grounds, so after the examiner gave them a simple exnation about what to do now that they were students, they all began to leave.

    Of course, this included Jay''s group, ending with Sarah, James and him heading back to the hotel they had checked into a while back.

    Fortunately for them, they had been cautious and booked a whole week, just in case.

    As for Kesar and the others, they had to part ways eventually, not before they had exchanged their contact information with Jay, of course.

    "I guess it''s because you''re not familiar with that kind of environment." Sarah replied, who was unexpectedly looking at something on her smartwatch while sitting on the edge of the bed.

    Thinking she was right, Jay nodded and continued thinking of his own things, generating a hushed atmosphere in the room.

    Although Jay himself was usually the one who kept the atmosphere lively, now that he had several things to think about, he was busy, if one added the fact that Sarah was also not in the mood to keep the conversation going, the silence dragged on longer than expected.

    As for James, he was currently not with them because he had some business to attend to.

    Finally, after a few minutes passed, Jay suddenly sat down on the edge of the bed before speaking.

    "Hm, it''s kind ofte already, we should go to sleep, don''t you think?"

    This time turning off her smartwatch and shifting her gaze to another side of the room, Sarah again replied, "Yeah... that would be the best if we want to wake up early tomorrow."

    Despite both of them saying that, neither showed any signs of moving, which went on for a short while longer, it was almost as if they were both waiting for something from the other.

    "...Do you want to go training?"

    "I thought you wouldn''t ask!"

    From the moment they left the Academy grounds, even though they were tired, they still continued to feel a desire for wanting to test their abilities, Sarah because she wasn''t satisfied with the performance of her tattoos and Jay because of the new parameters of the system.

    Therefore, not wanting to waste any more time, they both hurried out of the hotel room before heading out into the city.

    Fortunately for them, although it was somewhatte, there was no shortage of ces in Kluemwood City where they could practice.

    One of these ces was the Midnight Dojo, which had dozens of special rooms and other types of grounds for supers to unleash their powers without fear of the repercussions this could bring, always charging a price of course.

    Upon entering the building, a friendly looking young man greeted them both, "Good evening, wee to the Midnight Dojo, the only dojo in the city that''s open even after midnight."

    His tone, while energetic, was also respectful, though of course this was normal, after all, one never knows if the peopleing through the door were simple young supers or people with a scary background.

    "Hi, we would like to rent a grade (C) roo, please." Jay replied as he pulled out his special leather wallet...the same one that some time ago had belonged to the boss of Wolf''s Fang.

    As for why he had kept it even though it was a risk, it was nothing more and nothing less because he found it convenient and cool.

    The moment he pulled out his wallet, the metallic sheen of the Eitsirc Academy badge inevitably caught the receptionist''s attention.

    "Ah, you''re students of the Academy?" The receptionist asked, an admiring smile stered on his face.

    As a resident of Kluemwood City, he was fully aware of what an academy student badge looked like, which caused him to be unconsciously excited.

    One must know that although the existence of the Eitsirc Academy in other parts of the world was a sign of admiration and respect, in this particr city, the admiration reached apletely different level.

    "Is there a problem?" Jay asked.

    "Not at all, in fact, it''s the opposite, taking into ount that you have a bronze badge, you are entitled to receive a 20% discount to the price of the room you''re going to rent." Replied the receptionist with a smile on his face.

    Hearing that, Jay blinked a couple of times before extending his hand towards Sarah, who quickly understood what he wanted and also pulled out her golden badge.

    "A g-g-gold badge?!"

    Just like that, with a 50% discount, they both managed to rent a grade (C) room with no problem at all.

    With the predominant color being white, both the walls and floor had a checkered design that looked pretty good for a training room.

    Size-wise, Jay estimated that at least 2-3 three-story houses could fit inside this room without it feeling crowded.

    Putting aside any other thoughts, Jay stood at one end of the room while Sarah stood on the opposite side, the energy of both beginning to fluctuate.

    *Swoosh*

    Without waiting any longer, the first to move was Jay, running at full speed as a current of wind enveloped his entire body, increasing his speed even more.

    Seeing this, Sarah simply changed her position to a fighting one, putting her arms in front of her and waiting for Jay to arrive.

    Unlike the exam time, this time only one of the tattoos on her body was lighting up, this one in question was the one that activated a strengthening spell, increasing her physical strength.

    Even though she wasn''t using nor did she n to use any of her stronger spells right now, it was clear that Sarah had the absolute advantage in this fight, so instead of taking this training seriously, she decided to take note of Jay''s progress.

    ''His speed is iparable to when he first learned Phantom Trace... and what''s more, he doesn''t seem to be using this technique, not bad at all.'' Sarah thought, pleased with the progress Jay had made in this rtively short time.

    In a matter of seconds, Jay reached where Sarah was standing,unching a kick towards thetter''s face.

    The next moment, before his kick could make contact, Sarah''s hand tightly grabbed his ankle to throw him upwards,pletely ignoring the force behind this attack.

    ''Unlike his physical capabilities, it seems that hisbat level hasn''t really improved that much...''<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, to her, this was understandable, after all, as amazing as Jay''s skill was, allowing him to assimte other supers'' skills, this would not make hisbat standards improve, and without a person to teach him or proper learning material, this oue was inevitable.

    Just at that moment, right when Sarah was about to throw him into the air, the entire current of wind in the vicinity suddenly rushed towards Jay''s leg, and then, almost in sync, both Jay''s body and the wind moved in unison to forcefully move his leg, sessfully freeing himself from Sarah''s grip.

    *Pam!*

    "Oh?"

    This movement took Sarah by surprise, who for a moment remained in the same position, though of course this state onlysted a few seconds before a smile formed on her face.

    ''So because his Wind Control isn''t as strong as Carl''s, instead of using it alone, he''s using it in conjunction with his body movements... definitely not bad at all!''

    While she was busy with those kinds of thoughts, the person in question was preupied as he looked at a window in front of him.

    ''F*ck me, that alone already took 3% of my energy!?'' Jay thought, incredulous that such a simple movement had cost so much.

    He had expected the energy consumption to be high when he was in constant movement, but he hadn''t expected it to be to such a degree!

    At this rate, he would onlyst half an hour before the system decided to take control of his body.

    At this point, unaware that Jay''s mood had worsened drastically, Sarah spoke up, sticking out her chest a little in pride, "Jay, I''ve decided, I''ll teach you how to fight!"

    "Ah... yeah, great." Jay replied, letting out a sigh of resignation, still focused on his energy use.

    ...

    ...

    "What''s up with that bummed out response?!"

    "Ack, sorry!"

    ***

    At the same time that Jay and Sarah were in the training room, in a much more distant part of the city, there was a young man near the ruins of what appeared to be a small abandoned vige.

    Walking the streets of this vige, the young man''s gaze began to be moreplicated, with various emotions taking hold within him, ranging from nostalgia, sadness, and finally, hatred.

    At that moment, as the young man was touching the crumbling wall of a particr house, a shadow suddenly moved behind him.

    Of course, this did not go unnoticed by him, but as if he didn''t care, he just continued immersed in this house, until a few secondster, after letting out a sigh, he spoke, "If I remember correctly, I had already told you not to contact me when I hadpany, right?"

    As he finished saying that, although the young man didn''t move, the qi in the surroundings began to rampage, responding to this pugilist''s hostility.

    "Rx, it''s not like they''re going to notice anything, besides, now that you''re no longer under the constant monitoring of the gate, how could we pass up this opportunity to assign you another task?" Replied the shadow, which had now moved closer to the young man, revealing the appearance of a tall and slim figure.

    For some reason, when one looked too closely at this person, one would find that their vision would be blurred, obscuring the distinctive features of this person, only revealing its slender body which was wearing a pinstripe suit.

    Not wanting to give the young man time to answer, the figure continued speaking, "Anyway, this time I have good news for you, due to certain inconveniences, the higher ups decided that it would be better to keep us hidden for the time being, which obviously, includes cutting off contact with you, at least until the situation improves."

    Just as the figure had said, this was good news for the young man, after all, it was quite obvious that he didn''t like being around this person one bit.

    "Inconveniences?" The young man said.

    He was aware that the organization he was working with was immensely powerful, and there were very few things that could force them into hiding, so he naturally got curious.

    "I don''t know the exact details, but apparently one of the no-suits who were in charge of the A-E n got caught. Haa, seriously, I don''t understand why they entrust important tasks to such useless people, they couldn''t even self-destruct properly! Can you believe that?"

    It was quite clear that the contempt this person felt for the mentioned "no-suits" was strong, in front of this, the young man didn''t react much, it seems that he was used to this person''s attitude.

    "Do they know who it was?"

    "It''s not clear, but suspicions are among the Heroes Association or the Academy, only they would be able to dispatch so much individual power without being noticed. Anyway, it doesn''t matter who did it, but how they managed to discover us."

    After hearing that, the young man asked no more questions, he could already get an idea of what had happened and where the information leak had urred, unfortunately, it was an inconclusive answer.

    Thepetition for wanting to take a slice of the pie known as the Academy was incredibly intense, and the organizations participating in it spared no expense in expending a great deal of resources or using a variety of questionable methods to gain even the slightest advantage agains their rivals, and among these methods, there was, of course, creating problems for other organizations.

    "Okay, so same as always, I just have to be more cautious than usual, I understand."

    Having finished saying that, the young man started walking in the direction of the city.

    "Oh right, if you can, try to convince your friends to join us-"

    Immediately, the young man''s figure momentarily disappeared.

    *BAM*

    With that sound, the figure''s face, which was originally blurry, for a moment becamepletely clear, a product of the fact that it had to concentrate on blocking the young man''s sudden attack.

    "Alright, damn it, you don''t have to get like that! Geez! Forget I said anything!" Added the figure quickly, raising both hands in defeat as it walked away, "Cocky brat!"

    With those words as hisst, the man disappeared into the darkness of the night, leaving the young man in a somewhat sour mood, his golden eyes showing a slight murderous intent.

 Chapter 96 - The Cities

    On the morning of the following day, the streets of Kluemwood City were once again full of young supers again, although unlike two days ago, where the mood of the vast majority of these was quite good, now a heavy atmosphere of depression reigned over the entire city.

    "Haa... another wasted year!" Said one, having a disappointed expression on his face, "Really, who would have thought they would take a different exam this time."

    "Well, at least those of us who failed weren''t just a few!" Added another young man with a depressed smile who seemed to be his friend, slyly looking around at the other supers in the vicinity, trying to findfort in that fact.

    Both of them couldn''t help but let out a discouraging sigh as their gazes drifted towards the horizon, falling on some huge wooden doors that seemed to lead towards another cepletely different from the city.

    And this was partially true, as those doors were nothing more nor less than the entrance to the Eitsirc Academy, an artifact that possessed a myriad of unknown and almost miraculous effects that allowed the academy to even be able to iste itself from the outside world if it needed to.

    ***

    Inside those doors, in arge hall with dozens and dozens of seats, several young people were currently facing forward, giving their undivided attention to the professor in front of them.

    The hall, although it shared some simrities with a normal university hall, had noticeable differences that could be seen at first nce, starting with the fact that most objects were made of a special type of wood, but despite being wood, they had a resistance even superior to that of metal, and finally, a refreshing feeling that ran through everyone present, only it was a much smaller effect than what they were able to experience on the grass field.

    "First of all, let me congratte you again on passing the entrance exam, you have every right to be proud, as you have proven to possess talent and power on par with the Academy''s standards!" The professor, a bald man of average height and stocky build who was wearing arge brown leather coat, said loudly.

    As for the identity of this man, although he was nowhere near as famous as one of the head professors, he was also rtively well known, causing awe among some of the students present.

    Before any of them could react to the professor''s suddenpliment, the professor heavily whipped his hand on his desk, "However, even if you possess the best talent of the world and an immeasurable power, all of that would bepletely useless if you are a brute head!"

    Thereupon, a set of sheets of paper appeared in front of each of the students, as to what these sheets were, it was quite easy to tell after ncing at them.

    Quickly reading the contents of the sheets, Jay couldn''t help but smile as his eyes filled with excitement, ''So the time for the written exam hase!''

    "This is an exam that you will have to solve so that we know exactly what level you''re at, I hope you have studied, as how your schedule will be formed this first semester will depend on this!" Continued the professor with a smile on his face.

    "An exam on the first day?! I don''t know whether to be annoyed or impressed by this!" Commented an energetic student.

    "...Ah, it seems that even here I won''t be able to escape the same fate I had in high school..." Added another student who apparently already knew the result of her exam.

    Although the students'' reactions were mixed, in general most were depressed about this, after all, they did not expect that even after passing such a difficult test as it was to survive on the ind, they would now have toplete a written exam.

    "Ahahah, you''d better get started, boys and girls, as you only have two hours to finish!" Laughed the teacher.

    Unfortunately for them, no matter how they felt, they could only resign themselves to take the exam in silence.

    After about 15 minutes or so, a certain person let out a slight sigh before flipping over their exam, leaving only the nk part visible, on their face an expression of satisfaction.

    ''I knew all those hours I spent studying non-stop would pay off!'' Thought Jay, wiping an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye.

    While it was true that what Jay had spent the most time on these past few months were undoubtedly his physical skills along with Wind Control, it would be a mistake to think that he had neglected his studies.

    Even though first and foremost Jay was the [Carrier] of the Parasyte System, second was undoubtedly his identity as a dedicated student!

    Therefore, it was no surprise that he managed to finish his exam considerably fast, giving him time to remember all the information he had received the moment he arrived at the academy.

    Fortunately, it was notplicated.

    Starting with the most important information would be how the Academy''s students were organized.

    There were 4 grades in total, with those in the 1st grade being students who had just entered and those in the 4th grade being students who were already in theirst year.

    Each of these grades were divided into 3 groups, Bronze, Silver and Gold.

    As a result, there were 3rge grounds that were divided in the same way, all having at least the size of a small city and only being essible to the students of the respective group, taking the names of Bronze City, Silver City and Gold City, each of them amodated with dozens of buildings with different purposes, from libraries, special stores, apartments for students, among many other things, even the teachers made use of these.

    Finally, there was the way sses took ce.

    ording to the schedule Jay had received, there were sses that could be taken by anyone, others that were only for espers, pugilists or mages and a few that were mandatory for everyone, such as the one he was taking right now, which was an introductory ss more than anything else.

    Looking around, Jay couldn''t help but be interested in his ssmates, especially when he could feel that the life energy of most of them was just as strong as his own, ''Hm, I wonder how many of them are espers... and mages''

    Of course, the main reason he had decided toe to the Eitsirc Academy, aside from fulfilling a childhood dream, was one and one only, and that was than in this world, one could find no better ce from which to be able to carefully choose his hosts than this one!

    Now that he had confirmed that there really was no harm for the people from whom he assimted abilities, at least not in the short term, his consciousness felt much better, giving him a free pass to use the Parasyte System to the fullest.

    Thinking about this, a bright smile formed on his face.

    ***

    At the same time, in one of the deepest parts of the Gold City, which was the part of the academy that only students with a gold badge and faculty could ess, the examiner was strolling through the deserted streets of this city.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Unlike other parts of the academy, there was not a single corner of this city that was not brimming with mana and qi, both energies traveling along certain invisible paths that allowed any pugilist or mage to replenish their energy almost instantly.

    As for the espers, they had something even better, as every few meters, they would find that on the sidewalk would be nailed a small shimmering green mineral, this was known as "Cyrite", and in short, it was the ambrosia of espers, not only recovering their energy, but also boosting their skills to a great extent.

    If any experienced super saw the way so many types of precious materials and energy recovery techniques were used to build this city, they would undoubtedly faint due to how extravagant this was!

    And that reaction would bepletely understandable, after all, the price this city could fetch on the outside reached into the tens of billions of credits, apletely unattainable amount for any organization that wasn''t on the level of the Eitsirc Academy.

    While the asional student could be seen from time to time, in general, the streets of this city were incredibly empty, causing the examiner to let out a slight sigh, ''Even though we have this city, it is rarely traveled in. Sometimes I can''t help but think it''s a waste...''

    As he thought about this, he made his way to a certain rustic-looking three-story building that had a sign on the outside on which was written, ''Apothecary''.

    As he entered, the sound of a small bell signaled his arrival, apanied at the same time by a medicinal fragrance that immediately assaulted the examiner''s sense of smell,ing from everywhere, due to the fact that there were dozens upon dozens of different potions in ss vials of all colors and sizes hanging from the ceiling, all with a small note indicating their name and a brief summary of what they did.

    Alerted by the sound of the bell, the receptionist of the ce quickly greeted the examiner, bowing slightly behind therge counter she stood at, which of course was alsopletely filled with colorful potions, "Wee back, Mr. Estefan, how may I serve you today?"

    "Good afternoon, I was wondering if Mr. Hoze was avable?" Said the examiner, Estefan, before pulling a small vial out of his pocket, "It''s just that I think one of the potions I bought was defective..."

    *BAM!*

    Just as he finished speaking, a loud noise came from upstairs, followed by several hurried footsteps of a personing down the stairs.

    Immediately, the wooden door behind the receptionist burst open, revealing a remarkably small and plump looking older man with a prominent brown beard that reached down to his belly, on his face an expression of mixed interest, disbelief and anger as he looked at Estefan.

    "Did you just say defective!?" He shouted, hastily jumping over the counter and walking towards Estefan, quickly snatching the potion from his hands.

    Despite the fact that Estefan was part of the academy faculty, as well as being a rank (B) mage, this man didn''t seem to care in the least about these details.

    Though of course, he had the qualifications to afford this, and that was because he was one of the best apothecaries in the entire world, if not the best, which gave him a position iparable to that of any ordinary super!

    As the saying goes, extraordinary supers abound, but a good apothecary is needed everywhere.

    After he took the vial in his hands, the man began to inspect it closely, smelling the inside before finally taking a small white cloth and a metal stick from his pocket and putting the cloth into the vial with the help of the stick.

    Within seconds, upon contact with the small remaining drops of the potion, the originally white handkerchief took on a vivid green color.

    "Both the smell and the contents of the potion were in perfect condition, don''te telling lies to my establishment!" Said the man, losing all interest in the vial and tossing it back to Estefan as he walked to the counter.

    Quickly catching the vial, Estefan chased after Hozef, just as thetter was climbing onto the counter, "But sir, when one of the students drank this potion, he had a violent reaction, although his energy recovered, his body overloaded and suffered damage, almost paralyzing him for 5 minutes straight."

    Hearing what Estefan said, the bearded man paused and slowly turned around, this time with his eyebrow raised, "You said overload and paralysis...? Hm, well now you have caught my attention. Neither of those are effects that should be possible with the ingredients I use!"

    As the creator of these potions, he was the one who knew best what effects his potions had, so it certainly struck him as odd.

    *Ring*

    Just then, the door to the store again opened, letting in three people. two young women in white attire led by an older man dressed alike, the man appeared to be in his seventies and possessed a thin appearance with a thin white beard, noticeably different from Hozef.

    "Hoho, I think I heard the word defective?!" the man shouted as soon as he entered the store, as for the women behind him, they merely waved to the receptionist, who also returned the greeting.

    "Nosu, you mangy old man, who gave you permission to enter my store!?" Hozef replied,pletely forgetting the subject of the defective potion.

    "Well, I just couldn''t help but overhear a customerining about a defective potion, though well, they''re your products, so really what can one expect?" As he spoke, the man by the name of Nosu quickly approached Hosef.

    Doing the same, Hosef got off the counter and jumped to get one of the vials hanging from the ceiling, one that looked exactly like the one Estefan had in his hands, evidently, this one was brand new, "I would expect nothing less from a decrepit old man such as you, both your sense of smell and your eyesight have turned useless, how could you say that this practically perfect potion is defective?!"

    It was obvious that Hosef was quite proud of his potion, but regardless of this, Nosu continued, "Ptu! Even if I pee right now, whateveres out would be much better than that fourth-rate potion! Besides, if what you''re looking for is something to revitalize an esper, this is much better!" Thereupon, he pulled out small cloth sack from his pocket and opened it, revealing several spherical pills of a golden color with brownish tints, "Just look at this color, you can see from miles away that it''s so pure it''s perfect!"

    "I know that color, it''s the color of sh*t!"

    "WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU BASTARD?!"

    "WHAT YOU HEARD, YOU STUPID OLD MAN!!!"

    *BAM!*

    Quickly, the situation got out of control, with the receptionist and the girls who came with Nosu trying to stop the now enraged alchemists, as for Estefan, he stood still in a corner, this due to the fact that he was not qualified to touch either of the two people.

    Instead, he just stared at the empty vial in his hands, thinking a thousand times about Jay''s reaction.

 Chapter 97 - Once Again

    After a few minutes that felt like hours for all the students in the introductory ss, it was finally time to hand in their exams.

    Receiving all the exams, the teacher proceeded to arrange them all before beginning to review them, "Okay, that''s it for today then, tomorrow you will receive your results along with your personalized ss schedule. You are excused to leave."

    Upon finishing hearing that, most students grabbed their things and started heading towards the exit, with a few staying and approaching the teacher to ask a question or two.

    As for Jay, he belonged to the first group, quickly leaving the ssroom so he could have more time to be able to walk around the bronze city.

    Unlike the silver or gold city, this one wasn''t as shy, having more inmon with Kluemwood City than any other Academy grounds, which usually had beneficial items for supers everywhere.

    However, one thing that the bronze city was unsurpassed in was undoubtedly its size.

    Since the bronze city had to amodate tens of thousands of students, it had to berge enough so that there were no space problems of any kind.

    As a result, the streets of the bronze city, while always having students walking through them, never felt crowded.

    The sun was still high in the sky, indicating that not much time had passed since noon, giving Jay several things he could spend his time on.

    "Oh, right, I still have to check the guide in the smartwatch." He said, suddenly remembering.

    The next moment, he pulled out a smartwatch from his pocket to put it on his right wrist before turning it on.

    If one looked more closely, one could tell that this watch was not the one he had been wearing before, but apletely new one.

    This was a watch that had been given to him by the academy, and it had beenpletely customized for the use of a bronze badge student, containing all the basic information he had to know about the academy except for certain things, such as their schedule and the specific details of the other cities.

    Because he had to attend the introductory ss as soon as he entered the academy, he did not have the time to check the clock.

    When he turned it on, several icons appeared on the screen, the most striking being a leather book, a map and finally a piggy bank.

    ''Unexpectedly, it''s quite simple.''

    Not wanting to waste any more time, Jay pressed the book icon, beginning to read its contents at a surprising speed.

    As the minutes passed, his walking speed began to slow down more and more, until finally, he came to aplete stop, on his face an expression of disbelief matching his wide eyes.

    Turning off the smartwatch and dragging his body to a nearby bench, Jay copsed onto it as a nervous smile formed on his face, "...Haha...hahaha."

    His suddenughter caused other students that passed by to look at him strangely, however, there were also others who were apparently from a higher year and they couldn''t help but give him pitying looks, as if they had figured out the cause of such a strange attitude.

    After all, they too had reacted that way when they had learned about the way the economy worked within the academy.

    However, what Jay was feeling at the moment couldn''t be further from it, ''This... is too good to be true!''

    Thinking again about what he had read, he couldn''t stop a smile from forming on his face, ''Who knew there would be such a convenient point system in the academy!''

    The system he was talking about was something that while it was widely known in the academy, that was not the case for the outside, which caused this information to take him by surprise.

    As for what this system consisted of, it was quite simple.

    Within the academy, credits, which were the most used currency in the world, werepletely useless.

    Instead, what was used were merit points, which were earned through different ways, such as being punctual to ss, taking extra sses, fulfilling special missions, taking a part-time job, among many other things.

    Thus, besides encouraging students to put even more effort into their academic activities, it also prevented students with superior resources from gaining ess to special facilities and objects of the academy using credits.

    So how did this benefit Jay?

    That was answered by the fact that among the ways in which one could earn points, there was the option of being able to bet them with other people, and with that alone, several ns began to form in Jay''s head.

    At first, he had thought about making friends with as many people as he could, although he was confident in his ability to make friends, it would still be aplicated and time-consuming task.

    However, now that he had found out about this, all his ns became much easier!

    Still in a good mood from this unexpected but wee news, Jay shook his head a couple of times before turning his smartwatch back on, ''Well, I''d better see how many merit points I have."

    Jay had also read in the guide that he would receive a certain amount of points each day, so if he had any luck, he would be able to ce a bet or two today, getting two host candidates.

    Opening the piggy bank-shaped app, his ount status appeared in front of his eyes, showing arge zero apanied by a lone one.

    At the bottom were two windows indicating that two transfers of 5 points had been made to his ount, one for attending the introductory ss and the other was his daily points.

    "..."

    His smile froze almost immediately, before he again shook his head and brought his gaze back to the street he was on, quickly looking for something he could use topare.

    ''No reason to despair, maybe 10 points is a considerable amount!'' He thought.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Fortunately for him, there was a coffee shop nearby, which conveniently had a small chalkboard outside with the special of the day written on its surface, costing no more and no less than 5 credits.

    "Ah..."

    At that moment, Jay realized that once again, he was poor.

    ***

    After a quarter hour had passed and Jay had calmed down considerably, he had already to visited several ces in the city.

    Specifically, ces where he could earn points in some way, either because they had jobs avable for students or because one could earn points bypleting certain tasks.

    Although the guide on his smartwatch had information about these, Jay preferred to visit them in person so he could check everyst detail and see what worked best for him.

    Crossing off one of the names on a small list on his smartwatch as he exited a hospital-like building, he looked for a ce to sit while he organized his list, "Let''s see, I''ve already been to the coffee shops, restaurants, the library, the farnds and the hospital, so that leaves... the training center, which is the most promising ce."

    Of all the ces he had visited, the lowest and highest sry was 15 and 25 points per hour, belonging to the cafeterias and the hospital respectively, with the employees getting paid every 15 days, although there were some requirements to apply for some of these jobs, it was not too difficult to fulfill them.

    As for the special assignments, they consisted mostly of research work and the rewards ranged from 5,000 points to 10,000, but unfortunately, these took far too long toplete, with the minimum being at least 2 months, and worst of all, Jay wasn''t too sure he would be able toplete them sessfully either.

    Normally he would immediately set off to be able to apply for the hospital job as the pay was good, but ording to the guidebook, there was a much higher paying job, and it was at the training center no less.

    Getting up from the bench he was sitting on and putting away his smartwatch, he was set off towards the training center, in his eyes a look of determination motivated by the sheer desire to earn money.

    After about another 15 minutes or so, Jay arrived at his destination, taking in the facade of the training center, which definitely didn''t lose out to the academy building in terms of size.

    The appearance reminded him a bit of James'' house, which was a huge dojo that covered several blocks, and even with that, it still fell shortpared to what Jay was currently seeing.

    Shaking his head a bit, Jay proceeded to enter.

    As he did so, he was greeted by arge hall with several students entering and exiting different doors that led to various training grounds, some for public use and others reserved for personal use.

    Pushing his way through them, he made his way to the receptionist desk, where a young girl in martial attire was, apparently busy looking at something on her smartwatch.

    "Good after-"

    Before he could finish speaking, the girl raised her index finger to stop him, without taking her eyes off her watch, "If you''re looking for a training room, go through the first door on the right, if you''reing for some job position, it''s through the first door on the left, you continue straight down the hallway until you see a wooden door and enter."

    Although the way the young woman had responded had been a bit odd, Jay didn''t mind and quickly entered through the door to the left, but not before saying a thank you to the young woman.

    After a short while, he found the wooden door and entered, being greeted by a particrlyrge room, with several benches and students present, in fact, there were even a few who had been in the introductory ss.

    ''Hm, looks like I wasn''t the only one to think of this...''

    With nothing else to do, Jay walked in as well and sat down on one of the benches, waiting with the rest of the students, turning on his smartwatch to give the academy''s guidebook another once-over.

    *BAM!*

    Just then, however, the door was flung open to let in a tall red-haired woman with an athletic physique, dressed in martial attire.

    "Wow, looks like we have quite a few candidates for a first day!" Said the woman as she entered the room, not caring about the scare she had given them by opening the door in such a manner, "Nice to meet you, I am the closebat instructor of the training center, and temporarily, also the one in charge of recruiting the personnel we will employ!"

    Her tone was quite energetic and refreshing, causing several of the trainees to get a little excited.

    "As you should know, some positions have opened up since a few students graduated, normally, these would have been taken by other grades, but for your luck, or rather, for your punctuality ining here on the first day, you have the opportunity topete for them!"

    Hearing this, the students couldn''t help but feel a little proud of their punctuality.

    "Now then, the positions that are open are two, janitor and gardener, whoever wants to apply for the first one stand to the right, the rest to the left."

    As she finished saying that, the students moved quickly, Jay included, who moved to the right.

    However, there was one exception, a tall,slim and rather groomed looking young man who stood in his same spot and expressed his doubts to the instructor, "Those are the only options?"

    "Any problems?" Replied the instructor, giving this young man a look of interest.

    "Yes, it''s just that I think my skills would be wasted on either of those two jobs."

    A sudden silence filled the room, with the new students giving this young man a strange look and those from other years looking at him with some ridicule on their faces.

    "Hm? Is that so? Then what position would be most suitable for someone like you?" Unlike her normal tone, one could tell that the instructor was amused by the young man''s response, something that the wide grin on her face only made more evident.

    "As a rank (C) esper, I believe I am qualified for the position of assistant instructor!" As he finished saying that, the young man puffed out his chest, proud of himself.

 Chapter 98 - A Small Worry

    A silence again filled the room, this time being much longer and ufortable to endure, especially for the upperssmen.

    "Good, I like that confidence!" Added the instructor, "Although I don''t normally take tests for that kind of position, today I will make an exception just for you. If you manage to stand for 10 seconds, then consider yourself hired!"

    *BOOM*

    Immediately, an overwhelming pressure swept through all the students,ing from none other than the instructor, who was not only releasing her energy, but also her bloodlust.

    Most of the students couldn''t help but get dizzy and fall to the floor, feeling sick from the pressure they were enduring, which felt as if their bodies were being squeezed to the max, not even being able to let them breathe.

    Naturally, this kind of pressure was not normal.

    While a grade (B) super such as the instructor could suppress others using only her energy, she was not a normal super, but someone who had also worked as a hero, even going so far as to obtain the title of Executioner.

    Rather than an official position in the Hero Association, it was more of a title, though there was no denying that itmanded respect among the other heroes and terror among the viins like no other official position.

    And this waspletely understandable, after all, this title was only awarded to those heroes who had killed at least 100 supers who were in their same rank.

    As a result, the bloodlust she had managed to cultivate over the years had be an incredibly dangerous weapon, capable of intimidating even any super of rank (B), not to mention what it could do to an inexperienced young rank (C).

    Unfortunately, it was this person who had received this kind of pressure head-on, falling to the ground while his nose was bleeding and his face was stered with an expression of unconsciousness.

    Apparently, he had lost consciousness as soon as he came into contact with the instructor''s bloodlust, and for better or worse, it was extremely clear that he had failed this impromptu job interview.

    As quickly as it came, the sea of blood that seemed to be covering them suddenly vanished, apanied by the vibrant voice of the instructor, "Huff, I haven''t done that in a long time, it brings back quite a few memories. Anyway, the rest of you students, follow me outside, I''ll assess your capabilities there."

    With those words as herst, the instructor left the room, followed some timeter by the other students, who although they were staggering and seemed to have suffered considerably, were still standing.

    However, one person lingered slightly, remaining alone for a moment in the room, frozen in the same position, a nervous expression on his face as he clutched his arm.

    As soon as everyone left the room, that person released his right arm, from which momentster several small parasites began to emerge, which despite having no eyes began to look around desperately.

    It was clear that they were incredibly excited, a product of having experienced such a tremendous disy of energy, and although it was behavior that could be expected of them, their ''boss'' was not much better.

    ''...I''d better get out of this room as soon as possible.'' Jay thought, forcibly suppressing the aggressive emotions that his little ones and his own mind were endlessly transmitting to him.

    ***

    Outside, the instructor led the students to arge field deep in the training center, with various wooden dummies and other training objects everywhere.

    "Okay, we will start with the test for those who want to be gardeners, I need you to prune all the bushes in this field, nothing ostentatious but not too simple either. For the janitors, I need you to leave all the wooden dummies spotless."

    Upon hearing her instructions, the students began to move towards their respective targets, all preparing to use their skills, spells and martial techniques in order to make the task easier.

    As for what happened to the unfortunate proud young man in the ssroom, no one seemed particrly interested in continuing to dwell on the incident, as if it were a normal urrence.

    *nk*

    However, just as they were about to begin, the sudden noise of several small objects falling to the floor caught their attention, causing them to turn to look at the source of these sounds, the instructor.

    "While I like your enthusiasm, you shouldn''t be so quick, I''m not finished, you barely gave me time to get out your work tools!" As she spoke, the instructor continued to bring out more and more buckets of wood along with rags and pruning shears, only finishing until there were enough for each person present.

    Seeing these items, the students couldn''t help but feel that something was wrong.

    "Right, I forgot to tell you one tiny little detail! For this evaluation, it is forbidden for you to use any kind of skill, spell, martial technique or any special object! If I catch you, and obviously I will, you will be disqualified immediately!"

    With those words alone, the mood of all the students plummeted.

    Of course, this was understandable, after all, they were all supers used to using their powers for all sorts of situations, including in their daily lives, so being forbidden to make use of this was basically restricting their right arms... and left arms for those who were left-handed.

    "Haha, no need to get so down on yourselves, boys and girls, it''s not so bad to just use your bodies once in a while!" Added the instructor with a smile on her face, evidently amused by the students'' reactions.

    Without much else to do, they all reluctantly picked up their work tools and began their tasks.

    As for Jay, he had been among the first to start, and was now filling one of the wooden buckets with water, soaking the rag he had been given inside the bucket.

    When he had finished filling water, he chose a wooden dummy at random and began to wash it.

    Although it was made of a special type of wood that was particrly resistant and rigid, specially made to receive supers attacks, that didn''t take away the fact that it could get dirty, having several dirty spots everywhere, probably the product of several weeks of work.

    Thus, another smallpetition began, but when barely half an hour had passed, several of those present began to show difficulty to continue with their tasks, especially the espers and wizards.

    Because of the special wood, they had to use a lot more strength than usual before they could see results, and even if their bodies were better than the average human, they still tired quickly.

    On the other hand, those who shone in thispetition were undoubtedly the pugilists, continuing with the same intensity with which they had started, without even showing signs of tiring.

    Of course, this was to be expected, after all, their bodies had been tempered time and time again, not only improving their fighting ability, but also giving them a great vitality that would allow them to work for days straight without stopping.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Add to the mix that they could replenish some of their energy by absorbing the qi in the surroundings, and it seemed clear that the position of janitor was going to fall into the hands of one of them.

    Said and done, more and more mages and espers withdrew, until finally, after an hour of hard work, only a total of 6 people remained, all of them being pugilists... and Jay.

    Seeing this, the instructor smiled before speaking again, "Now that only those with high vitality are left, it''s time to make this harder!"

    *CRACK!*

    After saying that, the teacher stomped on the ground three times, to which a faint glow of blue spread across the ground, opening cracks that came to cover the entire training ground.

    The next moment, as if the cracks had never appeared, they closed in a matter of seconds.

    Just as the participants were about to question what the purpose of this action had been, the answer appeared on its own.

    "What... I can''t feel the qi!?" Said one of the young men who was cleaning the training dummies, stopping immediately.

    And it was not only he who had noticed such a drastic change, but all the pugilists present, who also stopped cleaning the dummies to focus on this strange sensation.

    Normally, they could sense the qi in their surroundings at all times, being able to make use of it if they wanted to, for them, it was almost as if it were oxygen, something absolutely necessary for their survival.

    Therefore, the fact that they had suddenly lost that sense was cause for concern.

    "Rx, even if you can''t feel it, the qi is still present, just in much smaller amounts!" Exined the instructor.

    What she had just used had been one of the inscriptions belonging to the training ground, whose function was to absorb all the qi or mana from the surroundings into the ground itself.

    As for why the academy would have such a function, it was because over the years, they had realized that different students needed different types of stimtion in order for them to progress, especially those with exceptional aptitudes.

    As a result, they had created a myriad of functions that could help them break through their limits, in the process making huge advances in understanding the powers of mages, espers and pugilists, such as this mana and qi inhibitor.

    "Oh?"

    However, while all the pugilists were still inspecting their bodies, what caught the instructor''s attention was that there was a certain person who apparently didn''t seem the least bit interested in what was going on, simply continuing to clean the dummies fervently.

    Clearly, that person was Jay, who had only paused for a moment when the cracks appeared on the floor but quickly returned to his task.

    Finding this quite interesting, the instructor walked over to him, her eyes giving off a gleam as she examined Jay.

    "Wow, I didn''t expect a esper would manage to go this long without tiring. Does your ability have anything to do with your stamina?" She asked.

    While it was somewhat unusual toe across an esper whose ability wasn''tpletely offensive in the academy, it did happen from time to time.

    Raising his head to meet the instructor''s gaze, Jay replied, "No, ma''am, actually, my skill is Wind Control, it''s just that I''m used to heavy tasks."

    As he finished, he formed a small swirl of wind in his palm, though it onlysted a few seconds before he dissipated it and continued cleaning the dolls.

    "Hm, it definitely shows! Keep it up and you could be the one to win the position, kid!" Replied the instructor with both hands on her hips, apparently, she liked Jay''s perseverance.

    The moment she finished saying that, the other participants also awoke from their trance and continued cleaning, thus continuing thepetition.

    Minutes passed, with some of the participants reluctantly withdrawing due to fatigue, and at the two-hour mark, there were only three students still cleaning the dummies.

    Of those three, two were pugilists, a boy and a girl who had a look of determination on their faces, beads of sweat trickling down their cheeks and other parts of their bodies, a clear sign of how tiring this task was.

    However, if one turned to look at thest participant, although one could also see that he was somewhat tired, his cleaning speed had not slowed down one bit, continuing almost as energetic as he had started.

    For those present, the instructor included, this was an incredible demonstration of his vitality, that despite being an esper, he was able topete with pugilists, who were known as the most energetic supers.

    Thanks to this, some students began to feel a bit of admiration for Jay.

    Unfortunately for them, what was going through the head of said person was somethingpletely different, ''...I really hope this won''t bring any adverse effect to my body...''

    Now that he could see his energy with the help of the system, he had been watching his energy levels rise and fall out of control, his energy regeneration struggling wildly with the expenditure that Jay himself was causing.

    This had caused him to worry initially, but fortunately for him, his little ones began to help him, managing to create a bnce that he could maintain for quite some time, just as he was doing now.

    But the main concern for Jay at the moment was, apart from getting the job, will his body be okay with losing and gaining so much energy all of a sudden...?

    While he was perfectly aware that his body had been optimized to withstand the parasites, he believed that there had to be a limit to that, so he couldn''t help but get a little nervous.

    "Haa..."

    Deciding he would think about itter and hope for the best, he continued to clean with all his might,

    Finally, after what seemed like a much longer time, the winner of this littlepetition for a job was decided.

 Chapter 99 - Caught?!

    After both winners for the positions of gardener and janitor were chosen, the other students had no choice but to retire, their mood being considerably worse than it had been a few minutes ago.

    "Good job to both of you!" Said the instructor as she looked at Jay and another student, both of whom had been the winners, "As of today, you are both not only students, but employees of the training center! Now then, follow me, I will hand you your uniforms and also exin what is expected of you."

    Upon finishing, the three of them moved through the interior of the training center until they arrived to a building with a small courtyard that was located in the deepest part.

    "Surely you came here because we pay way more than any other business, but if you think that''s the only benefit, you''re wrong!"

    Hearing this, both Jay and the student couldn''t help but be even more interested.

    Upon entering the building, they were greeted by an unexpectedlyrge living room, which shared space with both the kitchen and a small dining room, but despite this, it didn''t feel cramped at all.

    As for the quality of the furniture and such, Jay had not the slightest doubt that they were many levels above his own home.

    Stepping in front of both of them and opening her arms, the instructor spoke again, "Wee to employee residence #3, although it''s smaller than the other residences, it should be spacious enough for both of you."

    Immediately, a smile formed on Jay''s face, ''So this is the other benefit... nice!''

    Although he had suspicions that the benefit of being an employee at the training center was not going to be simply a high sry, he didn''t really expect that they were even going to grant him a ce to stay.

    Normally, the vast majority of students lived in apartmentplexes that the academy itself had given them, and while these were free, they had several rather notable disadvantages.

    Starting with the small space of each of the apartments, practically having the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen in one room, and ending with the fact that they were somewhat far from the center of the city, all these made these apartments unpopr choices among students.

    However, they still had arge number of people staying in them, mainly students who had just entered the academy and did not have enough credits to be able to move to better housing.

    This was also a problem that affected Jay, after all, he too was currently living in one of those apartments, but because getting more hosts was more important, he had decided to stay there in order to save money.

    Fortunately for him, an incredibly convenient solution had appeared.

    "If you''re wondering why it is that we''re offering this to you, it''s because your services are required every day, so we need you to be avable 24/7. We wouldn''t want to repeat the tragedy of ''93..."

    As she said this, the instructor''s tone became serious, her gaze filling with various emotions, such as nostalgia, sadness and even... fear.

    The next moment, she shook her head and smiled again, "Anyway, I''ll go get your uniforms, in the meantime you can get to know the ce."

    With those words as herst, the instructor walked out the door of the pavilion in the direction of another part of the training center.

    Now that they were alone, both Jay and the girl began to inspect the ce.

    As to whether either of them had anyints about staying here, it was more than clear that they did not.

    After a few minutes, they finished investigating the building, discovering that upstairs there were threerge bedrooms with individual bathrooms, aundry room, and a rooftop terrace overlooking the backyard.

    With nothing else to do, Jay decided to sit down and rest a bit on the couch in the living room.

    Although physically he was fine, watching his energy levels drain and fill up so many times in such a short time had caused him some mental strain.

    Turning on his smartwatch, he realized that it was already a little after 3pm, he had arranged to meet Sarah at 7, so he still had some time to do other things.

    ''But first... let''s get some rest...'' He thought as heid his head back and closed his eyes.

    Now that he had achieved his goal of getting a job, as well as a ce to stay, Jay felt he deserved a short break.

    "Hey."

    However, just as he was beginning to feel in harmony with the dream world, a girl''s voice interrupted him.

    Opening his eyes heavily, Jay turned his head to the right, the image of the other student who had gotten the gardening position entering his vision.

    Sitting on the other side of the couch and hugging her knees, the gaze of the girl with straight, long ck hair that fell to the side met Jay''s.

    Her skin was olive-colored and she had a slender appearance, while whe wasn''t quite as beautiful as Sarah, she wasn''t far behind either.

    ''Hm... for some reason I keep running into good looking people... how strange...'' Jay thought, still continuing to stare at hispanion.

    Sensing that Jay was paying a little too much attention to her now, the girl asked, "Do I have something on my face?"

    "Oh, no, sorry, I was thinking about something, you were saying?"

    The girl didn''t seem convinced by this answer, but decided to ignore it and went on with her original questioning, "Is your ability really just wind control...?"

    Unlike Jay, who had been working at full power to ensure his victory, this girlpletely dominated herpetition, giving her a huge time advantage which she used to observe other students.

    Of all of them, the one who caught her attention the most was the person in front of her, the supposed esper who had an endurance even superior to that of all the pugilists present in thepetition.<novelnext></novelnext>

    This seemed rather unusual to her, but she quickly formted a possibility in her head, that perhaps Jay was not an esper with a simple active ability, but that it was of a special ssification, that is, one that granted him active and passive effects.

    Also,there was something else about him that seemed off to her... although she didn''t know exactly what it was.

    Faced with the girl''s question, Jay simply formed a small whirlwind in his hand that briefly dissipated again, "That''s right, active ability, wind control."

    While some esper preferred to keep the nature of their abilities a secret, that was not the case for those who only had active abilities, as in the vast majority of times, they were simple effects that would sooner orter be known, just as was the case with Jay.

    "Hm... It looks like you still don''t manage to control it that well." The girl said, not skipping over the detail that Jay was unable to maintain the whirlwind for long.

    With a somewhat nervous smile on his face, Jay replied, "Aha, yes, it''s just that I haven''t had it for a long time, I suffered an awakening just half a year ago. It''s also the reason I have so much vitality, since I''m used to relying only on my body."

    Thanks to the fact that questions or interrogations had been expected toe to him regarding hisck of control and familiarity with his ability, Jay had formed an "alibi" that was somewhat believable.

    Though of course, the alibi wasn''t that far off the mark either, after all, it was true that he had acquired his ability very recently... just not naturally.

    This answer seemed to surprise the girl a bit, who had now changed her look from one of indifference to one of interest, "Heh, if you''ve managed to reach the (D+) rank in such a short time, then that means your talent isn''t bad at all..."

    Unlike before, her tone of voice had also changed to a considerably friendlier one, apparently she valued talent quite a bit.

    Of course, Jay sensed this change in attitude, but since it wasn''t a bad thing to meet more supers, especially someone as capable as she was, he decided to y along and reciprocate the girl''s kindness.

    "Thank you, although I must admit that I still have quite a ways to go before I can be as proficient as you..."

    Apparently pleased with Jay''s attitude, the girl extended her hand as she introduced herself, "Syvis Genna, esper and first grader, also the person who will take first ce in this year''sbat ranking."

    Not wanting to be left behind, Jay also sat up straight and extended his hand to shake Syvis'', "Jay Sacrest, esper from the same grade, my goal for the end of the year is to have so much money that I can live in the center of the town."

    They were fairlymon introductions, as to why Jay didn''t remember seeing her even though they were both in the first grade, it probably was because thanks to therge number of students in a single grade, they were spread out over several ssrooms.

    Fortunately, this problem would be solved when the students received their schedules, so it was likely that after tomorrow, they would both share the same ssroom.

    "Ha, what a shallow goal..." Syvis added as she shaked Jay''s hand, taking another look at thetter, as if wanting to remember his features.

    From his slightly unkempt ck wavy hair, his olive colored skin along with his green colored eyes and ending with his body that showed clear signs of having worked out, everything came together to give an image that for some reason seemed strange to Syvis.

    Focusing especially on Jay''s current position, which consisted of him being seated and holding out his hand, Syvis noticed something odd.

    "Ahh!"

    Suddenly, at the same time as her pupils dted due to surprise, Syvis also retracted her hand and quickly stood up from the couch.

    "You...!" She yelled.

    In response, Jay became incredibly nervous, and that was because just a second before Syvis stood up from the couch, he had ordered one of his little ones to infect her.

    The next moment, they both moved, Syvis reaching her right hand into her pocket while pointing her other hand at Jay, and thetter moving closer to her to intercept any action she might take.

    ''Shit, I won''t make it!'' Thought Jay, the desperation and urgency he was feeling was visible in his eyes.

    However, proving that she hadn''t gained her position simply by luck, even without using her esper ability, Syvis was a step faster than Jay, pulling an object out of her pocket before letting out a shout, "You''re...!"

    Almost instantly, the moment Syvis'' attention returned to Jay, seeing how close Jay was to her, she activated her ability.

    *BAM!*

    Jay''s body was hit by a wave of intangible energy, which wrapped around every part of his body,pletely immobilizing him.

    Even though the energy wave had moved in just an instant, Jay could feel the grip it had on his body was not light at all.

    The next moment, Syvis moved her arm quickly to the front of Jay''s face, but instead of it hitting him or anything like that, she merely showed him a picture on her smartwatch.

    As for the content of the photo, in it a fit man could be seen wearing ck dress pants along with apletely open shirt that showed his torso, he was sitting on a couch and stretching his hand forward, although the man''s face was half covered due to a ck mask, his green eyes were still visible.

    While one couldn''t call it a work of art, one could tell that the person who took the photo knew what they were doing, which was only made more evident by the sharpness of the image, clearly a product of having a good camera.

    Finally, in the lower right corner of the photo was an italicized signature that also functioned as a watermark, this signature could be read as "Jenny Green".

    "THAT''S YOU, RIGHT?!" Shouted Sivys, pointing to the photo with a big smile on her face.

    "...Ah..."

 Chapter 100 - [Bonus ] The "Limit" Forest

    At the same time that Jay and Syvis were busy, in another part of the academy, specifically at one of the hunter training grounds, several shadows were moving rapidly through the vast forest.

    Of all the facilities the academy possessed, few would be asrge as the hunter training grounds, which amounted to huge forests upying tens of thousands and thousands of acres.

    Because the most popr professions among the academy''s graduates were either heroes or hunters, there were specially designed grounds to prepare them for situations they would encounter in the future.

    Such as this particr forest, which had the simple name of "Limit" and was located among thergest and most dangerous grounds that the academy had in its possession,ing to house a huge amount of rank (D) and (C) monsters.

    Of course, with itsrge size and the risk it possessed towards the students of the academy, this forest was located in the outermost areas of the academy, as well as being closed and only essible by 4th grade students or 3rd grade students with a gold badge.

    The shadows that were moving around were nothing more than 4th grade students, who were currently trying toplete a mission.

    "We''ve been looking for quite some time now and we still haven''t found anything, isn''t this supposed to be the camp with the most monsters in the whole academy?" Said one of the people, a slender blond boy with an attractive face.

    Hearing hisment, a slim looking girl with brown hair that was tied up in a tail replied, "Maybe you scared them away with your clothes, you''re practically an abstract painting with legs, if I was a monster, I wouldn''t hesitate to avoid you at all costs too."

    "Shut up, Carol, you don''t understand the true meaning of fashion!" Replied the young man, visibly offended by what the girl had said.

    As for the reason for this gratuitous insult, it was because said young man wore clothes... shy so to speak,bining colors such as green, blue, yellow among so many others, these colors having one characteristic inmon, and that was the fact that they were all phosphorescent.

    Moving her gaze to meet the young man''s, the girl spoke again, with a teasing smile, "If that''s the true meaning, I''d rather live the rest of my days without knowing it, being honest."

    Watching the exchange between the two, the other members of the group couldn''t help but chuckle a little, except for one young woman, the one who was leading the way and was the leader of this group.

    Her hair was short, barely reaching her neck, painted a bright red color that seemed to be almost as striking as Ramnel''s clothing.

    Traces of her keeping herself in incredible physical shape were visible on her body, having a body that while full of muscles, they were not too many as to give her a heavy appearance, but that of a strong and agile person.

    "Alright, leave Ramnel alone, if he doesn''t jeopardize our mission, all good." She replied in a normal, soft tone.

    Although she had spoken normally, the others in the group quickly calmed down, showing the respect they had for this young woman, leaving aside Carol and Ramnel, who were still having a staring contest, both of them unwilling to ept defeat.

    This was not because they did not respect the authority of their leader, but because the rivalry between the two was not a light thing at all.

    Seeing this, the red-haired girl let out a sigh before turning around and thinking about her mission, ''Hm, Ramnel is right, it''s been several hours already but we still haven''t found anything...''

    Due to the obviousck of monsters in the camp, this made the leader suspicious as well, after all, this was something that hadn''t happened to them before.

    They had already done this ''mission'' several times in the past, which consisted of nothing more and nothing less than collecting monster bodies for the academy, with the only difference now being that because they had just entered fourth grade, they, being silver badge students, just recently gained admittance to the ''Limit'' field this year.

    This was a rather dangerous research job, but of course, the pay for this was also iparable to normal jobs, especially in "Limit", a field that was famous for its abundant amount of rank (C) monsters.

    For that very reason, the 6 of them immediately coordinated to get permission to ess this field, eager to be able to earn a good amount of merit points rtively easily.

    However, the current situation was quite different from what they had expected, the only thing they had aplished so far being a walk through this thick forest.

    Turning her gaze skyward, the red-haired girl, Iza, made a decision at the same time as she stopped running, "I think it''s time to go, it''s about to get dark and I really don''t want us to run into a monster in those conditions."

    "Ehhh?"

    "Leader, really?"

    Immediately, voices of protest came from their group, making it clear that they didn''t agree with what she had just said.

    It was amon reaction considering how much they had prepared for this task, each even carrying various potions, pills, and other special items to help them both take down monsters and heal themselves if they were toe to harm.

    "Do we really have to leave now? It would be a shame if we came back empty-handed, especially after I bragged to everyone that I was going into the Limit today..." Ramnel said, seemingly more concerned about his reputation thanpleting the mission they had,

    "While I don''t care about Ramnel''s reputation, he has a point, we can''t just walk away after having invested so much time, let alone that the next time we can return will be in a month at the earliest." Carol added.

    What she had said was also true, being such a popr ce in the academy, usually all shifts were taken by gold badge students.

    In fact, the only reason they were able to get in rtively easily was because they had started preparing for this sincest year.

    The other members of the group, although they did not add anything else, also supported the idea of staying longer.

    Faced with so much disapproval, Iza was in a dilemma, she knew very well that it would be dangerous to stay longer, but herpanions also had a point.

    "Then...hm?"

    However, just as she was about to say her verdict, a particr scent came to her nose, although it was extremely faint and an ordinary person wouldn''t even be able to identify it, to her, who was a rank (C+) pugilist, it was something simple.

    "Raise your guard, I smell blood!" She shouted as her eyes turned to the right, which was where the smell hade from.

    Simultaneously, everyone in the group didn''t take a second to take their positions before activating their abilities.

    Iza stood at the front along with two other young men, in the middle were Ramnel and Carol, and at the end was a young mage woman standing in the middle of a small magic circle.

    It was a simple positioning, with the toughest people at the front, those who had skills to attack from near and far in the middle and finally, someone who served as support in the rear.

    Thanks to their experience hunting monsters, they had learned not to panic no matter the situation, as that would only get them to make more mistakes.

    Slowly, the seconds passed, with everyone being on alert, wary of any noise or sign that might indicate movementing from the forest.

    Although nothing appeared, for some reason, everyone felt uneasy, it was as if their bodies instinctively sensed that something was wrong, causing them to unconsciously increase the power of their abilities.

    Approximately 5 minutes passed, and finally, that horrible feeling, along with the smell of blood, disappeared, causing the group to let out a slight sigh of relief.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Of course, they didn''t let their guard down even when that happened, "I''ll be honest guys, I have no idea what that was, but what I do know, is that we should leave as soon as possible."

    This time, no one said anything about it and they just followed Iza, without turning off their abilities for a moment of course.

    After a short while, they all reached the entrance of the forest, but before they could leave, the loud voice of a personing from deep in the forest interrupted them.

    "WHERE THE F*CK HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Shouted a tall, stocky woman in military clothes who was running toward them from inside the forest at breakneck speed.

    "M-miss ina!" Said Iza, who despite being in a panic, couldn''t help but be happy to see her.

    "DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW LONG I''VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU?!"

    This woman was the one in charge of supervising this camp, and judging by her tone of voice, she was angry with them.

    The moment she arrived towards where they were, Iza hurried to exin the situation to her, "You see, Miss ina, what-"

    "Where is yourpanion?"

    Before she could finish, however, ina interrupted her, her eyes riveted on Iza''s group.

    "Companion? We''re all here." She replied, turning to count her fivepanions, "Carol, Ramnel, Urmo, Bertel and ...Tessa?"

    Quickly, horror filled everyone''s face, and that was because just as ina had said, they were missing one person, their support mage, Tessa.

    In this situation, even Iza, who knew how to stay calm in most situations, began to be incredibly nervous as a feeling of fear arose within her.

    "I..."

    Although she wanted to say more, her words were caught in her throat, a product of the shock she had received upon learning that herpanion was no longer with them. Something that only got worse when she remembered the horrible feeling they experienced a few minutes ago in the forest.

    "Speak at once, girl, where is yourpanion?" ina hurried, while her voice wasn''t aggressive, her urgency could be noticed, as she could feel that something was wrong.

    At that moment, when Iza felt she could not continue speaking as her eyes began to water, she felt a hand on each of her shoulders, apanied by two silhouettes that stepped forward from her sides.

    "A while ago, we smelled the scent of human blood in the forest!" Said Ramnel, who also seemed to be giving it his all as he grabbed Iza''s right shoulder.

    "B-besides that, we also felt a creepy aura, it was like there was something watching us!" Added Carol, holding Iza''s left shoulder.

    "I swear we didn''t see anything weird, and we just concentrated on getting away as fast as we could!"

    "...We... we didn''t notice that Tessa wasn''t with us until now..."

    It was quite clear that everyone was still affected by the strange encounter from earlier, but seeing that their leader was in trouble, they couldn''t just stay quiet while Iza withstood ina''s pressure.

    Watching their expressions closely, ina determined that they weren''t lying and instead pulled out a circr wooden talisman from her pocket, "Head quickly towards the city, inform another teacher, preferably a mage, and tell them toe. Quickly!"

    "Y-yes!"

    Faced with ina''smanding voice, Iza''s group quickly got on the move, even though they were all extremly worried about Tessa, something inside them told them that they had better not go back into the forest.

    Or else... they would end up like theirpanion.

    As they left, ina held the wooden talisman in front of her before she began to inject her energy inside, causing the talisman to light up at the same time as her eyes also began to give off a light blue color.

    ***

    Deep in the "Limit", quite far from the entrance, an incredibly faint breathing could be heard, apanied by the sound of meat being chewed over and over again.

    However, there was absolutely nothing on the ground, and that was because the noises wereing from the trees, specifically, from the top of arge tree.

    In the top of the tree, hidden among the few leaves, two things could be seen, the first was undoubtedly the body of a girl, which was pale to the extreme.

    Unfortunately, that was not the worst, but if one looked more closely, you could see something was holding her arm, arm which was almostpletely devoid of flesh, creating a bloody and horrible scene.

    As for what was holding her, it was not so clear, as it was partially hidden by the shadow of the tree, only leaving visible its arms, which were unnaturally long and white, looking more like bones than anything else.

    At this point, the only person who would be able to see the appearance of this being was none other than Tessa.

    But perhaps by luck, or simply as a natural reaction to the situation she was in, the girl did not seem to be conscious at this moment.

    Suddenly, the forest ground split into countless cracks, which released a faint celestial glow before instantly closing up.

    "!"

    Of course, this did not go unnoticed by the creature holding Tessa, who at a monstrous speed, moved so fast that it seemed to even disappear, releasing said girl and causing her to fall from the top of the tree.

    Just before Tessa''s body hit the ground, someone arriving at a speed almost equal to that of the creature caught her gently.

    The person who just arrived had been none other than ine, whose gaze was fixed in the direction the creature had gone.

    She now had two choices, either to chase after said creature, or to stay behind to look after Tessa, who clearly needed urgent help.

    But the next moment, without hesitating for a second, she headed with Tessa in her arms in the direction of the nearest city, for her, there were not two options, only one.

 Chapter 101 - Empty?

    In the silver city, specifically in the hospital, Carol and her group stood in a white hallway, waiting visibly worried for the doctor toe out and inform them about the condition of theirpanion.

    Because the instructor had brought Tessa directly to the hospital, they didn''t had a chance to see her, only being able to wait outside.

    However, just by the fact that they had to wait, they knew that her condition was anything but healthy.

    At this moment, Iza was having a conflict within herself, as the leader of the group, her task, while most of the time it was to guide herpanions, that also included the duty of not putting them in unnecessary danger and looking out for their safety.

    Various thoughts like, ''If only I had been more careful...'' or simr went through her head, but the bitter feeling of guilt inside her would not go away no matter how much she regretted it, something that was only made worse knowing that she was the leader.

    The same was true for herpanions, who thought that their own selfishness caused Tessa to now find herself in this situation.

    Because of this, the atmosphere was heavy and silent, leaving only their breaths as the only sound that could be heard in the hallway.

    Unfortunately, they would have to stay a long time waiting, thanks to the fact that Tessa''s condition was not as simple as it seemed, though of course, they did not know this.

    ***

    At the same time, the person who had taken Tessa to the hospital, ina, was back in the "Limit" field, looking closely at her wooden talisman as streams of energy coursed through the acres of the forest, creating and closing cracks over and over again.

    Quickly, her expression turned to one of annoyance, "I don''t understand, even though I''m scanning the whole damn forest, it''s not detecting anything...!"

    Her frustration was quite evident, but it was something understandable, after all, it was the first time since she started working at the academy that her talisman didn''t give her the results she wanted.

    The talisman she held in her hands was a magical tool used by the academy''s teachers that allowed them to control the different types of magical circuits inscribed on certain grounds regardless of their ss.

    Of course, the "Limit", being such a vast and dangerous area, also had magic circuits inscribed everywhere, covering the entire forest.

    Among the many circuits, at least a dozen of them were dedicated to the recognition and localization of living beings and specific objects, something that had been implemented since the beginning of the Academy in order to avoid idents with students.

    However, although the instructor, who was a rank (B) pugilist, was currently injecting a huge amount of energy into the talisman, she could not find the creature she saw a few minutes ago.

    "I''ll have to enter the forest personally, then..." Said the instructor, putting the wooden talisman in her pocket before activating several martial techniques to increase her speed and perception.

    *Tap tap*

    But just then, she heard the sound of footsteps behind her, indicating that someone else had arrived to the field.

    Without waiting for the instructor to turn around, the person who arrived spoke, "I hope you weren''t thinking of entering the forest without first submitting a report, ina?"

    "Now that you''re here, save your breath and connect to the forest, this is a serious problem!" ina replied, moving to the side to clear the way.

    The person who arrived was a white-skinned mage with long grey hair which was tied in a ponytail, her features were graceful and her expression was incredibly cold.

    Not wanting to argue more than necessary, the mage, Kenya, approached the entrance of the field, closed her eyes and sat down with her legs crossed before touching the ground with both hands.

    *BOOOM!!!*

    Immediately, the ground began to tremble as huge cracks filled with blue energy opened up throughout the forest, creating a mystical scene of a forest full of mana trees.

    The reason for such a different reaction was because Kenya was a mage who specialized in magic circuits, making her someone who could connect directly to them without the use of external devices.

    As a result, not only could she use the circuits at full power, but their power was amplified by her.

    An enormous amount of information flowed into Kenya''s mind, but proving that she was not a rank (B) magician in name only, she assimted the information almost instantly.

    Quickly, the entire "Limit" field was analyzed, leaving not even a single stone unchecked.

    Noticing that the level of mana activity was decreasing, indicating that Kenya had finished her review, ine couldn''t help but ask, "Did you find the bastard? If I don''t kill it at least a couple of times, my conscience won''t be at ease."

    However, disregarding her words, Kenya continued with her task, though something had changed about her, and that was her expression.

    While she hade in with apletely serious and cold expression, she now had a frown on her face, as if something had her frustrated, quite simr to the expression ine had only moments ago.

    Seeing this, ine had a bad feeling, so she reminded Kenya, "I had to activate the omniscient mode in order to find Tessa, and even then I could only identify the scent of her blood, not her or the thing that had her, so you might want to try that too."

    The omniscient detection mode was an action in which all the magical circuits of a terrain werebined to give aplete real-time map of said terrain, with the only w being that it consumed a great deal of energy of the person using it.

    In fact, if ine wasn''t a rank (B) pugilist, she wouldn''t even be standing right now due to the exhaustion of having lost over 60% of her energy in just a few seconds.

    "I''m using omniscient mode... but, it''s not that I can''t find the monster you''re telling me about... it''s that the forest ispletely empty."

    "What?!"

    Just as Kenya had said, from the smallest monsters, to the predators at the top of the food chain, the forest had none of them.

    It was as if overnight, all the animal life in the forest had vanished...to make way for something far more terrifying.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ***

    Back in the bronze city, specifically deep in the training center, Jay was still sitting on the couch in the living room, a tired expression on his face.

    After Syvis had discovered Jay''s "true" identity, she began a questioning session that without knowing exactly how, ended up turning into Jay taking a ss on fashion.

    In the process, the clothes Jay was wearing were also harshly criticized, under the premise that if he was a model, he should take better care of his appearance, or else his ss level would go down.

    Apparently, Syvis was a bit overzealous about these kinds of issues, even more so than she was with talented people.

    Finally, after what seemed like several hours for him, Jay got a break, thanks to the fact that Syvis went to the city to get some clothes for him to try on.

    Letting out a long sigh, even though the fashion lesson had been a bit intense, Jay was relieved that his little ones hadn''t been discovered, ''Hm, now that she''s gone, I can take the opportunity to check her status...''

    At once, Syvis'' status window appeared before Jay.

    _____________________

    [Syvis Genna]

    Active Skill: Force Field (C-)

    Trait - Gravity Enhancer (Active) : At the moment the main skill is used, this feature will be activated simultaneously. Thanks to an advanced understanding of her ability, the user has gained the ability to borrow power from a greater force! +40% attack power, +20% control of the main skill.

    Condition: Healthy.

    Parasites: 1

    Assimtion Status: 0% (0.5% per day per parasite)

    (Warning: As the difference in energy between the [Carrier] and the [Host] is too big, the assimtion process has a high probability of failure).

    _____________________

    ''An control ability coupled with an active trait thatplements just the aspect that itcks.... No wonder I couldn''t even get close...'' Jay thought, again feeling relieved that he hadn''t been discovered.

    Although Jay had seen other decent traits before, he definitely thought this one was the strongest so far.

    Normally, skills that had to do with force fields, while incredibly good for support,cked the power to be used on their own.

    An example of this was the case with Jenny, whose ability was good enough to do tasks that required quite a bit of control, such as tying up her hair, but wasn''t strong enough to be able to lift a person into the air.

    However, Syvis'' ability had not only been exceptionally strong from the start, but this aspect had been further enhanced by receiving her trait.

    Taking this into ount, it was not unusual for said girl''s confidence to be so high, as she had the qualifications to behave in such a manner.

    Turning on his smartwatch, Jay realized that it had been a while and neither Syvis nor the instructor had returned, and the time to meet Sarah was approaching.

    ''Hmm...''

    In this situation, Jay considered his options, he could stay and wait until the girl known as Syvis returned with clothes for him to try on, or he could escape and attend the meeting with Sarah.

    No matter what he chose, it would piss off one of the two girls, but considering the pros and cons of both options, Jay came to a conclusion.

    ***

    About 15 minutester, a girl with long ck hair entered the training center, several bags of clothes adorned her arms, giving her a slightly funny appearance.

    In a matter of a couple of minutes, she made it to the deepest part of the training center, to the same small building that was to be the ce where she would live from now on.

    Opening the door with a big smile on her face, Syvis quickly made her way towards the living room, "I had to go a bit far due to the fact that the stores nearby didn''t have what I wanted, but never mind, I''m here now!"

    Unfortunately, no matter how enthusiastic her attempt of an apology for beingte was, it was all in vain, after all, the living room was empty.

    Seeing this, Syvis stoodpletely still for a few seconds and blinked a few times, as if she didn''t understand what had just happened.

    "Ha...haha...hahaha!"

    Suddenly, still not letting go of the bags with clothes in her hands, the esper startedughing.

    "It''s been a while since something like this happened... but... this just makes it more entertaining!"

    With those words as herst, Syvis sat down on the couch, anxiously awaiting the arrival of her co-worker, or rather, her future living fashion mannequin.

 Chapter 102 - I Want To Explore That

    After leaving the training center, Jay wasted no time in going to the ce agreed with Sarah, which was on the outskirts of the city, in the huge ins that separated the cities.

    The reason why they had decided to meet in a ce outside the city was because just as Jay did not have ess to the golden city, Sarah did not have ess to the bronze city either.

    Of course, it was not just a meaningless rule, but it had its purpose.

    Because of the gap between the skill level of the students in the different cities, each of these cities had facilities and resources to help a specific group of students.

    Thus, the bronze city had resources and teaching methods designed to help bronze students unlock their true potential.

    On the other hand, the silver city had students who had already unlocked their potential but did not know how to use it or were just getting used to it, so it had other types of resources and teaching methods to help them consolidate that unlocked potential.

    Finally, the golden city possessed students who had already unlocked their true potential long ago and also knew how to use it, resulting in them receiving even more specialized training focused on how to advance in grade while honing their skills.

    As for whether Jay or Sarah were allowed to go outside their respective cities, there was no problem as long as they returned before curfew, which was 11 p.m. sharp, or at least that was the case for Jay.

    Leaving the city, Jay''s face was hit by a cold current of wind that rather than making him feel cold, it made him feel refreshed.

    Unlike the bronze city, which leaned much more towards a modern city full of life with mystical touches, the outskirts couldn''t have been more normal and simple.

    Arge in stretched as far as Jay''s eye could see, with the only thing moving across the short grass being the wind currents that took advantage of theck of obstructions to run freely.

    And in the middle of it all, a dirt road that could easily fit dozens of cars, yet waspletely empty.

    Bringing his gaze up to the sky, observing the countless stars in it as the wind kept hitting him in the face, Jay couldn''t help but feel at peace with himself, "Hm, this... is quite nice."

    With a slight smile on his face, Jay found this situation amusing, due to the fact that what he was now enjoying, a moment of calm where he didn''t have to worry about anything, before had been just another day in his life.

    He found funny that just a few months ago, his biggest worry had been what college career to choose, and now he was on his way to train his skills as an esper with Sarah.

    Slowly, a feeling of nostalgia filled him.

    Perhaps so he wouldn''t feel alone at this moment, or maybe because he wanted to vent to someone, Jay raised his hand and looked at his palm, from which quickly emerged a small plump worm with extremely sharp teeth.

    "Thanks again..."

    While those two words might seem short and insufficient, they expressed perfectly how Jay felt not only to the parasite in his palm, but to all other parasites, not forgetting of course, the system.

    While he had done it once before, even if he did it two or three more times, the feeling of gratitude would not be diminished.

    In response, the little parasite stared at Jay, almost as if it had understood what the esper had meant tomunicate.

    "Oh, could it be that you finally understand what-"

    *Chack*

    However, the next moment, seeing that it had no further orders, the parasite slipped back into Jay''s hand,municating a simple thought to Jay, "Cold."

    This action, instead of leaving him feeling weird about being ignored, caused the smile on his face to grow wider.

    Now in an improved mood, Jay began to move quickly down the dirt road, his silhouette that started out visible from the city bing smaller and smaller until finally disappearing.

    ***

    Within a short time, and after traveling a great distance, Jay came to a certain grassy field that had a fewrge, thick trees, giving way to a forest.

    This had been the designated ce for them to meet.

    Being away from any of the three cities, there was no risk of being interrupted by either students or teachers, giving them a free pass so they could train without worry.

    Surveying his surroundings while using his vitality radar, Jay found that a considerably strong vitality signal was located at the top of one of therger trees.

    Bringing his gaze to the top of said tree, the sight that greeted him caused him to momentarily be captivated.

    On one of the thicker branches, a beautiful girl with long light blue hair swaying in the wind was leaning back, in a great show of bnce as she moved her fingers nonchntly creating small sparks of mana.

    As for her attire, the girl was wearing a tight ck tank top along with ck leggings, an outfit that did not impede her mobility at all.

    The next moment, noticing that someone was watching her, Sarah suddenly turned her head in Jay''s direction, "Oh, you''re here, let''s not waste much more time and get started then, there''s little time left until curfew."

    Hopping down from the tree, Sarah then advanced towards Jay before her eyes began to give off a glow, using the same spell she had used quite some time ago to observe the energy within him.

    Jay could sense that Sarah was acting in a rushed manner, but considering that their time was indeed limited, he concluded that it was normal.

    "Let''s see... although your energy is now much more controlled than before, the amount is still the same..."

    Thanks to the fact that the process of moving to their respective cities had been a rushed task and one that took them a considerable amount of time toplete, Sarah hadn''t had a chance to verify what change had urred in Jay now that his energy was so controlled.

    "Oh well, even if you had more energy, it wouldn''t be enough to reach Carl''s standard or anyone like it either. So taking that into ount, the best thing I could do for you in this case would be to help you improve yourbat ability."

    Normally, with her being a mage and Jay being an esper, their power systems and the way they used their abilities varied greatly, resulting in the help she could give him being incredibly limited.

    Fortunately, Sarah was not only a mage, but she was a mage who practiced heterodox magic, which not only had a myriad of uses and spells, but also had the characteristic of breaking the traditional rule of mages being slow and relying almost entirely on external factors to protect themselves.

    While there were clearly mages in that branch of magic who preferred to leave it all up to their spells, that was not the case with Sarah, who was always looking for new ways to mix her spells with the use of her body.

    Now walking away quickly, Sarah took abat stance, "Let''s start likest time, show me everything you''ve got and I''ll take care of pointing out your mistakes, of course, I''ll make sure these lessons stick with you."

    As she finished saying that, a yful smile appeared on her face.

    Not wanting to keep her waiting, Jay moved as well, tossing the jacket he was wearing on thewn, revealing his torso covered only by his ck tank top.

    "Here I go!"

    The next moment, the esper began to run towards the mage, several currents of wind apanying him on his march.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Thanks to all the times he had repeated this, he had already reached a point where while he couldn''t use it as easily as breathing, he just needed some concentration to achieve the desired effect.

    If he kept this same speed, it wouldn''t be long before he got closer to Sarah and started a hand-to-hand confrontation, just like thest time they were training.

    Unfortunately, things were not going to be the same, after all, that time it was Sarah simply observing Jay''s level, instead, now she waspletely serious about training him.

    *BAM!*

    "Argh!"

    Without him being able to finish his approach, Jay''s body flew backwards,nding abruptly on the ground and interrupting his march.

    This of course had been the product of Sarah using a rather simple spell called ''Air Bullet'', and as the name indicated, it consisted of a small cluster of wind that wasunched at high speed.

    Having been among the first spells Sarah managed to learn when she was barely a rank (D) mage, its power was barely enough to tickle the body of an average rank (C) super.

    Still, thanks to the fact that Sarah was using considerable amounts of mana when using that spell, it resulted in this one being faster and powerful enough to be able to send Jay flying.

    Standing in the same position as before, Sarah spoke, "When approaching your opponent, make sure not to be so predictable!"

    Thereupon, the mageunched herself in Jay''s direction, wanting to continue her lesson.

    Seeing this, Jay clearly sensed that he was in danger, so he quickly got up, almost at the same time that Sarah reached him.

    In a matter of seconds, he jumped, creating a tform of air under his feet, seeking to create distance from Sarah so he could reorganize himself.

    At that moment, when he was already in the air and had created a tform, he felt a cold hand grab his ankle.

    Although this brief exchange had been simr to theirst training, there was one clear difference ...and that was, Sarah was fighting for real.

    "If you have something so convenient, use it from the start!"

    With those words as herst, Sarah then proceeded to use Jay as if he were a metal bat, whipping him hard against the ground.

    Seeing this, Jay wanted to use the same movement asst time to free himself, but to his surprise, even with all the wind in the surroundings, Sarah''s hand didn''t move even one bit, then, said esper only managed to say something before the disgrace happened, "...Shit."

    *BAM!*

    "Gah!"

    And just like that, Sarah''s painful training of Jay began.

    ***

    After an unknown amount of time, the sound of small explosions and groans of pain finally stopped, being exchanged for the sound of a person breathing heavily.

    Slightly sunken into the ground, in the middle of several other smaller craters, Jay was lying in a crater, with the special feature that this crater had been made using his body as the mold.

    The reason he hadn''t moved from there was quite simple..... he didn''t have the energy to do so.

    As for his appearance, it was quite a contrast to how he had arrived.

    With his tank top now in tatters and his pants that had holes here and there, if you added his face smeared with dust and dirt, it was clear he''d had a very bad time.

    Still, Jay didn''t feel bad at all, but was even in the mood to joke around with Sarah, "Haa...haa...do you even know...how much this tank top cost me...?"

    Next to him, the light blue-haired mage was sitting cross-legged, although her appearance was much better than Jay''s, judging by the beads of sweat on her face, this training session had proven to be demanding for her as well.

    With a satisfied smile on her face, moving to sit on top of Jay as she ced her hands on said esper''s bare torso, Sarah invoked the same energy recovery spell she had used to treat him before, "Take it as the price for my services~"

    Though her tone was slightly tired, Jay could also feel that the rush Sarah had earlier was gone, apparently having ''trained'' him had helped her rx a bit.

    Feeling his body slowly starting to improve, Jayy still, receiving the magical treatment provided by his mage friend.

    "...So tell me, what''s the golden city like?"

    "It''s amazing, you literally walk on money being there, plus..."

    A few minutes passed, with Sarah talking about the golden city, about how she lived on a whole floor in a skyscraper, how there were several jobs where they pay hundreds of merit points daily, among so many other things that would make any student from the silver and bronze cities envious.

    Jay on the other hand simply limited himself to listen to her, just when she finished, he asked, "But there''s something that you don''t like, right?"

    Now that Sarah was talking about the golden city, Jay had noticed the same urgency filling her again, realizing that it wasn''t urgency, but something else that was bothering her.

    "Hm, I only get permission to leave once every 6 months...and I just used that permission for this day."

    For some reason, Jay had a suspicion that while that was part of the problem, it wasn''t entirely the reason Sarah was acting rushed and even... nervous.

    "So..."

    Before Jay could finish, the mage spoke again, "Do you remember what happened in your backyard, when my aunt found us?"

    Immediately, the memory of that day flooded Jay''s mind, not knowing how to react to it.

    "Maybe you think that it''s a bit rushed but... I want to explore that, I want to know what would have happened if we hadn''t been interrupted, and if that would have been the right decision."

    Despite her nervousness, her words were clear and concise, just as Sarah was, a person who would rather do the impossible than be left with a doubt.

    "However, right now, neither you nor I have the time for it, and now that we are at the Academy, it will be even moreplicated... that''s why I came up with something, it''s definitely selfish, but it''s the only thing I can do..."

    After saying that, without waiting a second longer, and gathering all the resolve she had prepared for tonight, Sarah quickly moved her face closer towards Jay''s.

 Chapter 103 - A Selfish Action

    Because of how sudden Sarah''s move had been, coupled with the fact that she was on top of him, there wasn''t much Jay could do in this case.

    Of course, it wasn''t as if he was desperately trying to get out of this situation either, and the reason for this was because he wanted to know exactly what the mage was nning to do.

    While it might seem that the actions of the two of them were rash, there were actually several factors behind them.

    Along with James, they had been friends since they were children, with Jay being the connector between the mage and the pugilist, starting a rtionship that wouldst even until now.

    However, as Jay and Sarah grew older, they reached a point where they both noticed that it wasn''t really just friendship that they felt for each other, but something moreplicated.

    Because of this, there were several situations where both the esper and the mage made advances on each other without really knowing what they wanted.

    As a result, the trust they had in each other increased a lot more, although it also resulted in Jay developing his previously most powerful ability, his "Immunity to female charms", as a response to Sarah''s advances.

    As for the reason of why Jay was so confident in said "ability", it was quite simple, and it was because it had worked before.

    Unfortunately, every time the two of them spent time together, the likelihood of either of them making any advances on each other was not low at all, testing the strenght of that ability time and time again.

    However, even that would have been fine for Jay''s resistance, but as if that wasn''t enough, over the years, such advances were getting stronger and stronger, culminating in the evening where the two were training in Jay''s yard, finally breaking through said resistance.

    Following that pattern, it was only natural that now Sarah''s advance was much stronger than before.

    Now Sarah''s face was too close for Jay to do anything other than get lost in the gorgeous facial features of said girl, so he made a decision to do something.

    But just at that moment, when he was about to execute his special move also replete with all his resolve and willpower, Sarah was even faster.

    *Chu*

    The sound of a light kiss was heard in the silent ins, before a new silence began.

    "..."

    "..."

    "...Eh?"

    After a few short seconds, the silence was broken by Jay, who let out a sound of confusion, something that was totally understandable, after all, what he was expecting didn''t happen.

    The part of his body that was kissed, rather than his lips, forehead or cheeks, was none other than his neck.

    However, just as he was about to say something, he felt how in the part where Sarah''s lips had touched his neck, an intense heat began to burn him.

    Wanting to bring his hand to his neck, this action was stopped by Sarah, "Don''t move, it''s not done yet."

    "...What exactly?"

    "My extremely selfish and reckless action...a reminder that we have something pending and that no one should intrude."

    When she finished saying that, Jay sensed something wasn''t right, so he quickly pulled out his smart watch and snapped a picture of his neck.

    Although the moon was high in the sky, bestowing its glow on the surroundings, what still dominated everything were shadows, so the photo inevitably came out dark.

    Fortunately for Jay, the part that interested him, his neck, could be seen with great rity, thanks mainly to the fact that there was a small circle with the image of what appeared to be an azalea that was giving off a blue glow on said part of his body.

    Seeing this, Jay''s pupils shrank, again not knowing how to react to this.

    "I... I''m sorry, it''s stupidly selfish of me to do it without asking, but if I didn''t do this... I wouldn''t have been able to do anything but to think of this..." Sarah added, a tone of urgency and concern evident in her voice, her hands touching Jay''s shoulders.

    However, Jay simply stood still as he processed what had just happened.

    In the face of this silence, the anxiety Sarah was feeling only grew more, causing a small amount of self-loathing to emerge.

    She knew that with this action, even if Jay was upset and decided to cut off all contact with her, he would be well within his rights, after all, what she had done was no different than marking him.

    Marking him so that not only would she be aware at all times that she had something pending with him, but so that anyone who saw him would be aware that Jay was... unavable.

    Despite this, while she was worried, she didn''t had any regrets, she had made a decision and would ept the consequences no matter what they were.

    On the other hand, Jay was working his brain to the max, trying to figure out why Sarah would do something like this, but more importantly, how he should react to this situation.

    He could get upset, he could ignore this, or he could simply make a joke and pretend this never happened, just as he had done with all of Sarah''s advances so far.

    ''I could probably pass it off as a joke...but is that what I really want...?''

    Bringing his gaze to the girl above him, Jay''s emotions, which up until a second ago were a mess, immediately calmed down, causing him toe to a conclusion about what to do.

    "!"

    In one swift movement, Jay sat up at the same time as he grabbed Sarah''s wrists, who due to the guilt she felt inside, put up no resistance, "I understand... that you''re angry, but I-"

    "Hold still." Jay said, interrupting her abruptly, "This might hurt a bit."

    The next moment, the esper opened his mouth wide before sinking his teeth into said girl''s neck.

    *Chack*

    "Ugh!"

    This unexpected move took Sarah by surprise, and although she recovered almost instantly, Jay''s bite was still not over, giving her the option to stop this.

    However, maybe because she was feeling guilty or just because she was confused, she didn''t, still enduring the slight pain that now flooded her neck, "W-what are you doing?!"

    Not having the time to answer her, Jay remained focused on his own thing, which was trying to do the same thing Sarah did, create a mark that wouldn''te off even after half a year had passed.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ''...This won''t do...I need something more...'' Jay thought, now with his brow slightly furrowed.

    While this might leave a mark, it wouldn''tst that long...at least not if he only used his teeth.

    A secondter, though both Jay and Sarah''s position remained the same, thest person mentioned suddenly lifted her shoulders, surprised at the new sensation she was feeling on her neck, "I-I-Is that your tongue?!"

    That''s right, what was now touching Sarah''s neck, aside from Jay''s teeth, was his tongue.

    Then, before she could say anything else, Sarah felt a bite where Jay''s tongue was touching her, causing Sarah to let out a small moan of pain.

    *CHAK!*

    "Ouch!"

    And with that as hisst, Jay finally broke away from Sarah, taking a breath of air beforeying back down on the grass, seemingly tired from what he had just done.

    As for the mark on Sarah''s neck, it was in the shape of an oval, with a small circle even more pronounced on the inside of it, creating an image that bore a strong resemnce to an eye, and while it wasn''t as sophisticated as the one said mage had made on him, it certainly was eye-catching.

    "Since you marked me, then it''s only fair that I also do the same, also, if you''re going to do something like this, at least next time let me know in advance, so I can create a better design."

    "...Yes, I... I think that''s what I''ll do." She replied, holding her sore neck with one of her hands, though careful not to touch the mark Jay had made on it.

    Without another word, Sarah slowlyy down beside him, with a smile on her face that she couldn''t help but show because of what Jay had just done.

    In that way, under the silence of the night, time passed, until finally, they both said their goodbyes and returned to their respective cities.

    While it was true that this pair might not see each other again for a long time, neither was particrly worried.

    ***

    In the early morning of the next day, deep inside the bronze city''s training center, a certain person wearing a baggy gray uniform was sweeping arge stone courtyard, removing the dust that had umted over the past few days.

    Fortunately, thanks to the fact that he had been cleaning this courtyard for a while now, it didn''t take him long to finish.

    Letting out a sigh, said person then took out his smartwatch and opened his notes app, in which all his tasks for the day were written down.

    "Let''s see, I already finished cleaning three yards, that leaves me another seventeen remaining to meet my quota, I''ll just have to finish at night, as for the loads ofundry to be done, it shouldn''t take me more than 2 hours... I''d better hurry."

    Said person, or rather Jay, then began to move quickly to the next yard to be swept.

    The night before, after he had returned from his training session with Sarah, he had expected Syvis, or much worse, the instructor, to scold him for running away, but to his surprise, neither happened.

    Instead, Syvis, who had apparently gotten his contact information without his knowledge, sent a message to his smartwatch which contained all of his duties information plus a screenshot where the instructor said that she was unable to return due to certain issues at the academy.

    Although his to-do list was somewhat extensive, having to clean 20 yards and wash hundreds of clothes as his daily quota, he knew that if he organized himself well and woke up earlier, he would be able to make it.

    The problem started because just an hour ago, he had also received his sses schedule, which was almost entirely focused on improving his skills as an esper, as for the supplementary sses, they barely took up about four hours of an entire week.

    It could be said that he got the best possible result, since it was precisely those sses that he needed the most at the moment, although of course, it was to be expected, after all, the nights he spent studying were not few at all.

    As a result, in the interest of not affecting his sses, although it was currently five in the morning, Jay was already working fervently, wanting to make as much progress as possible before he had to go to his sses, which started at ten o''clock.

    Finally, the hours passed, and the time to go to ss drew ever closer, so Jay headed to his room to get ready before leaving for the school.

    While his start at the academy had beenplicated for more than one reason, from this moment on, his school life at the best educational institution for supers in the world, the Eitsirc Academy, had begun!

    ***

    At the same time Jay was on his way to his ssroom, in a certain unknown city, specifically in a skyscraper that was located in the center of said city, a meeting was taking ce.

    The person sitting at the head of this table, arge man with tanned skin and a prominent beard spoke seriously, "As most of you may know, yesterday one of the silver city''s students, Tessa Clemmensen was injured while she was with her hunting party in the ''Limit'' forest and her current condition isplicated."

    Although it had only happened yesterday, an incredibly detailed report of the event had already been sent to these people, by none other than the instructor in charge of the ''Limit'' forest, ina.

    "Now, this would normally not be a strange urrence, if it were not for three unusual factors, firstly there would be an unknown infection that seems to have spread in the aforementioned student''s wounds, secondly there would be the disappearance of all the monsters in said camp andstly the appearance of a strange entity with humanoid form and a minimum capacity of a rank (B-) super."

    When the man finished speaking, those present couldn''t help but feel surprised, after all, only one of these events on their own were enough for the academy to focus most of their attention on them, but now there were actually three of them!

    One should know that the academy, with the time it had been in existence, had acquired knowledge about countless kinds of diseases and ailments that could affect supers, so the fact that the infection that Tessa had didn''t appear in their database meant that it was somethingpletely new.

    Then there would be the incident of the disappearance of all the monsters, something that should be virtually impossible to achieve thanks precisely to the surveince that was in ce in the forest and also due to the extreme difficulty of being able to infiltrate the forest without the express permission of the academy.

    Finally, the culprit of the first incident mentioned and also the major suspect of the second incident, the unknown humanoid entity whose information was incredibly scarce.

    "It is estimated that such an entity has that rank due to the fact that it was able to escape from ine, however, its concealment ability goes far beyond that, as it was even able to bypass the security of the magic circuits."

    One could tell from the man''s tone that there was some suspicion in his words, especially at the mention of magic circuits.

    However, that onlysted a few seconds before he gave his conclusion, "I want 10 circuit mages and 5 shadow pugilists to investigate the ''Limit'', as for the girl, if the doctors aren''t able to cure her arm and the infection, have them call Beali, no matter the price, she must be cured."

    Immediately, one of the people present in the room, a young man with gray hair and blue eyes who appeared to be the secretary wrote down the order from therge man.

    Although this action had been incredibly simple, it should have been known that not only were circuit mages scarce mages everywhere in the world, but those who had attained rank (B) were even fewer, not to mention shadow pugilists, who were known as the fastest supers in the world.

    Although both were types of supers in high demand by huge organizations all around the globe, to the academy, they were just outstanding workers.

    The other people present on the other hand began to talk about what they could do to avoid such incidents in the future while wondering where their pirs of trust were at the moment, referring to the head teachers, none of whom were present.

    As for the person leading this meeting, the man ofrge stature, he was thinking something simr about the head teachers, ''...Perhaps, it was not a good idea to send them on such a long mission so soon...''

 Chapter 104 - [Bonus ]The Most Important Thing

    While the higher ups of the Academy reached a verdict on how to deal with the problem of the "Limit" field, Jay had already entered his ssroom and was now listening attentively to the teacher present.

    "Good morning to all present, my name is Zequiel Roldan and this is the Skill Control ss for Espers, if there is anyone who got confused, you are still on time to get to your corresponding ss." Said the teacher, wanting to warn any clueless students who might have made a mistake.

    Unlike the teachers and instructors Jay had seen so far, this teacher was much leaner and simpler, as well as not having an imposing or shy presence.

    As for his appearance, he had his hairbed in a middle parting and worerge sses that covered a good part of his face, further enhancing his appearance of a normal teacher.

    However, none of those present dared to underestimate him, including Jay, after all, many times, appearances were deceiving, especially in a ce like the Academy where exceptional supers could be easily found.

    "Now then, I know you may be eager to start improving your control and get stronger, but you must not forget that for all supers, it is always important to be very clear on the most basic concepts, so before we go out into the field, let me ask you a simple question."

    After saying that, the teacher turned to the huge green board behind him and began to write in lettersrge enough for all present to see.

    At the same time as he finished writing, the same teacher read from the board, "What are the most important things for an esper?"

    Immediately, the question caused arge number of students to begin actively thinking about the correct answer, although of course, there were also those who had their answer perfectly clear.

    "Power!"

    A girl''s vibrant voice then echoed in the ssroom, but unexpectedly, it came not from the students present, but from a girl with long ck hair who was standing at the entrance door of the ssroom, a big confident smile imprinted on her face.

    Seeing this, the teacher turned to her with a kind expression, "Good morning, Miss..."

    "Syvis Genna, I apologize for beingte, teacher!" She replied, still standing in the ssroom doorway.

    Just as she finished saying her name, some students began to murmur among themselves, apparently, they already knew something about the neer.

    As for her, she noticed this immediately, and keeping her big confident smile on her face, she shifted her gaze so that it fell on that of the students who were muttering, "Power is everything in the life of an esper, be it prestige, fame, money or anything else, be it to help our allies... or to eliminate our enemies, power is always useful and necessary!"

    cing special emphasis on the word ''enemies'', Syvis did not take her eyes off those who were muttering, who immediately fell silent and avoided her gaze, for while what the esper had said was an answer to the teacher''s question, it was clear that it was also a threat.

    Hearing her words, the teacher smiled, "Quite an interesting and true approach, Miss Genna, but before we continue,e in and take a seat please."

    With his permission, Syvis then began to look for a ce to sit, herrge pupils scouring the avable ces to sit, obviously passing by the various students present, who also avoided her gaze, fortunately for them, this onlysted a second at most.

    Or at least that was the case for most of them, but when her gaze stopped on Jay, Syvis continued to watch him for a longer period of time.

    ''...Hm, I wonder if I''ll be in trouble...'' Jay thought, bringing his gaze to meet Syvis''.

    While he hadn''t thought much about it, it was true that he had stood Syvis up yesterday.

    Normally he wouldn''t make a big deal out of something like that if it were anyone else since it could be solved with a simple apology, but judging by said girl''s actions yesterday and that of only a few seconds ago, Jay wasn''t so sure it would be solved so easily.

    At that moment, raising her hand to point toward an empty seat at the front of the room, Syvis spoke again, "I''ll sit there."

    To the relief of many, Jay included, the energetic girl did not choose to sit next to them.

    Now that the neer had seated and the rest of the ssroom quieted down, the teacher then continued with his initial question, "Okay, we already have an answer, does anyone else have any other?"

    Unfortunately for the teacher, Syvis'' arrival had left several students feeling ufortable, making the atmosphere a bit awkward for them to give their answers.

    However, at that moment, another girl''s voice was heard in the room, "Control, even if you have all the power in the world, if you can''t control it, it''spletely useless."

    The person who said that had been a female student with short, bright golden hair, rather pale skin and a disinterested expression on her face.

    This caught the attention of several students, including Jay, firstly because it was an answer that made sense, but more importantly, because she was openly and unnecessarily challenging Syvis.

    In reaction, Syvis brought her gaze towards the blonde student andmented with a mocking expression on her face, "Heh, only a weakling would think that way, even if you perfectly control a grain of sand, you could never stand up to a mountain, even if it has no control whatsoever."

    Also moving her gaze to meet Syvis'', the student replied, "My name is Faith, Faith Bamard, and I''m sorry but... I don''t see any mountains here, just a pitiful in."

    Those present could already guess that this girl was not frightened in the least of Syvis, but with what she had just said, it was clear that not only was she not afraid of her, she was even taunting her!

    "A in is where I''ll bury your body in!" Syvis shouted as she stood up and the energy in her body rose dangerously high.

    "I''d like to see you try!" Faith replied, still in her seat but also raising her energy to match Syvis''.

    The moment she did, Jay understood why Faith wasn''t scared of Syvis, and it was because her energy level was in no way inferior to that of the aforementioned esper.

    However, before either student could do anything, the figure of the teacher suddenly appeared between the two, "Great, rivalry is a good motivation to encourage progress! However, you must remember that we are in a ssroom... and any kind of fighting is forbidden!"

    *Swoosh*

    When he finished saying that, a current of invisible energy immediately spread throughout the ssroom until it filled the entire room, having the teacher as the center.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "!"

    "...Wow."

    The first people to feel the effects of that wave of energy were Syvis and Faith, who for a brief moment, felt the energy in their bodies lose control.

    Another person who felt this change was Jay, who while he didn''t have as good an energy control as the two espers, could clearly see how for a brief moment, his energy parameters went haywire.

    ''...That was... Energy Disruption?'' Jay thought, impressed by the teacher''s simple yet powerful action.

    What Jay was referring to with Energy Disruption was a technique known among espers and mages which, as the name indicated, hindered the flow of energy within a super.

    While it was an incredibly useful technique, it was only avable to espers and mages who had achieved extremely high energy control, and certain requirements had to be met in order to use it, such as that the targets could not be of a higher rank than the person using the technique.

    Even with that, it did not detract from the fact that the teacher was undoubtedly an esper to be careful with.

    Having been warned by the teacher, both Syvis and Faith sat down, though it was clear that the enmity between them had not disappeared, it had only been appeased for the moment.

    Returning to his desk, the teacher spoke again, "Now then, we already have two answers, power and control, does anyone else have another suggestion?"

    Now that the teacher had put a stop to the strange atmosphere of a few seconds ago, the students were encouraged to give other answers, such as type of ability, traits, talent, among other things.

    However, the teacher was not satisfied with any of those, "Come on guys, don''t forget the most fundamental thing when using your skills!"

    "Our bodies." Suddenly said a young man sitting in one of the front rows.

    He had a white straight hair that reached his shoulders, thanks to the fact that he was wearing a tank top, one could clearly see his physical condition, which had nothing to envy to a pugilist.

    "Whether it''s for power or control, if you don''t have a body that is able to withstand both, then the only thing that awaits us in the end is self-destruction."

    The young man''s words, as with Syvis and Faith, also made sense to the students present.

    Cases of espers sumbing to their own power were not few, with the most famous being rank (B) espers, and the cause of this was nothing more or less than the fact that they had focused all their training on strengthening their abilities, neglecting their bodies.

    As a result, their bodies, even though they were inherently strong thanks to being rank (B) supers, could not withstand their energy level and ended up destroying themselves.

    "Nice, we already have three correct answers then, but before we go on to thest one, what is your name, young man?" The teacher asked.

    "Allen Wrenne, sir."

    Thereupon, the teacher pulled out a small notebook with several notes and spoke again, "Let''s see, that would be Syvis Genna, Faith Bamard and Allen Wrenne."

    Seeing that the teacher was writing down the aforementioned names, Allen couldn''t help but ask, "Teacher, excuse me but why are you writing down our names?"

    "Oh, it''s so I don''t forget to reward you at the end of ss, you may not know this, but at least in my sses, every participation is rewarded with merit points."

    The moment he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the ssroom changedpletely, each student''s desire for merit pointspletely filling the room.

    However, before they could say anything, the clear, loud voice of a young man interrupted them, "THE MIND!!!"

    Standing in his seat and with one foot on top of his shared table to draw more attention to himself, Jay was looking at the teacher, "Unlike mages and pugilists who use techniques or spells to channel their power, we ourselves are the ones who channel our abilities as we have a deeper connection to our powers than they do, but if we don''t control our emotions and our mental state, then everything else will fall apart."

    While Jay''s answer was motivated by money, it was still true, after all, even if a mage or a pugilist was sad, as long as they performed their spells or martial techniques correctly, the effect of these would not be greatly reduced.

    However, this was not the case with espers, whose emotions couldpletely change the level of power they could disy, either for better or for worse.

    Visibly satisfied with the answer he had just heard, the teacher continued, "Well said, and these four concepts are what work in harmony in an esper''s body!"

    Thereupon, the teacher rolled up the sleeve of his white shirt to his elbow, before his arm began to fill with energy to the point where it looked like it was going to explode.

    "A strong body to withstand our energy and power to channel that energy!" Said the teacher before letting all that energy out into the room, creating dozens of energy spheres that floated in the air and kept increasing in size, making the students worry that they were going to explode.

    But before this happened, just as the spheres reached the size of a person, they immediately stopped, "Control, so we can use our power properly!"

    The next moment, all the spheres began to move in front of the teacher, gathering into a huge sphere that reached up to the ceiling, the energy inside moving so violently that even Syvis and Faith were showing concern.

    "And finally..."

    *BAM!

    With that sound, the sphere exploded, but to everyone''s surprise, instead of causing damage, the only change that urred was that there were now small sparks of energy floating around the room, creating a considerably beautiful scene.

    "A sound mind to control all three.." Added the teacher with a beaming smile on his face.

 Chapter 105 - Filtering

    After the teacher''s unnecessarily shy demonstration, all the students, under his direction, went out into the school yard so that they could get down to the business of what the course was all about, which was improving their control of their skills.

    The courtyard, like many other fields at the academy, consisted of arge grassy field with the asional tree popping up from time to time, giving the entire school more than enough space for all of its students.

    As for why they had not headed to the training center, it was because the center was for specialized training, with conditions such as qi inhibition and so on being present, things that were not necessary for an introductory ss.

    Quickly, all the students took their seats on thewn, with the teacher being at the front and exining the first step of a control technique, "Let''s start with something basic, first I need everyone to manifest their ability in both palms, for those with passive abilities, it will be enough if you gather your energy in your palms."

    Following the teacher''s instructions, the students'' palms then became filled with various shy abilities, from fireballs, sparks of electricity, and even the asional small energy field.

    The most eye-catching abilities and the ones that caused the most pressure to others however belonged to none other than the three students who had answered the teacher''s question correctly.

    With little sparks of energy jumping from finger to finger in her palm, Syvis didn''t think much of this and just continued to be attentive to the teacher''s next instructions.

    On the other hand, Faith was with several small golden colored energy spheres fluttering around her, but focusing especially on her hands, on her face an expression of indifference.

    As for Allen, while nothing could be seen on either of his palms, every now and then an invisible wave would expand from his palms before disappearing and repeating that process in a loop.

    While their abilities were different, what all three had inmon was that, aside from the fact that they could manifest their abilities as easily as breathing, they were all emanating considerable pressure.

    To the other students'' bad luck, the three had ced themselves in strategic locations, with Syvis in the center of the students, Faith to the left side and Allen to the right, not allowing a single one of their ssmates to be at ease.

    While all this was going on, there was one person who was not at all concerned about the threat of these three, in fact, he was even sitting rtively close to one of these people, and instead, he was rapidly working his brain as his gaze fell on each of his ssmates.

    ''Quick, I must memorize as much as I can!'' Jay thought as he deeply recorded the faces of his ssmates along with their skills.

    It was clear that instead of paying attention to the teacher, he was much more interested in his ssmates, or rather, their skills.

    Of course, this was understandable, after all, this was the main reason he hade to the academy.

    While the lessons from the teachers at the academy would also have benefits for him and Jay would definitely take whatever they offered, he already knew that the path he had to follow to get stronger was different from that of any other super.

    For any other mage, esper or pugilist, getting stronger depended on several factors, some external, such as the resources avable for training, and some internal, such as one''s own talent.

    However, Jay didn''t need to follow that path, because he had his own path, called the Parasyte System!

    At that moment, interrupting Jay''s information gathering, the teacher spoke again, "Now that everyone activated their abilities, the next step is to separate your hands and limit your energy to just the center of your palms!"

    Just as before, the students followed the teacher''s instructions and limited their abilities, or at least they tried to.

    While they could manifest their abilities with rtive ease, most were used to letting them out as much as they could, not suppressing them, so it was inevitable that they would have difficulty.

    Although there were students like Syvis, Faith and Allen who seemed to have little trouble, they were the exception.

    "Ah!" Shouted one of the students whose fireball suddenly lost control, heading towards another of the students, a thin, gray-haired boy.

    Because thetter had been focused onplying with what the teacher asked, he only noticed the fireball when it was toote, unable to defend himself even if he wanted to, only managing to grit his teeth and close his eyes, waiting for the impact.

    *SWOOSH!*

    However, the blow never came, so the boy''s curiosity forced him to open his eyes, the first thing he saw being a wind-covered hand that was right in front of his face.

    Before he could process what had happened, Jay''s soft voice reached the young man''s ears, "Are you okay?"

    "Ah, I...yes, thank you very." Replied the young man, averting his gaze from Jay''s, making him a little nervous that Jay''s face was so close.

    Thanks to the fact that Jay had been paying attention to his ssmates, he was the first, other than the professor, to notice the fireball that had gotten out of control.

    Therefore, even though he was sure the professor would have dealt with it without a problem, using his pugilist body, he arrived at the young man''s side in barely a moment, just in time to help him.

    "Well done, Sacrest, as for you, I''m afraid I''ll have to give you a reprimand in the form of a homework pass." Said the professor before causing a small yellow colored ticket to drop in front of the young man, "It''s a pass for a three hour intensive session for esper skill control at the training center, I would rmend that youplete it before tomorrow, as if you don''t, you won''t be able to get into any other sses, besides..."

    Taking advantage of the fact that the teacher was scolding and exining what the homework pass was to the student who let the fireball escape, Jay struck up a conversation with the gray-haired boy.

    "Hm, it seems to me that the pass is more of a reward than a punishment..." Jay said, sitting down casually.

    Focusing more attention on Jay''s words than his actions, the gray-haired boy added, "Of course not, although it might sound easy since it''s only three hours, surely he won''t be able toplete the pass for at least two weeks."

    Just as the boy had said, the pass was in no way a reward, but was more of a leveling ss for those students who werecking in one or two aspects, with the difference being that they were quite a bit more difficult toplete than any other normal ss.

    "You seem to know quite a bit, weren''t you also a first grader?" Jay asked.

    At that moment, the young man brought his gaze to meet Jay''s, narrowing his eyes, "...You say that because of my size?"

    Now that he mentioned it, Jay couldn''t help but take a closer look at the boy, realizing that he was not only thin, but also slightly shorter than normal.

    Waving his hand to lighten the situation, Jay spoke again, "Of course not, it''s because this ss is only for first graders."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Ah... right. Ahem, I know because my sister is in fourth grade and she''s told me several things about the Academy." Replied the young man with a lightly embarrased look on his face.

    Stretching his hand forward, Jay said with a smile on his face, "It was already my n, but now that I know you have valuable information, I definitely need to have you as a friend, nice to meet you, I''m Jay Sacrest."

    The young man found it a bit odd how straightforward Jay was, but thanks to the fact that thetter had created a good impression by helping him earlier, plus the fact that he didn''t seem to have bad intentions, the young man relented, "...Vilda Lundell, likewise."

    In that way, thanks to the carelessness of an esper, Jay got to meet another ssmate.

    With no further interruptions or out-of-the-ordinary urrences, the ss continued, with students trying their best while the teacher gave advice for the whole ss or to specific students from time to time.

    At the end of the ss, only seven students were able to aplish what the teacher asked, causing the next part of the technique to be postponed for another day.

    ***

    After several hours, the sses that followed after the Skills Control also ended, releasing all the students to the streets of the bronze city.

    Some took the opportunity to rx a bit after so many hours of ss by going to cafes or simr ces, others instead headed straight to their apartments, not wanting to know anything about the city at least until the next day.

    However, although the majority of students had a veil of tiredness over their shoulders, there were a very small number of students who continued to exert themselves despite the fact that sses were over.

    And those were none other than the ones who had a job at the academy!

    Inside the bronze city''s training center, a young ck haired man was arduously cleaning a stone courtyard with a broom, instantly sweeping away any signs of dust and dirt he found.

    *Swoosh swoosh!*

    The broom''s movements were so fast that one could even slightly feel the wind pressure emanating from it.

    The person cleaning was clearly Jay, who was shamelessly using his pugilist''s body to perform his tasks faster because his time was limited.

    Regardless, what was upying his mind right now was not that, but all the information he had gotten today.

    Thanks to his great memory but mainly due to the fact that the Skill Control sssted a couple of hours, Jay had managed to memorize the skills and faces of more than half of his ssmates, giving him a wide repertoire from which to choose a potential new host.

    Still... he wasn''t too excited about it.

    ''...Not bad skills but... they''re a bitmon, aren''t they?'' He thought, his expression turning to one of difort.

    He didn''t want to judge his ssmates'' abilities too much, even more so when he was the one who was going to get all the benefits, but when he remembered the abilities he had seen, he couldn''t help but feel that he was right.

    ''Well,ining won''t do any good, I guess I''ll just have to filter everything I have.''

    Thinking that, Jay then let out a sigh before starting to organize the skills he had seen.

    First were the elemental abilities, which were simr to the one he had, only instead of wind, they were things like fire, water, ice, rocks, and so on.

    It''s wasn''t that they were bad, for while their effects and potential were simple, it was that simplicity that also made them strong, after all, Jay also possessed that type of ability and knew well how useful they could be.

    With that in mind, Jay listed their benefits in three, simple to use, low energy expenditure and the ability to create a strongbination.

    By strongbination, Jay meant looking for a elemental skill toplement the one he already possessed, though it was somewhat difficult, since of all the elemental skills, the only one that he could think that would bepatible with his Wind Control was Fire Control.

    ''Hm...''

    The mental image of him controlling a huge hurricane of fire was enough to excite him, but remembering that he only had room for one more skill, he suppressed his excitement.

    ''I''ll leave that option as ast resort...''

    Second were the misceneous abilities, namely those held by both Syvis and Allen and a couple of other students, the effects of which were not clear at first nce.

    These were harder to judge because they could either be very useful, or they could be useless to him, Syvis'' case being the perfect example of this.

    While Syvis herself was strong, being able to overpower Jay in a matter of seconds, that was only because her ability went perfectly with her trait.

    Therefore, even if somehow Jay managed to obtain her ability, he would not be able to reach the same level of power no matter how much he trained and raised the proficiency level of the ability.

    As for Allen and the other students with this kind of ability, due to theck of information, Jay couldn''t say much.

    ''Hm, inconclusive result.'' With that statement, Jay ruled out this group.

    Finally, there is thest group, or rather person, which caught not only Jay''s attention, but also that of certain little ones.

    ''Faith...'' Jay thought, remembering the ability of said esper.

    He didn''t know exactly what kind of effect her ability had, but one thing was clear, just as his little ones had reacted violently when the training center instructor showed her killing intent, the parasites also reacted in this way when she used her ability.

 Chapter 106 - It Wasnt Broken!

    ''...Haa, I guess I''ll just have to infect her first and see if it really suits me, though another problem is that she''s almost certainly rank (C) as well...Oh well, I''ll worry about thatter.''

    Coming to that conclusion, Jay let out a sigh, continuing with his cleaning task, his mind now being upied with another question mark.

    This question was, why was it that his little ones reacted so differently with Faith and the instructor?

    Since acquiring the system, either at his school or in all the time he had spent in the South Zone and even when he had been roaming the streets of Kluemwood City, he had had contact with a lot of supers.

    But still, his little ones never once went on a rampage as they had when the instructor showed her bloodlust or when Faith activated her ability.

    It was clear that his little ones did it for a reason, but due tock of information, Jay had to leave it at that, at least until he met Faith, which gave him a little more confidence to assume a couple of rules.

    1.-For his parasites to react, Jay must be near or in direct contact with said ability or energy demonstration, being near the super in question is not the same.

    2.-Rather than focusing on the amount of energy, the parasites prefered the ability and the type of energy itself.

    He had thought of several more possibilities, but because he was just getting to know this characteristic of his little ones, he could only be somewhat sure of these two.

    The first was easy to exin, although the parasites had an incredible ability to detect the vitality of any kind of living being, this was not the case when identifying the abilities of another super.

    Therefore, they weren''t able to know if a person had an ability or was capable of a disy of energy that was worthy of their attention without them first having witnessed either of these.

    The perfect example of this was both the instructor and Faith, supers that Jay had encountered but despite being worthy of his little ones'' attention, they did not react until they both demonstrated their might.

    The second was confirmed thanks to the other teachers at the academy, especially the entrance exam examiner, who was shown to be able to use an enormous amount of mana in a matter of seconds, and also the Ability Control ss teacher, who fortunately also put on a great disy of power.

    Both of them had shown to be able to userge amounts of energy easily, but despite this, their parasites did not even flinch.

    This made it clear that their little ones were not looking at the energy level, but at the skill itself.

    This, however, led to another problem, which was....

    ''What do the instructor and Faith have inmon?''

    *Pin!*

    The moment he finished thinking about it, a sudden message on a transparent window appeared in front of him.

    _____________________

    [Hidden Mission: High Value!]

    Description: Thanks to the teamwork of the [Carrier] and his parasites, the system has been able to identify two specimens with possible high value for the development of the system.

    Requirements: Infect said specimens and confirm the system'' suspicions.

    First Reward: (10) Parasites - Original.

    Second Reward: (1) System Ability Fragment.

    Remark: Could it be...?!

    _____________________

    "..."

    For a short while, Jay stood still as he processed the sudden appearance of the mission that had appeared before him.

    ''...The mission function still works after all!''

    After thinking that, he let out a sigh at the same time as his posture visibly rxed, instead of being excited about the mission, it seemed that he was more relieved than anything else.

    As for the reason for this, it was because instead of the mission content, which was something he could deduce himself without the help of the system, mission activation was something he waspletely helpless in.

    In all the time he had been preparing for the entrance exam, he had also thought about getting more missions with their respective juicy rewards, but unfortunately, each of his attempts to activate one had ended in just that, attempts.

    Therefore, although he knew it was quite unlikely, the possibility that perhaps the system''s quests function had stopped working after the upgrade had be a fear within Jay.

    But as he had just seen, that was not the case at all, causing him to feel greatly relieved.

    Having calmed down, Jay then went on to analyze the mission, ''Well, that just confirms my suspicions that the two have something special inmon, I was already nning on infecting them, but having a mission for this doesn''t hurt at all... even more so when the reward is this good.''

    While having more parasites was always good, as that was basically increasing his energy reserves, giving him more leeway to perform any action, the second reward was not far behind by any means.

    The system''s abilities were something Jay had alreadye into contact with, and he only had one opinion on these.

    ''I must get as many as I can!''

    Firstly being the system skill, [Overload], which despite consuming a huge amount of energy and leaving Jay in a weak state, was still thetter''s trump card, making it possible for him, for a short time, to be able to take on enemies a rank higher than him without any problems.

    Finishing with the ability to which he had only had ess for one night, [Proliferation], which was able to treat infected people as incubators, allowing him to double the amount of parasites Jay had, thus drastically reducing the time it took to assimte an ability, especially in the body of the person in which [Proliferation] was used.

    Whether it was one or the other, they both had one thing inmon, and that was the fact that Jay had fallen head over heels in love with their effects!

    ''...Ah, I''m getting overly excited, I''d better finish my daily chores so I can focus all my attention on a n to infect them both.''

    With those thoughts and apletely renewed mood, Jay gripped his broom tighter than before and began sweeping with great intensity.

    *Swoosh!

    "...Hm?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Just then, however, a particrly familiar smell reached his nose, causing him for some reason to remember his time in the South Zone.

    "...Blood?"

    If it had to be mentioned which night of his time in the South Zone marked him the most, Jay would undoubtedly answer that it was the night he faced the unknown member of Wolf''s Fang.

    Whether it was when he used the [Limit Breaker] or when he was fighting the Wolf''s Fang member, there was something that he, and more importantly, his body remembered very well, and that was that on both asions, they were marked by something inmon.

    Blood, whether it was his own or that of the enemy, it was something that was in abundance that night.

    While Jay himself had been unconscious for most of both events, that particr scent had been burned into his subconscious, making his body incredibly sensitive to the slightest sign of it.

    "...Could it be that one of the students is injured?" He said with a quizzical expression on his face.

    While there were extremely rigorous training sessions at the Training Center, as far as Jay knew, they didn''t get to the point where the students were so injured that they bled, so he found it odd to find this scent here.

    Though again, he remembered that even if the training sessions were safe, that didn''t stop students from going to an extreme in order to push their limits, often failing and only managing to injure themselves, which was something that even he would do.

    "Oh well, it wouldn''t hurt to go take a look around, and who knows, I might even earn a bonus if I rescue someone!"

    Then, leaving his broom leaning against a nearby wall, Jay headed towards the source of the scent, relying solely on his pugilist''s nose.

    ***

    At the back of the outside wall of the Training Center, several students were gathered around a single student.

    The appearance of most of them was normal, with one or the other having a different body thanks to their esper skills, though even with that, there were two people who stood out among them all.

    One of them was the one at the front of the group of students, acting as if he was the leader, and none of those present seemed to want to protest at that.

    Although he was not particrly tallpared to the other students, his refined features along with his confident attitude and silky short blond hair made him stand out.

    As for the other person, he was none other than the student who was surrounded by all of them, who was certainly no slouchpared to the blond student in terms of attracting attention.

    Unlike the blond, this student was the tallest among those present, and although his body waspletely covered by his baggy clothes, it was still possible to notice that his body was in great physical shape.

    This young man''s hair reached his shoulders and was of a dark red color, resembling wine.

    His features, like those of the blond young man, were also pleasing to the eye, with the most notable difference being the fact that this young man had an expression of hostility on his face.

    Though of course, the hostility was understandable, after all, he had a visible fresh cut on his right arm, a cut from which a few drops of blood were still falling.

    Suddenly, the culprit of this cut, the blonde student, took a step forward, "Even in this situation, you don''t seem to be afraid, that''s admirable, really."

    In response, the red-haired student merely red sullenly at the blond.

    "Hey, the young master is talking to you!" Said at that moment one of the students next to the blond, moving towards the redhead.

    *BAM!*

    Before he could approach, a kick from the redhead that made immediate contact with this student''s face stopped him in his tracks.

    "U-urgh."

    With those words as hisst, this unknown student fell to the ground with a funny sound.

    "Ahh, Kevin, you idiot, you weren''t supposed to throw yourself like that!" Said the blond student, criticizing his ssmate.

    The next moment, he snapped his fingers, to which the other students, knowing what it meant, formed an even tighter lockup than before.

    "If we want to teach him a lesson, all of you have to follow my orders, otherwise even if you all attack at once, you''ll only get yourselves crushed. After all, we''re not dealing with someone normal, but the one who caught the Baron''s attention."

    With those words, it was clear that the blond not only had high self-esteem, but was even bordering on arrogance.

    But as with many students at the Academy, this hubris was not unfounded.

    "Now!" The young blond suddenly shouted, a magic circle appearing beneath him.

    At the same time, the other students also activated everything they had beforeunching into an attack.

    The young red-haired man did not stand still either, but also counterattacked, and although he was able to defend himself from the first couple of attacks using his body, there were simply too many enemies at the same time.

    Thus, although not much time had passed since the fight began, the young red-haired man''s body already showed bruises and cuts.

    Even so, the red-haired youth did not give up, continuing to counterattack with as much force as his body could exert, increasing the rate at which wounds appeared on his body.

    "Hm, I wonder how long you''ll be able to hold out without using your ability." Said the blond.

    Ignoring his words, the red-haired youth only continued to defend himself.

    Seeing that his provocation had no effect, the blond then pulled his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the magic circle beneath his feet, muttering a spell under his breath.

    "If you don''t use it, you''ll end up in the hospital!"

    As he finished speaking, the magic circle began to transform, several small pirs of light shot out of it before rising into the air, stopping when they were hovering at the same height as the blond''s head.

    The next moment, the pirs then shot towards the young red-haired man.

 Chapter 107 - Vedran

    *Schack!*

    The sound of flesh being pierced could be hearding from the back of the outer wall of the Training Center, the product of nothing more than the red-haired young man receiving the attacks of the others, especially the blond.

    It was clear that the situation was absolutely disadvantageous for him, and the expression on his face along with the beads of sweat on his body indicated that the young man was aware of this fact.

    While he had managed to avoid being severely injured by the pirs of light hurled at him, he did not know how long he would be able to resist.

    ''...In the end, there is no other way out but to use my ability...?'' Thought the red-haired young man.

    Even though he was being hit again and again, he was still reluctant, it was as if he would rather keep getting hit than use his ability.

    Although it was rare toe across cases like this, supers who didn''t want to use their abilities, for one reason or another, did exist.

    Also in this case, the red-haired young man, Vedran, had only one reason, and it waspletely justified.

    From the moment his ability manifested, the only thing his ability had brought him was misfortune.

    He had been born in Gliedal, a country which stood out for certain aspects.

    Firstly, it was one of the two countries that still remained a monarchy, and secondly but not least, it was the ce where the founder of the mages, Aphra, opened the portal through which the mana reached this world.

    As a result of this second fact, in a society that was deeply connected to the history of mana and mages, it was inevitable that everything developed with these two as the center.

    In Gliedal, mages were the epitome of what a citizen could be, admired by themon people, an aspect that the rulers supported and promoted to increase the sense of nationalism that the citizens had.

    While this was something that brought benefits to mages, the same could not be said for the other supers sses.

    Especially... if you were an esper with an unusual ability that was considered "grotesque" by others, as was the case with Vedran.

    At the age of 6, when his ability manifested itself, everything changed for him.

    Not only did he begin to be seen as a freak by his ssmates when he was in elementary school, causing him to receive a great deal of bullying and harassment, but he also had problems in his family.

    His father, grandparents and uncles, all being mages, from the moment Vedran manifested his abilities, changed their attitudepletely and began to treat him as if he was a mistake and a stain on the family''s honor, often ignoring or insulting him until the boy would burst into tears.

    Through it all, there was only one person who served as his pir of support, a ray of light in the darkness he was going through, and that was his mother, who did not care what others thought and loved him unconditionally.

    As to why she let the rest of the family behave that way with him, it was because she didn''t really know what was going on, since they did it when she was away at work.

    However, one day she came home early, finding the scene of her husband beating up her son.

    Vedran would never forget that day, for while he knew his mother loved him, he was unaware of how far she was willing to go to protect him.

    "IF YOU EVER COME NEAR MY SON AGAIN, NEXT TIME YOU WON''T LOSE JUST YOUR HAND, DID YOU HEAR ME?!" That was what his mother shouted to his father, whoy on the floor in tears and on top of a small pool of blood,ing from nothing but his right hand, the same one he had used to hit his son, now severed.

    Then, without another word, his mother took all her and Vedran''s belongings, and they moved to a remote location.

    Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, and Vedran had already developed aplex in which he preferred to hide his ability, though of course he did not show this side of himself to his mother because he was worried that it might cause her more trouble.

    In that way, Vedran grew up, slowly forgetting that he was an esper and wanting nothing more than to live a normal life with his mother, studying until he graduated and could get a job with which to support his mother in the same way she supported him.

    However, two years ago, when he was still in hisst years of high school, his mother developed a strange mana-rted illness, although at first they were able to pay for medication for it, that situation did notst forever.

    In desperation, Vedran got multiple jobs, all in order to pay for his mother''s medicines, but as her condition worsened, the medicines became more and more expensive, until it got to the point where even after dropping out of school to get more jobs. he couldn''t pay for them.

    As for the treatment to be able to cure her once and for all, even if he sold everything he owned and worked for several years, he would not be able to pay for it.

    Finally, this disease left his mother bedridden in a hospital, leaving him unable to do anything but watch his mother''s life wither away.

    However, at that moment, when all his options had been exhausted, he received a visit from an unknown person, his grandmother on his mother''s side, who learned of her daughter''s illness from some acquaintances at the hospital.

    It was the first time Vedran had seen her, but because he was desperate for help, he ended up telling her the whole story, to which he received a response.

    "Why the hell are you trying to solve this by thinking like a normal person? You have a gift, take advantage of it!"

    After saying that, her grandmother then proceeded to pay for her mother''s medications, but on three conditions.

    First, that Vedran resume her studies.

    Second, that he began to live as an esper.

    Third, that he enter the Eitsirc Academy.

    So, thanks to these conditions, but mostly driven by his desire to save his mother, Vedran gave his all, his efforts culminating in him entering the academy.

    He thought he would be out of trouble once he got in thanks to the fame the academy had as a paradise for supers, but to his misfortune, he had caught the attention of the wrong people.

    ''...There''s no other way, I''ll have to use it.'' Vedran thought, the energy inside his body beginning to build up in his hands.

    The young blond, noticing the change in energy fluctuation, also began to insert more mana into his magic circle before smiling and saying satisfied, "It''s about time!"

    *BAM!*

    "Argh!"

    "!"

    At that moment, just as the confrontation was about to reach its climax, suddenly, a figure which no one knew how to detect in time appeared.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Immediately, the figure lunged towards one of the students attacking Vedran before throwing a strong punch, causing him to shoot a few meters in another direction.

    But as if that wasn''t enough, the figure didn''t stop there, but seizing its moment, leapt towards another of the students, clinging tightly to his neck.

    Seeing this, the other students quickly moved to help, but also taking advantage of this opportunity, Vedran managed to connect several strong blows, leaving another student out ofbat and two more in a vulnerable state.

    The blond student''s expression then changed to one of anger, turning his gaze towards the figure that had suddenly appeared, "Stay out of this, this is a personal matter!"

    Hearing this, the figure, or rather, Jay, responded with another question, loosening his grip on his victim slightly, "Oh, is that so?"

    He had simplyshed out at what appeared to be the bad guys, but if it was that perhaps he had gotten himself into a problem where the redhead had done something wrong and the others were punishing him, then he had already made a mistake by interrupting.

    Since Jay was willing to dialogue, the blond student then didn''t hesitate to set the record straight, starting by using his famous back-up, "Of course we are, we''re teaching him a lesson for turning down the Baron''s invitation! So, if you don''t want to be his enemy either-"

    "G-Grahh-h!"

    "So you really were the bad guys!"

    Before the blond could finish speaking, Jay had already resumed his task of knocking the student unconscious in his arms, which he aplished in short order, dropping him to the ground.

    "...Well, so be it then!" Said the blond student as a frustrated expression appeared on his face.

    As he finished saying that, the pirs of light stopped aiming at Vedran and changed their target to Jay.

    Unwilling to take a direct hit from those light bodies, Jay quickly picked up the body of the student he had knocked unconscious again, using him as a shield.

    "Come on, give me everything you''ve got, let''s see if you dare!" Shouted Jay, holding the body of the unknown student in front of him.

    Although Jay''s words indicated that he was not afraid, his actions gave him away.

    As for the other students who had been focused on Jay, they could only think one thing.

    ''How low...''

    But of course, they wouldn''t dare say this out loud, as what they were doing wasn''t very dignified either.

    At that moment, to everyone''s surprise, the pirs of light suddenly shot towards Jay.

    ? However, Jay moved, along with his shield, to the side, barely managing to avoid the pirs of light.

    "Woah, that sure is a good leader you guys have huh." Jay said with a smirk on his face.

    Not wanting to wait any longer, Jay then dropped his shield and lunged towards the blond student.

    "Young master!"

    Immediately, the surrounding students became concerned, but before they could do anything, Vedran took the opportunity to knock out another pair.

    On the other hand, Jay moved even closer, being only a couple of meters away from the blond pupil, and with no one around to help him, the impact was imminent.

    "Pfft." Letting out a scoffing sound, the blond then flicked his wand again, causing the magic circle beneath his feet to condense into a certain shape, that of an oversized needle made of golden energy, "See if you feel like interfering in other people''s business after this!"

    Without another word, the blond then propelled the needle in the direction of Jay, at a speed no less than that of the aforementioned esper.

    Due to the sheer speed at which Jay was moving and mostly because of the short distance, it would be difficult for him to be able to stop in his tracks... or at least that would be the case if he kept moving on the ground.

    The next moment, just before the needle touched him, a small swirl of wind formed in front of Jay, at the height of his knees.

    Then, Jay suddenly stepped into that small wind whirlpool and leapt upwards towards the blond student,pletely dodging the needle while increasing his speed.

    This took everyone by surprise, including Vedran, who had originally thought Jay was a pugilist thanks to his great agility and speed.

    "You''d better grit your teeth!"

    With those words, Jay, who was still in mid-air, suddenly turned his body before another wind whirlpool formed under his feet, again using it to propel himself, this time straight down, which was where the blond student was.

    *BAM!*

    "ACK!"

    The blond couldn''t help but let out a groan of pain from the hard kick he had received, which even sent him rolling for several feet on the ground.

    "Young master!!!" The surrounding students shouted again, this time running without a second thought in the direction of the blond student.

    *BAM!

    "Ouch!"

    "Damn!"

    However, Vedran immediately stopped them, using his great physical strength to throw them backwards, forcing them to stay.

    As for Jay, following his style of not wanting to waste any opportunity, he approached the blond before lifting him up by his shirt and starting to hit him over and over again.

    That way, in just a few minutes, the situation hadpletely changed.

    Before, it was clear that Vedran was in trouble, but if anyone were to see this scene, they would definitely think that Jay and Vedran were the bullies.

 Chapter 108 - The Third Victim

    A few minutes had passed, and as expected, with Jay''s unexpected interruption and Vedran''s fierce counterattack, ehe fight that took an unexpected turn came to an end.

    Of course, they didn''t leave all the students on the ground, or rather, Jay didn''t, as shortly after making sure they were all unconscious, Jay took the jackets of a couple of the students and wind-shed them, creating strips of cloth that he used to tie each of them up.

    In the process, the asional parasite escaped from him, in the end leaving no student without an unknown host inside.

    "Wow, you sure are strong huh, I think even if I didn''t intervene, you would have been fine." Jay said, standing up as he wiped the sweat from his brow with one hand.

    In response, Vedran just put a hand behind his head, not being used to receivingpliments, "Not really, and.... thank you very much for your help..."

    "Jay, Jay Sacrest, first grade, and don''t worry about it, I''ve also been itching to take on other students for a while now."

    This was true, after all, he couldn''t just get into a fight with anyone he saw on the street, at the very least he needed a reason, and it was for that very reason that he got a job as a janitor, that way he could gather enough money to challengue other students.

    However, who knew that just in his first few days at the academy, he had already found himself in such a favorable situation, and without having to spend a dime!

    "...I''m Veldran Lind, also a first grader."

    While it couldn''t be said that his attitude was hostile, it was clear that he was still wary of Jay.

    "Veldran uh..."

    Jay was trying to remember if he had seen his face while at the academy, either at the entrance, the hallways, or in his ssroom, but there were simply too many students, especially at the entrance and in the hallways, so he had to leave it there.

    "Oh well." Since he couldn''t manage to remember, Jay changed the subject, "I guess the reason they''re after you has to do with this Baron they''re talking about?"

    Jay had originally thought it was a case of bullying, but the moment the blond student mentioned a baron, it became clear to him that it wasn''t as simple as it seemed.

    "...Un." Veldran replied, only nodding as he straightened his clothes and checked what time it was on his smartwatch.

    "Would you mind telling me the reason specifically-"

    Suddenly, Veldran''s eyes widened before he ran out of the ce, heading towards the city, "I''mte!"

    "Ah, wait!"

    But disregarding Jay''s words, Veldran continued running until he disappeared from the vicinity of the training center.

    ''...Well there goes my n to ckmail them into not ratting them out to a teacher...'' Jay thought, regretting not being quicker to stop Veldran.

    Letting out a sigh, Jay then proceeded to look at the statuses of each of the bound students, checking to see if any had any good abilities.

    ''Hm, enhanced strength, weaker than superhuman strength, rock skin... I don''t think this one will do me much good, electric field... I didn''t feel anything, so he must have been knocked out by Veldran, though that''s also proof that it''s weak...''

    Maybe the effect of thetter would be good if Jay increased the proficiency of the skill enough, after all espers with electricity skills were usually quite strong, but still, he wasn''t convinced.

    ''I''ll leave it as a maybe.''

    By that, Jay meant that he would leave a parasite inside this student, just to make it easier to find him if he decided to choose this ability.

    Unfortunately, only that student had an ability that caught his attention enough, so he had no choice but to move on to the main course, the blond student.

    He was the only one that Jay had not immediately infected due to the fact that he wanted his status to be a total surprise, after all, this was the second time he would see a mage''s status.

    Immediately, an expression of interest formed on Jay''s face as his hand moved to the neck of said student.

    ''He''s obviously from a different branch than Kesar, but I wonder how different he''ll be.'' He thought as he infected the blond student and opened his status.

    _____________________

    [Nico Doyle]

    Mana Control: (D+)

    Elemental Magic - Light: (D+)

    Condition: Lightly Injured (Unconscious)

    Parasites: 1

    Assimtion Status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)

    _____________________

    ''Hm, so this is why he was so weak, he''s only at (D+) rank'' Jay thought.

    It wasn''t really that he was weak, it was just that after havinge in contact with mages like Sarah and Kesar, who were exceptionally more resilient than the average mage, especially the former, Jay had unconsciously assumed that mages weren''t as fragile as they were made out to be.

    Which, of course, wasn''t true at all, least of all if the mage in question hadn''t reached rank (C), and this was only made worse when the attacker was of the physically stronger ss, i.e. a pugilist, as Jay was.

    ''So it is also from the elemental branch, although said element is somewhat rare, perhaps I should...''

    "...U-ugh."<novelnext></novelnext>

    At that moment, perhaps due to Jay''s touch or thanks to the fact that it was time for him to get up, the blond student frowned before slowly opening his eyes.

    His gaze then met directly with Jay''s, who instead of looking away, just smiled before speaking, "You woke up sooner than I thought, have you calmed down a bit yet?"

    Quickly, memories of what had happened just before he was knocked unconscious flooded Nico''s head, his expression changing to one of anger.

    "You... bastard, just wait until the baron hears-"

    "Shhh." Before he could say anything else, Jay urged him to shut up before speaking himself, "I want you to think for a moment, we just tore you and your group apart, we are clearly stronger than you, and even though my partner is gone, you think the smart thing to do now is to continue to antagonize me?"

    Still staring into Nico''s eyes and not wanting to give him a chance to speak, Jay continued, "Tell me.... do you really think threatening will work to get any people to join your group? So far, how many people have you actually managed to recruit? And of those you have managed to recruit, are they all just as weak as these?"

    "..."

    Nico wanted to refute those words, but unfortunately for him, what Jay was saying made sense to him, as it was nothing but the truth.

    So far, the number of people he had recruited was quite low, only reaching the amount of 12 people, considering that the academy had hundreds of thousands of students, that number was absolutely pitiful, especially whenpared to other servants of the Baron.

    Worst of all was that, just as Jay said, they were all weak, with the average being rank (D) and only a couple reaching rank (D+).

    "What''s wrong then? Maybe you really are doing a bad job? Maybe the problem is in your leadership? Maybe it''s that the benefits aren''t enough?"

    For some reason, Jay''s words, for Nico, were causing a lot of his insecurities to bubble up, creating a swirl of emotions inside him.

    The fact that Jay''s gaze, with his piercing green eyes, were still locked on him, wasn''t helping at all.

    "Or could it be... that the baron isn''t really that great?"

    Immediately, though he was still slightly shaken by Jay''s words, an undercurrent of indignation surged within him, a product of his loyalty to this baron.

    "YOU!"

    However, Jay didn''t flinch, but calmly replied, "It''s normal for you to feel indignant, after all, deep inside you, you know that''s not true, and that the reason you fail is due to nothing more and nothing less than something that''s right under your nose!"

    As Jay finished saying that, he held out his arms, pointing toward the students who were leaning against the wall, the arms of each tied behind their backs.

    "Just look around you! It''s not because you''re a bad boss! It''s not because youck benefits! And of course it''s not because the baron is not a reliable backup! Why is it that you were defeated tonight?!"

    Again, the emotions inside Nico began to run riot, his mind working quickly to find the answer Jay was demanding of him.

    Fortunately, he didn''t need to think too hard, because just as Jay had said, Nico, deep down, already knew.

    "...It''s because of them!" Nico said, looking at his aplices, or rather, his attempted aplices.

    Suddenly, the cloth that was holding his arms loosened, Jay finally releasing him.

    "Think hard then, if it really suits you to go on with underlings like this or.... maybe you can find something... or someone better."

    With those words as hisst, Jay then started walking towards the city.

    As for Nico, he had stopped feeling anger towards both Jay and Veldra a while ago, thanks mainly to the fact that Jay''s words had affected him.

    Under the curtain of night, his gaze slowly moved to hispanions, a trace of condescension present in his eyes.

    Thus, the brief encounter between Nico, Veldran and Jay came to an end.

    ***

    Back at the training center, Jay resumed his task of sweeping the yards as he thought about how to proceed with Nico.

    ''I had to give up on using them all as free merit points since Veldran left early, but with some luck Nico should contact me in a few days, that should be better in the long run...'' Jay thought.

    By the time he had finished tying up all the students who attacked Veldran, the first thing Jay thought of was how could he take advantage of such terrible miscreants.

    Obviously, getting the most merit points out of them, either by extortion or force was basic, but that was only going to be possible if Veldran acted as the victim and he acted as the witness.

    But that n fell apart almost instantly when Veldran headed into town, so Jay only had to resort to a n B.

    This n B was actually not something he came up with on the spot, but was something he had already nned to do the next time he encountered a worthy person, as it was something that served as punishment for that person while granting Jay a benefit.

    And that was... influencing that person by making use of his little ones along with the right incentives.

    The first victim of this had been Carl, then Colt, and just a few minutes ago, Nico had joined that small group, as for the other people in the South Zone, due to the short time Jay spent influencing them, he didn''t really count them as his victims.

    However, it is worth mentioning that there were some differences in the type of influence each received.

    For Carl, he with no doubt had the best luck, as it was the first time both Jay and his parasites had done anything like this, and what was more, Jay didn''t even know he was capable of influencing anyone, resulting in Carl only receiving a boost in his self-esteem and little else.

    With Colt things had already changed a bit, thanks to Carl, Jay began to suspect that his parasites had influence over people, so to confirm his doubts as well as it being a necessary thing at the time, Jay tried to influence him, which worked out splendidly, with Colt developing a great deal of trust towards Jay, trust that only increased the more time passed.

    Finally, although Jay was unable to determine exactly how his influence over Nico would turn out this time, considering that Jay was now not only fully aware of his ability, but that his control over his parasites had greatly improved, he was confident that the results would not disappoint him.

 Chapter 109 - The Baron

    After a couple of hours, Jay had finished cleaning up the yards that were his daily quota, so it was finally time to return to his room.

    It didn''t take him long to wander the long corridors of the Training Center until he reached his small residence, which for some reason, didn''t have a single one of its lights on.

    ''Looks like Sylvis isn''t back yet...'' He thought, inserting his key into the door of the building before entering without making much noise.

    As expected, one could appreciate the darkness inside the building much better than from outside.

    Turning on the living room lights, Jay then made his way to the second floor before entering his room and beginning to undress.

    Thanks to the fact that today had been a hectic day, his body had been sweating constantly, if one added the fact that he had also been covered in dust thanks to sweeping non-stop, taking a shower was his number one priority right now.

    That''s also why he didn''t even bother to turn on the lights in his room before he went into the bathroom.

    Fortunately, he didn''t have to check to see if anyone else was upying the bathroom or wait for them to get out, as his room had its own bathroom, which was even a little bigger than the one he had at home.

    Turning on the shower faucet, Jay then began humming a tune.

    There were several things pending that he had to think about, but at least for this short time, he wanted to keep his mind clear of anything.

    Also sensing that Jay wanted to rx, the parasites inside his body automatically went into sleep mode, greatly weakening their vitality radar, now only covering 1 meter around Jay.

    *Creak*

    However, at that moment, the sound of wood creaking echoed in the hallway outside Jay''s room.

    The sound was quite low, as if the movement causing this sound had been made very carefully, even people with sharpened senses, such as Jay, would not be able to hear this sound.

    Which just happened, as Jay simply continued to clean his body in the shower, taking his time toplete the task well,pletely unaware that slowly and quietly, someone was entering his room.

    After a few minutes of scrubbing his body properly, Jay then proceeded to walk to the bathroom door that connected to his room, grabbing the knob and flinging the door open, not before grabbing a towel, though not to cover himself, but to dry himself off.

    His mood was still good and rxed, which could be reflected in the fact that he was still humming the song from the beginning, even as he was toweling his hair dry.

    But the next moment, just after he had left the bathroom, a person''s voice, coupled with the fact that his parasites just detected a strong sign of vitality in the surroundings at the same time as the light in the room came on, caused his rms to go off.

    "So you''re back atst! Jay... Sacrest?" Said Syvis, who was sitting cross-legged on the edge of Jay''s bed, directly facing the bathroom door, and at this moment, Jay naked.

    Her words had begun with her usual tone of confidence and pride, but as her superhuman brain scanned the situation at the same time as her gaze dropped lower and lower, even the calm and confident Syvis began to get nervous.

    For a brief moment, the atmosphere in the room frozepletely, with Jay holding the towel over his head with one hand and the bathroom doorknob with the other.

    "..."

    "...Ahem, I um... I didn''t expect anything less to tell you the truth..." Syvis said, looking away as her ears became slightly red.

    Right away, in response to what Syvis had just said, Jay took a breath of air, and using his strong lungs, let out a scream.

    "AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

    "SHUT UUPPPP!!!"

    In the following days, this scream would start a small buzz among the students at the training center, who thought that a student had trained so hard that he couldn''t help but scream out of excitement, which slightly encouraged them to train hard.

    ***

    "Why the hell did you have to shout so loudly?! Surely the whole damn training center heard you!" Said Syvis, who was pacing back and forth in Jay''s room, her ears still a shade of red.

    It was rare to see someone like her being so nervous, but that only served to show how much of an impact this encounter with Jay had had.

    Now the one sitting on the bed, with a calm expression on his face, and more importantly, clothes on, was Jay, who replied unhurriedly, "It''s so you don''te into my room again without knocking."

    "Who the hell gets out of the shower without covering up?!"

    "Me."

    In contrast to the scream he had just let out, it was clear that he really wasn''t worried about Syvis having seen him naked.

    Of course, there was an exnation for this, and that was that Jay had never been a person who was easily embarrassed, especially with people he didn''t know very well, such as Syvis and Noah to give examples.

    On the other hand, if the person who had seen him naked had been someone close to him, such as Sarah... it was very likely that he would have even activated Overload just to cover up faster.

    Seeing that Syvis was still somewhat affected, Jay suddenly came up with something.

    Standing up and walking over to his desk, Jay sat down before speaking, "Hm, well then, how about we just pretend that this didn''t happen?"

    This immediately caught Syvis'' interest, who turned as she nodded with a relieved expression on her face, "Yes, that would be best!"

    "However!" Jay continued, sping his hands together as he looked at the girl, "I need you to do me a favor."

    Regaining some of her calm, Syvis threw out another question, "...What kind of favor?"

    While it had been a rather ufortable time for her, it wasn''t like she was going to stay affected for too long.

    "Tell me everything you know about the Baron."

    The moment Jay finished this sentence, all the nervousness Syvis was feeling instantly disappeared, being reced by a serious attitude.

    Of course, this was a normal response, after all, the person Jay had just mentioned was not someone simple at all.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Tch, don''t tell me you were contacted by that smug guy?"

    Unexpectedly, the first response Syvis bestowed on Jay about the Baron, while it was one of dislike towards said character, also answered other doubt Jay had.

    That was, he had underestimated how well known this Baron was.

    He had originally thought that he was simply an upperssman with some influence, but if even Syvis, who was also a first year and not normally interested in others, knew of him, then it meant that his fame was not small at all.

    "Something like that, that''s why I was wondering how strong he is and what benefits he could bring me if I were to join his group." Jay replied.

    This answer made Syvis'' face turn into a grimace, making clear her distaste for the Baron.

    Chuckling lightly, Jay continued, "Come on, give me reasons to dislike him as much as you do then, since I don''t know anything about him."

    "Haa..."

    Letting out a sigh of resignation, Syvis sat down on one end of the bed and began to tell what she knew about the Baron.

    Turns out that the "Baron" was the title used by a third grader of the silver city, though it wasn''t simply a title, as he was actually part of a noble family.

    Specifically, of the nobility of the Atror Empire, which was a prosperous and sessful nation in all areas, whether in its economy, its military power with tens of millions of pugilists and other social aspects that were the envy of smaller countries.

    It could be said that it was on a par with Altur, the world''s ruling power, if it were not for one small detail.

    The empire was a huge country, which gave it a lot of benefits but also had its own set of problems.

    Thanks to the vastness of the territory, while the imperial family ruled over the empire and also over the central andrgest part of it, the other territories were ruled by other noble families.

    In this hierarchy, those who were closest to the imperial family, such as the dukes and marquises, had thergest territory, and those at the bottom were the nobles such as the barons.

    However, even though the barons only controlled a handful of viges and the asional town, that didn''t mean that power disputes didn''t ur.

    "Hm, I see, so what this noble is doing is trying to recruit supers to secure his position as the baron of his family?" Jay said,ing to the most logical conclusion.

    "No, he doesn''t need to secure anything, he''s already the head of his family." Syvis let out a sigh before continuing, "I hate to admit it, but his abilities aren''t bad at all, it''s just... his style of fighting that I hate!"

    After saying this, Syvis pulled out her smart watch and opened a video she had in her gallery before ying it in front of Jay.

    In the video, two people could be seen in the center of what appeared to be argebat arena, separated from the audience by a metal fence a few feet high.

    "This is abat arena located in the coliseum, each city has one, but it is only essible through the instructors at each respective city''s training center. The big guy on the right is Drek, a 4th grader and a pugilisting from the empire, he is strong, mainly because of his superior physique thanks to the martial techniques he practices, although his power is not low at all either." Syvis exined.

    Syvis wasn''t lying when she said big guy, after all, Drek was a mass of muscles easily reaching 8''2'''' (2.5 m), giving him an intimidating look.

    What impressed Jay the most was that Syvis had referred to this student as ''strong'', with her being someone confident and dominant, for her to refer to someone that way was indicative that this person truly was strong.

    "And on the left... there is he, Adam Ossler, a 3rd grader from the silver city and also a pugilist hailing from the empire, though he is better known as the Baron." She continued.

    Positioned directly in front of Drek, a stocky young man of about 6''3" (1.90 m) with short brown hair stood, his face a serious expression.

    The next moment, arge figure moved at great speed.

    Drek lunged forward, seeking to grab his opponent before he could flee so he could strike first.

    While his body was focused on defense, his grip strength was noughing matter, so if he wanted to avoid risking damage, what Adam should have done was either dodge or try to move away.

    However, not only did he do neither of those two things, but he also lunged forward at an even faster speed than Drek.

    *Crack!*

    Then, the sound of bones breaking was clearly heard on the video, apanied by Drek suddenly kneeling on the ground while holding his face with hisrge right hand.

    Due to the distance, it was not possible to see exactly what had happened to him, but fortunately, the person recording the video noticed and zoomed in on Drek''s face.

    His expression had changed to one of pain, and between the spaces of his fingers, a stream of blood was escaping, quickly staining his whole hand and even a few drops falling to the ground.

    At that moment, Adam appeared again in the video, standing again in front of Drek, and immediately, he held out his hand to help him get up.

    Seeing this, Drek looked up to see Adam before taking his hand, but before he could get up, Adam moved.

    *BAM!*

    A strong axe kick, targeting Drek''s chin,nded on thetter, forcibly pushing his head back until he fell backwards.

    At that moment, the video ended.

    "You see? Attacking when your opponent is down is cowardly...!" Syvis said, visibly outraged by Adam''s actions.

    On the other hand, Jay simply stared at the video for a moment before slowly, a smile appeared on his face.

    Suddenly, he stood up from his chair and also took out his smart watch, "... Can you send me the video?! Please!"

    "...Eh?"

    Apparently, Syvis'' action had had the opposite effect to the one she was looking for.

 Chapter 110 - Sooner Than Expected

    After Syvis left Jay''s room unsatisfied, Jay set about watching the baron''s video over and over again, trying to glean as much information as he could from those short seconds.

    Although some people might see the baron''s fighting style as dirty and improper, just as Syvis did, for Jay it was the opposite.

    This was because Jay was aware that no matter what one''s intentions were towards their enemies, they would not necessarily think the same way.

    And what drove this thinking was nothing more and nothing less than all the fights he had in the South Zone, where even though he had no ns to kill anyone, the same could not be said for the people he faced.

    Finally, the cherry on top of the cake was that not everyone had the luxury of fighting ''fair and square'', as that was the privilege of strong people.

    ''Hm, I should try to find more videos of this baron, they will certainlye in handy.'' Jay thought, in his mind trying to recreate how to execute the moves from the video.

    Unfortunately, without being able to perform the moves with his own body, he wouldn''t make much progress.

    ''Well, I guess I''ll save it for tomorrow.''

    After saying that, Jay then turned off the light in his room and stripped down to his underwear before covering himself with his sheets, though he still didn''t n on sleeping, instead pulling out his smartwatch and opening his messaging app.

    In the end, he only paused until he reached a contact with the name "Myrin."

    ***

    The next day, after his sses and a failed attempt to socialize with his target, Faith, Jay found himself returning to the training center, apanied by Vilda, who was curious about said facility.

    "I really didn''t expect you to work at the training center. My sister always said that although the pay and benefits are good, only those people who liked punishment were the ones who would get jobs there." Vilda said, surprised by what Jay had told him.

    "...She said so?" Replied Jay.

    "Un, that''s why she also works at the training center of her city."

    "..."

    In that way, they both quickly made their way to the training center, which, as always, was busy with dozens of studentsing and going.

    Passing through the entrance until they reached the reception desk, Jay then told Vilda to wait there while he changed clothes, so Vilda moved to the most convenient andfortable ce for him... the corner of the room!

    Not only were they going to avoid bumping into other students, but it was also a safe ce where they could see any kind of unforeseen threating.

    Looking around, Vilda was a bit impressed, though it was a normal reaction, after all, it was his first time visiting a training center.

    While training centers were among the most important and eye-catching establishments in every city, Vilda preferred to spend his time in ces that required less physical exertion, such as the library or the city''s research centers.

    Moreover, also thanks to his sister, Vilda already knew more or less what functions this center offered to students, so it had not been among his priorities to visit the center.

    However, since he had received an invitation from Jay, he thought it wouldn''t hurt to take this opportunity to see the center in person.

    And who knows, there might also be something that would be useful to him.

    "Oh, Vilda, is it really you?"

    Suddenly, while he was busy with his thoughts, a person''s voice reached his ears, interrupting him.

    Bringing his gaze towards the source of the voice, Vilda could see a young blond man slightly taller than him who had apparently just entered the training center.

    In response, Vilda''s gaze turned hostile, while he merely mouthed the name of the person in front of him, "Nico..."

    Despite the clear hostility on Vilda''s part, Nico still approached with a smile on his face before speaking, "And to think that we would meet again... what''s more, seeing you in a corner again, this sure brings back memories of high school."

    Faced with these words, Vilda just stared at Nico, not wanting to respond since if he did, he knew he would only fall into his game of provocation.

    It was clear that they knew each other, and how could they not, after all, they had both gone to the same high school in the empire.

    Being an esper and a mage respectively, both having been born in the empire, a ce where almost all education was centered towards pugilists, the ces where they could bring out their skills were limited.

    As a result, they ended up going to the same supers school, which is where they met.

    Although it is worth mentioning that they were not friends at all, quite the contrary.

    Thanks to his talent with magic, specifically light magic, plus the fact that he possessed a certain level of natural charisma thanks to his appearance and outgoing personality, Nico had earned a popr and respectable position in the school.

    On the other hand, Vildan not only had a weak presence, making him often go unnoticed, but he also preferred to spend most of his time alone.

    That would have been fine, however, if not for the fact that Vildan''s esper ability shed directly with Nico''s, causing thetter to often seek him out to stir up trouble.

    "I had already proven that my magic was stronger than your ability in high school but... a rey of the event wouldn''t hurt at all right now." Nico said with a proud smile on his face.

    Slowly, the shadows in the corner where Vildan stood began to move, moving up Vildan''s legs until they reached his arm and took the shape of a small de that Vildan raised to the height of Nico''s neck before speaking, "This isn''t high school anymore."

    Not the least bit concerned, Nico replied with the same smile on his face, "Hoo, I see you''ve at least grown some guts."

    The atmosphere around the two was serious, so much so that even though the corner didn''t have many students to begin with, they began to actively avoid that area.

    One would think the receptionist would try to do something, but she was too busy with the iing students and doing something on her smart watch...whatever thetter was.

    Seeing that it didn''t look like anyone was going to interrupt, Nico then raised his right hand slowly, at the same time as the mana gathered in his hand and made it give off a considerable glow.

    Vildan''s shadows also grew stronger, unwilling to give in to Nico''s light, apparently a confrontation was imminent.

    *Pam!*

    "Ouch!"

    But before Nico could touch Vildan, a hand suddenly struck Nico''s head, causing him to lose his concentration and with it the spell in his hand.<novelnext></novelnext>

    With that action alone, Jay, who had returned from changing his clothes, had broken the tense atmosphere that was present in the reception.

    ? "You..." Nico said, rubbing his head as he looked at Jay with some resentment in his eyes, but the resentment quickly disappeared before he spoke again, "So you did work at the training center."

    "That''s right, though tell me, what did youe here for? I hope it''s not to look for trouble." Jay replied, who for some reason was holding in his hands a change of clothes just like the one he was wearing.

    "No, no! I came to... talk about what you said yesterday..."

    "...?"

    Vilda was confused, it was the first time he saw Nico behave that way, especially if one took into ount that thest time someone touched him without his permission, that person ended up with an extra hole in his body.

    "You... know each other?" Vilda said.

    "Not really, it''s just some guy that I beat up yesterday."

    ***

    After dealing with the situation at the front desk, Jay invited both Vilda and Nico in, and now they were in one of the many yards he had to clean up.

    *Swoosh!*

    The sound of brooms being scrubbed against the floor were what could be heard mosting from this courtyard, something that even Jay alone could not normally aplish.

    Although it was understandable, since this time, it wasn''t just him cleaning the yard.

    Nico, who was dressed in the same uniform as Jay and was sweeping the yard, asked, "Can you remind me...what does this have to do with yesterday''s chat?!"

    He had originallye to offer something to Jay, but without him knowing exactly how, the next moment he had on a training center worker''s uniform and a broom in his hand.

    "Take it as if it waspensation for attacking me yesterday, and if you don''t want to do it... well, we''ll just have to settle it like yesterday~" Jay said as a creepy grin formed on his face, though of course, without stopping sweeping for even a second.

    "...Man, this yard sure collects a lot of dust huh..." Nico replied as he averted his gaze and continued sweeping.

    "Pft."

    Seeing the usually proud Nico being so meek, Vilda couldn''t help but let out a smallugh, though he had to stop himself almost instantly.

    ''Hm, I knew I''d managed to influence him well, but I didn''t expect him to visit so soon.'' Jay thought.

    Even taking into ount that Jay''s control over his parasites had improved tremendously, it was odd that it had worked so quickly.

    After all, in both Carl''s and Colt''s case, both had been targets for Jay to assimte, which meant that his little ones had had considerable time to be able to fully familiarize themselves with their respective hosts.

    However, it hadn''t even been a day since he had left a parasite in Nico''s body, so this raised some doubts in Jay.

    ''I''ll have to look into thister.''

    Although this was adding one more task to aplish to his to-do list, Jay didn''t mind this, as he liked that the system had so many unknown things to discover.

    In that way, time passed, with a mage and a pugilist working as a team along with the asional help from an esper, tasks that would normally take Jay several hours were finished in just a couple, leaving them free to spend their time in other ways.

    Back in the living room of the residence Jay was staying in, the three of them were seated on separate couches, three sses of colorful drinks on the table and a rxed atmosphere.

    "Ahh, a cold juice after a hard day''s work is certainly the best!" Jay said, a smile on his face.

    Also sipping on his juice, Vildan added, "I agree, I feel productive."

    "Un, this juice isn''t bad at all..." Said Nico, who looked the most tired of the three.

    A silence then spread throughout the living room, with three satisfied young men enjoying a refreshing drink.

    *Bam!*

    Suddenly, Nico mmed the table before standing up and shouting, remembering the reason for his visit, "I didn''te here for this!"

    "If you break the ss, I''ll break your leg." Jay threatened, ring at Nico.

    "...Ahem, yes, sorry." Replied the blond mage, setting the ss down carefully on the table.

    Also setting his ss aside, Jay added, "Come on then, since you''re so excited, speak up."

    "Alright, you see, I''ve been thinking about what you told me, and I couldn''t help bute to the conclusion that you were right! I had these doubts about myself and the team I had put together since a long time ago, and it turns out they were true! At least most of these..."

    "Hm, so? I don''t think you came here just to say I was right, did you?" Jay asked.

    He had already expected this kind of answer, so Jay''s attitude remained rxed, rather, what he was most interested in was what Nico''s course of action would be.

    If all went well, then Jay would have a useful light mage as a recurring contact.

    This time looking directly at Jay, Nico continued, "From now on my priority will be to choose quality over quantity, but for that very reason is that my current goal remains the same as before. Therefore I came here to ask for your help, I want you to help me recruit Veldran."

    "Heh, you sure don''t learn eh, but well, at least there must be a reason why you want to recruit him so badly, and I doubt it''s only because of his physical abilities." Jay said.

    At this, Nico''s expression turned serious, "His physical abilities are nothingpared to his real power... his esper ability. If he were to use it, even the three of us together wouldn''t be able to fight him."

    These words made Jay''s interest rise even more, so he couldn''t help but ask, "Tell me then, what would that ability be?

    "Veldran''s ability.... is Blood Control!"

 Chapter 111 - The Public Market

    "So... Blood Control huh..." Said Jay, who definitely hadn''t expected that to be Vedra''s ability,

    To say it was an unusual ability would not suffice to describe how rare it truly was, not only in the world, but throughout history.

    As for the reason for this, no one knew exactly why, though there were several theories on the matter, the most famous among them being that this ability was on the list of skills that every type of organization yearned to possess.

    Be it a criminal organization, the association of heroes, or even... countries.

    The control abilities, as the name indicated, gave the esper the ability to control certain elements of nature, giving them the power to impose their will on nature itself.

    Wind control at its maximum power was capable of creating or destroying hurricanes at will.

    Water control could do the same with any tsunami, and that was repeated with all control abilities.

    So, if elemental control abilities allowed the esper to be the embodiment of the will of the earth... then what would an esper with the ability of blood control be capable of?

    Fortunately, the answer was present thanks to a viin famous enough to be feared by heroes and viins alike and who undoubtedly managed to be the master of the underworld for several generations.

    Although it was from a time older than that of those present, and even that of their parents, this viin''s name still remained widely known.

    With an interested expression on his face, Jay spoke, "It''s the same ability as Bloodlust''s..."

    Nico then added, "That''s right, and from what my group and I have been able to confirm, Vedran has at least one of his three bases."

    What Nico meant by bases were the strongest things that Bloodlust had proven to be able to do with his Blood Control, which while they didn''t amount to "Traits", were the basis of his power.

    "And which of those three is...?" Jay asked, his interest piquing even more.

    "It wasn''t clear to me before, but thanks to yesterday''s confrontation, I was able to confirm that it was Blood Boost. The physical strength he showed wasn''t just thanks to his body, but he was also using his ability discreetly... or even unconsciously, of that I''m not so sure."

    While Nico''s goal had truly been to teach Vedran a lesson, he did also had another goal in mind, and that was to be able to confirm his suspicions about said esper.

    And everything would have gone ording to his n... had it not been for the interruption of the person in front of him.

    Remembering this, Nico couldn''t help but look at Jay with annoyance, although this feeling disappeared as quickly as it came.?

    "Hm, hm, I already thought it was weird that he had such a strong physique being an esper." Jay said, purposely ignoring Nico''s stare, "Well, and what''s your n then?"

    "Yes, I''ll exin what we''ll do, but before that, I ask you both not to go divulging this information to anyone, I''m not saying this for my sake only, but also because if this gets to the ears of certain students... I''m afraid Vedran himself will be the one in danger." Nico added.

    At this, both Vildan and Jay nodded, though the next moment Vildan asked, "...I don''t want to ruin the mood or anything, but... who is Bloodlust?"

    ***

    A few hours passed, and Jay was finally alone in his room, his mind running through the n Nico had told him about.

    Apparently, although Nico''s group''s abilities were average at best, they weren''t too bad at gathering information, managing to find out several things about Vedran.

    Starting with the sses he went to, going through his current job and ending with where he lived, all of which allowed them to form a small information file on him.

    It was also thanks to this that they managed to catch him yesterday, and now the same information file would serve for Nico''s new n.

    ''Hm, he wants to try the same thing again, but this time with my help...''

    The n was simply a repeat of yesterday making a few simple changes, among those changes would be that instead of Nico''s henchmen, the person who would take their ce would be Jay.

    As for the objective of this, it had changed, it would no longer be something like teaching Vedran a lesson, but bringing out all the power he possessed, something Jay was also interested in.

    Or rather, a part of what Jay was interested in.

    The next moment, his mindpletely forgot about both Nico and his n and instead was filled by Vedran and his ability.

    ? ''I wonder if it''s luck... or something else... to have stumbled upon such an incredible and powerful ability...'' Jay thought as a huge grin formed on his face.

    It was evident that finding a remaining ability to assimte was something that had been guing himtely, only getting worse with each passing day.

    But with the information that Nico had given him, Jay had already made his decision.

    As for why he was so quick to decide, it was because the Blood Control ability was aplete package, even without Bloodlust''s three bases, it was an ability that would give Jay a great boost in short and medium rangebat.

    And while it might not seem like there wasn''t much synergy between Blood Control and his other abilities, Jay was alreadying up with several ways to aplish exactly that.

    Finally, there was also the possibility that maybe Nico might be lying to get him to help, but ording to Jay''s parasite inside said mage, he was telling the truth.

    ''Well, thanks to the blond I now have his schedule too, all that''s left is to meet Vedran and pass it off as a coincidence... I sound like a stalker.'' Jay thought,ughing at this fact.

    *Pin*

    At that moment, his smart watch suddenly beeped, indicating that a message had arrived.

    Turning on his watch to see who had sent him the message, Jay again couldn''t help but smile as he read the message preview.

    [Here''s half of my list, I expect the money and information at the end of this month].

    Finally, it seemed that things were starting to move in his favor after a long time.

    ***

    The next day, after sses and another failed attempt to interact with Faith, Jay and Vilda were again leaving the school, though this time the direction they were headed was not the training center.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Instead, they were heading towards the Bronze City Public Market, one of the busiest areas in the entire city.

    Walking sideways next to Jay, Vilda spoke up, "Wasn''t Nico''s n supposed to be to meet up next week and not go alone?"?

    "Are you nning on going along with blondie''s n?" Replied Jay as his hair fluttered slightly in the wind he was creating.

    This was a new training method he had been using, being able to perform it at all times and without drawing too much attention to himself.

    "Heh, of course not!" Added Vilda with a smile on his face.

    While he had put aside the differences he had with Nico in the past yesterday, that didn''t mean they were getting along, so he was much less going to listen to him.

    As for why he was following Jay even now, it was simple...he was bored and had suspicions that Jay was going to do something entertaining.

    The further they walked towards their destination, the more the streets became crowded with students, evidence of how busy this part of town was.

    After walking for a few minutes and bumping into other people a couple of times, they arrived at the reason there were so many students.

    In front of them was a huge field free of buildings, instead being upied by dozens and dozens of stalls with all sorts of colorful products, groceries, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers and countless other things that were hidden deep in this market.

    Not only was it overflowing with students, but the stalls usually had two to three people, busy serving their respective customers and sometimes receiving produce from their suppliers.

    All together it created a lively scene.

    "Ahh, the Public Market, my sister says this is the only ce where one can truly enjoy the youth in the academy!" Said Vildan looking in awe at the market.

    "...Again, your sister really said that?" Jay asked.

    "She also said that the real disys of passion are in the haggling over prices!" Vildan added.

    "...We''d better get looking for Vedran''s stall...wait, a whole tub of fruit just for 15 credits?! Vildan,e on!"

    "Coming!"

    With those words as hisst, Jay entered the market, followed closely by Vildan.

    For a while, apparently having been seduced by the incredible offerts of the public market, both Jay and Vildan slowly umted bags and bags of supplies.

    "Well, we''ve already got vegetables, fruits, legumes and lots and lots of rice, all that''s missing is the meat!" Jay said as he hurried towards the meat section of the market, in his arms hanging? several heavy bags.

    Thanks to the fact that it was already rtivelyte and the meat usually ran out early, there weren''t many students here.

    While Jay and Vildan were reaching the meat section, a certain butcher was busy thinking.

    ''Hm, I still have about 27 kilograms (60lb) of meat left.... Well, who cares, I''d better sell it before it starts to rot.'' Thought a tall, bearded man, the owner of a stall in the middle of the meat section.

    "ATTENTION ALL PRESENT, TAKE TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE, OFFER FOR THE FIRST ONES ONLY!!!" Shouted then the same man.

    Just as he finished shouting, almost as if it had been a coordinated movement, all the students in the vicinity turned their heads at the same time.

    Immediately, they began to move hurriedly towards the man''s stall, some even activating their abilities in order to get there faster.

    "Sh*t, we just arrived to this section!" Shouted Jay running towards the stall of the butcher who shouted the offer.

    "I don''t know if we''ll make it, I think it''s already toote!" Replied Vilda with a worried expression on his face, from his arms also hanging several bags as he followed Jay.

    His insecurity was normal, since although they were also moving fast, the advantage the other students had for getting being closer was undeniable.

    "Don''t lose hope, Vildan! Just get behind me and follow me, we''ll clear a path!" Shouted Jay as he increased the strength in his body using the energy of his little ones.

    *Bam!*

    "Argh!"

    Unfortunately, even Jay, with his rank (D+) pugilist''s body, couldn''t against the outer barrier of the butcher''s stall, ending up being pushed to the opposite side, crashing into another stall that for some reason was empty.

    "Jay, are you okay!?" Vildan asked, who saw everything in the front row.

    "You selfish bastards, keeping it all to yourselves, I want to see how you''ll resist me when I use Overl-!"

    "You again?"

    However, at that moment, a young man''s voiceing from behind Jay interrupted thetter before he used everything he had to push his way through.

    "WHO!?" Jay said, quickly looking back, still annoyed that he had been repelled, his gaze falling on a young man taller than him and with shoulder-length wine-colored hair, "...Oh, Vedran? Vedran?!"

    Suddenly, the reason he had originallye to the market suddenly came rushing back into Jay''s head.

    For a few seconds, Jay stood still as he looked at Vedran with a nk expression on his face.

    The next moment, Jay then dropped his bags on the floor, one by one, before putting his hand in front of his face and smacking his forehead hard.

    *Bam!*

    "Jay, what''s the matter, aren''t you going to try to break through again? I''ll help you this time, we must hurry before it''s toote!" Vildan said, impatiently.

    In response, Jay looked up at him from the gaps between his fingers and then pped him as well.

 Chapter 112 - Reaching An Agreement

    Having rposed themselves from theirpulsive shopping spree, Jay and Vilda were now focused on Vedran''s stall, who still didn''t understand what just happened.

    "Ahem, Vedran, what a surprise that you work at the rural market~!" Jay said, taking the opportunity to inspect said esper''s stall, "But this is good too, I''d like some meat please!"

    Although the stall wasn''t as big as the one of the merchant who had shouted the offer just a moment ago, it certainly wasn''t small in any sense.

    Thanks to the fact that it was alreadyte, in the same way as with several other stalls in the meat section, almost no meat could be seen in this stall, evidence that it was not doing badly at all.

    "I got nothing, you were toote..." Vedran replied as he grabbed a rag and began wiping down the counter of his stall.

    The truth was that he did have some meat left over, but that was something he preferred to keep for personal consumption, always paying of course.

    "Ah, well how unfortunate, then I''m afraid I''ll just have to leave... taking my things and the information on how the blond managed to find you so easily with me." Jay said as he smiled looking directly at Vedran.

    The moment Jay finished speaking, Vedran paused for a moment, making it clear that he was interested in what Jay had to say.

    "...Do you know how?" Vedran then asked.

    He had always had that doubt, how exactly it was that he had managed to get the attention of such an annoying person as Nico.

    He had alreadye to the conclusion that they had been spying on him, after all, they wouldn''t be able to know where he worked if that wasn''t the case.

    But that was where the doubt arose, why they decided to investigate a student who had only been at the Academy for a few days and who had also done nothing but keep a low profile to the extreme.

    He had evene to think that it was his fault and that he wasn''t really keeping a low profile.

    "Of course I do, though in return-"

    "Before you say anything... if you ask me to join you or your group, or your boss''s group, or anything like that... then I''ll have to decline." Vedran added.

    While it was true that he was interested in how he got Nico''s attention as well as how his information was leaked, thest thing he wanted was to get himself into a mess just like the one he had just gotten out of.

    The fact that Jay was being followed by Vildan didn''t help with this either, so Vedran had to set the record straight from the start.

    "Pft, of course not!" replied Jay,ughing at the misunderstanding as he scratched his cheek, "While I won''t deny that the title of young master doesn''t displease me at all, I don''t have a group I could offer you to join nor is it in my ns to create one, so you can rest easy."

    Although it took him slightly by surprise, Jay understood where Vedran''s concerns wereing from, so he didn''t mind too much.

    "If so... then name your price." Vedran added.

    Because this was a problem that concerned his privacy and security, he was even willing to pay a good amount of merit points just for the sake of getting to the bottom of it.

    As to whether he had sufficient funds for this, he was confident since unlike normal students, Vedran did not spend for anything more than the basics.

    In this aspect, Vedran would undoubtedly get along well with Noah.

    "Since I am a generous person, I will only ask for the humble figure of.... 999 merit points." Jay said, with a pained expression, as if he was taking a loss by offering this price.

    On the other hand, both Vedran and Vildan were surprised by this, after all, although Jay had said it was a humble figure, that was far from being the case for both of them.

    It should be taken into ount that not only had they not been working for long, but even Jay, who had the highest sry among the three of them, would not be able to pay that figure even if he wanted.

    So even though Vedran had his decent amount of savings from living frugally, it wasn''t enough.

    "I... I can''t afford that price." Vedran replied, though it was clear from the tone of his voice that he was somewhat reluctant, which was understandable.

    "Jay, don''t you think that price is... a bit high?" Vildan added, feeling a little bad for Vedran.

    Changing his expression to one of surprise, Jay then spoke, "If we were talking only about culprits, then yes it would be too high, but what I''m offering you is not only that, but also how you''ll be able to avoid this kind of incident... permanently."

    With those words, this time not only Vedran was interested, but Vildan as well, as he didn''t think Jay would havee up with something like that in such a short time.

    Not wanting to waste his moment, Jay continued, "If you don''t have enough points, fortunately for you, I have a way in which you could pay me without having to spend a single point, indeed, I''ll even give you the information before you pay for it in full. Though of course, it''s all up to you."

    Hearing this, Vedran started to think, considering whether it was in his best interest to ept this deal.

    Bringing his gaze to Jay''s face, on which was nted a smile, Vedran''s doubts grewrger.

    He knew almost nothing about this character, except that he was an esper and that he had a strange sense of justice motivated by... who knows what.

    Since his contact with other people had usually been limited to work-rted matters, he was not experienced enough to determine exactly what type of personality Jay had.

    However, if there was one thing he was somewhat certain of, it was that it would at least be worth listening to what Jay would have to say.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "...Okay, you have a deal...but-"

    Without him being able to finish, Jay grabbed Vedran''s hand and shook it before speaking, "Great! You won''t regret it!"

    Just like that, happy that he could have taken advantage of almost every offer the market had to offer but mostly thanks to Vedran epting his proposal, Jay returned to the training center, apanied by Vilda, but not before asking for something more.

    "Also, I know that you still have meat, so give it to me."

    "..."

    ***

    Back at the Training Center, despite not having finished his daily quota of work, Jay wasn''t cleaning, and instead was in a training yard.

    This yard was not asrge as the ones he normally cleaned, which could fit over a hundred students without any problem, instead, this yard was designed for a single student to be present.

    Further evidence of this was that there was only one wooden dummy present, and this was located in the center of the courtyard.

    Jay was standing in front of this dummy, stretching his arms and legs, in his mind reying a movement, specifically, a kick.

    While it was true that he had neglected his personal training for a few days, that was only because he was getting used to the new routine he had to follow from now on.

    And now that he had sessfully managed to bnce his time, he could get back to improve himself, from his wind control, to his Phantom Trace, and ending with calibrating his energy parameters, all were aspects that Jay wasn''t willing to let fall behind.

    Even now, while most of his attention was focused on how to urately mimic the baron''s movements, in Jay''s view was his energy control window, which was monitoring the expenditure that the wind surrounding his entire body was generating.

    It was somewhat mentally tiring to keep so many things active at all times, but thanks to the fact that Jay already had experience multitasking, mainly because of his little ones, the result of this training outweighed the expenditure it caused.

    Suddenly, Jay moved at great speed andunched an axe kick towards the dummy, all his movements being surrounded by wind.

    *BAM!*

    A loud sound of wood being struck rippled over the surroundings, making it clear that the force that caused the sound had not been light at all.

    It was a decent blow that would have made even a rank (D+) pugilist reluctant to take it head on, but even so, the sour expression on Jay''s face meant that he was not satisfied with the result.

    "...Haa, looks like I''m still far from being able to mimic the kick, either in strength or speed... if only I could meet him in person..." Jay said, cing his hand on his chin before turning around and returning to his original position, "Anyway, for the time being I can only keep perfecting that kick to get as close as possible."

    In that way, the minutes flew by, with Jay training hard to get better, only stopping when his energy reserves were at a dangerous level or to watch the time, eagerly waiting for his special guests.

    Finally, half an hourter, a certain tall young man with wine-colored hair apanied by another smaller young man whose hair was gray entered this courtyard from a wooden hallway.

    The difference in their expressions could not have been more different, with the tall one having a bitter expression and the other with a bright smile that did not seem to be one of happiness.

    But if one had to mention something they had inmon, this would undoubtedly be that they were both wearing the same attire, namely the Training Center employee uniform.

    "Guys, you''ve arrived, hm.... although we are not the same size, it looks like there will be no problem for you to wear my uniforms. You both look good!" Said Jay, who was just taking a break from his training.

    At these words, Vedran just let out a sigh as Vildan''s smile grew brighter.

    "It fits me well, doesn''t it?" Added Vildan as he spun around and inspected his attire, apparently he was pleased with how he looked with the uniform on.

    Stepping closer towards Jay, Vildan then continued, "By the way, leaving aside my appearance, I understand Vedran having to wear the uniform since he''ll be paying you the price for the information working, but... could you remind me why I''m wearing this too?"

    As he had said, the reason Vedran was wearing the uniform was because that was the method Jay had chosen so that Vedran could pay full price for the information he wanted.

    Unexpectedly, Vedran agreed much easier than Jay expected, without having to convince him or offer him something else.

    This was because what really worried Vedran was that maybe Jay would ask for something involved with using him as a thug or so, but since it was just manualbor as a janitor, something he had already worked at for quite some time in his school years, he had no objection against it.

    "Well... the truth is that I was thinking of asking if there was another janitor position for you, since the pay is good and on top of that you get a residence with it, I couldn''t think of anyone better for the job than you, Vildan. I''m sorry I did it without telling you about it." Jay said as if he was a little embarrased of what he was saying.

    Faced with this, Vildan was quiet for a moment before scratching his head and saying, "...If that''s the case... then I guess I don''t mind wearing this for a while. Right, since I''m dressed like this, I guess I could help a little, it''s not that hard either."

    After saying that, Vildan grabbed two brooms nearby, one he handed to Veldran and the other he kept to start sweeping the courtyard.

    A slight smile could be seen forming on his face, probably because of what Jay had said, indicating that he was thinking of his welfare.

    As for the person responsible for this, namely Jay, he was thinking something different, ''Hm, it may not be the right thing to take advantage like this... but free manualbor is too convenient to pass up.''

    Also with a smile on his face, Jay then joined the two espers in their task of cleaning up.

 Chapter 113 - All For Safety!

    While the three esper were spending time at the training center, a meeting of utmost importance for the Eitsirc academy was taking ce in a tall skyscraper in a certain unknown city.

    It had already been several days since the incident with the 4th grade students, which also meant that the search party that the academy''s vice-principal Dur had organized should have alreadye across the culprit, or at the very least, some key clue.

    And these expectations were not only because Dur had almost blind trust over his employees, but because with the level of supers sent out, even finding the ringleader of arge criminal organization would not be impossible.

    "...This is...unexpected." Said Dur, a small giant of a man sitting at the head of the boardroom table as he looked at the current report of the search party.

    The reaction was to be expected, after all, the paper in front of him indicated that not only had they not found the culprit, but they had also note across any kind of key clue.

    Whether it was a monster that met the physical characteristics described by ina, the one in charge of protecting the training grounds, or a monster that had the ability to escape from a rank (B) pugilist, they could find none.

    Instead, what the search party was able to confirm was that what the group of 4th grade students involved in this incident had said, that the training ground was devoid of monsters, waspletely true.

    This intrigued not only the entire executive board of the academy, but also the vice principal, Dur.

    The reason for this was clear, and it was because this event involved much more than what it seemed at first nce.

    First of all, it should be known that not every piece ofnd in the academy was monitored at all times like the ind where the entrance exam was held, and there was a reason for this.

    Because it was not necessary.

    In fact, that ind was only monitored because of the exam and because it was a rtively new terrain of the academy.

    However, for all the other grounds of the academy, which had been in the possession of the academy for centuries, the level of protection that each of them had, while varying depending on the specific ground, was not something that could be broken even by dozens of rank (B) supers, not even the weakest protection.

    It was for this very reason that although the academy''s secrets were coveted by countless criminal organizations, none of them resorted to forcible entry, because they were simply incapable of it.

    Secondly, the fact that the disappearance of the monsters in the training camp happenedpletely unnoticed.

    And the hardest point to believe was that such a massive event as moving thousands and thousands of monsters was carried out without a single person or magic circuit of the academy detecting it.

    With only these two points, Dur came to the obvious conclusion that the culprit behind this, whoever it was, could only belong to a certain group of people.

    "At the very least, it has to have been a rank (A-) super..." Dur said with a serious look on his face.

    "!"

    Immediately, the other academy executives were shocked by what the vice principal said, almost as if not wanting to believe his words.

    However, they knew very well that their vice principal was not the type to joke around, so they had no choice but to ept his words as true, as troubling as they were.

    At this point, the most worrying thing for them ceased to be the incident of the disappearing monsters and the attack towards a certain group of students, and this ce became upied by the supposed rank (A) super.

    And this, of course, was not an unfounded decision, but was actually the most sensible one.

    Normally, although there was a big difference between the different grades of supers, reaching a point where a rank (C) super was more than twice as strong as a rank (D) super, there was still a way to ovee that gap.

    It would require arge number of rank (D+) supers and one would have to be prepared for losses, but it was possible to achieve a victory.

    However, the same could not be said with a rank (B) super, since no matter how many rank (C) supers there were, the only final result of that would be a massacre.

    Forget about just destroying buildings, even wiping out a city would not be a problem for a rank (B) super.

    There was even a time, after the great catastrophe and the appearance of the founders of the three sses, when mankind was ruled by only rank (B) supers, a time when thew of the jungle shone at its best.

    It was not for nothing that rank (B) supers were considered the pinnacle of power for average people, thanks to the fact that the power they possessed was iparable to that of a mere rank (C).

    Then, what happened?

    Why was it that such powerful individuals stopped behaving in such a dominant way and now preferred to adhere to the rules of society?

    The answer is very simple, because each and every one of them discovered... that they were not the strongest by far.

    They discovered the hard way, that their bodies were not indestructible, their spells were not omnipotent, and their abilities did not always work.

    The appearance of the rank (A) supers woke them from their slumber, but more importantly, it etched a reminder in their blood that would remain for all generations of rank (B) supers toe.

    That at the top... there is another top.

    Thanks to this bloody but perhaps necessary chapter of history, although countless years had passed since then, even today''s rank (B) supers were well aware that although they were the pinnacle of power for the average person, the pinnacle actuallyy elsewhere.

    Beings capable not only of destroying cities, but of being able to put entire regions in danger and bring small countries to ruin, those were rank (A) supers.

    Fortunately, having such an enormous amount of power also meant that every move was monitored either by certain organizations or by other people of the same ss.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Although undoubtedly, the biggest stroke of luck was that the number of rank (A) supers in the world was so low that the fact that an organization had one of them, either as a founder or as a member, made the level of this organization automatically enter the list of global organizations.

    But of course, hand in hand with getting on that list also came several benefits, the biggest of which being how incredibly attractive each global organization was to the average super.

    It was also thanks to this list that organizations that started small ended up bing giants, with the most well-known examples being the Heroes Association, the Hunters Guild, and of course... the Eitsirc Academy.

    "I wonder who actually decided to move... and on top of that do it against our academy...?" Dur said as he stood up from his seat and his eyes began to release a dangerous gleam.

    *SWOOSH!*

    No sooner had he finished speaking, a dense stream of qi flooded the boardroom, causing the executives present to choke for a moment.

    "Ah, sorry." He quickly apologized, though he did not sit down, but began walking towards the exit of the room.

    "V-Vice principal, we ask you to please reconsider, if you leave to confront this stranger, then who will be left in charge of the academy?!" Said one of the table members, a woman of average height and ck hair who recovered rtively quickly from the wave of qi.

    Although it might seem that the executives were worried about this supposed rank (A) super, that was only part of it, as in reality their concern was focused elsewhere, and that was because they knew that their vice principal would definitely want to take him on.

    Thanks to the fact that normally the big shots, i.e. rank (A) supers were under enormous surveince by other powers, plus the vast majority of them were in positions where they couldn''t act too much on their own, confrontations between members of this ss were incredibly rare.

    Even until now, thest confrontation between rank (A) supers had happened several decades ago, and this was entirely due to the fact that the protagonist of this fight was a viin named Bloodlust, who did not care at all about how many eyes were watching him or that he belonged to an organization.

    As for fights between rank (A) supers who were on the "same side"... they just didn''t happen.

    Taking that into ount, one could already get an idea of what this meant for a rank (A) pugilist like the vice-director.

    Although as vice-principal he was apetent man and had performed his job impably thanks to the love and affection he had for the academy, his fighting spirit had never disappeared, and this incident had only served to fuel that spirit even more.

    Normally one would think about whether it was worth getting into trouble with a super (A) rank either because of his power or the organization behind it, even for the founder of a global organization, but for Dur, the vice principal of Eitsirc Academy, neither of these were a problem.

    And of course, the biggest reason why Dur wanted to take this matter into his own hands was because it was his job to protect the academy and see to the safety of the students, it definitely wasn''t because he wanted to take on someone strong!

    Anyway, for him, this was an opportunity that he absolutely couldn''t pass up, even if the executives didn''t want to, he would force his way through!

    It was all for the safety of the academy!

    "I... will go out to punish the person who dared to mess with our academy. For any questions, consult the head teachers!"

    "Wait, vice principal!"

    "Stop him!!!"

    *Swoosh!

    However, even though the executives moved to block the exit, the vice principal had already disappeared, only leaving behind a residual image.

    "..."

    A silence then filled the boardroom, with all the executives present having a grim expression on their faces.

    "Ahem, I wouldn''t want to make the situation worse... but I''ll be leaving too, I have to apany him... since, you know, I''m his secretary..." Said the thin man with sses who was always standing next to the vice principal.

    Without another word, and thanks to the fact that the executives were depressed, the secretary smoothly left the boardroom, though not before sending a message to the three head teachers.

    "I wish you luck, dear executives." Said the secretary to himself, a small look of sadness hidden in his eyes.

    Just like that, the person in charge of seeing to the good of the academy... temporarily left.

    ***

    Back at the training center, the three esper who had been cleaning yards had finished their task quite a while ago, and were instead busy with another activity.

    Inside a muchrger yard than the one Jay was originally cleaning, Vedran was in the middle, and a few meters away, to the right and left, surrounding him, stood Jay and Vilda, both in a fighting stance.

    As for Vedran, he had a serious expression on his face, though judging by the bulging of his muscles, it was clear that he was prepared to intercept any attack.

    ''...How did I end up in this situation?'' Thought Vedran, seeing that perhaps conflict was inevitable.

    The next moment, before he could think of anything else, both Jay and Vilda moved towards him, activating their abilities.

    Unexpectedly, the night''s work had taken an unexpected turn, the main victim being none other than Vedran!

 Chapter 114 - Attempting To Pay Off A Debt

    *Bam!

    The sound of a loud thud was heard, the product of Vedran having blocked a kick from Jay.

    Even though this attack of his had been reinforced with wind, for Vedran it wasn''t much of a problem, even giving him room to counterattack, which he was about to do.

    "!"

    But the next moment, Vedran suddenly saw out of the corner of his eye a shadowing towards him at full speed, forcing him to stop his counterattack to move and dodge.

    *Crash!*

    Immediately after, a hammer made purely of shadows and of great size fell on the ce where Vedran was standing, creating a small crater and making it clear that said esper had made the right decision in dodging.

    "For such a tall guy, you sure move pretty fast."

    Holding the handle of thisrge hammer was none other than Vilda, his hands also shrouded in shadows, fulfilling their function as gloves.

    Although the figure of Vilda, whose height was only average at best, looked somewhat strange holding a hammer almost asrge as himself, the power behind it was no joking matter, even to Vedran.

    Not wanting to waste the fact that Vedran had not yet regained his bnce, Jay quickly moved to pursue Vedran, wanting to prevent him from recovering in any way.

    Seeing this, Vedran''s brow furrowed, as he had no other choice but to concentrate fully on blocking.

    Although his energy level was quite a bit higher thanks to being a super and mostly thanks to his esper ability, if he couldn''t even take a break, it wouldn''t be long before he started to get tired.

    ''...This doesn''t look good...'' Vedran thought to himself, unable to see an opportunity to be able to break the disadvantageous pace of this fight.

    He had already analyzed both Jay and Vilda, from their attacking power,bat experience and fitness level.

    As a result, he determined that he was superior to both of them in fighting experience, but the rest was a bit moreplicated.

    Vilda was slow, unlike what his slender figure and somewhat small stature suggested, but his attack power was high and fully capable of hurting him.

    Jay was the opposite, possessing great speed and agility but for some reasoncking enough attack power to be able to pose a serious threat to him.

    Vedran was certain that in any other situation, facing either of them, he could easily win, but only if they were separated, for if they were together, the fight would sooner orter turn into this discouraging situation.

    Every time Vedran tried to get close to Vilda since Vilda was slow, Jay was there to prevent this, and when he was about to take care of Jay, Vilda would soon attack him with everything he had.

    It was definitely a problem to take both of them on.

    However, Vedran was not going to give up so easily.

    ''...I guess I''ll just have to take a hit from that hammer...it''ll do some damage, but I''ll be able to take care of Jay in return, then it''ll be easy to beat Vilda.'' Vedran thought, mentally preparing himself for the impact by swelling the muscles in his right arm.

    He himself acknowledged that Jay was fast, but thanks to said esper''sck ofbat experience, the pattern of his attacks was easy to predict, making it possible for Vedran to predict the odd attack.

    *Bam! *

    Said and done, the same kick that Vedran had seen so many times that night came, and of course, he didn''t waste the opportunity, already having thrown a punch towards Jay.

    As if it was a repeat of the previous exchange of attacks, the same oversized shadow appeared again in the corner of his eye, but this time Vedran just gritted his teeth without pausing in the slightest.

    *BAM!*

    "Ack!"

    The noise was louder than the previous times, though of course, how could it not be, after all, almost as if they were synchronized, therge hammer mmed into Vedran''s body at the same time as Vedran''s fist hit Jay.

    The result was Vedran being forced to his knees and Jay being sent flying for several meters, only stopping after bouncing a couple of times on the ground.

    "...Tsss, that looked painful..." Said Vildan, who had an expression of alien pity on his face as he looked at Jay, hisrge hammer still stuck in Vedran''s arm.

    He lookedpletely unconcerned despite being so close to Vedran, although it was an understandable reaction since ashe knew that even if Vedran possessed exceptional strength capable of sending a person like Jay flying with one blow, his hammer was heavier still.

    "I''d better watch out, I wouldn''t want to-"

    But at that moment, before he could continue, Vedran''s left arm suddenly appeared in his field of vision, connecting a blow with Vilda''s chin.

    "Agh!"

    Due to the force contained in the blow, coupled with the fact that it came from below, Vilda''s body rose up for a moment before falling to the ground, hisrge hammer losing its shape and dissolving into shadows.

    "...This wasn''t bad at all... but youck a little more training." Vedran said, standing up as he rubbed his right arm, right where it had taken the impact of the hammer, "Now, ording to what we said, I don''t have toe to work anymore, right-"

    At that second, Jay''s voice rang out across the yard, "What are you talking about...? I''m still up."

    Just as Jay had said, even though part of his face was bruised and his body bore dirt marks from falling on the ground, he had gotten up, and was more than ready to continue.

    "...I see you are tougher than you look..." Vedran said as he watched Jay, in his eyes a hint of interest.

    Next, Vedran proceeded to take a step forward, but Jay spoke again, "Vilda, I know you''re conscious, tell me, do you think you can give me one of those shadow weapons...?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Hearing this, Vedran''s expression changed to one of confusion, as he could have sworn he had truly knocked Vilda out, however, Jay''s words indicated otherwise.

    "..."

    A silence then stretched in the surroundings for a few seconds, until a sighing from the supposedly unconscious shadow esper broke it, said esper then started to slowly get up from the ground.

    With the aforementioned esper already standing, Vedran could see that on thetter''s chin, there was a dense patch of shadows, undoubtedly the reason why Vilda didn''t seem too affected despite receiving such a brutal attack.

    Without paying much attention to Vedran''s reaction, Vilda merely replied to Jay as his hands filled with shadows, "I can, but it can''t be as big as my hammer and I won''t be able to move much to let you use it."

    Although his skill and the control he had over it were above that of the average esper, the limitations of being a rank (D+) super still had an effect on Vilda.

    "No problem, I''ll take care of it... I just need you to give me a bat." Jay said as he approached towards Vedran.

    "A bat... got it."

    With a smile of interest and anticipation on his face, Vilda quickly made a shadow bat before tossing it to Jay and proceeding to sit down, as he needed to concentrate on the shadow bat holding its shape despite being away from him.

    The moment Jay grabbed the bat by the handle, the wind currents that originally surrounded his body began to wrap around the bat, as if it was just another extension of Jay''s body.

    Without waiting a second longer, Jay then began to run towards Vedran, who had shifted his stance in order to repel this desperate charge.

    Although Jay had now acquired a weapon, Vedran wasn''t that worried, as again due to Jay''sck ofbat experience, while the weapon increased his attack power, it would further limit the attacks he could make.

    ''He''s going at a good speed, so he''ll surely try to take advantage of that eleration to attempt tond a strong hit, probably aiming for a vital point...'' Vedran thought, ready to react to any action.

    Then, when Jay was at a close enough distance, just as Vedran had thought, Jay swung the bat aiming right at his head.

    It was a blow that had both the force and speed to be a threat to Vedran, and although there was a chance to dodge the attack, if he didn''t do it perfectly, he would get part of it, and that would end badly.

    Therefore, Vedran decided to use the same tactic as before, raising his left arm to block while preparing his right arm tounch a fierce counterattack.

    The closer the bat got to his face, Vedran thought, ''Now is when I should use more force to counterattack, I wouldn''t want this to go on too long.''

    However, just at that moment, Jay''s figure, along with the bat, moved erratically and suddenly at a much greater speed than before,pletely changing the course of the attack.

    ''What?!'' Vedran thought with a surprised expression on his face.

    The next moment, the most unprotected part of the aforementioned esper, his left side, received a heavy blow.

    *BAM!*

    "!!"

    Vedran couldn''t say anything except seeing stars for a moment before retreating several steps and kneeling down on one knee while holding his left side.

    Unexpectedly, the power behind the metal bat was much higher than he had thought, but what surprised him the most without a doubt was the way Jay was able to suddenly change the direction of the attack.

    ''...Was that... his ability...?'' He thought, trying to figure out the reason for such an unnatural movement.

    But before he could think about it any further, Jay spoke up, "Come on, the fight isn''t over yet, didn''t you desperately want to cancel your debt?"

    The tone of his voice, while it might sound like prideful, was actually a mixture of confidence and excitement.

    This was understandable, as for Jay, despite having faced several people already, none of those confrontations helped him understand his own strength to a better extent due to the fact that they were fights where he had to defeat his enemies as fast as possible using everything he had, which included using unconventional methods.

    However, now that he was facing Vedran and there was no risk of being killed, plus the fact that said esper''s strength was not too far from his own, Jay could give free rein to all the moves he thought might be useful inbat.

    "...Yes, that''s right." Vedran replied, "To be honest, you should have started using that bat from the beginning... you made me hold back in vain..."

    As Vedran knew his own strength very well plus the fact that he thought he could win easily, he didn''t go all out and instead held back against both of them.

    But obviously, that was about to change.

    Only a second after speaking, Vedran stood up and let out a big sigh at the same time as a change urred inside his body.

    Although Vilda also vaguely felt it, the one who knew exactly what was happening was Jay, using his vitality radar, he could feel the energy inside Vedran begin to build up, further nourishing his body.

    For a brief moment, Vedran''s eyes released a faint glow of red, but just as quickly as it appeared, the glow faded.

    "Heh, now we''re talking!" Jay said, adjusting his grip on his bat.

    His little ones then also began to provide energy to Jay''s body, as if not wanting tog behind what Vedran was doing.

    Clearly, their trump cards aside, the two espers were about to fight using everything they had and could afford to show.

    As for the inevitable spectator, Vilda, although he was focused on keeping the shape of Jay''s bat, the expression on his face gave away that he was extremely interested in watching this showdown, almost even more than taking part in it.

    Thus, with one person gambling freebor and the other wanting to settle a debt, these two young men faced off under the watchful eye of another who was only present out of curiosity.

    As for the oue of this fight.... it would not be discussed by any of the three for a long time toe.

 Chapter 115 - A Part Of The Plan

    A few days passed, and the day Nico agreed to meet arrived.

    Inside a caf�� in a somewhat secluded part of the city center, three people were sitting at a table, talking to each other.

    This small group, consisting of Nico and two other young men, one tall and brown-haired and the other of average height with straight ck hair, had been waiting for other people to arrive.

    However, as expected, the main guests, namely Jay and Vilda, did not arrive, which caused the distrust of each of them to increase.

    "I wonder if they had something else to do...?" Said the brown-haired young man, taking the opportunity to take a sip from his coffee cup.

    "Or it could be that Nico gave them the wrong date, that''s also possible." Added the other young man.

    The reason why right now there were only two people apanying Nico instead of his usual group was because he had done a filtering process on that group, aiming for quality over quantity.

    As a result, with the exception of another student who acted as his information gatherer, only these young people were now apanying Nico.

    As for the person both young men were talking about, Nico, he just kept quietly upied with his thoughts.

    To him, the two options hispanions had suggested were quite unlikely.

    It would be one thing if Jay and Vilda were 15 or 30 minuteste, but it had already been more than an hour, and he had not received any message about the reason for their dy.

    That he had made a mistake in giving the date was even more unlikely, as he not only told them the time verbally, but also sent it to Jay in the form of a message.

    ''...I''d better text him again, he might have forgotten.'' Nico thought as he pulled out his smart watch and got ready to open his chat window with Jay.

    *Pin!*

    "...Oh, can it be?"

    Just then, however, the notification that he had been messaged popped up on his watch screen.

    He couldn''t help but get a little excited, but that excitement quickly died as soon as he saw who the person who had sent him the message was.

    It wasn''t Jay, but the student who was acting as his information gatherer.

    "...Ah, I guess today is weekly report day..." Nico said with a resigned expression on his face.

    The weekly report thing was the way they had agreed that said informant would deliver to him all the information he was able to collect in a week, from information sheets on notable supers, unusual ces in the city, and even rumors worth paying attention to.

    Normally it would be something interesting to read, but the message had unfortunatelye at the wrong time.

    And since he was now on to something more important, namely waiting for certain people, he decided to put his informant''s message aside to instead send a message to Jay.

    *Pin*

    However, another notification arrived on his smartwatch, from the same informant.

    "...Tch, if you want me to read it so badly, I guess it''ll be important." Nico said with a tone of annoyance in his voice.

    Opening the chat window, Nico''s expression changed to one of surprise.

    [I know that this has nothing to do with the report but I''m still letting you know, I passed by the rural market today, and the stall where Veldran used to work now has another student as an employee].

    [I tried to ask about him and they told me that he no longer works there. I got curious so I also went to check at other ces in the school as well as the dormitories, but apparently... for several days now his entire schedule has changed!]

    *Pin*

    While I was reading the messages, another one came in, and its contents were as follows.

    [I''m afraid to say this... but we''vepletely lost track of him.]

    "This..."

    With these three simple messages, it only took Nico a few seconds to understand what had happened.

    The fact that Jay and Vilda had not shown up was not because of a misunderstanding, far from it, it was because they had decided not toe!

    Instead of taking his generous offer, what they decided to do was to side with Vedran!

    Immediately, Nico''s expression frowned, evidence of the anger he was feeling at the moment.

    "...I really thought that him out of all people would understand which path was more beneficial... but it seems I''m just surrounded by fools." Nico said, his tone brimming with contempt.

    Thanks to the encounter he had with Jay a few days ago, it had been impressed upon his memory that such a person was not simple at all.

    The main reason for this was simple, and that was because each of the words Jay had said were things that Nico himself knew but had been too unsure to say.

    To Nico, Jay had not simply spoken to him in words, but had told him the truth.

    Therefore, that Jay said the words Nico wanted so desperately to hear, i.e. the truth for Nico, coupled with his show of strength and calmness he disyed at all times, resulted in Nicoing to the conclusion that such a person would definitely want to reach a higher altitude than he was at present.

    The quickest way to achieve that was, for Nico, obviously totch on to a person who was already at a higher altitude, who had not only resources but above average personal strength and talent by far, like the Baron.

    Nico thought Jay would be able to see this... but said esper, with this action, had shown him quite the opposite.

    "Tom, Kai, let''s go, no one ising." Nico then said, getting up from the chair and walking towards the exit.<novelnext></novelnext>

    In response, both young men, understanding from Nico''s tone of voice that it was better not to say anything, also followed closely behind him.

    Although Nico''sposure was calm, he was actually quite upset inside, causing him to mutter a few words full of determination.

    "This time I''ll be sure to show them... the reason why the baron chose me... and why they should have epted my offe-"

    "Excuse me, you haven''t paid for your coffees yet!" Said suddenly a waiter standing nearby, standing in the doorway to block his exit and unexpectedly interrupting Nico''s statement.

    "...Sorry, here you go." Said the mage as he paid his bill, his cheeks a little red.

    Without a doubt, this had not been a good day for Nico.

    ***

    The next day, since it was Sunday and there were no sses, a rxed atmosphere reigned over the bronze city, with students going from one ce to another, taking advantage of this free time to get to know the city better or simply to distract themselves for a while.

    Although it might seem simr to the scene that happened after sses the other day, it was different, as this time the students were truly trying to rest.

    However, if one were to mention an aspect of the weekends that was equal to the school days, one cannot overlook those students who, regardless of the day or time, were subject to expending their physical or mental energy for the benefit of the city.

    That is, those students who had a job.

    Currently it was 12 noon, and the sun was high in the sky, which while it meant being able to go out in more refreshing clothes and even take advantage of certain aquatic facilities in the bronze city, for those students who had jobs it only meant something.

    Whether it was someone who worked inside a cafe, through those who were in the hospital, and ending with those who had jobs in open areas, it was clear to everyone that they were going to sweat all day.

    Normally, being supers, they had above average heat resistance, but almost as if the sun shining on the cities did not want to lose against such resistance, it shone and heated much more intensely in the academy than in other parts of the world.

    This, of course, was the work of the academy itself, whose aim with this was to allow their students to enjoy the natural weather for a little longer, for the stronger these became, there woulde a point where only a fire or a snowfall would make them feel anything.

    Although the intention was good, that didn''t take away the fact that there were students who might have preferred that the academy didn''t take so much consideration with them.

    And those who were perhaps the students who were least pleased with this consideration were right now on the outskirts of the bronze city, at one of the many farms in the surrounding area.

    Several students were hard at work in the field, with sweat running down their bodies, which, it must be said, regardless of gender, were packed with toned muscles, making it clear that the physical level of each of them was high.

    These muscles were on disy as, thanks to the heat, they had to take measures tobat this, such as taking off the top part of their attire or rolling up the sleeves of certain garments, all in order to be able to feel a little more of the breeze in the surroundings.

    This was one of the many jobs avable to students at the academy, although it was undoubtedly at the top of the most physically demanding.

    Hence all the students present were in such good physical shape, because it was a necessity in order to be able to perform this job.

    Although fortunately for the students, just as the job demanded a lot from them, not to mention a decent sry, this was one of the most beneficial jobs for students that could be found in the city.

    From being able to buy all kinds of fruits and vegetables at a much lower price than even in the rural market, to facilities for renting apartments, and ending with free passes to various entertainment facilities in the city or even the training center, these were just some of the most well-known benefits.

    That was why, despite the fact that they were working hard in the heat of the scorching sun, not a single student wasining.

    In fact, it was quite the opposite; as one could even see students standing out either because they were doing an excellent job or because they were bursting with energy.

    This was the case of a certain pair of students who were in one of the many plots avable, one of them was tall and had a smooth wine red hair gathered in a ponytail that did not prevent the student from using his great physique to plow thend, giving slow and precise strokes that did not need a second review, achieving an enviable progress.

    As for the other student, although his stature was smaller and his wavy ck hair could not be tied back as it was not long enough, in addition to the fact that he could not plow thend in a single blow like the previous student, this student in questionpensated for these things with his great disy of energy, which allowed him to afford the luxury of being able to work twice as fast as most students.

    While he made mistakes by the bucketload, he just used more energy and effort to fix them quickly on the fly!

    "Haha, looks like I''ll be going to bed very soon!" Jay said with a smile on his face as he watched his energy parameters rise and fall constantly, putting his mental stability at risk.

    "As I was saying before... you really didn''t have toe... you can even go back now if you''re tired, I''ll take care of your part of the work." Vedran replied, not stopping with his work.

    While summing up his work with so much motivation that he even seemed to have mes in the pupils of his eyes, Jay said, "Of course not! As the person who got you into this job, I should at least apany you at the start of this difficult task!"

    Just as he had said, this job had been part of Jay''s n to get both Nico and others to stop paying so much attention to Vedran.

    Although it took some convincing on Jay''s part, after repeating to him over and over again that it would only be temporary if he really didn''t like the job along with the benefits he could gain from this work, Vedran finally epted.

    The reason why Jay was here too, while it had to do with apanying Vedran, was not the only reason, and of course, he couldn''t just tell Vedran, since that other reason... had to do with the system.

    At that moment, as Jay and Vedran were conversing, they suddenly noticed that the sound of other students working the field had begun to diminish, until it got to the point where only they were working.

    "...?"

    Intrigued by this, they both turned around, to find that all of their fellow workers stopped to look at a certain person who had arrived at the crop field.

    With short golden hair that reached her shoulders, smooth wless skin to the eye and incredibly refined facial features, a young woman was walking through the crop fields, her attire consisting of a white tank top along with brown colored pants and a small sun hat that barely served its purpose.

    Although there were several good looking students present, the moment this girl entered the crop fields, each and every one of them werepletely overshadowed.

    At the sight of this person, even Vedran was momentarily frozen.

    In the midst of all this, only one person reacted rtively normally, revealing a satisfied smile on his face.

    "So she''s finally here...." Said Jay.

 Chapter 116 - A Small Competition

    "You know her...?" Vedran said, looking at Jay again.

    While he wasn''t normally the type to go by looks, he couldn''t deny that this girlmanded attention in one way or another.

    Whether it was her physical appearance, the pressure she was emitting, or the confidence with which she moved despite having so many eyes on her, they were all aspects that left others feeling a little inferior in an unconscious way.

    "Yeah, she''s a recurring ssmate, I think she''s in almost every ss I''m in." Jay replied, still with a smile on his face,

    While Jay had no problem shouting to the four winds that he hade to keep Vedranpany, this was really only a small part of the truth.

    After all, the main reason he hade here was right in front of his eyes, in the form of a girl with golden hair and a bored expression on her face.

    As for how Jay found out that Faith was working here, it really wasn''t that difficult, as he was able to get this information rtively quickly and safely by asking around in the ssroom.

    Although none of his ssmates really knew where exactly she worked, by making discards of the ces they did work such as cafes, restaurants, among other things, Jay was able to deduce the one remaining ce where it would be possible for Faith to be working.

    The farm fields.

    However, even with this information, Jay couldn''t just walk in and try to approach her just like that, in fact he already knew how that would end, so he had toe up with a n.

    Fortunately for him, at the same time he finished figuring out what Faith''s job site was, the incident with Vedran and Nico also happened, so with a bit of ingenuity, he was able to take advantage of it to get Vedran into this job.

    ''I surely had some luck, but I''ll take credit for it all working out so well anyway.'' Jay thought, letting out a sigh of satisfaction because a couple of his ns were progressing correctly, ''Well, I''d better get started on the next thing...''

    The next moment, Jay approached Jay and said quietly, "Hey, humor me and work harder than before, at least for about 5 minutes."

    "...What do you mean...?" Vedran replied, not understanding what Jay was referring to.

    "You''ll see."

    With those words as hisst, Jay then walked away from Vedran before beginning to plow hard and at a much faster pace than before.

    Seeing this, Vedran also increased his pace, not entirely sure if that was what Jay wanted to do.

    The 5 minutes passed quickly, and despite Faith''s interruption, the attention of the other students returned to the pair, who with their fast and efficient work were leaving them behind.

    Feeling that he had managed to gather a sufficient amount of attention, Jay then proceeded to suddenly approach Vedran before jabbing his work tool of an unknown material into the ground directly in front of Vedran.

    "You bastard, right from the start you''re trying topete with me aren''t you!" Shouted Jay with an annoyed expression on his face.

    Thanks to the fact that the shout was rtively loud, the surrounding students couldn''t help but focus their attention on him, which only caused Jay to be even more confident.

    "From the moment I arrived, you''ve been trying to overshadow my splendid work, or are you going to deny it?!" Jay continued, moving even closer to Vedran to position himself in front of him, challenging him with his gaze.

    By this point, at least temporarily, Faith''s appearance had been overshadowed by this seemingly obvious confrontation.

    Vedran really didn''t know what to do, but remembering Jay telling him to y along, he didn''t back down and replied, "Any problems?"

    Although his tone of voice didn''t sound half as loud or emotional as Jay''s, it wasn''t soft by any means either, causing the other students'' expectations to rise.

    At that moment, a female student approached towards the two, raising both arms as she said, "Come on,e on, there''s no need to start a fight over this."

    This girl had her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and was in good physical condition, also belonging to the group of students who excelled at doing good work.

    Apparently, she didn''t want this argument to go any further either.

    With someone interfering to mediate between the two, the other students then began to lose interest, though before that happened, Jay spoke up again.

    "Of course not, I don''t like violence either! However, I can''t just stand by while being challenged so openly, so instead of beating around the bush, let''s settle this at once, I challenge you to apetition!"

    As he said that, Jay raised his hand to point directly at Vedran, who had an expression of not quite knowing what was going on.

    "I..."

    Vedran was about to respond, but Jay wasn''t finished, "What''s more, to see that it''s not apetition in name only, I''ll even put up 1,000 merit points out of my own pocket! And while I''m sure only you will be a tough opponent, if anyone else wants to join in they are wee!"

    This statement surprised everyone present, whether it was the 1,000 merit point award or the fact that Jay was belittling them, it was clear that he had reached out to everyone.

    Which, of course, was exactly what Jay wanted.

    He hadid it all out on the table, targeting exactly what the other people most appreciated to the best of his knowledge.

    "...Did he just say 1,000 merit points...?" Asked a nearby student whose attention was attracted by the decent amount of points.

    For some, money was more important.

    "No one else will be a tough opponent, eh...?" Said the same girl who tried to mediate between the two a moment ago, interested more in the second part of what Jay said rather than the merit points, "Fine, then I''ll join in too!"

    For others, their pride was more important, even on a scale as small as this.

    "I want to participate too!"

    "Me too!"

    Just like that, with the brown-haired girl being the first, as if they were a row of dominoes, several students began to fall for Jay''s provocation, making thepetition bigger and bigger, until finally, about a third of the students present in the fields ended up joining in thepetition.

    With this result, Jay couldn''t have been happier, though of course, his aplice in organizing thispetition, Vedran, was anxious due to the fact that this was theplete opposite of what he was used to doing, i.e.ying low.

    "Hm?"

    Noticing Vedran''s nervousness, Jay then walked over to him and whispered while giving him a thumbs up, "Rx, everything has been coldly calcted."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "..."

    Without much else to do, Vedran could only put his trust in Jay for the time being, that''s for sure, not ruling out the idea of sneaking through the crowd to escape if things got too rowdy.

    Now with several participants, Jay wasted no time and began to exin to everyone what thepetition was about and what the rules were.

    Each student working here was given a list of fields to plow, these fields usually measuring about 20 square meters.

    For thepetition, each student had to plow 10 fields perfectly in the shortest possible time, a task that was a bit of a chore even for those students who excelled.

    In fact, this even made some students hesitate to participate.

    However, thanks to the reward of merit points plus the fact that Jay still maintained his attitude of being able to finish everything easily, either because of the prize or their pride, no student dropped out.

    As for the students who owned the fields that would be used in thepetition, they had no problem, after all, what mattered was that those fields were worked, not who did it.

    Quickly, all the participants then lined up in arge line, with their tools in hand and their target fields in front of them, the atmosphere quickly began to liven up.

    Seeing that everyone was ready, Jay then proceeded to say the opening words, not before taking the opportunity to liven up the atmosphere a bit more, of course.

    "Now that you''re all done getting ready for me to humiliate you, we''d better get started, on your marks..."

    Without having much time to sulk, the other students instead decided to grit their teeth and get ready as much as they could.

    "Ready...Out!"

    *Bam!*

    Immediately, the synchronized sound of tools being driven into the ground spread into the surroundings, though the synchronization was broken just a momentter.

    Although they had all started off evenly, the further they progressed with their respective fields, the difference between the average students and those who stood out became apparent.

    "I''ll take care of shutting your mouth!" Said the brown haired girl, who belonged to thetter group of students, apparently Jay''s provocations had indeed had an effect on her.

    Her words were directed at none other than Jay, who was right next to her and was also going at the same speed as her, and of course, it didn''t take him long to respond, "Hah! We''re just getting started!"

    As he finished saying that, even though both Jay and the brown haired girl, plus a handful of other students were leading the race, the former then suddenly sped up, a current of wind beginning to envelop every move he made.

    "Hey, that''s cheating!" Another student quickly shouted.

    Just as he had said, Jay himself had set a restriction on skills in thispetition, however...

    "I didn''t ban skills, I just said not to use them directly for plowing! Learn to listen better, slimeball!" Jay replied as he continued his march, quickly taking the lead.

    "You...!"

    Upon hearing Jay''s words, a vein then appeared on the forehead of the student who made the im.

    A small sense of indignation appeared inside all the students present, mostly because of how tant and rude Jay was.

    However, some students, instead of getting angry, decided to focus their attention on what the aforementioned had said, that they could use their abilities but not in a direct way.

    *Swoosh!*

    Several sources of pressure then appeared in the cultivation fields,ing from none other than the pugilist students concentrating their qi in their bodies, either by the use of martial techniques or just a raw use of qi.

    Thanks to the fact that most of the students present at thepetition were pugilists, the stream of qi was so great that it evenpletely overshadowed the abilities of esper such as Jay, though of course, this did not mean that they would leave him behind immediately.

    Instead, even though they were using their qi, Jay was actually moving further away from them!

    This had an exnation, and that was that despite Jay''s rxed and confident appearance, inside he waspletely the opposite!

    ''Hm, I wonder what it will be like to have the system take control of my body. Maybe I''ll find out today... '' He thought, looking with a listless smile at his energy control window, whose parameters were crazier than ever.

    The next moment, however, Jay let out a sigh and continued to give his all in thepetition, as he remembered that winning thepetition was a crucial step for the next step of his n.

    "WOOOHHH!!!!"

    At that moment, an excited shout came from the brown-haired girl, who had taken the deration of being able to use skills to another level and had her bodypletely surrounded by pugilistic mes.

    The mes in question were of a beautiful orange color, and despite what they might suggest with their ferocity and the heat they emanated, in reality it was not to increase the pugilist girl''s attack, but to enhance her physical endurance to the limit.

    That way, although Jay had kept the lead thanks to the energy of his little ones and the use of his wind control to make him faster, the pugilist girl closed the distance in the blink of an eye.

    ''...Ok, this is bad! Come on, just one field to go and that''s it, I have to get there first!'' Thought Jay as his breath hitched and he began to use the phantom step when he could.

    "HAHAHA, I''M COMING FOR YOU!!!" Shouted the pugilist girl again, increasing Jay''s nerves.

    Slowly, the distance they both had to cover was slowly getting shorter and shorter, both of them being incredibly even.

    The distance going from being 20 meters to 10.

    From 10 to 5.

    From 5 to 1.

    Until finally, the finish line was under their feet.

 Chapter 117 - Suddenly

    "..."

    "..."

    What might seem like a moment of celebration due to the fact that both Jay and the pugilist girl had reached the finish line turned into a moment of silence.

    As for the reason for this, it was simple.

    It was only when they crossed the finish line that they both realized that... there was already someone on the other side of the line, waiting for them with an expressionless face.

    Apparently, while they werepeting with each other, the same girl who had stolen everyone''s attention a few minutes ago, Faith, did it again, only this time in a different way.

    "...How?" the pugilist girl asked, not understanding how it was that Faith had been able to overtake them.

    Although most of her attention had been focused on Jay, that didn''t mean she had stopped observing her surroundings.

    It was for that very reason that she had decided to give herself the luxury of using everything she had against Jay, because there was no one else who presented any realpetition.

    As a result, she was a bit skeptical, causing her to move towards the crop fields that had been Faith''s, other students also following her out of sheer curiosity.

    In each of the plots, not only had they been impably plowed, but the soil even showed an energizing glow that any other plot ofnd in the farm fieldscked.

    This was to the point where there were even shes of golden glowing from various parts of the plot, it was as if every plot Faith had worked on had been revitalized by her!

    "...When did that happen?" Said a student who had been a spectator.

    "I think... when him and the pugilist werepeting?" Someone else added.

    It was obvious from the tone of their voice that they were both dubious about such work, though of course it was understandable.

    After all, even though they were seeing that the plots seemed to have been affected by Faith''s ability, neither student really remembered seeing it in action.

    Whether it was because they were entertained by thepetition between Jay and the pugilist girl or for some other reason, no one could corroborate that this really was Faith''s work.

    As for the person in question, Faith, she was just staring at Jay, apparently not interested in what the others thought and just waiting for her prize.

    At that moment, someone else''s voice then echoed in the surroundings,ing from none other than Vedran, "I saw her, and the reason no one saw her work was because she finished just as thepetition had barely begun."

    Because he didn''t want to stand out too much, Vedran started slow and kept his pace throughout thepetition, focusing on not overtaking the other students too much rather than winning.

    Because of that and thanks to the fact that Vedran''s perception was arguably better than the vast majority of those present, he was the only one who actually managed to see a trace of Faith''s work.

    Although it was very brief, the transparent figure of Faith wrapped in a golden colored aura plowing swiftly through the plots stuck in his memories.

    Wanting to exin further, Vedran continued, "If I''m not mistaken, her not being able to be seen had to do with her ability, probably something like bing invi-"

    Before he could finish, Faith approached them both and said, "My prize."

    Again being put in the spotlight, Jay didn''t know exactly what to do in this situation.

    While he trusted that Vedran would have no reason to lie to him, he couldn''t just ept her words as if they were true when there were several people who seemed to be dissatisfied with the oue, at least not so easily.

    However, at that moment, while looking for a way to appease both parties, Jay suddenly sensed a strange scent in the air.

    "...?"

    "...Hey, don''t you guys feel like something smells bad...?" A random student then asked with a curious expression on his face.

    Jay was about to turn towards said student, but a message that appeared right in front of him stopped him, confirming what the student had said.

    [Warning: A dangerous gaseous substance with unknown effect has been detected in the vicinity, the [Carrier] is advised to move away or neutralize the source as soon as possible.]

    "What-?"

    *BOOM!*

    However, interrupting him abruptly, the sound of arge explosion echoed in the surroundings.

    "!"

    Immediately, the attention of everyone present focused on where the explosion had sounded from, the boundaries of the cultivation fields, specifically, the part where the fields joined the forests.

    Although the crop fields were part of their respective cities, because of how massive those fields had to be, they were usually a good distance from their cities, many times colliding with wooded areas, as was this particr case.

    As for what had caused the explosion, it was quite clear to all present.

    At the edge of these crop fields, standing on top of several recently uprooted trees, was a monster over 16 feet tall, watching all of the students.

    Although its snout resembled that of a wolf, its body was quite the opposite, looking more like an amalgamation of feathers and fur roughly and violently ced on the body of a gori.

    Normally an average person would have no other way to call this being other than monster, but thanks to the fact that the students were not normal people, but supers, they were able to identify the exact name of this creature in a matter of seconds.

    "A-A chimera!!!" Shouted one of the students, on his face an expression of disbelief.

    "RAAUUUH!!!"

    Not wanting to be left behind, the chimera let out a roar before pouncing on the nearest student, a pugilist who had been spectating Jay''spetition.

    This move by the chimera had simply been too fast, leaving said student no chance to do anything but watch as it approached.

    "ARGH!"

    The pugilist then let out a choked scream, a product of having his entire body being crushed by the weight of the chimera''s w.

    Although he was tougher than a normal person, in the face of such a monster''s strength, it wouldn''t take long for the pugilist to be transformed into meat paste.

    However, even though there were supers everywhere who had undoubtedly seen monsters and even defeated one or two themselves, no one was moving.

    If one were to look more closely at the faces of some of the students, although their pupils reflected the image of the chimera, one could also notice that there was a haze in the eyes of each of the students.

    Exceptional supers like the pugilist girl, Vedran and even Faith were no exceptions to this strange trance state, their bodies barely able to stand.

    *CLANG!*<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, before the chimera could get its snout close to the pugilist, a plowing tool of an unknown metal suddenly mmed into the chimera''s face, drawing its attention.

    "DON''T STAND STILL, YOU IDIOTS! RUN!" Then shouted the same person who had thrown said tool, namely Jay.

    With that shout, everyone present then awoke from the apparent trance they were in, the haze in their eyes gradually disappearing.

    Normally, with so many people present, Jay would try to goad them into confronting this monster, but this time, thanks to the system''s warning, he knew that no the situation was not as simple as it seemed.

    The chimera, although it had identified Jay as the aggressor, did not pounce on him, but just stared at him for a moment before opening its mouth and expelling a huge amount of purple smoke that immediately spread to the surrounding area.

    For the students who had barely regained consciousness, this proved fatal, all falling into the strange trance-like state.

    "...This is bad." Jay said.

    He was still in a state of rm, but deciding that it would do no good to simply watch as the chimera expelled smoke, he then quickly approached the nearest person in the vicinity, Vedran.

    If he couldn''t wake them all up, then he would at least try to do it with Vedran.

    "...Jay? What...?" Vedran said, his movements being incredibly awkward and a tired expression on his face.

    "Come on, we have to move!"

    However, before Jay could do anything else, the chimera made its move, rushing towards Jay, a thick curtain of purple smoke surrounding its body.

    [Warning: A dangerous gaseous substance with unknown effect has been detected in the vicinity, the [Carrier] is advised to move away or neutralize the source as soon as possible.]

    Again, the same system message appeared in front of Jay, and although the content was the same, he could sense that it was more urgent than the previous one.

    From this alone, it was already clear that whatever the substance was that the system was talking about, it was not to be taken lightly at all.

    Watching as the chimera approached, Jay could see that its speed was no joking matter, if he had to carry Vedran, they would undoubtedly be caught instantly.

    Unable to think of anything else for the moment, he had no choice but to throw Vedran away from the chimera''s path before he began to run.

    The crop fields were huge by default, which coupled with Jay''s speed, fortunately gave him enough time to think about the situation.

    It had all been too sudden, whether it was the appearance of the chimera or the fall of the other students, both had happened in a mere ten seconds.

    And as it had turned out, although those present were supers, none of them could do anything before falling victim to the strange smoke that the quimera was expelling.

    But if there was something positive to be mentioned about this situation, it was that also thanks to the suddenness of the situation, Jay''s mind was now in a state of alertness, his mind being sharpened to its maximum by necessity.

    Quickly, Jay determined the two things he had to worry about right now.

    First was the imminent threat, the chimera, a monster whose might normally consisted mainly of its physique that was capable of making a fool of an average (C) ranked pugilist.

    However, this quimera was special, as it not only had the average strenght of a quimera, but it also had the ability to expel a purple smoke which apparently had as its main feature the ability to put to sleep any super.

    Finally, what undoubtedly made everything moreplicated, the students present, which made it impossible for Jay to run away or go for help for fear that some of them would end up hurt or worse... dead.

    While they were strangers to Jay, he couldn''t just abandon them.

    Fortunately, after throwing his plowing tool at it, the chimera''s attention had been focused on him, making him not have to worry about the other students for the time being.

    *Swoosh!*

    At the same time Jay ran, the wind began to build up around him, creating a faint but noticeable wind current over his body.

    ''I should do my best to keep the smoke away from me.'' Jay thought.

    Although using so much wind to cover his body had a high energy cost, considering that he was being chased by a monster who was spewing toxic smoke, it was somewhat necessary.

    As for the direction Jay was heading in, it was nothing less than towards the city.

    He was sure he wouldn''t be able to get really far when the chimera was faster than him, but if he managed to get far enough away from the students, then he would manage to run into someone sooner orter.

    If he had any luck, that someone would be a teacher and this matter would be resolved.

    In a matter of seconds, Jay reached the edge of the farnd, where thend was no longer a plot ofnd but a road to the city.

    To speed up even more, Jay spared no energy and even leapt into the air, using a wind tform to propel himself even more forcefully forward.

    *BAM!*

    "Ouch!"

    However, just as Jay reached the limit, his body came to an abrupt halt in mid-air, but this wasn''t a product of the chimera, it was more like he had crashed into something solid.

    The problem was... one couldn''t see anything in the air.

    Puzzled by this, the esper then brought his hand towards the apparent nothingness, and to his surprise, he could feel something solid in front of him.

    Although nothing could be seen, there was something in front of him, of an incredibly high hardness, so much in fact, that Jay estimated that even if he used his Overload, he would not be able to break it.

    Quickly, an idea came to Jay''s mind, and it made his expression turn sour.

    "...A barrier..."

    At that moment, everything became clear to him.

    That the appearance of this monster... had not been random.

    Before he could think about it any further, however, the chimera had already reached him, its shadow towering over him Jay.

    "Ah, sh*t."

    The next moment, the chimera lifted one of its legs and smashed the ground.

    *BOOM!!!*

 Chapter 118 - [Bonus ]A Raven, A Bear And A Boar

    At the same time that the chimera''s leg hit the ground, Jay''s figure flew off to another side of the crop field.

    Though of course, it wasn''t because of the chimera''s blow, but because said esper had used another air tform to escape at thest moment.

    ''Ouch! A littleter and my whole arm would have gone to sh*t!'' Jay thought as he held his left arm with his right.

    Even though he had escaped, he received a scratch that came in the form of arge bruise on his left arm, serving as evidence of the chimera''s physical strength.

    Not wanting to give him any more time to rest, the chimera again turned to pursue Jay, who had used two more air tforms to make a quick escape.

    His energy expenditure was rising considerably, but knowing he had no choice if he wanted to stay alive, Jay kept running.

    ''Just what is going on? Is this part of a surprise training... or did someone really dare to attack the academy so openly?'' Jay thought with an intrigued expression on his face.

    He had heard from students in other years that there were sometimes sudden trainings taking ce at the academy, but he quickly dismissed this idea due to the damage received by the student the chimera had first attacked.

    There was a good distance between them, but Jay could still see that said student was in a extremely bad shape, with bruises all over and most likely a high amount of internal damage.

    The academy had a reputation for being tough on their practices, one only needed to look at the entrance exam to confirm this, but even by those standards, they wouldn''t allow someone toe to mortal harm as they did now.

    Thanks to that and the fact that the system itself had warned him that the purple smoke was fatally dangerous, Jay was confident that this was not a training.

    ''So... we''re back to where we were before, my life, as well as everyone else''s, is at risk... great.''

    The moment he remembered that the academy conducted training, he couldn''t help but have a little hope, but this thought had turned out to be futile.

    The next moment, Jay then took a big breath of air and emptied his mind.

    As to why he was doing this, it was simple.

    He was psyching himself up to have to deal with this situation for what it was, a life-threatening situation.

    Perhaps because he had been spending his days at the academy quietly and smoothly, he had grown somewhat ustomed to this tranquility, and it had taken him a while toe to terms with this, but he had doubted enough.

    "...It looks like I only have one option left."

    As of this moment, he was no longer Jay Sacrest the student of the Eitsirc Academy, but had returned to being that young man who infiltrated deep into the most dangerous area of his city.

    The young man who went toe-to-toe with the leader of a criminal organization... and emerged victorious.

    ''Open, system, question, how much time do I have left before the purple smoke affects me too?''

    _____________________

    Answer: Since the [Carrier] still has indirect contact with the substance, the estimated time before copse is.... (15) minutes, (54) seconds.

    Warning: The time will shorten the closer the [Carrier] is to the source of the substance.

    _____________________

    ''...Ok, it''s not as bad as I thought, I can work with this... I can...''

    Although a time limit of 15 minutes was a short time, Jay did not appear nervous, but rather his determination increased even more because of this.

    Returning his gaze back to the chimera, specifically to the spot where he had thrown his own work tool before, thetter could tell that while the chimera had almostpletely ignored him, this did not mean that there was no damage.

    A little above the chimera''s left eye, a cut could be seen, which although tiny, was more than enough proof for Jay to confirm that the chimera''s body was not as impregnable a fortress as it seemed at first nce.

    Quickly, Jay''s gaze fell on all the students present, or rather, on the tools that each had dropped on the ground.

    Fortunately for him, the fields were full of the same type of tool he had used, so without needing to slow down, it didn''t take Jay long to run into another one of them, picking it up immediately.

    Suddenly turning and throwing the tool towards the chimera''s face, Jay then shouted, "Come on, we''ve got 15 minutes, you stupid monster, let''s see who''s left standing in the end!"

    With those words as hisst, Jay was now not simply running to flee, but little by little, he was fighting back.

    "WRAAAHHG!!!"

    In response, the chimera let out another roar, this time containing its visible annoyance in it.

    Just like that, even though it had started off extremely abruptly, Jay right now found himself "fighting" a chimera, a monster that was several times stronger than him, on his own.

    It was a disadvantageous situation whichever way one looked at it, but for some reason, unconscious to the person himself, the most striking thing about Jay''s face that one could find was not his eyes that radiated an incredible calmness, but his smile.

    Unbeknownst to him, a huge smile of excitement had formed on his face.

    ***

    At the same time Jay was facing the chimera, a meeting was taking ce deep in a forest located in unknown terrain.

    In this specific part of the forest, there was a pond of considerable size, which served as a water source for countless animals.

    The pond had pristine water that allowed one to see inside, in which a few fish swam peacefully, as well as a couple of turtles resting quietly on some rocks.

    Drinking water from this pond were also three animals in particr that stood out.

    Starting with the smallest, there was a raven, a wild boar, and a bear.

    Each had taken a side of the pond and were quietly drinking water, apparently not wanting to disturb the other.

    This scene,bined with the rays of sunlight streaming through the leafy treetops, left a scene etched in the mind of the person watching this that reminded them that even in these times of chaos when monsters were running rampant everywhere, coexistence was sometimes possible.

    Though of course, they would be gravely mistaken if they thought this was a simple scene of "animals" resting.

    The next moment, the tworge mammals and the raven stopped drinking water and raised their heads slowly, looking at each other.

    *ng!*

    Suddenly, the sound of metal nging against something hard echoed in the surroundings, apanied by the incredible effect that at this moment, the entire area surrounding the pond hadpletely frozen over.

    From the crystal clear water of the pond, to the fish and turtles, ending with the leaves falling from the trees, each and every one of them had stopped dead in their tracks.

    It wasn''t that they were acting, far from it, but truly, time in this area had stopped flowing.

    As to what caused this phenomenon, it was not difficult to discover, since the culprit, or rather, the culprits, were moving about without any difficulty whatsoever.<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, if anything else had to be mentioned that contrasted with the surroundings, that would be the fact that without anyone having been able to notice it, the appearance of each of these mammals and raven had changed.

    "I see that your control over your magic has improved, there is not even a hint of this world''s power in the area, you havepletely isted us." Suddenly said the boar, whose pigmentation hadpletely changed.

    His usual brown hue had now been changed to a blue that seemed to pulsate from time to time,bined with his eyes which radiated a glow of green, gave him a mystical look.

    "I concur, although I don''t know as much about magic as I do about qi, I must say this is an impressive technique." Added the bear, who likewise as the boar, had undergone changes in pigmentation.

    Its fur was now a golden color that although there was no wind, was fluttering thanks to the power of the bear itself, several streams of golden energy pouring out of its body in heaps.

    "I thank the brothers for their words, but I must admit that this is only possible for me thanks to both of you being here, otherwise, I''m afraid the wouldn''t let me use so much energy." Replied the raven in a humble manner.

    Unlike the bear and the boar, the raven had not had many changes to its body, only developing a pair of new eyes underneath the ones it already had.

    However, even though the change was not that striking, if one were to take a closer look at the raven''s eyes, one could observe that in each of them, there was nothing but a cold and deste tranquility.

    It was as if in this raven''s eyes, nothing in this world was secret.

    "Now then, am I correct in supposing that you did note simply to make some small talk?" Continued the raven.

    Looking at each other for a moment, the boar and the bear nodded to each other before thetter began to speak, "That''s right, while we know our jurisdiction has nothing to do with the brother''s, we couldn''t help but wonder... why did he initiate an attack just now?"

    While both the bear''s demeanor and tone of voice were respectful, there was a firm hint of confidence and seriousness in his words, making it clear that he wanted a straight answer.

    However, without seeming the least bit affected, and almost as if he had already foreseen that this would be the question they would ask, the raven calmly replied, "It''s simple, because this, my dear brothers, is the perfect time, with the vice principal out of the academy for a long time, the already tiny risk of being discovered has now beenpletely eliminated."

    "...I''m not saying it''s not a good time, in fact, we both also thought that testing our strength with the defense of the academy was a good idea, but... you had to make such a big mess...?" Said the bear, who had an expression that made it clear he disagreed with the raven.

    "What exactly do you mean by big mess...?" The raven replied.

    Not wanting to be left behind, now the one who spoke up was the boar, "I think sending 50 chimeras simultaneously counts as a disaster, both for the academy and for us. You must remember that we have not yet fully mastered-"

    *Crack!

    Suddenly, the boar was interrupted by the sound of a crack forming in the air.

    Immediately, the bear and boar''s expressions changed, startled to hear such a sound, after all, the crack meant that the area the raven had created was undergoing changes.

    "Oh, what an unexpected surprise, who knew such a guest would decide to join our meeting, although.... I find it rude of you to arrive unannounced.... Vice-Director Dur." The raven said then, his gaze fixed on the exact spot where the crack had appeared.

    Stepping nonchntly through the same crevice, the figure of arge man appeared, on his face an expression of absolute seriousness.

    "...How?" Blurted the bear.

    "..."

    The boar on the other hand just remained silent, analyzing the situation.

    "Hm, and to think they were hiding here... in my own academy, what a nerve." Said Dur, the vice-principal of Eitsirc Academy.

    *BOOM!

    Immediately, an explosion of qi with Dur at the center erupted in the area, emanating a heat and glow so powerful that it even resembled the sun itself.

    If a normal pugilist saw this, they would undoubtedly totally deny that this was the effect of pugilist mes and instead think that Dur was using an ancient martial technique.

    *CRACK!*

    The barrier then cracked even further, the flow of time returning to its original state forcibly, though it had not yetpletely broken, it was clear that it would not be long before it came to that.

    Faced with this, of course, the three assembled animals not only stood by and watched, but also acted.

    The bear appeared in front of Dur in an instant and began to expel its own pugilistic mes beforeshing out with a ferocious strike towards the pugilist.

    At the same time, the boar became the center of an innumerable amount of blue lightning which immediately shot towards Dur.

    As for the raven, it positioned itself behind the bear and boar as its hooves struck the ground, an extremelyplex magic circle appearing out of nowhere.

    "Stall him for a few seconds, I''ll see to ending this soon." Said the raven then.

    Hearing this, the bear and boar nodded, although they themselves were aware that they could stand up to Dur, they knew that victory was not something they could achieve unless they did not work together.

    "Pugilistic mes, esper skills and magic...good thing the person who came was me, if it was any of my head teachers...they might have been in trouble." Dur said with the same serious expression on his face.

    Just like that, Dur as well as the bear and the boar engaged in a fight of cmitous proportions, the only reason the forest remained unchanged being the raven''s barrier preventing any kind of energy leakage.

    Finally, after a few seconds, the raven finished his spell.

    Noticing this, both the bear and the boar abruptly backed away... or rather, they tried to, before colliding against the raven''s barrier itself, which despite being in itsst moments, was doing its job.

    Surprised by this, the eyes of both quickly fell on the raven, wondering what had happened.

    Unbeknownst to either of them, the raven was now at a much greater distance than before, more than would be necessary to help them in the fight.

    "...You!" The bear shouted, having realized something was wrong.

    "I hope you understand why I did this, brothers." Said the raven, "Take it as a small price to pay for the future of this world!"

    As he finished saying that, the barrier then began to give off an intense blue glow, the amount of mana gathering inside was so much that it even dulled the energy of Durm the bear and boar.

    "Space magic... looks like you''re the one I should finish first." Dur said before leaping straight at the raven, leaving a huge crater in the ground from the force he had used.

    *BOOM!

    In only a moment, his hand was already touching the raven''s neck, but to his bad luck, the spell inside the barrier took effect, transporting both him and the other animals to another location.

    Silence then reigned in the surroundings, the only traces of the intense fight that had just happened being the raven with a pale expression on its face, a huge crater on the ground and finally, a severed hand.

    "Without a doubt... that''s one scary human."

    With those words as hisst, the raven then fell to the ground, his body exhausted thanks to the enormous amount of power he had just used.

 Chapter 119 - In The Farming Fields, A Confrontation Comes To An End

    Back in the farming fields, the situation, to the naked eye, remained the same.

    With the chimera chasing Jay and thetter repeatedly throwing any kind of tool he found on the ground, there really didn''t seem to be a change.

    However, if one looked closely, thy would realize that this was not the case.

    The chimera''s body, which at the beginning had been in a perfect state, now showed multiple wounds all around.

    As for its face, there was no need to mention that it was worse than the body, as Jay had made this part of the chimera his main target.

    The reason for this was simple, because he wanted to damage its eyes.

    Not only were they probably the most vulnerable part of the chimera, but if he seeded, he could blind the monster and immediately diminish itsbat power.

    It was clear with this that Jay had not been wasting his time, but unfortunately, despite his numerous attempts, he had been unable to hit either of them.

    This of course, had not gone unnoticed by the chimera, who was now no longer pursuing Jay just out of interest, but also because within itself, anger towards Jay had formed.

    At this moment, what the chimera wanted most of all was to sink its fangs into the elusive prey that was Jay.

    *ng!*

    Once again, another tool mmed into the chimera''s face, though itnded on a bad part, the forehead, which was hard enough for the tool to just bounce off with no damage

    However, even if there was no damage, the chimera reacted differently than all the previous times.

    "RAAAGH!"

    After letting out that roar, the chimera suddenly stopped its pursuit, sitting down on two legs while looking at Jay.

    "...?"

    This obviously caught Jay''s attention, who, making sure he was a good distance from the chimera, also stopped momentarily, also taking the opportunity to pick up a couple more tools.

    The next moment, the esper threw another tool again, aiming it directly at one of the chimera''s eyes.

    However, this time the chimera didn''t simply stand there waiting to receive the tool, but actually dodged it by moving its head to the side!

    This surprised Jay a bit, but not wanting to give up, he again raised his right arm which was holding another tool.

    It was clear from his pose and the wind around him that he was preparing for a strong throw.

    *GLUHK*

    Before Jay could make his move, however, the sound of the chimera regurgitating something echoed in the surroundings, thetter''s throat and chest visibly swelling.

    "!"

    Immediately, seeing this, Jay could feel a sense of rm, whether this wasing from his own instincts, his little ones, or the system, he knew he had to do something!

    *SWOOSH!*

    The decision Jay made was to attack, throwing his tool with all his might at the chimera, this time not only wanting to damage it, but also to stop whatever the chimera was doing.

    In just a matter of a couple of seconds, the tool flew through the air to where the chimera was, being merely a few inches away from the monster.

    *PTU!*

    With that sound, the chimera spat out a purple mass that mmed directly into the tool, destroying it in an instant before continuing its journey forward, in Jay''s direction.

    Although it had hit another object in its path, its speed was such that it was to the point of being dizzying, not giving Jay much of a choice.

    ''It''sing too fast, I won''t have time to dodge, I can only minimize the damage!'' Thought Jay as his body moved ording to what he had nned.

    In just an instant, all the wind around Jay gathered in his right arm, which he raised in an attempt to deflect the purple bullet, forming a swirling wind current like a whirlpool wrapping around his arm.

    He knew that despite its rtively small size, the bullet contained great power, whichbined with theck of time meant that he could not prepare enough to block it directly.

    Instead, Jay decided to deflect the bullet!

    *CHAK!*

    "ARGH!"

    The bullet was not long ining, and the moment it touched Jay''s palm, though it was only for a very brief moment, thetter''s skin immediately took a great deal of damage, leaving a good portion of living flesh exposed.

    Had it continued like that, Jay had no doubt it would have pierced his hand, but thanks to the swirl of wind wrapping around his arm, instead of digging further into his palm, the bullet followed the wind current in Jay''s arm and spun around.

    Then, just as the bullet was about to reach his elbow, Jay moved his arm sharply downward, managing to fling the bullet toward the ground, in a ce where it would not harm any of the nearby students.

    *BAM!*

    With that sound, a small crater with a spherical size formed on the ground.

    "...Ha...hahaha, what a ...sh*tty monster..." Jay said as he looked at his right arm, although he was relieved that he had been able to sessfully deflect the attack, the damage had not been small.

    Where the bullet had passed, a path of living flesh had been torn open, creating what one would have no better way to call it than a bloody mess.

    And while the aforementioned wound was the most striking thing, neither could Jay''s condition be ignored, withrge beads of sweat trickling down the sides of his face and a clear expression of exhaustion written all over it.

    However, he knew extremely well, that this wasn''t the time to rest.

    Now that he had witnessed firsthand the power behind that bullet and how costly it was to deflect it, Jay was clear about one thing, he could not under any circumstances allow himself to be hit directly by it.

    But of course, the chimera had other ns.

    *GLUHK*

    With that sound, both the chimera''s throat and chest swelled again, making it clear that it had much more where thest bullet hade from.

    Seeing this, Jay let out a deep breath, the wind gathering around his legs to focus on increasing his speed.

    Immediately, he nced again at how much time he had left ording to the system, thanks to the chimera''s unexpected ranged attack, though he had been keeping time in his mind, he ended up losing it.

    _____________________

    [Time Remaining: (5) Minutes, (15) seconds.]

    _____________________

    ''It''s gone down more than I expected...'' Thought Jay, who had expected some time slowing down the moment the bullet touched him.

    While the bullet was not the purple smoke that the chimera released, judging by their color, and especially since they were both substancesing from the chimera, it was clear that they were rted in one way or another.

    Inspecting his surroundings again for another working tool to use, Jay''s gaze casually rested on the crater the chimera''s bullet had made.

    To his surprise, while he had been upied with his thoughts, the purple substance from the bullet had been corroding the ground, deepening the crater and forming a small puddle of said purple substance in the process, several bubbles bursting on its surface.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "...Heh, now that''s something I can work with!" Jay said before quickly moving to another working tool and picking it up.

    *Bam!*

    Leaving a small crater in the ground, Jay then took a big leap upwards, the chimera, which had been about tounch another bullet of purple substance, was forced to stop in order to take better aim.

    As for why Jay decided to just jump, when that would mean making him an easy target, it was because unlike other people, he had a way of moving in the air.

    Plus, it would make the chimera take longer to aim at him, giving him a valuable seconds head start.

    Jay then created a tform of air and propelled himself into another area especially devoid of students that was closer to the chimera.

    Not content with this, the moment hended, he again began to run, but this time in a circle and approaching the chimera.

    Said monster then got tired of waiting and spat a second time, aiming as best it could at Jay.

    *PTU!*

    However, hitting a moving target proved too difficult even for the chimera, so the bullet ended up hitting the ground.

    *GLUHK*

    The chimera, not satisfied with this result, decided to keep trying,unching bullets one after another, making it clear to Jay that it wasn''t a special move or anything, just another ability of the chimera.

    In fact, the only reason it had fired only one bullet at Jay before was because it wasn''t used to this new long-range attack.

    This was understandable, after all, the chimera was used to hunting motionless prey thanks to its characteristic purple smoke, which had a potent drowsy effect.

    What it wasn''t used to, as it turned out, was dealing with a sneaky little human who, while posing no real threat, was annoying enough that it had to think of a new method of attack.

    In a matter of seconds, Jay had already narrowed the distance between the two to merely a few feet.

    While he had initially tried to get as far away from the chimera as possible thanks to the powerful physique it possessed, in order to do what he had in mind, he had to get as close as possible.

    As for the chimera, it had already learned from its mistake and was not shooting wildly, but was waiting for the right moment to hit Jay squarely, which was getting easier and easier as he got closer.

    They were both nning something, and it was clear that the next thing they were going to do was going to decide the course of this fight!

    *Plop!*

    However, at that moment, Jay, who was running at high speed while being wary of the bullet the chimera might throw, unexpectedly, tripped over a small mound of dirt, falling face first into the ground.

    "..."

    "..."

    For a short time, both the chimera and Jay were silent.

    Though of course, before even a second had passed, they both began to move.

    "SHIT, WHY JUST NOW?! WAIT, LET ME GET UP!!!" Jay shouted as he desperately tried to stand up.

    *PTU!*

    Not caring in the least about Jay''s words, the chimeraunched the bullet it had been preparing, which was of a muchrger size than normal, almost being as big as a basketball.

    Despite that, its speed had not slowed down in the slightest, if one took into ount that the chimera had fired aiming towards the ground, which was where Jay was, it was going even faster since it was a direct and shorter trajectory.

    However, in the face of this, Jay, who had barely managed to stand on one foot, unlike the scream he had let out earlier, which was full of panic, now only had a satisfied smile on his face.

    *BAM!*

    The dirt in the surrounding area flew everywhere the moment the bullet hit its target, raising a thick cloud of dust, evidence of the power behind the bullet.

    The chimera, seeing this, could not help but rejoice, heading quickly towards the dust cloud to enjoy its reward, which was, obviously, to taste the meat of that elusive prey.

    Thanks to the fact that there was only a distance of a few feet, it took the chimera no time at all to get there, but to its surprise, in the center of the dust cloud, the only thing on the ground was the crater made by the bullet he had thrown, a small puddle of purple liquid at the bottom.

    "!!"

    Suddenly, the chimera felt an intense presence behind it, forcing it to turn around immediately.

    The moment it did so, the first thing that entered its gaze were a pair of emerald eyes that despite being in the middle of a cloud of dust, were still visible, and as a final detail, these eyes were at the same height as the chimera''s head.

    *SWOOSH!*

    A strong current of wind then mmed into the chimera''s body, dissipating the dust cloud in the process.

    Now that it could see clearly, Jay''s figure in the air, holding his work tool which was covered in purple goo, with both hands, became visible.

    In response, the chimera let out a roar as it swung its arms to intercept Jay, on its face an expression of anger evident and arge amount of purple smoke billowing from its mouth.

    "ROOOOGH!"

    They were both moving at great speed, Jay in order tond a blow on the chimera and the chimera trying to crush the esper.

    Without even a second having passed, the difference between the two''s physiques became apparent, with the chimera''s arming in much faster

    At this rate, it was clear that victory would belong to the chimera.

    *BOOM!*

    However, at that moment, arge burst of energy from Jay took ce, and this, evidently, was the effect of him having used the system''s ability, [Overload].

    Thanks to that, Jay, who was at a disadvantage, received a huge power boost strong enough to allow him to hit his blow at the same time the chimera''s hit him.

    *CRACK!*

    The sound of bones being broken echoed in the surroundings, product of the blows of both colliding with their target.

    In first ce was the chimera, which had managed to hit Jay''s left side, fracturing several ribs, in any other situation, this blow would have sent him flying, but there was a reason why this had not happened.

    With both legs braced against the chimera''s chest, and a strong grip with his left hand on the aforementioned monster''s neck, Jay had his tool firmly stuck in the right side of the chimera''s head.

    "R-RAAGH..."

    It had been an exchange of blows in every sense of the word, but judging by the chimera''s nk stare along with the small spasms throughout its body, it had apparently been the chimera who had gotten the worst part of it.

    Normally this would signal the end of the confrontation, but to the chimera''s bad luck, its opponent was not one to just deliver a single decisive blow.

    *CHAK!*

    With that sound, the working tool once again stabbed into the chimera''s skull.

    For a few seconds, this sound would be heard again at least a couple more times, until two heavy objects fell to the ground, giving way to absolute silence in the farm fields.

 Chapter 120 - An Optimization

    "...U-urgh..."

    After an unknown amount of time had passed, Vedran awoke from his sleep, his body feeling incredibly tired and heavy.

    It was a feeling he hadn''t experienced in a long time, but he had to admit that he didn''t miss it.

    Bringing his gaze to the surroundings, the sight of dozens of unconscious students on the ground filled his vision.

    Immediately, memories of what had happened before he himself fell unconscious came into his head.

    "The chimera!" He shouted as the blood in his body began to rise to a high temperature.

    Although he normally avoided using his ability at all costs, in a dangerous situation like this, he really had no choice.

    However, no matter how prepared he was for a fight, no matter how much he looked around, he could find no trace of that towering monster.

    At least not in the direction he was looking.

    Since he remembered that the monster hade from was the forest that was on the edge of the farnd, he had been looking in that direction.

    "...This..."

    While he couldn''t find the chimera, looking at the patch ofnd where the chimera had been standing, Vedran could tell that there were small craters, as if the chimera had started running hard from there.

    As a result, there was a clear path ofrge footprints leading away from where he was.

    Guided mainly by his concern and curiosity, Vedran then began to follow the trail.

    The further he went, the moremon it became for him to find broken tools lying on the ground, some with the metal partpletely bent or others justpletely ruined.

    However, these had one thing inmon, and that was that, for some reason, none of them were even close to a student.

    Maybe it was a coincidence, but Vedran decided to remember this detail.

    After walking around a bit, the esper came across something that quickly brought back bad memories, specifically, of when he fainted.

    In front of him was a small crater with a purple, bubbling liquid at the bottom, and it possessed such a depth that it made Vedran wonder if it hadn''t been made with tools.

    Beside the crater were two footprints, judging by their shape, they were unmistakably the footprints of a human being, which appeared to have used considerable force.

    Seeing these things, although several ideas came into Vedran''s head, he decided to ignore them and continue to find the truth as soon as possible.

    Moving further, the number of craters with the same purple liquid at the bottom increased, although this time they followed a pattern, as if they had been made with the figure of a circle in mind, or at least that of a veryrge curve.

    Finally, after walking a good distance, at the same time as a strong smell made his mind grow weary, Vedran could see, that in the distance, the motionless body of the chimeray in the middle of a plot ofnd.

    "...What... is this?" Vedran wondered, a confused expression on his face.

    The sight of such a strong monster dead was undoubtedly a shocking sight, but what had surprised Vedran the most was not that, but how grotesque the scene was in general.

    On top of the chimera, was Jay''s half-naked body, which was in a state quite simr to that of the chimera.

    With blood everywhere, bruises that looked incredibly painful, specially around the side of his ribs, Jay, at first nce, appeared to have been the primary victim of the chimera''s rampant violence.

    "JAY!!!" Vedran shouted as he rushed towards the scene, the surprise he felt at first being instantly reced by pure concern.

    "Stop."

    However, just as he was about to start running, a woman''s voice interrupted him.

    Bringing his gaze to where the voice hade from, Vedran could see Faith, sitting on the ground carefully observing the scene of Jay and the chimera.

    "Even though the chimera has fallen, the smoke is still present, if you approach it carelessly, you''ll be left the same as before." Faith continued, without even looking in Vedran''s direction.

    Just as Faith said, even though Vedran hadn''t even gotten too close, a sudden breeze of wind carried with it a trace of purple smoke that ended up colliding directly with Vedran''s face.

    "Urgh... what a... troublesome skill..." Said the esper as he clutched his head, resisting the effects of the smoke, "But... there must be something I can do..."

    Still, the urge Vedran had to get into the middle of the smoke didn''t diminish in the slightest, the only thing holding him back being the fact that it would be in vain if he tried anything.

    After all, if the effect was already so strong from afar, just what kind of hell was Jay going through right now?

    The next moment, the blood inside his body began to raise his temperature once again, and with it, his energy level.

    Quickly, all the muscles in his body swelled slightly, increasing Vedran''s height even more.

    This was clearly the effect of using his ability, the same way Jay used his wind control to cover his body from the wind, Vedran had also developed his own way of using his ability for himself.

    "...Even if you had an enhancement twice as strong, you won''t get to them... I''ve already tried." Faith said, again interrupting Vedran before he stepped in closer to the area.

    "You''ve already tried?" Vedran then asked.

    He had originally thought that Faith had merely watched because of her seemingly indifferent and apathetic personality, but if it was true that she, who had a power level equal to or greater than his own, had tried and aplished nothing, then that only meant that his power would not be enough.

    "That''s right, I tried to break through the smoke using my ability to protect myself, try to push the smoke away, bring him over here, but nothing has worked for me so far." Faith said with the same nonchnt expression as always.

    However, although her face didn''t show it, she was actually intrigued.

    She wanted to know how, with a substance as dangerous as the purple smoke was, and against an enemy against whom she herself would have trouble face to face, how was it that an esper such as Jay was able to seize victory?

    At that thought, a trace of interest in her ssmate began to form in her eyes.

    While it was true that she had acted as if she didn''t know Jay, the truth was that she did remember him, though not as clearly as thetter knew her.

    After a couple of attempts of him trying to strike up a conversation with her, Faith had simply decided not to waste her time with someone who appeared to be Syvis''ckey.

    After all, thanks to her appearance, she was already used to being approached by several people, especially men.

    Thus, over time, her ability to ignore people had improved considerably, which is why even though Jay was usually good at socializing, he ended up failing anyway..

    However, thanks to the scene in front of her, Faith had changed her mind.

    "I think you''re faster than me, so why don''t you go find a teacher? I''ll stay here to make sure no one gets close." Faith then said.

    "Ah! You''re right, I forgot we are in the academy!!" Vedran replied.

    Although normally his attitude was much more calm and detached, thanks to all the events that had happened in such a short time, he was in a constant state of alertness.

    "Then I''m leaving, I''ll be right back!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    With those words as hisst, Vedran then started running in the direction of the city, disappearing from Faith''s sight in no time.

    Now that she was alone, Faith let out a small sigh as a single question popped into her mind, ''I wonder... when will you wake up?"

    ***

    As Faith waited for Jay to awaken, the person in question, despite his body being in an undoubtedly unconscious state, that didn''t mean that his insides were quiet.

    _____________________

    [Warning: The [Carrier]''s energy levels have fallen below the allowable limit, the system will now take control of the [Carrier]''s body in order to transport him to a safe ce until recovery].

    [Attempt number 1... Failed.

    Reason: Unknown substance interrupting the control of the [Carrier]''s body.

    Solution: Adapt the [Carrier''s] body to be able to withstand the substance].

    [Proceeding to attempt to solve the (Reason).]

    [Attempt number 1... Failed.

    Motive A: The substance is (85)% harmful to the [Carrier]

    Reason B: The substance is only (15)%patible with the [Carrier]

    Solution: Increase thepatibility and reduce the damage.]

    [Proceeding to attempt to solve (Motive A) and (Motive B)]

    [Attempt number 1... Failed.

    Motive C: Lack of energy.

    Reason D: Lack of a morepatible example source.

    Solution: Search for a source of energy andpatibility].

    [Proceeding to attempt to solve (Motive C) and (Motive D).]

    [Attempt number 1... Sess]

    [Energy source detected in the vicinity]

    [Examplepatibility source detected in the vicinity]

    [Proceeding to connect the [Carrier] with the avable sources-]

    _____________________

    ***

    Back outside, Faith was still waiting for Jay to wake up, when suddenly, she noticed the movement of the aforementioned esper''s body.

    "!"

    It was slight, incredibly slight, so much so that if Faith wasn''t a rank (C-) super and was watching him closely, she would have missed it.

    "...His arm, he just moved it, right...?" She said, immediately improving her eyesight with a bit of energy.

    The question she had just asked herself wasn''t misguided, in fact, one might even say she had hit the mark... if it weren''t for one small detail.

    Yes, Jay''s arm had moved, but the one who made the movement had not been him.

    Hidden from Faith''s enhanced view, all the parasites on Jay''s body were, at this moment, gathered on the aforementioned esper''s right arm.

    While before it wasn''t necessary for the system to order them to do something as they were able to move freely, things had changed since the system upgrade.

    Though of course, Jay wouldn''t be able to figure this out until he woke up and asked his little ones about this.

    Without wasting any more time, the parasites then poked their heads through the lower part of Jay''s forearm, which was a hidden part that made direct contact with the chimera''s corpse.

    They then infiltrated the chimera''s body and began to absorb two things in particr, blood and muscle tissue.

    Due to their diminutive size, they weren''t able to carry much, but they made up for it with numbers, so after a couple of trips, they managed to transport a considerable amount.

    They ran into a couple of problems, such as the fact that they couldn''t just leave the blood and muscle tissue anywhere as that would be harmful to Jay, but thinking cleverly, they decided to use a makeshift storage facility, his stomach.

    Of course, so much movement in his stomach made Jay want to vomit a couple of times, but the parasites also made sure that didn''t happen.

    They were certainly capable and responsible helpers.

    Then, with the materials ready, the system started working on a solution that would solve all the problems present in Jay''s body at the same time.

    _____________________

    [Beginning (Body Optimization: Chimera Poison)]

    _____________________

    Immediately, Jay''s body began to shake, several veins swelling in different ces on his body.

    It was clear that he was under great pressure, though it was understandable, after all, while not reaching the level of [Limit Breaker], this optimization was definitely no slouch.

    And the reason for this was nothing more and nothing less than the fact that the system was using the body of a monster as an example of optimization.

    As a result, this optimization was proving to be almost asplex and demanding as that of the [Limit Breaker], but luckily, this time the system didn''t have to recycle anything.

    After all, it had arge source of energy and material right next door, with capable workers making sure the reserves weren''t depleted at all times.

    ...

    ...

    Finally, after about ten minutes, the optimization ended, and with it, the rest Jay had been having.

 Chapter 121 - An Unexpected Helper

    ''...Wow, you couldn''t leave my body alone even in this condition, huh...?'' Jay thought as he looked at the history of messages that hade in while he was unconscious.

    From the system trying to take control of his body, to the optimization of his body, Jay had now seen it all, including, of course, the fact that apparently the system could now also control his little ones.

    However, that wasn''t all, but a certain particr notification window popped up after the optimization ended.

    _____________________

    [The [Optimization: Chimera Poison] has been sessfully performed.]

    [Because the changes are numerous, the [Carrier] must open his status window to be able to observe all the details.]

    _____________________

    Considering that the system in the first ce had been trying to make him able to withstand the chimera poison, Jay couldn''t help but raise his expectations at this.

    The next moment, he opened his status window.

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System]

    Carrier: Jay Sacrest

    [Status]

    Strength: (D+)

    Agility: (D+)

    Resistance: (D++)

    [Hosts]

    Parasites Avable: 25 (Original)

    Two types of host have been identified:

    [Esper] (+1% improvement in the assimtion process)

    [Pugilist] (+1% improvement in the assimtion process)

    [Skills]

    Wind Control (D-): (97%)

    Regeneration (Passive) (D-): (55%)

    Core (Iplete): +5% to the total energy of the [Carrier].

    Overload (System Ability): The parasites inside the carrier''s body temporarily be a part of the carrier''s body, allowing him to double his statistics for 8 seconds in exchange for all the energy avable in his body. (Only avable if there are at least 10 parasites in the carrier''s body.)

    Avable Skills:

    Currently there are no skills avable to assimte.

    [Traits]

    Immunity to Poison (Human Version): An artificial Trait product of the system trying to adapt the body of the [Carrier] to a specific type of poison. Although the final result was not what the system was looking for, it fulfills its function, (85% Immunity to poisons harmful to humans. 15% Chance to produce a random type of poison.)

    _____________________

    "...This ...this ...is amazing!" Jay shouted suddenly sitting up, on his face a bright smile of genuine happiness.

    Of course, this was an understandable reaction, after all, not only had his stamina increased to being just one step away from rank (C-), but he had even acquired a Trait!

    What did it matter that it was artificial, the effects were incredible, and what was more important, it was his first Trait!

    Though if anything was clear, it was that now that he knew the system was capable of developing Traits, it definitely wouldn''t be hisst.

    "...Hm?"

    At that moment, however, as he was about to focus on the other aspects of his status window that had changed, Jay noticed something odd, and that was the state of his body.

    He remembered the fight with the chimera very well, and among the many attacks he had suffered to achieve victory, there were two that had undoubtedly damaged him the most.

    In the first ce would be the hit he received in his side, with which Jay could clearly feel how something fractured inside him, causing him such a great pain that he was only endure thanks to the fact that he had experienced something worse... the [Limit Breaker].

    And secondly, although it might have gone unnoticed at first nce, was his left leg, which he had had to partially sacrifice in order to trick the chimera.

    While he had managed to avoid receiving a direct hit from the bullet the chimera hadunched, it still managed to graze his left leg, creating a wound that had narrowly missed tearing off his entire calf.

    Normally he would have preferred not to have to use such methods to win, since even with his regeneration, that would mean staying a good while at rest, but thanks to the dangerousness of the situation, he had no choice.

    However, now checking his body from head to toe, he couldn''t find a single bruise or cut, let alone a fracture or the horrific wound on his left leg.

    ''Heh, although it normally sounds so cold and was even threatening to take control of my body, the kindness of the system really knows no bounds!" Thought Jay as a feeling of gratitude formed inside him, ''Well, I guess I''d better wake up the others-''

    *CHAK*

    "..."

    Just as Jay stood up, the sensation of stepping on something slimy, apanied with its corresponding sound, reached Jay''s ears.

    Perhaps because he had been excited, he hadn''t noticed his surroundings, or rather, the ce he was standing on.

    Slowly moving his gaze downward, Jay could see what was without a doubt a scene worthy of a horror movie... or what one would see if they walked into a butcher shop.

    The chimera''s body, which had been face up and intact except for its skull, nowypletely open, with the arms and legs being the most affected ces, with only bones inside.

    Immediately, Jay''s expression froze, partly thanks to the scene in front of him, as he definitely wasn''t expecting such a grotesque sight, but mainly, because this created an incredibly serious problem.

    ''AND NOW HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO EXPLAIN THIS!?'' Jay thought.

    He knew that even if there was no teacher nearby, by the time his ssmates woke up, the appearance of the chimera would no longer be a secret known only to the ones present in the farming fields.

    Of course, Jay had no problem with this, indeed, he even nned to exin how he had managed to defeat the chimera by omitting certain details and adding others to make it more believable.

    However, now that the chimera''s body had been desecrated in such a way, no matter what excuse he gave, anyone would realize that something strange had happened, which would definitely raise suspicions.

    This was not an oue Jay wanted, so he was forced to think of another way to deal with the chimera''s corpse.

    "...I''ll bury it! ...I should still have some time before they wake up... let''s see, where did I see some shovels...I think over there."

    With those words as hisst, Jay then quickly headed off to get a shovel, he knew he didn''t have much time, so he quickened his pace even more, moving away from the area in seconds.

    Thanks to that haste, he couldn''t notice that, a few feet away from where the chimera''s body was, space could be seen fluctuating strangely, as if something was hidden in in sight.

    Then, for a brief moment, in the same spot, Faith''s translucent figure appeared in the farm fields, her eyes riveted on Jay''s back.

    "U-ugh."

    At that moment, a student then showed signs of awakening.<novelnext></novelnext>

    *Bam!*

    "Ack!"

    But before he could fully awaken, a slender hand suddenly appeared from nowhere and delivered a blow to the back of his head, forcing him to fall unconscious again.

    "..."

    Making sure that the student was truly unconscious, Faith then let out a small sigh.

    Unexpectedly, it seemed that Jay, thanks to this unknown helper, had bought himself a little more time.

    ***

    While Jay took care of disposing of the chimera''s body, Vedran, who had been running at full speed on his way to the bronze city, had already covered a good distance.

    Right now he was running along a rtively new road that was positioned in the middle of two forests, which meant that the road was notpletely smooth and had the asional pothole, making it a somewhat tedious task to pass through here..

    Despite this, thanks to his strong physique enhanced by his skill, there were barely a couple of beads of sweat on his face even in these conditions.

    At this rate, there was no doubt that he would soon reach the city.

    *CRASH!*

    "!"

    However, a loud sounding from the forest to his right then interrupted him.

    Vedran quickly stopped, shifting his full attention to the forest, his ability further empowering his body by reflex.

    It was an aggressive reaction, but there was a reason for this, and it was because the sound was identical to the one the chimera in the farm fields had made when it appeared.

    So fearing that it was another chimera suddenly attacking, Vedran prepared for the worst, though it didn''t take long before he realized some vital information.

    "No, wait, what am I doing, if it really is a chimera then I''d better get away!" Vedran said, remembering the effect of the purple smoke from the other chimera.

    Thereupon, Vedran again started running towards the city, this time at a much faster speed than before.

    *CRASH!*

    "RHAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

    Just as he had feared, the cause of those sounds had been none other than another chimera.

    Both its size and appearance were different from the one he had seen before, with this chimera reaching nearly 6 meters tall and having a body that seemed to be made up mainly of parts of a lion and a bear.

    However, if one had to mention something in which it resembled the previous one, that would undoubtedly be the thick cloud of smoke that surrounded it, which threatened to only be equal to or stronger than that of the other chimera, not weaker.

    Seeing this, Vedran wasted no time in increasing his pace, relieved that he had not stayed to fight.

    To his bad luck, the chimera had noticed him, and turning itsrge body, began to chase him.

    Despite itsrge size, its speed was no joking matter, Vedran estimated that if it wasn''t for him using his ability to improve his physical skills, the chimera would undoubtedly manage to catch him.

    "I just have to keep up, it shouldn''t be long before I reach the city." Vedran said, reaching the city being his goal and greatest cause for relief.

    This chase went on for a short time, in which neither wanted to give up, until finally, the chimera''s heavy footsteps stopped, indicating that it was no longer pursuing Vedran.

    This, of course, served to reassure him further, so confidently, Vedran turned for a moment to see how far away from the chimera he had gotten.

    The moment he did so, however, he could see the chimera, with one arm stretched back and holding arge stone, suddenly hurl it in his direction.

    "Sh-!"

    *CRASH!*

    With a thunderous sound, the stone impacted directly into Vedran, who although had managed to put his arms in front of him to protect himself at thest moment, had gone flying anyway until he had crashed hard into a nearby tree.

    "A-Agh...!"

    Vedran couldn''t help but let out a groan of pain, the product of not only his arms, but various parts of his body having taken a great deal of damage.

    *Bam*

    On the other hand, the chimera, seeing that its attack had been sessful, began to approach Vedran at a rtively fast pace.

    It was clear that if he didn''t do something soon, he would definitely lose his life, so Vedran, despite the pain he was feeling, tried to move.

    "Argh!"

    His body was in agony, letting out worrying sounds with every little movement Vedran made.

    But still, Vedran kept moving, no matter that his body was in agony, no matter that he couldn''t feel his arms or legs, he was going to stand up!

    "ARRRGGGGHHH!!!! I... WON''T DIE HERE!!!"

    Letting out a scream that contained his will to live, at the same time as he stood up and his blood was boiling, his vision turned red.

    And in that world now of red, the first thing that entered his field of vision was his arms, which were undoubtedly broken in a gruesome way.

    It was a sight that made Vedran incredibly angry.

    Immediately, the blood in his body began to move violently, rushing to his arms and, with a sudden movement, crashing against his broken bones, putting them back into their original position.

    This caused another wave of pain that flooded his mind and body, but regardless of this, Vedran merely gritted his teeth and repeated this process throughout his entire body.

    Although it might seem that he was healing, Vedran himself knew that this, in reality, was far from being a solution, the wounds and fractures were not going away, they were still there, threatening every moment to return to their original state.

    However, Vedran would not allow that to happen.

    The whole process took only a few seconds, but it was enough for the chimera to get to where he was.

    *Swoosh!

    A stream of air passed through, carrying the purple smoke the chimera exhaled directly into Vedran''s face, causing his mind to blur.

    The chimera, seeing its prey dizzy, took the opportunity to attack, quickly moving its two arms to catch him so it could begin its feast.

    *Bam!*

    But the next moment, instead of grabbing Vedran''s sides, its hands were intercepted by Vedran''s, who despite being dizzy, had moved to counterattack, taking the chimera by surprise.

    Then, using his ability to strengthen his body, and specifically his muscles, Vedran proceeded to tighten his grip with all his might.

    *CRACK!

    "RUOOOOOOAHHHHHH!!!!"

    Apparently, this time, it was the chimera''s turn to scream in pain.

 Chapter 122 - An Urgent Situation

    *Bam!*

    With that sound, Vedran was pushed into another tree, his body sliding to sit on the ground, his back covered in bruises that apart from aggravating the pain he felt, made it clear that this was not the first time it had happened.

    However, that was not the only change that had happened to Vedran''s body in the time this battle had been going on.

    While he had been badly injured from the moment the rock the chimera had thrown hit him, new wounds had appeared on his body, mainly in the form of bruises and cuts all around his body.

    Normally, this would cause the esper to at least let out a small groan of pain, but as if his body was in perfect condition, Vedran simply stood up and started walking in the direction of the chimera.

    As for his opponent, unlike the beginning, when the chimera had been in perfect condition, there were also noticeable changes in its body, mainly focused on his front paws.

    Thanks to the impromptu contest of strength with Vedran and the fact that the chimera had underestimated him, not using enough strength to sessfully resist Vedran''s grip, his front paws had been mangled,

    Of course, although this had caused the chimera great pain as well as preventing it from using its forelegs, it didn''t mean that it was out ofbat, what it was, however, was extremely angry.

    And now that thetter was approaching again, the chimera knew exactly what it had to do.

    *Swoosh!*

    Quickly moving its arm to intercept Vedran, the chimera had put more force than before into this attack, forgetting the idea of devouring Vedran and just wanting to kill him.

    *BAM!*

    Its arm connected with Vedran''s body, but unlike before, when his body went flying, this time the esper had changed his stance and grabbed the chimera''s arm.

    Even though his mind was foggy, his body tired and his energy being quickly depleted by using his ability to be able to keep moving his body, Vedran was still conscious.

    "Haa..."

    Then, after taking a big gulp of air, Vedran began to squeeze the chimera''s arm tightly, the muscles in his body inting as his arms changed tone to a blood red color.

    "ROOOAHHHHH!!!!"

    Knowing what Vedran nned to do, the chimera tried to lift its arm, but the esper simply had too strong a grip, so the chimera then decided to use its other arm to shake him off.

    "ARGHHHHHHH!!!!"

    However, at the same time the chimera attempted this, Vedran let out a thunderous scream.

    "!"

    Although at first nce, one might not be able to notice what was happening and they might think that Vedran was trying to crush the chimera''s arm just as he did with its frontal paws, they would be wrong, notpletely, but still wrong.

    The chimera was the first to notice, that Vedran wasn''t actually trying to crush its arm, he was trying to move its entire body!

    *CRACK!*

    The ground where Vedran was standing then began to show signs of cracking, proof of the force he was using to be able to move the chimera.

    Slowly, the chimera felt its body beginning to move, forcing it to use its own hind legs to stop this.

    This action was sessful... but only for a short time.

    At this point, although Vedran''s scream had already subsided, the power of his body had only been increasing.

    Before, only his arms were red in color, but at this moment, almost as if it was a fire proliferating in a forest, the blood-colored mark had expanded until it reached his shoulders, an indication that he was using his esper ability to the fullest!

    *Trssssss*

    The sound of a heavy object being dragged on the ground then began to sound, the chimera being moved slowly against its will.

    Until finally, the chimera''s heavy body lifted off the ground and Vedran then started to spun it around.

    Again, and again, and again.

    In just a few seconds, the chimera had spun around Vedran a dozen times, the speed at which he spun it increasing by the second.

    "Urgh!" Cried Vedran as blood spurted from the corner of his lips, and this time, it was not the product of his skill.

    Unfortunately, though he wanted to continue to keep up this pace until he reached the speed he desired, his body, though it was being boosted to the maximum by his skill, had clearly reached its limit.

    Unable to do anything else, Vedran then released his grip on the chimera, which took off hurtling towards the forest.

    *CRASH!!!*

    Its body mmed into several trees, instantly breaking them and moving on to the next.

    After a couple of seconds, and having broken over a dozen trees in the process, the chimera''s body finally stopped after crashing into a particrly thick tree.

    "RAAGH!"

    Although the chimera hadn''t died with that, it was easy to tell from its weak, short roar, in addition to its difficulty in moving its body, that it had suffered considerable damage

    *Tap, tap.*

    The footsteps of Vedran, who was approaching the chimera, then sounded.

    Even though he had reached his limit, he knew that the battle was not over, since the chimera was still alive, he had to keep fighting.

    *Chak!*

    However, with that sound, arge amount of blood then ejected from Vedran''s body, falling to the ground.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Ack!!!"

    At the same time, Vedran had no choice but to kneel on the ground while holding his chest with one hand.

    Although it might seem somewhat sudden, Vedran better than anyone else knew exactly what had happened.

    This was a warning from his body, telling him that he could not go on.

    "I...I can''t...die here...!" Vedran said amidst apparent extreme exhaustion and pain.

    Sadly, as reluctant as he was to let exhaustion take over his body, as eager as he was to keep fighting, his body had simply already reached its limit.

    "Please... j-just... a bit more...!"

    Immediately after, he fell to the ground, simultaneously, his consciousness faded away.

    After having pushed both his body and his ability to the extreme, Vedran hadpletely drained his energy reserves.

    *Crash!*

    On the other hand, the chimera, which had been thrown into the forest, had taken advantage while Vedran had been struggling to stay conscious to stand up, crushing a tree that had been knocked down earlier.

    "..."

    However, there was one noticeable change to its body, and that was aside from the multiple cuts and internal damage it had suffered when it had been sent flying, and this was none other than its right arm having a visible mark of having been crushed.

    And although this wound was not to the point where it rendered its arm unusable, it would undoubtedly give it trouble to perform any kind of action.

    "...RUOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

    At once, the chimera began to run with its four legs, in its eyes an incredible bloodlust for the fact that it had been wounded to such a degree by what it thought would be an easy prey.

    In a matter of seconds, it reached Vedran''s body, and with a nimble movement of its head, it grabbed Vedran and threw him into the air while opening its jaws, waiting for him to fall so it could devour him in one bite.

    *SWOOSH!*

    *BOOM!*

    "!!!"

    With a loud sound which was preceded by a huge wind current, the chimera received a kick that sent it flying a dozen meters back into the forest, althoughpared to what Vedran did, this time it was noticeable that the force behind the kick was on apletely different level.

    "Where the hell did all these damn thingse from...?" Said the high, vibrant voice of a woman.

    Of a prominent height, wearing sportswear that showed off her physique which had been trained for both the use of brute strength and tremendous agility, a woman with a straight blonde hair appeared on the scene.

    ina, the one in charge of protecting the training grounds, had arrived.

    Gently catching Vedran, ina then spoke in a tone that had mostly traces of pride but also regret in her voice, "You did a great job in taking on that thing, but it''s time for you to rest now."

    With those words as herst, ina left Vedran leaning against a tree before handing him a golden circr pill and heading in the direction she had sent the chimera flying.

    ***

    A couple of hours had passed, and both Vedran and the other students, after having exined the situation to ine, were already back in the city, or rather, in the city hospital.

    And it was at that moment that they realized how fortunate they had been in their encounter with the chimera.

    Having been one of the biggest priorities of the city and the academy itself, the hospital possessed not only numerous floors, but an even more substantial amount of rooms to amodate dozens and dozens of students simultaneously.

    But even with those features, today, for the first time in a long time, every single room was full, causing certain students to be forced to wait in the hallways.

    Considering that each of the students waiting in the hallways needed medical attention in one way or another, one could only imagine what kind of damage the students in the rooms had suffered to be such a high priority.

    The atmosphere was heavy, and the asional groan of paining from one room or another didn''t help at all.

    As for what had caused such a scene in the hospital, it wasn''t hard to figure out.

    The students who had been working in the fields had originally thought that what they had suffered had been a simple unfortunate urrence, but as they were seeing from the others injured students, this was far from the truth.

    On the outskirts of the bronze city, specifically in ces with rtively high numbers of students, such as the farm fields, the training fields, and even those who were doing research work in the forests, each of them had encountered at least one chimera.

    Although the academy realized this soon after it happened, they could not act immediately to find the students in danger for one reason, and that was that the chimeras not only appeared near students, but also in front of the teachers who were sent to find the students.

    What was more, the chimeras that the teachers encountered were all of grade (B-), and although of course, this ended in the imminent defeat of most chimeras, unfortunately, they had wasted valuable time, which the other chimeras took advantage of to attack the other students.

    As a result, the hospital... and very unfortunately, the academy''s morgue, had received students this day.

    However, there was a certain group of students who were the exception to this rule, only presenting an injured student as the only damage their group had suffered.

    And of course, this group was none other than the one Jay belonged to.

    This obviously caught the attention of the academy, who, desperate for any information about this fatal incident, immediately began questioning the entire group.

    To their misfortune, although the group in the fields had survived the chimera attack virtually unscathed, simrly to other students, they did not remember anything else apart from the initial appearance of the chimera.

    And as for the only student who had faced a chimera and survived ording to ine''s testimony, Vedran, because he was currently in a state of rest due to his delicate health, they could only wait for him to wake up.

    However, that did not mean that the academy was sitting idly by, but apart from starting an extensive investigation, an emergency meeting was also held among the executives and head teachers, or at least those who were present.

    Although normally such meetings would not be held without the Vice Director in the academy, the situation was simply that urgent.

 Chapter 123 - An Ancient Language?!

    A meeting was taking ceI inside a boardroom, the same one in which the Eitsirc academy''s top management, together with the head teachers and the vice principal, normally met.

    However, while all the executive chairs were filled, indicating that every executive was present, the same could not be said for those belonging to the vice principal or the head teachers, with only one of thetter present.

    "...How is it possible that this happened...?" Asked a woman of great beauty and long pink hair with a cold expression on her face, Amara Pieren, the head teacher of the esper ss, "Not only do we have dozens of injured, but also... there are 14 deceased children... just how did this happened?"

    Although the tone of her voice as she asked these questions was calm, everyone present could sense that the woman was actually extremely angry.

    None of them wanted to confront the woman in this state, but knowing that remaining silent would only make things worse, one of those present spoke up.

    "...Um-We... we are still investigating exactly what happened, but from what we have been able to find out from the teachers along with the information we got from the chimera''s bodies...we are certain that this was an intentional attack..."

    At the mention of thesest words, Amara''s expression turned even colder, small sparks of purple then beginning to appear around her, evidence of her anger.

    "On what basis do you say this?" Amara then asked.

    "Ahem, we say this mainly for one reason, these chimeras... including the ones the professors encountered, showed signs of having been altered to possess certain characteristics..."

    After saying that, the executive in question began to exin in detail about these characteristics.

    For the chimeras that the professors had encountered, they could spit out a kind of liquid poison which was dangerous to rank (B-) supers, as the poison would only react with a certain amount of energy, and if this energy was less or more than required, the poison would not activate.

    The reason this did not affect the professors was because they greatly exceeded the battle experience of the chimeras, so they were able to defeat them before they could even use the poison, only bing known when the chimera''s bodies were subjected to research.

    In the same way, the chimeras that attacked the students also had something prepared, only this time targeting rank (D) and (C) supers.

    In this case, the substance was a purple smoke which could not be perceived with the naked eye unless it umted inrge quantities.

    However, no matter how small the amount of smoke in the vicinity, its drowsy effects were still considerably strong, being able to put dozens of rank (D) and (C) supers to sleep in seconds.

    Finally, as the cherry on top of the cake, a sack filled with a purple liquid with strong acidic properties and which seemed to be the source of the purple smoke.

    "As you may know, normal chimeras do not possess these characteristics, and even if they were special variants, for a group of 40 of them to appear simultaneously and all share the same characteristics... the probability is almost impossible." Added the executive.

    By special variants, the executive was referring to monsters such as the Aqugas snake that Jay had encountered in the admission test some time ago, a monster that for various reasons did not follow the normal behavior that would be expected of its race.

    "Therefore... we havee to the conclusion that... these monsters are the result of gic alteration..."

    Although the other executives already knew about this, they couldn''t help but frown at the mention of this topic.

    In this world, few things were as taboo as the gic alteration of monsters, with all the world''s global organizations and countries, current and former, forbidding this act and severely punishing those who even revealed traces of having approached the subject.

    The reasons were varied, but chief among them, undoubtedly, would be how easily the monsters mutated... and how difficult it was to control them.

    From the Great Proliferation onwards, the monsters were already mutating rapidly on their own, usually bing stronger, but there were people who noticed that at the same time that a normal dog could be stronger and bigger than a lion, perhaps they could take advantage of that to make more profit from livestock.

    The result of this was... a total disaster, with the appearance of more than 50 new types of species of monsters ssified as untamable and unfit for human contact, not forgetting, of course, that this also caused the death of these "visionaries", but not by thews, but by their own experiments.

    Like them, history repeated itself several times, with people trying to take advantage of the monsters'' facility to mutate and failing horribly.

    Sometimes taking their own lives in the process, and sometimes affecting entire poptions.

    The end result could already be seen in the present day, with all the major powers of the world banning any kind of gic alteration in monsters, something that even criminal organizations abided by for fear of repercussions.

    "...We must find the culprit as soon as possible..." Amara then said with a slight trace of urgency in her voice.

    Of course, this was understandable, after all, if someone could alter chimeras in such a way, that meant there was also the possibility that that person could do the same to stronger monsters, greatly increasing their danger.

    And what was worse, as today had shown, that person was not friendly at all towards the academy.

    Amara then stood up from her seat and gave her orders, "For the time being we will increase security in the cities and decrease the students'' going out of the city to a minimum, besides-"

    "You really think that''s the solution?"

    However, at that moment, a man''s voice interrupted Amara, causing everyone present to turn their attention to him.

    Standing at the entrance to the boardroom, a tall but thin man with silky brown hair and wearing a formal suit was looking directly at Amara with a faint smile on his face.

    "...Marcus..." Amara said, keeping her same cold expression as always.

    "Wee, Mr. Marcus!"

    "Wee!"

    Nevertheless, the other executives stood up to greet him, just as they had done with Amara when she entered the boardroom, as that was the level of respect they should have for the head teachers.

    With the arrival of this person, now two head teachers were present, with Amara Pieren, from the esper ss, and Marcus Brandvold, from the pugilist ss, making this meeting much more influential and powerful than before.

    While Amara on her own would be able to give orders and change many things in the academy, that had its limits, limits which would only be expanded when another head teacher was present.

    "So you''re saying I shouldn''t be concerned about the safety of the students?" Amara then said.

    Entering the room and taking his respective seat, Marcus proceeded to answer, "Of course not, I too agree that we should increase security and take better care of the students when they go out...but that''s only a temporary solution."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Unless you know who the culprit is and their exact location, all solutions will be temporary." Amara added.

    Letting out a small sigh, as if he already knew Amara would respond that way, Marcus replied, "That''s not what I mean, but... how long do you think we can protect the students?"

    "..."

    His answer was met with an icy stare from Amara, who couldn''t decide whether to continue listening to him or simply conduct the meeting without him.

    "Don''t look at me like that, or at least wait for me to finish." After saying that, Marcus stood up, "My point is, are we really doing the right thing by protecting them so much? We have magic circuits all over the academy, and anyway monsters showed up and attacked the students. Even though we managed to eliminate the threats, we were toote and unfortunately several students died as a result. Even with all the security in ce at the academy, even though we have teachers who are true powerhouses, there is something amiss."

    Intrigued by what he just said, the executives were not saying a word in order to understand better, as for Amara, though not as much as the executives, she was also paying attention.

    "The problem... is that we have protected the students too much! In the end, even if they are in the best environment in the world, if they can''t protect themselves, or at least save their lives, then are we doing a good job as an educational institution for supers?"

    With those words alone, Amara could already get an idea of the direction in which Marcus was taking this conversation, which made her recall some information about said character that the vice principal had told her some time ago.

    Due to various unfortunate circumstances, Marcus, as well as many other children, had been left in the care of a certain n who firmly believed that weak people were a gue on this world.

    That was their main ideology, and as such, the children were raised under a training regime which could only be described as cruel and inhumane, leaving behind a trail of unfortunate victims.

    And although this n has long since disappeared because of those very acts, the beliefs they held, burned into the bodies and minds of all the children raised in this n, still remained, in one form or another, present in the children who were now adults.

    "Therefore, I have a something for you, which will not only make the students stronger, but will also allow us to get clues or even catch the culprit behind this incident. But of course, I can''t carry it out without your help..." Marcus said, running his gaze over each of the executives until itnded on Amara.

    The executives were interested to the extreme, as Marcus, being a head teacher would not simply talk the talk, but would definitely have something to back up his words.

    Amara, on the other hand, knowing his past, couldn''t help but be slightly wary about the "something" he might show.

    Though again, she was also interested, after all, simply what had Marcus thought to make him believe that he could strengthen the students at the same time as finding the culprit of the chimera incident?

    At the very least, she could hear him out.

    "Tell me then, what is that something?" Amara asked.

    With a smile immediately forming on his face, Marcus then pulled arge piece of paper from his pocket, spreading it out on the table for all to see.

    "Watch everyone, my greatest pride!"

    With that statement, all the executives then leaned forward in their seats so they could see the paper Marcus had pulled out.

    "This...!"

    "Is it...?!"

    Little gasps of surprise came from a couple of the executives as they looked at the paper, causing Marcus'' grin to widen even more, pleased with their surprise.

    "...Ancient Runes?"

    "A lostnguage...?"

    "Don''t be silly, it can''t be something like that, just look at each of these characters, it''s like nothing I''ve ever seen, I''m anguage teacher so I know what I''m talking about, what''s more, I''d even go as far to say it''s somethingpletely new!"

    With the executive who had said thatst taking the paper in his hands, the other executives also gathered around him, starting to discuss about the paper, and after a few seconds, they came to a decision.

    "Ohh, I see, then I think this paper and each of these enigmatic characters should be studied thoroughly, it will definitely contain some secrets that can help us strengthen the students!"

    "Thank you very much for your contribution, head teacher Marcus!"

    Turning to look at the teacher in question, the executives then saw that, although there was still a smile on his face, his eyes were closed and his right eyebrow was constantly twitching.

    "Pfft, you idiots, that''s not an ancientnguage or something like that, that''s Marcus'' handwriting." Amara said with a chuckle, using a bit of energy to move the paper into her hand.

    "Oh..."

    "Ah..."

    With that, an awkward silence then filled the room, with the executives in a nervous state and Marcus asionally ncing at the executive that was anguage teacher, his brow still twitching slightly.

    After a couple of minutes, Amara finished reading the contents, an interested expression on her face.

    "This n will undoubtedly make the students stronger and give us a chance to catch the culprit... but it is also something the vice principal would not allow because of the risks." The esper then said.

    Hearing the mention of the vice principal, Marcus frowned a little, as he knew she was telling the truth, but just as he was about to try to convince Amara that he would take all the me, Amara spoke again.

    "However, the vice director is not here, so you have my support to see this through. But I have one condition... I want you to personally take care of giving heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased students."

    With that statement, Marcuspletely forgot about the incident with the executives and enthusiastically responded, "Even if you didn''t say it, I was already going to do it!"

    Thus, that day, the foundations of a n which aimed to revolutionize the entire academy began to beid.

 Chapter 124 - A Link That Goes Beyond The Physical

    A couple of days passed, and the students of the bronze city had returned to their normal activity of attending sses and spending their time in the city.

    Though of course, that didn''t mean they had forgotten about the chimera incident, in fact, it was all anyone was talking about these days, by this point, this matter had even reached the ears of students in other cities.

    That included, of course, students like Sarah and James, who were in the golden city, who upon hearing this news, immediately contacted Jay to find out if he was okay.

    After sending a couple of messages and calling a certain mage who had a lot of questions, Jay was finally free to go about his business, so as he had been doing these past days, he headed for an empty courtyard of the training center.

    Immediately, he took off the top of his work uniform and positioned himself in front of the wooden dummy he always used to practice on.

    "Fuu..."

    Letting out a breath, Jay then gathered all the wind in the surroundings and wrapped it around his arm, his mind reliving the scene of when he managed to deflect the bile bullet from the chimera.

    "Ha!"

    *Swoosh!*

    This time, however, he did not attempt to deflect this stream of wind to the ground, instead deciding to pass it to his other arm, without losing the strength or speed of the wind current.

    As for why he was doing this, it was simple... it was because Jay had realized that he needed more ways to strengthen his overall physical abilities.

    Whether it was strength, agility, or endurance, they were allcking the necessary power to make him feel good about himself.

    Deep down, the truth was that Jay had a certain pride about himself, having faced a rank (C+) pugilist as well as a monster like the Aqugas snake, without really getting hurt badly.

    All of that was, of course, thanks to his rank (D+) pugilist physique, along with his wind control and the martial technique, Phantom Trace.

    He had thought that, no matter what the situation was, he would at least be able to protect his own life and escape if necessary.

    However, the chimera had shown him how wrong he was.

    The moment when he had been in the most danger, and when he had actually felt the risk of dying, had been when the chimera had thrown the bile bullet at him.

    It was a direct hit, with enough power and speed tough at everything Jay possessed.

    Phantom Trace? Too slow unless the fifth and sixth step were activated.

    Trying to flee by making an air tform? Sure, if what one wanted was to lose their lower body.

    Trying to withstand the bullet using his pugilist''s body? It would be better to write a will before that.

    To be honest, the only thing that saved Jay at that moment was the ingenuity he possessed to be able to think of solutions in a very short time, including how to avoid the chimera''s bullet, which, with a bit of luck, worked.

    And while it is true that he received a Trait and an increase in his physical resistance, Jay was fully aware that only that would not be enough if he had to face another monster again!

    But fortunately, thanks to the battle with the chimera, a new path opened up for him, one that had been under his nose all this time, and that he hadn''t even thought of using due to his own hubris about his power.

    At the same time as the wind current was increasing in speed due to the times it had swirled around Jay''s arms, Jay was also taking advantage of this to harmonize the wind currents with the energy of his little ones.

    Normally he used the energy of his little ones to power himself in a very general way, and this in turn allowed him to use his wind control more powerfully.

    However, what he was trying to do now was that instead of his wind control using his energy, he was now trying to use the energy of his little ones to activate the wind control.

    It was a new concept that he hadn''t tried to do until now and that he didn''t even know if it was possible, but for some reason, he had a feeling that it could be done.

    *Swoosh*.

    Slowly, the wind throughout the courtyard began to move slightly, swirling around Jay but not making contact with the wind currents in his arms, as if it knew it couldn''tpete with it if it got close.

    As for Jay, his eyes were closed due to the concentration it took to coordinate the movement of the wind currents with the energy of his little ones.

    "...Hm..."

    Quickly, several beads of sweat began to appear all over his body, making it obvious how demanding this action was for Jay.

    The end point of this was to throw a punch that would contain both the wind and the energy of his little ones, but just as he had been trying to do these past few days, the closer he got to the decisive point of throwing the punch, the more he lost the harmony he had created.

    Jay had been thinking about why this happened, but no matter what he tried, he couldn''te to an eptable conclusion so far.

    Still, he wasn''t going to give up so easily, so even at this moment of high tension, he was trying to analyze the reason why he had been failing.

    ''My body is burning... but I should be fine until the end... my energy levels and those of my little ones are stable... so what''s the problem?'' He thought, his eyes still closed as he concentrated on the inside of his body.

    Finally, just out of curiosity, he decided to take a deeper look at his little ones, feeling the presence of each of them more strongly than before.

    Even though they were separated in different parts of his body in order to optimize their energy expenditure, they were all working hard in order to power Jay''s wind control.

    However, Jay noticed that there was something off about them, what was more, was that they all seemed to be having the same problem.

    At that moment, Jay felt a couple of emotions, which were "Confusion" and "Uncertainty",ing from no one but his little ones.

    Raising an eyebrow due to the fact that he didn''t understand why they were confused, Jay tried tomunicate further with them, to get them to exin exactly why they were in such a state.

    Unfortunately, try as he might, his little ones wouldn''t tell him any more, so Jay had to change his approach.

    ''If you won''t talk to me... then I''ll talk to you...''

    With that thought, Jay then began to focus on the faint link he had felt with his little ones from the moment he received the system.

    It was because of this link, so vague, seemingly fragile and intangible, but ever present, that Jay was able to receive messages from his little ones and feel what they felt.

    It was also thanks to this that he was able to find Noah when he was in the Southern part of Nightown City, although this had been more of a stroke of luck than anything else.

    This link was, for Jay, one of the most mysterious things the system had shown him so far, something that in just a few months, had taken deep root within him, connecting him on a level beyond the physical with his little ones.

    As the seconds ticked by, the emotions of "Confusion" and "Uncertainty" that his little ones had conveyed to him became more and more intense, but not because they weremunicating that to Jay, but because he himself was delving deeper into it.

    Slowly, along with these emotions of ''Confusion'' and ''Uncertainty'', Jay could sense that the reason for it stemmed from a very simple something he had missed.

    ''...So that was it... they didn''t understand my instructions and now they don''t know what to do...''

    Normally he couldn''tmunicate with his little ones except to talk to them and wait until they had understood, and this had worked so far.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But as he was feeling at the moment, the moreplex the instructions he gave them, the less likely they were to understand them.

    Hence all his little ones felt confused and not confident that they could do what he wanted, because they didn''t understand what to do in the first ce!

    ''Let''s see... how can I fix this then..."

    Though of course, that he had figured this out didn''t solve the problem, but at least now he knew where to work from.

    Right away, Jay decided to stay in the same ce of the link, with his little ones'' emotions being much more intense than usual, but instead of just feeling them, he started trying to send something.

    "Argh...!"

    Immediately, a sharp pain shot through his entire body,ing from nothing but the center of his head.

    However, Jay didn''t stop there, and this was for a reason... he could feel himself getting closer to his target.

    With each passing second, the pain became more intense, so much so in fact, that Jay''s body began to spasm slightly, which threatened to disrupt the wind currents.

    The only reason this hadn''t happened yet being thanks to the assistance of his little ones and Jay who had etched these movements into his body.

    "ACK!"

    Finally, the pain, which had started out feeling like a needle had pierced deep inside his brain, had now turned into thousands of needles that kept sticking in over and over again.

    If one took into ount that Jay was wincing in pain, when his expression had been almost nonchnt even when his ribs were broken, one could imagine the amount of torture he was going through.

    As for why it was costing so much, Jay could already get an idea, and it was because he was trying something he wasn''t supposed to do.

    His body was telling him, that by trying tomunicate with his little ones, he was forcing his body to do something it had never done before, and the risks of which were unknown!

    But Jay, in the face of this primitive, animalistic safety system, just kept moving forward.

    *CRACK!!!*

    "A-Ah."

    Just then, Jay could feel, as something inside him, just as the headaches disappeared, suddenly burst.

    He knew something had broken, never to be repaired again.

    But in return, his senses began to expand, his vision to double, and his sense of his surroundings became much sharper than before.

    At that point, Jay knew what had happened, but the system, timely as always, took care to exin it more clearly.

    _____________________

    The [Hidden Task: The First Milestone] has beenpleted.

    Description: Going through endless pain, enduring great physical and mental strain, the [Carrier] has fulfilled the requirements to take his first step to greatness! Congrattions to the [Carrier]!

    First Reward: (15) Parasites - Original

    Second Reward: (1) System Ability Fragment.

    Third Reward: New System Ability Unlocked.

    Fourth Reward: Increased Authority Level.

    Remark: You could have died... but you didn''t so lucky you!

    _____________________

    However, as impressive as this system notification was, Jay at this time could not afford to check its contents.

    At this moment, the state of his body was simr to when he was making use of [Overload], with the exception that his body did not receive the bonus of temporarily being a rank (C-) super.

    Instead, what he did feel, was that his little ones were part of his body, being able to share information, sensations and energy to a degree iparable to before.

    In just a moment, Jay gave them instructions on what to do, and all his little ones understood immediately.

    *SWOOSH!

    The current of wind in Jay''s arms then greatly increased in intensity, bing a small swirl of wind that moved from one arm to the other.

    Jay then opened his eyes and taking advantage of the whirlpool being in his right arm, he hit the wooden dummy in front of him with all his might.

    *BAM!*

    A loud sound echoed in the surroundings, the product of Jay having made a small fist-shaped hole in the dummy, evidence of the force behind the blow.

    Undoubtedly his power had increasedpared to normal, however, Jay had not aimed for a simple increase in strength.

    *CHAK!*

    Without even a second having passed, the wind that had been surrounding Jay''s arm then passed into the wooden dummy, releasing all of its destructive power and creating vortex-like gashes all over its surface.

    Small pieces of splinter then flew everywhere, unable to withstand the damage the wooden dummy was taking.

    *Bam*

    "O-ouch..."

    Although the wind whirlpool was still continuing to damage the wooden dummy, unfortunately Jay could no longer stand up, being forced to sit down to rest for a bit, a great wave of exhaustion flooding his entire body

    However, although he was quite eager to sleep, he didn''t.

    "...Come on, I can''t be... passing out all the time..." He said with a bitter smile on his face.

    With those words as hisst, Jay then began to rest with the help of his little ones.

 Chapter 125 - So Many Things To Do...

    Back in his room, Jay was lying on his bed, holding his head with both hands.

    "Ouch... I wonder when it will stop hurting...?"

    It had already been half an hour since he managed to fuse his wind control with the energy of his little ones sessfully, and it was a time he had been spending testing the limits of the skill he had acquired.

    However, just a couple of minutes ago, the pain he felt in the process returned, making him unable to concentrate on almost anything.

    Jay had tried various things to fix this, such as trying to sleep, taking some medicine, among other things, but unfortunately, nothing was working for him.

    So, with nothing else to do, he could only try to ignore the pain as he set about doing the review of the system notification that hade in before.

    In total he had received 15 more original parasites, along with an ability fragment, plus an increase to his authority with the system, and most importantly, a new system ability he had forcibly unlocked.

    As for what it was, although Jay already instinctively knew what it was and how to use it, the system interface exined it better.

    Opening his status window but only wanting to see the skill section, Jay began to read the details of the ability.

    _____________________

    [Skills]

    Wind Control (D-): (99%) (Ready To Advance)

    Regeneration (Passive) (D-): (56%)

    Core (Iplete): +6% to the total energy of the [Carrier].

    Overload (System Ability): The parasites inside the carrier''s body temporarily be a part of the carrier''s body, allowing him to double his statistics for 9 seconds in exchange for all the energy avable in his body. (Only avable if there are at least 10 parasites in the carrier''s body.)

    Mental Network (System Ability): Thanks to the [Carrier]''s persistence, he has managed to do something that while separating him even further from his [Human] race, brings him even closer to the system and its secrets. Now the [Carrier] is able to ess the Mental Network shared by the parasites. (Only avable if there are at least 10 parasites in the carrier''s body.

    Avable Skills:

    Currently there are no skills avable to assimte.

    [Traits]

    Immunity to Poison (Human Version): An artificial Trait product of the system trying to adapt the body of the [Carrier] to a specific type of poison. Although the final result was not what the system was looking for, it fulfills its function: (80% Immunity to poisons harmful to humans. 17% Chance to produce a random type of poison.)

    _____________________

    ''Just as I expected, it was a mentalwork...'' Jay thought.

    Although he had had some slight suspicions about the way his little onesmunicated, that they would connect through a mentalwork was something he hadn''t really expected, at least not before he himself connected.

    However, what had surprised Jay the most was the effectiveness in which he was able tomunicate with his little ones when connecting to thework.

    He already knew that humans, in order tomunicate with each other, had to resort to different types of methods, such asnguage, sounds, movements, among so many other things.

    But even with all that, there was always the risk that they would not be able to transmit the ideas they had in mind perfectly, plus they took some time to do so, thetter depending on the method used.

    In contrast, with the mentalwork of the parasites, each of them was able to transmit information at a much moreplex level and almost instantaneously.

    And just half an hour ago, Jay had had ess to it, so fascinated by this, he had been using it to the max, and would have continued to do so, were it not for the fact that he had reached his limit.

    ''Although... now that I get a good look at it, the description is a bit worrying...'' Jay thought, focusing on the part of the description that talked about his humanity.

    ording to the system, with this ability, Jay had further distanced himself from his humanity, as to exactly how much, that remained to be seen, but already at a nce, this had already brought several changes to his status.

    For example, the time he could use [Overload] had increased from 8 seconds to 9, the energy bonus granted by his iplete Core had increased by 1% and finally, the percentages of his Trait had changed.

    ''Apparently losing my humanity has its pros and cons... going beyond the moral issue. I really need to think of a countermeasure soon, I don''t know what effects that might have in the long run, I guess I can try asking my little ones tomorrow. Ah, I also have to see about my wind control... so many things to do...''

    In that way, thinking about various things, Jay unconsciously grew tired, finally falling asleep.

    ***

    The next day, sses began as normal as usual, and Jay, being the responsible person that he was, was already sitting inside the ssroom, finishing up some notes that counted as part of his weekly homework.

    While his concentration was on his notes, that didn''t mean he was oblivious to his surroundings, or specifically, what was being talked about in the ssroom.

    "Hey, remember the chimeras? There are rumors that it really wasn''t a coincidence and is actually part of the n of a viin who wants to take down the academy!" Said one of the students in the back, conversing with his friend.

    "Haa, that''s why you shouldn''t pay attention to everything they say, in this world, there is no viin who even wants to mess with the academy, let alone destroy it. The chimeras were just an unfortunate coincidence." His friend replied, reproachfully.

    Hearing this, Jay couldn''t help but pay a little more attention, as the topic was interesting.<novelnext></novelnext>

    As a person who had been present at the incident, Jay knew better than anyone that the chimera incident had been anything but a fluke.

    After all, he still remembered clearly how a magical barrier appeared at the edges of the farm fields, holding him prisoner along with the chimera.

    He had been thinking more about it these past few days, but he really couldn''t understand the motive behind the machination of the culprit behind this event.

    What was his n? Exactly what was it that he wanted to achieve?

    Because although several students had died due to the chimera attack, since this incident happened inside the academy, this fact was downyed and handled in the best way, only bing a hot topic for the students to talk about and not a threat to worry about.

    Therefore, the damage the academy had suffered to its reputation was almost nil.

    But even if one assumed that the culprit did not want to damage the reputation of the academy, but truly damage it, with only a few students deceased, it was nowhere near enough.

    As a result, Jay had decided to stop thinking about it for the time being, but now, these students had reignited his interest.

    "Well, yes, it already seemed a bit strange to me... although one thing that is certain is that the head teacher Marcus went to give his heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased students." Said the first student.

    "Woah, having a super rank (B+) visit you... although it''s sad news, it''s still something amazing..."

    While in the academy it was somewhatmon to find rank (B) supers since these were all the teachers, even here it was hard to find a rank (B+) super.

    As the supers closest to bing global powers, only the most capable people in the academy, such as the head teachers, belonged to this category.

    For the vast majority of students at the academy, who were rank (D) or (C) supers, it was only a dream to reach rank (A), however, rank (B) was the goal they all wanted to reach, something that although they knew would be difficult, they were still willing to risk everything to reach that goal.

    Therefore, rank (B+) supers, to the students, were idolsparable to famous stars, and in many cases, even surpassing their fame.

    While Jay had been finishing his notes while listening to the pair''s conversation, the other students had been entering the ssroom, filling the seats little by little.

    Until finally, the Skill Control teacher, Zequiel Roldan, also arrived, "Good morning everyone, first of all, those who have finished the homework I left for you, leave your notes on my desk, and for those who haven''t, minus 20 merit points and wait for me after ss."

    With those words, the students present, including Jay, left their finished homework on the teacher''s desk.

    Although the teacher was from the Skill Control area and most of the subject focused on physical practices, Zequiel liked to refresh the students'' memory with a bit of theory every now and then, hence he left homework.

    "Now that we''re done with that, let''s move on to today''s topic, and it''s one that I''m sure many of you will pay quite a bit of attention to... today we''ll be talking about that fundamental technique for every esper who has to deal with other supers, energy disruption!" Said the professor as a blue spark shot out of his fingers.

    Just as he had said, the interest of all the students increased almost immediately.

    An understandable reaction considering that energy disruption was a high-level technique avable to mages and espers that gave them the power to destabilize the energy of an enemy super!

    Normally someone would only learn it on their own after years if they were talented and had improved their control over their own energy greatly, but right now, the professor was about to cut that process short by a lot.

    "I know you''re eager, but before you start scattering energy here and there, I need you to get together in pairs, you can''t practice this on your own, after all." Said the teacher.

    Because it had been a while since the sses had started, the students had enough time to get familiar with each other, and friendships had emerged, so most students found partners easily, only leaving four students who apparently hadn''t moved at all.

    "...Let''s see, Miss Syvis and Miss Faith along with Sir Jay and Sir Allen, you should have moved before you were left alone, but luckily you''re four so this will be easily resolved."

    The aforementioned four, apparently having avoided the movement of all the other students who even switched seats to find partners, had been leftpletely alone in their separate seats, or at least that was the case for three of them.

    ''How... how is it possible that every single one of them turned me down?!'' Jay thought as he kept an indifferent expression on the outside but was shaking inside.

    Unlike the other three, who hadn''t really moved and didn''t get a partner due to the other students being intimidated by them, Jay, seeing that Vilda didn''te to sses, proceeded to try to find another student so he could get the job done.

    With his social skills, he was sure it would be a piece of cake, but to his surprise, although at first the students he talked to seemed to be epting, they suddenly changed their minds and moved away from him.

    As a result, Jay''s self-esteem had suffered slight damage, a fact which was going to lead him to further train his charisma in the future.

    Although of course, he was unaware that the rejection was not his fault, but that of a certain ck-haired student who would stare at the people Jay talked to, her goal being to pair up with Jay as it seemed like a waste of energy to introduce herself to yet another student.

    With a satisfied smile on her face, Syvis thought, ''All that''s left then is to suggest to the professor to pair us up and-''

    At that moment, however, a student''s melodious, and vibrant voice echoed through the room, even more audible than the noise of the other students conversing.

    "Professor, I want to do the work with Jay, I feel like we''ll do well together." Said Faith suddenly, who had raised her hand to ask that question.

    A small silence then began in the room, with the students not expecting this reaction at all.

    Until after a few seconds, another sound, alsoing from another student, broke the silence.

    "Hah?!"

 Chapter 126 - A Beneficial Exchange

    Because of how loud the sound Syvis had made had been in addition to the fact that she had risen from her seat, everyone present turned to look at her, including the professor.

    "Is there a problem, Miss Syvis?" Zequiel said, a faint smile on his face.

    Noticing that she was the center of attention, the esper then spoke up, "Actually yes professor, I just thought it would be a better idea if Jay teamed up with me since we are more familiar, we even work at the same ce after all."

    With those words, Syvis had not only established a good point, but also made clear her intentions of wanting to work with Jay, also to the other students, but especially Faith.

    However, Faith had also done something simr, so the decision now fell to the teacher.

    "Tch, you couldn''t just keep quiet... nosy bitch." Said Faith.

    "What did you just say?!"

    "...Nothing."

    Immediately, the two''s gaze met, with neither wanting to back down and even causing the other students to see imaginary sparks.

    Seeing this, the professor let out a small wistful sigh.

    Although his appearance suggested that he was rtively young, barely reaching the age of 30, he was actually quite a bit older than that, having already worked for over a decade as a teacher at the academy.

    As such, he had already seen quite a few students who, as exceptional as they were, also had their attitude problems, causing that instead of understanding that they would reach even more incredible heights if they worked together, they saw everything as apetition.

    "Well, in that case, I think it would be best to ask the person in question, Sir Jay, who would you prefer to work with?" The teacher asked, redirecting the damage.

    Now the focus had shifted, from Syvis to Jay, with almost all of the students feeling somewhat sorry for the aforementioned esper.

    After all, whatever decision he made, one of the two, either Syvis or Faith, would end up unhappy, and considering they were stronger than most, being on bad terms with either of them was something everyone would want to avoid.

    However, Jay had already made his decision the moment a certain girl spoke up.

    ? "I''d like to pair up with Faith, because just like she said, I think we could do well." Jay replied.

    "Hm, good." Faith said, with a smile on her face.

    On the other hand, Syvis, who wasn''t expecting this oue at all, just stared at Jay with a nk expression on her face.

    "Then, Syvis with Allen, and now that that''s settled, I appreciate that you even switched seats, but it would be better if we go to the training ground." Said the teacher as he felt Syvis'' energy levels threaten to explode at any moment.

    ***

    After a couple of minutes, all the students hade out and were separated in pairs, with the teacher in front, so that he could teach them correctly.

    "This time let''s start differently than usual, make contact with your hands before activating your energy, heed my words, only your energy, do not activate your abilities otherwise you will get an aggressive reaction!" warned the teacher.

    Quickly, the energy fluctuations in the surroundings began to increase, the product of dozens of young super expelling their energy constantly.

    Normally it was difficult to do something like this, but thanks to the training each of them had gone through with the teacher in previous sses, they could do it as long as they didn''t overdo it.

    *SWOOSH!*"

    "!"

    Suddenly, a great current of wind swept through the surroundings,ing from none other than Syvis, who had gone a bit beyond the norm and instead of just gathering her energy in her body, was also manifesting it outside in the form of small lightning bolts.

    In response, Allen, not wanting to be left behind, took it as apetition and also began to raise the level of his energy, doing nothing more than further stirring the wind in the surroundings.

    "Perhaps a little less enthusiasm, Miss Syvis and Sir. Allen..." Said the professor.

    Meanwhile, Jay and Faith, ignoring their surroundings, were also gathering their energy, merely keeping it inside their bodies, waiting for the teacher''s instructions.

    "Now then, since you have all gathered your energy, concentrate on feeling it inside the palms of your partners. Don''t despair if you can''t feel anything at first and take your time, even for us esper, feeling pure energy is difficult, we are not mages after all."

    After saying that, the teacher then let them practice as he walked around, making sure that there were no unforeseen idents like the one in the ss a few weeks ago.

    Following the teacher''s instructions, all the students then began to try to feel the energy of their ssmates, in poses where they could be rxed but also allow them to make contact.

    One such pose was sitting cross-legged in front of each other, which was what most of them used.

    Although of course, as the teacher had said, the vast majority of them had difficulty being able to detect energy.

    However, neither Jay nor Faith fell into that category.

    Slowly, they could both sense each other''s energy, first a few small traces, almost like droplets, but bing more noticeable over time, until they could both distinguish the strength and purity of each other''s energy.

    Of course, this was not something normal, but simply, there was something in the energy of both that enhanced theirpatibility immensely.

    Although neither was aware of this yet, Faith had a sneaking suspicion that there was something unusual about Jay''s energy, whatever rare ability he had aside. .

    "..."

    "..."

    Then, taking advantage of the fact that the teacher was busy with another student, Faith decided to experiment a little, trying to extend her energy beyond her palms to reach Jay''s.

    As for the esper in question, not only did he feel this with his body, but the system did too, disying an unexpected message.

    _____________________

    Warning: A weak source of registered energy has been detected attempting to enter the body of the [Carrier].

    The recorded energy has previously been ssified as.... [Vital Research Material].<novelnext></novelnext>

    Requiring permission from [Carrier] to allow the energy to safely enter the body.

    [Y/N]

    _____________________

    ''...It''s letting me choose now?'' Jay thought, slightly surprised.

    Normally, the system did things on its own without taking Jay''s opinion into ount unless it had to do with using a special parasite, so he hadn''t expected to be able to decide now.

    As for the reason of this, I didn''t have to think long to find the answer, it was thanks to thetest increase in authority he received, which, as he could see, had been far greater than any increase he had received before.

    Without much more to think about, Jay decided to ept Faith''s energy entering his body.

    "Ack..."

    Jay couldn''t help but let out a small groan due to the strangeness of the sensation, which was unlike anything he''d ever felt before.

    Although he already had experience dealing with strange energy entering his body, just like it had happened when he assimted his wind control, or when he received Noah''s help to heal himself, this didn''t feel simr at all.

    For his wind control, the energy was cool and refreshing, coursing through his body like a current that changed his body so that it could ept it.

    In Noah''s case, his energy, while not forcing its way through like the wind control had, and causing Jay to feel a pleasant,forting sensation, Jay could still feel the energy facing some resistance entering his body.

    Faith''s energy on the other hand... it was different, not only did it surpass theforting feeling Noah''s energy had given him, but it also was revitalizing his cells everywhere.

    As forpatibility, it was so high, Jay even had trouble differentiating where his energy began and where Faith''s ended.

    As a result, Jay had only one word to describe Faith''s energy.

    ''Wonderful...''

    Thereupon, Jay then ordered his little ones to enter Faith''s body through his palms, but his aim was not to infect her, but, apparently drunk on the aforementioned''s energy, Jay was looking for a better connection.

    Right now, though in contact through their palms, it couldn''t be denied that the energy exchange was still difficult, the only reason this was working being Faith''s mastery of managing her energy.

    With his little ones positioned on each of Faith''s arms, Jay now had several nodes which facilitated the energy exchange, so without wasting any more time, he let himself go.

    Quickly, the weak connection Faith had formed with Jay was strengthened, a change that the former noticed almost instantly.

    In the same way that Jay could sense Faith''s energy, she could do the exact same thing, and the sensation was quite simr to what Jay had described of her energy.

    Although in her case, it wasn''t that Jay''s energy was special or anything like that, but it was actually due to the parasites.

    While they were acting as nodes for Jay, they were also taking advantage of it to refine themselves, taking the energy inside Faith, refining it and bathing their bodies before returning it to Faith''s body.

    Thanks to the fact that the parasites were practically born masters at energy management, the refining not only increased the quality of Faith''s energy, but also affected her constitution, strengthening it ever so slowly.

    Given enough time, there would be no doubt that these two, after having exchanged enough energy, would be closer to advancing in rank. Simply that strong were the effects of this connection.

    "Ungh..."

    "...Ah..."

    Lost in their trance, and taking into ount that they both had their eyes closed to increase their concentration, they did not notice that while they were busy exchanging energy, the surroundings had gonepletely silent.

    As to why, the reason was none other than themselves.

    While they were unaware of this fact, from the moment they both started exchanging energy, their bodies began to sweat profusely, if one took into ount that they let out little groans from time to time, one could already get an idea of why they had be the center of attention.

    Though of course, there was also one small detail that was perhaps bigger than all of the above mentioned.

    "AHEM!!!"

    "!!"

    At that moment, a call for attention,ing from the teacher, suddenly woke them up from their trance, causing them to open their eyes.

    Into each other''s eyes came the sight of the other, sweating and with a flushed expression, as if they had been exercising intensely.

    But what was more, was that their hands, which had previously been in contact only by their palms, were now intertwined with each other''s.

    Finally, the cherry on top of the cake was the distance between the two, which had shrunk considerably, with a little time, none of those present doubted that they might even have ended up embracing.

    "This...!"

    "...Oh..."

    Immediately, they both broke apart, a red lingering over their faces, as to whether it was because they were embarrassed or if it was the lingering effects of their previous energy exchange, only they knew.

    "Haa... you know, I really appreciate your enthusiasm... and I''m d you found that yourpatibility is high enough for you to form a bond.... but next time, please, I ask you to stay on the topic of the ss." Said the professor with a serious expression on his face.

    Although he was scolding them, as that was his duty as a teacher of the academy, as esper, he was actually impressed inside, but of course, he could not show it on the outside.

    However, the students were not subject to keeping up appearances, so they quickly expressed their astonishment at the teacher''s words.

    Of course, this reaction was normal, after all, a bond was something as or even rarer than meeting an esper with Core.

    As for the effects of this bond, while not as many as a Core, it allowed for the incredible effect of being able to lend energy between two esper, which for almost every student, was an enviable quality.

    However, if they knew the true effects of Jay and Faith''s "bond".... even the professor would turn green with envy.

 Chapter 127 - A Pending Talk And A Visit

    "Haa..."

    A couple of hourster, the sses were already over and all the students went back to their own business, including Jay.

    Due to how difficult it was to be able to properly use a high level technique like "Energy Disruption", none of the students were able to sessfullyplete the course.

    However, this was an expected oue for the teacher, as he did not really expect anyone to be able to pull it off on the first try, rather, this ss was to serve as a foundation for them to be able to attempt the energy disruption in the future.

    Of course, the fact that a certain pair of students had disrupted the others certainly didn''t help, as it had given them something to think about for the rest of the day, and that something wasn''t rted to the ss at all.

    With feelings of envy growing in some of the boys and interest on the part of the girls, the protagonists of the ss had managed to stand out in a way that the teacher had not expected.

    As for who these characters were, they were none other than Jay and Faith.

    At the end of the ss, the other students had thought that these two, having demonstrated such synergy in sharing energy, would spend more time together to discuss what had happened or something of the sort, but to everyone''s surprise, they split up and went their own way.

    The reasons for this, as well as the true nature of the "Bond" between them, remained a secret to the other students.

    And now, one of them, Jay, found himself walking in the bronze city, his mind recalling the scene where he was sharing energy with Faith, but more specifically, a part he still couldn''t figure out.

    ''...What happened back there?'' He wondered, an expression of real confusion stered on his face.

    Although several unexpected things had happened in the exchange, what struck him most was neither Faith''s energy, nor his little ones'' ability to transmit energy, nor the synergy between the two of them.

    Instead, what filled his head was that... for a moment, he had lost control and got carried away.

    This was somethingpletely new to Jay, who always preferred to follow a pre-fabricated or ready-made n, not just go with the flow, it was thanks to this mentality that he had gotten out of many a tight spot.

    However, when he came into contact with Faith, or rather, with Faith''s energy, that mentality had gone straight down the drain.

    While he wasn''t going to deny that letting go had been an incredibly nice feeling, Jay was clear about one thing, and that was that he couldn''t let it happen again.

    After all, for him to end up in that state implied that he was lowering his defenses, and therefore leaving his well-being in other people''s hands.

    Perhaps Jay would have thought that this wasn''t so bad in his early days at the academy as he thought it was a safe ce, but after experiencing the incident with the chimera, he was no longer sure.

    In short, not being able to think correctly was an oue Jay wanted to avoid reaching at all costs.

    Narrowing his eyes, Jay raised his right hand to his eye level, already having a clue as to why his demeanor had changed.

    ''It was you, wasn''t it...?'' Jay asked his little ones, who apparently knowing what he meant, moved from his right hand to go somewhere else, almost as if fleeing.

    Letting out another sigh, Jay then decided that he should have another talk in the evening, although this time it would not only be with the system, but also with his little ones.

    Coming to that decision, he lowered his right hand and continued walking towards his destination, which was, the bronze city?s hospital.

    ***

    In one of the hospital rooms, a young many in bed, his body a considerably pale shade, stemming not from his naturalplexion, but from his present weakened state.

    His hair, which was normally a striking wine color, was now visibly dulled.

    As for his energy levels, they seemed to be so low that he even appeared to have dropped in rank.

    Without a doubt, Vedran was in bad shape.

    However, said esper was not sad or anything like that, instead, what he had been feeling these days was relief.

    Relief that he had been able toe out alive from a confrontation against a monster that was much stronger than himself.

    Relief that, thankfully, he wasn''t going to leave his mother alone.

    And while he was aware that his body would now have to suffer the consequences of having put it to such rough and violent use, Vedran was happy with this oue.

    As for what the consequences specifically were, aside from his weakened appearance and the fact that he would have to stay in bed for a while, he would also have to suffer permanent consequences .

    Normally, thanks to supers having stronger than normal bodies, the after-effects they suffered from injuries that would usually be permanent for normal people were not half as serious.

    However, the same could not be said of Vedran''s case.

    It would have been fine if he had broken a bone or two, or even torn muscle tissue or the like, even then, the consequences would have been light.

    But this time, he not only hurt his whole body to a critical point, but he continued to fight rampantly regardless of the damage he had received, and to top it all off, the most serious part of it all, that he had used his ability abruptly.

    Thanks to thetter, his body, which could no longer fight, was forced to continue, pushing him to an extreme that had long ago exceeded Vedran''s limits.

    As a result, the damage was so severe that Vedran''s vital energy, that which was deeply rted to his life expectancy, had been reduced.

    Undoubtedly, he had paid a high price.

    However, thanks to the fact that he had made it out alive, and that a certain person was visiting him, his mood was affected in the least by that fact.

    *Tap tap*.

    At that moment, the sound of footstepsing from the hallway outside his door reached his ears.

    At the same time Vedran turned his head, a rtively tall young man with green eyes and wavy ck hair entered the room, in his hand holding a small oranges.

    "Hey there, how are you today? I brought some fruit." Said Jay, who had entered the room.

    "...Better than yesterday and thanks but... don''t you think you''re bringing in too many orangestely?" Vedran replied, with a curious expression on his face.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Not really..."

    Since the day Vedran regained consciousness, Jay had been visiting him daily, to keep himpany and make sure he was recovering properly.

    And also, to a lesser extent as an extra and almost unimportant reason, to find out if Vedran had seen anything of him and the chimera.

    Since Vedran was not used to a person caring about him outside of his mother or grandmother, this action not only improved Vedran''s opinion of him, but also made the esper trust Jay even more.

    This could be seen reflected in Vedran''s body demeanor, which rxed considerably, plus the way he spoke to Jay had be much more familiar.

    And while this didn''t mean that Vedran now saw Jay as a brother or anything like that, it was already decent progress.

    Without wasting much more time, the two began to talk, with Jay exining to him what they had done in ss today among other things, not forgetting of course to eat the oranges that Jay himself had brought.

    In that way, time passed, with seconds turning into minutes and these in turn turning into hours, until the sun began to go down, which indicated that visiting hours were about to end.

    "Seriously, everyone kept looking at us, I think they''ll even start rumors in a couple of days...I hope they don''t defame me, I have a reputation to uphold as a pristine and honorable guy, you know? Otherwise no one will want to marry me..." Jay said as he acted in an exaggerated way.

    Seeing this, though he said nothing, Vedran couldn''t help but let out a small chuckle before standing still, causing the atmosphere to go silent for a few seconds, he then let out a long sigh, as if preparing for something.

    "Ah, right-" Jay said.

    "Jay..."

    Interrupting Jay, Vedran suddenly spoke up, his gaze meeting directly with that of the first mentioned.

    "I... saw what you did to the chimera''s body." Vedran said.

    Immediately, Jay froze for a moment, his shock was so much that even his little ones inside his body grew restless.

    These past few days that he had been visiting him, Vedran had not shown any kind of sign that he knew anything about the chimera incident, specifically what he had done with the chimera, so Jay was already going to rule out this possibility.

    Therefore, this sudden confession took him by surprise.

    Not wanting to waste any more time, all his little ones then began to move to Jay''s right hand, thetter reaching out to touch Vedran.

    He didn''t know exactly how Vedran knew this, but he had to make sure that the chimera incident remained a secret.

    *Bam!*

    "!"

    Before he could do this, however, Vedran grabbed his right wrist with both hands.

    "Jay, I want you to know... that while I don''t know how exactly your ability works, I know it''s not nasty or gross or.... dishonorable!!!" Vedran shouted as he looked directly at Jay, "Regardless of its effect, its a part of you and what''s more, it allowed you to defeat such a strong monster, so please, be proud of it...!!!"

    At the same time he said this, his grip on Jay''s wrist increased slightly and slowly, but noticeably.

    "If you don''t want to show it, I won''t say anything about what happened, even when they ask what happened to the chimera that attacked our group, I''ll still say it was the same one I encountered myself... for my part, I''m going to keep your ability a secret until you tell me otherwise."

    Vedran''s words overflowed with honesty, and in his eyes, an amalgam of emotions that Jay could not exin could be seen present, along with a redness around them whose origin was unknown.

    However, this, to Jay, did not make Vedran look vulnerable at all, but instead, made him feel ashamed to try to manipte such a person, who despite being in a deplorable state himself, still cared about someone else.

    Faced with this, Jay could do nothing but rx his grippletely, abandoning the idea of manipting Vedran.

    "...Thank you very much and.... you really are a good person, Vedran." Jay said with a smile that could not be described as bright, but more like apologetic.

    Although Vedran couldn''t understand why Jay seemed to have an apologetic expression, he preferred to keep quiet, as he didn''t have much else to say.

    "Ah, wait, what did you mean by ''your part''?" Jay asked, realizing this detail just now.

    Realizing that he had been holding Jay''s wrist a little too tightly, Vedran quickly let go before responding a little nervously.

    "Oh, um, well..."

    *Pin!

    However, at that moment, Jay''s smartwatch then received a notification,ing from an unknown sender.

    He would have ignored it as it looked like Vedran was about to say something important, but several notifications suddenly came in.

    "Sorry, let me see this first..." Jay said as he turned on his smart watch and checked the messages.

    As soon as he saw the messages, his pupils widened, while the familiar attitude he had maintained with Vedran disappeared almost instantly.

    This made Vedran worry, but just as quickly as Jay''s expression changed, it returned to its former self, making the above seem simply like a misunderstanding on Vedran''s part.

    "Again I''m sorry, but I have to go, Vedran, something happened at the training center and I have to get back right away, I''ll be back tomorrow, then you can you tell me what you had to say!" Jay said.

    "Ah... yes, that''s fine." Vedran replied.

    With that exchange of words as thest, Jay then left the room in a hurry, leaving behind a confused esper.

    As for what had put Jay in such a hurry, it was quite simple really, it was a photo along with a line of text.

    The photo was of someone he knew very well, Vilda, gagged and with visible bruises all over his face.

    As for the text, it was instructions on how to get to a certain ce on the outskirts of the city.

 Chapter 128 - Emerald Eyes

    On the outskirts of the city, inside a nearby forest, four people were gathered on a small in surrounded by trees.

    Although of course, the word gathering would not be the most adequate to describe this, after all, one of the people was not here of his own free will.

    Lying against a nearby rock, with both his mouth and eyes covered by ck bandages, Vilda was in a deplorable state.

    His clothes were dirty and several bruises were visible on almost every part of his body.

    These bruises had two origins, the first being that the process of abducting him had not been easy at all, which had resulted in more use of force by his captors.

    As for the second origin, it was because thetter were in a bad mood, especially one of them, who was able to let off some steam by using Vilda as a punching bag.

    "Do you think he''ll be long ining...?" Asked a tall young man with brown hair, wearing a leather jacket along with jeans.

    "He''s supposed toe soon, I don''t think he''s going to stand us up this time too. I mean, if this guy really is his friend, then he''ll have toe." He was answered by another boy, who was of average height and had straight ck hair, as for his clothes, they were simr to the first one.

    A few meters away from them, a blond young man who was wearing a white shirt along with ck pants was busy drawing magic circles on the ground.

    "Instead of discussing nonsense, why don''t you two better start checking the surroundings in case he arrives?" Said Nico, who was in no mood for unnecessary chitchat.

    Unlike the other two, whose behavior indicated that they were not worried in the least, Nico was visibly nervous, the proof of this being the fact that he was even making preparations such as magic circles.

    Since he was normally proud of his strength, he didn''t bother making preparations, but thanks to the fact that he knew who they would be facing, he preferred to do something that most mages did on a regr basis.

    "And I, as the new leader of this group, tell you to rx a little, you''re wasting your time with all those circles." Replied the tall young man, Tom.

    "Ah, this is why you shouldn''t give positions of power to idiots, because it gets to their heads almost instantly..." Kai added, with a look of ridicule.

    "Heh, you''re just envious that the baron''s right-hand man personally selected me!"

    "Yeah yeah, whatever you say..."

    Faced with this, Kai could only look away as he knew that continuing the conversation would be in vain, especially when Tom had a point.

    Although people normally didn''t take Nico seriously when he said he was part of the baron''s group, this was actually true, going so far as to the point where he had even had contact with people directly rted to said character.

    Among thetter, the baron''s right-hand man was the one who was in charge of appointing the leaders of the other groups of students who were willing to follow the baron.

    Until recently, because Nico had performed well in the entrance exam and even before it, the right-hand man had chosen him to lead a small group of students.

    However, after his failure to recruit Vedran, plus the fact that he had disbanded the group to form another one entirely on his own, adding to that that he had wasted a lot of time, had caused him to lose that position.

    As a result, the leader of this group of three, under the instructions of the baron''s right-hand man, had be Tom.

    Who, it should be mentioned, did not take a day to carry out his own ns, which, unlike Nico, who preferred to recruit people, were more focused on building his fame and prestige.

    Tom believed that once he became well known enough, people who would want to join him woulde in dozens, and he was not without reason indeed.

    But of course, amassing fame and prestige were easier things to say than to do, and most people would have a problem finding a way to go about it.

    Nevertheless, Tom had already thought of a solution to achieve at least one of these two things, all thanks to Nico and his previous failures.

    First of all, he had to make a name for himself and the other two.

    As supers, the easiest way to do this would be to defeat someone stronger or at least someone with some level of fame, but there was also another way.

    People liked drama, and academy students were no exception to this rule, although they enjoyed a fight as much as any other enthusiast, if there was a story behind the fight, then it was going to draw attention to a higher level.

    Therefore, Tom had taken it upon himself to create a story that was perfect for the situation they were in, mixing real but mostly fake facts.

    Using nothing more and nothing less than his own Palu profile, Tom had made not just one, but already almost a dozen posts, each of these telling a part of the story between Vedran and Nico, although many of the parts had been changed to suit what Tom wanted.

    In his story, they were originally a group of friends made up not only by the three of them, but also by Nico''s original group.

    This group of friends spent their days at the academy studying and chatting with each other in peaceful ces like the city''s cafeterias, until one fateful day when neither he nor Kai were present, their study days were interrupted.

    Suddenly, on one of his normal study days, three thugs entered the cafeteria and apart from treating the workers as if they were servants, they also made everyone present ufortable with their presence, being loud and condescending.

    Up to that point, although it was ufortable for everyone, they could only wait for them to leave, however, one of the crooks, the one with the neck-length, wine-red hair, noticed that Nico''s group had the notes from a ss he had missed.

    Without much more to say, the thug then stood up and put his hand on their table, asking to borrow the notes for a while, and that that''s what ssmates were there for.

    The student, despite being nervous and a little scared, knowing full well that if he handed over his notes he would never see them again, instead offered to help himplete his own homework.

    And that was his mistake, as immediately, the thug grabbed him by the cor and snatched the notebook from his hands while shouting obscenities that would make even a gang member blush.

    Seeing this, both Nico and the others got up to try to calm the situation, but taking this as a provocation, the red-haired thug''s friends approached and took them out of the cafe by force, before taking them to an alley and beating them to a pulp.<novelnext></novelnext>

    From that day on, none of them were ever the same, with both their efforts to be good students and their honor as men having been trampled upon, the group could do no more than split up.

    When Tom and Kai learned of this, it took them no time at all to take matters into their own hands in order to im justice for theirrades, who, even if they did not rejoin, would be avenged one way or another.

    With such a story, Tom had managed to turn his originally deserted Palu profile, with the help of a few tags to make sure it reached students at the academy, into one that received a steady stream of students interested in this story of justice.

    By doing this, although it could in no waypare to the fame of famous artists, let alone prominent supers, he had amassed a decent following for the story.

    Now, each of his publications, as long as they were rted to his mission of justice, would be guaranteed to have at least a hundred people seeing them, of which, most were students.

    Tonight, since it was the day this story woulde to an end, also thanks to Tom''s skill at raising people''s expectations, the number of spectators reached half a thousand.

    "Ah, I think it''s about time for one more update, don''t you think?" Tom said as he turned on his smart watch and moved closer to Vilda, "Hey, it''s time to get up, I need you to pose well."

    However, Vilda, who was apparently unconscious, did not respond and remained motionless.

    "I said... wake up!!!"

    *BAM!*

    Thereupon, Tomshed out with a hard kick towards Vilda, which caused the esper''s body to fall sideways, writhing shortly after as this had truly woken him up.

    "Hngh!"

    "That''s what you get for not paying attention when I first spoke to you... anyway, as I was saying, I need you to pose well for our followers, ah yes, make sure you put on your best viin expression."

    With those words as hisst, Tom then squatted down and sat Vilda back down, before putting his face next to that of thest mentioned.

    With his other hand, in which was his smartwatch, he took it upon himself to select the camera app and set the timer, a bright smile forming on his face.

    Seeing this, both Kai and Nico turned away, as although they were following Tom''s n, they preferred not to have their faces captured in something like this.

    "Tch, you cowards, now then, say cheese-"

    *Swoosh!

    "!"

    At that moment, a breeze reached both Kai and Nico, who were the ones closest to the part of the forest that overlooked connected to the city.

    Instinctively, Kai could feel that this breeze was not natural, as for Nico, he knew even better what this was due to, as the lesson had been roughly etched into his body and memory.

    "Watch out!"

    The first to shout was Nico, wanting to warn Tom, but unfortunately, at the same time he did so, bringing with it a strong current of wind, a dark figure shot out of the darkness of the forest.

    In just a matter of seconds, the figure, moving at breakneck speed, passed by both Nico and Kai, heading straight for the person who had not yet noticed its presence.

    *CRASH!!!*

    "ARGH!

    *Click!*

    In a single instant, three different sounds were heard in the surroundings.

    The first of two solid objects, one softer than the other, suffering a sudden and violent collision that caused the partial destruction of both.

    The second sound was that of a young man, specifically, Tom, who could not help but let out a cry of pain as his skull was brutally pushed against the rock on which Vilda had originally been lying.

    Finally, the third sound, which was the slightest but certainly not the least important, was none other than the signal from the smartwatch indicating that it had taken a photo.

    As for the content of the photo, thanks to the fact that it had been taken at the right time, it showed Tom''s face deformed because it had already made contact with the footwear of the unknown figure that was moving at great speed.

    A small cloud of dust formed due to the partial destruction of the stone, but fortunately for Nico and Kai, it onlysted a couple of seconds before it dissipated, clearly revealing the person responsible for this disaster.

    "...Nico, I was thinking of dealing with you in the future, but with this, you saved me the trouble of having to find you..." Said the unknown figure.

    His appearance was strange, wearing a hooded sweatshirt along with sweatpants, bothpletely ck in color and covering most of his body, as for the parts where skin was supposed to be seen, it was in these where the problem really started.

    Both his hands and face were wrapped in bandages, only revealing the emerald green eyes of this strange individual.

    Having this figure in front of him, Kai had no idea who this person could be, but thanks to the fact that the figure had spoken, Nico was able to identify who it was almost immediately.

    Then, turning his head with his emerald eyespletely focused on Nico, the bandaged man continued, "Don''t think this will end like the other time."

 Chapter 129 - [Bonus ]A New Possibility

    "Haa..."

    At the same time that Jay had arrived at Vilda''s location, back at the training center, a person was making use of one of the special training rooms.

    Unlike the training yards that Jay used, which had no roof and only had wooden dummies, this training room consisted of a huge room where both the walls and the ceiling werepletely ck in color.

    The only exception to this rule was the floor, which, although it was also mostly ck, it had a pattern drawn all over it.

    While a person might look at the pattern and think that it simply looked like cracks on the floor, they were actually much moreplex than that.

    Their function was simr to that of the pir of espers that the examiner on the entrance exam had used, with each crack functioning as a circuit through which the energy of an esper could travel freely.

    However, the difference between the pir and this pattern was in the way the energy was distributed.

    In the pir, the goal of the espers was to try to light as many circuits as they could, a task that, thanks to the material the pir was made of, was one that a only few would be able to excel at.

    In contrast, with the pattern on the floor of this room, as long as one was somewhat skilled at managing their energy, even lighting the entire pattern would not be a problem.

    Instead, the challenge herey in that the goal of this special training room was not to increase the amount of energy a esper had, but to help them to improve their control.

    Thanks to the pattern that resembled the shape of cracks, with the center of these cracks being the person using this pattern, the esper could choose which crack their energy would go through, gradually improving their control.

    At this moment, the person using the training room was illuminating 6 different cracks, all separated from each other, making it clear that their control was no joke.

    Normally, this would be an arduous task for any esper, but proving that they were not just anyone, this person showed no signs of tiring or anything of the sort, seemingly able to go on for hours on end if need be.

    If they continued at this pace, there would be no doubt that their control would reach new heights.

    "...Hngh!"

    *Swoosh!*

    Suddenly, the person trembled for a moment before losing control of their energy, releasing a wave of energy that illuminated all the cracks.

    The next moment, the cracks went out, a product of this person having voluntarily cut off the power supply.

    "...Again... how annoying..." The person said, expressing an anger that was unlike them, "Just what have you done to me...?"

    Upon finishing saying these words, this person let out a sigh before pping their hands twice, causing the ck walls and ceiling to light up.

    Now that there was light, this person''s appearance became fully visible.

    With golden hair that reached her shoulders, features so refined that they made her the center of attention wherever she went, and a slender figure ready to be able to face any kind of situation, Faith was standing in the middle of the room.

    On her face, aside from a few beads of sweat appearing thanks to the energy release she had a few moments ago, a slight frown could also be seen.

    "...No matter how much I think about it, it doesn''t make sense... a simple Bond shouldn''t be able to leave me in this state..." She said as she began to walk towards the exit door of the training room.

    Unlike Jay, who had been busy thinking about other things that were more or equally as important as the energy exchange he had with Faith, thetter had been thinking about this ever since she got out of ss in a hurry.

    At first, she was somewhat embarrassed that she had let herself get so carried away with Jay, but after a couple of hours, the embarrassment subsided to a great extent, causing her to focus on the part of the energy exchange that needed her special attention.

    Like Jay, she too had felt the effects that the energy exchange had in her, especially the feeling of her cells bing stronger as well as revitalized.

    It was as if from the moment she began to exchange energy with Jay, her ability reacted and began to purify her body on its own, slowly taking her to a new level.

    And at the end of the exchange, Faith once again felt like she was getting closer to advancing in rank.

    Although it was easy to put this into words and it might seem like a simple task, it wasn''t like that at all.

    It was normal for talented young supers to constantly advance in rank and grade, going from being normal rank (F-) people to bing grade (D+) supers, causing their self-esteem to grow tremendously and sometimes even develop great pride.

    However, this changed when they reached grade (C-), as it was at this step thatplications began for young supers, putting a stop to their streak of breaking through the ranks, something that even happened with the more talented youngsters.

    This rank also represented an important change for every super, as it marked the first step they took towards their advancement in the hierarchy of life.

    So much so in fact, that for the three different super sses, each of the ranks belonging to (C), starting at (C-), going through (C), and ending at (C+), had obtained different titles.

    For example, for pugilists, the rank (C) was known as "The Limit", the strongest the human body of a normal person could be, so "breaking" this limit was what would truly make them supers.

    On the other hand, for espers, they called the rank (C-) "The Awakening", since it would only be here where they would stop feeling their abilities as something that they only used, and it would bepletely part of them.

    In the case of magicians, thanks to the different branches of magic that existed, they had special names that differed from each other, generating a chaos that was only possible to unravel by magicians themselves.

    If something was clear, it was that for the supers, each of the steps of the (C) rank were important, as much as to obtain their own titles.

    Matching that importance, however, was the difficulty involved in advancing once rank (C-) was achieved.

    Normally, this would be a process that would take years, with most supers barely being able to reach rank (C+) after having umted an enormous amount of experience and having exhausted almost all of their talent.<novelnext></novelnext>

    In Faith''s case, although she was a very talented young woman who had been able to reach the rank (C-) at the age of 17, she herself knew and felt better than anyone else that advancement was a process that would take a long time.

    She had resigned herself to this, thinking that she would achieve the rank (C+) in herst year of the academy after having used all the resources she could find at the academy.

    However, after teaming up with Jay for today''s ss, a new possibility for her had appeared, and all because of her curiosity.

    "Hm... and to think that things would y out this way..." Faith whispered as she walked through the corridors of the training center.

    After the disaster that had been the incident with the chimera, while most students who had been caught up in it had been left with the tragedy of the deceased students or the fact that they themselves had nearly died, Faith was different.

    For her, what had most caught her attention was not the chimera or the risk she had gone through, instead, it was the person known as Jay Sacrest, someone who had managed to defeat a monster one rank above him, and who apparently did so using an unusual but incredibly destructive ability.

    While she had previously ignored him because he didn''t seem to be anything out of the ordinary, she had now realized that her judgment when it came to judging people was quite faulty.

    Therefore, trying to discover more about this person, Faith had decided to change her attitude towards him, with this change bing visible in her wanting to work with him in sses.

    Thanks to Jay not rejecting her advances, something she already knew would happen because of the attitude he''d had with her before, plus the fact that in the process she was able to manage to irritate an annoying person like Syvis, things had been going well for Faith.

    If everything kept going like this, it was only a matter of time before she could unravel the mysteries surrounding the seemingly normal person known as Jay Sacrest.

    However, totally unexpectedly and against all odds, not only did she not get any answers, but she had ended up with more questions!

    "Hmmm... I guess I''ll just have to wait until tomorrow before I can discuss this with him.... it wouldn''t be a bad idea to find out where he lives either.... Or I could invite him over to my apartment, then we wouldn''t have any interruptions..." Faith said.

    Quickly, the idea of exchanging energy with him again popped into her head, and remembering the scene from the afternoon, Faith couldn''t help but blush a little, though that didn''t mean she stopped thinking about it.

    In that way, the esper arrived at the reception of the training center, a ce where a girl who waspletely focused on her smartwatch was attending.

    Unlike other days, in which the girl was busy with her smartwatch, this time she seemed much moremitted than usual.

    Not caring much about this fact, Faith walked over and asked, "Are any of the espers fitness rooms avable?"

    Since she couldn''t improve her energy control, which was something she did almost daily, Faith decided she could at least train her physique and take the opportunity to let off some steam.

    However, even though she had spoken, the girl didn''t even turn to look at her, which caused Faith to repeat her question again, though this time moving closer to the girl and raising her voice a little.

    "Excuse me."

    "...Hm?"

    Finally, the receptionist looked up, causing her to directly meet the sight of Faith''s face being close to her.

    "I''ll repeat my question... are any of the espers fitness rooms avable?" Faith said.

    "..."

    "..."

    For a moment, the receptionist then stared at Faith''s face, causing Faith to speak again.

    "...I''ll repeat my question..."

    "Ah, uh, no, yes I heard you... one moment please..." Replied the receptionist as she put her smartwatch still on to the side.

    Unexpectedly, the receptionist, who normally didn''t even look directly at the students who came to use the facilities, fidgeted nervously in front of Faith before she started checking which rooms were avable.

    "There really weren''t any avable, but juuust now, a room became free! You''re pretty lucky, huh!" Said the receptionist as she tried to hide her nervousness a bit by standing up and leaning with her elbows on her desk, "And uh... what time do you finish...? I mean, for how long do you n on using the room...?"

    Faced with this, Faith was about to ask what the room number was, but at that moment, the screen of what the receptionist had been looking at on her smart watch came into her eyes.

    In this, one could see the distinctive interface of a person''s profile in Palu, and in this profile, what was most striking was a photo, which although blurred due to the movement of one of the people, it was still possible to appreciate several details.

    Noticing this, the receptionist, wanting to extend her conversation time with Faith, hurriedly held up her smart watch as she exined what she was seeing, "Oh, you use Palu too? There are quite a few interesting thingstely, for example, right now I''m following the story of a guy seeking justice for his friends. Look, they even managed to catch one of them! Although it looks like something happened..."

    Now that she could see the image clearly, Faith analyzed the image in detail.

    In the photo, she could see the faces of two people, one with cloth over both eyes and mouth, and the other who, for some reason, had his face distorted, almost as if he had been forcibly moved when the picture was taken.

    It was a strange photo without a doubt, but what caught Faith''s attention, was that the gagged person, for some reason, looked familiar.

    "!"

    Suddenly, the image of a person came into her head.

    "This.... is the guy Jay hangs out with!"

 Chapter 130 - Sooner Than Expected

    *Crash!*

    Deep in the forest surrounding the bronze city, the sound of branches breaking and trees being pierced could be heard.

    It had been a while since the sun had set, which added to the lush trees of this forest, prevented any clear view of what was happening.

    *Swoosh!*

    However, from time to time, illuminating the surroundings, beams of light would shoot forward, chasing a target that was moving in the shadows, but thanks to thetter''s agility, the beams often ended up hitting the trees.

    Another thing that aided in visibility was another source of red light, which, although much dimmer, ousted the lightning bolts in duration, being on and moving at all times.

    Even so, the beams of light were the most helpful, andsted long enough to let one see more clearly those responsible for these strange urrences in the forest.

    Starting with the origin of these lightning bolts, the person who was casting them was none other than Nico, the light mage, who was running at the same time as his wand lit up every so often to cast the spells.

    "T-try to... corner him! I-I can''t hit him with my spells when he''s... moving so fast!" shouted Nico, somewhat out of breath.

    As for why he was out of breath, it was simple, one had to remember that despite being a super, he was part of the ss with the weakest physique, added to that the fact that he was in terrain that was difficult to traverse, he couldn''t help but tire easily.

    "What do you think I''m trying to do, idiot?!" Replied the person in front, the walking source of red light, the esper Kai.

    Demonstrating his physical superiority, he was far ahead of Nico, nimbly avoiding trees to avoid losing speed, making it clear that rather than relying entirely on his skill, he also had some merit himself.

    However, that did not mean that he was not using his ability, but quite the opposite, byplementing it with his physical movements, he was achieving a stronger effect than the average esper.

    But even with this, he was unable to catch up with the figure that was his target and was currently leading the chase.

    "Damn it, howe... howe he''s so fast if he''s carrying weight!?" Kai shouted as his face turned red, whether it was from skill or anger, only he knew.

    Finally, the person who not only moved with much greater agility than Kai, but while dodging Nico''s attacks, just as Kai had said, was carrying weight.

    Specifically, some 52 kilos of esper, whichbined, made up the person known as Vilda, who was no longer gagged and currently being carried on Jay''s shoulder.

    Thanks to his strong rank (D+) pugilist physique and the energy of his little ones, it was almost as if he didn''t feel the weight, Jay simply continuing to move through the forest, keeping arge distance between them and the pursuing pair.

    As for the reason of this, although he had managed to knock one of them unconscious thanks to a surprise attack, making things easier for a while, he knew that the essential thing was not to defeat them, but to get Vilda out of there.

    After all, if either of those two managed to catch Vilda and decided to use him as a hostage, things could really getplicated.

    ''Hm, as much as I''d like to take them on, the priority is Vilda, so I''d better head to the city, if I hurry, I might still catch up with them in the forest...'' Jay thought, without hiding his desire to take on the duo.

    Without waiting long, the esper then took a sudden turn of direction before creating a tform of air on his feet, leaping towards a nearby tree.

    Of course, this caused a surprised reaction from his pursuers.

    "Come here, you coward!!" Shouted Kai, the first to see this, also changing direction so he could continue chasing Jay.

    "...Right, he could also move in the air...you know what, I give up, you chase after him, I''ll rest for a moment..." Nico said as he leaned back against a tree.

    With one eyebrow twitching due to anger, Kai then said, "...I''m surrounded by useless people!"

    That exchange of words being thest between them, the esper then quickly walked away from the area, away from Nico.

    Turning back to Jay, thetter was jumping from tree to tree, and while it was somewhat difficult to do so while carrying another person, thanks to his previous training with the Aqugas snake, he was able to maintain his previous speed.

    If he kept it up, there would be no problem getting out of the forest in a few minutes.

    "...O-ouch..."

    "Oh, you woke up already?"

    At that moment, however, Vilda stirred slightly, causing Jay to turn to look at him.

    With his little ones, he had already checked Vilda''s status window, which while it indicated that he had taken a great deal of damage, it was not life-threatening.

    Therefore, he only had his little ones share some energy with Vilda and let him rest a while longer, and as he had just seen, it had been enough.

    Grabbing his head with both hands, Vilda could see the person who was carrying him... and was quickly shocked by the bandaged person next to him.

    "Who...!?" Vilda shouted as he started to move to free himself.

    "Ah, wait, don''t move, it''s me, me!" Jay said hurriedly, almost losing his bnce.

    Still trying to move his body to free himself, Vilda replied, "I don''t know anyone with such horrifying and weird fashion sense...wait.... Jay?!"

    "...Yes, it''s me..."

    Without giving him a chance to say anything else, Vilda spoke up again urgently, "What are you doing here and where are those guys?!"

    "I came to rescue you, and I think it''s better if-

    "I FOUND YOU!!!"

    However, before Jay could answer, another person appeared from another tree, and at the same time he shouted, he threw a punch straight at Jay''s face.

    *BAM!*

    The sound of the collision was heard loudly in the surrounding area, making it clear that the blow had made contact.

    "This is for earlier, *sshole!" Shouted Tom, who had recovered from Jay''s blow and had wasted no time in joining the chase.

    Even though he had started with a disadvantage, thanks to his esper skill, which gave him a great increase to his physical abilities, he was able to reach them with rtive ease.

    It was also thanks to this that Tom at this moment had a confident smile on his face, because he knew the strength he possessed and what it meant for such a direct hit to reach its target.

    Although he had been worried at first because of Jay having given him a strong hit, even if this person was a pugilist, he would note out of this unscathed!

    *Pam*<novelnext></novelnext>

    "!"

    However, just as he was about to move, his wrist was gripped tightly by what appeared to be an arm of apletely dark color.

    What was more, his fist, which was supposedly still making contact with Jay''s face, was now being sucked in.

    Not understanding what was going on, Tom hurriedly tried to pull his arm, but despite putting all his strength into it, he couldn''t free himself from the grip.

    "You''re the one that... had fun with me earlier, aren''t you?" Vilda then said, ring at Tom, "You''re pretty brave when you have your friends, but now that you''re alone... it''s my turn."

    As he finished saying that, the shadows all around trembled slightly, starting with those that were wrapping around Tom''s arm.

    Sensing this, Tom realized what was happening.

    The moment his fist made contact with Jay''s "face", it struck him as odd that not only had Jay not been blown away by the impact, but he hadn''t even made a sound.

    The reason for this had been that although he thought he had attacked by surprise, Vilda had already noticed, and using his shadow control ability, had covered Jay''s face to protect him.

    Which meant... that his surprise attack had been a total failure!

    *Tap*

    With a small hop, Vilda lowered himself off Jay''s shoulder, his figure barely being able to be visible due to the vast amount of shadows that seemed to be superimposed on top of each other above him.

    However, even in this patch of shadows, one thing could be clearly seen, and that was that Vilda was connected, by a strip of shadows, to Tom.

    "Jay, maybe it''s a lot considering you came to help me, but I''m asking you as a favor to take care of the other two...I''ll take care of this one." Vilda said, his voice full of determination.

    "Sure, take your time." Jay replied, with a faint smile under his bandage mask.

    Hearing his confirmation, Vilda then took a step forward, the shadows surrounding his body condensing to form the same hammer he had used to face off against Vedran.

    Though of course, there was one distinct difference, and that was that the surfaces of the hammer''s head were not t, but filled with spikes.

    "H-hey, wait, you can''t hit me with that!" said Tom, looking worried, "You know what, let''s just leave it at that, what''s more, I''ll tell the others to stand down,e on, let''s avoid-"

    *BAM!*

    "GAH!"

    Not wanting to let him finish, Vilda had already struck with his huge hammer, sending Tom flying through the air several meters into the forest.

    "See you in a bit."

    Saying that, Vilda then jumped down from the top of the tree and started running in the direction he had sent Tom.

    It had all happened in just a few seconds, but that alone was enough topletely change Jay''s n, which was notplicated at all, consisting simply rescuing Vilda.

    However, with this, it had been proven that Vilda didn''t actually need to be rescued, just a little help.

    ''Although this is unexpected... it''s not a bad oue at all~'' Jay thought, hearing the sound of Kai running through the foresting from behind.

    Ducking his body as the wind in the surroundings gathered around him, Jay prepared tounch an attack simr to the one he had used against Tom.

    As for Vilda''s badly injured state, since he had taken a few of his little ones with him, Jay wasn''t worried.

    Thus, it seemed that tonight''s business woulde to an end sooner than expected.

    ***

    "It''s windier than usual today..."

    On the outskirts of the bronze city, a young woman was walking despite being nighttime, her direction being none other than the nearby forest.

    Wearing tight ck pants that allowed for great mobility, along with a gray hoodie, this attire was not shy at all, quite the contrary, thanks to its dark colors, the young woman even seemed to camouge herself in the surroundings.

    However, there was one part of this young woman''s appearance that could not be described as anything other than striking, and that was her eyes, which gave off a very slight golden glow.

    Fortunately, thetter feature was only observable if one got close enough, so even if she ran into someone, as long as there was a bit of distance, there would be no problem.

    Of course, it''s not like she was going to run into anyone either, after all, one of the many features of her ability allowed her to camouge herself in broad daylight, not to mention what she could get up to at night.

    And it was also thanks to this that she was able to get out of the city without any problems.

    Because she had been walking for a few minutes now, the forest was quite close, being able to be seen even from where she was.

    Perhaps some people might think twice before entering a ce so dark and where there might be more than a couple of monsters, but for this young woman, that really wasn''t a concern.

    Instead, what upied her mind was that she had to hurry, as she had someone to rescue.

    Thinking about that, the young woman took a step forward.

    "!"

    Suddenly, a shiver ran through her entire body, causing her to instinctively step back and activate her ability,pletely erasing her figure from anyone''s view.

    "..."

    Waiting for a few seconds without moving, the young woman searched with her eyes for some indication of that which had caused her to shiver, but her efforts yielded no results.

    Therefore, her reasoning led her to think of another cause of the sudden shivering.

    ''...It seems that I haven''tpletely ovee my fear of the dark... but I can''t go back, so now is the time I ovee it!'' Thought the young woman.

    Full of determination, the young woman continued to move forward, although it had to be mentioned, that her ability was active at all times.

 Chapter 131 - Deep In The Forest, Noises Abound

    No sooner had Jay finished gathering a sufficient amount of wind than Kai arrived, surrounded by his ever-active red glow.

    "You sure do run fast, but I''ve caught up with you... wait, where''s the other one?" Kai said, realizing that Jay was missing hispanion mid-sentence.

    "Ah, your friend got up and tried to attack me, but Vilda got up too, so they''re kind of busy now." Jay replied, being in a good mood, "But don''t worry, I''ll keep youpany, that''s what you wanted all along, right?"

    *Swoosh!*

    As Jay finished speaking, heunched himself at Kai, who despite being taken by surprise, managed to get his arms in front of him.

    *Bam!*

    The collision was audible, with Kai backing up a bit but being able to withstand Jay''s kick, taking the opportunity to try and grab him.

    While he had to admit that Jay was strong and would probably bring him a great deal of trouble if left on his own, if he managed to grab him, then his victory would be assured.

    The reason for this confidence came from nothing more than his esper ability, which increased his physical capabilities the closer he got to his opponent, being able to physically dominate the vast majority of espers.

    It was a tricky ability to use at times, but Kai had mastered it to a point where he was the terror of espers in a hand-to-hand fight.

    If one added to that the fact that his fighting style was based on grappling, wrenching and so on, one could get an idea of how lethal he could be.

    Therefore, if he managed to grab Jay, even if he had more stamina than he had shown, the result would be the same.

    Then, moving at considerable speed, Kai then grabbed Jay''s leg.

    "I''VE GOT YOU!" Shouted Kai, a smile forming on his face.

    However, despite having the upper hand at this point, as he was able to catch Jay, Jay did not appear nervous at all, instead, he seemed to have be even calmer, which caused him an uneasy feeling.

    The next moment, with the surrounding wind wrapping itself around Jay''s body, a current began to form, starting at his head and going all the way down the rest of his body until it reached the leg that Kai was holding.

    *SWOOSH!*

    "Argh!"

    When the wind made contact with Kai''s hands, instead of it dissipating, it actually continued to swirl, only much more violently, cutting into his skin and forcing him to let out a whimper of pain.

    But this, instead of making him let go, only made Kai''s grip grow tighter, "Bastard!"

    At this point, the grip was really starting to be painful, but despite this, Jay still didn''t seem to be in a hurry to break free.

    "I''ll be sure to hit you back twice as hard now!" Kai shouted before pouncing on Jay, taking the fight to the ground.

    Without waiting any longer, Kai immediately moved to get a better grip on Jay, looking for a position where he could knock him out or at least immobilize him until Nico arrived.

    He had already repeated this process several times with other espers, and in each of those cases, thanks to his mastery of closebat, he achieved the result he wanted in less than a minute.

    However...

    "!"

    At the same time that Kai started to move, he could feel something terrifying... and that was that Jay''s body was incredibly hard.

    His body at this moment was getting a huge strength boost thanks to his ability and how close he was to Jay, but even with that, he couldn''t move it one bit!

    "...What''s wrong, weren''t you the one who wanted to have contact? Let''s have contact then!" Jay said, wrapping his arms around Kai''s torso to prevent him from escaping.

    "Let go!!" Kai shouted.

    Unfortunately for him, as angry as he was, he simply could not overpower Jay in terms of physical strength.

    What was more, little by little, the more time passed, not only was he failing to break free, but he was losing the slight advantage he had in the beginning, increasing his anger and causing another feeling to appear within him... helplessness.

    Although he was confident in his ability, there were certain things he knew very well he couldn''t do even if he tried his best, making him feel powerless, and for him, the memories that brought back that feeling were all the encounters he had with pugilists.

    In each of the encounters he had with this type of supers, it was as if the world was reminding him that no matter how superior he was in technique, he could do nothing in the face of pure power, at least not with his esper ability.

    For that reason he always avoided getting into trouble with pugilists, because he knew that his ability would be almost useless against them.

    He thought that as long as he didn''t run into one of them, he would at least have a chance of victory.

    But at this moment...

    "A-agh!"

    Without being able to do much, the position of both of them had changed, with Jay having positioned himself behind Kai and putting him in a headlock.

    "Y-You, why... why the hell are you so strong?!" Kai asked, his ability working at its limit in order to withstand Jay''s strength.

    Slightly releasing his grip enough to let him speak, Jay then replied, bringing his mouth close to Kai''s ear, "You''re looking at it from the wrong side, it''s not that I''m strong, it''s that you''re just... too weak."

    "..."

    Faced with this statement, Kai had nothing to say, and while he wasn''t denying it, he wasn''t affirming it either.

    "You know I''m right, otherwise why would you be involved with these two?" Jay continued, using a soft but clear tone of voice, the same one he used when he wanted to influence a person, "You can''t beat me, we''re ying on your terms and you''re still losing, but that''s not all, your friend is taking a beating from mine as we speak, as for the other one, I think you know what happened thest time I met him..."

    "However you look at it... your group is the inferior one."

    For thosest words, Jay not only changed the tone of his voice to make it deeper than usual, but slightly increased the strength of his grip, to emphasize his point.

    And of course, all this with arge amount of parasites inside Kai.

    "...Why are you telling me all this...?" Kai asked, with Jay''s words having had a visible effect, as he stopped resisting Jay''s grip.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Because it''s what you need to hear, because it''s the little nudge you needed to get you to recognize the truth, after all, between the two of us, the one who knows best that following those two is a dead end is not me...but you, isn''t it?"

    Thanks to his little ones, Jay had already managed to identify Kai''s emotions at this point, and what upied most of his concerns was the regret of having joined with Tom and Nico to confront him.

    Mixed into that regret were also feelings of dissatisfaction with the other two, such as the condescension they both felt for him, always ordering him to do things and almost never acknowledging him as part of the team, but as someone beneath them.

    Although neither of them said it out loud, Kai could sense those things, causing them to build up inside him as a feeling of enormous dissatisfaction.

    It was undoubtedly the most information Jay had ever received from one person when using his little ones, but for him, this was to be expected, after all, there were 30 parasites inside Kai.

    Of these 30, not one of them was trying to assimte the esper''s ability, but under Jay''smand, they were taking it upon themselves to influence him to their fullest capacity while acting as information transmitters.

    Thanks to this, Kai''s will had been greatly weakened, leaving him exposed to Jay''s convincing.

    "Therefore, I''ll make you an offer... work with me." Jay said, releasing the grip he had on Kai and standing up.

    Kai on the other hand, stilly on the ground for a few more seconds, his vision blurred and a tired expression on his face.

    It was clear that whether it was Jay''s words or what his little ones were doing inside him, it was having quite an effect.

    After a few seconds passed, as he sat down on the floor, Kai replied, "I...I...don''t... want to betray Tom..."

    "...Hoh."

    This response was unexpected to Jay, who now filled with curiosity as to the reason for this, decided that perhaps he would try to have a deeper connection with Kai.

    Thereupon, Jay then sat down in front of Kai, reaching out both hands to ce them on either side of thetter''s head.

    While he could have done it the same way he did with Faith, by sping his hands together, this was not a simple exchange of energy, but something much more personal, so to speak.

    And even if he couldn''t get Kai to ept his offer, thanks to the fact that he was already under his influence, he didn''t put up any resistance to the contact.

    Without waiting any longer, checking his vitality radar onest time to make sure they were alone, Jay then activated the system''s ability, "Mental Network", connecting with his little ones inside Kai''s body.

    ***

    While Jay was dealing with Kai, Vilda with Tom and Nico was trying to remember the way Kai had gone, the young woman who had entered the forest was walking through the trees.

    Bending down to pick up a couple of leaves, instructions on how to get to a certain ce ran through her head again.

    ''Indeed... it seems that I got lost...'' Thought the young woman, Faith, her attitude changing to one of defeat.

    Originally, the moment she saw the photo the receptionist at the training center had shown her, her first thought was to warn Jay, the guy in the photo was his friend after all.

    However, she had no way ofmunicating with him, not to mention that she really knew almost nothing about him, except for the fact that he was an esper and that they shared most sses at the academy.

    Therefore, this option had been ruled out.

    The next thing that urred to her was that perhaps she could warn a teacher, but after considering the consequences of this, which could even end in both parties being expelled, she decided it would be best not to involve the academy.

    Finally, the alternative she opted for was nothing more than to go to the ce herself and rescue him, which, apart from being a good deed since no one deserved such treatment, would also give her an excuse to meet Jay.

    Though of course, thetter was an extra detail, the real important thing was rescuing a fellow ssmate in distress!

    Or at least that was what Faith had been repeating to herself every so often.

    Thus, inquiring for more details from the receptionist, Faith learned that the ce they were at was actually not a random location, but a popr spot among students to have a "friendly confrontation".

    Of course, this was simply another nicer way of calling the ndestine fights they held, ones that went beyond simple sparring, as there were facilities for thetter in the city itself, all with the supervision of academy staff.

    Instead, this ce was not only far from the city, but thanks to its remote location, the academy staff was conspicuous by its absence.

    After politely asking the receptionist for directions, who by the way was incredibly reluctant to do so but ended up doing it anyway, Faith then began her search.

    Unfortunately, at this point, despite having followed the directions to the letter, she had not arrived at the ce she wanted, what was more, she had absolutely no idea where she was.

    *Crack*

    "..."

    Suddenly, Faith distinctly heard the sound of a small branch giving way under the weight of something.

    Immediately, she turned her head towards the source of the noise.

    And it was at that moment... that she saw it.

    Behind her, only a couple of meters away, stood a tall, sickly pale white figure, easily reaching 10 feet tall.

    Its appearance was humanoid, but it was not human at all, with a body so thin that every bone could be seen, disproportionately long arms reaching down to below its knees, which ended in incredibly sharp ws.

    As for the face of this figure, it was wearing as a helmet the skull of an unknown animal that greatly resembled a deer but was not that of a deer.

    Finally, the worst part of all, was that this figure was staring, with its dead and empty eyes, at Faith.

    The esper then remembered the chills she had felt the moment she took her first step into the forest.

    She had thought it was because of her fear of the dark, but at this moment, she knew why it was... because this creature had been watching her!

    *BAM!*

    Immediately afterwards, a loud sound could be heard in the forest surroundings.

 Chapter 132 - Elemental Advantage

    *BAM!*

    In another part of the forest, the battle between two people was taking ce.

    With one giving off certain shes of light from time to time and the other being an amalgamation of shadows,bined with the darkness of the forest, they certainly created an interesting scene to say the least.

    "Take this, assh*le!" Shouted Tom, who had thrown a punch towards Vildan, which had made direct contact with thetter''s face.

    However, despite the fact that he had shouted it with such energy, it was apparent that his voice did not contain even a hint of the confidence he had shown before.

    The reason for this was simple, and it was because even though he was attacking, in the same manner as had happened with Jay, his attacks seemed to have no effect.

    ''Sh*t, where the hell are the others?'' Tom thought, being worried inside but not forgetting to keep moving in order to escape Vilda''s reach.

    Unlike his opponent, who didn''t seem to be nervous in the slightest, Tom was quite the opposite, being a nervous wreck about facing someone like Vilda.

    He had originally thought thetter was weak, as he, along with Nico and Kai managed to capture him with rtive ease, going so far as to believe he could have done it on his own.

    Thanks to this, he had been confident, but to his bad luck, this had not turned out to be the case at all.

    Starting with the big blow he received with the hammer at the start, which had already caused him a great deal of damage, Tom had been realizing just how bad his situation was the longer the fight dragged on.

    Not only were none of his attacks effective against the shadow coating Vilda had, but every time he had contact with the shadows, he was the one who sometimes got caught by the shadows and took a heavy hit.

    As for the idea of running away, he had tried that before, and that was the very reason why he now had a bloody hole in his back, a product of having turned his back on Vilda, who took the opportunity to throw a shadow spear at him.

    ''Just how did we manage to defeat this guy before?!'' Tom thought, several beads of sweat running down his forehead.

    Unfortunately, he wouldn''t find the answer no matter how much he thought about it, after all, his ego was so big that he couldn''t even believe in the possibility that the one who had defeated Vilda was not ''them'', but ''someone''.

    Specifically, a certain light mage who had shared several years of schooling with Vilda, having a notion of both his strengths and weaknesses which allowed him to devise a n to take care of him quickly.

    Even then, Nico didn''t have it easy, because even for someone like him, who had an elemental advantage over the shadows and a rtivelyrge amount of information about his opponent, he had to acknowledge that Vilda was by no means an easy opponent.

    Even in his high school years, the reason Vilda remained Nico''s rival was not simply because of their different attributes wich were direct opposites, but also out of his own merit, with Vilda possessing just as much talent and strength as the light mage.

    An example of this was that in all the shes they had while whey were in highschool, the amount of wins and losses of each, added together, did note close to the amount of draws their shes had resulted in.

    And even though it had been quite a while since they had shared a ssroom, Nico still estimated that their power levels had remained at a simr level, something he had been able to confirm the moment he had met Vilda.

    So, if they both possessed a simr level of strength, how had he managed to capture Vilda?

    The answer to thisy not in Nico, but in the ss he belonged to, which was often overlooked when talking about Nico due to the personality of this mage.

    Mages were known for their preparations enhanced by the enormous repertoire of spells they possessed, limited only by the branch they studied.

    In this area, Nico was no different from other mages, so after some time of preparation, he managed to develop a n.

    Thus, having learned the route that Vilda normally took, the three of them set out, with Nico initiating the attack by invoking a spell known as Cage of Light.

    This spell was used by light mages to trap monsters, so its resistance was considerably higher than other simr spells, however, that was not the reason Nico had used it.

    Instead, it was its properties of slowing down the trapped target, along withpletely illuminating the inside of the cage, leaving not a single shadow uncovered as the spell was created to be used against light-sensitive monsters.

    With these preparations, an unsuspecting Vilda could do little more than get caught, but even in that condition, he had still managed to damage both Kai and Tom, which was certainly a hint for thetter to take note of.

    Now, the person who was paying the price for this was Tom, facing a Vilda who apart from being incredibly angry, was also getting a huge power boost thanks to the environment they were in.

    This increase was also rted to why Nico chose a spell that specifically erased shadows, because it was shadows that made Vilda a danger, and the more there were, the stronger Vilda would be.

    It worked simr to why elemental mages always formed an elemental zone before any battle, or rather, the elemental zones of mages worked by copying the advantages that esper with elemental abilities had on advantageous terrain.

    Therefore, simr to how an esper with fire control would have almost unlimited ammunition in the middle of a fire, Vilda''s ability, which allowed him to mold shadows into any shape he wanted, made him, in a ce with so many shadows, a fearsome opponent.

    "!"

    At that moment, as Tom was trying to create distance, his feet met with unexpected resistance, almost as if he had stepped in a mud puddle.

    However, he was already quite familiar with this substance that was by no means mud, but something much worse.

    "Let me go, dammit!"

    Immediately, he tried to wriggle free, using his ability to the fullest, the shadows beginning to give way.

    Although his ability was of the physical type and was not as unusual as Vilda''s, it was undoubtedly among the best of its kind, which was demonstrated by being able to oppose Vilda''s shadows.

    Unfortunately, this opposition onlysted a few seconds before the shadows took on new energy and enveloped his legspletely.

    "Argh! Sh*t! Wait, wait, wait! I give up! I give up!" Shouted Tom, seeing a small shadow-covered figure approaching him, carrying a hammerrger than the figure itself.

    ? As he had already taken a blow from that hammer,, he knew extremely well how much damage it could cause, so Tom really didn''t want to have to go through that again, leaving him with no choice but to shout out that he was surrendering.

    This was a big blow to his pride, but it was his physical well-being first, so he was able to ept this exchange.

    "..."

    In a matter of a couple of seconds, Vilda was already in front of Tom, thetter with several beads of sweat on his face from not knowing what Vilda would do.

    A small silence then began, with neither making a move, one because he was considering his options and the other for fear of angering the other party.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Though of course, while neither was moving, that didn''t mean that nothing was happening, the example of this being the shadows that had trapped Tom, which kept rising and had already covered his body up to chest height.

    "Haa..."

    Finally, after a short time, Vilda let out a sigh as hisrge hammer dissolved and returned to the shadows.

    "T-thank you!! I was in the wrong, I''m really sorry!"

    Seeing this, Tom couldn''t help but rejoice, as this meant that Vilda wasn''t going to continue attacking him.

    "Yeah, yeah, I''m not a particrly violent or vindictive person, so just this once, I''ll let you off easy, in exchange for a small favor." Vilda said.

    "Ah! Yes of course, anything you want!" Tom eximed happily, seeing his way out of thisplicated situation.

    Thank goodness, his enemy this time had been someone benevolent.

    ''Haa... now... he''ll probably ask me for money or something... which means that I can tell him I need to get my smart watch out and take the opportunity to attack him! I didn''t want to use it... but you''ve forced me to this...'' Thought Tom, still wanting to carry out his earlier n.

    While he had to admit that Vilda was strong, Tom still had an ace up his sleeve that he had in store for special situations that required more power than normal.

    As for what this was, it was an empowerment pill that was kept in a small cloth pouch in his pocket.

    He had been saving it to face Jay, who was the person Nico had said would be the most troublesome, and he still wanted to keep it, but in order to get out of this situation and continue with his n, he would have no choice but to use it.

    But for this, of course, he had to agree to everything Vilda said, or at least appear to do so until he was free of the shadows that kept him pinned to the ground.

    "S-so, what''s the favor?" Asked Tom, who was nowpletely covered in shadows except for his face.

    Showing a slight smile on his face, Vilda got a little closer to him and then replied, "It''s simple, just... grit your teeth."

    After saying that, the surrounding shadows began to gather on Vilda''s arms, forming thick, good-sized gloves.

    "I wouldn''t want you to pass out on me anytime soon, after all."

    "W-WAIT-"

    *BAM!*

    With thatst exchange of words, Vilda''s revenge session had begun, and apparently, it didn''t look like it was going to end anytime soon.

    ***

    A few minutes passed, and the sounds of someone being beaten, which had been constant and rhythmic, were finallying to an end at the same time that Vilda''s energy was beginning to show signs of exhaustion.

    As for his opponent, or rather, object of practice, his face waspletely covered in bruises and cuts, leaving him almost unrecognizablepared to his previous neat appearance, evidence of the punishment he had to go through.

    Vilda''s gloves only confirmed the brutality of this beating, with the knuckles being stained with a reddish liquid.

    Some people might perhaps say that this was too much or that it was not right to seek justice in this way, but for Vilda, that was not important, it only mattered to him that he had repaid what was done to him.... at the double.

    "Now then, only Nico is left... I knew he an idiot... but this is something else entirely." Vilda said, dissolving his shadow gloves.

    Checking again that Tom was unconscious, Vilda then released all the shadows that held the first mentioned immobile.

    As he did this, he let out a deep sigh, tired from the exhaustion of having used his ability to such a degree.

    While he waspletely surrounded by shadows, which tranted into him having a huge elemental advantage, it didn''t mean that it was easy to make use of this, at least not at his rank.

    To give an example, the shadows in the surroundings were like a hugeke, while his ability was like a bucket.

    Normally, even if the bucket was full, once it was emptied, depending on the ce and time of day, the difficulty of refilling the bucket varied greatly.

    But in a ce like this, as soon as he emptied his bucket, he could fill it, which allowed him to control the shadows to a much greater degree, at the expense of his bucket, that is, his body, carrying a lot more of pressure.

    Fortunately for him, now it was time to give his ability a rest, at least for a little while, so he went on about his business, which now was to drag Tom''s body to wherever Jay was.

    Who knows, maybe if he hurried, he might even be able to help him take care of the other two.

    *Shoosh, Shoosh*

    "...?"

    From one moment to the next, he suddenly heard the sound of leaves moving in the forest, though not with the wind, but as if they were being pushed by something heavier.

    Although the noise was low and could be heard rtively far away, thanks to the quietness of the forest at this hour, Vilda was able to hear it.

    Not knowing what exactly what it was, the esper decided to prepare a shadow armor just in case.

    *Swoosh!

    However, at the same time his shadows began to move, a figure shot out of the forest at high speed, from the same direction in which he had heard the rustling of leaves.

    "What the-!"

    *Bam!*

    Before he could say or do anything, the figure hit him hard, sending him flying.

 Chapter 133 - Distant Eyes

    A few minutes before Vilda''s encounter with the unknown figure, a certain person was walking in the forest, .

    "... I''m sure it''s this way, I''d better hurry, lest Kai needs my help..." Nico said, following the way Kai had gone.

    Although his words indicated that he was in a hurry, the reality was otherwise, with his steps having a slow and calm pace.

    This could be understandable if one took into ount that he had been running at full speed for quite some time before, as perhaps he was still recovering.

    However, this theory waspletely destroyed when one saw this person''s face, which did not have a single drop of sweat on it, and in fact, appeared to bepletely rxed.

    With this as proof, one would simply have to wonder how Nico''s energy recovered so quickly that he was able to pull himself together in just a couple of minutes.

    Even if one took into ount that he was a super, being a mage, it was uncharacteristic of his ss for him to recover at that rate, never mind the use of recovery spells, none of which should be avable to a magician of his rank.

    Therefore, his energy recovery was an enigma worth paying attention to, as it might even be something important to all other mages!

    Unless of course... he hadn''t recovered at all and instead had been faking it from the start.

    "Maybe I''m going too slow...? The excuse of being tired may no longer be credible at this point..." Nico said, not even trying to hide the fact that he had lied to Kai.

    This of course, had its exnation, which among other reasons, mainly there were two, the first being that he really didn''t want this n of Tom''s to seed, and the second being that... he didn''t want to face Jay again.

    Obviously, while he could have refused to help kidnap Vilda, and that even with Kai and Tom working together they wouldn''t be able to pull it off, he knew that would bring almost zero consequences for Tom, instead giving him more information and time toe up with another n.

    Nevertheless, for the sake of achieving total disaster, he decided to help them... up to a certain point, doing the minimum of work to ensure that a certain person woulde along so that chaos could be unleashed.

    From his own experience, he already knew both Jay''s and Vilda''s strength, and knew that both, as enemies, were a serious problem to consider, which is why he wanted them as allies.

    But this, of course, was information Tom and Kaicked, who simply thought Jay and Vilda were a bit stronger than normal.

    Thus, it was just a matter of drawing up a simple n, helping them and pretending to be nervous before disengaging from them at the right time, with Jay starting a game of cat and mouse being the golden opportunity.

    Now, although he didn''t know what Tom or Kai''s situation was like, he was confident that even if Tom woke up, they wouldn''t be able to catch Jay with the incredible mobility thetter possesed, let alone defeat him.

    Therefore, it was only a matter of time before this n failedpletely, something Nico was looking forward to, as this meant that the odds of him regaining his position as group leader would increase considerably, if not regain it right away.

    "...Ah, maybe I can cast a couple of spells to damage them, at this point, worsening their image is improving mine." Nico said, his mood having visibly improved.

    Pushing those thoughts aside and putting a worried expression back on his face, Nico resumed his walk, not taking long to reach a certain area of the forest where he had to stop.

    "...?"

    Although nothing could be seen in the surroundings besides trees and darkness, what made Nico stop was not physical, but something more intangible.

    As a mage, he belonged to the ss with the highest sensitivity to all kinds of energy, and what he was feeling right now was as if there was a spotlight in the middle of the forest, giving off arge amount of energy.

    ''...These energy fluctuations I feel... what is it...?'' Nico thought, not understanding what it was that could be causing this.

    His confusion stemmed mostly from the fact that he couldn''t recognize this type of energy, not belonging to any of the people present in the forest.

    It was not simr to Kai''s, Tom''s, Vilda''s or even Jay''s, nor was it the kind of energy that a monster gave off.

    Faced with this unexpected situation, instead of moving closer so he could find out what it was, Nico looked for a particrlyrge tree and hid behind it before sitting down on the ground.

    This didn''t mean that he wasn''t interested in that energy source and wasn''t going to investigate further, but that he had other ways of investigating which didn''t require him to be on site personally.

    Pulling his wand out of his pocket, the tip of it lit up as Nico began to draw a magic circle with strange patterns on the ground.

    After a few seconds, the circle was finished, and all that remained was for Nico to make direct contact with the circle, which he did by cing both of his hands in the middle.

    The next moment, on Nico''s forehead, a small glowing circle appeared.

    "Fuu..."

    Letting out a breath, Nico then activated the magic circle.

    Immediately, the mage felt each of his senses greatly diminish, leaving him with only a faint feeling that his body was still there.

    Simultaneously, as if in a trade-off, while he lost his body''s sense of belonging, his ability to feel energy improved exponentially.

    ''...Argh, it''s as unpleasant as ever...'' Nico thought, making it clear that it wasn''t the first time he felt like this, and despite that, he still wasn''t used to it.

    This was a peculiar spell, belonging not to the branch of light magic that Nico practiced, but to the branch of general magic, meaning that any mage could make use of it.

    Normally, due to this characteristic, these spells were as rare and difficult to obtain as a high-grade martial technique, but thanks to a certain contact for whom he worked, Nico had been able to learn it for a rtively cheap cost.

    As for the spell, its name was "Third Eye", the reason for this, rather than having to do with the physical effect it had with its user, was due to the effect of the spell.

    In exchange for almostpletely cutting off all of the user mage''s senses, the spell enhanced the ability each mage had to sense energy, getting to the point where they could use their ''third eye'' to see their surroundings without actually having to move.

    With such a spell at his disposal, Nico didn''t have to take any chances and could quietly stay hidden while he began his research.

    Now that he was immersed in this strange mode of energy vision, Nico then focused on the energy he was sensinging from that particr area of the forest.

    Little by little, his vision moved until it reached the ce from where those strange waves of energy wereing, and the moment it did, Nico was surprised.

    ''...This ...what is this...?'' he thought, not quite understanding what he was seeing.

    Normally, when using the ''Third Eye'' with people, he could see their energy in silhouette form, with the silhouette greatly resembling the person it belonged to, and although there were differences depending on the rank of the super target he wanted to observe, that only happened with rank (C-) supers or higher.<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, what he was seeing at this moment was different from what he could feel.

    In front of him were the energy silhouettes of two people, both sitting on the ground but with one of them holding the other''s head with both hands.

    Now, if it was just that there would be no problem besides the fact that the energy waves from these silhouettes were somewhat strong, but it didn''t end there.

    But even though he was seeing that they were two different silhouettes, Nico could feel that? somehow, they were both one.

    The level and type of energy he felting from these two silhouettes was so simr between the two, but so unfamiliar to him, that he didn''t even know where one silhouette started and the other one ended.

    Thus, instead of getting answers, he only ended up even more confused.

    ''...This... is this a link...? No, it can''t be, even a link does not have this effect...'' Nico thought, trying to get to the bottom of this.

    It was at times like these that Nico''s mage-like curious nature came to the fore, unwilling to simply give up on the matter without at leasting to a basic conclusion.

    Still maintaining the spell, Nico, now having forgotten the original reason for why he decided to investigate or his mission in the forest, motivated by his curiosity, decided to bring his vision even closer to the silhouettes.

    It was a risky thing to do as the spell could be cancelled if he lost concentration, plus it would consume more of his mana, making him unable to maintain it for long, but despite this, Nico had already made up his mind.

    In a matter of seconds, the closer he moved, the more distant the sensation of having a physical body became, an effect of using the spell to such a degree.

    Earlier he was seeing them from almost the same distance his physical body was at, but as he moved closer, the two silhouettes became sharper and sharper.

    ''...Ugh, this is starting to hurt...'' Nico thought, feeling how the closer he got to the silhouettes, the harder it was to maintain the spell.

    Fortunately for him, it was only a matter of a couple of meters before he could make contact with the silhouettes, so this would be over soon.

    While he wouldn''t be able to interact with the silhouettes, a close observation in his pure energy visualization mode would be enough for him to get to the bottom of this.

    ''Just... a li...ttle more...!''

    By this point, even Nico''s thoughts began to be affected by the tremendous effort he was putting into using the spell.

    ''Get...closer...!'' Nico thought, his body a sweaty mess.

    Closing his eyes for a moment, he gritted his teeth and decided to ignore the immense pain in his forehead before moving forward.

    Thissted barely a couple of seconds, but for Nico, it had been a much longer and torturous time.

    But fortunately for him...

    ''Atst... I''ve finally arrived!'' Nico eximed happily, rxing slightly, though being careful not to break the spell.

    It had undoubtedly been a task of high difficulty, causing Nico to make a note to practice this spell even more in the future, so he wouldn''t have to go through so much difficulty if he had to use the ''Third Eye'' to such a degree again.

    ''Now then... let''s see-''

    However, before he even finished thinking that sentence, Nico stopped dead in his tracks, standingpletely still.

    Because he had been totally focused on getting closer to the silhouettes, it had caused him to take his attention away from other things, which added to his little celebration, had caused him to miss something important.

    And that was, nothing more and nothing less, that while he had been approaching... one of the silhouettes had turned and was staring at him.

    Although it was only one of the silhouettes, for some reason, Nico felt as if he had dozens of eyes on him, causing shivers to inevitably run through his body.

    Immediately, several things went through his head, such as the fact that it shouldn''t be possible for someone below rank (B-) to detect him, or trying to figure out the reason why he felt so exposed at this moment.

    However, all of that was left behind as a simple emotion filled Nico''s mind and body, forcing him to abruptly deactivate the spell.

    And that emotion was... fear.

    *Bam!*

    Abruptly, Nico''s concentration was interrupted, causing the spell to be forcibly cut off.

    "Haa...haa..." Breathing heavily as he tried to stand up, all of Nico''s senses returned to his body, albeit temporarily more clumsy than normal, causing him to barely be able to lean back against a tree.

    What was more, thanks to the use of the spell, his forehead was under a great deal of pain, almost feeling as if he had suffered a stab wound.

    However, that wasn''t what had Nico gasping, not by a long shot.

    The real reason was nothing more than the silhouette of energy that had detected him, looking at him with eyes that felt so cold, so strange, so distant and unfamiliar to him.

    Although they had only made contact for a very short time, a certain thought stuck in Nico''s mind.

    "W-was that... a human being...?" He said, still clutching his chest.

    Remembering that moment, Nico then began to move, his mind being upied by the sole intention of fleeing and getting as far away as he could.

    *Cruch*

    "!"

    Unfortunately, the sound of bushes moving behind him reached his ears at that moment.

    Apparently.... he wasn''t the only one who had decided to move.

 Chapter 134 - Three Options

    "Hm, so what I felt back there was him... no doubt mages have rather peculiar spells." Said Jay, who was walking back towards Kai, carrying on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes none other than Nico, whom he had met just less than a minute ago.

    While he was busy testing the power and capacity of his [Mental Network], just as he had been about make an important choice, he, along with his little ones, could feel a certain cluster of energying closer and closer to them.

    At first it was just a vague sensation that didn''t really seem to be able to cause them any problems, so he had decided to ignore it.

    However, for some reason, said cluster of energy suddenly approached them at great speed and without care, making Jay unable to ignore it any longer.

    As a result, he had no choice but to stop what he was doing and take care of this situation first, which was going to be a problem since despite being connected to the [Mental Network] with his parasites, either due tock of practice or that he simply couldn''t do it, he wasn''t able to identify the source of the energy cluster.

    Fortunately, the moment he thought of it, his little ones responded with a surprise for him, which was, they expanded his vitality radar by a lot.

    As if that wasn''t enough, this expansion even went a bit farther than the distance his little ones normally reached on their own.

    Anyway, thanks to this, it didn''t take him long to find a certain person hiding in some bushes, Nico.

    He had thought he would have it a bit tricky if Nico started running right away, but as if today was his lucky day, the mage''s physical state was much worse than normal, almost as if he had run a marathon carrying weights, only requiring Jay to use a simple head-lock to knock him unconscious.

    All of this had only taken him at most a minute or two, but even then, with a slight tone of urgency, a system notification jumped in front of Jay.

    _____________________

    [Warning: Due to the distance, the connection to the individual [Kai Sorge] now consumes a greater amount of energy for lesser performance, if the distance remains the same for a prolonged amount of time, the connection will be terminated.

    Rmendation: Return to the vicinity of the individual as soon as possible].

    _____________________

    ''...Wow, I''m not even that far away and there are penalties already ? Looks like it''s more fragile than I thought...'' Jay thought as he closed the system notification.

    Because this was the first time he was trying to use the [Mental Network] on other people, Jay made sure to remember this information especially, so he wouldn''t make a mistake in the future.

    He then decided to increase his pace, making it clear that he didn''t want the connection the system was talking about to be cut off.

    Since it really wasn''t that far away, he arrived in no time.

    At the site, Kai was still in the same sitting position that Jay had left him in, although there were a few changes on him to mention.

    Firstly there would be the fact he had deactivated his ability, so he was no longer releasing any kind of glow.

    Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, was the expression on his face, which waspletely expressionless, with a nk stare that seemed to be looking off into nothingness.

    ''Oh, you kept him in that state, good job. Give me a second and I''ll be with you.'' Jay thought into the [Mental Network] as he bent down to set Nico on the ground before sitting down himself, in the same position as before, facing Kai.

    Though of course, not before leaving one of his little ones in Nico''s body, so he could know exactly when he would wake up... to put him back to sleep.

    He was in a bit of a hurry, but that was understandable, after all, the main issue tonight, now that he had already rescued Vilda, wasn''t to teach any of those responsible a lesson.

    In fact, that had already been buried in the bottom of Jay''s concerns for the time being.

    Instead, Jay''s priority right now was to fully test all the things he could do with his new system ability.

    "Now then... let''s continue..." Jay whispered.

    Without wasting any more time, the esper then ced his hands on both sides of Kai''s head again, his [Mental Network] strengthening again.

    Although he had not deactivated the ability due to not wanting to sever the connection, it had remained in an incredibly weakened state, and only at this moment did it regain its original strength.

    Immediately, a wealth of information began to fill Jay''s head.

    From emotions, memories of today and the past, among so many other things pertaining to Kai, each and every one of them momentarily shed through his head, causing chaos.

    However, after a pair of seconds passed, everything calmed down.

    It was the same as the first time he entered Kai''s mind, that is, just a few minutes ago, where Jay had great difficulty making sense of all the information he was receiving.

    The reason for this was because there was simply too much information, which was represented in the form of an innumerable amount of sensations and memories.

    Worst of all was both the amount and the rate at which they were going through Jay''s head, causing Jay to even begin to doubt his identity.

    If things had gone on like this, Jay would have undoubtedly deactivated the ability or at the very least severed all connection with Kai, as he really didn''t want to have to deal with identity issues.

    However, both the system and his little ones jumped to his aid before he gave up.

    First, his little ones, sensing the problems Jay was having in their [Mental Network], immediately moved to block all the information that wasing in, giving Jay a break but leaving him blind.

    Although he was grateful, the problem was not solved by this.

    Fortunately, by this point, the system had a solution that it didn''t take long to offer Jay.

    _____________________<novelnext></novelnext>

    Notice: It has been noted that the [Carrier] is having problems trying to establish a mental connection with the individual [Kai Sorge], proceeding to disy the list of solutions.

    _____________________

    After that message appeared in front of him, Jay patiently waited for the list that mentioned the system, all under the protection of his little ones, of course.

    In a matter of seconds, the list then appeared, highlighting the options Jay had in this situation.

    _____________________

    Taking into ount the physical condition, energy levels, and authority level of the [Carrier], the most rmended options are as follows:

    A) - Mental Organization: the system, using the energy of the [Carrier], will organize all the information avable in the mind of the individual [Kai Sorge] into a more user-friendly and understandable interface. This option will double the energy consumption of the [Mental Network] skill.

    B) - Parasite Distribution: Using all avable parasites, the information avable in the mind of the individual [Kai Sorge] will be divided and delivered to the [Carrier] in controlled quantities. This option will ce a great burden on the parasites, risk damaging the information in the process.

    C) - Parasitic Possession: For a brief period of time, by making use of the [Mental Network] the [Carrier] will be able to possess one of the avable parasites, obtaining all of its innate abilities. This option will ce a huge burden on the selected parasite as well as on the [Carrier], there is a possibility of permanent brain damage.

    _____________________

    For a brief moment, Jay was silent, not knowing whether to be surprised by what the system offered him, or whether he should stop wasting time and analyze the best option.

    Either way, he could do neither, as at that precise moment, a cluster of energy better known as Nico interrupted him.

    Luckily, Nico was more of a minor interruption than a serious problem, it could even be considered a good thing if one took into ount that he had helped Jay to realize the fragility of the [Mental Network] with distances.

    Now with that out of the way, Jay then resumed his task of analyzing each option one by one, he would have timeter to express, again, his surprise at the system.

    Starting from the top, the organization option was simple and concise, exining that this time the system would do the work in exchange for using Jay''s energy.

    A simple and lessplicated option without anysting consequences, but it was also for that very reason that Jay thought there was something else that the description did not show.

    Though of course, figuring out what it was, was something Jay really didn''t know how to do.

    If it had something to do with his little ones, he could at least get an idea thanks to the [Mental Network], but he had the impression that this option had more to do with the system and himself, rather than his little ones.

    The second option was more understandable for the same reason the firstcked information, the involvement of the parasites.

    Thanks to thework, Jay knew that his little ones had wanted to do something moments after they blocked all the informationing from Kai, being incredibly proactive in helping in any way as they always were.

    He couldn''t quite understand what it was they had nned, but whether it was from the boost of the [Mental Network] or from the description of the system, perhaps something to do with the two of them, Jay now understood exactly what his little ones were referring to.

    Apparently, they were fully aware that they could act as information carriers for Jay, and were happy to do so even though it would leave them drained and weakened.

    But unlike the system, they didn''t simply do it without asking, preferring instead to wait for Jay to give them the order.

    ''Hm, they''re certainly good kids.'' Jay thought, feeling strangely proud for some reason.

    However, he really didn''t like the idea of his little ones being the most affected, so while this option was perfectly viable, he preferred to consider the others first.

    Finally the third option, and the one that most caught his attention, "Parasitic Possession", which as its name and description indicated, would allow him to possess the body of one of the parasites inside him.

    This option followed the same direction as the previous one, in that it required the parasites more than Jay himself.

    But it was also for that reason that this was the option with the most benefits for Jay, who was extremely familiar with the abilities of his little ones.

    From being innate masters of energy control, to being able to greatly influence other people, this was only the tip of the iceberg that was their repertoire of abilities.

    If he chose this option, in fact, it was even possible that his understanding of them would be greatly increased, adding yet another benefit to this option.

    However, just as the benefits were enormous, the description of the system was clear as to what the price to pay would be.

    ''Permanent brain damage... I guess that''s to be expected...'' Jay thought.

    That was the main deterrent feature of this option, not knowing exactly what the damage would be or how it would manifest, but there was also a certain detail that caught Jay''s attention.

    With the first option, he could understand the parasites not knowing about this as it seemed to be somethingpletely in the system and not requiring them for the process.

    With the second, the parasites knew about it and wanted to implement it.

    But with the third, even though the parasites were also absolutely necessary, no matter how much he immersed himself in the [Mind Network], Jay could find no indication that his little ones knew that possession was possible.

    This made him suspect that perhaps these options had to do with something bigger in the system, but because it wasn''t an appropriate time to get into theories, Jay again had to leave yet another thing for the future.

    ''At this rate I''ll have so many thingsing together that I won''t be able to do anything...'' Jay thought, already even having a bit of trouble remembering his to-do list.

    The next moment then, after considering the pros and cons of each of the options, Jay made his choice.

 Chapter 135 - A Large Canvas

    After having made his decision, Jay could feel his energy immediately begin to escape from his body.

    It was a strange and not very pleasant sensation, but knowing that it was something necessary for the system, he didn''t resist at all... although he didn''t know if that was possible in the first ce.

    At the same time, the parasites, sensing this change, filled the [Mental Network] with a bit of surprise, apparently with none of them being aware that the system would make such a move.

    Quickly, several changes began to appear in the space Jay was in, which while protected by his little ones, was still part of Kai''s body.

    First a few ripples appeared in the space, simr to as if a rock had suddenly fallen into apletely calmke.

    ''...It has be more difficult...?''

    However, Jay could feel that for some reason, his energy seemed to be having trouble getting out, as if it was being blocked by something.

    The next moment, Jay suddenly received two messages, oneing from the system, and one from the [Mental Network].

    The system gave him a warning, that if he maintained this mental blockade, it would not be able to carry out what Jay himself had chosen.

    As for the [Mental Network], it was his little onesmunicating to him that it was taking too much effort to maintain the blockade.

    Faced with this, Jay, after telling the [Mental Network] that it was okay and to stop doing the blockade, realized something.

    ''Why is the system alerting me instead of giving them an order directly...?'' Jay thought, this time not sharing his thoughts on thework.

    Originally, Jay firmly believed that the system, being the one who granted him the parasites, and also being the [Parasyte System], that it had total and absolute control over the parasites.

    Or at least that it had when he had first obtained the system.

    However, as time had passed, Jay hade to realize that this belief of his had perhaps been a bit too much based on simple assumptions on his part.

    Several matters in the past had caused him to doubt this, the time when he had used the [Limit Breaker] being a situation that could either confirm or destroy this theory of his.

    In that case, while he had not been conscious most of the time, he could remember that had it not been for his little ones moving the pill to activate its effects, he would undoubtedly have died.

    Now, there was one big question he had in this situation, and that was, had his little ones moved on their own or by order of the system?

    Either way, thereiny the answer as to whether the system really couldmand the parasites as he did.

    *Bam!*

    Suddenly, the parasite blockade lifted, again releasing Jay into Kai''s mind while preventing him from further thinking about this theory of his.

    Immediately, what appeared to be a cosmic space filled with small points of light that resembled stars in the distance filled Jay''s gaze.

    It was undoubtedly an impressive sight that would make anyone think they were somewhere out of this world, but in reality, this space was simply Kai''s mind.

    Right now, Jay kept floating in this space, something he had already experienced the first time he entered, and there was no problem until here.

    *Woosh!*

    ''Ah, here theye...'' Jay thought, watching the distance.

    Moving at breakneck speed, dozens and dozens of those bright lights that resembled stars began to travel towards him.

    While their appearance was menacing, it was not a physical impact that was the most dangerous thing about these ''stars'', but the information that each of these carried.

    Regardless of their size or brightness, what each of these brought could well be a memory, a sensation, or something else entirely.

    The next moment, as if these dozens were not enough, all the stars visible to Jay in this space also began to move towards him, creating a scene that could give more than one a great panic because of how threatening it looked.

    In the midst of all this, Jay simply hovered, paying attention to a pair of stars he remembered from his first experience.

    Both the size and speed of this pair was far greater than the others, and it was these that were primarily responsible for causing Jay a serious identity problem due to the plethora of information they contained.

    In a matter of seconds, all the stars had greatly shortened the distance between them and Jay.

    The way things were going, it wouldn''t be long before Jay would ask his little ones for another blockade.

    *BAM!*

    Suddenly, a loud sound was heard in this space at the same time as changes urred around the space Jay was floating in.

    ''This... is new.'' Jay thought, looking around.

    Seemingly out of nowhere, several lines of a red color had appeared, in the process creating arge sized cube that Jay was stuck in.

    The next moment, more and more lines began to emerge from the sides of this transparent cube, forming aplicated structure but one that was slowly beginning to more closely resemble something Jay was familiar with.

    A floor slowly began to form inside the cube, columns suddenly rose from this floor and from these expanded walls, furniture was built almost instantaneously.

    Not even a minute had passed before all this construction was finished, revealing nothing more and nothing less... than a huge library.

    ''...So this is what the system meant by organization huh...'' Jay thought.

    As he had implied, the option Jay had chosen to deal with the enormous amount of information present in Kai''s mind had been nothing more than the organization option.

    While it was undoubtedly the simplest, Jay was content with that, as here, the only risk he ran was that his energy would quickly run out.

    In contrast, with the other options either his little ones were going to have to pay the price, or in the worst case scenario, he would receive permanent brain damage.

    If one took into ount that the system was never dishonest with the statements it made, whether for good or bad, then one could already see how threatening thetter in particr was.

    ''Anyway, there will be opportunities in the future when I''ll be able to use both...'' Jay thought, without any remorse.

    After all, Jay was sure that these options shown to him by the system were one-time opportunities, but were more like functions that were avable in the system.

    This was a statement made with confidence, as Jay would take it upon himself to investigate their use further, who knows, he might even be able to pull it off without having the system''s help.<novelnext></novelnext>

    While he had been busy with his thoughts, the library had finally been finished, except for one particrly wide column, which stood in the middle and had no shelves at all, but instead had arge canvas hanging on it.

    What was striking about this was that the canvas waspletely empty, as were the shelves.

    ''Do I have to do something now...?'' Jay thought, looking up at the stars around him.

    Stars which, it had to be mentioned, instead of continuing on their way to crash into Jay and consequently the library, were now still, suspended in space.

    *Boom!*

    ''Oh?''

    The next moment, each and every one of these stars then began to move away at an even greater speed than they were approaching Jay with.

    This of course, caused Jay to be filled with interest, as he wondered what the reason for this sudden retreat might be.

    *Chack!*

    While his attention was focused on the retreating stars, the sound of something fleshy moving then rang through the library.

    Turning his head, Jay was able to observe that on the empty shelves, several holes had appeared, of considerable size, almost being as big as a basketball.

    *CHACK!*

    "!"

    Without even a second had passed, extremely long figures came out of all the gaps, shooting in the direction of the surrounding stars, with their bodies still in the gaps, making it appear that instead of moving, they were simply stretching.

    Seeing these figures, specifically, the ''head'' of these, Jay couldn''t help but think of a certain simrity they had to some smaller beings.

    ''My... little ones?'' Jay thought, a confused expression on his face.

    Starting at the head, a row of extremely sharp teeth decorated what appeared to be the mouths of these beings, followed by small eyes and a body that despite being much longer than that of his little ones, waspletely the same.

    As for how many of these hade out, there were two per shelf, so their number was in the tens.

    It was as if these were an enormously elongated version of his little ones, whose function didn''t seem to be to assimte, but something Jay was about to discover.

    Barely a minute had passed, but these long parasites had already traveled a great distance in this seemingly infinite space, and the stars, as fast as they were, were still slower than them.

    Finally, the inevitable happened, and one of these parasites hit a small star.

    Then, an unmistakable sound was heard.

    *GULP!*

    And with that, the star had been devoured by the parasite, causing several stars to immediately start moving faster for fear of being devoured in the same way.

    On the other hand, Jay, although he was surprised by this and was about to ask something to the system, could notice that in the body of the parasite that had devoured the star, a lump had begun to move down its body.

    Slowly but visibly, this lump continued to move down until it reached the part where the parasite''s body was connected to the hole in the shelf.

    A momentter, the lump disappeared from Jay''s field of vision, but almost simultaneously, there was a change on the shelf.

    *Pop!*

    With that sound, the wall of the bookshelf spat out a book that fell gracefully onto the shelf.

    Obviously interested by this, Jay then reached over and grabbed the book off the shelf.

    It was incredibly thin, the number of pages it contained barely being a couple at a nce, but the most interesting thing was not that, but the title on the cover.

    ''Smell of wet earth after rain...'' Jay read in his mind,ing to a realization of what exactly the system meant by organization.

    Opening the book out of curiosity, Jay noticed that there was an image printed, of a small field of wet earth in cloudy weather, but before he could say anything or close the book, a certain scent came to his nose.

    "Oh my..." Jay said, speaking for the first time inside Kai''s head, proof of how surprised he was thanks to how real the scent seemed.

    Leaving the book on the shelf, Jay then moved his gaze to the surroundings, where the long parasites had already approached many more stars, devouring them and causing many more books to appear on the shelves.

    This caused a certain question to pop into Jay''s head, who was quick to let the responsible for this know.

    ''System, open question, will this be detrimental to Kai in any way?'' Jay asked, watching as the amount of stars gradually disappeared.

    Although Kai was a perfect stranger to Jay, it wasn''t as if thetter was seeking to erase his memories or control his mind either, he was simply trying to get to see what the limits of his new ability were.

    Therefore, he decided to ask the system just in case.

    [Answer: The organization process ispletely safe for both the [Carrier] and the target individual, with the only dangerous variable being the [Carrier] itself damaging the library.

    Rmendation: Please don''t break anything.]

    Reading that, Jay then felt a bit more relieved, as he had been worried that perhaps the moment he severed the connection with Kai, he would be left without memories or something simr.

    Now without that worry on his shoulders, Jay then decided to continue watching as the long parasites continued to devour more stars.

    In that way, this library, which had originally been empty, was now gradually filling up.

    However, not only the bookshelves were having a striking change, but also the canvas in the center of the library.

    "Heh, that''s curious..." Jay said.

    On the oversized canvas, now more than half of Kai''s face was drawn, as an indication of who these memories belonged to.

 Chapter 136 - Gathered In One Place

    After a few minutes, the whole process had beenpleted, and now the library was filled with colorful books of various sizes.

    From those containing dozens and dozens of pages, to those like the first book that had appeared, with just a couple of pages.

    However, if one had to mention which part of this library was the most striking, it would undoubtedly be the painting in the middle.

    Nowpleted, the painting showed a Kai with a smile on his face, with the shades of color used to create the painting being vibrant colors, radiating a feeling of happiness towards the people who saw it.

    "Really interesting... I wonder if it has something to do with his personality...?" Jay wondered, not exactly understanding how this painting worked.

    That was one of the many questions Jay had, hardly even knowing where to start with so much information present.

    It wouldn''t be wrong to say that this was a whole new world for him, but before rejoicing, the first thing he needed to do was clear.

    ''Now... I should probably cut the connection, right..?'' Jay thought, entering into a doubt about what he should do now.

    There was no doubt that [Mental Network]''s potential coupled with the system''s oragnization gave rise to an enormous amount of possibilities for him, as had just been demonstrated, presenting all the information avable in Kai''s mind ready for Jay to examine.

    However, while this had all started with Jay trying to influence Kai and bing a little too curious as he failed, he was hesitant with moving too many things around here.

    The mind had always been a tricky andplicated subject, both for people without powers and supers, making it so that among the branches of magic and the countless esper abilities, the ones that provoked the most fear in people were those that could affect, in one way or another, the human mind.

    There had been more than a few cases in which an inexperienced magician or even a child esper with little control of his ability would have caused an enormous amount of trouble by the simple fact of being able to damage the psyche of another person.

    Most of the time, this did not end well even for the powerful supers who resolved these issues, leaving them with after-effects that only time could heal, and sometimes, even that did not help.

    With this, one could see why the subject of the mind was usually treated as something sensitive, because in reality it was.

    It was for this reason that Jay had to be extra careful with this, as now, with his [Mind Network] ability, he had entered the category of people who could affect the mind of others.

    ''Just as the system said, the only variable here would be me, so if I''m not careful, I could cause irreversible damage...'' Jay thought, pondering seriously and considering the option of leaving things here.

    The next moment, he let out a sigh and looked around, noting the massive amount of books filling the shelves, their colorful covers immediately catching his attention.

    ''...Although, I''d better do a couple of tests before I leave, to get used to this... besides, I haven''t really reached the limit yet...''

    Thus convinced, Jay then temporarily discarded the idea of just looking around and then began to ask the system several questions, all concerning things he could do here without damaging Kai''s mind.

    To his surprise, the system assured him, over and over again, that unless he actively started breaking things here, there would be no harm done even if he opened every single book.

    Now without worries, Jay lost his care and began to read through a few books trying to figure out the way they were organized, whether they wereid out randomly or if they were divided into categories.

    Unfortunately, thetter did not turn out to be true.

    The way it was organized was strange, as it seemed to bepletely random but at the same time it gave the feeling that there was a reason for this.

    ''Hm, It looks like it will take me a long time to assimte all the information here...'' Jay thought,ing to that conclusion judging by the time it had taken him to read only a few books.

    While he really would like to spend more time here, not only was there the risk of someone else finding him just as Nico had done, but because he was also starting to feel slightly exhausted.

    Therefore, although reluctantly, Jay knew that it was time to wrap things up.

    At once, Jay put down the book he was reading and moved to the center of the library, right in front of the column containing the Kai''s painting and sat down on the floor with his eyes closed.

    The [Mind Network] then received a clearmand to all who could hear it, that is, all his little ones, and the content was simple, "Help me with this."

    Although it might seem like a vague message, to the parasites, it was a message they understood perfectly.

    After saying that, a wealth of information began to pour into Jay''s head, all being rted to how the parasites influenced someone.

    Of course, this wasn''t an instruction manual or anything like that, but simply an amalgamation of instincts and sensations that his little ones were kindly transferring to him over thework.

    Jay''s face changed to that of a grimace of pain, a product of trying to understand something that was beyond his capabilities.

    After all, parasites could do this so naturally that it was as if they were breathing, and the effect they managed to have on people was exceptional.

    Jay, on the other hand, no matter how much his body had changed, was still, for the most part, human.

    "...Ouch..."

    After a short time, this exchange of information reached the point where Jay couldn''t take it anymore, however, he didn''t want to do something like ignoring or blocking the information, not when he felt like he was about to achieve a breakthrough.

    It was a fleeting feeling that vanished as quickly as it came, but the most important thing was that it was there.

    *THUMP!*

    A loud sound that even seemed to move the entire library for a second suddenly rang out in the surroundings.

    However, as loud as it was, Jay, either because he was concentrating to the extreme or for some other unknown reason, apparently hadn''t heard it.

    By this point, Jay''s mind was in chaos, with unfamiliar sensations popping up one after another and instinctsing from organs he didn''t have numbering in the dozens.

    The more time passed, the worse his condition became, but despite this, Jay didn''t seem to want to sever the connection, at least not yet.

    *THUMP!*

    Again, the sound returned, with the same force as before but with noticeable differences, as now it seemed somewhat softer.

    At the same time, earlier this rumbling had only managed to shake the library, but now it had actually caused small cracks in several columns and shelves, a sign of the power it contained.

    Even then, Jay didn''t really seem to notice this, no matter how loud it sounded or how much damage it caused all around.

    Thus, with Jay suffering from trying to do something his body was not designed to do, the rumbling simply continued, getting louder and louder.

    Until finally...

    *TU-THUMP!*

    With that peculiar rhythm of twice in a row strangely simr to a heartbeat, the sound echoed every so many seconds, and the library now had huge cracks all over the columns and bookshelves.

    As for Jay, he no longer seemed to be in pain, but truly, he had been able toprehend some of the information his little ones shared with him!

    Slowly opening his eyes for fear that perhaps hisprehension was slipping his mind, Jay''s vision was filled with the library...or at least that was what he expected.

    "..."

    In front of him, several pairs of eyes were staring at him, belonging to no one but all the long parasites that had helped organize the library.

    The looks on each of their faces were filled with curiosity and another emotion that he didn''t know exactly how to describe, but at least he knew it wasn''t a negative thing.

    It was a curious sight for sure, but it wasn''t the most striking thing Jay could observe, as at this moment, the library had changed tremendously.<novelnext></novelnext>

    From the floor, to each of the bookshelves, everything was filled with huge cracks, leaving a disastrous scene where even books adorned the floor.

    And from each of these cracks, what appeared to be a red-colored mass was slightly peeking out from each of them.

    *TU-THUMP!*

    "!"

    This time Jay did hear it, and not only that, but he could also see how the red mass trembled at the same time the heartbeat sounded.

    Instead of being scared or anything like that, however, curiosity filled Jay, who immediately got up and approached the cracks.

    The next moment, he touched this mass.

    "Ah... I see."

    Almost instantly, perhaps because of the familiarity he had with parasites or because he was the [Carrier] of the Parasyte System, Jay was able to identify what this was.

    But before he could say anything, a notification from the system appeared before his eyes.

    _____________________

    [Hidden Achievement Unlocked: "Early Discovery"]

    Description: The [Carrier] has managed to do something that is above their current capabilities, as to whether this is bad or good, this will depend on the [Carrier].

    Effect: Percentage of species (Human) has been adjusted to 50%.

    _____________________

    However, this notification was only the first toe, because as soon as he finished reading it, two other notifications appeared, one was congrattory and the other... was a request.

    _____________________

    [Congrattions to the [Carrier] for sessfully awakening a new type of parasite!]

    Description: Whaty sleeping in the library, hidden in in sight, has been unexpectedly awakened prematurely, now, the [Parasite: Mental Dominator] searches for the one responsible!

    Reward: 1 [Parasite: Mental Dominator]

    Remark: Maybe... it''s a little early...?.

    _____________________

    Reading this as fast as he could, Jay suddenly felt a shivere from behind his back, which forced him to quickly turn around.

    And it was at that moment that he saw the new parasite, which was nothing more than arge eyeball whose green pupil was not conspicuous enough to ignore the fact that the bottom of this eye was attached to the ground.

    With the base of this eyeball being connected to the ground with the same red massing out of the cracks, it was clear that this was the one causing the cracks in the library, as well as the one controlling the longer parasites.

    Despite the parasite beingpletely indifferent, Jay couldn''t help but be surprised, especially by thetest notification from the system.

    _____________________

    The [Parasite: Mental Dominator] is requesting ess to the [Mental Network].

    Grant permission for the parasite to enter?

    [Y/N]

    _____________________

    Faced with this, Jay was in trouble, as he really didn''t know how to respond to this, especially considering the name of this parasite.

    *BOOM!*

    At that moment, an incredibly loud noise echoed in the surroundings, but this time it wasn''ting from the library or anything like that, it wasing from outside.

    "...Something''sing!" Jay eximed as he rushed to return his consciousness to his body.

    Even though most of his attention was focused on other things, he hadn''t forgotten for a moment that he wasn''t alone in the forest.

    Therefore, it was no surprise that his response was quick, especially if he could sense with his vitality radar how something unfamiliar was approaching at high speed.

    Having returned to his body, Jay then pinned his gaze in the direction of the forest where he felt the vitality signaling from, a great current of wind beginning to surround his body.

    *SWOOSH!*

    "!"

    Suddenly, arge object shot out of the forest, forcing him to move to avoid being hit by it.

    *BAM!*

    A loud sound rang out after this object hit a tree, before falling to the ground and bing motionless.

    "..."

    With this action alone, Jay had beenpletely dumbfounded, a shiver bigger than the one he felt with the [Parasite: Mental Dominator] came to his body.

    The reason for this, or rather, reasons, were easy to answer.

    First, the ''object'' thrown at him had been no one other than a girl Jay was already familiar with, Faith, who was enveloped by a cloak of glitter that was what appeared to be an attempt to defend herself.

    Second, there was the fact that just dodging, an action he was good at thanks to his physique and martial technique, had still required so much concentration on his part that he even had to cut the connection with Kai.

    And finally...

    *Crash!*

    With trees being broken, a tall, slender figure appeared from within the forest, dragging two different people with each of their hands, this people being Vilda and Tom.

    Jay''s pupils then dted at the sight of this figure, his vitality radar giving him an urate measurement of the energy it possessed.

    "...(B) rank..." Jay said as each of his senses sharpened to the maximum.

    Thus, all the people present in the forest finally gathered in one ce.

 Chapter 137 The Humanoid Monster

    At the same time that the pale humanoid monster emerged from the shadows of the numerous trees in the forest, Jay''s mind was working at its best.

    Immediately, Jay opened his energy expenditure window at the same time as he did a quick count of all the parasites in his body.

    He then focused his vitality radar on all the people present, starting with Vilda and Faith, but not forgetting Nico, Kai or Tom, fortunately, all of them were alive.

    With that out of the way, his train of thought in this situation was simple... all ending in running away.

    Maybe if he had been a rank (C) monster, he could have at least tried to make time for the others to wake up and deal with it together, or just defeat it himself using his trusty Overload.

    However, in this situation, neither of those options were viable.

    *Swoosh!*

    The wind ruffled to help Jay who had leapt backwards in Faith''s direction. The esper''s gaze was still locked on the monster, who was also not letting Jay out of its sight.

    Quickly, Jay reached Faith, and without waiting a second longer, he lifted her onto his left shoulder and began to run at full speed.

    For this, he didn''t hold back, using both the energy of his little ones as well as his wind control and Phantom Trace.

    He really wanted to help the others, especially Vilda, but faced with such a dangerous and stronger opponent, Jay knew that the only option they all had to survive involved leaving them here temporarily.

    The monster, seeing this, simply stared at Jay''s back as he ran away, in its eyes an almost imperceptible curiosity as it slightly tightened its grip on Tom and Vilda.

    Passing tree after tree, even though he had already used a good amount of energy on the whole Kai thing, Jay didn''t look like he was going to slow down anytime soon.

    Instead, what he did was to order several of his parasites to move inside Faith, but not to see things like their status or so on, but so that they could share as much of their energy with him as they could.

    Despite the risk of the situation and that Jay had definitely been afflicted by the encounter with a monster of such rank, all was not lost, as he was able to think of a way to be able to get out of this.

    The forest was a considerable distance away from the city, that was true, even taking rank (C) supers a short time to get there.

    However, this was because normally, rank (C) supers really had no reason to use everything they had for such a short distance.

    If they were serious about it however, the journey from the city to the forest would take them at most a couple of minutes.

    And to Jay''s luck, he had a rank (C) super with him, if you took into ount that he was running in the direction of the city, then all he needed now was for Faith to wake up and get out of the forest to call for help while he did his best to distract the monster.

    It was not going to be an easy task by any means, but it was the only way out he could see in this situation.

    At that moment, thanks to the fact that there were more than a dozen parasites sharing their energy with her, Faith began to wake up.

    "U-ugh..."

    Without pausing, Jay spoke, "Faith, I don''t know what you''re doing here, but I already know what you ran into and I need your help so we can get out of this."

    However, instead of a response, Faith instead just stared at him for a couple of seconds, as if not quite understanding what was going on.

    Faced with this, thanks to his little ones inside of her, Jay already knew where this was going, so with his free hand, he moved the bandages that were covering most of his face.

    On another asion he would have protested or thought a couple of times about his attire, but now was not the time for that, so he just exined what he had nned.

    "Faith, I know about the humanoid monster, and I have a n to escape, I need you to head to the city at your top speed while I distract the monster, we''re about to reach the forest edge, so save your energy for the time being."

    "Um..."

    It took her a moment to process all of this, as thest memory she had was the monster in front of her as she was using her ability to hide before slipping into unconsciousness.

    However, instead of raising any more questions or such, what she did was blink a couple of times as she thought about what Jay had told her,

    She looked like he was about to say something, but paused and nodded, "Fine, I''ll do what you say."

    With that exchange of words as thest between them, Faith concentrated on gathering energy while Jay, in addition to continuing to run, took it upon himself to assist the first mentioned in her task, at least with his little ones.

    With this, one would think that the reason why Jay was sweating profusely was because of everything he was doing, however, the truth was otherwise.

    Turning his gaze back every so often, Jay couldn''t help but hold his breath each time he did so because of the uncertainty of not knowing if the monster would be there.

    This was both a concern and a motivation for him, after all, he also hadn''t forgotten that the longer he dyed, the more at risk the others were, which urged him to run faster.

    And he was not alone in sharing this feeling as Faith was also feeling something simr, but she was forcing herself to bury her doubts to avoid making mistakes.

    Quickly, the density of the forest began to thin, with fewer treesing into view, an indication that they had already emerged from deep in the forest and were getting closer to the city.

    Seeing this, Faith then began to move while still on Jay''s shoulder, "I think here would be fine, you can put me down now."

    Agreeing with her, Jay slowed gradually as he shifted Faith around, moving her from his shoulders to his arms to carry her princess style.

    To other people, perhaps this might seem intimate, but perhaps because of the situation they were in or because of each other''s personalities, this was not the case with both of them.

    Finally, there were only a few trees that indicated the end of the forest, being especially tall and thin with oddly shaped branches which produced an unexpectedlyrge shadow.

    "Then-"

    *SHRR!!!*

    "!"

    Being interrupted by Jay, who stopped short, Faith couldn''t help but go into confusion as to why he had done so, bringing her gaze up to the aforementioned''s face.

    What she saw then was Jay standingpletely still with his gaze riveted on one of the trees.

    The next moment, at about the same time that Jay''s grip on Faith tightened, he turned and began to run in the opposite direction.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Due to the suddenness of this movement, Faith could do nothing but be carried away by Jay, barely catching a glimpse in the direction they both were facing until a moment ago.

    And when she did... a shiver ran through her entire body.

    In the shadows of the trees, what had appeared to be a tree was actually nothing more than the same humanoid monster that was forcing them to flee the forest.

    This monster, realizing that its camouge had been discovered, moved slowly, separating its incredibly thin silhouette from the tree''s shadow and revealing itself more clearly, its empty eyes staring at them both.

    "...It can''t be... it''s another one of them...?"

    Faith couldn''t help but ask a question stemming from her disbelief that the monster could move so fast without being noticed by either of them.

    "No, it''s definitely the same one..."

    Using a more serious tone than usual, Jay confirmed Faith''s concern, though that didn''t mean he didn''t have his own doubts.

    Starting with what kind of monster it was, Jay had flipped through his mental encyclopedia of all the monsters he knew, failing each time to find even one monster with simr characteristics.

    Of course, the knowledge he possessed about monsters could notpare to that of a real encyclopedia, let alone that of an expert, but still, it was somewhat strange that he did not remember even a hint about this monster.

    This would undoubtedly be the most disturbing aspect of this unknown monster, were it not for the next doubt Jay had.

    Which was... what exactly did this humanoid monster want?

    Jay had originally thought that its intention had been to eat them or at least kill them, after all, that was what monsters normally did when they saw a human.

    Adding to this the fact that it had thrown Faith against a tree, as well as dragging Tom and Vilda, didn''t help at all.

    The cherry on top of the cake was this seemingly simple act of appearing in front of them, which showed that its speed far exceeded what Jay could do in his current state, so catching them was an extremely simple thing to do for it.

    However, that did not seem to be its intention, as both the first time he encountered it and this time, the monster in question just stood still as it watched them go.

    Thus, the confusion Jay had was only increasing with time, and what was worse, he really didn''t have time to think about this in more detail, as he needed to think of another way out of this situation now that his first ''n'' failed.

    "...Ah!" At that moment, at the same time as she was jumping around a bit, Faith came up with something and started checking her pockets before asking Jay a question, "Jay, let''s use our smart watches!"

    "...Right! Use yours to call for help while I''m running!"

    The reason they were running was to call for help as fast as possible, thinking it was the only solution, when if he had only stopped to think for a moment, he would have realized that a much easier way had been under his grasp all this time!

    Immediately, Jay couldn''t help but contemte what an idiot he was for not having thought of something so obvious from the start, though of course, that didn''t mean he wasn''t a bit relieved.

    Having checked her pockets several times, Faith, making thest attempt, turned to Jay with an apologetic expression, "...I...I don''t have mine, I seem to have lost it earlier..."

    "Use mine then, it''s on my left wrist, the password is 8365." Jay replied, to which Faith wasted no time and hurried to lift Jay''s sleeve to pull out his smart watch.

    Hidden under ayer of tight bandages, Jay''s smartwatch came into view, with enough battery tost for many more hours without having to recharge.

    "Well-"

    *SWOOSH!*

    From one moment to the next, no sooner had Faith touched Jay''s smartwatch than a strong breeze hit them both at the same time as a figure appeared beside them, forcing them to stop.

    "!"

    To the right of them both, with its imposing but gaunt tall figure, stretching out its slender, sharp fingers, the humanoid monster was holding Jay''s wrist, or specifically, his watch.

    *Crack*

    And with that sound, despite Jay and Faith trying to move and avoid it respectively, the smartwatch was destroyed.

    However, even though they were unable to react in time to prevent the destruction of the watch, they were able to react in time to act against the monster.

    Jumping out of Jay''s arms, Faith activated her ability, surrounding herself with a glowing golden aura, with most of the glow concentrating on her fist.

    *BAM!*

    A small explosion then erupted from the collision between Faith''s fist and this creature''s chest, which, in addition to leaving a burn mark on its chest, had also pushed it away a bit.

    Raising her fists close to her face and putting her right foot forward, Faith faced the monster, the energy in her body running rampant.

    It was clear she had made up her mind to face the monster.

    "Jay, seize this moment to-"

    "NOPE!"

    "Ah!"

    Shouting that, Jay then grabbed her by the hips before lifting her up and putting her on his shoulder before starting to run again, which caused Faith to let out a small squeal of surprise.

    The race had started again, however, this time, there was something different, and that was that Jay was going at a much faster speed than before!

    If anyone was watching him move at this moment, they could notice how every so often, his silhouette seemed to disappear and reappear periodically.

    Of course, this had nothing to do with his wind control ability, but was actually the product of Jay using the 5th and 6th step of the Phantom Trace.

    As for how this was possible without him having activated the Overload ability, this was because with the humanoid monster so close, Jay had been forced tomand his little one who was storing a special type of energy in his body to release it.

    As a result, at this moment, Jay had qi coursing through his body, further increasing his physical capabilities!

 Chapter 138 A Black Liquid

    ''This qi... feels warm...'' Jay thought as the aforementioned energy coursed through his body.

    He didn''t know exactly if it was his perception or if the qi really was hot, but what couldn''t be denied was how different it feltpared to the energy of his little ones or when he used his wind control.

    Both belonged to him, he knew that well, but they worked differently.

    While his wind control felt refreshing and mystical, this one was warmer and more violent, fitting considering what kind of super this one belonged to.

    He wasn''t going toin either, after all, more energy would never hurt, especially in situations like this.

    The only bad point about it might be, he really wasn''t an expert hiding his energy, so it was possible that someone would notice that he was using qi.

    ncing at his energy usage window, Jay could see that his total energy bar had increased a bit.

    While Jay was busy, the girl on his shoulder, who was watching to see if the monster was chasing them, couldn''t help but voice one of her doubts, "You''re going faster than before, were you holding back...?"

    Because the speed at which Jay was going increased noticeably, for a rank (C) super like her, it was something quite obvious to notice.

    "You could say that..." Jay replied, not wanting to borate and hoping that the esper wouldn''t notice the qi current inside him.

    Faith didn''t say anything for a few seconds, which could be taken as her being content with the answer, if it weren''t for the fact that she was looking sideways at Jay.

    From her intense gaze full of curiosity, it was clear that she was analyzing him as much as she could.

    "...Why did you stop me before?" Asked Faith suddenly, "My attack managed to hurt it, which means its vulnerable to my attacks, I think the two of us could have defeated it."

    It was a considerable change in attitude, considering that only a few minutes ago she was just as tense as Jay, but after exchanging a blow with the monster, her confidence had visibly improved.

    At this, Jay couldn''t help but raise an eyebrow, as he thought that like him, Faith understood that while by appearance the humanoid monster didn''t appear to be as imposing, this was a monster in a much higher league than both of them.

    "What are you talking about, that obviously belongs in the (B) rank, we are no match for it." Jay said matter-of-factly.

    Now looking directly at Jay, Faith replied, "...That... couldn''t be? His body wasn''t that strong, and while admittedly its speed is incredible, itcks everything else, especially energy."

    By this point, Jay was getting suspicious as to whether they really had had the same monster out front, since what Faith was saying, at least thest bit, wasn''t true.

    After all, he had confirmed it with nothing less than the radar of his little ones, who had never been wrong when making a judgment call.

    This led him to think that perhaps the one having trouble detecting the monster''s energy was not him, but Faith.

    As to why this was happening, Jay could already get an idea, and it had to do with the senses of an average esper.

    Surpassing the pugilists butgging behind the mages, espers had a natural sense for being able to sense the energy of other living beings.

    The power and precision of this sense, while always present in the espers, as with their abilities, was something that depended as much on the talent and practice of the esper as on the rank to which they belonged.

    Thus, the senses of a rank (D) esper could not bepared to that of a rank (C) esper and so on.

    Still, it was something that most espers, especially those exceptional ones, such as academy students used to be able to gauge the energy of their opponents, since in a fight, the more information one possessed, the better.

    However, Jay, having a much better alternative, which was the radar of his parasites and the system itself, always put this sense of his on the back burner.

    One could say that it was remiss of him not to pay attention to this as it was his thing and not the system''s, and they would be right.

    But in this specific situation, Jay couldn''t help but think that he made the right decision, as otherwise, he would have tried to confront the monster just as Faith did, not knowing that the monster was (B-) rank.

    Unfortunately, right now was not a good time to set out to find out why Faith couldn''t sense the monster''s energy, so Jay decided not to delve any further into the subject.

    Looking in a certain direction, Jay spoke, "Just... trust me, besides, even if it were true and it was (C) rank, you''re missing something very important... that thing just broke my smartwatch when we were about to call for help."

    At the end of his sentence, Jay''s tone of voice couldn''t help but turn to one of mockery, as to whether he wasughing at the situation or something else, only he knew.

    "...Yeah, you''re... you''re right, that level of intelligence does not belong to any rank (C-) monster.."

    For a moment, Faith stood still and said nothing as she narrowed her eyes, but shaking her head slightly, she quickly agreed with Jay.

    Noticing a little difort inside Faith thanks to her little ones, Jay asked, "Are you okay?"

    "Sorry, I think I used a little too much energy on myst attack." She replied.

    It was a bit odd for a super like her to have energy problems after throwing a single punch, but feeling that she wasn''t lying, Jay decided to leave the subject there.

    "By the way, we''re heading to where the others are right?" Faith asked.

    "Yes, even if our watches are broken, at least one of them should have theirs intact, as for if the monster tries to break it again... this time we''ll be ready." Jay replied with a confident tone, or at least as confident as he could be in this situation.

    This was normal, after all, he didn''t exactly know how to prepare to try and stop a (B) rank monster, which apparently just seemed to be toying with them.

    Thanks to the erratic behavior the monster was disying, that was the conclusion Jay hade to, and while he was thankful it wasn''t taking them seriously, it was also a cause for concern.

    For that meant that the monster was sure that none of them were really a threat, so it could afford to take its time with them.

    Letting out a sigh, Jay took a look at his energy levels, seeing that if he continued at this rate, it would only be a few minutes before he would runpletely dry, with his breathing bing ragged as a sign of exhaustion.

    This did not go unnoticed by Faith, who neither short norzy, said to Jay, "I can run on my own now."

    "I know, but I want you to save all the energy you can for the moment, you''re my trump card against that thing." Jay said.

    "Thanks but it will be in vain for me to be at 100% if you''repletely drained." She replied, not wanting to let Jay work that hard.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Faith was aware that even if Jay was a super with a strong physique, charging her while running at top speed for an extended time was bound to cost him a fair amount of energy.

    It was a good argument, though even with that, Jay seemed reluctant to let Faith waste energy unnecessarily, something she noticed and apparently expected.

    "...If you still don''t want to...there is a way we could both benefit and maybe hold out longer against the monster." She said, watching Jay''s face to observe his reaction.

    Without her needing to say more, Jay already knew what she meant, she wanted to establish a "link" between the two of them again.

    Something they had only recently attempted, a technique that only a few espers with extremely highpatibility could achieve... or at least that was what it seemed at first nce.

    The reality was that this was due more to Jay''s little ones than the aforementioned technique, but the effects were the same or stronger.

    Of course, he wasn''t going to tell Faith this, as it wasn''t necessary for her to know, but what he was doing was considering what she had said.

    Slowing down a bit at the speed he was going, Jay "...Okay, let''s do it, but let me stop for a moment then, so we can concentrate."

    Jay was looking for a ce for them both to stop for a moment, but Faith, suddenly putting both hands on his shoulders, interrupted him.

    "No need, you just keep running and leave it to me." Saying this, she proceeded to lift her bodypletely, using Jay''s shoulders for support.

    "Woah!"

    The next moment, she wrapped her legs around Jay''s abdomen, and her arms around his neck, all for a better grip and to increase the physical contact they needed to establish the link.

    Thetter could be seen especially in Faith''s hands, which were wrapping almost entirely around Jay''s chest underneath the bandages.

    Then, with a smile on her face, Faith began to move all the energy in her body to make contact with Jay''s.

    Now with that out of the way, Faith stopped talking and instead focused on strengthening the connection she had with Jay.

    "How... efficient." Jay said, feeling the new source of energy connected to his body.

    For him, it was like a cool breeze of wind on a hot day, giving him a little break from running non-stop.

    Again, Jay''s speed slowly began to increase, his pugilist''s body no longer being powered only by his own or his little ones'' energy, but by Faith''s as well.

    Thanks to this, even though they had to take a turn because of the monster''s interruption, the time it would take them to reach their destination was considerably shorter.

    ***

    A few minutes had passed, and after running while being careful not to make too much noise, they arrived where Jay had left the others.

    However, what they saw when they arrived was not what Jay remembered.

    Jay had expected to see them all in the same ce or at least a couple of them, but to his surprise, there was only one person present.... Vilda.

    He was sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree, with his head looking down and both legs and arms immobile.

    To the naked eye, there didn''t seem to be anything wrong with him, but to Jay, he could sense as clearly as day what was wrong.

    ? "Vilda!" Jay shouted, quickly approaching towards the esper, with Faith, who had already climbed off Jay''s back, following close behind.

    The reason for his urgency was nothing more or less than Jay, with his radar, felt Vilda''s energy draining at a terrifying rate.

    For some reason, even though Vilda was unconscious, he was losing more energy than if he were awake and using his ability to the fullest.

    Hence the urgency of Jay, who without wasting any time, infected Vilda with more than a dozen parasites before opening his status window.

    _____________________

    [Vilda Lundell]

    Active Skill: Shadow Control (D+)

    Condition: Wounded (Left Side), Sick, (Unknown Disease), Weakened...

    Parasites: 17

    Assimtion Status: 0% (2% per day per parasite) (Currently blocked by the [Carrier])

    (Warning: This host has been infected by an unknown disease, it is rmended to act with caution).

    _____________________

    "Faith, a little light please!" Asked Jay, to which Faith did not refute and hastily wrapped her fist in light.

    *Shrip!

    Tearing open the shirt Vilda was wearing, Jay''s pupils dted as Faith stoodpletely still for a moment in front of the sight in front of them.

    All over Vilda''s upper body, every single one of his veins were visible on his now extremely pale body, with each vein being a deep ck.

    Most of these veins were thin, but the closer they got to the left side, the thicker they became, some even getting to the point of rupturing.

    Finally, what was undoubtedly the source of this, arge wound in the shape of a missing piece of flesh on Vilda''s left side, with all the flesh around it having turned a ck color and expelling a ck liquid.

 Chapter 139 The Black Liquid Was Actually...?!

    "...How horrible."? Her expression turning sour at the sight of Vilda''s condition, Faith squinted to examine the esper more closely.

    Jay on the other hand, having already activated his [Mental Network] ability, was trying his best to try to fix Vilda''s energy leak.

    His little ones were split into two groups, one that was tasked with bestowing energy on Vilda, and another that was going over the inside of his entire upper body, focusing especially on the wound.

    As workers in a much less than suitable workce, the parasites were quick to let Jay know their displeasure at having infected Vilda''s body in this state.

    Thanks to Jay being connected to the [Mind Network], he was receiving theseints directly to his head, but even so, Jay didn''t relent one bit, so the parasites only continued to reluctantly carry out their tasks.

    Crouching down as her eyes began to glow, Faith also began to examine Vilda before asking, "Is it safe for you to touch him?"?

    It was a reasonable question, after all, the surrounding ck liquid emanating from Vilda''s wound really didn''t seem like something a person, super or otherwise, would want toe into contact with.

    What was more, the system itself confirmed to Jay that Vilda was sick, so Faith''s question took on even more force.

    Unfortunately, contact was something he couldn''t avoid, for as long as his little ones could work, Jay had to be touching Vilda, otherwise, the parasites would be trapped if something went wrong.

    "I''m not sure, but I can''t leave him like this." Jay replied, not taking his gaze off Vilda.

    "...I understand, then, let me help you."

    With those words, Faith also ced her hand on Vilda''s body and began to share her energy.

    She, though not as urately as Jay, had also sensed that the person in front of them was going through a pretty serious energy drain, so she couldn''t think of a better idea to help him except for sharing energy.

    Slowly, Faith''s golden energy began to fill the esper''s body, helping Jay in this task.

    Normally, the effectiveness of this process would depend greatly on thepatibility between Faith and Vilda, but thanks to an unknown factor, namely Jay''s parasites, the connection was a sess.

    "Thank you." Jay replied, giving a few moremands on his [Mind Network] to a few more parasites that had been released thanks to Faith''s help.

    With this, Vilda was now out of danger of running out of energy, but this was a temporary solution, as the energy leak was still happening, only now it was consuming other energy sources.

    And until they found the source of why this was happening, they would have no choice but to keep doing this.

    ''It''s got to be that ck liquid, I''m sure of it... but I''d better ask the system for a solution...'' Jay thought, starting to ask the system questions.

    Although he really wanted to treat Vilda, he was not a doctor or anything like that, so to avoid making mistakes that could make the situation worse, it would be better to ask someone who was the closest thing to a doctor at the moment, the system.

    Meanwhile, the parasites, under Jay''s order, were now gathered around Vilda''s wound, all not really wanting to get too close and having as little contact with the ck liquid as possible.

    One of these parasites, especially brave, got closer than the others to the wound, releasing energy every now and then while identifying the unseen wounds.

    It was noticeable that this specific parasite was less afraid of the ck substance than the others, which exined why it was willing to get so close, although it also continued to avoid the ck liquid just in case.

    Little by little, the parasite got closer and closer to the wound, reaching a point where all the paths it could see were filled with the ck liquid, even the one it hade through.

    Thanks to that, noticing that it hade as far as it could, the little parasite decided to retreat, opening a new path on its own.

    *Chak*

    "!"

    However, the moment it dug its teeth into one of the fleshy walls, as if it had broken a water pipe, ck liquid began to pour out in droves.

    Quickly, the little parasite tried to move out of the way, but unfortunately, no matter the direction, all paths were blocked by the same liquid.

    In a matter of seconds, the whole ce was filled with the ck liquid, submerging the parasite in it.

    Normally, for parasites, which moved through the human body like fish in water, a little liquid would be no problem to move, however, this unfortunate parasite... seemed to have stayed still underneath all the ck liquid.

    Observing this, the other parasites, without waiting a second longer, started to move in order to help the parasite, losing all the care they had for the ck liquid and even being willing to dive into it to help the parasite.?

    Of course, this event was shared in the [Mental Network] by the other parasites, so it reached Jay, who fortunately, had also finished asking the system questions and was able to focus his attention on what had happened.

    Manifesting his will on the [Mental Network], Jay instructed the others not to dive into the ck liquid as they intended, but to start tunneling throughout Vilda''s upper body.

    As to why he didn''t want his little ones to have contact with the ck substance, aside from their own repulsion they seemed to feel for it, it was because he didn''t want to put them at unnecessary risk.

    The final part would be for these tunnels to be connected to the wound, all so that all the ck liquid could be concentrated in one ce and then forced out.

    Considering how deep this liquid had gone into Vilda''s body, it would undoubtedly be a difficult task, but thanks to the [Mind Network], Jay was sure they could pull it off.

    Letting out a sigh as he went over what he had to tell his little ones, Jay proceeded to give them more precise instructions, ''Now then-''

    *CHIK!*

    However, before he could say anything, a loud signal on the [Mental Network], apanied by an audible sound of something wet moving inside Vilda interrupted him.?

    Emerging from within the small pool of ck liquid that had trapped it earlier, a parasite made its way from there to another side of Vilda''s body, specifically, to the wound on his left side.

    It was also worth mentioning that aside from its greater-than-normal speed, its size had changed, now being slightlyrger than the other parasites.?

    This came as a surprise to both the other parasites and Jay, with everyone sensing how in the [Mind Network], this parasite was repeating over and over again for the others to join him in interacting with the ck liquid.

    The parasites, on the other hand, simply stayed where they were, not knowing exactly what to do, although it also had to be mentioned that the enthusiasm the first parasite was showing was infectious as some parasites were looking convinced by the first parasite, Jay could feel it in the [Mental Network], while others were confused.<novelnext></novelnext>

    In any case, the gazes of all the little ones rested on Jay, with some asking for instructions, others asking for exnations and thetter resembling children asking permission to be able to go y with the neighbor''s child.

    Bringing his gaze towards the cause of this, Jay moved his hand in the direction of where the first parasite was before sending a single message on the [Mind Network].

    ''Enter.''?

    With that, although the parasite was still happy, there was no denying that its mood had dropped a bit as it seemed to it that Jay''s message was on its way to a scolding.

    Entering Jay''s body again, as the parasite prepared to receive a scolding, the voice of the first mentioned began to be heard on the [Mental Network].

    ''I want to thank you for working so hard and being so brave, but please don''t ever do something like that again.''?

    After saying that, Jay proceeded to examine the little parasite with the help of the system, with thetter staying still.

    Thanks to Faith being nearby, he couldn''t do anything really over the top, but fortunately, Jay didn''t have to do much as the system soon gave him an answer that surprised him.

    _____________________

    Answer: After a simple analysis, it has been determined that the ck liquid is an incredibly nutritious embryo of an unknown creature specialized in dealing with [Humans].

    Growth Rate: 4% (Estimated time remaining -2 weeks, 4 days.)

    Rmendation 1: Obtain more samples from the embryo for further analysis.

    Rmendation 2: Although parasites normally feed along with the [Carrier], extra sources of nutrients are always appreciated.

    _____________________

    After reading the system''s warning, Jay couldn''t help but turn to see the ck liquiding out of Vilda, now in a new light, ''...So this is... an embryo...''?

    Undoubtedly, with this discovery, Jay could understand why the monster hadn''t killed them... because it wanted to reproduce using them!

    Thinking about this, an unpleasant feeling began to fill Jay, who without much more thought, returned the parasite he was examining to Vilda''s body before giving a simplemand to his little ones through his [Mental Network].

    ''...Guide them.''

    "!!"

    With that, all of the parasites, under the leadership of the parasite Jay released, began charging towards the ck liquid, their previous displeasure and hesitation havingpletely disappeared thanks to their partner''s enthusiasm and Jay''smand.

    *Chack! Chack!

    Soon, the sound of small bites began to be more conspicuous in the vicinity, and at the same time, Vilda''s ck veins were returning to their original color.

    "What''s going on...?" Faith asked, who, being so close, could hear and feel something happening inside Vilda.

    Rising to his feet, Jay replied without looking at Faith, "It must be his body acting to counteract the infection."?

    This answer hadn''t been for her to believe him or anything, it was simply an answer and that was it, anyway, Jay knew he wasn''t going to be questioned any further at this point either.

    "!"

    A moment after Faith had frowned, a shiver ran down her back, forcing her to stand up and turn around.

    Among the trees, simr to the first time they had met, the humanoid monster was emerging from the shadows, its tall, slender figure slowly advancing.

    "...I guess we''re out of time to look for the others and use their watches..." Faith said, not taking her eyes off the monster.

    "That won''t be necessary...look at its right arm." Jay replied.

    Following his suggestion, Faith could see that on the monster''s right arm, four smart watches were attached, with each of these cracked on the front, making it more than clear that they were broken.

    "And that''s why it took so long toe here... it really seems like a joke." Jay muttered, a resigned smile appearing on his face.

    While he was thankful that the monster took his time as it allowed him to deal with Vilda''s condition, or at least a part of it, he couldn''t help but feel discouraged.

    *Swoosh!*

    The wind, once again, began to rampage, with the currents moving the leaves of the trees and the bushes on the ground.

    However, this was not all, for with the wind, a sh also began to illuminate the surroundings, causing at least in this area of the forest, the darkness to recede.

    It was clear, both esper now knew that they could no longer run away, and from the start, they activated their abilities in order to use them to the fullest.

    In response, the monster merely moved forward slowly, one step at a time, dragging its sharp ws on the ground.

    "Jay, we''ll get through this, I know it." Faith said, looking at the esper out of the corner of her eye.

    "...Sure we will." He replied.

    And just like that, without another word, they both simply fell silent as the energy in their bodies erupted violently.

    Now, the battle was about to begin!

 Chapter 140 A Particular Rhythm

    *Bam!

    Before long, the sound of blows had bemonce in this part of the forest.

    Moving at a high speed, two figures were exchanging blows as theirbat location constantly shifted.

    One of these figures was tall and slender, with several burn spots illuminating its body, making iteasier to distinguish in the shadows of the forest, despite its seemingly unwavering silence which not even the heavy burns seemed to be able to break.

    In contrast, the person responsible for the burns was quite the opposite, not only needing no help to be visible in the forest, but also making a great deal of noise with her attacks.

    *Bam!*

    Again, Faith managed to connect another blow against the humanoid monster, leaving another burn mark on its body.

    However, this offensive act had cost her, leaving her in an unstable and open posture for any kind of attacks.

    *Crash!*

    In less than a second, the monster replied,shing out at incredible speed, containing a force that despite not having made contact with the trees, only the resulting wind managed to cut them down.

    To its bad luck, the trees were the only thing it managed to cut, as only a moment before it attacked, Faith''s figure vanished in front of its eyes.

    "Ha!"

    *Bam!*

    With a small sound, another fiery blow from Faith made contact with the humanoid monster, this time on its back and with enough power to even move it a little.

    The monster, of course, turned again, just in time to see Jay''s figure, which was right behind Faith, quickly disappear into seeming nothingness.

    "..."

    Though it didn''t let out any sort of sound, it was clear that the monster had its own thoughts about this, and if one had to guess, one wouldn''t be far wrong in thinking that the direction of these thoughts went towards the word "Interest."

    The monster remembered that at the time it had encountered the blonde human, it had simply required one blow to send her flying and cause her to fall into unconsciousness.

    However, now that it wanted to repeat the same process, no matter how many times it tried, it didn''t seem like it was going to work, so it had to try other things or.... try harder at what he was doing.

    *SWOOSH!*

    "!!"

    Immediately, the humanoid monstershed out again, but this time at a much faster speed than before, causing a surprised reaction from Faith.

    *Crash!!!*

    Again, trees were cut down, only this time it wasn''t just a few, but dozens of them, all having fallen victim to the monster''s attack.

    Still, in the surroundings, only cut logs scattered on the ground were visible, Faith''s figure was nowhere to be found.

    "..."

    Though no sound came from the monster, its gaze slowly swiveled until itnded on a certain part of the forest, one that had been untouched by its ws and still had plenty of trees, but more importantly, a ce from which both Faith and Jay seemed to be appearing out of nowhere.

    "Haa...haa" Letting out a breath, Jay set Faith back down on the ground before squatting down to rest, "It''s damn fast..."

    Also crouching down to share her energy with Jay, Faith replied, "You''re no slouch yourself... it''s amazing that you can carry me and react to the monster''s attacks in the nick of time."

    Just as she had said, the way they had been fighting the monster so far was through teamwork.

    Thanks to the monster''s rank (B) physique, Jay''s attacks, even being reinforced with his wind control, even though he could move at high speed, didn''t have the slightest effect on it.

    On the other hand, Faith''s attacks, as could be seen on the monster''s body itself, were strong enough to leave after-effects, indicating that they were effective.

    Unfortunately, her physical capabilitiesgged behind her skill, so while she had been able tond a couple of hits on the monster earlier, it was only when Jay began to support her that things seemed to turn in their favor.

    Making full use of the Phantom Trace martial technique properties, now with his new source of qi, Jay could truly live up to the name "phantom ".

    Jay had been doubtful whether this martial technique, being amon and low level technique ording to James, would work against a rank (B) monster, but to his pleasant surprise, it worked wonders.

    Though of course, if one took into ount that he had already been running non-stop for quite some time, doing this did nothing but deplete his already low energy reserves even faster, keeping him at a very dangerous margin.

    His exhausted breathing and the sweat on his body being clear proof that even with Faith''s energy, it was doubtful whether he could keep this up for much longer.

    This was especially true considering that Faith, for both their sakes, couldn''t afford to run out of energy either.

    All in all, the atmosphere could not help but be heavy, with both espers doing their best in an uncertain fight against an enemy who clearly did not take them seriously.

    Something that even Faith, who didn''t have as good a vitality radar as Jay, having exchanged a few more blows with the humanoid monster, also realized.

    Raising his head suddenly, Jay quickly brought his gaze to where they had left the monster, "...This..."

    Still sharing her energy with him, Faith was surprised by Jay''s reaction, "What''s wrong?"

    Not immediately answering the esper''s question, Jay kept looking in the direction of the monster, trying to see through the shadows, a confused expression gradually filling his face.

    As for the reason for his confusion, it was because the monster, at this moment, had started to move at an insane speed!

    ''What?''

    That question popped into Jay''s head as he felt the humanoid monster, rapidly, moving out of his radar range.

    Its speed and agility was shattering, already having disappeared from both of their sight and only being visible to his radar as it blended into the shadows of the trees.

    Until finally, it was off Jay''s radar.

    Now without knowing their exact position, worry began to fill Jay.

    He didn''t know what the monster was nning, but it didn''t take a genius to realize that whatever it was, it wouldn''t be good for them.

    Staring in the direction the monster had gone, Jay braced himself for the worst, the energy along with the qi inside him filling every part of his body so he could react instantly.

    Simultaneously, he stood up, preparing to grab Faith at any moment.

    *SWOOOOSH!!!*

    The next moment, a hissing sound reached both of their ears,ing from the direction the monster had fled at the same time that a signal reappeared on Jay''s radar.

    *BAM!!!*<novelnext></novelnext>

    "ARGH!"

    Before the esper could react, a figure rushed past him at breakneck speed, crashing into Faith and causing her to let out a scream.

    The force of this crash was such that it threw her more than ten meters into the forest, with her by sheer luck not crashing into any trees.

    "Shit!"

    Wasting no time, Jay turned as fast as he could, activating thest steps of the Phantom Trace at the same time, his figure disappearing as he moved towards where Faith had shot out.

    "!"

    However, the moment he took the first step, he felt a shiver run down his spine, his instincts screaming a specific phrase.

    ''I''m in danger!''

    *CRASH!!!*

    With a thunderous sound, a shockwave from dangerously sharp ws cut through all the trees in the area.

    Having suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the humanoid monster stood with its arm outstretched, having justunched what had undoubtedly been its strongest attack yet.

    This time, the cut was not only much wider and faster, but it also had to be mentioned that it was not clean.

    If one looked at the trees and the parts that were cut, one could see that instead of presenting a clean cut, it was more like they had been forcibly separated, with fibers from the trunks sticking out in clumps.

    ''F*ck!'' Seeing this, Jay was thankful that he had ducked at the precise moment.

    Just with this move on the monster''s part, Jay was filled with questions, but of course, this was not the time to answer any of them.

    After all, the humanoid monster was already moving again.

    Its slender arm came down at incredible speed, forcing Jay to again use the Phantom Trace, barely managing to escape by a hair''s breadth.

    This was the same tactic he had been using to help Faith, disappearing with the martial technique to escape, something that had worked as the monster, despite being rank (B), seemed unable to detect him.

    This time, to his bad luck, it didn''t happen that way.

    While Jay''s figure faded and he concentrated on quickly increasing the distance between the two, he had not taken his eyes off his opponent.

    Thanks to that, he could see perfectly how the monster''s cold gaze, albeit ever so slightly, was following him.

    Then, to his surprise, something happened that would leave Jay, for a long time, with an incredible amount of questions.

    The monster began to walk towards him, but its pace was unusual in that it was not a normal walk, but was following a certain specific and strangely familiar rhythm to Jay.

    It was an erratic movement that had gone unnoticed normally, but to Jay, who expected anything from this monster, he realized what was going on.

    For that very reason, the expression on his face changed to one of utter shock.

    Utter shock, for the fact that at this moment, the humanoid monster was replicating the first and second steps of the Phantom Trace!

    *BAM!*

    "GAH-!"

    At a speed where he couldn''t even see iting, Jay received a heavy blow to his chest which immediately cancelled his own Phantom Trace.

    Even though all the trees in the vicinity had been cut down by the monster itself, it didn''t take long for Jay''s body to crash hard into another one of them, releasing an audible cracking sounding from his back.

    *Crack!*

    "-!"

    With the air having been forced out of his lungs, Jay could not even gurgle the shortest words to express his pain.

    His entire rib cage, both front and back, was in extreme pain, to the point where it was difficult to do anything else.

    As for what his specific injuries were, it wasn''t necessary to look at his condition with the system to know that something was very wrong with his body.

    The sound of something breaking along with the great pain indicated that at the very least, he had already broken a couple of ribs, proof of the immense physical strength of the humanoid monster.

    "AHHH!"

    In the midst of his pain, a woman''s scream suddenly was hearding from the other side of the forest, followed by a strong golden glow that at moststed a couple of seconds.

    After that short time, an eerie silence filled the forest.

    Moving his body with difficulty, Jay slowly, with his body being flooded with excruciating pain, struggled to stand up, "Faith...!"

    At this point, things like saving energy and the wounds on his body immediately took a back seat.

    He had to act, and he had to act fast.

    Although he had had to resort to leaning against the tree on his back, he managed to get to his feet, Jay gathered what little qi was left in his body and again prepared to use the Phantom Trace.

    *Swoosh!*

    However, just as he was about to move, Jay noticed movement from the forest, something was approaching him at high speed.

    Thanks to the fact that he had seen it in time and was already prepared to use his martial technique, Jay could dodge it if he wanted to.

    But in this case, he didn''t move even an inch, but instead opened his arms and braced himself to meet the impact.

    *BAM!*

    Due to the speed of this object and the fact that Jay was in no condition to receive such a blow full on, his body was forced backwards until it mmed into the tree again.

    This, of course, further aggravated the wounds he had and made him see stars, but to him, that wasn''t important right now.

    Slowly getting on his knees, Jay''s face was filled with a mixture of emotions, including bitterness, anger and remorse.

    In one smooth motion, he lowered Faith''s body, which now had a horrific wound on her lower torso, the degree of it was such that it made Vilda''s look like something light.

    The final detail of this was that there was really no blood, but rather the ck liquid with which Jay was already unfortunately familiar.

    In just a moment, this fight had taken a disastrous turn for the worse.

 Chapter 141 Not A Single Trace

    In the middle of the night, the bronze city, much like the day, was also alive at night.

    Although there were not as many students walking the streets, certain establishments were still full.

    One such establishment was none other than the training center, where there were still students in the hallways as well as in the practice rooms.

    And in the halls, with her figure standing out from the other students, a girl with long straight ck hair was making her way as if it were her home.

    Though her expression was nonchnt, it was clear from the air around her that her mood was not good at all, something students nearby noticed and took note of before avoiding getting in her way.

    "Just... how did they do it." Syvis muttered, in her mind present the memory of the moment Faith and Jay had managed to form a link.

    It was no longer just that she had a problem with Jay having chosen the blonde esper over her, but the fact that the two of them had aplished something that, in theory, only certain privileged people could do.

    This was what angered her even more, that someone like Faith, who she considered an annoying person who surely made it to rank (C) by sheer luck, had aplished something that Syvis herself hadn''t been able to do.

    How was it possible that she herself, someone who had always been praised for her talent as an esper, could not achieve something that her peers could?

    It was already one thing that she had remained in the city of bronze, that was something she could ept, since it was the criteria of the academy itself and she knew better than to question those results.

    But that a student from the bronze city, especially Faith, actually managed to perform a technique among espers before her, was something that had struck a chord in her.

    It was this blow to her pride that had kept her all day, after she got out of ss, in one of the special energy control rooms for espers.

    Although she didn''t have a partner to practice with yet, watching Jay and Faith do it, she thought it wouldn''t be hard to pick up the feeling, especially for someone as talented as she was.

    However, despite spending several hours trying to make her energy as ''friendly'' as possible, she was unable to maintain it for even a couple of seconds, indicating that she was failing at something.

    With a somewhat bitter feeling in her mouth, Syvis could do nothing but retreat and return to her residence.

    Though of course, this didn''t mean she was giving up or anything like that, but rather that she was going to postpone this training until tomorrow, and preferably, with a partner.

    Thinking of a partner''s face, she couldn''t help but think of Jay, but remembering that the person in question had teamed up with Faith, anger surfaced within her again.

    "Urghh..."

    "Hey."

    At that moment, a handnded on her shoulder, with a particrly strong grip, making it clear that it wasn''t going to let go of Syvis anytime soon.

    Bringing her gaze back, still being with the anger of remembering Jay''s ''betrayal'', she couldn''t help but have a hostile expression on her face, "What?!"

    However, upon turning, what she saw was nothing more than the face of a rather familiar person, who responded to her hostile gaze with her own wild grin.

    "Such wild eyes, I like that!" Said the training center instructor.

    Being taken by surprise to meet her boss all of a sudden, Syvis quickly changed her attitude, "Instructor, I''m sorry, I didn''t recognize you."

    Putting her arm around the esper''s neck, the instructor simply chuckled before replying, "It''s okay, rather, I see you''ve continued to do a good job with the nts, good there."

    "Yes, thank you, I have been..."

    With that exchange, the two then began a conversation as they moved toward the residence.

    In a couple of minutes, instructor and student arrived at the residence, heading towards the living room to continue their conversation about both work and other less important things.

    "Right, your partner, Sacrest, doesn''t seem to be around, he sure is a restless guy, going out at night, do you know where he is? I wanted to talk to him too." The instructor asked as she didn''t feel Jay''s energy either at the residence or at the training center.

    At the mention of said esper, Syvis stood still for a moment, but putting a nk expression on her face, she replied, "Ah, not really, he''s always minding his own business."

    Syvis'' response was normal, however, in front of a rank (B) pugilist like the instructor was, it was as clear as day that something had happened between the two of them.

    The instructor didn''t know what it was since she had been busy, but considering they were young, it was probably just some youth drama, so she didn''t think much of it.

    "I had to talk about something important with both of you, but I guess I can exin it to you and then you pass the message along."<novelnext></novelnext>

    As she finished saying that, the instructor pulled a small map from her pocket and spread it out on the table.

    On its surface was drawn in luxurious detail the entirety of the bronze city, plus a good portion of the outskirts, covering approximately one or two kilometers around.

    Finally, the most striking part was that there were dozens and dozens of different colored glowing dots scattered throughout the city, with most being orange, others blue and only a handful green.

    "This..."

    Although she didn''t know what it was, Syvis could sense that there was some kind of special energying from the map.

    "It''s nice, isn''t it? It''s a magical artifact specially made by the academy to be able to monitor the position of the students in the academy." Said the instructor rxedly.

    Hearing this, Syvis was a bit amazed, not at having a magical artifact in front of her, but at what the artifact in question could do.

    Noticing her curiosity, the instructor was quick to begin exining the reason why she was showing her this map.

    After the events of the chimera attack, the management had decided to further increase their surveincework over the students, all in order to better prevent such situations.

    However, they could no longer relypletely on the teachers because they were, without a doubt, limited, especially in a city as popted as the bronze city was.

    In this case, although the number of teachers was in the dozens and the number of assistants being just over a hundred,pared to the thousands of students that inhabited the city, they fell short.

    To this end, they thought that instead of increasing the level of surveince of teachers and assistants, which they were already doing, they would also make use of the vast number of students to also help them increase their range of surveince.

    And the way they were going to do this was with none other than this magical artifact which was a downgraded version of the map that the teachers had ess to.

    Of course, it wasn''t that they were going to give it to just any student either, but to those who, in some way or another, were in special positions where they saw arge flow of students.

    And for this criteria, the training center''s cleaners, namely Jay and Syvism, passed with flying colors.

    As for the strength of these, that was not important, as they were not chosen to deal with unforeseen situations, but to alert a teacher or assistant.

    Waving her hand over the map, the instructor then pointed to the colored dots, "The orange dots are you students, the blue ones are assistants and the green ones are teachers, you can also identify monsters of any kind, although there doesn''t seem to be any close right now, they are red in color."

    While the instructor mentioned it simply, the reality was that none of these functions was something easy to achieve even for a super of rank (B), but was aplex job with dozens of magical formations behind it.

    With this alone, Syvis again reaffirmed that the academy was on apletely different level from what she was used to seeing.

    Now with her initial surprise being reced by curiosity, Syvis asked, "This... could this also be able to be used to search for a specific person?"

    Hearing this, the instructor, instead of asking why, just smiled broadly and proceeded to ce her hand on top of the map, "Of course it can, although this function is only avable if certain requirement are met, that you have to have had contact with the person in question at least once. We don''t want you abusing this to harass someone either after all, and notice that doing so will result in expulsion."

    Making clear the consequences of misusing this artifact, the instructor continued tapping the map.

    "Now then, how about we try it out, let''s see what your partner is doing at this time of night."

    Saying that, the map began to glow slightly, with all the dots, regardless of color, quickly disappearing.

    Gradually, only a few dots remained, which, after a few seconds, also disappeared.

    Finally, only one orange dot remained on the map.

    With a satisfied smile, the instructor rested her gaze on Syvis, "See, that''s how you.... do it?"

    However, she had to cut her sentence in half, with a surprised expression filling her face.

    "...What the hell?"

    Now with the smile wiped off her face, the instructor closely inspected the map, which, it had to be mentioned, no longer had a single bright spot on it.

    At this moment, in the surroundings of the bronze city and in the bronze city itself, which were drawn on the map, there was not a single trace of Jay.

 Chapter 142 We Will Kill You

    Back in the woods, the situation with Jay had not improved at all.

    "Come on, let''s go!"

    In the midst of all the darkness, Jay''s urgent and desperate voice could be heard echoing in the surroundings.

    His urgency was not only palpable in his voice, but also in his physicalnguage, with his posture being tense and his eyes moving from ce to ce on Faith''s body.

    Of course, this was apletely natural reaction, after all, the situation he was dealing with was incredibly worrisome.

    With his eyes releasing an extemely faint green glow and veins appearing on Jay''s face, it could already be seen the degree that he was using the system''s ability, [Mental Network].

    Simrly as with Vilda, what he had to do was clear, get all the ck liquid out of Faith''s body by making use of his little ones.

    This would be easy if it weren''t for two reasons, starting with the fact that the number of his little ones was now quite limited.

    In order to treat Vilda, he had put quite a lot of parasites into Vilda''s body, as he was in serious danger, leaving him with only enough to activate his abilities.

    Now that he was using his [Mental Network], he could only afford to move just a handful of them, so he didn''t even know if he would be able to perform a proper cleansing.

    What reinforced this thought, or rather, the reason for this thought, was that the infection Faith suffered from the ck liquid was... much deeper than Vilda''s.

    This was to the point where the ck liquid almost seemed topletely rece the blood in her body.

    At this point, Jay didn''t even have time to make a sarcasticment about the situation, devoting every ounce of his attention to guiding his little ones through the cleanup.

    *Shss*

    Suddenly, the sound of a bush moving could be heard behind him.

    Thanks to his radar and given the location he was in, Jay didn''t need to turn around to know who this footstep belonged to.

    The humanoid monster was suddenly appeared behind him, its imposing figure blocking the little moonlight that had so far been helping Jay illuminate his view.

    Jay didn''t even bother to turn around, however, and continued to attend to Faith.

    This, of course, was apletely careless and dangerous attitude that he really wouldn''t dare even if the opponent was a weaker monster.

    But the reason for this was as simple as it was tragic.

    In Faith''s status window, in the section that normally listed all the injuries of the person in question, a single sentence was written.

    ''Currently at risk of death.''

    Never had Jay taken a system message more seriously than he did right now, with that being the main reason he was so dedicated to helping Faith.

    It was true that for Jay, he could hardly call Faith a friend, barely being able to be considered acquaintances.

    Other than her name and her ability, he knew nothing about her. If one went a little further, it would not even be wrong to call them strangers.

    From someone else''s point of view, going after Vilda and leaving her here was a better option, not only because Jay did consider Vilda a friend, but because he could also pick up more of his little ones.

    With that in mind, there was no denying that it was a viable alternative.

    However, even with that, Jay didn''t think for a moment about abandoning Faith.

    The reasoning behind this was due to something Jay had discovered when he first started treating the esper.

    The degree of infection Faith had was unusually high, and he had assumed it was from the attack of the humanoid monster just now, as all the clues pointed to that.

    However, although that attack had been responsible for much of the damage, it was not the reason why the ck liquid had advanced so far.

    Because he was connected to his little ones as they were doing extensive cleaning and checking every part of Faith''s body, Jay was able to notice how on the hands of the aforementioned, there were dozens of needle sized wounds that continued down to her arms.

    The outside of each of these wounds was burned, as if it had been purposely singed to stop the bleeding that would otherwise escape from there.

    So far so good, but the problem began when one looked inside...t hat everything was filled with arge amount of particrly thick ck liquid.

    Apparently, Faith, when she had contact with the monster to be able to hit it, it had taken advantage of it to infect her.

    And she clearly had to feel it, but for one reason or another... she had kept quiet, struggling without onceining.

    *Tap*

    The monster''s footsteps sounded again, now positioning itself right at Jay''s back, something his radar confirmed.

    The distance was too short, with both of them being only an arm''s length away from each other, with the only reason why he didn''t feel the monster''s breath on his neck being thetter''s height.

    Thanks to this, the tension Jay was feeling increased considerably, being between a rock and a hard ce.

    Unfortunately, he couldn''t move, as if he stopped tending to Faith, he knew that her body wouldn''t hold up for long on its own.

    *Tap tap*.

    "!"

    However, just as Jay was about to attempt to run away with his Overload, the monster entered his field of vision, surrounding both him and Faith.

    The next moment, the monster slowly sat down, staring at Faith''s body, especially the part Jay was working on.

    This action immediately caught Jay''s attention, who wasn''t expecting this kind of behavior at all.

    Bringing his gaze upward, the esper was able to appreciate better than ever the appearance of this humanoid monster.

    Although its figure was humanoid, it was as clear as the day that it was not a human being, but a monster, with its empty eyes and almost skeleton-like body being the most striking part.

    Jay didn''t know what it had nned, but because of how delicate Faith''s situation was, he simply epted things as they were and went about his business.

    Right now, anyway, both he and Faith were in the monster''s hands.

    Slowly, the parasites, apparently having recognized that the body they were in belonged to Faith, were cleaning up the ck liquid much more aggressively and enthusiastically than before.

    It was as if they too were concerned about Faith, wanting to get her healthy as quickly as possible, not just on Jay''s orders.

    This did not go unnoticed by Jay, who felt their support and appreciated it before continuing to give it his all.

    With them working together, the amount of ck liquid inside Faith''s body, despite being quite a lot, began to diminish at great speed.

    Faced with this, Jay couldn''t help but rejoice slightly, as the closer he got to finishing cleaning Faith, the further she moved away from the heavy "Risk of Death" state.

    Being connected in the [Mental Network], his joy and relief was also shared to his little ones, who, motivated, began to work more fervently.

    ***<novelnext></novelnext>

    After about five minutes, Jay had all his attentionpletely focused on Faith, several beads of sweat falling from his forehead.

    He had already cleaned out most of the ck liquid inside Faith, now only the mostplicated part of all remained, the heart, which had be the ce where most of the liquid had lodged.

    The parasites were moving slowly as they continued their cleansing, not only because they were being careful not to consume something they shouldn''t, but for another reason.

    So far, they had been taking orders from Jay with no problems, buttely, the parasites felt the orders he was sending were getting slower.

    If they went any further, it was clear, Jay was weakening.

    Even though the esper also had several of his little ones giving him energy, he was expending it at a higher rate than he was receiving it thanks to the [Mind Network], not to mention also the mental toll this was taking on him.

    While he wasn''t going to admit it, nor was he going to stop treating Faith, his head had been hurting for a while now, with a mild but constant ache present at all times.

    Add to this the fact that his body was starting to run out of energy, making it heavier, and things were not looking good at all.

    Fortunately, it was almost over, and if he continued at this pace, it would only take less than a minute until all the ck liquid was eliminated.

    So, even though he was reaching his limit, for Jay, this was not the time to stop.

    *Tap*

    Suddenly, the humanoid monster, which had been watching everything from the side, moved, bringing its face closer to Faith''s body, and by consequence, Jay''s.

    Curiosity and interest filled its vacant eyes, which even seemed able to see what was happening inside Faith.

    Sensing the movement with his radar, this got on Jay''s nerves, who had his eyes closed to concentrate better, but because he was at a crucial point in the treatment, he did nothing else.

    ''Just a little more...!'' Jay eximed into his [Mental Network], the order being slow and ambiguous but reaching the other parasites as well.

    Quickly, the [Mental Network] was filled with mixed emotions, such as nervousness and relief, for even though they all had to be careful, they could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

    *SPLASH!*

    "!"

    However, abruptly interrupting both Jay and the parasites, an event outside caused them both to shift the focus of their attention.

    Opening his eyes, what Jay saw was arge amount of ck liquid on top of Faith''s body, covering her almostpletely.

    The monster''s figure, or rather, its ''mouth'' being right on top of the esper, with residue of the ck liquid it had just spit out.

    "..."

    *Tap*

    With its goal aplished, the monster then returned to its original ce as it stretched out its arms, pointing at Faith.

    Slowly, Jay''s gaze locked onto the monster, followed by many more pairs.? Jay said absolutely nothing in the face of this, his mind racing a mile a minute.

    But it wasn''t necessary, after all, allmunication was happening not with words, but with thoughts, through the [Mind Network].

    Again, and again, and again, an emotion began to run through the [Mental Network], with Jay and each of the parasites epting itpletely.

    As Jay watched Faith''s condition deteriorate in her status window, he finally managed to say words that expressed not only his intention, but also that of his little ones.

    "We''re going to kill you."

    *BOOM!*

    Immediately afterwards, a great current of energy began to emanate from Jay.

    Streams of wind began to move violently in the surroundings at the same time as the presence of qi increased tremendously.

    Without warning, Jay''s figure then disappeared from the monster''s sight, who was alerted by Jay''s sudden increase in power and became on guard.

    At inhuman speed, the monster''s pupils began to move, desperately searching left and right for Jay.

    What the monster didn''t know was that the esper was no longer on the ground, but was now high in the air, his gaze, which now gave off an emerald glow, locked on the monster.

    Then, his whole body moved to perform a move he had been practicing for quite some time.

    *BAM!*

    "!"

    The monster''s body, having received a strong kick to the head, was forced to lower its head, where the wind, originating from the point where the kick made contact, began to cut its skin as it formed a spiral.

    *SWOOSH!*

    With the monster resisting the force of the standing kick, the wind became even more rambunctious, wanting to take him to the ground at all costs.

    Normally, Jay, with only his physique enhancement to rank (C-), wouldn''t be able to do something like this, but in this kick had been mixed in everything he had.

    From his wind control, the qi in his body, the attack he copied from another pugilist, and the near perfect coordination he had with his little ones and their energy.

    As for why the synergy was so unusually high, it was because this time, the opponent was not only Jay''s enemy, but also the parasites.

    Finally, the power of the initial kick along with the wind began to lose power, and the monster was about to break free of it.

    *Swoosh!*

    Again appearing out of nowhere, Jay''s figure appeared in front of the monster, who upon noticing him, instantly broke free from the wind and moved to attack him.

    Simultaneously, bothunched an attack, the monster using its sharp ws and Jay using his trusty kicks coated with wind.

    *BOOM!!!*

    It was a loud crash that even seemed to shake the surroundings, but sooner rather thanter, the winner of this contest of strength made himself known.

    "!!!"

    *BAM!*

    With another loud sound, the monster... had been thrown towards a nearby tree!

    "WE SAID WE''D KILL YOU AND THAT''S WHAT WE''LL DO!!!"

    With that shout, the esper, wasting no more time, in his strongest state yet,unched himself at the monster.

 Chapter 143 A Desperate Attack

    After chasing the monster, Jay began to unleash a flurry of attacks on it, throwing his safety overboard.

    Each of his blows carried with it incredible speed and power, which added to the fact that Jay was aiming for the parts of the monster''s body that were burned, achieved an unexpected result.

    *Chack!*

    With that sound, for the first time, the monster''s blood was spilled, a product of Jay''s cutting wind.

    In front of this, even though the monster was not able to show facial expressions, one could feel how surprised it was.

    In all its time of hunting, despite having faced many other humans, with most being even stronger than this one, it couldn''t help but feel its body getting excited.

    Possessing a great ferocitybined with the vitality that only a young human would be capable of, all mixed with his desperation in trying to get out of this situation.

    A desperation that had even led him to the fact that despite being much weaker than itself, he was able to inflict a wound to its superior body!

    For some reason, this made its blood run even hotter, the monster, at this moment, couldn''t ask for a better prey!

    *BAM!*

    Another sh ensued between the two, with Jay refusing to even give the monster a break and continuing his assault.

    *Swoosh!*

    Again, the wind shifted strongly from the sudden movements of both Jay and the monster, both of which had simultaneously used the Phantom Trace.

    The monster''s figure moved at breakneck speed, with its incredible physical abilities now being enhanced by the first and second step of the martial technique, it almost seemed to even fade away.

    On the other hand, Jay, now being inplete synergy with his body and energy, disappeared without a trace.

    As a result, for a moment, with both having seemingly vanished, the forest fell silent.

    *Swoosh!*

    Suddenly, the monster came to an abrupt halt and swung its ws, slicing through the air just a couple of meters ahead of it.

    *TRSHH!*

    Immediately, the sound of something being torn apart was heard, the source being Jay who was just appearing in front of the monster.

    Now knowing how the technique Jay used worked, the monster had managed to keep up with him,unching an attack that predicted his route and as could be seen, in a way, it had managed to hit its target.

    However, instead of flesh, what the cut had hit had been nothing more than the bandage surrounding Jay''s left arm.

    Notgging behind, Jay had seen through the monster, and the moment it appeared, he had braced himself for impact, putting his arm forward to protect himself.

    The bandage, even though it had now beenpletely shredded, like the magically-protected item propelled by a rank (B) mage that it was, even against such a strong opponent, did its job, protecting Jay from losing his arm.

    Seeing this, the monster rushed tounch another swipe, but to its bad luck, Jay was already too close.

    For some reason, it had a bad feeling, so just this once, it decided to use all his power to move.

    *Swoosh!*

    With an incredibly fluid movement, the monster positioned itself, in an instant, at Jay''s back, ready to attack again.

    "!"

    This had been, of course, to take him by surprise, however, appearing right in front of him, barely a few inches away, the esper''s face could be seen.

    Apparently, he had also prepared himself for this move of his.

    With a scowl on his face, his glowing emerald eyes managed to stand out in all the darkness, with these beingpletely filled with an intent that the monster could perfectly sense.

    It was an intent to kill.

    Without waiting another second, Jay hit the monster with everything he had, this time connecting the blow directly against the monster''s jaw.

    However, this time the monster did not immediately fly away as before, but its body, for a moment, put up resistance to Jay''s blow.

    The physical force behind this blow was considerable, but what made Jay''s attack dangerous was not only the first contact, but what came after.

    The next moment, starting from the base of his shoulder, a swirling stream of wind ran all the way up to the monster''s face.

    *BOOM!*

    And that was when, despite its reluctance, the monster, again, was sent flying as its body spun.

    Already having changed the area where they were fighting, the trees became full again, with their sturdy trunks blocking almost all directions.

    As a result, the monster crashed head first into a tree, with some unpleasant soundsing from its body.

    With his gaze shifting to the direction the monster had flown off in, Jay again began to prepare to use the Phantom Trace.

    "!"

    However, at that moment, just as he had managed to gather the necessary energy, his body came to aplete stop.

    "...Argh! F*ck...!"

    Muttering those words with great difficulty, Jay then fell to his knees on the ground.

    Immediately, he began to clutch his chest tightly, his face contorting in pain as he felt as if a wave of knives were running through his entire body.

    Simultaneously, his mouth filled with a metallic taste that could only indicate one thing, the wounds on his body began to take their toll.

    Although he had used the [Overload], which had increased all of his physical capabilities to an incredible level, that did not mean that the wounds inside him had disappeared.

    Whatever the ability had caused, as reluctant as Jay was, it had only aplished one thing, and that was to give him a chance to further dy his defeat.

    Now, after using hisst resort, it was time to pay the price.

    His muscles were tired, his insides were a bloody mess, and his mind was inplete chaos from the repeated and intense use of the [Mind Network].

    Finally, the cherry on top of the cake, the incessant system warnings that his energy levels had dropped to an all-time low.

    Apanying these messages was the ever-present pressure of something else, something inside him that although he didn''t know what it was, was growing at an elerated rate.

    Although this was the first time Jay had felt this, he had a vague inkling of what this was, and he didn''t like it at all.

    This feeling that seemed to want to flood his entire body wasn''t because of his injuries by any means, but was something else, something unexinable that made even Jay nervous.

    So much so that Jay refused to lose against it, using nothing but sheer willpower to stay conscious.

    Whether he could concentrate on that or not, however, was not up to him, but to someone else.

    *Crack!*

    Far away from where he was, the sound of bones crunching suddenly sounded from the forest, specifically, from the direction of the monster.

    The next moment, a strong gust of wind blew past Jay, indicative that right now, Jay was no longer alone.

    Amidst all his grief, the esper slowly raised his gaze upward.

    Standing in front of him with its imposing figure, the humanoid monster was looking down at him from above, but with a visible change in its figure.

    Its head, which had beenpletely unharmed before, had now been forcibly turned to the left, making it obvious how unnatural this was.

    Apparently, the esper''sst attack had had a much greater effect than expected.

    *Bam!*

    "Argh!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Without waiting a second longer, Jay was forcibly lifted off the ground, being grabbed by the neck, rising quickly until his gaze was level with that of the monster.

    Gathering every ounce of strength remaining in his body, Jay managed to grab with both hands the arm that held him captive.

    Unfortunately, in his weakened state, this served as nothing more than a futile attempt at resistance.

    "G-GAH!!!"

    With his throat being gradually squeezed, Jay could do little more than let out small sounds as he felt his consciousness fade.

    As for the one responsible for this, the monster, now one could no longer see in its eyes the interest from before, but a silent anger at Jay.

    Apparently, the esper''sst blow had truly seeded in making him enraged, for the first time showing some emotion in its empty eyes.

    "Ah...u-ugh..."

    Between reluctant sounds and limp grips, Jay, helplessly unable to do anything in this situation, finally couldn''t take it anymore... and fell into unconsciousness.

    Immediately, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, all the strength left his body, including his arms, which had been clinging as best they could to the monster''s arm, falling.

    Despite his desperate resistance, the result was one that could already be expected, thisbat had ended with the monster''s victory.

    Now with its objective aplished, the monster did not continue to choke Jay, but instead, still holding the esper in its grip, began to walk deeper into the forest.

    ***

    After a couple of minutes, now the terrain surrounding the monster waspletely new, with the forest being in an untouched state and without any sign of a fight.

    Leaving Jay on the ground and making sure that he was between the borderline of living and dying, the monster then shifted its gaze to one of the nearby trees.

    This particr tree stood out from the others because of its sheer size, measuring over 10 meters and with a trunk thick enough that even two people wrapping their arms around it wouldn''t be enough to fully embrace it.

    *Crash!*

    The monster then dug its ws into the trunk and began to excavate the wood, slowly forming an oval-shaped hole.

    This action barely took a few seconds, so having finished with it, it stood up while holding its still twisted head with both hands.

    The monster had dyed it until now, but the time hade to fix this wound.

    *Crack!*

    With a fluid motion, releasing an unsettling sound, the monster returned its skull to its original position.

    Although it hadn''t made any sound or shown any expression of pain, this had really hurt, which made its anger at Jay increase even more.

    However, that thought dissolved at the same time that from its ''mouth'', a ck liquid began to leak out.

    Evidently, its excitement at infecting what had been its most interesting prey so far was so great that it was even beginning to manifest on its body.

    The monster then decided to pick up the body of its victim and turned around.

    "!"

    However, the moment it did, surprise took over its body.

    Standing in the middle of all the darkness, Jay, the very person the monster swore it had left at the point between life and death, was staring at him.

    This time, it was the monster who did not understand how this was possible, it was no longer just the fact that he had stood up without even a shred of energy on him.

    But also, even with its senses superior to those of a super, if it hadn''t turned around, the monster wouldn''t have noticed this either!

    *Swoosh!*

    Now moving at full speed, the monster was now determined to end this once and for all, positioning itself right in front of Jay to slice through his flesh and crush his bones.

    Either way, dead or alive, the esper would serve its purpose just the same.

    *CHACK!*

    With that sound, Jay''s chest was pierced by one of the monster''s hands, with the wound being so bad that it only needed a little more to go through his body.

    Now with this, the monster was sure he wouldn''t be able to get up again, that was how humans worked. The monster had already proven it dozens of times, this was a mortal wound that not even supers could recover from without help.

    "..."

    But still...

    Still...

    Why was it that the monster, being the one who had obviously won, was now feeling an incredibly strong sense of difort?

    The monster, trying to find the source of this, took his gaze everywhere, his instincts bing more alert by the second.

    *Tap!*

    At that moment, a sudden jerk forced it to focus its attention on its prey, which, against all odds, was now holding its right arm tightly.

    It didn''t know what the purpose of this was, but seeing it as one more desperate attempt to resist, the monster simply lost care of him.

    *Shick!*

    ? But before it could turn its focus, with a wet sound, the monster felt and more importantly, saw... how from the esper''s hands, more than a dozen small worms began to emerge.

    "!"

    This rmed it greatly, so without waiting any longer, it tried to pull its arm out, but in doing so, it noticed that it could not move in the slightest, since the grip the esper had on its arm was too strong.

    The next moment, the worms, having taken advantage of the monster''s surprise, wasted no time and introduced themselves inside its arm.

    *Swoosh!*

    This was thest straw for the monster, who, swinging its free arm at breakneck speed, sent Jay flying into another nearby tree.

    *Bam!*

    The sound of the collision was loud, but not content with this, the monster began to move to finish off the esper.

    "!"

    But just as it was about to move, its gaze fell upon Jay''s body, and the monster, for the second time tonight, was shocked at what it felt.

    Sitting under the tree, Jay''s face was still dirty, the corner of his lips still bearing fresh stains of blood, the monster recognized this human face.

    The only difference was the bloody hole that now took up most of the space on Jay''s chest.

    However, even though the face was the same, even though his eyes still gave off the same emerald glow, even though the body was the same....

    The monster didn''t know why... its instincts told it that the being in front was not the one he had faced before.

    *Shick!

    "!"

    The next moment, as if confirming what its instincts were saying, as a shudder ran through the monster''s body, there was a movement on Jay''s part.

    With its exceptional vision, the monster saw it as clear as day, as in the wound in his chest, several worms began to move.

    And slowly but visibly... they began to repair the bloody wound.

 Chapter 144 True Form

    Although still confused by what it had just seen, the monster, putting aside its difort and other things in its head, moved.

    Following its same unusual speed, it reached the tree where Jay was lying in the blink of an eye, its ws having already executed a strong attack.

    *Bam!*

    The trunk was cut roughly, proof of the strength the monster had used.

    "!"

    However, the cut had followed a strange trajectory, severing everything but what had been the monster''s target, namely Jay.

    It didn''t take the monster long to identify the reason for thispletely involuntary movement, the worms that had burrowed into its arm.

    It didn''t know how, but somehow, these very small and seemingly weak beings, even if it was only for a moment, had interrupted its body''s control.

    At that moment, while the monster was distracted, a hand slowly approached its body, aiming to touch it.

    *Swoosh!*

    Having realized this in time, the monster then retreated to a safe distance, its body radiating an aura of caution.

    Almost at the same time, Jay stood up, his gaze, still releasing a green glow but now being considerably brighter than before, settling on the monster.

    Sensing this gaze, the monster did not immediately move, but little by little, the more it looked at the esper, the more its insides began to burn with a palpable anger.

    It was clear, the monster... didn''t like the kind of look it was getting at all.

    As for why, it was simple.

    Being a predator, perching on top of other living things, it was used to hunting, to seeing all other beings in the forest as something less than prey, nutrients.

    Something that enhanced this fact was that ir could confidently say that outside of the academy cities, there really would be no ce it couldn''t roam freely.

    Whether it was the designated training grounds with instructors present, the more secluded parts of the academy grounds or even the nests of those ancient monsters, none of them were off-limits.

    As for threats, while instructors and ancient monsters posed a risk, if it seriously engaged against either, the oue would also be uncertain.

    Although it might seem like an answer that radiated distrust, it was actually quite the opposite.

    After all, among the possibilities of an ''uncertain'' oue, there was also included the scenario of winning, against the opponents it was referring to, this was an incredible feat.

    On one side were none other than instructors from the Eitsirc academy, one of the top global organizations in the world.

    On the other side were monsters who have lived since ancient times, some even since the time of the Great Proliferation.

    Taking this into ount, it had to be recognized that not knowing whether it would lose or win already spoke volumes about the true power it possessed.

    However...

    This monster, who was not afraid of anything, who was used to take, who was able to outwit supers left and right, at this moment, abhorred the look it was receiving.

    The human in front of him, in a deplorable state, with wounds all over his body, the energy in his body being almost nonexistent, being so small... so weak.

    Despite all this... the look he had, in his emerald pupils, no longer reflected the fear, hatred or desire for survival that it had seen before.

    The monster, being a predator, recognized it better than anyone else.

    The human in front of him was seeing him as prey.

    *Bam!*

    At the same time as it grabbed its right arm with such force that it even produced a loud bang in the surroundings, the monster''s anger reached its limit.

    It had originally thought that using the human in front as a nutritional source was reward enough for being entertaining, and a few minutes ago, that idea had already been discarded by the blow it received.

    However, at this moment, if the idea before was already far away, it had nowpletely disappeared from the monster''s head, being reced by incandescent rage.

    *Chak!*

    At once, with a sudden movement, the monster tore off its own arm, arge amount of ck blood spurting out.

    ? Without even reacting from the brutal wound and its gaze still locked on Jay, it then proceeded to fling its arm in a random direction.

    "Gu-k!"

    Letting out a guttural sound, the monster''s body then began to tremble repeatedly, veins popping up in every corner of its body, some with so much blood coursing through them that they began to tear.

    The pale flesh was now changing, with the muscles inside bulging grotesquely, deforming the monster''s humanoid figure and pushing the once malnourished monster''s skin to the limit.

    *Crack!*

    Then, just as the skin seemed about to burst, it was the turn of the bones, which began to break to amodate the monster''s new form.

    Slowly, the word humanoid became more and more distant to be used to describe this monster, although in fact, thisst adjective was also starting to fall short.

    There was only one adequate way to be able to refer to this inhuman figure, which was now nothing more than an oversized mass of flesh that resembled more a water-filled balloon than anything else, loomed imposingly in front of Jay.

    Suddenly, almost following the abnormal growth of the rest of its body, its chest began to swell until it burst.

    Finally, the point at which the name of this monster wouldpletely change came.

    *CHAK!*

    ck liquid gushed out, staining the surroundings and opening up the ''wound'' even more.

    Amongst all that liquid, the movement of something could be seen, moving slowly but steadily, something that looked like just one but in the next moment, it proved to be several more.

    With the tip being incredibly sharp, dropping ck liquid and having a deep jet color, several tentacles came out from within.

    The white skin then began to roll up its sleeves, slowly letting out more of these tentacles and exposing arge dark-colored mass which, as the only reminder of the monster, still had the deer skull on it.

    *Swoosh!*

    The moment the skinpletely left its body, as if having been released from its prison, this mass immediately released a crushing pressure along with a strange gaseous substance.

    At first this substance seemed harmless, but proving that it did note from amon monster, the instant it made contact with the surrounding vegetation, be it trees or bushes, all suffered a terrible corrosion.<novelnext></novelnext>

    In just a few seconds, the entire area had been stripped of nt life, leaving behind dry trunks and dead nts.

    Following a simr pattern, thanks to how disastrous this transformation process had been, the ck liquid had fallen on several other parts of the ground.

    These parts, while they had previously been filled with certain types of vegetation, be it weeds or simple fertile soil, had now been stripped of everything, bing patches of barrennd on which no life would ever grow again.

    These actions, so simple and idental, served to prove how dangerous it was, no longer this monster... but this formless aberration.

    This was nothing more nor less than the true form of the once monster, that which allowed it to be sure that it would not die even against stronger beings.

    In this form, not only did each of its tentacles have the same speed as its previous body, but the rest of its body, nowposed mostly of ck liquid, served as both a method of attack and defense due to its corrosive properties.

    Whichever way one looked at it, this was aplete upgrade that had transformed it from a terrifying monster, into a deadly aberration.

    *Chak!*

    With another wet sound, within the whole mass of ck liquid, two eyes suddenly popped out, as to whether these had been there from the beginning or had formed recently, only the aberration knew.

    This being thest apparent change in its body, the aberration then focused its attention on Jay, no longer looking to see his previous despair or anything of the sort, but with the sole intention of finishing him off.

    *Tap tap*

    However, just as it was about to move to attack, the sound of something small running came from a certain direction in the forest.

    Having caught its attention, the aberration moved the position of its eyes to be able to better observe what was producing this sound at the same time as it readied its tentacles.

    When it did, it couldn''t help but stand still for a moment.

    Running through the forest using nothing but its fingers with great coordination, the arm of its former form was running in the human''s direction.

    With a strangely fluid motion, the arm continued on its way to where Jay was standing, and finally, when it was close enough, jumped into the air.

    *Tap*

    Then, with the same vacant expression as before on his face, Jay took the arm in his right hand, raising it slightly high as if to make it more visible.

    The next moment, from the esper''s hand began to emerge arge number of parasites which wasted no time in following his orders and covered the entirety of the monstrous arm.

    *Chakchakchakchakchakchakchak.

    Countless bites then became audible in the forest, product of the parasites devouring in real time the now aberration''s arm.

    Which, it had to be mentioned, was watching as its mass began to shake violently.

    *SWOOSH!*

    Unable to contain its rage for a second longer, a tentacle shot out in Jay''s direction, aiming not only to retrieve its arm, but also to kill the human.

    *Bam!*

    A deep puncture then took ce, but instead of being flesh what the tentacle had touched, it had actually been a dry log.

    As for its target, Jay, he, with a precise use of speed and some martial technique, had managed to evade the attack by barely a hair''s breadth.

    As a result, the parasites that had been busy with their snack did not stop, finally finishing their meal and finally returning each and every one of them to Jay''s arm.

    When thest one came in, it was clear to everyone what they did next, something that could be seen from the outside.

    *BOOM!*

    With Jay as the source, a wave of energy spread in the surroundings, this time being much stronger even than when he had used the [Overload].

    With that alone, all of his wounds immediately closed up, changing his appearance from badly injured to brand new.

    This was understandable, after all, now that the energy that was coursing through the esper''s body was not what the parasites produced, but was the product of having consumed the part of a rank (B) monster.

    Although it was only a small part, the energy contained in it was far greater than what Jay along with all his little ones could produce.

    *SWOOSH!*

    Burning with rage at what it was seeing, the aberration attacked again, this time using several of its tentacles to attack Jay.

    With its immense speed, it took no time at all to reach Jay, who despite also moving much faster than before, could not avoid being wounded, barely managing to avoid serious injuries.

    Both his legs and arms and even his sides now had deep cuts, and now that most of his protective bandage was shredded, he was at the mercy of any attack.

    Even with the overflowing amount of energy in his body, apparently the human was still unable to ovee the wide physical power gap between the two.

    *Crack!*

    The sound of a bone suddenly cracking then came from Jay.

    This, however, was not the product of one of the tentacles that had been thrust into his body, but from within Jay himself.

    This took the aberration by surprise, who did not understand exactly what had happened.

    "!"

    But the next moment, at the same time as the noise of bones breaking and skin stretching grew louder, Jay''s body began to throb from time to time.

    In the face of this, both its instincts and itself realized what was happening, the human was also going through a big change!

    And what was more, the aberration was not familiar with this kind of transformation, which was in no way simr to its own.

    While its own was exposing its true form and power, drastically changing its appearance, the transformation the human seemed to be going through was the opposite.

    Instead of changing the outside, everything was happening inside his small figure, putting bones back together, changing tissues and moving blood.

    And while this scene was not as disastrous or chaotic as that of the aberration, this one had one thing going for it.

    Something that every cell in its body was screaming, even to the point of upying every space in its mind.

    It was not to allow the transformation to end.

    Otherwise... it would face something utterly terrifying.

 Chapter 145 Trapped

    While the monster''s tentacles sought to injure Jay in any way possible and he moved to avoid that oue, changes continued to take ce inside his body.

    Moving at great speed between bloodstreams and organs, the parasites did not take a moment to rest, continuing their task like diligent workers.

    This would not have been possible before because Jay had used the [Overload], which had left thempletely dry and with great fatigue weighing on them.

    But thanks to the great control of ''Jay'' and the new source of energy they had consumed, they were now working at more than 100%.

    As to what it was they were working on, it was simple, they were following a design that had been shared with them through the [Mental Network].

    A design to change Jay''s still mostly human body to one with a better chance of surviving this situation.

    This was a far more profound transformation than any Jay had gone through before, with almost every part of his body needing to be fundamentally changed.

    Such was the level of detail of the work that even if it werepared to when Jay had to treat Faith, that would be nothing more than mere child''s y.

    The level of control was that different, though it was to be expected, after all, the one who was now controlling both the esper''s body and the parasites was not Jay himself.

    Instead, it was something else that only came out when the necessary requirements were met, and something that possessed all the qualifications to be able to perfectly utilize the parasites as well as the knowledge to perform near-miraculous feats with them.

    As for why it had decided to change Jay''s body so radically, it was due to a very simple reason.

    It was the option they were most likely to be able to escape from the predicament his [Carrier] had gotten them into.

    It was risky, as not only would the body be under incredible strain, but sudden and extremely painful changes would take ce from one moment to the next.

    If one took into ount that while the change was taking ce, one also had to be vignt in continuing to guide the parasites and dodge the aberration''s attacks, this required an inhuman level of concentration.

    Fortunately, thetter did not present a problem for what now upied Jay''s body.

    *Chak!*

    Before long, the aberration''s tentacles, in its attempt to stop the transformation at all costs, had already dug into its foe dozens of times, leaving bloody wounds all over his body.

    However, in defiance of what the aberration itself knew of humans, each time a wound was created, the worms appeared again and repaired the damage.?

    In all honesty... this was infuriating it even more.

    *TRSHH!*

    At that moment, the aberration''s heavy, misshapen, slimy body trembled, the surface of its body bubbling, as if it were trying to expel something.

    ? *Bam!*

    Without waiting another second, the base of the tentacles, which hadn''t stopped attacking Jay for a second, swelled enormously before this expanded to the rest of the tentacle.

    Then, with the same speed as before, theyunched themselves towards the human, covering all possible directions, including the ground.

    This one, still having some wounds regenerating in process, was already prepared for this, and his body was ready to move and reduce the damage as much as possible.

    "!"

    But unexpectedly, when the tentacles reached his position, they did not attack him, but continued on, striking the area behind him.

    As a result, now wherever he looked, to the right, left or above, a thick tentacle was present, creating a sort of cage withrge openings.

    *Swoosh!*

    Without needing more, the human realized what the aberration was trying to do and jumped towards thergest opening present, which was the one at the top.

    However, even though it took less than a second to move, the tentacles had be even wider than before, closing almost every other opening except for that one.

    And thetter was not because the aberration had been benevolent or anything like that, but because the human, with his physique working at its limit, was holding the opening open with both hands.

    With his muscles bulging to the max, his hands were exerting impressive pressure on these two tentacles, seeking to expand the opening further or t out move the tentacles.

    *Tsss!

    Coming from the point of union between the human and the aberration, a sound of something burning together with a dark colored smoke could be appreciated.

    This, of course, was the corrosive effect of the aberration, which just now more than ever was showing its full splendor.

    "..."

    Although no words came out of his mouth, one could see the amount of effort the human was putting into this task.

    Meanwhile, the aberration, seeing that the human was trying to escape, apart from using even more force with its tentacles, presented a slight and gradual movement forward.

    Although its body, which now measured more than 4 meters both horizontally and vertically, was extremely heavy and difficult to move, it was still possible thanks to the same thing that held Jay prisoner.

    Using dozens of smaller tentacles beneath itself, the aberration, albeit slowly, was able to move.

    If one took into ount that its target was really no farther away than a mere 7-8 meters, then its speed was sufficient.

    With this action on the part of the aberration, the human was once again involved in another situation from which it was difficult, or rather, almost impossible to get out of.

    "..."

    Still with an expressionless face, the pressure on the opening had only increased from the start, with the tentacles, despite having the physical advantage, even slowly giving way.

    Without the need to even look in the direction of the aberration, the human was able to sense how it was getting closer and closer.

    At this point, this had be a race against time, to see who was faster, the human to escape, or the aberration to arrive.

    Finally, after a couple of seconds, a sound could be heard clearly.

    *Chak!*

    It was the indistinguishable sound of flesh being torn.

    Unfortunately, this had had nothing to do with the tentacles, but with the human.

    *Tap*

    Dropping to the ground, still inside the cage, having failed in his attempt to escape, he could do no more than take up a position ready to face the aberration.

    Bringing his hands forward, the source of the previous sound could be discerned.

    In the midst of the struggle between the corrosive tentacles and the crushing pressure that the human was exerting, it was clear that one of the two, sooner orter, was going to give in.

    In this case, presenting itself as a terrible wound where its fingers had been almostpletely severed and were spurting blood by the bucketload, it was clear that it was the human''s body who gave in.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Faced with this, for the first time, the one who upied the human''s body frowned, although the wounds were already regenerating, it was still dissatisfied with the fragility of this body.

    This fragility... it was something it did not like at all.

    *Trshhh!*

    Letting ck liquid drip as it moved, the aberration finally arrived towards where the human was, being practically a step away.

    There was no need to look in any direction or try anything risky, the human knew, there was no escaping this cage.

    Bringing his gaze upwards, the human prepared himself for the inevitable final confrontation.

    "Come."

    With that one word from the human, the aberration, with itsrge body filling the entirety of the space the first mentioned upied,unched a singlerge tentacle that stabbed into thetter.

    *Bam!*

    Immediately, with the great force behind the tentacle and nowhere to flee to, the human was pinned to the ground, with the tentacle piercing his chest.

    Coughing up blood, he could do no more than grab the tentacle with both hands and begin to exert pressure.

    This scene had made the feeling of difort that the aberration had been feeling, for the first time tonight, diminish.

    Reminding it of when it held the same human by the neck, the aberration was no longer worried, for this confrontation was going to end the same way as the previous one.

    The only difference in this case were two things, which while noticeable, would not really make a difference.

    Firstly, the strength of the human''s grip was stupidly strong despite being mortally wounded and with both hands having been seriously injured just seconds ago.

    Andstly, the thing that really bothered the aberration was the expression the human had.

    While it had been an expression of despair before, now his face was devoid of any kind of emotion.

    It was as if what was happening right now was not happening to him, as if it was happening to someone else.

    As if he was someonepletely oblivious to everything.

    The aberration couldn''t deny that this seemed strange to it and made it ufortable for some reason, but now that the human was within its grasp, there was no need to worry anymore.

    After all, it was only a short time away from extinguishing the life of this human being.

    Tonight had served to make it realize that while it was exciting to encounter hard-to-hunt prey, it wasn''t something it wanted to do every day.

    Fortunately, after finishing off this human, it could go on its way and continue to slowly feed on some weak prey without having to unnecessarilyplicate its snacks.

    *CHACK!!*

    "!"

    Suddenly, a painful tug awakened the aberration from its fantasy.

    The source, none other than the tentacle that was crushing the human, now dripping ck liquid fromrge open wounds.

    These wounds were not tearing wounds, but were in the form of gashes.

    For a moment, the aberration thought this had been done by the cutting wind the human seemed to be able to use, but upon closer inspection of thetter, it realized the truth.

    The cuts had been made by the human''s hands, which, without warning, were no longer those of an ordinary human, but had changed to be something much more familiar to the aberration.

    Starting from the forearms, the human''s skin had changed drastically, going from its olive hue to a sickly white tone which extended all the way to the hands.

    Hands, which it should be mentioned, were now much longer than before, culminating in ws so sharp that they even seemed to be able to cut through rocks like butter.

    For the aberration, it didn''t even need to think to make the connection, as it was able to feel it with every part of its body.

    That skin, those hands, those ws.

    All of them belonged to it.

    The next moment, before the aberration could act, the human dug his ws into the thick tentacle, and without waiting any longer, he pulled with all his strength.

    *SRASHH!*

    Blood and flesh shot out all over the ce thanks to the human''s brutal attack, which, apart from inflicting a good amount of damage, had also helped him to break free.

    Then, standing up slowly, the human brought his hands to the wound on his chest, from which part of the tentacle could still be seen protruding.

    *Chack!

    With a simple motion, the tentacle was severed, with one part remaining inside the human''s chest and the other being taken in his right hand.

    Immediately after, the aberration could clearly see how, in the chest wound, several of the worms began to devour the tentacle as the wound closed.

    As for the other part of the tentacle it was holding, since the worms were apparently upied, the human opened his mouth wide, with purple smoke serving as its breath, and took a bite.

    "..."

    Before, the aberration was sure that the being in front of it was human.

    Although it was an unusual one that at first had managed to make it excited, and while it hadter made it restless with his worms, it thought it was a human that had developed strange abilities.

    It thought it was all part of the special abilities that certain humans had, being able to do things that would normally be impossible for them.

    But it was only at this moment, that it realized it had been wrong.

    Its instincts screamed and assured it, that the being in front had changed on a fundamental level.

    Although it did not know what it was, one thing was certain.

    The being in front and the one it was about to face, was neither a human nor a monster.

    It was that which its instincts had warned to keep froming to light, but which it had failed to do because of its own pride.

    "GUOOOHHH!!!!"

    Letting out a hellish shriek, the aberration then lunged at the being in front of it.

 Chapter 146 Splashing Flesh And Blood

    More than a dozen tentacles were attacking simultaneously, each one moving at such a fast speed that they even seemed to fill the entire forest.

    They all came from therge deformed body of the aberration, who was attacking non-stop while the surface of its body rippled as if a stone had fallen into a still pond.

    This ondtion was a product of its body regenerating the damage that had been caused by the ''human'' by cutting several of its tentacles that formed the cage to escape.

    Against this flurry of attacks that pulverized any unfortunate tree they collided with, they gave the image that it was an unstoppable and imposing attack.

    However, if one were to look closely at these tentacles, one would be able to see that most of them were far from intact.

    With deep cuts on their surface, others dripping with dark colored blood and with some having lost chunks of flesh, it was clear that they had taken damage.

    Directly in front of them was nothing but the cause of all these wounds, a lone ''human''.

    A short time had passed, and his body, still mostly the same as the one that belonged to the human known as Jay Sacrest, was not quite the same.

    Starting with his unusually long, sickly white arms that ended in sharp ws, continuing with his slight but noticeable increase in height, and ending with his entire body now being thinner.

    While before Jay''s body was packed with muscle from his daily exercise and the effect of the [Parasite: Limit Breaker], giving him a somewhat robust appearance, he was now rather thin.

    It didn''t take a genius to realize that with all the changes he had undergone and his current appearance, Jay''s body was bing more and more simr to that of the aberration before its transformation.

    Of course, this was not a coincidence by any stretch of the imagination.

    Instead, this was the transformation that the parasites had been taking care of with the schematic they had been given.

    Which it had to be mentioned, was a perfect blueprint of how the monster''s body was structured, created solely from the arm they had consumed.

    Perhaps it might not seem like much with just the arm, but thanks to the fact that whoever made the blueprint was someone with an abysmal knowledge of organic bodies, it was not a difficult task.

    In itself, the blueprint was more intriguing than anything else, but as for the reasons for this, it was already someone else''s problem to investigate.

    *Swoosh!*

    Moving as a stream of wind followed him, the ''human'' kept an incredibly fluid and swift pace.

    Every now and then one or another tentacle would chase after him, but using his sharp ws, he managed to deflect them in time, causing the asional break after the collision.

    Seeing this, one was already able to get an idea of why the decision to imitate the monster''s body had been made.

    Whether its muscles, skin, bones or even organs, each and every one of them were vastly superior to those of Jay, who was a human.

    And while there was also the aspect that it had the energy of a rank (B-) monster, whoever was upying Jay''s body had realized something from the moment it consumed the monster''s arm.

    Other than empowering the monster''s body, that energy that was like a deepke, which wasparable to that of the instructors in the academy... it really had no other use.

    He had searched and performed an innumerable amount of simtions, trying to find a special ability that would use that energy, but no matter how hard he had tried, the result was always the same.

    The only way to expend that energy was to use it to power the monster''s body, functioning simply as a fuel.

    There were no fireballs, lightning bolts, cutting wind, or any other type of ability that was capable of being channeled using that energy.

    This monster was pure brute strength,bined with incredible speed and an even greater endurance that made it a serious threat against the vast majority of supers.

    And although its current form, being a deformed mass of flesh, muscle and blood, was harnessing that energy much better by increasing the expenditure and range of movements it could use, it still was within the expected.

    It was also thanks to this feature that both changing the [Carrier]''s body as well as increased regeneration was possible.

    Following the blueprint of the monster''s body, this ability to be able to change its own body as long as there was energy had also been assimted.

    ordingly, the [Carrier]''s body had been changed to a great extent not only to strengthen its physical capabilities, but also to manage to mimic even better the monster''s characteristic of using energy to boost its physique to inhuman levels.

    And it was with that characteristic that right now whoever upied Jay''s body was able to keep up with the aberration''s relentless attacks.

    Using all the energy contained in the tentacles he had consumed just a couple of minutes ago, his body had been greatly enhanced.

    Combine this with the fact that now the aberration''s physiology, containing its strengths and weaknesses were exposed like an open book, and it was only a matter of time before an opening was found, and this one-sided fight came to an end.

    *Chak!*

    ws and tentacles shed again, repelling each other, with the ''human'' being pushed several steps behind and the tentacles being forced to stop for a moment.

    Immediately afterwards, taking advantage of the fact that the ''human'' had stopped its run, dozens more tentacles began to chase after it.

    Cutting through the air at a speed at which it was even difficult to keep track of them, these tentacles that seemed sharper than usual surrounded him on all sides.

    In response, the ''human'' swung his ws to meet each of these needles.

    *ng!*

    Then, the aftermath of the exchange of blows rang out in the surroundings.

    ws as hard as metal met the needles hardened to the maximum, producing a metallic noise.

    For some time now, the aberration, having that its tentacles were no longer having the desired effect, using what little reason it had left, it changed its body again.

    With the tentacles bing thinner and tougher than before, this was a effective tactic that had forced the ''human'' to stop its run and focus on defending.

    As a bonus, thanks to the toughness of these needles, the fear of losing these and being consumed by the ''human'' had disappeared.

    Now that it had its opponent upied, the aberration set its next move in motion.

    With its huge body following closely behind, another perimeter was formed, with tentacles extending around the area and forming arger cage than the previous one.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Apparently, the aberration had not given up on this idea, instead enhancing its cage with tentacles hardened to the maximum.

    It had learned from its previous mistake and now did not n to leave a moment''s suspense so that the ''human'' could try something.

    Even if it was its previous body it had in front, the aberration now knew that it should not hesitate for a second to annihte itpletely.

    Thus, also demonstrating a decent ability to multitask, the aberration continued to attack relentlessly as it continued to build and improve the meat cage.

    As for the ''human'', keeping all his attention on defending himself from the needle-like tentacles, he seemed to be oblivious to the changes in the surroundings.

    Of course, this did not mean that he was going to sit still while he was locked up, and the aberration was fully aware of this fact.

    While its face remained just as expressionless as before and its actions did not indicate that he was trying to do anything, this ''human'' had something on its mind.

    He had already demonstrated it time and time again, and it was perhaps in that alone that the being in front of the aberration resembled the real human that owned that body.

    In a matter of seconds, the new cage had been finished, and besides being much stronger than the previous one, it had an improvement made especially to deal with his opponent.

    The cage waspletely dark inside and out, but if one looked more closely, one could see that in the middle of all that darkness, countless small hooks possessing the same hardness as the needles were on its surface.

    These were so that if the ''human'' wanted to escape in the same way as before, using his ws to cut the tentacles, they would be caught the moment they made contact.

    Anyway, with this, the secondary preparations had beenpleted, so the aberration could now fully concentrate on its main objective.

    With its slimy body bubbling, a pair of new tentacles appeared, and from the moment they did, one could already see how different they were from the others.

    Reflecting a metallic sheen on their almostpletely dark colored de, two tentacles whose tips resembled more like cutting weapons rather than organic parts appeared.

    And without being made to wait, these new metallic weapons then added to the flurry of attacks against the ''human'', increasing the pressure thetter had to face.

    *CLANG!*

    Before, his every move had to be precise and calcted to the smallest detail, because although with his new body he was able to deflect the needles, they still represented a considerable danger.

    Now, even when deflecting the attacks of the metallic tentacles, he could feel how his ws not only lost their sharpness, but were gradually being ruined.

    Although using some energy the ''human'' was able to regenerate the ws and return them to their optimal state, it was a waste to do so when in just a couple of seconds, his ws had collided almost a dozen times against the tentacles.

    But even so, for some reason, the ''human'' kept regenerating its ws as soon as they were damaged.

    *ng!

    Thus, the exchanges continued between the aberration and the ''human'', both parties bing incredibly proficient in their repetitive but effective attacks.

    shing des moved at breakneck speeds seeking to cut tendons and flesh, needles slipped through unthinkable ces to pierce nerves and veins, and ws fought against all of the above, throwing away their own integrity.

    With all thisbined, the attack exchange had be a dance where ws and tentacles were the participants, the music reced by metallic sounds and instead of apuse, flesh and blood were filling the stage.

    *Chak!

    As time passed, wounds began to umte on both parties, and while both were regenerating carelessly, it was clear that they were preparing for something.

    Having greatly increased the speed of its tentacles, the aberration would not let the ''human'' even take a breath, in its body bubbling what appeared to be another weapon.

    This time, the bubbling was so great that its entire body rippled intensely, indicating that whatever the aberration was about to use was going to be something big.

    Simultaneously, a change could also be seen in the ''human''.

    His extremely sharp ws, no one knew exactly when, had begun to change color each time they were regenerated.

    At first they were simply small spots, but the more times they were rebuilt, the more the color changed.

    Now, each of the ws had been painted a deep purple color.

    Without even exchanging nces, the speed of the aberration''s attacks increased once again as the energy inside the ''human'' began to go on the rampage.

    *BOOM!*

    Then, without any warning, an explosive surge of energy from the two protagonists of this fight echoed in the surroundings.

    Then, just as the aberration had finished its final weapon, both the tentacles and the ''human'' disappeared, leaving behind a residual image.

    And for just an instant, the cage waspletely silent.

    *CHACK!*

    Before long, flesh and blood sttered everywhere, with the culprits being the main figures who had once again appeared inside the cage.

    Despite the deepyer of darkness surrounding the cage and the forest, it was still possible to see what had been the result of the final move of both parties.

    Standing right in front of the aberration, with his entire body having been pierced by dozens of tentacles and with one of his arms being barelyplete to the forearm, it was clear that the ''human'' had taken the full brunt of the aberration''s final attack.

    However, that did not mean that thetter had lost the battle, as his opponent hadpletely ceased all movement.

    The aberration, with its huge, imposing, slimy body, was extremely resistant to physical attacks, and yet...

    Its body had been forcibly reshaped, with the mark of five ws having cut into its body to the point that it was even possible to see through, not to mention its organs, several of which had been damaged.

    With this, both parties, whether they wanted it or not, had put an end to this fight.

 Chapter 147 What The Hell Do You Think Youre Doing?

    *Swoosh!*

    At thiste hour of the night, navigating through the thick darkness present among each of the trees of the forest, a figure was in motion.

    All around it, it was possible to see a current of wind that apart from seeming to apany this figure, also increased its speed.

    However, the pace at which he was moving was still a calm pace, especially if one took into consideration what he had been doing just a couple of minutes ago.

    Running while maintaining the same cold expression to the hilt, Jay''s body, presenting wounds all over his body, was making its way through the forest.

    The most striking of all was, of course, his missing arm, but one couldn''t leave behind the other wounds either, which it had to be mentioned, were so deep that his regeneration had trouble dealing with it.

    Though of course, it also couldn''t be said that the regeneration could show the same power as when it had been dealing with the aberration, as the energy in Jay''s body at the moment was limited.

    The previous regeneration had been abination of three factors, having Jay''s passive regeneration ability as a base, following with the help of the parasite''s energy and ending with the energy of the consumed monster parts.

    Things that at this point, were no longer avable for continuous use.

    In fact, the simple fact that the wounds were even slowly regenerating was already something incredible considering Jay''s body was almostpletely shattered.

    As for the reason for this, one did not have to look too hard to find that the origin had been the confrontation against the aberration.

    From the very beginning, under the orders of whoever was possessing him at the moment and with the help of the parasites, Jay''s human body, which had already been at a limit, had not only been put under extreme pressure but had also undergone a fundamental change.

    To a greater or lesser extent, every part of his body, however small, had been forced to change.

    This, of course, while it had seemed like something of no consequence because of the cool, calm demeanor of whoever was controlling Jay''s body, it was anything but that, with muscles about to burst, nerves overloaded and tendons about to snap among other things.

    If it had been just this, thanks to the energy source they had assimted and was boosting regeneration, maybe things would have been fine.

    However, the straw that broke the camel''s back was, in particr, thest attack it made against the aberration.

    For this attack, Jay''s new monstrous body, even with all its physical power, was only sufficient to serve as a base, as it alone was not enough to deal with the aberration.

    In addition to the new body, whoever controlled Jay''s body also used something that had been avable long before the change, Jay''s poison-producing ability, which had been manifesting itself in the fight in the form of a purple breath.

    A poison that, having gone through dozens of tests, ording to its calctions, was going to be harmful enough to prevent the aberration''s regeneration on direct contact.

    This poison in question was used on nothing but the sharpest parts of the ws of its body, ready to be inserted into the deepest parts of the aberration.

    With all this, the chances of survival had already increased considerably, but proving that this was not the way it did things, the one who controlled? Jay''s body decided to put the cherry on top of the cake.

    The cherry in this case was to get a boost strong enough so that it no longer needed to make more poison or prolong the battle any longer, the use of something Jay normally always kept as his final trump card, the [Overload].

    In that way, making use of all that Jay the human, along with the physical capabilities of his new monstrous body, could offer, he managed to perform an attack that would put even rank (B) supers in trouble.

    The cost was great damage to his entire body from the aberration''s new weapon and almost all the energy avable in his body being instantly depleted, but he had seeded, he managed to open the aberration''s body andnd a lethal attack.

    Lethal because normally, the wound would have been regenerated, but thanks to the poison specially made to avoid that, the aberration could do nothing more than let out a screech of pain.

    Thereupon, using its remaining energy, the ''human'' had escaped from the ce, leaving behind a deformed mass with exposed organs that in a desperate attempt to heal itself, began to change its body again, its cage returning to its soft form and aiding in the recovery of its body.?

    As to whether this would seed or not, it was no longer something that mattered to him.

    As a result, he had managed to escape, with a body in an incredibly deplorable state and one that he was only able to control thanks to having turned off most pain receptors.

    "..."

    Still, his calm expression remained the same, indicating that he really wasn''t worried.

    As for why, it had to do with the direction of the forest he was heading into.

    Although the battlefield between him and the aberration had changed quite a bit, thanks to his almost photographic memory, he was able to remember exactly where a certain person was.

    Person who was going to be key in the recovery of his increasingly deteriorated body.

    ***

    After moving for another couple of minutes, Jay''s body had reached a ce that he could recognize by a few broken trees and especially by a person who was lying against a tree.

    The same tree where Jay had tried to treat Faith.

    Moving closer towards this person, his features were bing more and more noticeable.

    With her messy hair, dirty face and weakplexion, one would expect even the most attractive people to look bad, and this would be true in the vast majority of cases.

    But for this girl, who found herself gazing upward as the moonlight faintly illuminated her graceful facial features, it only enhanced her beauty.

    In contrast to her radiant and abrasive energy from everyday, she now undoubtedly exuded a cold and deste air that would make anyone else want nothing more than to help.

    Unfortunately, there was no such person in the vicinity.

    *Shac*

    Without care to step on the leaves on the ground, a crunching sound came as Jay''s body moved towards Faith, raising his remaining hand to make contact with the esper.

    "...Hello...?"

    However, at that moment, the esper''s faint but audible voice echoed in the surroundings.

    Her head moved slightly, as if trying to turn towards the direction from where the sound of the leaves hade from, but failing to do so.

    "Is... is someone there?" She said again, her voice sounding more raspy than ever before.

    Again, she turned her head around looking for the person responsible for the noise, though with her eyes still beingpletely closed.

    "Jay... it''s you, isn''t it?"?

    "..."

    "It has... it has to be you, that monster that would have killed me by now otherwise... you know, I was sure you''d somehow know how to get out of that one." She continued, the pace at which she spoke being heavy and choppy, "Sorry for not opening my eyes, but right now, there are few parts of me that work."<novelnext></novelnext>

    Dropping her head back against the tree behind her, the esper continued, "That monster... it really f*cked me uppletely, you know... When I woke up I could move a little, but I only managed to crawl to this tree before everything started to go wrong..."

    Taking short one-second breaks to catch her breath between words, the esper seemed to be having trouble being able to hold a conversation for very long.?

    But still, she decided to continue her apparent monologue.

    "I''m not feeling very well, I''ve lost control of most of my body... but at least I can talk, so that''s something. As for my eyes... to be honest, besides the fact that it''s hard to open them, I''m afraid to do so, I don''t know if they''re going to work after all."

    Unexpectedly, the esper who was normally reserved with her words, now found herself talking non-stop.

    "As they say out there, ignorance is bliss... or something like that." Said the esper trying to form a smile but failing for some reason, "But you know, even if things ended up like this, I don''t regreting, even if I didn''t help much."

    Taking a big breath, the esper began to tremble slightly.

    "I... I really, really, really, really don''t regret it... I don''t... I swear." Choppy words shattering with the fragility of ss came out of her mouth.

    Although she feared that her eyes were not working, one could see that this was not true by the fact that at this moment, several salty drops were falling from them.

    Creating a small path that wiped her cheeks, the tears followed their path until they fell to the ground, creating sshes so small that no one noticed.

    Although Faith was an esper with great talent and even greater skill, at this moment, there was not a hint of the strong and courageous person she always disyed.

    One could only watch as a young girl, scared and not knowing what to do, expressed herself in the only way she had left knowing that her time was running out.

    "I really... don''t regret it..."

    With those words as herst words, between sobs and an amalgam of emotions, Faith stopped talking, not being able to stay awake no matter how much she wanted to.

    Faced with this, the one who had been listening to all this, just kept the same cold expression as always, seeing that the esper no longer seemed to be about to do anything, he made his move.

    His hand began to move again, his intentions being as clear as day.

    He wanted to assimte the person before him so he could regenerate the damage sustained to his body.

    In just a few moments, his hand was already touching Faith''s face, onlycking for him to give themand and the parasites would begin the assimtion.

    However...

    "...?"

    Even though he had given themand, none of the parasites seemed to be paying attention to him.

    Raising an eyebrow in surprise, whoever was controlling Jay gave the order through the [Mind Network] again, this time imposing his will on the other parasites.

    *Gii!*

    Still, all this caused was that the parasites began to tremble, forcibly resisting to follow the order they had been given.

    Sensing this, for the first time in the night, the normally expressionless face changed, to one of visible confusion.

    Then, just as he was about to send out an absolute order....

    ''What the hell do you think you''re doing?''

    "!"

    Immediately, the confused expression on Jay''s body changed to one of surprise at the sudden voice of no one more and no one less than... the body''s true owner.

    Simultaneously, the parasites, also having heard the voice, became even bolder and began to openly rebel, causing an uproar in the [Mind Network].

    "..."

    However, the surprise quickly disappeared, for even if the [Carrier]''s consciousness had awakened, the one who was still in control of the body was not him.

    Therefore, he was still in control of the situation, and he only had to make the consciousness that was interrupting him go back to sleep before taking care of the unruly parasites.

    The one controlling Jay''s body then closed his eyes and concentrated his consciousness on the part where the [Carrier] consciousness was.

    Quickly, his vision was filled with a space simr to the inside of Kai''s mind, with countless stars floating in what seemed to be an almost infinite space.

    And in the middle of it all, floating in nothingness, was Jay, who it had to be mentioned, was looking incredibly coldly at the one who had just entered.

    "Thanks for dealing with the monster, but your time''s up." Jay said, not taking his eyes off the being in front.

    "..."

    The other ''person'', on the other hand, merely remained silent as a special kind of energy gathered in his palms, one that would be ineffective against other beings but deadly against consciousnesses like the two of them.

    ? Psychic energy.

    Only one blow, and the consciousness of the [Carrier] would again enter a deep sleep, hopefully, it would be a much longer one.

    Then, with a little impulse, the ''person'' shot up to where Jay was.... or at least that was what he had wanted to do.

    Suddenly, he had a very bad feeling,ing from behind his back, or rather, from right behind him.

    "!"

    Turning around as fast as he could, horror filled the face of this ''person'', who had faced even the aberration without even breaking a sweat.

    Though of course, this reaction was understandable, after all, what was in front of him was somethingpletely different.

    upying an enormous amount of space and releasing a crushing pressure that was capable of bending any kind of consciousness, a giant eye surrounded by dozens of tentacles stood in front of him.

    "Do me a favor... and make sure you keep him under control." Jay said with a tone of nonchnce.

    Immediately, without waiting any longer, the [Parasite: Mental Dominator] followed his [Carrier]''s orders and trapped the invader with its tentacles, burying itpletely before disappearing into the void.

    Then, letting out a sigh and with a tired look on his face, Jay said, "It''s time to go back."

 Chapter 148 A Long Night

    "..."

    Silence reigned in apletely dark space, a space which seemed to have no beginning and no end. It was an inhospitable ce in which the only thing there was was absolute darkness and cold.

    Yet, in the midst of it all, floating towards no apparent direction, the body of a certain person was visible.

    With graceful features and golden-colored hair, Faith was in an unconscious state, apparently resting in this cold and lonely space.

    Her body, at this moment, did not seem to be made of flesh and blood, but seemed to be made of light, a light that despite being dim, emitted considerable warmth, something that seemed to give strength to the space she was in.

    However, it could not be denied that with the passing of time, as the light emitted by Faith''s body became fainter, the heat also became less intense.

    As a result, the space around her was only decreasing in size, something that had been repeating itself several times and that, if it continued, would soon consume Faith.

    Unfortunately, the person in question could do nothing, as she could barely if at all maintain herself in this form.

    She was not conscious, not in control of anything, only being able to form odd thought which were influenced by the ce she was in at the moment.

    And what she could feel from this ce, was only cold and loneliness.

    It was a disconcerting moment, but of course, it was not for less, after all, these were Faith''sst moments.

    With her entire body failing due to the monster''s infection, she really was no longer able to remain conscious or control anything in her body.

    This had caused, in response to the impending threat, what was left of the person known as Faith to retreat deep within herself.

    With this, one was able to observe how deeply rted this esper''s ability was to the person in question, with the effects of the ability even urring at this ethereal level.

    Undoubtedly, this specific moment would be something incredibly valuable to any kind of mage, but unfortunately, this was not something that the esper in question needed.

    Esper who, even while in a deep sleep, was still able to deeply feel the coldness and loneliness that surrounded her.

    And what was worse, she could feel how very soon, that cold and loneliness would be something she could not get out of.

    Her light body, sensing this, began to put more effort into trying to keep the space stable, even at the cost of her own well-being.

    *Crack!*

    However, the moment she did so, her light body, which seemed to be intangible, suddenly presented a crack that covered her entire leg.

    This had been caused by the attempt to prolong something that was not meant tost long, the result of trying to change something that was already decided.

    No matter how much she resisted, there was no way Faith would seed in changing this oue, no matter how reluctant her subconscious or her ability was.

    *Crack!*

    Stubbornly, Faith kept continuing to try to change this oue, no matter how many cracks appeared in her ethereal body.

    This process was repeated several times, and now the cracks almostpletely filled the esper''s body, being only one point away from breakingpletely.

    Unlike before, it no longer produced light or warmth , but now only a blotchy white color remained proof of her futile efforts.

    Her state was now so fragile, that if she tried even just once more to stop the space around her from getting smaller, her body would not withstand it.

    And that would, undoubtedly, be the end of the person known as Faith.

    Even while unconscious, the esper also seemed to be aware of this fact, but that didn''t change her next action.

    Gathering every shred of willpower left in her body, she prepared to risk everything, in order to regain control of the situation... or fall into eternal rest.

    *Crack!*

    Again, the sound of something cracking echoed.

    "..."

    However, this time it had note from Faith''s ethereal body, but from the space itself.

    In the part that could be considered the ''ceiling'' of this space with no beginning and no end, a crack of great size had opened up, revealing a being that was anything but human.

    A small parasite with incredibly sharp teeth and red eyes was peering through the crack, its gaze locked on the esper positioned directly below.

    At once, the parasite leapt through the crevice, its target being the only source of light in this dark, empty ce, Faith.

    *Pop!*

    With a soft sound, in a cool demonstration of its acrobatic skills, the parasitended perfectly on the esper''s abdomen.

    For a second, the parasite''s small body trembled slightly as it felt the little bit of heat emitted by Faith.

    Then, without waiting another second, the little parasite, in the most fluid and gentle way, entered the light body.

    "!"

    This, immediately, caused a response from Faith, whose body began to heal very slowly and for a moment, regained its former glow and warmth.

    And not only that, but simultaneously, the cold and loneliness she had been feeling until now diminished considerably.

    So much so, that after a long time, there was movementing from part of Faith''s light body.

    "...Ungh?"

    Unexpectedly, she, thanks to the little parasite, had awakened!

    The first thing she did, was to slowly open her heavy eyelids, managing to see a scene that while it would manage to scare other people, in her case, for some reason, made her feel at peace.

    At the top of this dark space, in the same crevice from which the parasite had fallen, there were now more than a dozen pairs of red eyes peering out.

    The next moment, these parasites also leapt toward her, each of them entering her body and causing a fundamental change in the esper.

    *Bam!*

    The sound of several explosions rang out,ing from none other than Faith''s ethereal body, which glowed and burned like never before.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The glow along with the heat began to expand, filling the entirety of space and causing the same effect to repeat over and over again, with several explosions taking ce everywhere.

    *BOOM!*

    With each of these explosions generating a great amount of light and heat, now not even a shadow of the deste and silent space from before remained.

    As for the source of it all, Faith, her body had not only returned to being the pristine source of light from before, but now also towered over all the explosions as the regent of them all.

    Her hair, despite theck of wind, rippled with incandescent warmth as her eyes gave off a glow that seemed to illuminate everything in front of her.

    It was with these eyes that she wasfortably watching the chaos y out in front of her with a faint smile on her face.

    A smile that made it clear that she no longer felt even a hint of cold, that the silence had long since been broken, and especially... that she was no longer alone.

    ***

    Again in the forest, where Faith''s bodyy, a person was sitting cross-legged at her side, holding one side of a piece of cloth with his mouth while with his right arm he tied something on his left arm with the same cloth.

    The appearance of this person was considerably bad, with blood stains and dirt along with cuts covering his body, from his heels to his head, all of which were visible.

    The most striking wound was the one starting from his left forearm, where without further ado, the rest of the arm was missing and the part that had been affected could not be seen because it had been covered with a piece of cloth.

    Still, the person didn''t really seem as concerned about his wound as he was about who was in front of him.

    "Hm, that''s a good glow, looks healthy." Jay said, observing Faith''s body, which was trembling and releasing a faint but noticeable glow that seemed to radiate vitality.

    On his face, which had beenpletely devoid of emotion just a few minutes ago, was now stered a smile of relief.

    Relief that Faith was responding well to the ''treatment'' Jay had performed on her, something that could certainly only be described as throwing various things into a soup and hoping it tasted good at the end.

    But in a situation like this where there was no other option, this was the best and only thing he could do.

    Confirming again that Faith''s vitality levels were stabilizing and that her body was recovering, Jay stood up, "Now then... I''d better get to looking for the others."

    As he finished saying that, with a slow motion and as careful as he could be with one arm, he lifted Faith up and put her on his shoulder.

    "It should be...that way, I think?" Jay said, looking towards a certain part of the forest where he could vaguely ''feel'' that his little ones were.

    *Tap, tap, tap*

    Then, without another word, barefoot footsteps began to echo through the forest, crunching leaves and bushes on the path.

    ***

    In a short time, after going through various parts of the forest, Jay, following his ''senses'', had managed to find all the people in the forest, starting with Vilda, going through Tom and Nico, and ending with Kai.

    Simrly but less seriously than with Faith, each of them had also been infected with the ck liquid, and with the only one to receive early ''treatment'' having been Vilda, the others were at risk.

    As a result, Jay was forced to perform the same procedure as with Faith, only on a much smaller scale, managing to stabilize them but with all still being in a recovery process that apparently kept them unconscious.

    Having treated them, it was not possible for Jay to carry them all on his own, so making an incredibly crude little sled out of sticks and cloth he snatched from his patients, he stacked them like firewood and kept moving in the direction of the city.

    His pace was slow and clearly weary, but he didn''t stop for a moment, so without any interruption, Jay, along with his little sled, had made it to the edge of the forest.

    A ce in which Jay couldn''t help but let out a weary chuckle as he witnessed thest barrier standing between them and the city.

    "...Heh, it''s really bad luck to get me twice in a row."

    Arge barrier without color but blurred to the extreme and with a simr hardness to the one he hade into contact with when he faced the chimera was in front of him.

    Nheless, letting out a sigh, Jay put his right arm in front of him, and began to gather his strength.

    *Crack!*

    The sound of bones began to rattle as slowly, his arm began to stretch, his skin turning extremely pale and his fingers transforming into ws.

    His intention was clear, he wanted to get rid of this barrier and he wasn''t going to hold anything back to do it.

    *BOOM!*

    "!"

    However, before he could cut anything, a loud sound resounded, with the barrier itself shaking heavily and ripples making themselves present on its surface.

    *BOOM!*

    The sound was repeated, and the barrier shook even more violently, bing extremely unstable and losing its original shape, until finally....

    *BOOOM!!!*

    The barrier, being unable to withstand the attacks it was suffering, shattered into countless fragments, revealing the other side that had been blurry before.

    Surrounded by arge amount of pugilistic mes that illuminated everything in her surroundings, the instructor of the training center was standing a few meters in front.

    "You were really here, Sacrest!!!" The instructor shouted, beads of sweat and an expression of relief present on her face.

    Standing next to her was none other than Syvir, who was the first to notice her co-worker''s condition, "...Jay, your arm?!"

    Seeing two familiar people in front of him, Jay, feeling all the weight in his body disappear, stopped fighting the fatigue.

    *Pam!*

    "Ah, Sacrest!!!"

    "Jay!!"

    With Jay having copsed on the ground, both the instructor and Syvir rushed over, noticing at once that Jay was not alone.

    Just like that, this long, long night was finally going toe to an end.

 Chapter 149 Its The Same

    The next day, both Jay and the others had been admitted to the bronze city hospital, with everyone, thanks to the treatment that the first mentioned had performed on them, being out of danger.

    The person who had the highest priority was Jay, who caused the surprise of more than one medical staff of the hospital for all the damage his body presented, which in part seemed to have been made by a monster and on the other hand seemed to be things that his own body did.

    Anyway, this made Jay to be admitted in a special wing of the hospital in which were taken those cases that had to be attended first hand by the best doctor of the Eitsirc Academy.

    As for the others, since their condition was not serious, they were ced in normal rooms until they recovered.

    With that, it was clear that they were now safe and could rest after a night in which everything went wrong for everyone.

    And now, it was someone else''s turn to worry about what all the above mentioned had suffered.

    ***

    "..."

    "..."

    In a meeting room in an unknown location of the Academy, all the executives were present, with no one but the esper''s head teacher, Amara Pieren, sitting at the head.

    At this point, silence reigned in the room, with none of the executives daring to even make a sound for fear of incurring the wrath of the esper head teacher.

    Something that was as clear as day thanks to the fact that one could feel the overwhelming pressure the head teacher was releasing, making even breathing be a bit of a chore.

    "...Again... it really happened again..."?

    Breaking the silence, the melodious but firm voice of the head teacher rang out, in her head passing on a piece of information that all the executives were present for.

    The fact that just on the night of the previous day, without a month having passed since the previous event, another group of students had been attacked by an unknown monster.

    While it could be said that this time it was not entirely part of the academy because the students in question left the city when they had been forbidden to do so, the head teacher was aware that this would only be an excuse to avoid responsibility.

    A pathetic excuse considering that the forest where they were attacked was closer to the city than even the crop fields.

    This was something that had happened right next to the city, after they had put more security in ce to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

    To her, it seemed that the monster was making fun of them, and more importantly, of the Academy.

    *Bam!*

    pping her hand against the table, the head teacher then looked up and turned to the headmaster''s secretary next to her, "I want all the assistants in charge of the doorsst night demoted. If they couldn''t stop some kids from getting out, they won''t be able to do anything if a monster wants to get in."

    Without refuting or saying anything, the secretary then proceeded to write down the order the head teacher had given him, as for the executives, they said nothing, agreeing.

    "Now, when will the manager of the bronze city''s magic circles arrive?" Asked the head teacher again addressing the secretary.

    Turning over the pages of his little notepad, the secretary replied, "He''s already on his way, he''ll be here in approximately a couple of hours."

    "Well, what about Tome and Marcus?"

    "Miss Tome is already on her way back and will be arriving in the next few days ording to her own words, as for Mr. Marcus, he is busy making preparations for the event."

    Hearing this, the head teacher let out a sigh, she had expected Marcus to also be present when being informed of what happened, but she couldn''t do much either since what he was preparing was also important.

    Forck of the vice-principal and as the person who spent the most time at the academy, she was now the person who had to take care of all the tedious things, giving her a considerable burden that she had had to carry alone.

    Fortunately, Tome''s return to the academy was already a sure thing, being afort to the busy head teacher.

    "Schedule a meeting with the one in charge of the magic circles the moment Tome arrives, we''ll both deal with the circle problem then."?

    Stating that, the esper woman shifted her focus from the secretary to the other executives and asked a question towards one of them specifically, "To avoid questions in the room, read me the summary of what happenedst night."

    The executive who had been singled out, a woman in her 20''s with short hair and wearing a suit then stood up as she turned on a small electronic device and ced it on the table.?

    *Chik!*

    With a small electric sound, the device then turned on and disyed a holographic cube which showed the face of the bronze city training center instructor along with the face of the group of students involved.

    A small information card on each of them was visible below each face.

    "From the right we have the training center instructor, Svatha Houge, rank (B) pugilist with the title of executioner, then we have Jay Sacrest, rank (D+) esper with a special ability, Faith rd, rank (C-) esper with a special ability, Vilda Lundell, Kai Sorge, Tom Bulder, all rank (D+) espers with active abilities and finally, Nico Doyle, rank (D+) light branch mage.

    Although the reason they were all in the forestte at night is believed to be for a settling of scores between students due to the testimony of the student receptionist at the training center, both this and the encounter they had with the monster is yet to be confirmed with the students in question.<novelnext></novelnext>

    At the moment we only have the information from the instructor''s point of view after she encountered the group of students who appeared to have sessfully escaped, so I will start from there."

    As the woman had said, the executive began to read aloud the testimony invish detail that the instructor had sent.

    "Last night, realizing that student Jay Sacrest was nowhere to be found with the new student locator feature of the magic artifact, she proceeded to alert her other colleagues to initiate a small search in various locations of the city.

    While doing so, they noticed that other students were also missing, so the search becamerge-scale, at which point a certain student, a receptionist at the training center, noticing all themotion, gave a valuable clue as to where one of the missing students might have gone.

    While the other teachers and assistants were still searching the city, the instructor, being a shadow pugilist, decided to follow this lead and take a look at the forest, taking with her the student Syvis Genna, Jay Sacrest''s partner for educational purposes.

    And it was at that moment that the instructor found a magical barrier, barrier of rank (B-) at least, with the functions of obstructing the tracking ability of magical artifacts and especially high defense against esper abilities."

    After saying this, the head teacher''s brow furrowed, at the same time as the air around the secretary cooled considerably, again increasing the pressure among the executives.

    But paying no attention to this, the short-haired executive continued with her summary.

    "After breaking through the barrier, the instructor came upon the student Jay Sacrest, who with the aid of a small sled presumably made by himself, was carrying his other ssmates, all unconscious due to the effects of the monster''s attacks.

    The student, due to his serious physical condition, copsed before they could ask him any questions, so the instructor ordered the student Syvis to take them all to the city as soon as possible and to bring other teachers while she stayed to check the forest.

    Thanks to her speed, she was able tob the forest quickly, finding what appear to be signs of confrontation between the group of students and the monster."

    At this point, the hologram cube had changed from being faces of those involved to showing the state of Jay''s body as well as various parts of the forest with dozens of trees cut down.

    These images caused different reactions from the executives, from surprise to pity.

    Surprise for the degree of destruction that could be seen, and pity for the students who had to face the culprit of that disaster.

    As for the head teacher and the secretary, although they remained expressionless looking at the holograms, especially the one of Jay''s body, anger was forming inside them.

    "Finally, the instructor managed, after having traversed almost the entire forest, to meet the monster first hand." After saying this, the executive once again changed the hologram.

    In front of everyone, the three-dimensional figure of arge mass of dark flesh with organs on the outside and arge amount of ck liquid pouring out of its body appeared.

    This sight, even though they had already seen it, again chilled the blood of all the executives, who instinctively could feel how out of the ordinary this formless monster was.

    Instead, the face of the head teacher as well as the secretary showed an expression of absolute seriousness due to the fact that they also did not recognize what kind of monster it was.

    "ording to the instructor, the monster was in a weakened state, so she defeated it after a quick confrontation, but at thest moment, the monster burst out in a final attack, managing to slightly injure her."

    The hologram then changed to that of an image of the instructor''s arm, whose veins werepletely ck in color.

    "The instructor managed to heal from this with her pugilistic mes and also made sure to burn all the remaining pieces of the monster, but stayed to check the forest anyway, albeit with null results.

    At this moment, the forest is under intense search by the assistants as well as the team in charge of magic circles of the bronze city. And that concludes my summary."

    After having spoken so much, the executive coughed a couple of times to clear her throat, satisfied with her performance.

    This summary, no doubt, no matter how many times they heard it, the executives could only say that it created more questions than the answers it gave.

    At that moment, one of the executives, a thickly built man well into his thirties made ament on the summary, "A female instructor from the bronze city managed to defeat a monster that escaped someone from the silver city?"

    In his tone was not only mixed with disbelief, but there was also some disdain, especially when he mentioned the words ''bronze city''.

    "Wouldn''t it be better to transfer that instructor to the silver city? It would seem that her power is wasted being there." Continued the same executive, "In fact, we could even exchange the one in charge of the hunting grounds with her, the bronze city is better suited to someone who failed in her task, a proper promotion and demotion."

    As he finished saying that, the gaze of the other executives fell on this man, who had proposed something that was outside of what the others were thinking.

    "...With all due respect, Mr. Roscher, things aren''t as simple as someone did a better job or not, and ultimately, it''s not up to you to decide promotions or demotions, so it would be better to focus only on matters that concern you." Replied the short-haired executive looking directly at the man in front of her.

    Although there was a considerable age difference between the two and that in any other job that would mean keeping a respect, the young executive was not afraid since the position of the two was the same.

    Besides, she truly did not like the way the man had expressed himself about two valuable workers at the Academy.

    Faced with this not-so-subtle provocation, the middle-aged executive merely looked at the young female executive before saying, "...If Miss L wishes to protect ineptitude, I will say no more."

    With that, the atmosphere became tense thanks to the exchange between these two executives, as for the person with the most authority present, namely the head teacher, she was thinking about a certain image she had seen.

    Specifically, the image in which the instructor''s arm had been affected by the monster''s attack.

    ''That ck liquid and that kind of infection... it''s the same as what that other student is suffering from...''

 Chapter 150 10 Days

    ''...I wonder... if all this was necessary...?''

    In one of the rooms on the highest floor of the bronze city hospital, in the middle of the night, a young man was staring at the ceiling from his bed.

    The young man was surrounded by various types of medical devices around him, some with traces of magic circles, others that seemed to radiate qi and a couple that looked normal.

    Not only that, but he was bedridden with his entire body wrapped in bandages and some parts even by ster.

    In short, this was the appearance of a patient whose condition was anything but light.

    And in this case, the patient was none other than Jay, who was ufortable but truly helpless in terms of escaping all these restraints.

    On the one hand, there was the fact that his body did need the special care he was receiving, and on the other, because he had already had one unfortunate encounter with a group of nurses and doctors.

    The first time he woke up was just a couple of hours ago, and after a long and needed sleep, still being in a state of rm because of how intense the previous night had been, the first thing the esper did was to stand up.

    Or at least, that''s what he tried to do, because when he wanted to do so, apart from bumping into a couple of nurses and a doctor, he ended up falling to the floor due to the bones in both legs being fractured.

    This, of course, came as a surprise to Jay and a big scare to the medical staff, who were quick to put him back in bed and treat him before urging him to focus on rest and nothing else.

    Having learned his lesson, the esper in question thought it best to listen to them, for while he felt he had rested for a considerable time, continuing to do so for a little longer wouldn''t hurt.

    Besides, he could take advantage of the time at the hospital to be able to do a rather needed recap of everything that had happened the night before.

    Whether it was the treatment he performed on the others, the encounter with the monster, and the consequences of having expended all his energy, they were all things that needed urgent exnation.

    Therefore, from the moment he was treated, Jay had spent all of his time going through his body as well as the system, finding an answer to most of his questions.

    Starting from the biggest, there was the change his body had gone through, a change so great that it would not be wrong to call it metamorphosis and that could be seen in great detail in his [Status] window.

    _____________________

    [Parasyte System]

    Carrier: Jay Sacrest

    [Status]

    Strength: (D++) (Currently F-)

    Agility: (D++) (Currently F-)

    Resistance: (D++) (Currently F-)

    Status Weakened by Fundamental Transformation: Having undergone a [Race] change, the [Carrier]''s stats have been limited in order to further focus on recovery. (Estimated remaining recovery time: 30 days).

    Interrupted Adaptation Period: Due to excessive use of a body still adapting, the [Carrier]''s body is in an incredibly fragile state. (Estimated remaining recovery time: 10 minutes.)

    _____________________

    In the description of the first negative state, there it was clearly the type of change he had gone through, a change of [Race].

    Corroborating this piece of information, Jay searched for an answer in the system, one that specifically told him what his human percentage was now and how much it had decreased, expecting a result not so different from before.

    However, the answer he received was a bucket of cold water against his expectations.

    _____________________

    Race: Parasitic Spawn (Human-Hybrid Form).

    In Human Form (Base - Jay Sacrest): Improved adaptation to different types of environment and food. Improved speed when in motion for a prolonged amount of time. Improved learning speed. Low energy consumption.

    In Hybrid Form (Base - Tar Aberration): All physical abilities greatly increased. Regeneration greatly increased. Ability to convert food into energy quickly. Poison effectivity greatly increased. High energy consumption.

    Race Trait: [Connected].

    _____________________

    Finally, with this short message, but loaded with a great amount of information, it had be clear to Jay that he had stopped being human and had be somethingpletely different.

    He was not sad, as he knew that this, sooner orter, was something that could happen if he wanted to continue using the benefits of the system, but even so, it could not be said that he was indifferent to this change.

    Once again, despite observing his body and no matter how much the system told him that he was no longer human, Jay himself did not feel any different.

    Therefore, the only thing he could do about it on this subject was to simply let time pass, and see for himself what this race change meant for Jay the ''human''.

    "Haa..." Letting out a sigh, the esper then closed his status window and focused on other parts of the system.

    Parts which while not as shocking as that of his race change, in one way or another, were also rted to it.

    Following the normal order in which his main system window was organized, the [Hosts] part followed.

    _____________________

    [Hosts]

    Parasites Avable: 5 (Adaptable)

    Two types of host have been identified:

    [Esper] (+2% improvement in the assimtion process)

    [Pugilist] (+2% improvement in the assimtion process)

    _____________________

    Here, there really didn''t seem to be any big change except for the increase in the percentage of the assimtion process, which it had to be mentioned was something incredibly beneficial to Jay.

    Yet, for Jay, that change was overshadowed by a single word that appeared next to the number of parasites avable to him, the word ''Adaptable''.

    Although until now he had seen different types of parasites, such as esper, pugilist and original, this was the first time he had seen the word ''Adaptable''.

    The first thing Jay did when he saw this word was obviously to look at his little ones, and it was there that he realized that the biggest change to this section of the main window was not +1% increase in the assimtion process.

    His little ones, cheerfully heeding what he was telling them, came out and showed themselves to Jay.

    The moment they did, the esper couldn''t help but be silent for a few seconds as he took in their appearance.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Before, depending on their type, though his little ones could vary in appearance, this was not a drastic change, but now, that trend had been broken.

    With their entire small bodies covered in a ck metallic hue, with a tiny pair of eyes that gave off a red glow, and their increasingly sharp teeth, his little ones stood proudly in front of him.

    This caused a small wave of excitement from Jay, who happily and proudly shared such emotions on their [Mental Network], which in turn further encouraged the parasites to show off their change.

    And after a short session of powerful poses, it was time to discover what this change meant.

    Just as their name indicated, their little ones were no longer of a particr type, instead, they had developed the ability to adapt to their hosts, no matter what type they were, and at a faster pace than the originals.

    Not only did this mean an easier time for Jay when assimting other abilities, but also... that he hadn''t gone through a substantial change alone, his little ones had apanied him.

    And although he wasn''t going to say it out loud, this cheered him up a bit.

    Truth be told, aside from the increased assimtion process and the change in his little ones, Jay had also hoped that now the system would recognize as a type of [Host] the aberration as [Monster] or something like that, but for some reason, this had not happened.

    Thus, another matter to investigate was added to his ever-growing to-do list.

    The section that followed now was [Skills], a section whose changes were clearly rted to his change of race.

    _____________________

    [Skills]

    Wind Control (D-): (99%) (Ready To Advance)

    Regeneration (Passive) (D+): (0%)

    Core (Half-Complete): +10% to the total energy of the [Carrier]. +5% energy while in [Human] form. -10% energy consumption while in [Hybrid] form.

    Overload (System Ability): The parasites inside the [Carrier]''s body temporarily be a part of the [Carrier]''s body, allowing him to double his statistics for 15 seconds in exchange for all the energy avable in his body. (Only avable if there are at least 10 parasites in the [Carrier]''s body.)

    Mental Network (Race Ability): Now that the [Carrier] is a [Parasitic Spawn], this skill is no longer owned by the system, instead, it became a part of him. Now the [Carrier] is able to ess the Mental Network shared by the parasites with almost no energy cost. (Only avable if there are at least 5 parasites in the carrier''s body.)

    Avable Skills:

    Currently there are no skills avable to assimte.

    _____________________

    Here, the changes were clear.

    His regeneration, something that had been acting up nonstop from the moment he encountered the monster and even after, had directly risen, and two ranks at that.

    As to whether this had been from the normal way in which esper abilities evolved or whether it was triggered by his change of race, it was obvios that it was the second.

    Then there was his Core, his own power source whose effects were simple but effective, which had remained the same until now, had also changed.

    The word that had appeared next to it to describe it might be somewhat confusing, but for some reason, Jay already had an idea of what this was without having to consult the system specifically.

    A Core was something that only a handful of supers had, with this being the materialization of their talent, training and self-cultivation, something that had been molded perfectly for the super in question.

    That was a Core normally, but in Jay''s case, he hadn''t gotten his naturally, so there was no adaptation or training process, or even time for the Core to be molded to his needs.

    For that reason, the Core was iplete, because it needed to grow along with Jay, in order to be more than just a source of energy, but something that could truly be called a second heart.

    And with hisst race change, the Core had definitely taken this as growth, changing in order to better support Jay''s new body.

    ''...It''s not for nothing that super''s with a Core are so different from the rest.'' Jay thought, pleased with this helpful change.

    As for the system''s abilities, its very description was all he needed to understand, though the part about the [Mind Network] now being something of his own did take him by surprise.

    After all, this opened up new possibilities about abilities he could get, and whether or not the one he had, [Overload], could be his entirely.

    ''...Researching this will have a higher priority than the other things...'' Jay thought, moving this matter up on his imaginary list.

    Moving on then to the next section, another load of information had greeted him.

    _____________________

    [Traits]

    Poison at Will (Parasitic Spawn Version): An artificial Trait product of the system and [������] sessfully adapting the body of the [Carrier] to a specific type of poison. Ability to produce a random poison effective against humans and monsters at will.

    Connected (Race Trait): Before, the connection between the [Carrier] and the parasites was weak and ambiguous, but now, no matter the distance, they will always be connected!

    _____________________

    Unexpectedly, even though he was a rank esper (D+), he already had two traits, something that only super that belonged to the prestigious rank (B) were supposed to have.

    Even though one was artificial and neither was human, they followed the same rule as all Traits, that their effects were simple and powerful.

    Seeing this, Jay just rxed his head, sinking further into the pillow.

    At this point, his emotions were a mess, not really knowing how to feel in the face of so many changes, but being truly sorry for turning his back on his fellow humans.

    "...Hehe..."

    ...Or at least, that was what he had tried to do before remembering all the benefits he had received, which caused him to let out a chuckle of satisfaction.

    Anyway, still with a smile on his face, Jay decided to see how much time he had left in this hospital before he could leave to try out his new body.

    "...?"

    However, the moment he looked at the calendar hanging on the wall, an expression of confusion appeared stered on his face.

    The calendar showed the month of May, with an x above all the days that had already passed and showing that today was Wednesday the 23rd.

    Everything seemed normal...if it weren''t for the fact that the night Jay went out had been the 10th.

    "...Ah, so it hadn''t beenst night..." Jay said, his smile having disappeared from his face as he contemted this fact, "I missed the exam on the 20th..."

    Unexpectedly, the reason for his concern quickly changed.

 Chapter 151 A Whirlwind In The Night

    Having recovered from the shock of having slept for over a week, Jay decided to spend his time checking the remaining details of his condition.

    For example, he found it odd that the recovery from the fragile state of his body only had 10 minutes remaining, but now that he knew he had been recovering for several days, it was understandable.

    The following was something that had been bothering him for a while now, but due tock of time and not knowing what exactly to do, he had left it as it was.

    The rank of his wind control ability.

    Several days had passed since the "Ready to advance" message had appeared right next to it, which confirmed that the percentage next to it truly was a progress bar where the goal was to advance its rank.

    The progress bar reaching its limit was something Jay already knew was only a matter of time, as unlike the rest of his skills, this one had a living engine that increased his progress daily.

    That way, with Jay using the ability at almost all times, plus the progress of the living engine, it had already reached its limit.

    Now, it would have been a good thing if the ability went up in rank as well as his regeneration, but unfortunately, his race change hadn''t affected this particr part of his status.

    Though in a way, Jay had already expected that this was going to be the case, as he didn''t really consider wind control as a primary skill of his.? Forpared to the other aspects that added to his strength, his wind control hadgged behind.

    This was something that was not supposed to happen ording to Jay, who was someone with rtively superior knowledge of famous supers and skills.

    ''...After all, wind control is an ability that is normally strong on its own.'' Jay thought, memories of famous espers with mon'' control abilitiesing to his mind.

    Even leaving aside the founder of the esper ss, who was said to be able to even wipe the clouds from the sky if she so desired, various heroes and hunters were capable of incredible feats.

    From creating great whirlwinds of cutting wind, keeping hundreds of enemies at bay without even touching them or outright being able to soar through the skies freely, wind control was an ability that was normally a primary skill.

    Instead, Jay had been using it as a supplementary skill for all his other moves, never using it as his main attack weapon.

    And while this could be said to be because of the obviousck of powerpared to even the person he had got this ability from, it was also partly his fault.

    Fault because he hadn''t really even tried to identify the cause of this, simply continuing to use the ability as it was.

    However, the encounter with the aberration had done something that began a certain chimera, awaken Jay''s sense of urgency to be even stronger than he was.

    After all, while he had truly made the attempt to increase his strength on his own by using a cutting wind in his attacks, this had been nothing short of insufficient.

    Insufficient not only to hurt the aberration, but also insufficient when it came to utilizing the full potential of the wind control.

    Again, one could argue that this time the confrontation had been nothing more than a mixture of bad luck and unfairness due to the difference in ranks, but Jay didn''t want and would not ept this excuse.

    From the moment he obtained the [Parasyte System], he had decided to use that opportunity to dive right into the world he had so admired and idolized since he was a child, the world of supers.

    A world whose most notable characters were at the top of society, possessing fame, power and riches by the bucketload, and most importantly, the power to change the world.

    This, of course, also brought with it its own share of risks.

    Whether it was meeting their end at the hands of a stronger super, a terrifying monster, or being used as a pawn by an organization, these were just a few of the moremon fates a super could face.

    Still, being aware of these risks, Jay pressed on and even entered one of the organizations whose former foundations were built on supers, the Eitsirc Academy.

    A ce where either by the teachers themselves or by his encounters with monsters, he had been reminded, verbally and physically, that there were no such things as unfair confrontations.

    There were only confrontations between two parties, and whether one came out of it well or not was entirely their own responsibility.

    And in this respect, Jay had been horribly careless.

    Even though he had been moving around the academy to increase his strength and training, he was stillpletely crushed by the aberration, only managing to get out of that situation thanks to a certain ''person''.

    It was an oue in which he had arguablye out on top if one took into ount the increase in strength that his change of race had brought him.

    However, it was also an oue that had left Jay Sacrest, feeling helpless for not being able to, by his own means, protect his own life.

    Therefore, deciding to take the first step of making himself stronger without yet resorting to what the other ''person'' left him with, Jay was determined to strengthen what he already had.

    ''...Ah, right, there was that too...''

    Still looking at his status window, a certain part caught his attention, specifically, the plus signs next to his stats.

    The doubt stemmed mainly from the fact that even Jay, a rather interested and knowledgeable person about supers and now a super himself, didn''t remember reading about this rank.

    Regardless of ss, the ssification for super ranks was always the same, having three key points.

    Indicating that the super had just entered this rank, a minus sign was used after the letter, (D-).

    Next, demonstrating that the super now had firm control over their new strength, the minus sign, (D), was removed.

    Finally, being a statement that the super was preparing to take the next step, the plus sign, (D+), was added.

    This was how the ranking went, with no intermediate points between the three, something Jay himself had experienced.

    However, what directly contradicted this ranking system was none other than his own physical statistics, which proudly disyed his double plus signs.

    ''...Why did they appear? Are they something special because I''m the [Carrier] of the system? Or perhaps... it is the true rank of a person who is about to rank up?''

    Several possibilities as to the origin of these signs filled Jay''s head.

    Unfortunately, for this case, he couldn''t rely on his own experience because of all the peculiarities surrounding it, which were definitely not something the other supers of the world had experienced.

    Therefore, all Jay could do was search for an answer using the information he had from the supers he had infected so far.

    After a few minutes of being lost in thought, Jay then came up with an answer that seemed the most feasible.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Although the rank ssification of supers always considered only three major stages, this couldn''t be that simple.

    After all, it was a widely known truth that even if several rank (D+) supers were pitted against a rank (C-) one, it was doubtful to know which side would win, with the odds being in thetter''s favor.

    If both ranks were raised, even with more than a dozen rank (C+) supers against a rank (B-) super, this matchup would be nothing but a massacre.

    So why was there this abysmal difference between ranks that apparently, with the normal ranking, seemed to be only one step away from each other?

    Because in reality, they were not just one step apart.

    Moving up the ranks was a process of sublimation in which the super advanced in the hierarchy of life, a process which became more difficult and important the further one ranked up.

    For that reason, to Jay, it made sense that there were really not just three stages, but four, with the fourth being the truest stage of moving up the ranks!

    ''Following that logic, my stats then should be ready for me to move up to (C-) rank...'' Jay thought.

    Although normally this kind of realization would be something to celebrate for any super, the esper''s expression was unusual, as if he was quizzical.

    As for why, it was because an unpleasant feeling filled his body, a feeling that his little ones also felt and were sharing in his [Mental Network].

    "Haa..."

    Letting out a sigh, Jay decided that having gotten an answer to his initial question was enough to leave the subject there, so he stopped thinking about it and focused on another matter.

    While moving up in rank was something he had to do sooner orter and would undoubtedly bring him an increase only equal to or greater than his race change, it wasn''t the only way he had to get stronger.

    ''...Alright, enough of that, back to the wind control thing...'' Thinking that, Jay then decided to visit a certain part of the system that he had left on his own since a couple of months ago already.

    Within the [Hosts] section, there was the status of one of his little guys that differed from the others because not a parasite, but another kind of little guy.

    _____________________

    [Symbiont (Lowest Rank)]

    Host: Carl Gaffner (Esper)

    Skill: [Wind Control (D+) (Ready to advance.)]

    Rtionship with the Host: Normal.

    Current Bonus (Host): Growth Improvement (+10%), Emotional Strengthening (+10%).

    Current Bonus (Carrier): 2% Daily increase in [Wind Control ( D-)] (Limit: D+)

    _____________________

    Seeing how his little one was doing, Jay was quick to find something that surprised him, that Carl was also ready to move up in rank.

    He knew that the esper in question was talented and that with the symbiont with him, his progress would be even faster, but Jay didn''t expect it to be so fast that he would already knocking on the door of rank (C-).

    Still, it was a good thing that he was getting stronger, since as long as his little one was connected to Carl, his progress would be progress for Jay as well.

    The reason Jay had decided to start his research on how to advance his wind control was because, again, he had a hunch that it had something to do with Carl.

    And what better way to check this out than bymunicating directly with his little one, something Jay had also wanted to do for some time.

    He hadn''t done it with his [Mental Network] before due to the distance, but now he was brimming with confidence that he could do it, no doubt an effect of being a [Parasitic Spawn.]

    Then, closing his eyes to concentrate as much as possible, Jay decided to make connection with his one symbiont.

    ***

    At the same time Jay decided to put his new Trait to use, a certain student was sleeping peacefully in one of the silver city''s apartmentplexes.

    The student in question, despite being in a deep sleep, still looked quite pleasing to the eye, possessing attractive facial features and striking white hair.

    The sheets that were supposed to cover his body were only half-doing their job, leaving much of the student''s toned pajama-d body uncovered, but even with these, the student did not appear to be cold.

    "...Uh...ughh..."

    Suddenly, the student let out a few guttural sounds at the same time as his body began to move erratically and slowly.

    Slowly, the studentpletely threw off the sheets, tossing them to the floor and moving closer and closer to the edge of the bed.

    If he kept this up, it was clear that he would fall to the floor, but suddenly, in a clumsy but effective movement, the white-haired young man sat down in the middle of the bed, his legs crossed.

    However, it had to be noted that even at this point, with his body leaning forward and visibly struggling not to fall, the student was still asleep.

    "...Got...to...help..."

    Muttering those words, the student, better known as Carl Gaffner, slowly opened his eyes, revealing pupils that clearly did not belong to him.

    *Swoosh!*

    Without another word, strong currents of wind began to swirl around Carl, eventually increasing in strength and speed.

    In a matter of seconds, a wind whirlpool of over two meters had formed in the room, with Carl looking at the seeming nothingness.

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