《My Plunderer System》 Chapter 1 1 - They Appear May 12th, 2097, the day the world was forever changed¡­ "Breaking News! Breaking News! We bring you shocking footage out of Man in the Philippines, a mysterious thing has appeared in Paco Park, we have our on site reporter at the scene¡­" "Hi, I bring you on site footage of what can only be described a rift that appeared overnight, for those of you viewing at home, the rift in question is not the work of special effects or cgi, it is about the size of arge van in length and it is unknown as to what its origins are or why it appeared here. Some are specting an alien race is responsible,ing to im the earth as their own, while others are saying that the world ising to an abrupt end. While we may not know what exactly is the cause of this strange phenomena, the government is moving military to the site of the rift and scientists are currently attempting to study the surrounding area to see if it has had any residual effects on the environment. Unfortunately that is all I have to report at this time. Back to you at the station." "As we hold our breath waiting for news toe of what is happening, we will be bringing updates as we learn more, thanks for tuning in. We''ll see you tomorrow with the news. 2 Days Later¡­ "On tonight''s news, we bring an update with the strange rift that has appeared in Man. Scientists have continued to study the appearance of the strange phenomenon. Following ourst broadcast the "rift" as we have begun to call it has flickered and pulsed a few times. Scientist, Dr. Francis Zeurich, has discovered that during these pulses, the rift releases a wave of some type of new energy we have not seen before. We now got a video received by Dr. Zeurich exining some of the breakthroughs regarding the rift" "The waves of energy discovereding through the rift have wavelengths and frequencies unlike anything we have seen before, and are unlike the familiar electromaic waves that we use such as radio and microwaves. The energy signatures they give off are exponentiallyrger than anything we have ever seen and if harnessed could be used to solve the energy crisis the world currently faces. The frequency of the pulses have increased as time has passed with less time in between each fluctuation. I''m hoping we in the sciencemunity can make a breakthrough soon as to the origins of this rift and new energy signature never before seen." "As you can see, Dr. Zeurich and his team are working tirelessly to help us gain insight to the appearance of the rift, and have made great strides so far into helping us learn more about this strange urrence. We will update you as we learn more. Now onto our next story¡­" 5 Days Later¡­ "We bring news tonight that may be disturbing to young viewers or those of you that have a weak stomach. This updateing about the "rift" that has appeared in Man. Earlier today, the "rift" which has now been dubbed a "gate" by scientists opened and bared its fangs for the world to see. Here is some footage taken by cell phone from the scene¡­" "Look at that! Look at the gate!" "At this point in time all that can be described that crawled out of the gate is horror. Monsters resembling giant insects emerged killing and demolishing everything in their path. Numerous videos have been circting around the inte of the creatures rampaging through the city as they make their way deeper ind. The military has taken action trying to fight back against the horde of creaturesing from the gate but modern weapons are proving to be mostly ineffective against the beasts and seems to only slow them down. The few that have been killed have been brought in for testing but no live specimens have been captured. Military and emergency forces have been sent to the scene to rescue and evacuate survivors of this tragedy and world governments have gathered to talk about what the next steps should be taken. The current death toll is estimated to number in the hundred thousands with nearly double having gone missing or sustaining injuries. The creatures seem to have an instinct to stay away from the oceans but continue to move ind, razing anything in their path. With current estimates the government estimates that with how things are continuing to unfold, the ind of Luzon, where Man is located in the Philippines may be lost by the end of the week. May god help us all¡­" asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 2 2 - Present Day "Get up Milo! Or are you going to sit there and take it like the pussy you are!" *Thud* *Wheeze* "Good one Danny, take out your insecurities on the weak orphan, real manly of you," *Thud* "Shut it Fenix, no one''sing here to save you" This jerk, is named Danny Li, he''s a typical school bully, beating up on the weak kid because it makes him feel better about himself, and the two goons behind him are hisp dogs, following his every order. And their current order is to hold me up while Danny kicks the crap out of me. I''m the one getting beat to a pulp in this back alley, by these bullies. A little under 3 years ago my parents vanished after bing awakened and going off to use their special abilities to fight back against the interdimensional menace that has been terrorizing the earth since the first gate appeared in Man in 2097. Since their disappearance, I''ve been an outcast, the orphan whose parents were sealed in a dungeon being left to be raised by the only family that would take him in. The only keepsakes I have left of my parents is a photograph of the three of us on vacation at the beach smiling and their two medals of valor for helping everyone else escape the dungeon that was copsing with the team still inside, they were the only two to be sealed inside without being able to escape. Like my parents, I am awakened too, but unlike my parents who had powerful abilities, I am only able to enhance my body to a small degree, so little that many unempowered people are still as strong as or stronger than me. Sure if I worked out and got stronger that may make my ability more powerful but I am a skinny, six foot three inch tall, sixteen year old, and between school and work I barely have enough time to finish my homework. I can only sit back and take the beating because if I fight back, Danny will only hit me harder. After four or five more kicks to my stomach and punches to my face they finally dropped me to the floor. Coughing and sputtering I grabbed my cracked and broken sses and tried to put them back on my face before falling to my back and looking up at the sky feeling sorry for myself. When looking up I couldn''t help but wonder why the sky was beginning to look purple, thinking I had finally snapped and all the tortures of life had finally taken their toll. Until I heard the sirens start ring and the screaming start. Among all the chaos I could hear the sound of snarling nearby. I sat up realizing something was going terribly wrong. "What is with my crappy luck today," I thought. Suddenly the sound of a loudspeaker filled the air. "A rift is forming, I repeat a rift has formed, all non awakened seek shelter immediately, awakened have been dispatched and will be arriving soon. I repeat, a rift is forming, a rift has formed, all non awakened seek shelter immediately, awakened have been dispatched and will be arriving soon." asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 3 3 - Rift Formation Rift: a formation of dimensional energy that encloses an area within it, the area bes quarantined from the rest of the world and those who have not been awakened are trapped on either side of the dimensional wall. Only those who have awakened an ability are able to pass through this barrier. When a rift is active, beasts will appear through miniature gates within the rift, and until thest monster is yed the rift will remain, trapping any non-awakened humans from escaping. They generally are less dangerous than dungeons and gates but still require those with abilities to stop them from causing too many casualties. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - When I heard the word rift my heart stopped, the nearest shelter is 3 blocks away by the time I get out of this alley, the beasts will have already started appearing. Danny and his goonsughed, "they think a puny rift is going to kill us? We leave for Awakened Academy in a few days, my power is strong, I''ve got nothing to worry about, don''t n on hiding behind me Milo, I''ll use your ass as bait before I save your life." Following Danny''s retort, in the distance I could hear snarling and the sound of paws pounding on the asphalt running through the streets. Before long, the source of the sound could be seen turning the corner, and as soon as it came into view I froze on the spot. The creatures that came from the dimensional gateways were a thing I was hoping to only read about in a textbook or see on the news but standing not even one hundred feet a way, the incarnation of terror stood throwing its head back and howling. "Shit!" said Danny, "of all the things to sniff out Milo''s weak ass it had to be a ckfang Direwolf." The wolf itself was the size of a rhino, with sleek white fur and as the name implied, a maw filled with razor sharp ck fangs dripping with blood and drool, as soon as it finished howling it turned its crimson red eyes towards the alley we were in and slowly started walking towards it, certain that it didn''t have to fear its prey escaping it. Danny and his goons took abative stance, while I ran and hid behind a dumpster hoping maybe Danny and his twop dogs would have some luck fighting off the massive beast. Danny had a decent ability with his control over water, if he had trained it high enough he could pull the water from the atmosphere to help him fight, and luckily he had. Danny made the first move, pulling the water out of the air and forming it into a spear of sorts. However he made a fatal mistake, he charged head first into the creature even if he did manage tond a hit he stood no chance as the wolf pounced on him tearing him to shreds, his two goons promptly copsed and peed themselves as they realized they stood no chance. Soon the three corpses of my school bulliesid on the ground in front of me, karma was a bitch, but that wasn''t going to stop the wolf froming after me next. The pressure the monster was giving off was immense, I realized I stood no chance and closed my eyes waiting for my life to end. When I didn''t die the next second, I opened my eyes thinking that maybe the wolf spared me. It was wishful thinking, the minute I opened my eyes I was face to face with the wolf''s slobber filled jaws. The stench was overwhelming and the sight of Danny and his goon''s flesh hanging from between its fangs proved to be too much as I hurled. After letting me finish emptying my stomach of my lunch from today, the wolf pulled back one of its paws and shed it across my chest, the lightning fast attack cut through me like butter and immediately I could feel my warm blood soak through my tattered shirt. I knew then and there my life would end. I copsed praying to whatever was watching over me that it would end quickly and painlessly when suddenly a beam of energy fired down like aet and covered me in light, it was unknown what was the cause of the light but the minute it touched me, my hope for a quick and painless death was sent out the window. My skin felt like it was on fire, my blood felt like it was boiling and my lungs felt like I had just inhaled acid. My body felt like it was being torn apart and put back together again and again in an endless cycle of pain and misery. Whatever happened with the wolf was no longer a concern to me anymore as the pain of being torched alive by this strange tower of light was a million times worse than the sh I received across the chest from the ckfang Direwolf. After a minute or so of the excruciating pain, I copsed with thest sight burned into my head of what I could only describe as the grim reaper walking towards my copsed figure. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 4 4 - Not Dead? When I opened my eyes, I was staring at a in white ceiling with lights so bright I thought I had moved onto the afterlife. Afterying still for a few moments I sat up and took in my surroundings, it was definitely a hospital but what I didn''t know was how I was still alive. The pain felt so real and when I felt my chest there was no gaping hole where the ckfang direwolf had shed me, I checked under my shirt to double check and there were no signs that I had been wounded. The next things I did was put on my sses but for some strange reason my vision went blurry when looking through the lens. I did a double take and checked again and sure enough whatever the doctors did hadpletely cured my vision. The following moment the doctor walked in and introduced themselves and filled me in on what had happened. Apparently after I cked out, a member of the Incubus Guild found me copsed in the back of the alley without a scratch on me. He found it miraculous that a monster hadn''t found me considering the bodies of three students were found not far from where I was found. The minute I heard this I was floored. What happened to the wolf? What was that strange light? What about the crazy grim reaper looking thing I saw? I had more questions but these were at the forefront. The doctor went on to tell me that they found no physical issues with me, but because I was copsed within the rift they needed to keep me overnight for observation. The doctor said he would get started on my discharge papers, and the next two visitors were two faces I was happy to see. The first was my cousin, Corinna, she was my legal guardian who took care of me following my parents'' disappearance, but she felt more like a sister due to how close in age we were. She went through so much trouble to help keep us afloat and even took on multiple jobs to be able to afford living. We were the only family either of us had left, due to her losing her parents in a gate break. My other visitor was my childhood friend Krista, we had known eachother since we were little, even before my parents disappeared and she''s always been someone I could count on to help me out in a pinch. We used to always fight because she was taller than me, up until highschool where I shot up like a weed. She was an awakened like me and because of her ability we were able to speak about anything and everything without having to worry about outside ears hearing what was said, because she''s a telepath, her ability allows her to speak directly into someone''s mind and also to read other people''s thoughts. A lot more useful than my ability. She ran up to me with her blonde hair tied in a messy bun and shouted, "Milo you idiot! You need to be careful!" She tried to act tough but I could see tears welling up in her ice blue eyes. As she hugged me. "Easy," I said cheekily, "If you aren''t careful I may fall apart." Corinna on the other hand was already bawling, she was always a big softie and the thought of almost losing me seemed to take arge toll on her. After chatting about what happened, they were both shocked to hear about what had happened to Danny, I chose to leave out the fact that I had been struck by some strange light, as I was just as puzzled as to what it could be about. "The guy had iting to him," Krista said, "but I can''t help but feel bad for how gruesome he went out." I felt the same way, I hated the guy''s guts but I never wish death upon anyone, unless they threaten to harm the ones I care about. Just as they were about to leave, to talk to the doctor about my discharge a strange box popped into my vision. "Huh? What does this mean" The box had words on it that read¡­ Ability: Telepath detected Conditions to copy met¡­ Will you copy ability: Telepath [Yes] [No] "Uuuuhhhh? What?" asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 5 5 - Welcome The first thing that went through Milo''s head was obviously, "Huh?" What does it mean I can copy the Telepath ability? And the second was, can no one else see this screen? It looked like a screen out of a video game and it was still sitting within his vision. I thought I was hallucinating at first he thought, but then he heard a chime in my head, and another screen appeared in his vision that gave him more questions. The screen read: [Notification Alert] You have 2 unread messages in your mailbox When reading this he thought to myself "Mailbox?" And as if onmand the minute mailbox entered his stream of thought another screen appeared. [Mailbox] [1]Wee to the Plunderer System [2]Information on the Plunderer System When looking at the screen he chose the first message as it seemed like that was the first one he should read. Once it opened it simply said [1] All conditions have been met Wee to the Plunderer System! [clear] When reading this he finally realized what the first screen meant by copy, it had something to do with the system that was awoken. But he had no idea why the system had awoken and why he had received it of all people. He cleared the message and opened the second message this one gave him more information about the system itself. [2] Wee to the Plunderer System: When viewing Awakened Beings you can now view their ability. If the correct conditions are met, you can plunder the ability adding it to your own list of abilities As you level up the system more powers tied to the system can be unlocked By saying status you can view your status window, this gives information about your current abilities. [clear] When reading the description provided by the system, he was shocked. His previous issues of being unable to defend himself could now change. He would no longer be weak. He could gather the strongest abilities around and wield them as his own. His next decision was to open the status window. "Status." Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 1 Abilities[1 / 3]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) -empty- -empty- [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [5] Agility: [5] Intelligence: [5] Stamina: [5] Constitution: [5] Magic Power: [5] [clear] When in the status menu Milo was able to interact with the screen and by touching each statistic he could learn more about what each statistic meant. Strength, Agility and Stamina were self exnatory. He first clicked where it said Title, the system exined that by doing certain feats he would gain titles that could boost stats or give additional benefits. Following the Title section he clicked on the ability slots, when doing so he was ted to learn that he was able to delete slots that were taken up already, this would allow him to pick and choose what abilities he wanted to keep and get rid of. The only drawback being that the slot would take a week to open back up if forcibly deleted. Up next was the intelligence stat, this one seemed the most odd, as he wasn''t sure what boosting his intelligence stat would do for him. When clicking on it he was a little disappointed as he knew he''d need to invest in the stat pretty heavily if he wanted to be as strong as he hoped. The intelligence stat allowed him to "understand" the ability, if his intelligence was too low he couldn''t use the abilities he plundered as powerfully as he would hope. As he raised the stat his understanding of his abilities would increase and he could use them more powerfully. He then checked constitution and this stat allowed him to have overall better resistance when being attacked, this included mental fortitude against psychic abilities. Thest stat he checked was magic power, and it was somewhat what he expected, the magic power stat determined how long he could use his abilities as well as how many ability slots he was able to have. As his magic stat got higher the longer he could use his abilities he plundered as well as the more abilities he could plunder and make his own. The only downside was the only way to increase the magic stat was by absorbing it from essence stones or other means. ording to his own knowledge too, the slot that says free stat points meant he could freely distribute his stats where he wanted to as well, which made him different from other awakeners as when they improved their abilities they got randomly assigned as they grew. After doing his research he closed his status window Awakeners could all check their stats through their Holo, a hightech watch that took over smartphones as the newmunication device used around the world and it ran using the magisphere ayer of magical energy that surrounded the earth that appeared following the emergence of dimensional distortions. But with Milo having a second status window he could look at his status in more detail than an awakener would normally be able to see. Overall things were off to a good start, and with the Awakened Academy move in daying up, Milo would have a bit of time to test some of his newfound abilities out. Starting with his best friend, who for now, would be the only person he told about the system. Chapter 6 6 - Does It Work? Once all the paperwork was signed and done, Corinna brought Milo a fresh set of clothes with a wolf''s sh absent and allowed him to change before they started heading home. When on the way Milo began testing his newfound power more. He passed many different people. The first thing he did was test to see how his ability to see awakened abilities worked. He was relieved to find out that when wanting to read an awakened ability all he had to do was think about the ability itself and a sort of symbol would appear over people''s heads. Over Krista''s head a green symbol appeared, Milo deduced that the green symbol meant he could copy the ability already, the next color appeared to be orange, when looking deeper it seemed that the orange meant that he had not cleared the learning condition set forth by the system. Thest one that seemed curious only appeared over some children Milo passed in the lobby, it was white in color, and when selecting one a screen popped up that read: [Notice] Latent Ability Detected: Transformation (unable to learn until fully awakened) [clear] Based on what was read, Milo was bbergasted, he could see what ability people would awaken with when they awakened. This was something that was a popr scam with where society was currently, with awakened abilities being a powerful source of ie through bing a professional gate crasher, an awakened who gets sent to dimensional doorways to close them. But unlike the scammers, Milo could urately tell people what their ability would be. Once he investigated his ability to look at other people''s abilities, he decided to wait until they got back to their apartment before deciding to test the plunder ability itself, just in case anything weird happened. Once they walked through the door he grabbed Krista''s arm and dragged her up to his room. Corinna thought nothing of it, but Krista''s face was bright red the minute Milo grabbed her arm. Once they got up to his room, he closed the door and said, "You aren''t going to believe this, but I didn''t tell you the whole story at the hospital." "What do you mean?" asked Krista. After exining the whole situation with the pir of light, and his new plunder ability, Krista was shocked, "Copying abilities? Are you sure you didn''t hit your head while you were in that alley? I mean how would something like this even happen?" Just like Milo was at first, Krista was hesitant and confused as to what Milo meant by the ability to copy other awakened abilities. Milo then went on to exin that at the moment, hers was the only ability he could copy as he had already met the condition, whatever the condition may be. After some more deliberating, Krita finally caved and told him that if that was the case that he should do it, copy her ability. Finally the time hade to test whether this power was truly as great as it sounded. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 7 7 - Plunder Just like previously, when at the hospital, Milo activated his ability to view the other person''s ability and selected the green icon above Krista''s head. Just likest time the screen popped up that said: [Notice] Ability: Telepath detected Conditions to copy met¡­ Will you copy ability: Telepath [Yes] [No] This time Milo selected yes. The minute Milo selected yes, his eyes glowed violet, his hair began to float and strange ck chains shot out of his hands towards Krista, the minute it appeared Milo flinched thinking it would be painful for Krista, but the chains just wrapped around Krista and once they were wrapped around her they vanished into nothingness. The next second a screen popped up that read: [Notice] Ability: Telepath has been sessfully plundered Free stat points have been gained from plundering a new ability Tutorial has been generated based off current intelligence stat Watch Tutorial? [yes] [no] Milo when reading this was a little worried as when reading closely it seemed like there may be a chance at his ability failing at copying an ability, even if he cleared the copying condition. The second thing he read intrigued him. The system would give him a tutorial on how to use an ability based on his intelligence stat so he could gain some starter knowledge that most ability users didn''t get unless they had someone they knew that had a simr or identical ability. When seeing the puzzled look on his face, Krista asked him if it had worked, she hadn''t felt a change and still thought that maybe he was just messing around. Milo went on to exin the screen that popped up after plundering her ability and they decided that he should watch the tutorial to see what it was all about. The minute he clicked yes, a video popped up and a voice sounded in his head. "Wee to the tutorial section on your system, my name is Navi and I will be a guide in helping you to better learn the ins and outs of the Plunderer System. As your intelligence stat increases more tutorials will open about your plundered abilities, as your Magic Power stat increases you will be able to view more tutorials about the system itself." Milo''s eyes went wide hearing this, Navi went on to exin the basics of the telepath ability and said that a new tab would open on his status screen where tutorials could be viewedter. After learning the very basics due to his low intelligence stat. Krista asked if it had worked and the next second her eyes widened because she heard Milo''s voice speak directly into her mind. "Of course it did." Krista was shocked, after finally calming down she and Milo went on to mull over the possibilities the system now opened up for him. Before going any further Milo wanted to pull up his status screen to see if there were any changes. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 1 Abilities[2 / 3]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [3] Strength: [5] Agility: [5] Intelligence: [5] Stamina: [5] Constitution: [5] Magic Power: [5] [clear] After opening his status panel he was surprised to see that 2 new tabs had opened. The tutorials tab was self exnatory but the plunder tab was new, he would check it after looking at more on the stats tab. The telepath ability filled his second ability slot as expected, but what he was confused about was why it said level 2, this was cleared up when Krista exined that she had trained it to the second level not too long ago, which ording to the system only increased the range at which he could use the telepath ability. The second part that excited him was that he now had three stat points he could assign, he decided to put two into strength and one into his intelligence stat. After assigning the free points his stats looked like: [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 1 Abilities[2 / 3]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [7] Agility: [5] Intelligence: [6] Stamina: [5] Constitution: [5] Magic Power: [5] [clear] Now would be the time to explore the new tab that appeared on his status screen, the Plunder tab. Chapter 8 8 - Learning More After assigning the free stats, he clicked on the plunder tab to learn more about what that part of the system had to offer. The plunder tab showed his plundering abilities but only the first option was shown, the rest were blocked out. It simply said: [Plunder] Plunder (lvl 1): Possibility to copy the ability of other awakened if certain conditions are met (On Cooldown: 4:23:57:32) (Hidden) (Hidden) (Hidden) (Hidden) Just as he suspected there was only a chance he could plunder an ability, there was no guarantee that an ability would be copied. There was also a five day cooldown on the ability meaning even if he cleared multiple copy conditions he would have to wait for the cooldown to finish before he could copy another ability. Krista could see him tapping what looked like thin air and asked him if he wasn''t crazy, then what he was doing. He went on to exin about his status screen and more. She asked if there was any way she could view the so called screens that appeared but Milo had no idea, it was something he may learn if he grew his intelligence stat but he was still unsure what he had to do in order to level up and gain even more new stats, besides the free points he get when plundering an ability. When thinking more about what would earn him more stats fast, a ding sounded in his mind and a new screen popped up in his vision. [Daily Mission] Prepare for power: A good physique is needed for great power -Complete the following to fulfill mission requirements- 50 push ups - [0/50] 50 sit ups - [0/50] 50 squats - [0/50] Run 5 km - [0/5] Drink 1 liter of water - [0/1] -Reward- 10 exp and 3 free stat points "The answer came faster than I thought, it''s almost as if the system knew I wanted to gain stats and exp," Milo thought. After exining the daily mission to Krista, she decided she didn''t want to go through a workout so she went back home. Walking to the kitchen, Corrina was surprised to see Milo in a pair of basketball shorts, a tee shirt and pulling on his tennis shoes. "Where are you going?" she asked, surprised. "To work out," Milo responded nonchntly. Corrina then started giggling as she thought, surrreee you are, unaware that Milo could now read her thoughts using the telepath ability, before walking up to the fridge and grabbing a cold soda before going back to the couch to rx. Milo shrugged off the fact that his cousin didn''t believe he was working out and shouted out, "I''ll be backter, don''t wait up for me." As he closed the door behind him. After getting down to the park and reading through the list of workouts he had to do for his daily mission, Milo got to work. After about an hour of struggle Milo finally finished all but thest thing on the list, the daily mission screen looked like this: [Daily Mission] Prepare for power: A good physique is needed for great power -Complete the following to fulfill mission requirements- 50 push ups - [50/50] 50 sit ups - [50/50] 50 squats - [50/50] Run 5 km - [5/5] Drink 1 liter of water - [0/1] -Reward- 10 exp and 3 free stat points After returning home drenched in sweat, Milo went over to the fridge and grabbed a water and started chugging. About halfway through his third bottle, the little ding he was hearing for the third time went off in his mind and a new screen popped up. [Daily Mission Complete] Rewards have been distributed: Gained 10 exp Gained 3 free stat points Looking satisfied with his results from the day''s work, Milo took a shower andid down in bed before opening up his status screen to allocate his newly earned points. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 1 Abilities[2 / 3]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [7] Agility: [5] Intelligence: [7] Stamina: [7] Constitution: [5] Magic Power: [5] [clear] He decided to bnce his strength, stamina and intelligence out at seven points each. Especially after feeling the bacsh from working out, he knew he needed to up his stamina sooner rather thanter. And finally he knew he needed to up his intelligence if he wanted to use stronger abilities. After eating a good meal and rxing, Milo reflected back on the numerous events that had happened to him throughout his day. He had five days until his summer break would being to an end and he would be going to Awakened Academy to study ability use for hisst two years of highschool. That was five more days to increase his stats before he''d be surrounded by ability users for two whole years. Five more days until he would be surrounded by a treasure trove of ability users that he could take abilities from. Chapter 9 9 - Back To School Awakened Academy: A school where students who awaken abilities around the world go to learn to better control and use their powers to fight back against the dimensional doors that open around the world. The school is situated on a moving artificial ind that can freely travel around the oceans. Powered by a technology discovered by Dr. Francis Zeurich a year after the first gate ruptured in Man. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After another five days ofpleting daily missions, packing and brushing up on stuff for school, Milo was as ready as he ever would be for his next two years honing his abilities, he had finished allocating his points and his stats looked better than previously. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 1 Abilities[2 / 3]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [12] Agility: [8] Intelligence: [10] Stamina: [10] ? Constitution: [6] Magic Power: [5] [clear] After raising his stats, his body was also looking and feeling much better, his features started to fill out as his strength stat increased, he went from skinny to looking more like an athlete. As his agility was raised he also found he was much more flexible than previously. He no longer got tired doing the daily missions and he was able to better use the telepath ability as well as his original ability much better than he used to. With the increased intelligence the range at which he could use his telepath ability wasrger than he had previously been able to use it, and he now was able to enhance his body to a much higher degree so much so that he was able to do feats that would be considered superhuman. He found that by focusing the enhancement to one specific part of his body it would be stronger than if he reinforced his entire physique. He still wasn''t able to use both abilities at once buting into the awakened school with two abilities opened up more opportunities for him than anyone else. Corinna saw him off to the train station where he would be able to ride to the docking point that the Awakened Academy was located at. Coming with him was Krista, since they both were going to the school they decided to ride the train together. Corinna had tears rolling down her cheeks as she said goodbye. Milo reassured her that he''d being back any chance he got and to not worry. She then went onto the usual spiel about making sure to do hisundry, wear clean underwear everyday, and all the other things moms would tell kids before they left on a big journey. She said bye one more time trying her best to keep a brave face, but reading her mind with the telepath ability allowed him to know what exactly she was thinking. He reassured her he''d be fine one more time and he had a friending with him so there was no need to worry as she''d keep him out of trouble. After saying their goodbyes Krista and Milo boarded the train and headed to their cabin, it would be a one day train ride to get to their destination so Milo did his daily mission before they left, the train had amodations for those riding it including a buffet and rooms to sleep so Milo and Krista took their bags to their room and headed off to get something to eat. While on the way they passed many people and Milo was able to see if any of them had abilities, with it having been five days his plunder skill cooldown was finished and he was in the market for another ability. After making their way through the train to get to the buffet he found an ability that intrigued him. Chapter 10 10 - Teaching An Ability? While going to get food with Krista, Milo was checking ability screens to see if there were any he may want, and he came across a hidden gem. Among the elemental abilities, the ice ability and the lightning ability were considered the strongest and some of the rarest among them. When going through the different avable abilities around them a young waiter who may not have manifested their awakened powerpletely was handing out drinks. When Milo activated his ability to check awakened powers on the waiter a screen popped up that read. [Notice] Ability: Frost detected Conditions to copy: Help target learn to use their ability plete condition to copy ability: Frost] The condition was a one that Milo couldn''t believe, "he has a frost ability but doesn''t know how to use it? Or does he just not know he has awakened?" These thoughts kept going through Milo''s head as he tried to think of a way to teach the waiter about their ability, without looking like a crazy person, and he only had about a day to do it. After a while Milo did some research by looking through articles online about the elemental abilities. Milo devised a n, he read that awakened who have elemental abilities have been known to unconsciously activate them in dire situations. If he found a way to make him use his ability unconsciously it could be the breakthrough he needed to learn to control his frost power. Now all Milo needed was to make a dire situation. The dire situation also needed to be something that could be helped with the frost ability. The easiest thing would be to maybe let the ice in his drink melt and ask the guy if he was able to cool it down. That wouldn''t be dire enough for the guy to activate it unconsciously, another thing that Milo thought of was maybe giving himself a bruise or faking a sprain. But who knew if that would be dire enough to make the guy act. Hisst n was the most dangerous and involved using the ability opposite to the one being used, fire. Elemental abilities would cancel out the element opposite to them, in the case of the frost ability, it could be used to cool down a fire and put it out but the only issue would be where to light the fire, how to light the fire, and how to guarantee that it doesn''t go out of control to the point of putting anyone''s lives in danger. After some consideration Milo nned to use a piece of paper and to drop it into a trash can, hopefully igniting whatever was inside without having it go out of control. To light the paper in the first ce he would use the burner of one of the serving stations. Milo put his n into action, using the burner closest to the target he lit a balled up napkin on fire and tossed it in the trash, slowly he let the fire build so that it was big enough for the guy to need to take action. After letting the fire build in the bottom of the trashcan, Milo used his telepath ability to say, do you smell something burning?, into the guys mind. The target then sniffed the air and eximed, "Fire!" People began to hurry through the train to get to the next car, but Milo ran up to the man instead, "you need to do something!" He tried to make it sound as urgent as possible but the man still didn''t act. Milo then decided to try and take it a step further, pretending to try to fan out the mes he put his arm a little too close, causing his sleeve to catch fire as well, with his reinforcement ability he could withstand the heat for a few seconds before it did any major damage so he had to act fast. He screamed as if terrified for his life, and this was the push the man needed. Within a second the temperature seemed to have dropped and mist could be seening from Milo''s breath. The man grabbed Milo by the arm and the cold air emanating from his hand caused the me to extinguish, and in the next second the man went wide eyed and the temperature in the room returned to normal. When realizing the me went out the man went wide eyed and asked Milo if he was okay. ying dumb Milo eximed, "You have the frost ability? That''s so cool!" The man was obviously surprised as to how he had gotten his power to work, and said he had no idea he could do something like that and couldn''t control his power. Milo told him to just do whatever he just did and the power would probably work, trying to push the man into realizing how to use his ability. The trick seemed to have worked as a new determined look appeared in the man''s eyes and the next second a screen popped up. [Notice] Ability: Frost detected Conditions to copy met¡­ Will you copy ability: Frost? [Yes] [No] Just likest time when the condition was met, when he heard the ding he knew it had been a sess. The icon above the waiter''s head also turned green confirming that the condition to copy had been met. Milo immediately activated the plunder ability and the ck chains shot from his arm wrapping around the waiter before disappearing and disying a message in front of Milo''s eyes. [Notice] Ability: Frost has been sessfully plundered Free stat points have been gained from plundering a new ability Extra points have been earned for plundering a rare ability Tutorial has been generated based off current intelligence stat Watch Tutorial? [yes] [no] Once the message appeared, Milo thanked the waiter again for saving him and went back to his room. He felt that watching the tutorial in his room would allow him to practice trying to use the ability without prying eyes. Before watching the tutorial though, he decided to check out the status screen and allocate the points he earned from stealing the frost ability. Chapter 11 11 - Frost After returning to his cabin, he took off the burnt shirt and threw it in the garbage. It was a small sacrifice that led to a big payoff. He had sessfully copied a rare ability, and was able to get one more small boost to his stats before school started. Once he allocated his new points his status screen looked something like this: [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 1 Abilities[3 / 3]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - Frost: Able to emit a freezing energy into the surroundings (lvl. 1) [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [12] Agility: [10] Intelligence: [12] Stamina: [10] Constitution: [7] Magic Power: [5] [clear] After seeing he earned five points from plundering a rare ability, he decided to get his intelligence up to 12 points, his agility up to 10 and his constitution up to seven. Thanks to this he would be able to use all his abilities more effectively and hopefully boost their power. Along with this he was able to get his agility on par with his stamina, and the well rounded look of his stats satisfied him. Although he still didn''t know how the constitution stat affected him he nned to raise it next. After doing so, he flipped to the tutorial tab and watched the tutorial about the frost ability to learn how to use it. Once he did he attempted to use the ability, and just like in the dining car the temperature dropped immediately, every time he took a breath a mist was released from his mouth and when he saw it work he giggled in excitement. He had onest thing he wanted to test and he grabbed a water bottle while using the ability and the minute he did, a web of ice started spreading through the bottle until the water inside was frozen solid. A smile spread ear to ear as his tests were a sess. Once he was at the school he would test even more and try to find new ways to use the ability. Following his test he called Krista into his room to talk about school, and to show off his newfound power. The minute she walked into the room she started shivering. "Holy crap Milo! Why is it so cold in here?!" "My new plundered ability." Milo responded, smiling cheekily. After exining what happened in the dining car with the fire, Krista was mad at him, for one he lit himself on fire and there wasn''t a guaranteed chance that would''ve worked. She was happy for him though, that he was able to get his hands on such a rare and sought after ability. After talking more about what happened and about school, they were both excited and nervous to see what the Awakened Academy was all about, especially considering how much money the governments of the world poured into helping it get founded. When looking through the things they would have to do when they first get there, they were to first go to check in, there they would receive room assignments, and their student IDs. From there they would go to get their abilities evaluated before receiving a ss schedule fit to their ranking. Krista would obviously use her telepath ability to take the ability evaluation but Milo was still unsure what ability to use. If he used the frost ability without enough training he would probably not get ced very highly. If he used his reinforce, he would get put into sses that didn''t help him grow his frost. If he used his telepath ability he''d probably get a schedule simr to Krista but that would make it harder for him to grow his frost ability as well. After some deliberation he and Krista decided he should use his frost ability as it was the ability he needed to train the most as it was the most powerful Milo had. There was a lot for them to look forward to as the school was world renowned for having a ton of facilities meant to help students improve their abilities, as well as helping them to get in field experience with fighting dimensional doors. As they went back to their rooms and fell asleep they both were shaking in excitement from seeing everything the academy had to offer. Chapter 12 12 - The Acropolis When the pair arrived at the docking site for the Awakened Academy, they were blown away by the sheer size of the ind that housed the school. Called the Acropolis, the artificial ind was built on was approximately eight kilometers wide at its widest point and was in the shape of a circle. At the very center a tall ss tower stood, surrounded by several other buildings on each side. The tower in the middle was known as "the tower of the awakened" and it was the headquarters for the Global Awakened Association where gatecrashers would go to get registered before going out to close dimensional doors. This was also where those who punished uwful gatecrashers worked. The leader of the association, Joseph Marquette, was considered to be one of the strongest awakened in the world. Surrounding that were buildings that you''d normally see in a city, shops, theaters, a hospital, apartments and other buildings where select people would be allowed to live. There were even parks scattered throughout, covered in lush greenery and beautiful gardens. To get permission to live on the Acropolis, you had to have arge circle of influence, only the elite of the elite called it home. Due to the cost of living, businessmen, famous weapon smiths, powerful awakened, celebrities, and their families were the only people able to afford the cost of living. The only exceptions to this were the students who came to the Acropolis for the Awakened Academy. Due to the credit system set up by the school, students were able to afford food and some luxuries that they normally wouldn''t be able to afford while living on the Acropolis. The Awakened Academy was situated to the eastern side of the Acropolis and was surrounded by arge wall to prevent any trespassers from getting in. The main area of the school was arge square surrounded by buildings on all sides. Two of the buildings wererge livingplexes meant to house all the students among the two different grades that studied at the academy. Another building was dedicated to normal sses, such as history, math and the sciences. Thest building was dedicated to practical training of abilities andbat. Across the campus there was also a building for staff of the academy, and also an arena wherepetitions weremonly held for the students to show off their abilities to the scouts ofrge guilds and corporations. There were other small buildings, but they weren''t as important and mainly housed smaller ssrooms,bs, and storage areas. When walking up to the main gates there were hundreds of students, and when activating his ability Milo could see hundreds of orange icons floating about. He smiled in anticipation of all the different abilities he would encounter and have a chance at plundering. While lost in thought, Krista pulled Milo over to where they were meant to check in, once they were given their room numbers and student id they were to take all their stuff to their dorm and then report to the practical training hall to undergo their ability evaluation. When reporting to the dorms, they walked past a ton of students allughing and just being students. A few looked nervous to start at a new school with other awakened kids but overall the atmosphere was one that Milo was hoping would stick around as he didn''t have the fondest memories of school due to the bullies of his past. While it was messed up, he was happy that they wouldn''t be attending following their untimely demise in the rift where he awakened his new system. Once they arrived at the dorm building they were surprised at how modern everything looked, the entry was high tech and there were elevators to go between the floors. The boys dorms were on the odd numbered floors and the girls even. Including the first floor where the lobby and a few other things were located, the first year dorm was 11 floors tall. Krista''s room was on floor 4 and was in a double room, meaning she had one roommate. Meanwhile Milo was on the ninth floor in a triple. Once he got to the doorway he was nervous to go through and meet who his roommates would be. His hope was that they wouldn''t be mean thugs like he encountered during his first two years of highschool. When walking up to the door leading into his room, there was a panel to the right of the door where one could use either their student id to open the door. Once their id was tied to their holo they could use that as well. Milo scanned his id and the door slid open automatically opening up to the room where he''d live for the next year. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 13 13 - Roommates When walking through the entryway, Milo scanned the room before anything else, the room was pretty spacious. There were three beds, three dressers and three desks for each of the students. After putting his stuff down on thest remaining bed without any stuff on it, his roommates were nowhere to be found, most likely they had gone down to take the Ability Evaluation. Before heading down to take his evaluation, Milo decided to unpack his things, as he was putting thest of his stuff in the dresser closest to his bed, he heard the door slide open. When turning around he saw two people locked in conversation, "I don''t know why they say the fire element isn''t as strong as lightning and ice, I can summon fire from my fingertips. Fire!" "All I know is that with my ability its a whole lot easier to counter fire than it is lightning and ice, all i gotta do is avoid wood and I''m good, but lightning is so quick by the time I can shift, I could get struck and with Ice, no matter what I shift into if my joints freeze I''m screwed." "Yeah, yeah whatever." By the time the pair noticed the third member in the room they had already finished their conversation, once they were done talking at the entryway. They turned and noticed Milo closing thest drawer on his dresser. They were quick to introduce themselves. The shorter of the two had fair skin, and was the shortest in the room, he had brown hair and blue eyes that had a bit of fire behind them. He was loud and full of energy and introduced himself as Chris Newman, he also told Milo his power, which was fire When hearing that Chris had the fire ability, ideas swirled in Milo''s head about what it would be like to control fire and frost. His other roommate was a bit more reserved, he shook his hand and politely greeted Milo, saying his name was Mark Renault. He had dark brown skin and was only slightly shorter than Milo. He was quite buff and due to his hair he stood out with his mohawk that faded from blonde to ck, simr to a honey badger. He also introduced his ability, and Milo''s eyes shined as it sounded like something that could be pretty cool. His ability Physical Transmutation allowed him to shift his body to be the same material as something he was touching until he released his ability. After their introductions they talked a bit more and all of them seemed excited to start school and show off their strength. When Milo introduced his ability to the two as Frost he could see a new fire light in Chris''s eyes as if he was ready to test which of the two abilities was stronger. Before any tests of strength could go down, Milo excused himself saying he still needed to take the ability assessment. Mark and Chris both wished him luck. Chris in particr was enthusiastic, encouraging Milo to go down and "kick some ass." asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 14 14 - Ability Evaluation After leaving the room he made his way down to the practical training hall and was directed to a locker room where he could change into a gym uniform. It was blue in color with a white trim and the school logo over where his heart would be. It was quitefortable and allowed him to move freely. Once he finished changing he headed over to a sort of orientation where they exined the assessment and how they would be ranked. Like with gatecrashers who get ranked based off their strength the school used a simr system to determine which ss a student would be ced in. The rankings went from F, being lowest, D the next lowest, going all the way up to X being the strongest; however the difference in strength going from one rank to the next was variable, especially among the higher ranks. The rule of thumb was that it took around five awakened of one rank lower to defeat one awakened who was ranked one stage higher. So it would take five E ranked awakened to defeat one D ranked awakened. This rule was only consistent among ranks F through D and grew more inconsistent the higher one was ranked, as the higher ranks were in their entire own realm of power. There would be four main tests to determine a student''s cement. The first was a simple test to determine one''s ability. They were meant to use their ability to the absolute limit to determine the ability''s level and also to determine what a student''s ability was. If the ability wasn''t shy they would have to use evaluators to help show their ability. The second test was a strength test, this was to determine one''s strength that can be used in abat experience. It was measured by having the student punch a target as hard as they can. It would then disy a number and that would determine your score. The third test was an agility course meant to test a student''s agility and also their decision making, and the final test was a magic power assessment, using a special magic stone, when injected with magic energy it would disy a value showing their magic strength. The tests were taken in groups of five, and each student would take the tests sequentially. After all the students in the group finished their evaluation they''d receive their rankings and receive their ss schedules. Milo''s group was called and he and four other students stepped into the training facility where the tests were set up. Milo was the 5th student in his group so he would be taking the testsst. Each of the students took their tests, abilities were encouraged during these tests so all of them tried to use their ability to improve their scores. The first student to go had a transformation skill that allowed them to erge parts of their body to a certain degree. It was nothing special and he received an E rank. After receiving his rank it appeared on the screen of his holo for other students to see. The second rank student did slightly better with a ranking of D. Among thest two students before Milo, the highest rank was a C rank. Their ability involved using crystals that they could summon from inside them. Due to the creative ways they used it, they avoided getting a low score. After all the other students were finished and had received their rank, it was finally Milo''s turn to take the exam. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 15 15 - Ability Evaluation II Once it was Milo''s turn to take the test, he stepped up to the first test, the ability assessment. When given the signal Milo activated the frost ability to his absolute limit. The moment he did this, the temperature in the room dropped dramatically. His breath soon gave off frost and a web of ice began to spread outward from his feet. The examiner opened his eyes wide. "A frost ability. Hohoh! well this is unexpected." The other students were all shivering from the cold aura surrounding Milo and soon their teeth all started chattering. The examiner then stopped the test and instructed Milo to proceed to the strength test. Unfortunately because the frost ability wasn''t able to increase strength. Because of this he wound up all his strength and activated his reinforce ability in just his fist, instead. When hitting the target a loud bang was heard and the number on the disy started to rise until it eventually stopped at 18. Milo was hoping to score higher but this was as strong as he could hit the target. What he didn''t know was that he had scored the highest among the elemental ability users by five whole points. He was even reaching the mid range of rankings for physical enhancement ability users. Following the strength test he took the agility test and once again scored a high ranking. The shining moment of this test was a section where he had to cross a small moat using a rope. Instead of using the rope to swing across, he instead chose to use his frost ability to freeze the surface and run across which shortened his time on the agility course. The final test was the magic power assessment, when stepping up to take the test he was nervous as his magic power was his lowest stat. Once he stepped up to the pedestal he was instructed to ce his hand on the magic orb device. Once he did so, he activated his ability and the number on the screen rose until it stopped at 17. From the number he could only guess that magic power was a measure of abination between his intelligence and magic power stats on his status screen. Once again Milo without realizing set another record among the elemental users. There was one other user who got a 17 as their score but with howmon elemental abilities were. He tied the top score among 130 other students in the elemental ability category. Once everything was tabted Milo prepared to hear his ranking. When stepping down from the magic power assessment he made his way back to the group where the examiner was finishing up with tabting his score. "Milo Fenix, ability rank A, strength rank C, agility rank B, magic power rank X. Overall ss ranking, A" asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 16 16 - Hierarchy When hearing his ss ranking, Milo couldn''t help but be pleased. Rank A was the second highest rank avable, and although the school''s ranking weren''t consistent with the true rankings handed out by the GAA, it set him up to be sessful in school. Not only this but it would ce him in a ss with other strong ability users where he could pick and choose the ones to plunder. Following his ability evaluation, Milo decided to head back to his dorm to try and scout out some abilities that may be useful in the future. And on his way, he passed a group of three students picking on another student. "E rank weaklings like you should cater to the every need of us B rank students!" Milo chose not to get involved as he was unsure if he could take them all on, on his own. But then a familiar face got involved. "Leave him alone!" Krista came running out of nowhere and put herself between the three bullies and the student they were bullying. The minute she stepped in between the student and the group of B ranks, Milo was sure he''d have to get involved. There was one thing worrying him though. He had never been much of a fighter and although he was technically a higher rank than the group of bullies he didn''t know how to fight them off. Just as he was about to get involved, one of the bullies sarcastically shouted, "Oh no, another C rank student, we''re so scared." "Adding another punching bag isn''t gonna do shit to stop us," another student said, rearing up his fist. As soon as it looked like Krista would be in danger, Milo''s body moved on its own. The student''s fist started swinging towards Krista but just as it was about to make impact, a strong force jerked the bullies arm back. "Who the hell is this?" One of the bullies in the back said. The bully who had his fist caught, tried to pull it out of Milo''s grip but was surprised to find that it wouldn''t budge. This was the result of Milo raising his strength stat, he still hadn''t used his reinforce ability yet. The bully then decided to try and punch Milo to release his grip, but when he went to punch him, Milo moved his head to the side avoiding the punch entirely. "Is it just me, or this this guy slow?" Milo thought. After avoiding the punch Milo knew he couldn''t take the situation lightly and decided to hit the guy back, this time using reinforce on his entire body. He swung an uppercut and before the bully could react, his fist connected with his stomach, Milo wasn''t aware of how strong he had be but it became apparent when the student was lifted off his feet and three feet into the air. Once the punch on the bullynded, the other bullies froze and looked at the ranking on Milo''s holo. A low ranked student wouldn''t be able to pull off something like that. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 17 17 - Hierarchy II When seeing the A rank glowing brightly on his holo, the bullies all started to back away, before running away screaming they were sorry. All while leaving their unconscious friend lying between Milo, Krista and the other student. After thanking Milo and Krista for helping him, the student went back to his dorm. After the bullies and student left, Milo checked on Krista to make sure she was okay. He was especially worried because some of the bullies seemed strong. "I''m fine," Krista said, "you don''t have to worry about me. More importantly, are you okay? You look like you wanted to kill the dickying on the ground over there." Milo nodded his head, "I''m fine, it just pissed me off, at first I was going to stay out of it since there were three of them against one, but then you jumped in the middle and looked like you were going to get hit." When hearing that Milo only got involved to rescue her, Krista began to blush. "You didn''t have to do that, I''m tougher than I look, more importantly, why did they run away?" "Maybe it had to do with this?" Milo replied, holding up his holo. When Krista saw the A glowing on Milo''s holo she was shocked, "You got A rank? How? I thought you just learned how to use the frost ability?" Milo went on to exin how the tests went, and because his reinforce ability didn''t show any changes to his body, he could use it during the strength test which boosted his score. What surprised Krista most though was his Magic Power test score. "How was your score for Magic Power so high?" Krista asked. "Honestly I''m not sure, but it seemed like it took into ount my intelligence stat and my magic power stat from the system," replied Milo. "Magic Power stat?" asked Krista, "When I look at my status screen on my holo I don''t have that stat." This was news to Milo, yet another new difference between him and normal awakened. Now his only thing to find out was how to actually raise his Magic Power stat. The system stated using Essence stones would allow him to raise it, but he didn''t have ess to those yet. It stated there was another method but he was unsure what that meant. Navi also stated that by raising his magic stat he would unlock more on his Plunder tab in his status screen and grow his system so it was important to raise it as soon as he could. After talking a bit more about the test, Milo mentioned he wanted to go up to his room and rest, but first he had to do his daily mission. One workout sessionter and after raising his stats he made his way up to his room drenched in sweat. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 18 18 - Hierarchy III Once he got up to his room, his roommates were nowhere to be seen so Milo took a quick shower before they got back. After finishing his shower and going to get a snack from the school cafeteria, his roommates had finally returned. Chris was the first one to ask him what his rank was, hoping that he had ranked higher to once again attempt to prove that fire beat frost. But his hopes went down the drain when Milo lifted up his wrist smiling. "Damn it! I thought for sure that I''d be ranked higher." Chris was a little bummed out that his point still hadn''t been proven After telling eachother their ranks, it turned out that both Chris and Mark both got ced in the B ss. After talking a bit more, Chris made a remark to Milo. "Don''t boss us around just cause you''re an A rank now, we''re roommates after all." "What do you mean boss you guys around?" Milo asked. Chris and Mark both nced at each other and went on to exin the ranking hierarchy that went on within the school. The higher ranks usually ended up forcing the lower ranks to do what they wanted because they were stronger, and the school sat back and let it happen like spectators. They said that by allowing students to solve things on their own, it encouraged them to mature and act like adults sooner, while also allowing them to train their abilities andbat ability even more. Because of this philosophy, the school had rampant bullying as the ranks got lower. The higher your rank, the higher your social standing and the more you could control and get away with. Even though higher ranks reigned supreme, there was still bullying among the lower ranks as well, D ranks would bully those below them and even E ranks would bully F ranks into submission. This made Milo furious, as it meant that Krista could get bullied just for being a C rank, even though his luck had turned around and he''d be among the top of the food chain, he was a victim of bullying and hated it more than anything. When seeing the angry look in Milo''s eyes both Chris and Mark got concerned because he looked like he wanted to tear someone''s head off. Trying to calm him down, Chris stated, "It may get other people''s rocks off pushing people around, but not us." Mark nodded in agreement. Milo knew he would have to do something about trying to topple the hierarchy because it pissed him off, but first he''d have to survive his first day of sses. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 19 19 - First Day Of Class After hearing about the hierarchy within the schools ranks, Milo wanted to try to put a stop to it as soon as possible but he knew that in order to do that he would have to be unbeatable, and that meant he needed to advance to the X rank ss ASAP. Not only that but sses also started the next day and he''d have to get through that first. After a good night''s sleep, Milo woke up early and did his daily mission and distributed his earned points, after two days of daily missions his stats were about even: [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 1 Abilities[3 / 3]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - Frost: Able to emit a freezing energy into the surroundings (lvl. 1) [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [12] Agility: [11] Intelligence: [12] Stamina: [11] Constitution: [11] Magic Power: [5] [clear] Strength and Intelligence were now only one point ahead of his other stats with him finally rounding out Constitution to match his Agility and Stamina. After huffing out a breath of satisfaction, Milo showered before heading down to get breakfast from the school canteen. After getting his meal he found a seat by Krista, and sat down. After taking a few bites he exined to her about his findings and about the hierarchy Chris and Mark told him about. As if on cue, Milo''s pair of roommates also took a seat with their meals and introduced themselves to Krista. "So you''re saying that the higher ranks push around the lower ranks because the school lets them get away with it?" In response to Krista''s question, Chris mentioned that his cousin who had already made his way through his two years at the academy had told him about it and how no one tries to stop it. Now hearing that this had been going on for years, Milo grit his teeth in frustration. After talking some more and getting to know each other more, the group split up to go to their respective homerooms. Looking at his schedule Milo went to the room listed and took a seat among the other A course students. He felt out of ce due to him always being considered weak in his past, but was excited to get a new start. A few minutester his homeroom teacher walked in. "Hello all, I''m excited for the start of this semester," he said. His homeroom teacher was wearing a nice gray suit. He looked a bit young to be a teacher but as all the teachers at the school had to be experienced awakened it made some sense. He had long brown hair that was swept back and a small scar on his lip which gave him a somewhat wild look. He wrote his name on the high tech board at the front with his finger. "My name is Mr. Kruz and I will be your homeroom teacher for the year," he said with a gentle smile. Chapter 20 20 - First Day Of Class II After introducing himself he went on to say that along with homeroom he would also be teaching the practical elemental ss. He then made a showing of his ability by pulling water out of a nearby vase of flowers, and announced that he had the water ability. After his introductions he went on to talk a bit about his past as a gatecrasher and proceeded to show why he was teaching at such a young age. One raid he went on, a monster caught his squad by surprise and he unfortunately lost a leg. Because of this he now wore a high tech prosthetic but it prevented him from continuing his career anymore and was dropped from the guild he was signed to. After talking a bit about his past he began to go over Gatecrashing 101, "As you know, us being awakened makes us the first defense against the dimensional doors. Can someone tell me the three different kinds of dimensional doors?" A girl towards the back of the ss raised her hand and answered, "Gates, Rifts, and Dungeons." "Correct," Mr. Kruz responded, "the three types of dimensional doors alle with their own dangers. Rifts are considered the least dangerous for awakened humans but those that have not awoken an ability they are considered the most dangerous due to them trapping those without abilities behind the dimensional wall. Gates, like the first dimensional door that appeared, are portals that lead to other worlds in a sense, some are more dangerous than others, but they only allow awakened people to enter, if they aren''t cleared by gatecrashers in time, then they will open releasing the creatures contained within to our world, like what was seen in Man in 2097. These gates also contain valuable resources within them, such as monster corpses that can be broke down and used for making magical weapons and tools, as well as magical stones which are a key energy source in today''s society. And the third type dungeons¡­" Hearing the word dungeon gave Milo a painful memory of the time he found out about his parent''s disappearance. He was 13 and hade home to a strange man in a suit sitting on the couch of his home talking to his cousin who was bawling her eyes out. After informing his cousin, the man walked over to Milo and handed him the two medals he now kept with him at home. He had no idea how to react at first but being given the opportunity to be stronger had given him a new drive to close the dimensional doors and try to find out more about his parent''s disappearance. "Dungeons are the strangest and most dangerous of any dimensional doors, contained within them arebyrinths that are filled with monsters, traps and puzzles. If one is able to reach the end they are able to find strong magical artifacts that can be used to improve their ability, fight monsters or be sold for unfathomable amounts of money. There have also been cases of dungeon''s copsing with gatecrashers still inside, no one knows the causes of these copses but countless gatecrashers have been lost due to this." This included Milo''s parents. After seeing a somber expression on Milo''s face Mr. Kruz grew curious about how such a young kid could make a face only experienced gatecrashers would normally make. After finishing up homeroom Milo was grabbing his stuff to move to his next ss, when he was approached by Mr. Kruz. "I couldn''t help but notice the face you made during my section on the different types of dimensional doors, did something happen in your past that would make you feel upset?" Seeing that Mr. Kruz was trying to be a good teacher and make sure he was okay, he went on to exin about the disappearance of his parents in a copsing dungeon, and even went into detail about his close encounter with death himself within a rift. Hearing about everything Milo had been through so far at his young age astonished him, at Milo''s age he himself was just goofing off, ying video games and doing normal high schooler things but Milo had already been through more than most rookie gatecrashers. Pondering what he should say to the young student, he decided on a line that would be a mantra for Milo. "Nothing can change the past. But, what will you do to change the future?" asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 21 21 - First Day Of Class III After his encounter with Mr. Kruz, Milo went on to his next ss thinking about what he had said. The simple answer was get stronger. Milo wanted to be an unstoppable force. One that would strike fear into the monster''s hearts if they heard his name. After sitting through more of his basic sses, Milo was pumped to finally move on to his practical elemental ss. Not only would he be giving Mr. Kruz an answer but he would also be able to learn more uses for his frost ability. Walking into the locker room where he would change into his uniform forbat training and practical elemental ss, he was surprised to see Chris getting changed as well. "What are you doing here?" Milo asked, thinking maybe he had gone to the wrong ss. "You didn''t know? All the sses get mixed for practical training, almost like gym ss," Chris replied grinning, "Why, are you worried I''ll kick your ass?" Milo was happy to have someone he knew in one of his sses, as he wasn''t really known as the social butterfly. "Bring it on," he replied with a smile of his own. After changing to the uniforms they wore for their ability evaluation, the pair made their way to the area where the practical elemental ss would be meeting. When entering the room together the other students who had already arrived turned to look at them and when noticing their ranks went back to their business. After seeing this Milo gritted his teeth. Even during sses, students looked for those weaker to pick on. After everyone arrived, Milo realized that he was the only A ranked student in this section of practical sses. This made sense, as there were less higher ranked students at the school overallpared to the other ranks. Once they entered the practical training hall, Mr. Kruz immediately approached Milo and asked him if he had thought about the question he had asked during homeroom. "I have," replied Milo, "I''m going to be strong enough to destroy the dimensional doors. My name will be a name that when monster''s hear it they''ll shiver in fear and people will know that they have nothing to be afraid of." "Good answer," after talking to Milo, Mr. Kruz was excited to see just how far this kid would go. "For today''s practical training, I want to see what you all have got. At the end the one who wins will get a little reward so don''t hold back," he said with a smile, "I will be officiating these mock battles and what I say goes, don''t fight my decisions because my decisions are final." After a couple of matches between the lower ranked students Milo was finally set to face off against a rank C student, since this was a mock battle he would be taking it serious and wouldn''t be holding back. After checking his ability, Milo was able to determine that the student he would be going against had the power of wind. Depending on the other student''s strategy this could be a tricky battle. The minute the start of the battle was called the C rank student dashed in, he was faster than a normal person due to the wind boosting him forward, but because of the low ability level it wasn''t anything that Milo couldn''t handle. Due to his agility stat being raised Milo was able to see all the attacksing at him clearly and avoided each strike. While the student was attacking, Milo activated his frost ability, dropping the surrounding temperature. As the student was about to go in for another attack, Milo reached out his hand to grab the student and at that moment, Mr. Kruz yelled "match over! Milo Fenix wins" The student shouted out in anger, "what do you mean he wins, I was about to hit him!" Mr. Kruz didn''t bat an eye and said, "If he had grabbed your arm just then you could''ve had irreversible damage. What you may not know is that Milo has the ability of frost and at that moment was about to catch your arm with his hand where he was focusing all his frost aura. You would''ve had an icicle for an arm in a second." The student was still annoyed but the sounds of admirationing from the other students started to echo around the room. "He was going to grab his arm? I couldn''t even keep up with the other student''s movements." "Wow, the frost ability, man he''s lucky." "I hope I don''t get matched against him." All thepliments being thrown Milo''s way made him scratch the back of his head in embarrassment as he walked back to where the other students were waiting for their matches. Chris came up to him and congratted him on a good match but to not getfortable cause he would beat him. Chris''s match was next and Milo was excited to see if he could back up all the trash talking he had been doing since meeting him yesterday. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 22 22 - Practical Training Chris''s match had just started and the student he was going up against was a student the same rank as him that also used the wind element. When the match started, unlike in Milo''s match, the wind student took a defensive posture. Chris, who seemed tired of sitting around, threw a fireball towards the student. As soon as it got close the student threw up a gust of air that blew the fireball Chris had thrown out. As soon as this happened Chris knew ranged attacks wouldn''t work so he ran forward igniting both his arms in mes, before he could get close though the student made a small tornado around himself, it was strong enough that if Chris got close he would get blown away. After avoiding the wind sts thrown at him by his opponent, Chris seemed like he had finallye up with a n. He slowly began walking towards the student who once again threw up a small tornado around himself. "Sorry but this may hurt a bit," Chris said as he let forth a massive wave of mes, once the mes hit the tornado, instead of being put out the fire was absorbed by the wind and became a pir of mes. As soon as the tornado was filled with mes, Mr. Kruz called off the match and had a group of students take the now toasted student to the infirmary, luckily it seemed like he wasn''t hit directly by the mes, as aside from some burns and his hair being singed the student wasn''t too badly injured. Because of the nature of the school, the school infirmary was more like aplete doctors office with a team of nurses who were ex gatecrashers with healing abilities. Following the match, there were a few more rounds of matches but after the dominating performances by Chris and Milo, they were the final twopetitors in the running for the prize that Mr. Kruz had mentioned at the start of the ss. "As I mentioned before I have a small prize for the overall winner of our little tourney today. Now that thest twopetitors standing have been decided I figure it''s about time I show you all what you have beenpeting for." After he said that, from a pocket in his jacket he pulled out a strange looking object, it was about the size of an apple, and was in the shape of an octahedron. The strangest thing about it was the color, it was constantly shifting as if there was a flowing liquid inside. When looking at it closer there was a ding and a screen popped up above the object in Milo''s vision. [Intermediate Essence Core] - Can be absorbed to increase Magic Power stat - [Clear] Once the system informed Milo that this was an essence stone, his eyes glittered with greed. He finally had an opportunity to raise his Magic Power stat and maybe a chance to unlock a new feature of the system. He wouldn''t lose. Chris had also gotten pumped up, as to a student, an Intermediate Essence Core could be used to make a lot of money or an intermediate weapon, something most students didn''t have ess to. After seeing the prize the other students who had been knocked out were all bummed out, as they wished they were strong enough to have a chance at winning the amazing prize. After quieting the ss down, Milo and Chris took their positions and prepared for their match. "I won''t lose," was the only thought going through Milo''s head. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 23 23 - Practical Training II Essence Core - A crystal filled with a mystical energy that can be found inside beasts that appear in dimensional doors. These cores range in strength depending on how powerful the beast that it was contained in. They have a variety of uses, such as powering technology or making enchanted weapons and armor. The stronger the core, the more powerful the weapon or armor that can be made, and the more energy that can be extracted. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Once Chris and Milo took their positions, Mr. Kruz signaled the start of the match. Chris knew getting close to Milo was a bad idea given his power so he threw a fireball at him to start. Seeing thising, Milo activated his ability, dropping the temperature around him. Once the fireball got close the cold air put the me out. "Damn," said Chris, "I was really hoping that would work." After seeing his initial idea didn''t work Chris decided on his other approach, coating his arms in mes and charging forward. However Milo stood still and chose to trust that his cold would put out Chris''s mes, and he was right, when Chris got too close, the mes on his arms sputtered out. As soon as this happened he backed away. Milo hadn''t moved an inch but none of Chris''s attempts seemed to be working. The other students seeing this thought it was game over. Chris wasn''t done though. "Didn''t think I''d have to pull out my trump card today, but oh well," he said. After speaking this line, Milo became intrigued as to what his n may be, but the next second a huge amount of mes erupted from where Chris was standing, it was something Milo hadn''t expected but it ended up bncing out the temperature in the room and because of this, Chris could finally get in close. He ran in close and threw a swing. At this point he was no longer spewing out mes and just let the original me storm he sent out originally grow to cancel out Milo''s frost. When seeing this Milo knew he needed to deactivate his frost as it wasn''t doing anything. Instead he opted into reinforcing his body, swapping out the ability he was using, because of this when getting hit in the stomach by Chris there was no big damage done to Milo and instead Chris''s eyes went wide. "He''s like a freaking boulder," was the only thing that went through Chris''s head. ? In the next second a strong blow was felt in his gut and he wheezed as the air was knocked out of him. "Damn, he hits like a truck too." Seeing Chris hunched over wheezing to catch his breath, Mr. Kruz called the end of the match and named Milo the victor. Milo then helped Chris to his feet, as Mr. Kruz put out the remaining mes around the practical training room. "Damn dude, you''re sturdy as hell and have a helluva right hook." Milo bashfully scratched the back of his head and thanked Chris for thepliment. After the mes were put out and everyone gathered around Mr. Kruz, he called Milo up to the front and presented him with the intermediate essence core. The minute he got his hands on it, Milo was excited to go up to his room and see what would happen when he absorbed the essence core''s energy. "This concludes ss, make sure to get some rest and I will see you all at our next meeting time." The minute he heard Mr. Kruz say that ss had ended, he sprinted back to his dorm as fast as he could so he could test absorbing the essence core. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 24 24 - Absorbing The Core Once he was in the privacy of his dorm, he locked himself in the bathroom and pulled out the essence core. When he pulled it out a new screen popped up he hadn''t seen before. It said: [Intermediate Essence Core] - Can be absorbed to increase Magic Power stat - [Absorb] [Inventory] [Clear] Seeing the three options, he already knew what clear would do. But the inventory option was brand new. At the same time, the absorb option was new, but it was self exnatory. After seeing the new option he decided to test it out and pressed the inventory option. The minute he did, the essence core in his hand disappeared. Seeing this, Milo panicked. "Shit! Where''d it go?!" After freaking out for a couple seconds, Milo calmed down. If there was an option for inventory, then there had to be a way to open his inventory and retrieve the core. After a few tests, Milo finally did the obvious and said, "inventory," aloud. After verbally saying the word a screen popped up with a bunch of squares and in the top left corner a picture of the essence core was visible. When tapping on it, there were three options that popped up: sell, discard, and equip. Based on the options, there were three things that Milo deduced from this. You can discard things from the inventory, you can equip them back to your person, andstly that he could sell the item. The only question was how he could sell it to the system. Would it give him money he could spend, would he get experience, he wasn''t sure. Finally he thought maybe there would be a shop in the system, but that wouldn''t make a ton of sense. As soon as he thought this though, another screen that was foreign to him popped up. [Shop] - locked until level 5 - [clear] After this popped up Milo had a new goal that he would push towards. Finally he was done with his tests and was ready to absorb the core, he opened his inventory and pulled out the essence core. This time he selected absorb and his vision went white. After a few seconds his view returned to normal and a screen appeared. [Intermediate Essence Core] - absorptionplete - Gained 3 points in the Magic Power stat Gained 30 exp [clear] And after that, another new screen. [Level up] Congrats you are now level 2 All stats increased by 1 [clear] [Notice] New things have been unlocked [clear] "Huh?" Milo immediately opened up his status screen, [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 2 Abilities[3 / 4]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - Frost: Able to emit a freezing energy into the surroundings (lvl. 1) 4 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [13] Agility: [12] Intelligence: [13] Stamina: [12] Constitution: [12] Magic Power: [9] [clear] After leveling up and absorbing the Intermediate Essence Core, his Magic Power had jumped to nine points, and he could now hold four abilities, meaning he could now plunder one more. "What did it mean when it said new things have been unlocked though?" Milo thought. After switching to the Plunder tab he could see what the system meant by things being unlocked. [Plunder] Plunder (lvl 2): Possibility to copy the ability of other awakened if certain conditions are met (Cooldown: 3:01:27:17) Fusion: locked until level 5 (Cooldown: 3:00:00:00) (Hidden) (Hidden) (Hidden) A new Plunder skill was no longer hidden, and was called fusion, Milo could only guess that he''d be able to fuse abilities but wasn''t sure what kind of limitations the system would put on the ability. The other thing he noticed was that the plunder ability itself had leveled up. When clicking on the information tab for the ability. It told him what had changed. When leveling up to level two, the ability''s cooldown was reduced by 12 hours and along with this, the chance to copy an ability increased. Up until now, he hadn''t failed at plundering an ability so he didn''t have a reference to how often it failed but with some testing hopefully he could find out. Chapter 25 25 - New Friends After his little system session in the bathroom, Milo showered and changed before stepping back into the main room of his dorm, only toe face to face with his two roommates. "Hey man, Chris told me you rocked it today in the Elemental Practical ss," said Mark. "Yeah man, he kicked my ass, I guess maybe frost is better than fire, at least when the person using it is you Milo." Miloughed and decided to be humble, saying that he got lucky, especially after Chris let loose that huge amount of mes at the end. After some more banter between the three of them, Milo, Chris and Mark decided to go down to the canteen to get food. On their way they continued to talk about their first day of sses. As it turned out Mark had put on quite a showing in his practical ss too, mainly because he had beaten a student whose ability was to sharpen their hands into des. He had done so by transforming his body into a rock like substance, which finally proved that rock really does beat scissors. After eating their meal and talking some more, the trio decided to finally take a small tour around the Acropolis. When heading to the school''s front gate they didn''t pass any scenes like they had seen on the first day which was a good sign to Milo but the semester had just started so the usual groups of students most likely hadn''t fully formed yet. On their way, they ran into Krista and a girl they hadn''t seen yet before but luckily for Milo it seemed like the two girls were getting along well. The new girl had olive skin, was about the same size as Krista, and had brown eyes and hair. She had a fire in her eyes simr to Chris and seemed to be on her toes at all times. "Hi, I''m Ana," she said, "Ana Ortiz, and I''m Krista''s roommate. You must be the famous Milo I always hear her rambling on about." When looking down at the holo on her wrist, Milo was surprised to see that she was also an A ss student. After a bit more chit chat, the group decided to go together to take a look around. While walking through the streets outside campus. Milo decided to take a peek at Ana''s ability. [Notice] Ability: Bone Maniption detected Conditions to copy met¡­ Will you copy ability: Bone Maniption [Yes] [No] Bone Maniption was an ability that allowed the user to change the hardness and shape of their bones at will. If the ability was grown enough, there was even the possibility of modifying the bones of other beings, however it didn''t work on other living creatures for some reason. There were rumors of one user who could even pull his own bones through his body to the exterior to cover his muscles in bone. After reading the name of her ability, Milo''s eyes widened. "Conditions to copy met? But I just met her like 20 minutes ago." Milo was trying to think back to when he could''ve met the condition to copy her ability, but kept drawing nks. "I''ve barely interacted with her." "Hey Ana, I forgot to ask, but what''s your ability?" Milo tried to ask nonchntly. "It''s bone maniption, my entire family awakened with the same ability funnily enough, but only my brother has made any big use of it. He''s the guild leader of the Incubus guild in New York City. His nickname is the Reaper because his ability is strong enough that uses his bones like armor." When hearing this Milo was reminded of the moments leading up to him losing consciousness in the alley during the rift. He had seen a weird figure that he thought was the grim reaper himself. Maybe it was Ana''s brother who had saved him, especially considering the doctor mentioned that the Incubus guild was the guild who cleared the rift he was hurt in. Maybe this was when the copy condition was met. Because he had one more ability slot opened, he clicked ept, only this time things didn''t really go as they had up until now. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 26 26 - Taste Of Failure When clicking the ept button, the usual effects happened, chains came out of Milo''s arms and snaked towards Ana. When they wrapped around her however rather than disappearing into her like hisst two attempts at stealing abilities, the chains snapped and fell to the ground before vanishing into thin air again. [Notice] Ability: Bone Maniption failed to be plundered Plunder can no longer be used on this target Due to failure of Plunder ability, cooldown willst 1.5x longer Cooldown 6:18:00:00 [Clear] ? This was the first time that Milo had faced failure when using the Plunder ability and while it was annoying he knew it had to happen eventually considering all his luck in his first two attempts. While he was bummed that he now had to wait close to a week for the cooldown to end, he was happy that it hadn''t given him a worse penalty. The icon above Ana''s head had also now turned red, this was most likely tied to him being unable to use plunder on her again due to the failure. After clearing the screen from his vision he and his group of friends had finally made it away from the school and into the more fun part of the city. The sun was now setting and it cast a beautiful orange glow on the cities rooftops. While walking along they went through a few shops, looking at the different merchandise that was for sale. Because the city was home to the Awakened Academy, many of the shops had items that would be helpful to the future gatecrashers who were attending the school. Things like enchanted weapons and armors, as well as different elixirs weremon in these types of shops. Along with this, there were many everyday shops as well, convenience stores, video stores, clothing stores all lined the street the group were on. After window shopping, Krista had bought a few clothes she had thought were cute, and the group continued on to an ice cream parlor where they all gathered around a table, each with a cone in hand. The group were still highschoolers after all and each of them still wanted to enjoy being a kid while they still could. Not all of them knew of the horrors that were held back by the dimensional doors but they would alle into contact with them eventually. On their way back to the school''s campus, all of them were talking trying to get to know each other more. The most quiet of the two were Milo and Mark. Chris was going on and on about his family back at his hometown in Ohio, they were all very close and when he had awakened with the ability of fire, he had apparently attempted to use it to light fireworks at a cookout causing all of them to go off at once. Definitely something that Milo could see Chris doing after getting to know him more. After telling his story, Chris asked if either Milo or Mark had any siblings, after noticing the distant look on Milo''s face, the group came to a stop. "Um, actually¡­" he said in a pained voice. He hadn''t talked about it this many times in one day since close to the time it had happened, so talking about his family situation dredged up memories he had long buried to avoid the pain. "You don''t have to talk Milo, especially if you don''t feelfortable talking yet," said Krista, as she knew why he was hesitating. After clearing his throat and giving a bittersweet smile he said, "They''re bound to find out eventually, might as well get it over with." Milo then went on to exin his family''s backstory, his parents'' disappearance, how he was raised by his young cousin right after they vanished, and even talked about getting trapped in the rift. The look on his friends'' faces said it all. "Damn man, sorry for bringing it up," Chris said dejectedly. "Seems like we have a lot inmon," Mark said in a hollow voice. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 27 27 - Painful Memories "My folks are gone too," continued Mark, "all I''ve got left is a younger brother who lives with our aunt outside of Pornd. My parents didn''t get trapped in a dungeon but they also passed away when I was young, it was the Fellowship." Hearing this another wave of emotions hit the group of kids: fear. The Fellowship was a well known name among the people. They were a worldwide crime group who did unspeakable things to achieve their goals. Murder and **** weremon practice to this group and they weren''t even considered the darkest deeds they hadmitted. It was an especially evil group whose name didn''t follow what wasmonly associated when one thought of a fellowship. The scariest among the group were known as the Seven Cardinals, each of them were awakened who used their abilities tomit horrible deeds and whose abilities were all feared. Then there was their leader who had been called the Godfather, he was considered the most evil among them, and had been at the top of GAA''s wanted list since he first emerged. All of the Cardinals as well as the Godfather had their identities unknown, due to the masks they would don whenever they made appearances into the world, which made the evil group seem even more mysterious. Mark went on to exin that originally his family had been living in Toronto, Canada, this allowed the other students to know how the Fellowship were involved. A little over a year after the first gate appeared in Man, the Fellowship hadn''t really been taken seriously. That was until overnight, the city of Toronto had practically been wiped off the face of the map by them. Mark went on to describe the ck mes he remembered so vividly that had swallowed the building where he lived, and the horrible screams as people''s lives were extinguished by the Fellowship''s followers. His mother had died when he was very young, and his father had given his life to make sure that he and his brother had been taken to the refugee camp stationed outside the city once the attackmenced. From the refugee camp, his aunt had flown him and his brother to Pornd where she took care of them from then on. It was a depressing story and it definitely brought down the mood of the whole group. Even Chris was brought to silence which contradicted his usual high strung demeanor. Eventually Milo cleared the air, smiling he said, "We survived and we''re stronger for it, not only that but because of everything we''ve been through we now have new goals that push us forward. If we let it eat us up inside then we''d be doing those who saved our lives a disservice." Mark nodded in agreement, and while it helped the group into continuing back to the school, it reminded them of the horrors that could be out there in the world. After getting back to the dorm they said their goodnights and returned to their rooms. Miloid in bed thinking back to the day his parents left for the dungeon where they disappeared, "stronger," Milo kept repeating in his head, "I will be stronger." asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 28 28 - Hidden Quest When he woke up the next morning, Milo got up and went out early for his daily mission. After his pushups, situps and squats he went on to the run and got lost in thought thinking aboutst night''s events and how he could start making some money. After absorbing the awakening stone he knew a few things, first he needed to get his hands on more, next he needed to level up to unlock the fusion skill in his plunder tab, and third he needed to find another powerful ability. With his mind lost in thought he figured he had just about finished his run and checked his mission screen. [Daily Mission] Prepare for power: A good physique is needed for great power -Complete the following to fulfill mission requirements- 50 push ups - [50/50] 50 sit ups - [50/50] 50 squats - [50/50] Run 5 km - [8/5] Drink 1 liter of water - [0/1] ? -Reward- 10 exp and 3 free stat points "Huh?" Milo was confused, he ran his hands through the screen thinking maybe it was a glitch. He ran another kilometer to see if it increased again and sure enough the number ran up to nine kilometers. He figured he must have been so lost in thought he ran eight kilometers instead of five without noticing. Finally he just shrugged and ran until the number stopped going up, it had to be going past five for a reason. But it stopped raising after reaching ten. Next he decided to try doing more pushups, and after another 50, the number stopped at 100. This trend continued for the sit ups and squats. After finishing double what he usually did, Milo returned to his dorm and chugged until the number stopped at two liters. As if on cue, he heard a ding and a new screen popped up. [Daily Mission Complete] Hidden Objective Complete: Additional rewards will be distributed Instant Level up 10 free stat points +1 Magic Power stat [clear] After reading what had happened Milo smiled. He had just gotten a good boost in stats and was also one step closer to level five like he had wanted. After distributing the points his stats were looking better than ever: [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 3 Abilities[3 / 4]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - Frost: Able to emit a freezing energy into the surroundings (lvl. 1) 4 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [17] Agility: [16] Intelligence: [17] Stamina: [14] Constitution: [13] Magic Power: [10] [clear] He silently jumped for joy as to not wake his roommates before hopping in the shower to wash off the sweat from his workout. After showering his roommates were now awake and they made their way down to breakfast. After the conversation they had the night before the conversation they had at breakfast was much more upbeat inparison. Ana also chose to join them that day as well. As the conversation was reaching its peak, a student began shouting in the cafeteria and all eyes turned to the source of it. Chapter 29 29 - 3 On 1? It seemed like an E ranked student had tripped and spilled some food from his tray into thep of another student. Unfortunately for him the student was an B rank which meant that he stood no chance in fighting back. The B ranked student got up and shoved the student to the ground. "Weak piece of shit, watch where you are walkin next time and I wouldn''t have to kick the crap out of you like this." As the student went to swing again, another student joined in, this time C rank, probably trying to get on the first bully''s good side. Soon two B ranks and the C rank student were all beating the poor E rank student senseless, and no one was getting up to stop them. With everyone standing around no one noticed Milo slowly rise from his seat. Instead they were all focused on the scene going on a little ways away. While walking towards the students he checked all their abilities. One was hardening, another was able to sharpen his nails into ws, and the third was a telepath like Krista. He figured taking care of the w student first would be his best choice, as that would probably be the most annoying to deal with. Just as the w ability student got down on top of the E rank, who was already beaten bloody, Milo grabbed him by the back of his neck and while activating his reinforce abilitypletely in his arm, threw the student, he flew a solid ten feet before crashing into a table. After a throw like that there was no way the student was getting up as he wasn''t prepared for something like that to happen. Seeing this, Chris got pumped and screamed out, "Homerun!!" After hearing that his friends had finally caught on, Milo deactivated his reinforcement and instead sent a message to Krista with the telepath ability to take the injured student to the infirmary, she dashed over and helped the student up before taking him to the infirmary. After seeing their friend get thrown like a rag doll, the rest of the students who were sitting at the table with the bullies all got up and the situation quickly went from a three on one to a six on one. After the other students joined in, Chris, Mark and Ana all got up from their seats and ran over to join Milo. "You got a n?" asked Chris "Yeah," replied Milo, "Kick their asses." Just as they said that, Milo reactivated his reinforce ability and sent another student flying. And Mark touched the floor, turning into a ceramic type of substance, blocking a blow that would''ve hit Chris in the gut. After the hit was blocked Chris delivered a fireball to the students chest, sting him away and singing his clothes. After those two students were taken down it was now a four vs four and after a couple more minutes of fighting, all the bullies had been dealt with and Chris said, "You know, we make a pretty good team." "Yeah I guess we do," Milo said, as Mark and Ana nodded in agreement. Just then a teacher came in to see the mess left behind by the students fighting. After getting some testimony from the students who watched it happen, they cleared the area and sent the students off to their homeroom ss. While on his way to homeroom Milo noticed something he hadn''t before, due to a screen popping up in his vision, it had turned out he had leveled up one more time after gaining exp in the fight against the bullies. He was now level four, one level away from his goal, and finding out what the fusion ability was all about. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 30 30 - Combat Class After getting to his homeroom ss, Milo cleared the screen and was satisfied that he once again was able to help someone who was where he once was. He was also pleased that he could level up by stopping the bullies who pushed around the lower ranks in the school. After sitting through some not so interesting lectures covering the usual school subjects; math, science, english and history. Milo realized didn''t really care for any of his teachers, other than Mr. Kruz, something about him interested Milo, he still had one more teacher he hadn''t met yet, and that was forbat ss. In the Awakened Academy, sses were split between normal lectures one might see in school and sses dedicated to preparing the students to be gatecrashers, or at least educate them on their abilities. During the week, students would rotate between Practical Training, which helped hone their ability and Combat Training which would teach them how to use enchanted weapons and gear. Finally, Gatecrashing 101, was a lecture that was given everyday of the week and would teach the students important things that are needed for gatecrashers. It was this lecture that Milo was first noticed by Mr. Kruz and the lecture where he was reminded of his parents. His ss today would bebat training and it would be taking ce in the weapon hall which was in the practical training hall. After making his way there, he entered the weapons hall and was amazed by the racks of weapons hanging on the wall. There were hundreds of weapons, some that he was quite familiar with, many different swords and daggers, all of them having different shapes and lengths and de styles. There were ranged weapons as well, bows of different sizes and crossbows. Finally there were many other different weapons he was unfamiliar with, but all of them looked like they could deal damage, one way or another. When walking into the room, he came across his new teacher who was in charge of the weapons hall, and from one look, he thought that maybe he would have another teacher he liked. The man was about the same height as Milo, as he got closer he could see his mid-length, ck hair that was peppered with gray and his piercing blue eyes. After making eye contact with Milo his mouth twisted into a gentle smile before he nodded a greeting. He was standing up straight in the center of the room with his legs spread about shoulder length apart and a long cane in his hands nted in the floor in front of him. Once it seemed like everyone had arrived, he banged his cane on the floor to gather everyone''s attention, wee to the weapons hall. "I am the solebat instructor at the school and am in charge of helping all of you to be proficient in at least one weapon by the time you graduate from the academy. Some of you may already know my name but I will introduce myself just to be sure, I prefer just being called by my first name, so you may all call me Mikael. I believe a hands on experience is the best way to find a weapon that is best for you, as you can see there are many here that you are free to choose from so please feel free to test as many as you would like." Many of the students who didn''t know who Mikael was, immediately began looking for a weapon that suited them. Milo was one of the few who didn''t know who he was but stayed close enough to the group to hear about his past. Apparently Mikael was one of the original gatecrashers that appeared in the world following the first gate that broke open in the Philippines. Because of his mastery with a sword and his powerful ability, many called him the Beast Butcher. His ability tied into his swordsmanship very well, as he was said to have an ability called double impact, which Milo confirmed using his system. It was a very powerful ability that when triggered caused an attack to cause damage at two different parts of the target, so a single sh to the chest could cause multiple shes to appear at once depending on the strength of using the ability. In the case of the Beast Butcher, some imed that one strike could result in five other simultaneous strikes happening at once. When hearing about how Mikael''s ability paired so well with his ability, Milo as well tried to think of a way to pair his abilities with a weapon to maximize his efficiency, the only question. What weapon would it be? asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 31 31 - Combat Class II While searching through the different weapons, a few different things caught his eye, the first was a long pole that had spear des on both ends. The other was a shortbow that allowed for quick firing up close. He also considered a one handed sword as well, as it reminded him of the games he yed when he was young. When thinking of what to pick, Mikael seemed to notice the look of thought on his face and approached him. "What are you currently thinking about?" He asked as he walked up next to Milo. "I''m trying to think of what the right weapon for my ability would be, when I''m fighting, most opponents refuse to get close. But if they do get close I want something I can use to fight up close as well," Milo responded. After pondering it for a moment, Mikael finally had an idea of what type of weapon would be good for Milo to use, "My first rmendation would be a bow with a dagger or short sword that you can draw if an opponent gets to close, the bow would allow you to fight at a range like you were originally thinking. I have another thought but it is a much harder weapon to master. Ah! Here it is, I knew I had one in here somewhere." The weapon that Mikael had selected looked to be a type of hatchet or small scythe on the end of a chain, on the end opposite the scythe, there was a small ball that seemed to add weight and offer a way to hold the end of the chain opposite the hatchet.. "This weapon is called a kusarigama, it trantes to chain sickle. By holding the sickle at the handle, you would be able to fight up close, and at a range you can throw the sickle out by the chain. As I said it takes a long time to master but it can be a powerful weapon in the right hands." When thinking of what to do, Milo was originally thinking of using the bow and dagger. This was because Milo was worried about trying to master the chain sickle. Along with this, the bow had a wider range. This was until Milo came to an epiphany, if he chose the bow and dagger he would have to be able to swap between the two quickly, along with this he''d have to practice his aim as well as his close up dagger fighting. A secondter, Milo had another thought, if he could use his weapon with his ability it would make it even more powerful, and he had an idea of a way to use the chain sickle with his ability, it would just be a matter of was it possible. "I''ll try the chain sickle then." After receiving the weapon from Mikael, a ding sounded in Milo''s head and Navi''s voice rang out, "New weapon: Common Chain Sickle equipped, tutorial of weapon basics has been generated." When hearing this message, Milo was astounded by how extensive the system really was. Not only could it teach him how to use the abilities he plundered, but it could also teach him how to use different weapons as well. Milo soon moved over to the corner of the practice room and opened the tutorial on the chain sickle. When the video opened, it showed a man holding the chain sickle, he had the chain wrapped around his arm and was holding the sickle by the handle. "Wee to the basic chain sickle techniques video. In this video I will be teaching you the basics on how to use the chain sickle andmon ways that it can be used." The man in the tutorial went on to show basic techniques for using the sickle up close. After repeating the video a few times, Milo backed away from the corner and tried to replicate the moves he watched the man make in the video. While they were rough imitations of the video, with time Milo would be able to polish them through practice. After some practice with the up close practice. Milo went on to the section of the tutorial about basic uses of the chain, his first attempt at copying the move was a total failure, but Milo was not one to give up so easily. Mikael soon called the end of ss and told the students they were free toe in at any time to practice with their chosen weapon before having them all return them until the next ss as there was only one of some of the weapons found within the hall. "There are definitely some bright pupils this year, and who would''ve thought the young man with the chain sickle would find sess so quickly," he said to himself with an impressed grin on his face. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 32 32 - Improving One Step At A Time Afterbat ss on the second day, Milo''s days seemed to be a repeat of school in the past, other than the absence of bullying and his new sses focused on improving his abilities andbat. After a week had passed, Milo had steadily increased his understanding of the chain sickle, and had even gotten pretty good at using the chain to attack at range, most of the ranged attacks involved wide sweeping attacks but a few involved shooting the chain out straight towards his target as well. He had also made some headway on how to implement his ability intobat using the chain sickle. After improving his understanding of the weapon another tutorial had opened on other uses of the chain sickle but he wanted to perfect his use of the basics before moving any further and trying to learn more advanced techniques. When practicing with the chain sickle, he was considering ways that he could make it his own, while he feltfortable using it now there was still something missing he felt. Milo had also improved his stats a bit more throughpleting his daily quests. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 4 Abilities[3 / 4]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - Frost: Able to emit a freezing energy into the surroundings (lvl. 1) 4 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [21] Agility: [20] Intelligence: [22] Stamina: [20] Constitution: [15] Magic Power: [10] [clear] All his stats besides Magic Power and Constitution had reached 20, his cooldown for Plunder was nowplete as well which allowed him to use it again. He was happy with his progress but couldn''t help but feel bitter that he hadn''t leveled up to level five yet. Due to what had happened in the cafeteria, the bullying around the academy had died down, or at least hid among the shadows of the school, as Milo hadn''t had any more opportunities to stop any incidents since defeating the students he fought in the cafeteria, he didn''t seem to gain any experience from defeating his ssmates in his practical elemental ss, his only guess was that this was due to him not knocking them unconscious like he had the bullies he''d fought so far. He was now on his way to hisbat ss again, Mikael seemed to have taken a liking to Milo, as hemonly would give Milo tips on his techniques when practicing with the chain sickle. When walking into the hall today, Milo noticed that Mikael was waving the ss over rather than letting them get to work on their own. "Today we will be doing sparring matches with your chosen weapons, you may choose your own opponents. I will referee each match myself and give tips after each match along with this, I would like to get your input on their battles as well, things they did well or things they could improve upon for example. Once you have paired up, we will begin the sparring matches, and remember, this is the weapons hall, not the practical training hall. Abilities are not allowed, and if one is used the student who used it will be punished. I may be old but things like that never go unnoticed to me, so don''t bother causing trouble." Chapter 33 33 - Sparring After trying to think of who to challenge to a spar, a student found him on his own, he was a student named Charles, who used a spear and from what Milo could remember, he was quite skilled at using it. Milo wanted to test out using his ability with the chain sickle, but today would unfortunately not be the day for him to test it. After agreeing to the spar, Milo and Charles let Mikael know that they would be opponents, and soon all the students were paired up, and the matches were set to start. As this was the first week of sses most of the students made many stupid mistakes and were open to many attacks. Milo lost track of the openings that he could have gained an advantage with. After a few boring matches full of mistakes, a pair of students went to the center to spar. Both these students used swords, one was a normal sword, a de on both edges, while the other student used a more katana like de, with a sharp edge on only one side. The battle was the most interesting so far, as both students could wield them fairly well, and with them using two different styles of swords it also showed two different styles of swordy. Eventually a victor was decided and it was back to more boring matches. It seemed like Mikael himself was even bored of these matches, but he didn''t show it, instead he was saving the most promising sparring matches forst. One of these was the spar between Milo and Charles. After a few more matches, Milo and Charles'' match was finally up. They each took their positions opposite each other and when seeing Milo''s weapon, some of the students were surprised. While practicing with their weapons many of the students were swept up in their own practicing and didn''t look to see what other students had chosen to wield. "What a weird looking weapon, I wonder how it''s used," one student said. "Oh crap, I didn''t see what weapon he was using, but I saw Charles practicing and he seemed pretty strong," another said. Manyments like these were made before Mikael hushed the ss. After each student took a fighting stance, Mikael signaled the start of the match. Knowing that his opponent would have the range advantage, Charles chose to rush in before Milo could strike with his chain. Thanks to this, Milo chose to hold onto the handle of the sickle and parried a blow that would have hit him in the chest to the side. After trading a few blows that were all blocked, Milo then chose to make some distance and swung his chain around him to buy him a second of time to think. Because of the swinging chain, Charles couldn''t get close and began to circle Milo, looking for an opening. Different scenarios ran through Milo''s head, the main issue with the spear was that it was in a gray area of range that was right in the middle of his optimal distance when using the chain sickle. When wielding the sickle up close the spear was out of reach but unless he kept a considerable distance he couldn''t take advantage of the chain. When thinking of how he could use the chain closer up, an image appeared in his mind of his plunder ability wrapping the target he was using it on in chains and this gave him an idea. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 34 34 - Sparring II Aftering up with his n, Milo finally put it into action. He slowed the swinging of the chain and chose to go for a slow sweeping attack at Charles'' legs. He easily jumped over the strike which allowed Milo to withdraw the chain. This time though, it was Milo who chose to close the distance. Seeing this, Charles prepared a thrusting attack towards Milo''s side. Milo, seeing this, used the chain to direct the attack past him, before wrapping the chains around the spear and kicking Charles in the stomach. He was unprepared for this and when being hit, he got the wind knocked out of him, causing him to lose his grip on his spear. Milo then held the sickle out, pointed at Charles'' throat. "Match over, Milo Fenix wins," shouted Mikael. After the match, the onlyments made were that Charles would need to be prepared to encounter feints like Milo had done in the match, by drawing in his opponents attack, he turned it around on him and got the advantage. After two more sparring matches, ss was over. When returning his weapon, Mikael congratted Milo on the win and told him to keep up the great work. Mikael thought that Milo showed great promise and he improved leaps and bounds faster than the majority of the other students in his ss. He wasn''t sure if it was just luck or if Milo had a lot oftent talent that was just beginning to show. After the spar Milo reflected on it himself. He was frustrated that range was his main issue, the sickle had a small range that didn''t allow for him to use it effectively against mid range weapons. The only solution he could think of would be to hold the chain at a different length for now but he needed a more permanent solution. After hisbat ss, Milo went back to his dorm to brainstorm more ideas of how to use his ability with the chain sickle. While also analyzing some of the other matches that had happened during ss to improve his own fighting style. Anything that could help him grow his fighting skills. After a while his roommates had returned and the three of them talked for some time before heading off to bed. Milo had decided that now would be a good time to watch the tutorial that covered the intermediate techniques for the chain sickle. This was due to him feeling that he had gotten a good grasp of the basic skills and would only be able to improve them more through sparring like today. After watching the videos and deciding he would practice them during his freetime, Milo finally nodded off to sleep. When waking up the next day, Milo received a message he was not expecting to see. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 35 35 - No More Daily Quests? Milo''s usual morning routine since school had started was to wake up early and do his daily mission before his roommates woke up and because of this he woke up early ready to do his morning workout. He had finished changing into clothes to workout in, only for some reason a new screen had popped up instead of the daily mission. [Daily Mission] Prepare for Power: The body has reached its peak after consistent training Daily mission: Prepare for Power will no longer generate [clear] Reading this, Milo grew upset, now he could no longer grow his stats unless leveling up or through other means. The only silver lining was that now Milo could use his morning workout time to do other things. He chose to use this extra hour as a time to practice his chain sickle techniques. Making his way to the weapons hall, Milo took in the view of the school during sunrise, the view of the buildings all being cast in the orange glow of the rising sun was a sight he grew to love while living in New York City. The biggest difference here was how silent the acropolis was inparison to New York. There was a reason it was called the city that never sleeps. After taking in the view a bit, Milo continued on to the weapons hall, and when opening the door was surprised to see Mikael holding his sword. In front of him was a training dummy that was cut to shreds. Thanks to technology discovered following the dimensional doors appearance, the dummies had a sort of regenerative function otherwise the school would spend tons on training dummies alone. "Hi Mikael, would it be okay if I practiced a bit?" Milo asked when seeing his teacher. Surprised to see a student awake so early, Mikael sheathed his weapon, and pressed the regen button on the dummy he had butchered, causing it to be put together right in front of their eyes. "Feel free, it feels good as an instructor seeing a student who wants to improve even more." Milo then went up to the wall and fetched his chain sickle he had been training with before making his way over to the dummy. After watching the intermediate technique tutorial, Milo wanted to try some of what was covered in the video. The intermediate techniques focused more on using the chain defensively and controlling the attack of your opponent. The main parts of the techniques involved something simr to what Milo had used the chains for in his sparring match. The main technique he wanted to learn involved wrapping the opponent in the chain and because of the sickle on the end, it would dig into the opponent causing them to be trapped. Seeing Milo attempt to use this technique, intrigued Mikael. He could tell that Milo had just started learning how to use the chain sickle, so why was he so aware of the different possibilities for attacking and defending? Mikael was curious about the student''s background and would have to look into it when given a chance. His speed of growth was something Mikael had never seen before. After training for awhile, Milo thanked Mikael for everything, and was about to leave the room before Mikael called him over. After thinking about it for a while, Mikael had made a decision in order to help Milo''s strength blossom even more. "I want you to hold onto the chain sickle. You are the only student who uses them and along with this, you are the first student in years who has decided to train them so diligently. Take them with you and you are wee to train here at the weapons hall whenever you''d like." Milo was happy hearing this, now he could practice even more and even look into ways he could improve the weapon to make it his own. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 36 36 - The Sim Room After sses that day, it was finally the weekend and Milo was diligent in his training of the chain sickle, he had now gotten to the point where he hadplete control over the chain when swung out. He had also found ways to control the length of the chain he was swinging. As well as practiced using the chain sickle in defensive ways as well. These he unfortunately would be unable to test until he got a chance to spar again. Aftering back to his room for some rest and a shower to wash away the smell of sweat, Chris and Mark came in asking if he''d like to go get some food with them. Milo agreed and the trio made their way down to the cafeteria. While sitting around the table, Chris was raving about a bunch of things he found around the school meant to help them train. His favorite was something he called the Sim Room, sim being short for simtion. In the simtion room there were many different virtual reality machines that acted as a way for students to practice fighting against different monsters or even pair up against other people who were also looking to train. One of the coolest functions of it was that a group could go in together and tackle a simted gate together to practice working as a team. This wasmon for guilds to use for new recruits before they went to a real gate and also to build chemistry with the raid group they were ced into. After talking about it for a while, the group of three decided they would all head down so that Milo and Mark could check it out for themselves. When entering the room, the group was surprised to see a snack bar along the one wall and a little lounge where they could all hang out and be teenagers. It was very simr to inte cafes they had read about, that were popr in Japan and Korea. After the three took in the surrounding area Chris took them to the front desk and got three stations assigned for them to use. When walking over Chris exined how it worked, there was a type of mask you''d put on beforeying back in the chair at the station and when ready, on the right armrest, there was a button you would press that would take you into the simtion. From there, they would have to set a screen name and they could join another person''s lobby, or select one of the different simtion modes. Chris had given the other two his screen name so that they could friend him and join his lobby. When activating the machine, it was an experience that Milo had never felt before. One second he was staring at the ck darkness behind the VR mask and the next his vision blurred before he appeared in a white room. Just as Chris said there was a screen that popped up, the top option said, "create ount," from there Milo created an ount, after pondering what a good screen name would be, he eventually decided on "Pho3nix" a y on his name and a nod to the fact that he originally could hold three abilities when he awoke the system. He also wanted something inconspicuous so as to not draw any attention to himself. After setting up his ount he added Chris and joined his room. Mark who now had the name "SteelFist1" floating above his head along with Chris were already there waiting for him. "What took you so long?" asked Chris "I was trying to think of a cool username, what kind of name is HotHead anyways?" Milo asked, starting to chuckle, drawing augh out of Mark as well. "Yeah, whatever, at least it isn''t as simple as SteelFist1," he said, mocking Mark''s naming sense. "Hey I couldn''t help it," Mark said defensively, "SteelFist was already taken." All three started to break outughing and after the mood returned to normal, Chris exined a bit more. From here they could do a few things, they could go into a gate simtion, go into yer vs yer or pvp for short, or they could take on waves of monsters that get generated. If they did pvp, then two would have to spectate while one of them fought, unless they all split up and selected the mode from their own lobbies. They decided to go their separate ways and would leave after they each fought a match to try out the mode. Before selecting the mode, Milo could select a weapon and an ability that he could use in the match. After selecting frost and a sword just to test he went into a match. He found that the simtion copied all his stats perfectly and because of this, the game was over quite quickly, as Milo''s stats were leagues above any of the other students. After finishing his match, Milo logged out and was greeted by a system screen in his vision before taking off his helmet. [Enemy Defeated] Reward: 20 exp [clear] asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 37 37 - Level 5 After seeing the message pop up, Milo couldn''t contain his excitement. The only enemy he would have fought was the other yer he had defeated in the Simtion''s pvp mode. If he could gain exp by fighting students in the game he could level up and get stronger. Along with this there were other modes that he hadn''t tried yet. After clearing the screen out of his vision he pulled off the VR mask and sat up where Chris and Mark were waiting. It was getting quitete and the three had decided to head back to their room to sleep. Milo had already decided what his ns for the next day would be, he would head to the Sim Room and grind until he finally hit level five. Waking up the next morning Milo went to thebat hall for an hour as he had been doing to practice his use of the chain sickle, before heading off to the Sim Room. After getting a station, he logged into the game before doing some tests. He first entered the pve mode, after taking down some monsters he tried activating the system and luckily for him it appeared to work in the simtion. A screen popped up telling him that he had gained 40 exp points, meaning that every beast he defeated in this mode gave him ten experience. This was lower than he hoped, but perhaps when the waves of monsters got more difficult they would give him more. After quitting the mode there, he tried the gate simtion mode, there were multiple difficulties and Milo decided to try the easiest, just like in the pve mode, each beast gave him ten exp each. After testing the different modes, Milo chose to use the pvp mode, as most of the fights he''d be facing in the near future would be against fellow students, rather than beasts from the gates. His first match was as easy as the previous day and he gained 20 experience for it. After his first match the opponents he faced got progressively tougher, as if the simtion knew he needed harder opponents to face. Finally after five matches of easy opponents, the opponent he was facing showed him his first bit of difficulty. He had a telekinesis ability and used throwing knives, the knives he threw would bend and change direction as he used his ability to control them. It was an ability Milo thought would alsoe in handy for his chain sickle. In the simtion he was still using the sword he chose the day before and because of this he would have to deflect the knives and get in close to attack. After some running away, the knife thrower finally ran out of knives and Milo closed the distance between the two before finishing him off. After defeating him he and returning to the lobby he got a screen that popped up. [Level Up] Congrattions you are now level 5 All stats +1 Shop feature unlocked Fusion skill unlocked [clear] After seeing the message, Milo opened up his status screen and took a look at his stats and new skill. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 5 Abilities[3 / 4]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - Frost: Able to emit a freezing energy into the surroundings (lvl. 1) 4 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [22] Agility: [21] Intelligence: [23] Stamina: [21] Constitution: [16] Magic Power: [10] [clear] His stats had each gained an additional point as the level up message said, he next clicked on the plunder tab to investigate what his newly unlocked skill did. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] [Plunder] Plunder (lvl 2): Possibility to copy the ability of other awakened if certain conditions are met (Cooldown: 0:00:00:00) Fusion: Able tobinepatible abilities into a new stronger ability. Will consume the twobined abilities when used. (Cooldown: 3:00:00:00) (Hidden) (Hidden) (Hidden) His Plunder ability was now off cooldown, he chose not to copy an ability as he wanted to see what Fusion did before plundering another one, and now he knew. The description of Fusion was as he expected, he couldbine two abilities he copied and overwrite them with a single new more powerful ability. The cooldown was only three days, which made sense as he''d have to collectpatible abilities with the Plunder skill, before he could even use the Fusion skill. A new tutorial had also been generated about the fusion ability. When watching the tutorial, Navi gave a few examples ofpatible abilities, one that seemed cool wasbining the hardening ability with the earth ability, it resulted in an ability called stone skin which allowed the user to turn their body into stone. She had also given a hint to an ability that could bebined with the frost ability and he would test that at some point eventually, but first he wanted to check out the shop feature. Chapter 38 38 - Shop After closing his status screen, Milo proceeded to open up the shop screen and unlike before where it locked Milo out. A new screen popped up: [Shop] Wee to the shop feature A tutorial will be generated to teach the user about the shop function [clear] When opening the shop tutorial, Navi''s voice rang out, "Wee to the system shop, the shop offers different wares that the user can purchase. They range from enchanted armor and essories such as rings and nes, to weapons and even different elixirs that have various uses. Each item has its own price and will appear in the inventory when purchased. In order to purchase these items, the user must first earn gold. Gold can be earned bypleting missions and selling loot that the user picks up on their adventures." Hearing the exnation Milo was excited, it was exactly as he expected and he would possibly be able to purchase weapons and armor not found anywhere else. His only worry was getting enough gold to purchase the items as he had no way of getting loot from gates or parts from monster corpses at the moment, and he hadn''t received any missions since his daily missions that he no longer received. When opening up the shop screen, categories appeared along the left side that showed the different categories of items he could buy. When clicking on the different categories they would expand and show even more specifics, for example when clicking on weapons, it expanded to either ranged or melee weapons, which then expanded to the many different kinds of each category, such as swords, daggers, and more. On the right side of the screen were all the listings for the different weapons, his eyes grew wide at the prices as they were much more expensive than he was expecting. The cheapest item was a dagger simply called, "Steel Dagger" and it was priced at 500 gold, which seemed like a tall ask considering his current bnce of zero. After looking through the shop some more, there were many powerful items, and some of them had unique properties that raised his stats, as well as granted bonus skills. He was wondering if any of the items made by the cksmiths in the city had simr effects. If so he would have topare prices to see if his system''s shop was more powerful. As he was pondering this question a new screen popped up that he wasn''t expecting. [New Quest] [Status: Iplete] Compare the system''s prices to the real world prices Reward: 50 gold, 50 exp, Inspect skill [clear] Seeing a new quest pop up made Milo wonder if the system was limited in functionality until he hit level 5. Although it also made sense, considering he now was able to earn gold through the shop function, the system would in turn have to give him opportunities to earn gold to spend. He was also excited to see what the inspect skill did, as it was the first skill he''d earn other than the ones he had to unlock through increasing the level of the system. Following the new quest pop up, Milo exited the Sim Room and went back to his dorm to find Chris and Mark. On his way he messaged Krista on his holo and asked her if she would like to go into the city to look at the shops. After a stop at her dorm, she and Ana joined Milo as he went to see if Chris and Mark wanted toe as well, adding thest two friends to the group, the 5 students all made their way into the city. After going through a few clothes store, they made their way to an equipment store where Milo thought it would be a good idea toplete the quest. When entering the store, he looked at the different prices of the equipment and was surprised to see that inparison to the shop most of the items in the equipment store were more expensive and majority of them looked to have less options than the system''s shop items. *ding* when hearing the distinctive noise, Milo knew he hadpleted the quest, thepletion screen then appeared. [Quest] [Status: Complete] Compare the system''s prices to the real world prices Rewards have been distributed +50 gold +50 exp Learned the Inspect Skill [clear] With his new skill now in hand, Milo was excited to see exactly how it worked. Chapter 39 39 - Inspect Skill With his new skill learned, Milo opened his status screen and looked at the skills description, it stated that when activating the skill while focusing on a person or object it would give some information about the target. It was a very useful skill that went hand in hand with his ability to look at the abilities of others. In fact it looked as if it had a modifier attached thanks to the system. The modifier was called "Thief''s eyes" ; it specified that this allowed him to look at the abilities of others. From this, Milo could conclude that the inspect skill was in a way etched into the system as if he was supposed to have it from the start. After receiving the inspect skill, Milo decided to try it on both things specified by the description, an object and a person. His first target was a chestte that was hanging up behind the service counter. It was blue in color with a silver trim and looked like it was intricately made. When activating the skill a window popped up. [Blue Fury Armor(Heroic)] Durability: 500 Armor Rating: 750 Str +15 Agi +5 Con +10 Bonus Skill: Blue Fury - Causes a surge in magical power, boosting ability output for 60 seconds Description: An intricately crafted set of armor, the blue colores from abination of beast blood as well as an enchanted alloy of metal created from mixing iron with magic stone. It boasts a great defense. [clear] Using the inspect skill, Milo could see many different things about the targeted item. He could see the quality, the durability, the armor rating, all the stats the armor granted, as well as any bonus skills the wearer would gain. It was something that no basic person could do. It took the skills of a master appraiser to be able to determine all the stats and options an armor boasted. And Milo could do it all from the activation of a single skill that had no cooldown. It was a cheat. After testing it on the chestte, Milo went on to test it on a person. He first tested it on Krista to see what kind of differences would be encountered when testing it on a person rather than an item. When using it, just like with the armor a screen popped up giving him information. [Krista Bruinhardt] Ability: Telepath Status: Healthy Rtionship: Close Friend [clear] The screen that popped up showed much less than it had when he viewed the information regarding the chestte. His only guess was that this was due to the system being unable to check information about another person''s status screen. After testing it a few more times, Milo was pleased, this was something that would greatly help Milo in the future and could also help him to determine which equipment would work the best for him. After going out shopping, the group decided to return to campus, while Milo continued to try out his inspect skill. While doing that, he remembered that his Plunder ability was off cooldown, with this in mind he would also look for an ability that he could use with fusion. Chapter 40 40 - The Second Ingredient For Fusion While making his way around campus with his friends, he kept his eyes out for abilities that may bepatible with the ones he was already carrying. A few ideas came to mind that may work together, he assumed that a speed type ability may work with his reinforce, he also thought that maybe an ability like telekinesis could bebined with telepath. When considering the different options, Milo came to an epiphany that if he truly wanted to make himself as strong as possible, he should look for an ability that would bepatible with his frost ability. With it being an ability that was already powerful beforebining it with another ability. When thinking of what to fuse it with, an ability that was fairlymon came to mind. What would happen if hebined frost with the water ability, maybe he could freeze the water in the air and create a blizzard or create spears of ice he could use. When thinking of the possibilities, he bumped into a student, the student seemed to be on edge or thought he was tough, because heshed out at Milo. "Watch where you''re walking, asshole." Milo didn''t respond and instead stared at the screen above his head. [Notice] Ability: Water detected Conditions to copy: Defeat the target in battle while not allowing them tond a strike using their ability plete condition to copy ability: Water] "What is this luck?" Milo thought out loud. "What kind of crap are you mumbling?" yelled the student who he bumped into. The student turned around andshed out with a whip of water. Side stepping the attack, Milo''s friends decided to try and get involved. "Stay back, this one is mine," Milo said, this surprised his friends as he seemed a bit aggressive. Activating his ability, due to the increase in his magic power and intelligence stats, the temperature dropped to freezing in a split second. Frost started to spread from where his feet touched the concrete of the path they were walking. His arms also began to emit an extreme cold, causing frost to climb up his arms and causing his hair to develop ayer of frost as well. His friends were astounded as it was clear he wasn''t holding back. The water student showed no fear and instead tried tosh out with a whip of water again, when the water came within a certain radius of Milo, it froze as if it were passing through a barrier and fell to the ground. The water student''s eyes widened in shock as now, his ability would be useless, instead he ran in close trying to hit Milo, this also proved to be a mistake as the minute he stepped in the frost on the ground it began to climb his legs, freezing his feet in ce. Milo then took one step forward and gave a solid right hook, catching the student in the jaw and knocking him out cold. He was much stronger than he used to be thanks to him raising his strength stat above 20. After defeating the student, his friends were in awe of how powerful Milo appeared to be, he was growing at an astonishing rate and it wouldn''t be long before he got upgraded to the X rank ss. ? With a satisfied grin, Milo hit the ept button and initiated his Plunder ability. Luckily this time, just like his first two attempts the ability was a sess. After the ck chains wrapped around the student and vanished a sess a screen popped up. [Notice] Ability: Water has been sessfully plundered Free stat points have been gained from plundering a new ability Tutorial has been generated based off current intelligence stat Watch Tutorial? [yes] [no] Milo now had all he needed to test the fusion ability, he would test it once returning to his dorm, along with distributing the stat points he earned. Chapter 41 41 - Fusion When returning to his room, Milo excused himself to the bathroom to do his system session in privacy. After locking the door behind him, he opened his status screen. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 5 Abilities[4 / 4]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - Frost: Able to emit a freezing energy into the surroundings (lvl. 1) 4 - Water: Able to control water using the mind (lvl. 4) [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [24] Agility: [21] Intelligence: [24] Stamina: [21] Constitution: [16] Magic Power: [10] [clear] After distributing the free points from plundering the new ability, Milo was surprised to see that the water ability he had plundered was at the 4th level. This meant the student he was facing was most likely a B or A rank student, with the ease he had in the battle, it meant that hepletely overpowered the other student, he had be much stronger than before and this made it evident. After seeing that the two abilities werepatible, he activated the Fusion ability. A screen then popped up in his vision: [Notice] Ability: Fusion activated, select abilities to fuse [select] [select] [confirm] After selecting the frost and water abilities and pressing confirm, he felt a strange sensation. It felt as if power was being sapped out from inside him, the next second he saw two balls of light appear from his chest, they floated out in front of him before the chains that seemed to be a symbol of the system started to emit from his chest and float in the air. A secondter, the balls of lights mmed together, creating another ball of light even bigger and brighter than the two that appeared previously. After the two seemed tobine, the chainsing out his chest wrapped around the ball of light until the light couldn''t be seen anymore, and was yanked back into his chest. Once this sequence had beenpleted, another new screen popped up. [Notice] Fusion of abilities Water and Frost was sessful New ability has been generated Free stat points have been granted following sessful fusion Tutorial has been generated based off current intelligence stat Watch Tutorial? [yes] [no] Milo hit no instantly, as he was impatient to see what ability had been generated and what it could do. He also had more stats to distribute. After opening his status screen, he could finally see his new power. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 5 Abilities[3 / 4]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 1) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 2) 3 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 3) 4 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [25] Agility: [21] Intelligence: [25] Stamina: [21] Constitution: [19] Magic Power: [10] [clear] Reading the description he was beyond hyped to test the ability out and with his elemental ss being tomorrow he''d be able to, luckily the frost ability could do the same thing, but it would have normally required his to train frost to a crazy high level, but with the new Ice ability, he could do it without the extra steps. Chapter 42 42 - Ice After waking up and going down to the weapons hall to get his practice in before his sses started, Milo took a shower and went to his homeroom ss. Mr. Kruz knew something good was going on for Milo, as he had a huge grin on his face the entire ss due to his excitement to try out his new ability. After going up to Milo and asking if something good had happened, Milo smiled and simply said, "You''ll see it in practical training." This made Mr. Kruz excited, as Milo was one of his fastest advancing students, he grew every time he saw him and always found creative ways to use his ability. Pretty soon, regr lectures had ended and Milo was on his way to practical training. After arriving and changing into his uniform for practical training, he made his way out to the where the ss met. "Today we will be doing a self training session, spread out and practice some techniques," Mr. Kruz said. This was perfect for Milo, because he had just unlocked his ice ability yesterday he hadn''t gotten to practice it. After taking some space, he opened the tutorial, and yed off him standing there not doing anything by pretending to meditate, hoping to make the other students think he was trying to cultivate or increase his magic power. In reality he was watching the tutorial for the ice ability, and after finishing the video he stood up and tried to replicate what was seen. The tutorial showed a few different things, the first was to use the ice ability to create an icicle out of the air using the moisture that could be found in the air, simr to what water ability users could do. After creating one, he tried to create more, eventually he had three menacing looking spears of ice floating behind his head. This took a lot of concentration and if he tried to create another, he knew they would fall to the ground and shatter. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After hearing Milo''s promise earlier, Mr. Kruz was making sure to check over on him every so often to see what he was smiling about in the homeroom lecture. At first, Milo just sat on the ground cross legged and seemed to be meditating. After about five minutes, Milo stood up and started to do something, seeing the icicle appear behind Milo, he realized that Milo had increased his frost ability level to an extreme level, or so he thought. Soon his jaw dropped as Milo now had three icicle spears floating behind his back. Soon, other students all followed Mr. Kruz''s surprised eyes and could see what was surprising him so much. With the abilities Milo was showcasing in ss, it was beyond the realm of an A rank student, Milo very obviously qualified to be in the X rated ss. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After creating three ice spears, Milo turned his attention to a dummy off to the side of the room, and thrust his arm forward, directing the three spears towards the dummies chest, after making contact they pierced the dummy before exploding leaving behind a freezing cold aura where the dummies heart would have been. Milo jumped in the air and pumped his fist that he had done it. After celebrating by himself, he realized the room had grown extremely quiet, he turned around to see the shocked eyes of his teacher, as well as all the other students in his ss. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 43 43 - Retest? After seeing the shocking power disyed by Milo everyone was convinced that he should be moved up to the X rated ss. All of them knew now that if put up against Milo they wouldn''t stand a chance. The X rated ss was something everyone wanted to be a part of, they received special privileges in the school and were given more leniency with their attendance. Onemon urrence within the X ranked ss was sending students to receive on site training, as well as allowing them to enter low ranked gates. This was because they were among the strongest in the school and would face less danger than other ranked students. Along with this, just by being in the X ranked ss, many guilds would start to try and recruit you right out of school. After picking up his jaw that dropped to the floor, Mr. Kruz got the ss back on track and approached Milo. "Have you considered retaking the ability evaluation?" he asked, "With what you just showed you''d easily make it into the X ranked ss" Milo hearing this had no idea that one could retake the ability assessment. He was nning to continue growing his strength for the year until his second year where he''d try for the X ranked ss. After thinking about it, he asked Mr. Kruz what he needed to do in order to retake the ability assessment. Mr. Kruz told him he would rmend him for the retest and from there the school would assign him a date and time to retest. Hearing this Milo was happy, as it meant it gave him a little more time to increase his understanding of his new ability. After the conversation Milo went back to his space and continued to try new things he could use for the ability assessment. He tried propelling himself up with ice, spreading a field of ice spikes along the floor and more in order to helpe up with more techniques he could use not only on the retest but duringbat as well. After ss ended, Milo was on his way back to his dorm with Chris when he got a ping on his holo. There was a message that his retest would be the uing weekend on Saturday at noon. This gave him four more days to prepare himself and get anyst second boosts to his strength. "So you''re going through with the retest? I figured you would after showing off something like that, you''ve been growing like a weed," said Chris "Yep, I want to climb as high as I can now so that when I get out of school I''ll be set," Milo responded. "Not a bad n, I won''t be far behind you, so be ready for when I catch up to you," Chris said with a cheeky grin. Milo and Chris headed back to their dorm, where they ran into Mark, Krista and Ana in the lobby, the three were talking about ss, and when Milo told the three of them about the retake, they weren''t all that surprised, but thought he may be trying the retest too early. That was until Chris retold the story of what had happened in their practical training ss. After hearing about the sheer amount of power that Milo demonstrated the group of friends were all shocked, only yesterday he had defeated a student but was unable to do anything that had been mentioned, unless he had been holding back his strength. After excusing herself Krista sent a message to Milo and asked if they could meet in private as she knew about Milo''s secret system and was curious about what he had done to get so powerfully so quickly. After telling them he had something to do, he met Krista at the meeting spot she called, which was on the school roof. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 44 44 - Secret Rendezvous After making his way up to the roof, Milo found Krista looking out over the city, her blonde hair flowing with the gentle breeze. After making his way over to her, he asked what she wanted to talk about. She mentioned that she was curious about how he had be so strong so fast and he went on to exin about his new Fusion skill that allowed him tobine two abilities into a stronger one. Hearing this, Krista couldn''t believe how powerful Milo had be, if word got out about his ability to copy and create abilities, it wouldn''t be so far fetched to believe that he and those he cared about would be targeted to get to him. If what he said was true he would get even more powerful as his system grew even more. After talking more about what he had done in the practical training ss, he went on to show her his new ability, he did so by creating a small dagger out of ice, due to him still not practicing enough, the dagger was still rough around the edges and only resembled the shape of a knife. Krista was astounded at how powerful his ability could be, when thinking of all the possible things Milo could do with the ice. After meeting on the roof and talking for a while, Milo walked Krista back to her dorm. Milo then returned to his own dorm, and prepared for bed. Krista was lying in her own bed thinking of Milo, he used to be such a sweet and gentle guy, and while he still was with friends, she couldn''t help but worry about the ruthlessness she had seen when fighting with the water ability student the other day. She was worried that as he grew stronger he would grow out of the kind person he has always been. While thinking more, she realized that this was most likely due to his determination to be stronger. She understood that due to his tragic past he wanted to be strong enough to protect himself, but what she failed to think of was that he also wanted to grow strong enough to defend those he cared about, and she was included in that group of people. Once finally getting to bed, Krista woke up the next morning and made her way to ss. Once getting to ss, she wanted to find out more about the X rated ss as that would be the ss Milo would soon be. When asking around she got very consistent answers that began to worry her. The students who were in the X rated ss were mostly from very powerful families from around the world and had been nurtured to increase the strength of their abilities from the moment they awakened. Most of these students would have big egos as they were raised to be powerful and would most likely feel threatened by a neer like Milo. When asking around more she found that there were only enough students for one X ranked ss in the school unlike all the other ranks which had at least five, and unlike the other ranks, they wouldn''t have practical sses orbat ssesbined with other ranks. The final thing she had discovered was that there was one student who wasn''t from a powerful background and they seemed to bemonly picked on by the other X ranked students. While Krista was learning all this new info, she couldn''t help but fear for Milo when getting into the X ranked ss, he would possibly end up like he was in highschool, the target of many people who were stronger than him. While this was all happening, Milo was blissfully unaware as he prepared himself the best he could for the test. Milo continued his training over the next few days to be as ready as possible for the retest. On the Friday before his examination, Milo had improved his control over his Ice ability to the point where he could freely shape his ice into many powerful things, he had perfected his dagger making by Wednesday and they were now wickedly sharp and he could pull them out of thin air within a split second. He also had practiced creating his ice spears and they now were muchrger, sharper, and he could now control five at once. Hisst step to this attack he wanted to perfect, was spinning them like a drill in order to deal maximum damage. Finally he had also found a way to focus his ground based ice attack in a single direction when originally it would shoot ice spikes up all around him. After thest few days of training, Milo felt he had finally prepared himself the best he could. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 45 45 - Rank Reevaluation When waking up the next morning, Milo tried to recall what the tests were when he first took the rank evaluation. There was the overall ability test, the strength test, the agility course, and the magic power assessment. After thinking through the tests he was prepared for whatever was thrown at him, he was determined that he would blow away his old scores and set new records among the first years. Before entering his evaluation, he steeled himself one more time and walked in to take the test, just likest time, the ability test was the first one up, he walked up to the tform and when the evaluator gave him the signal he unleashed his magic power. When he activated his ability, the temperature in the entire building dropped to freezing levels, the ground around his feet froze over and spread covering the floor of the evaluation room, while the ice spread, five ice spears began to form behind his back, each impressively sharp and in the next second all began to give off a sharp whirring sound as they spun like drills. What Milo was unaware of, was the fact that his two favorite teachers were in another room, watching his retest on a monitor. Seeing what was going on in the room Mr. Kruz was shocked once again, as he realized that using the spears wasn''t the extent of his power and he had actually held back while in the practical training room. Mikael on the other hand was ecstatic, "Hohoh! he really is a strong one," he said with a hearty guffaw, "I can''t wait to see how he stacks up against the other X ranked students." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Back in the evaluation room, the evaluator called the end of the ability test and they had to take a short break to allow the room to thaw. After the room returned to its normal temperature the tests proceeded with the strength test next. Milo walked up to the target he had to strike and unlike the first time he took the test, he chose to use the ice ability to strike the target rather than secretly use the reinforcement ability. Milo took a step back and reactivated the ice ability and focused it into a single point. When he did, a massive ice spear was formed over his right shoulder. After it was about the size of a small car, it began to spin extremely fast. After taking a second to build up speed, the veins in Milo''s forehead began to pop out as he focused all his mental strength into making the massive ice spear spin as fast as possible. Soon the massive spear was making a high pitched squeal from how fast it was spinning, and when Milo couldn''t make it spin any faster, he threw his hand forward with a grunt of effort. When the massive ice spear made contact with the target, a loud bang was heard as the ice spear exploded, filling the room with thousands of glistening particles of ice, as the ice particles sparkled as they caught the light, the numbers on the machine continued to climb until it eventually stopped at 94. After seeing his score, Milo smiled with satisfaction as a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead, he hadn''t tried this hard on the first test and now he was giving it his all. His next test to take was the agility course, it involved going through a course with many different obstacles the faster hepleted it, his score would get higher, and all uses of abilities were allowed. If used creatively abilities could also be used topletely bypass certain obstaclespletely. When starting the agility course, the first obstacle involved climbing over and under different beams. Rather than climbing over the beams, Milo instead used his ability to create pirs of ice lifting him up and over the beams. After the first obstacle, he then moved on the second which involved jumping over a gap up to an elevated tform, when doing so, the person would grab the ledge and pull themselves up and over the ledge. When approaching the obstacle Milo created a bridge out of ice and was able to reach the top of the elevated tform without having to climb over the ledge. With this he hadpleted half of the course. The second tost obstacle was a moat of water with tforms at the top of it, to get across, Milo would normally have to jump from one to the other, but by creating a path of ice, he could just run across the moat. In the final obstacle, the person had to climb ropes to get to the top of staggered tforms before ringing a bell found on the tallest one. He did as he did on the first obstacles and used his ice to bypass the obstacle entirely, ringing the bell in record time. Finally thest test was up, and it was the Magic Power assessment. He stepped up to the tform and just likest time ced his hand on the magic orb device, once he did so he unleashed his ability and the orb device began to shine as it measured his Magic Power, once it stopped getting brighter, the monitor to the side showed the number 35, over double what it was when he first tested. After his final test, the evaluator totaled his scores, "Milo Fenix reevaluation; ability rank X, strength rank X, agility rank X, magic power rank X. Overall ss ranking, X" asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 46 46 - X Ranked After getting his rank updated and receiving his new ss schedule, Milo was pleased, he made it into the X rank ss much faster than he thought he would. After receiving his new rank, Milo was approached by Mikael and Mr. Kruz who came from the room they were spectating his test in. Mikael was the first to speak, "Great job young man, you''ve grown extremely quickly and I know you have even more room to grow. Keep training diligently and I''m sure all your goals wille to fruition." Mr. Kruz spoke next, "You''vee extremely far in such a short amount of time Milo, as your teacher I couldn''t be prouder." He then went into detail about some of the perks that came with being an X ranked student. Hearing about these perks, Milo got even more excited thanks to these perks, he''d be able to grow even more. After thanking Mr. Kruz and Mikael, he went out to get some rest before going out and celebrating with his friends. When leaving the evaluation hall, he bumped into a student as he walked out the door, the student was A ranked but even though he was ranked so high, when seeing the glowing X rank on Milo''s holo he scurried off without trying to start anything like most high ranked students would. This was something Milo could get used to. When walking through the main area of the school and making his way back to his dorm, he noticed a few things. One, due to the X rank disyed on his wrist he was getting a lot more stares as he walked around campus. Along with this, the stares of girls were especially different, which made him feel embarrassed as he was always thest person girls looked at. Andstly, people treated him with much more respect, whether it be out of fear or out of actual respect he wouldn''t know. Once he arrived at his dorm he made a stop in the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror, this was simply due to him feeling self conscious following all the stares he was getting from girls. After the system awakened, all his scars, marks and blemishes vanished, leaving his skin clear. The system fixed his vision so he no longer needed to wear sses, while also sharpening his jawline and cheek bones.Along with this, after doing his daily missions he had gotten himself in shape, now due to his stats also being raised, his body looked like that of an active athlete, his muscle tone and how chiseled his body was, was umon for people his age. Due to the changes in his body and his looks, he appeared to be a young model in training or an actor. The only thing out of ce was his long messy hair, after a haircut he would garner even more attention. While he himself didn''t think much of his appearance, he would have to ask his friends what they thought. Mainly Krista as only she knew of his past appearance. After resting, Milo sent all his friends a message and asked them to meet at the lounge in the Sim Room. When they all arrived, Milo revealed his holo showing the bright red X signifying his rank. They all went wide eyed before congratting him, Chris seemed the most excited for him as he pped him on the back. After talking about the tests, the group all got up and headed into the city to get ice cream in celebration of Milo''s achievement. When they arrived Milo was scouting new abilities to try and plunder, but unfortunately nothing caught his eye. When leaving the school''s campus, Milo ran into another student which resulted in the other student falling down. When looking down a bright red X was also showing on his holo. The student quickly stood up, apologized and hurried back to campus. "What was that all about?" Chris asked, out of shock. "I''m not sure, but he seemed kind of timid for an X rank," Milo responded "Wait, he was X rank?!" Milo''s friends eximed in unison. "Seemed like it," Milo responded, "considering the X that was showing on his holo. I guess I''ll know for sure if I see him in ss." The group was still surprised as they were sure most X ranked students would unt their ranks and be jerks but he seemed surprisingly timid. After going out and getting ice cream. The group returned to campus, before going back to their respective dorms and settling in for the night, they had ss tomorrow and Milo didn''t want to give a bad impression on his first day in the X ranked ss. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 47 47 - The Rating System After waking up the next morning, Milo looked at his new ss schedule and made his way to the room it was located in. When entering the room, the atmosphere was one he was not expecting, the stares he got as he entered the room and took his seat reminded him of his time as the skinny loser, he was just under a year ago at his old high school in New York. After taking his seat he scanned his eyes around the room to see what the different X ranked students looked like. All the other X ranked students appeared to have a disinterested look after he took his seat. The majority of them were all wearing designer clothes and seemed toe from a rich background. There were only 18 students in the room aside from himself. Being X ranked was a rare urrence and the fact that there were only 19 students total among all the first years was proof of this. After starting the ss, it seemed that the lesson they were currently going over was about Enchanted Equipment. The teacher was a young woman named Ms. Teller, she had short white hair that went down to her shoulders and had bright blue eyes. Ms. Teller was currently going over the different ratings for equipment. "Enchanted equipment has eight different ratings depending on the level of magic stone used to create it as well as the material used. The ratings go up starting atmon, then umon, rare, unique, heroic, legendary, mythic, and finally celestial. The rating of a piece of equipment determines how powerful the equipment is. The essence core used to create the armor can help the smith that makes the armor predict what level equipment will be made, for example when smithing with an essence core from and F ranked beast will most likely result in a piece ofmon rated equipment being created, however there are some exceptions to this rule." "When ites to equipment rating, there is a bit of a power gap between each, with the biggest gap being between mythic and celestial equipment. Due to the strength of essence core needed to create celestial rated equipment they are very rare and so far, only six pieces of celestial equipment have been created to this day. Each of the big four in the United States, as well as the GAA president have a piece of this equipment. Thest piece originally belonged to one of the original gatecrashers that appeared in the world, following their retirement, the piece of equipment was ced in a museum in Toronto however following the attack from the Fellowship, its current whereabouts are unknown, it is currently believed to be in the hands of the Godfather." After going over the level of power contained in celestial equipment, Ms. Teller pulled away a sheet that was on the table in front of her, revealing two pieces of equipment. The one was made from what looked like bone and the other seemed to be made extremely intricately and looked to be made from the scales of some beast. When using the inspect skill, Milo could tell that although the bone armor looked to be of lower quality, it was actually two whole ratings above the scaled armor. "Now, I''d like for you to guess which of these armors has a higher rating," said Ms. Teller A student a few rows behind Milo began to speak up, "It''s obviously the sca-" "It''s the bone looking armor," Milo blurted out, interrupting the student behind him. "That is actually correct," Ms. Teller said, surprised by the correct guess, "although next time maybe wait your turn to speak, Mr¡­ Fenix," she said after checking Milo''s name on her attendance sheet. Milo was a bit embarrassed, scratching the back of his head bashfully. What he didn''t feel was the eyes of the student he interrupted burning two holes into the back of his head. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 48 48 - Close Call After the lesson on the different armor ratings was over, the X ranked ss moved ontobat training, when the ss arrived, Mikael informed them that today was a self-led training day and that the students could spread out and practice their weapons as they see fit. Milo found some space and pulled out his chain sickle. It had been a while since he had practiced due to him focusing on practicing his ability with the retest having happened this past weekend and he wanted to practice his use of Ice as much as possible. This led to him forgoing his morning practice sessions with the chain sickle in the weapons hall. Due to this, Milo chose a dummy in a secluded corner of the room. Once Milo began to practice, he was so tied up in his training, he failed to notice the revenge plot being unfolded behind him. The student Milo had angered earlier by interrupting his answer in ss, was a wind user from a rich family, due to his family background, they poured a ton of money into raising him to be powerful at a young age. He was considered a genius among first years, and because he had trained his ability so high, he was able to control wind very urately. His weapon of choice was a bow and arrow, this was due to his ability allowing him to change the direction of his arrows using his control of different wind currents. When Milo was turned away practicing his chain and sickle techniques, one of his arrows changed directions suddenly, and was aimed and heading straight for Milo''s shoulder. "Schwing," Milo heard a sh through the air behind him, just inches away from his right shoulder and turned as two equal pieces of the arrow fell to the ground. Once analyzing what had happened, Milo saw the arrow cut in half on the ground and Mikael standing next to him with his sword drawn. After seeing Mikael cut the arrow down before it reached its target, the student knew he needed to act like this was an ident or else he would get in trouble. "Oh my gosh, I''m so sorry are you ok?" the student asked as he approached Milo. After years of dealing with bullies, Milo knew this student had aimed for him on purpose, and a secondter, Milo recognized the student as the one he had interrupted in ss. After realizing that the student was acting to not get in trouble, Milo took a step forward intending to teach the bully a lesson. That was until Mikael grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him off to the side. "I understand your anger. Whether it was on purpose or an ident, attacking him now will only get you in more trouble. You will have a chance to settle this score, just be patient," he said. After taking a deep breath, Milo settled his anger and did as Mikael said. The other student just chuckled to himself and was happy that Milo was unable to do anything in response to his attack. Little did he know, this was a discretion Milo would not forget. After the attack from the wind ability student, Milo was able to continue his training in peace, as Mikael was now eyeing the student who had attacked Milo. That was when Milo noticed the student he had bumped into yesterday on his own practicing in the corner. When seeing the student''s ability, Milo knew he had to try and plunder it. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 49 49 - The Outcast Milo decided he would introduce himself to the student, with an ability like that it wouldn''t be bad to try and get on his good side. When walking up to the student, he recognized Milo from the night before and tensed up. "Look, I''m sorry for what happened at the front of the school yesterday, just please don''t hurt me," said the student. With a confused look Milo responded, "Why would I hit you? We bumped into each other by ident." The student seemed generally fearful towards Milo, so Milo decided to try and get to the bottom of it. He was a bit short, about six or seven inches shorter than Milo, with a mop of dirty blonde hair that was swept over one eye, and he seemed to be avoiding eye contact with the rest of the X ranked students. "Is everything okay?" Milo asked, "I just got transferred in from the A rank ss and today is my first day of my new schedule." Hearing this, the other student''s eyes widened, "you mean you aren''t a rich jerk like the rest of them?" he asked. "What do you mean? I''m an orphan and I live with my cousin in New York in a cheap two bedroom apartment, so definitely not rich. What does my background have to do with anything though?" Milo responded. Hearing this, the other student huffed out a sigh of relief as if someone had just given him good news. "Whew, I thought you were some big shot in society who came to beat me up again, like the rest of the guys in our ss, the girls leave me alone for the most part, but the guys are jerks." Hearing this, Milo nodded his head, "I can tell, if Mikael wasn''t here I''d probably be filled with arrows, right now, thanks to that asshole," he said as he pointed out the student who had shot an arrow at him. "What''s your name? I''m Milo," he said, offering his hand for a handshake. "The name is Zach," responded the student. After a bit of more talking and discussing what weapons they were training in. The pair decided to go and get food together after training was over. Once training had ended, the pair made their way to a diner right outside of campus. They sat down, ordered their food, and began talking. As it turned out the pair had a lot inmon. Both of them were bullied a lot at their old school for being weak, and both weren''t from rich backgrounds. Zach went on to exin that since he was the only one in the ss that didn''t have a high pedigree before today, all the other boys in their ss would push him around. It didn''t help that without the right conditions his ability wasn''t all that powerful. Because of this he had been feeling down about school and thought that his school life was screwed just like his first two years of highschool, that was until Milo had transferred into the X ranked ss today. Now he finally had someone he could rte to and get along with, which was a relief for him. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 50 50 - Sparring Again After eating their food, Milo and Zach returned to campus and returned to their dorms. Milo and Zach parted ways in the lobby of the dorm building after saving eachother''s contact info into their holos. After returning to his room, Chris and Mark were talking about the day, when seeing Milo walk in, they were curious about him returningte before exining that he met a kid in the X ranked ss and was out with him. After talking about the happenings in the X rankedbat ss. Chris and Mark were worried for Milo, he was in new territory and was being targeted by someone who was supposed to be from a rich and powerful family. If he wasn''t careful he could get into deep trouble. After expressing their worries, Milo said not to worry, as Mikael said that he would keep him safe until they learned not to mess with him. When hearing this, their hearts were settled, while this wasn''t exactly what Mikael had promised Milo he didn''t want them getting into a fight with students ranked much higher than them for his sake. He wouldn''t let them get hurt. After talking some more, the three crashed for the night to make sure they got enough sleep for sses tomorrow. When waking up the next morning they all headed off for their sses. When walking into his homeroom ss, Milo made his way over to Zach and sat down. "Good morning," Milo said. Zach returned the greeting and just as Ms. Teller was entering the room, Milo felt a piece of paper hit him in the back of the head. He turned around to see the student frombat training pretending to mind his own business acting as if he hadn''t just thrown the balled up paper at Milo. Milo swallowed his annoyance and sat through the ss. The student who was trying to get a reaction out of him was very bad at answering questions, speed wasn''t everything when your answer was wrong and this student was a prime example. After the lecture had ended, Milo and Zach made their way to the practical training hall, after changing, Milo and Zach headed to the hall where they''d be training. Milo was surprised to see Mikael standing at the center of the room, as it turned out, the X ranked students were trained in both theirbat training as well as their practical ability training by Mikael. After the rest of the X ranked students had gathered, Mikael announced what they would be doing, and hearing it, Milo was pleased to hear that for practical training that day they''d be sparring, and Milo knew who he''d be asking for a fight. After announcing that Zach would be allowed to sit out due to him being unable to showcase his ability, he allowed the students to seek out an opponent. Milo didn''t have to move, as the student who had been trying to piss him off had found him himself. After all the matches had been decided, Mikael had put out the order, Milo and the student whose name was Corey would be thest sparring match of the day. After the first eight matches had concluded, the other students took seats in the stands along with Zach. After taking their positions across from each other, Mikael called the start of the match. As soon as the match was called, Corey tried to use his ability to shoot a st of wind towards Milo who avoided it easily. Milo began to walk forward after starting to activate his ability, the student continued firing off sts of wind, but every time they got near, Milo would throw up a wall of ice blocking the attacks. Eventually Corey did something that would prove to be annoying for Milo. By controlling the currents of the wind around him, Corey rose into the air essentially flying. This took extreme concentration on Corey''s part and because of this, the sts of wind being thrown towards Milo began to slow down. While floating in the air Corey thought Milo would be unable to touch him, and when Milo threw up a thick dome of ice heughed thinking he had the win in the bag. While above Milo, Corey couldn''t see anything that Milo was doing below the dome. Eventually after throwing a few wind sts a crack could be seen in the dome. "There''s nowhere you can run to Milo, I''m finally gonna get you back for embarrassing me yesterday," Corey shouted. Milo simply responded with, "are you sure about that." After the dome finally came down, Milo was standing where it once was surrounded by three menacing spears of ice rotating around him. Due to concentrating on flying, Corey was unable to throw a wind st at Milo before all three spears were sent speeding towards him, due to the fear of the three spears connecting, Corey lost concentration and began falling to the ground. Corey threw up a quick wind st below him to prevent himself from mming into the ground and came to anding, but before he could react, Milo had appeared by his side and put his hand on his shoulder, turning Corey into a human popsicle, leaving only his head unfrozen. Milo turned and began walking towards his ss, "Why don''t you chill out there for a bit." asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 51 My Plunderer System Glossary I Dimensional Door: Points where the dimensional fabric of the Earth gets shifted opening the world to the horrors of another dimension Gate: One of the three types of dimensional doors, is a portal to another world and contains beasts and monsters that vary in strength. In order for the portal to be closed an Awakened Person needs to enter the portal and defeat the boss monster found at its end. Rift: The second type of dimensional doors, when one forms, a barrier is formed in the Earth''s dimensional fabric that prevents those who have not awakened from escaping the closed off area. Only those who have awakened can cross the barrier. Monsters will continuously spawn and the rift will only copse once all the monsters have been dealt with Dungeon: The third and final type of dimensional door, they are structures that are formed when dimensional energy is focused into one ce, and can only be entered by those who have awakened and broken the blood seal at its entrance. They are filled with monsters, traps and puzzles, and are simr tobyrinths. Once the end is reached and the boss is defeated, a powerful treasure can be obtained Awakened: Those who have awoken a mystical power following the appearance of dimensional doors. Those who have awoken powers usually use their abilities to fight back against the dimensional doors, but some choose to turn down dark paths as well. Gatecrashers: Awakened people who use their abilities to fight back against the dimensional doors Guild: A group of awakened people united under a single banner. When a gatecrasher gets awakened, the easiest way to find work is by joining a guild''s strike force. Plunderer System: A system awoken by Milo Fenix following a freak ident, the system allows him to see a game like screen, level up, and raise his stats. It also gave him the ability to copy the abilities of other ability users and use them as his own. Navi: An A.I. assistant that helps Milo learn more about his system The Acropolis: A city built on an artificial ind created following the discovery of new technologies when the dimensional doors first started appearing Dimensional energy: A new source of energy discovered following the appearance of dimensional doors. It is given off by dimensional doors, and when released into the atmosphere it helped to form the magisphere The Magisphere: An array of dimensional energy spread throughout the Earth''s atmosphere that is used as a source of energy all over the. It also is used to power the new technologies invented following the appearance of the dimensional doors. Holo: A high tech watch like device that took over phones as the globalmunication device. It can also be used to do other things a smartphone would normally do, as well as check an awakened person''s stats. Awakened Academy: A school on the Acropolis that was built to nurture young awakened people. Those who awaken abilities at a young age are required to attend this school. The school follows a ranking system simr to what is used to measure gatecrashers. Ranking System: Humans who awaken and be Gatecrashers are given a rank depending on their strength, the ranks increase starting at F, then E, D, C, B, A, andstly X being the strongest The Global Awakened Association(The GAA): The association in charge of ranking gatecrashers and punishing those who break the rules set by them. Their headquarters are located on the Acropolis. The Fellowship - An evil group of awakened people that use their powers for evil. Theymit evil acts all over the world and are wanted by the GAA for everything they have done. They are led by a man nicknamed the Godfather and his seven subordinates, the Seven Cardinals. Enchanted Equipment: armor, weapons, and essories created by mixing materials from earth with monster loot, such as their horns, teeth, or skin. They gain magic power and abilities whenbined with Essence Cores contained within monsters. Armor Quality: A series of rankings given to enchanted equipment based on how powerful they are. It can usually be estimated based on the essence core used to create the equipment. The rankings are as follows: Common, Umon, Rare, Unique, Heroic, Legendary, Mythic andstly Celestial. ____________________ asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 52 51 - A Statement After seeing Corey get frozen solid the rest of the students in the X ranked ss had their eyes wide. Milo''s control over his ability was astounding, and probably the most impressed of the group was Zach. Zach knew that unlike the other students in the ss, Milo was from a family that couldn''t afford to help him cultivate his ability. While the other students didn''t know this, after seeing Corey mess with him over thest few days and seeing how Milo retaliated they now had lost all thoughts of trying to bully him into submission. "Well done Milo," Mikael said with a wink, "This concludes practical training today, Corey don''t go anywhere I will call someone to help thaw you out and make sure you aren''t hurt." Hearing Mikael make bad jokes towards Corey''s current state just like he had made Milo like Mikael even more. "So this is what he meant when he said I''d get a chance at revenge," thought Milo. Because it was under the guise of sparring he couldn''t get in trouble for it either. After ss ended, Milo went to change and suddenly the rest of the students in the X rated ss were either avoiding him or wanted to talk to him. Among the students that introduced themselves, only two really stood out, the first was a guy named Luke, he had a support ability that allowed him to put up invisible barriers, he had dark brown hair and brown eyes that were covered by a pair of sses. The other was a girl named Chloe, she seemed to be of asian descent and had her ck hair in two buns on either side of her head, making them look like the ears of a bear. Her ability allowed her to teleport short distances and when using her ability she was able to transport one other person with her if she was touching them when activating the ability. After introducing themselves, they left Milo alone with Zach and went on their way. After being left alone, Zach and Milo went for a walk around campus. When talking more, Milo learned that of all the people that had bullied him, Luke seemed to be the nicest and seemed like he was forced into it by some of the other guys in the ss, and Chloe was someone who was always friendly to him, she was well liked around campus by almost everyone. Hearing this, Milo was happy that he would hopefully get to know more of the people in the X ranked ss, as they would be his ssmates for the rest of the year. Zach was d Milo had made his way up to the X ranked ss as well, as he finally had a friend. Milo thought it was about time Zach got to meet the rest of the gang and decided to shoot them all a message, and after setting a meeting area, they all showed up at the Sim Room and went over to the lounge area. After introducing himself, Zach seemed like a different person, his usual quiet and timid demeanor were gone and instead he finally seemed like his true self, not the Zach that was locked behind his past as someone who was a victim of bullying. Krista looked at Milo who was happier than ever, and was relieved to see that the happy young kid she once knew had finally returned after taking a sabbatical for their first two years of highschool. After seeing him down for so long, she was worried that she may never see him smile andugh like he was now, and it was a huge relief. As she had gotten to know him more, she got to see so many amazing things in him and seeing him find someone just like him, and being the difference he needed made her heart flutter. She had noticed recently, but when looking at him sometimes she would get lost in thought and everything else would just fade away. After saying their goodnights, the group went their separate ways, it looked like school would finally be good for awhile. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 53 52 - Significant Growth As more weeks went by, and the seasons changed, their first year at the awakened academy was already nearing its end. Both Chris and Mark were now in the A rank ss with Ana, and Krista had advanced to the B rank ss. No other students had advanced into the X ranked ss with Milo and Zach yet, but Chris, Mark, and Ana were all pushing for it for their second year. As the year went on, Milo had gotten many strange quests that seemed small, and although he had the chance to, he hadn''t had a need to plunder any new abilities. As hepleted the quests and continued his asional grinding at the Sim Room, his stats had grown and so had his gold bnce in his shop. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 16 Gold: 1,325 Abilities[3 / 4]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 4) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 4) 3 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 5) 4 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [36] Agility: [32+3] Intelligence: [36] Stamina: [32] Constitution: [30+3] Magic Power: [10] [clear] All his stats had hit 30 after climbing to level 16, unfortunately without the ability to get Essence Cores, he was unable to increase his magic power stat, which in turn meant he had hit a teau in terms of unlocking new plunder skills. He hadn''t bought anything new in the shop but had increased his gold count, his reason for not purchasing any new gear simply boiled down to trying to exin where he had obtained new gear. While he hadn''t bought anything, there were a few things he had gotten as rewards for quests. He had gotten a silver ring with a ck pattern etched into the side that was umon rated, the ring simply increased his agility stat by three points. His second piece of equipment he had been awarded was a in ck chain that he wore around his neck, it was also an umon rating but rather than increase his agility it boosted his constitution stat. The final big change came as he increased his intelligence stat. As he did, it in turn allowed him to train his abilities. His main ability he used, Ice, had increased to level 5 and he was able to wield more ice spears, as well as form them much faster, his speed when making specific shapes had also significantly improved. His Telepath ability had raised two additional levels even though he didn''t use it much, allowing him to be able to read the minds of others, as well as send messages through his mind at a muchrger range, as long as he could picture someone''s face, he was able to speak to them from close to a kilometer away. Finally his Reinforce ability had jumped all the way from level one all the way to four, which gave his body a significant boost when activating it. He could now harness it into one part of his body with much more ease than before as well. With his regr strength at over thirty, he was able to dent a te of steel with ease, but when harnessing his reinforcement ability into his fist, he could punch a hole clean through the same te. When looking at possible abilities to copy, the only ability he would consider would be Zach''s. Overall, Milo and his friends had all made great strides in their goals. They had all grown in strength but Milo was still not satisfied. Although he had made significant progress in all aspects aside from his Magic Power stat, that stat was the one thing holding him back from growing his system even more. That would soon change however, as there was some news the X ranked ss would be learning very soon. Chapter 54 53 - Big News In their Friday ss, Milo and Zach walked into lecture and were surprised to see two new faces. The first belonged to an older gentleman who looked extremely buff for his age. He was wearing what looked like a very expensive tailored suit and had slicked back gray hair and a pointed beard. When seeing the two of them, Zach seemed surprised to see the older gentleman. The second man looked younger than the first man but was still sporting an expensive suit and gray hair, only the younger man''s hair was a bit longer and unkempt. After all the students had taken their seats, Ms. Teller quieted the ss down and directed their attention to the two men. The first to introduce themselves, was the younger of the two men, "Good morning everyone, My name is Richard Brand and I am the president of the Global Awakened Association," he said. After hearing who he was, the entire ss got extremely quiet, whether that was out of fear of angering him or out of respect, it depended on the student. Milo was of thetter, the man in front of him was considered the strongest in the world, and was the one who was the sole reason for the GAA''s power. Milo was extremely curious and couldn''t help himself and activated the inspect skill. [Richard Brand] Ability: Burst Status: Healthy Rtionship: Respected Elder [clear] When reading the description provided by the system, Milo blinked a few times. The GAA president had a strange ability, what the ability did, Milo was unsure, but it had to be extremely powerful given who he was. Milo was considering trying to plunder the ability but lost any thought of doing so when he read the condition to copy. "Defeat the target inbat" after reading those words, Milo was smart enough to know that he was nowhere near ready for a task like that. After the president''s introduction, the older gentleman introduced himself as well. "You may have seen my face or heard my name around campus. I am unable to make as many public appearances nowadays but it is nice to finally see you all, my name is Sheldon O''Neal. I am the headmaster of this academy and a good friend of the association president here." The headmaster then continued on, "Being the best and brightest we have to offer at the academy, we try to do our best to introduce you to the life of a gatecrasher sooner than the other students. Because of this, I came here today with the association president to inform you of an opportunity that will soon be presenting itself to you. Being X ranked students, you already have the strength topete with at least D ranked gatecrashers, the biggest difference being that they have already experienced gates at lower ranks." He continued, "Because of this, we work with the GAA in order to offer chances for the X ranked students to enter lower ranked gates and learn the ins and outs of closing gates at in field experiences. If you would like to take this opportunity, you will need to break up into groups of four students, you will then be partnered with an association member who will assist you with closing the gate you enter. You will also be paid for as well as receive the loot you obtain within the gate." Hearing this news, Milo felt excited that he would be able to enter and train in a gate, as well as earn the chance to gain experience and obtain more essence cores, which could help him to finally raise his Magic Power stat again. Ms. Teller then took over and exined that this is where ss would be ending for the day, "For your in field experiences, I will need you to break off into four person groups and let me know who will be on your team by Friday this week." Now Milo just needed to get his group of four together. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 55 54 - Assembling The Team After being informed that they needed to form groups for the in field experience, Milo and Zach immediately made eye contact. "You don''t have to pick me, I know without being able to use my ability I''ll be useless," Zach said. "Nonsense, you''re one of my best friends, of course this is something I''d rather have you by my side for. Ability isn''t everything, and based on what I see inbat training you''re anything but useless," responded Milo. Zach, just like Milo, used an umon weapon inbat training. The weapon Zach wielded was a sort ofbination between a sword and shield. It had two straps that were attached to the forearm, the shield part was approximately 18 inches wide at its widest point and on the end closest to the hand a de protruded out of the shield, making it appear to have the shape of a teardrop. The de extended out around 20 inches beforeing to a sharp point with a sharp edge on each side of the de that ran until it widened out into the shield, making it good at both shing and stabbing. After Zach joined his team of four, that left two more members he needed to find. After considering who else would be a good fit, Milo was considering both Luke and Chloe. The only question would be how to convince them. When getting up to go and look for the other members he had in mind, he was caught off guard by the association president, Richard Brand, "Hello, I love to meet all the up anding gatecrashers here at the academy," the friendly tone was surprising to Milo, as he expected someone of his status to be more uptight. "If you wouldn''t mind, could you let me in on what your abilities are? I''m a bit of a connoisseur of abilities you see, and I love to see if any students use any particrly interesting or strong ones," Mr. Brand continued. Zach and Milo went on to exin their abilities, and hearing what their abilities were, Richard Brand''s eyes lit up like sparklers. "Oh, those are indeed strong, Frost can be extremely powerful due to how flexibly it can be used, I really like your ability as well Zach, it seems quite interesting, it''s a shame that it can''t be used to its fullest yet, but maybe you can use it when you go on your field experience," Richard said with a wink. After talking a bit more, the association president thanked the pair for their time, and allowed them to go out and find theirst two group members, while he walked around introducing himself to more members of the ss. While on the way, Milo and Zach talked about how interesting of a person Richard Brand was. He seemed much younger than he really was with how he conducted himself, he definitely seemed like an entric man, but didn''t seem like a bad person. Milo then told Zach his n for theirst two team members, the reason for selecting Luke and Chloe for their group, was due to the bnce he was hoping to achieve in the team. Milo himself would act as the dealer of the group, Zach and Chloe would act as secondary dealers/support andstly Luke would act as their support. While his n didn''t involve a tank, due to the level of the Gate they would be attacking being so low, they should still be able to close the gate fairly easily without a tank. Once they found him, they approached Luke and asked his thoughts, he thought that they would make a good team and agreed to Milo''s proposition. Chloe was a little more difficult, not because she didn''t want to join them, but because she was so friendly to everyone that she felt bad telling one team no. Eventually, with some help she had declined her other group invites and joined Milo''s group. With this, Milo had finalized his group of four. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 56 55 - Slight Change Of Plans When going in to tell Ms. Teller, who was all in his group, she marked it down and told him that he would need to report to the front of the school with his group Monday morning. After confirming it again, he made his way back to his dorm and let his friends know what was going on. When hearing where Milo and Zach would be going there were mixed reactions to say the least. The girls were worried that they could get hurt and the guys were hyped that the two would get real experience in a gate. After going through all the details and telling the girls that it wouldn''t just be students in the gate, but an association member would be joining them as well, their nerves were settled a bit. "So are you guys getting paid for this? Do you get to keep the loot?" asked Chris. "Yeah, we get paid and get to keep everything," responded Milo. "Damn, my friends are about to be rich. You guys are basically junior gatecrashers," Chris said next, "Make sure you hook me up when you make guild connections," he said with a wink. The rest of the night, the group hung out, ate, and had some fun before Milo and Zach left. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - When Monday rolled around, Milo and Zach met up with Luke and Chloe, before the group made their way to the entrance of campus. "Once you check in with me, your group will be assigned an association member and will then be assigned a gate that you will close," announced Ms. Teller. Milo and his group went up and received their assignment, their association member was a B rank gatecrasher named Marco. After meeting him, he exined that while he would not be getting involved in closing the gate, he would be there to move in case anything went wrong. This meant that essentially they would be closing the gate themselves and he would only be there to keep them alive if the situation got too dangerous, which is exactly what Milo was expecting. When checking all the association members'' abilities, it seemed like all of them had some sort of healing ability. In the case of Marco, he had an ability called healing aura, it most likely would allow him to heal those in a certain area around him. After being assigned their squad''s association member, they were also assigned a gate. The gate Milo''s group would be closing wasbeled gate number 3 and located on the outskirts of London, Ennd and was a rank E gate. Just like gatecrashers, gates were also ranked from X to F. A gate''s rank determined how many hunters of a certain rank were estimated to be needed to close it; it would theoretically take a squad of five rank Fs to close an F ranked gate. Based on this, the squad of four students who were considered as powerful as at least D ranked gatecrashers should have no problems closing the gates they were assigned. Especially with a high ranked association member to back them up if things got dicey. After a few minutes every group had received their assignments, however standing next to Ms. Teller was one girl who was pretty well known in the X ranked ss due to how cold she was to everyone, her name was Maria Van Orten. While she was extremely beautiful with her long ck hair and her big blue eyes, every guy who had asked her out was turned down with extreme brutality. "Due to there only being 17 students who wanted to partake in the field experience, it meant one student would be without a group, because of this I will be assigning the extra student to a group at random," said Ms. Teller. Milo had a bad feeling, any group she got ced in would most likely have an issue dealing with her personality. After a second, Ms. Teller announced, "Maria will be joining the group assigned to gate number 3." asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 57 56 - The New Team Member After Maria was assigned to their group, she strutted over and took a spot among the group as if she was supposed to be there the whole time. Milo first took the chance to check her ability to see what role she would be best ced at. Her ability was lightning, the other elemental ability considered the strongest besides frost which was what Milo used as his main ability. Due to this, she would most likely be strongest as a dealer with Milo. After she walked over, she asked, "What are your names and abilities?" only her tone seemed as if she was degrading the rest of the group. Milo''s fuse was at its limit already, not only did she walk into the group and act like she was the only useful member, but she also didn''t know their names even though they had been ssmates for a few months. After introducing themselves and abilities, Milo spoke up, "We already have a n that was set before you joined and we''ll work you into it, I think that it''d be best if you acted as a dealer like me," she nodded in agreement. "As far as things go the only ones I see being useful are you and the kid with the barriers, but I don''t see how his ability," she said while gesturing at Zach, "and the teleporting are going to be useful." Milo went on to exin that Zach was very strong with the weapon he trained in, and Chloe would be acting as a ranged support using her crossbow. By teleporting around, she could pop shots at opponents from different angles while also avoiding being hit. Maria rolled her eyes and said, "whatever, just don''t get in my way." After some more talk about strategy the group was guided to a building near the association and when walking through, they could see many strange contraptions, all seemed to be supporting a strange glowing circle, all of which were colored green and seemed to be pulsing. Above each were the names of major cities around the world. After making their way to the onebeled "London," Marco informed them that these were teleporters invented by Dr. Francis Zeurich using information found when researching gates. They acted as miniature gates that connected two locations, in this case the small gate in front of them would lead them to London''s GAA branch. When stepping through, Milo could only describe the sensation as ufortable, it didn''t hurt but was definitely not pleasant. After stepping out into the building they were guided to the entrance of the gate which was located in a construction zone on the outskirts of the city, because of the gate, construction had halted. The gate was about the size of an elephant and was blue in color, but they were assured that the size of the gate didn''t determine how hard the gate would be to clear, color was the only way to determine besides an urate measure using a magic power recording device. Marco then handed out a uniform that would give them a bit more protection in the gatepared to their normal school clothes, after putting them on the group was as ready as they could be, Milo and the rest of the group tightened the grip on their weapons before stepping into the gate before them. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 58 57 - The Gate Gate: One of the three types of dimensional doors, it is a portal to another world and contains beasts and monsters that vary in strength. In order for the portal to be closed an Awakened Person needs to enter the portal and defeat the boss monster found at its end. Gates work with a simr ranking system to gatecrashers ranging from F being the least dangerous to X being the most. Besides measuring a gate''s magic power with a magic power recording device, a gate''s power can be estimated using the color of the gate, F is usually purple, E dark blue, D green, C yellow, B orange, A red andstly X being white. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - When stepping through the gate, the group felt a simr feeling when stepping through the teleporters earlier. Once the sensation of being transported through space ended, Milo and the rest of the group tightened the grip on their weapons before pressing forward. The interior of the gate looked simr to the inside of arge cave, as they got further in they found tunnels branching off into different sections of the gate. When getting closer to the branches, a group of beasts appeared, there were four beasts, and the beasts looked like rats, only they were the size ofrge dogs. The teeth of the beasts had a gleam that made them seem like metal, and all along their back they had quills that looked like a porcupine''s. Milo activated the inspect skill. [Common Tier Beast] Species: Giant Steel Fanged Quillrat Status: Healthy Disposition: Aggressive Amon tier beast that is verymon in low ranked gates, their jaws are extremely strong and they are able tounch their quills at their opponents however they take a few days to grow back. [clear] When reading that they weremon tiered beasts, Milo ryed the information to his team and they jumped into action. Chloe fired a bolt into the nearest beast causing it to squeal in pain, before itunched a volley of its quills at the group. Luke ced barriers in front of him and Zach blocking the attack, Chloe teleported a short distance away avoiding the attack while both Milo and Maria dodged the attack quite easily. After the volley of quills, the four beasts charged in to fight off their attackers. The first ratunched itself at Milo which was a fatal mistake as a secondter itid dead with three ice spears sticking out of its body. The second went after Zach who swatted away its attack with his ded shield before cutting it down without much trouble. The final two both jumped towards Maria who fried both of them with her lightning, leaving the smell of burning rat in the air. Once the short battle ended, the team regrouped and checked everyone''s conditions, none of them seemed injured, so they moved on to collecting the loot. After killing the beast that attacked him Milo received 100 exp, this was much more than he was expecting based off what he gained in the Sim Room, but it wasn''t an unweed sight. He was also surprised to see another screen. [Notice] A party member has killed a Common Tier Beast 20 exp rewarded [clear] It seemed that if he was in a group attacking a gate then he would earn experience points for kills his teammates got. This was great news for him, as he wouldn''t have to kill beasts himself in order to gain exp. Thest thing that surprised him was when approaching the corpse of the beast, it appeared as if a small pir of light was emitting from the body. When stepping closer he got a new screen. [Common Tier Beast Body] Would you like to collect all obtainable loot? [yes] [no] After clicking yes, Milo was amazed as it appeared as if all the useful parts of the beast vanished from its body. He then checked his inventory and it showed that he now had two giant steel fang quillrat fangs, a dozen of its quills and amon tier essence core. After collecting them from his inventory so as to not appear suspicious, Milo returned to the group with the loot, Marco collected all the loot and put it in a satchel he had brought and informed them that the loot gathered in the gate would be distributed at the end of the field experience. After that was settled, the group checked the area for anything else before continuing onward. Chapter 59 58 - The Gate II The group continued on through the gate, killing the small groups of beasts they encountered along the way. The group had only experiencedmon tier beasts so far which weren''t any issue for them, but had injuries on some of them that hadn''t been inflicted by them signaling that something else was hunting these beasts. Eventually they got to another crossroads and decided to head down the left path first to see what was at its end. Once they reached the end of the tunnel, they experienced a type of beast that was different from the giant quillrats they''d been experiencing so far and surrounding it was the corpses of around eight quillrats. When using the inspect skill Milo got a screen that said: [Umon Tier Beast] Species: Giant Poisonous Arachne Status: Healthy Disposition: Aggressive An umon tier beast that is known to hunt and killmon tier beasts for food. They are able to spit acid at their opponents and they secrete a potent poison from their fangs. [clear] The beast was a massive spider, the size of a rhino, with eight beady red eyes and eight legs as thick as tree trunks. After seeing that this beast was a tier higher than they''d experienced so far Milo chose to err on the side of caution, he informed his teammates of what the system told him, iming that he''d done research on the list of known beasts, so that they didn''t wonder why he knew so much about the beasts they''d encountered. From there they formed a n and put it into action. Chloe once again shot an arrow at the beast before teleporting to a new position to reload. The giant spider then charged them, they each spread out to divide the spider''s attention. The spider''s first target was Zach, he deflected an attack from the spider''s leg which proved to be stronger than he was expecting as it caused him to stagger, Luke then threw up a barrier to allow him to get out of danger. After the attack failed to hit, the spider grew enraged, and a green foam began to form in the spider''s mouth before it was shot out towards Milo who threw up a wall of ice blocking the attack. While blocking the acid spray and getting out of the way of the spider''s attack, Maria chose this moment to charge in shing the spider''s leg with her sword and rolling out of the way. The spider no longer focused on Milo and went after Maria, swinging its tree trunk like legs at her. She dodged the first attack but ended up being grazed on the arm from the spider''s onught. Luke then threw up a barrier giving her a window to escape. Seeing its prey trying to escape, the spider then turned and shot a web out of its back end which caused Maria to be stuck to a wall behind her. Seeing Maria in danger Milo sprinted to intercept the attack before Maria was hit. For some reason, seeing one of his team members, even Maria with her stuck up attitude, enraged Milo and caused him to push past his limit. He arrived by Maria''s side and threw up a wall of ice blocking the attack of the spider and controlled a spear impaling the spider in its abdomen, the spider wailed in pain and chased Milo who ran to give Zach enough space to get Maria free. Once a significant distance away, Milo screamed in anger as a huge ice spike erupted from the floor stabbing through the head of the giant spider, killing it. "Whew, I should''ve done that from the start," Milo said. After being cut free, Maria and the rest of the team turned to see Milo standing before the unmoving body of the giant arachnid. The group was surprised that a beast they were sure they''d have trouble with was dead in an instant. After snapping back into reality they looted all the corpses in the room, before going to Marco to get healed. Aside from the wound on Maria''s arm and Zach''s sore arm from taking the blow of the spider head on, the group was healthy and after receiving healing from Marco, they pressed on. Along the way, they fought a few more groups of quillrats and one more giant spider, before arriving at what they could only assume was the boss chamber. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 60 59 - The Gate III When walking into the boss chamber, the group moved slowly to scout out the beast they would be fighting before engaging it inbat. The ceiling of the chamber was much higher than any of the other rooms they had been in so far and there were bones strewn about, most likely from the beasts the boss had eaten. When closing a gate, the beasts you fought generally determined how powerful a boss was, the easier time you had beating the beasts leading to the boss room, the harder the boss would be and vice versa. Because of the beasts they had defeated on their way, Milo and his squad were expecting the boss of the gate to be pretty tough. Walking forward, the group finallyid their eyes on the boss of the gate. The boss looked simr to a bird, only it was the size of an elephant, it had ck feathers with speckles of gold strewn throughout and massive talons that could tear each of the group to ribbons. Opening the inspect screen, Milo gulped. [Unique Rank Beast] Species: Greater Thunder Hawk Status: Healthy(sleeping) Disposition: Territorial A unique rank beast that generally only attacks those who enter their territory. They have a nasty tendency to shoot off electricity when pping their wings. [clear] Reading the description, the squad would be jumping from umon rank straight to a unique rank beast. Since fighting the umon tier spider the first time, Maria seemed to feel that she had something to prove, being the only one who had received any serious injuries since entering the gate. And because of this she took many more risks in the fights after being hurt. Seeing that the beast was sleeping in arge pile of bones, she thought it would be the perfect chance tounch an all out attack to hurt the beast before it woke up. Before consulting with her team, and trying to find out the identity of the beast, Maria let loose a massive bolt of lightning. The minute it hit the bird she shouted in excitement. That was until it opened its bright yellow eyes and let out an ear splitting screech. "Why''d you do that, all you did was piss the thing off," Milo screamed, "it''s an electric attribute beast, it probably didn''t even hurt it." The group then split up as bolts of electricity shot out while the bird pped its wings to take off into the air. Chloe was firing bolt after bolt changing her position but it didn''t seem to be doing any significant damage and only seemed to make the beast more mad. After taking off, Zach was useless due to him needing close rangebat, so he took cover behind a pile of bones. It was perfect timing too as a bolt of electricity shot towards where he once was leaving arge scorch mark on the ground. With the bird in the air, the group would be unable to do anything, realizing this, Milo did the only thing he thought he could do, Milo threw out the chain sickle wrapping it around the foot of the massive bird and activated his reinforce ability in his arms, before yanking the bird downwards as hard as he could. Unknown to Milo, the strength he used was much stronger than he was expecting and the bird crashed into the ground creating a decent sized crater where itnded. The group took this opportunity to jump in, hacking and shing at the beast, while Luke shielded them with his ability when the bird counterattacked. It was at this point Maria ran forward and jumped up to try and stab the bird near its head, when this happened though the birdunched her into the air with its wing. When seeing this, Milo began to see the world in slow motion, as she began to fall the bird let off an electricity barrage forcing the team that was still in close to retreat. As this happened the bird lifted its mouth to the sky in an attempt to swallow Maria. At that moment, Milo activated the reinforcement in his legs andunched himself towards Maria, as the bird was about to snap her up, Milo caught her avoiding the bird''s huge beak in the process. Afternding on the ground, Maria thanked him while blushing. Milo chose not to think anything of it and set her down before turning to see the bird taking off again. Seeing this Milo chose to use this moment to use a special skill he had been putting together. Swinging out his chain he froze the chain in ce essentially making a long handle, before forming a massive de on the end. Then he jumped into the air and swung downwards as hard as he could on the bird''s massive neck. The bird was caught off guard as its head separated from its body. Milo had increased his ability so high that he could create a de of ice so sharp, a piece of paper could be sliced by dropping it onto the de from above. The wicked sharp de Milo made cut through the bird''s flesh like butter and after losing its head, the body of the massive bird fell to the ground with a thud. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 61 60 - Zach’s Ability After cutting down the giant bird, everyone on the team aside from Maria who seemed to still be in shock from almost dying, was jumping up and down in excitement from clearing their first gate. The group then went around looting whatever they could find. Milo made his way over to the body of the giant bird and looted what he could, after obtaining the unique essence core, he also was given eight talons and a few dozen feathers by the system. He also received another level up for defeating the thunder hawk. After looting the corpse of the boss Milo made his way over to check out the strange bone pile the bird was sleeping on. When climbing the small pile he found an indent in the center and resting in the middle was a strange oval. When activating his inspect skill, he recalled another screen he had seen earlier. [Beast Egg] Species: Thunder Hawk Status: Healthy (close to hatching) [clear] When reading the description of what the item was, Milo immediately recalled a friend who would be able to use it. "Zach! Get over here!" He shouted. Zach then made his way up the bone pile and asked Milo why he wanted him to climb up there. Milo didn''t say anything and simply pointed at the egg. Zach was speechless, he couldn''t use his ability previously because of how rare eggs were. He walked up to the egg and ced his hand on it. Zach''s ability was called beast tamer, and as its name implies, it allows him to tame a beast and be its master. Once a beast became tamed it was like a super powered pet, the ability was super rare and required a lot of training for it to be powerful. The main downside of the ability was that a beast needed to be raised from a young age, and as beast eggs were expensive, unless you had a powerful backing it was hard to train the ability. There were very rare cases where gatecrashers would even tame beasts without the ability, but these cases were very rare, and oftentimes it only worked for lower tier beasts, which made them less useful as one ranked up. With Zach''s ability however, he would be able to tame as many beasts as he could and he would be able to tame much higher tiered beasts than those that did it without the ability. When Milo first saw Zach''s ability in practical training, he wanted to plunder it but the clear condition required him to assist Zach in finding a beast to tame, which meant he needed to help Zach get his hands on an egg. Once Zach ced his hand on the egg and activated his ability he would form a link with the egg and the beast growing inside it. When this happened, the icon above Zach''s head turned green. Milo activated his plunder ability at that moment. Chains snaked out of his arms and wrapped around Zach before disappearing inside him, and just like everyone else he''d used it on, Zach didn''t notice. [Notice] Ability: Beast Tamer has been sessfully plundered Free stat points have been gained from plundering a new ability Tutorial has been generated based off current intelligence stat Watch Tutorial? [yes] [no] Once the ability was finished copying, the group finished looting everything and left the gate. Once back outside, the loot was distributed and Milo and the rest of the group were paid for closing the gate. Milo had been paid 2,000 credits, which was the standard pay for closing an E rank gate and was a huge pay day for a student. Along with this, his cut of the loot included the unique ranked essence core from the boss which he killed, one of the umon essence cores, tenmon cores, and some of the beast parts. He was worried his teammates might think this was unfair that he was getting such a huge cut but they acknowledged that without Milo, clearing the gate would''ve been much more difficult. Maria didn''t really have an opinion and still seemed daze from her brush with death. After everything was done, the group returned to the school to rest, and Milo went up to his room to get some privacy for a session of absorbing essence cores. Chapter 62 61 - Expanding The System When he found some solitude, Milo extracted the Essence Cores from his inventory, at first he was going to absorb all of them, but after some reconsideration he decided to hold onto the unique ranked core as maybe he could use it to get new gear he could use. After getting the essence cores in front of him, he opened up the system and selected to absorb the cores. After absorbing them, he got a notification screen. [Notice] Essence Cores sessfully absorbed Gained 13 points in the Magic Power stat Gained 130 exp [clear] After clearing that screen another popped up. [Level up] Congrats you are now level 19 All stats increased by 1 [clear] [Notice] New things have been revealed on the [Plunder] tab [clear] After clearing all the screens popping up, Milo opened his status to check what was new in his system. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 19 Gold: 1,325 Abilities[4 / 5]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 4) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 4) 3 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 5) 4 - Beast Tamer - Able to imprint on beasts at a young age and control them(lvl. 1) 5 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [39] Agility: [35+3] Intelligence: [39] Stamina: [35] Constitution: [33+3] Magic Power: [23] [clear] After closing the gate and absorbing the cores, Milo had gained enough experience to cause him to increase his level by three. Due to this, most of his stats were getting closer to reaching 40. After the essence cores he had also raised his Magic Power stat by 13 points raising it to 23. He also unlocked another ability slot, meaning he could now carry five abilities at once. The in field experience and the loot gained from it were proving to be a huge boon to Milo. After checking out all the changes that his stats had undergone, he opened the Plunder to tab to see if there were any changes and he was pleasantly surprised. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] [Plunder] Plunder (lvl 4): Possibility to copy the ability of other awakened if certain conditions are met (Cooldown: 3:07:04:32) Fusion: Able tobinepatible abilities into a new stronger ability. Will consume the twobined abilities when used. (Cooldown: 0:00:00:00) Extortion: Locked until level 25 Larceny: Locked until level 50 (Hidden) (Hidden) After reading the changes to the Plunder tab, Milo was ecstatic, he now knew what the next two skills he''d unlock were called and what was required to unlock them. He had also leveled the Plunder ability to level four from absorbing the essence cores which brought its cooldown down and made his chance of stealing an ability even higher. He then went back to check out the newly revealed skills names, both skills had names that went with stealing in some way. Extortion usually involved using force to steal something, but Milo had no idea how it would tie into his already unlocked skills. Then there was Larceny, was a way of stealing personal property or ideas. Both of the the new skills that were revealed required much higher levels than what was previously required for the fusion skill. Which most likely meant they''d be stronger overall. Milo was sitting in his bed dreaming about the different possibilities when he heard a knock at the door. Chapter 63 62 - An Unexpected Visitor When hearing the knock on the door, Milo opened it to find Maria standing in the hallway. He was confused as to why she woulde to visit him after just having returned from closing a gate together. "Can we talk?" she asked. After agreeing, Milo and Maria made their way down to the square in the middle of campus, while on the way the pair talked about their experience in the gate and Maria talked about how powerful Milo was. Milo couldn''t help but feel proud that someone from a prestigious family had recognized his strength. After walking around the square a bit, Maria asked Milo if he was hungry and after saying he was, she and Milo made their way to a restaurant in the city. After taking their seats, Maria made eye contact with Milo, which caused her to avert her eyes and blush. Milo was clueless as to what was going on in her mind but was happy to be out having fun. Milo and Maria had a good meal and talked more, they talked a bit more about themselves and Milo was able to learn that Maria was a member of the prestigious Van Orten family, they were very well known due to their family pushing the lightning ability to new heights. Not only this, but although she was a member, she was considered an embarrassment to the family. Even with her family''s support she progressed much slower than the majority of those in her family. This was mainly due to the strength of her older brother who was the vice captain of the Olympus Guild which was one of the strongest guilds in the world, and was considered one of the Big Four. Maria was also surprised to hear about Milo''s past. She had no idea what kind of life he had lived and after hearing what he went through, she felt guilty for how easy a life she had been born into. Even if she didn''t get along with her parents, she at least had them there to fight with. Not only this, but it increased her admiration for Milo to new heights, he had reached this level of strength on his own without any special training or nourishment. After their meal, Maria asked if he''d like to go see a movie to which he agreed. They had already done a lot together but what was a few more hours of fun. The movie was an interesting one which followed the life of one of the original gatecrashers who was sent to reim the ind of the Philippines that was taken over following the fall of Man. It was full of action as well as a bit of romance between the main character and one of the women who was in his squad. After the movie ended, the sun was setting and Milo and Maria made their way to campus and continued to talk about themselves. Milo was happy that he got to know Maria better as before they got together, he was still unsure about what to think of her following them being on the same squad for their sses in field experience. She was much stronger than he thought and not just due to the strength of her ability but as a person as well for the discrimination she went through at home. Not only did he think she was a strong person, but he also wouldn''t deny her beauty as well. There was a reason she was so sought after by the other guys in his ss. After returning to campus, the sun had almost dipped below the horizonpletely and the stars were beginning to appear in the sky. Maria and Milo walked back to the dorm where they made their way to the roof to watch the sun finish setting. Standing at the balcony, Milo was amazed at the sight before him. Years before he never thought that he''d be standing atop a building in the acropolis, nor did he think he''d be strong enough to be a member of the X ranked ss. After the sun was finally set, Milo walked Maria back to her room. "Thank you for today, it was a lot of fun," she said. "Of course, it was nice getting to know you more and I had a lot of fun as well," Milo responded. Maria then leaned in and gave Milo a sudden kiss on the cheek, "You''re a sweet guy Milo," she said, "consider that as a thank you for saving my life in the gate." Maria was blushing hard after kissing Milo on the cheek and rushed into her room. Milo was left standing there speechless with a face as red as a tomato. He had no idea what to think as he made his way back up to his room, she was so uptight when meeting him this morning, but now she was acting like a school girl with a crush. He would have to ask the others their opinion on the matter. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 64 63 - A Date? When walking into his dorm, Chris and Mark were surprised to see him, as they thought that he would be gone longer while closing the gate in London. "Hey man, wee back," Chris said, "How''d the gate clearing go?" "Good I think," said Milo with a bit of a distant look in his eyes. "Everything ok?" asked Mark after seeing Milo''s response Milo went on to exin where he had been all day after returning from his in-field experience. Hearing the tale of Milo and Maria''s interactions the too startedughing hysterically which confused Milo even more. "Dude, it sounds like you went out on a date," said Chris before pping Milo on the back. "Are you sure?" replied Milo. "Definitely sounds that way, but the only way to know for sure is ask Maria yourself," said Mark. Milo was confused as to why Maria would like him, he had scraggly hair, and when they met before going to close the gate, they did nothing but butt heads. He finally had Chris and Mark to ask them the question he was wondering for awhile now, mainly since he got promoted to the X ranked ss. "Why would she like me though, out of all the other people in the school?" he asked. Chris nearly spit out the drink he had taken a sip of after hearing Milo ask this. "You''re kidding me, right? Did you not get girls in high school?" Milo shook his head no and blew Chris''s mind again. Milo then proceeded to pull out a photo of him from high school, one from before his system transformation. When looking at the photo, Milo could tell he had gotten more handsome. In the photo his hair was just as scraggly as it was now, only a little shorter, he had pimply skin, and looked about two inches shorter. The biggest difference was his build, he was now quite built but, in the photo, he looked like a twig. When looking at the photo, Chris''s jaw dropped. "That''s you? No way," he said. After Milo nodded in affirmation he said, "dude have you looked in the mirrortely, aside from the hair almost any girl would consider you a dream boat. You should try asking the girls what they think about you, I think Krista would be able to tell you how much of a glow up you had, since you''ve been friends since you were kids." After hearing Chris''s suggestion, Milo called up Krista and Ana and asked them to meet up with the guys and him at the lounge of the Sim Room and asked them the same question. "I mean you definitely are attractive, but you aren''t my type," replied Ana, "what about your thoughts Krista?" she asked with a mischievous grin. Being both Krista''s roommate and friend, Ana had picked up on all the subtle hints she had been trying to drop to Milo, who was still hopelessly oblivious. Krista''s face turned beet red, before she said, "I mean sure, he looks good I guess." Milo as always didn''t pick up on any of the signs and shrugged before going to the snack bar to get himself something to drink. When he walked away Ana turned to Krista and said aloud, "You''re gonna have to make the first move, he is totally oblivious." Chris and Mark had a feeling that Krista had feelings for their roommate but thought that it wasn''t their business to tell him. "Okay, but what do I do? What happens if he doesn''t feel the same way? Wha-," before she could overthink it anymore, Ana cut her off and said one simple line. "Just tell him how you feel and go from there, you miss 100% of the shots you don''t take." Chapter 65 64 - Confession After hearing Ana''s advice Krista steeled her resolve, she was right, if I don''t take this shot chances are another girl would snatch him up, she thought. Once Milo returned, the group continued bantering until it was gettingte, and they needed to return to their rooms. As everyone was leaving, Krista grabbed Milo and told him that she needed to talk to him and to meet her on the roof in ten minutes. Milo was confused by this but said he would meet her. After ten minutes passed, Milo made his way up to the roof, where Krista was waiting. He opened the door to see Krista standing near the balcony looking over the rest of the campus. The stars were painted across the sky and the moon was shining brightly over the heads of the two friends. Milo walked up next to Krista and asked her why she asked to meet with him. She turned to face him and locked eyes with him. "There''s no easy way to say this so I''m just going toe out and say it," she said, "I''ve been thinking about it for a while now and I think I like you." Once she said it, a moment of silence fell between the two. The only sounds that could be heard were the breeze and the bustle of the city in the background. Milo hearing this only had one thought, huh? He and Krista had known each other for their entire lives, her parents and his parents went to college together and their dads even worked together before the dimensional doors appeared. Ever since they were kids, they got along, but he had never considered her as anything more than a friend. Most likely because they were friends even before he started gaining an interest in girls. "I know it''s weird since we''ve been friends forever," she continued attempting to break the silence, "but it was something that''s been driving me crazy keeping to myself, and I just had to get it off my chest." Milo wasn''t sure what to think, after his random date with Maria today he could only think that a good way to gauge his own feelings would be to go on a date with Krista. He had never had a girl confess to him before today, and he ended up having two girls confess to him today alone. Not just two girls, but two girls that if you asked a random person, they''d say both were beautiful. After thinking it over, he consulted with Krista and asked her what she thought about doing a date as a test run. While talking about it more, they decided to go on a trial date to make sure that there were in fact feelings, and if things were too awkward, they would remain friends. After agreeing to this, the pair returned to their rooms where they told their friends about their experience on the roof. Chris and Mark thought it was a good idea as did Ana. Krista and Milo were both nervous though, as both of them were afraid of messing up and ruining their friendship. Milo and Krista decided they would go on their little experimental date Friday after ss, leaving him two days to worry and freak out over it. Chris decided that he would assist him with trying to not worry and nned out their day after sses to help Milo look and feel as ready as possible for it. After their sses had ended, Chris took Milo into the city and over to a clothing store. While there, he helped Milo update his wardrobe which was definitely needed, as his current clothes barely fit him due to his physical changes brought on by the system. After getting him new clothes, they made their way over to a barber shop toplete his look by getting him the haircut he desperately needed. Following the haircut, Milo looked much cleaner and would probably garner much more attention. His new haircut was long on top, but was cut extremely short on the sides, giving him the look of a teenage movie star. The kind that would always y the main character who was much better looking than any everyday teenager would. Milo was looking and feeling much better about the trial run now, thanks to his conversations with Chris, as well as the updates to his look and wardrobe. While Milo was busy preparing himself for the date, Krista was doing the same. Throughout the entire school day she couldn''t help but lose focus during ss and instead would focus on her date with Milo. While eating lunch with Ana, she was obviously spaced out and tapping her foot on the floor at a fast pace. "Hey Krista, you good?" She asked only to be ignored. After trying to get her attention with words two more times, she finally poked Krista in the arm. "HUH?! Yeah I''m good," Krista said in shock. After being snapped back to reality, she asked, "Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Ana pondered on it for a second while she chewed her food. "All I can say is, you''ll definitely know after Friday if it was meant to be or not, and it''s better to know than be stuck wondering what could''ve been," she answered. Krista took a deep breath as she knew she was right, "but what if it doesn''t work out and it sabotages our friendship?" "Then don''t let it," Ana returned, "if it doesn''t work out, then it wasn''t meant to be, but you''ve been friends this long already, so you know that as friends you guys work." Krista then noticed Milo walk in with Chris and Mark who took a seat with their food. "I guess she''s right," she thought. As she stared at Milo smiling andughing with his roommates. Chapter 66 65 - The Trial Run After preparing with Chris, there were no more things Milo needed to do to get ready, besides preparing himself mentally. The day had finally arrived for the test date to happen and Milo dressed in a new pair of ck pants, a nice pair of shoes, and a tee shirt with a zer. He took a look in the mirror and fixed his hair hoping that he wasn''t over doing it. After getting himself cleared for take off by Chris, Milo went to meet Krista at the front of the dorm building. When he got there, he was happy to see that he hadn''t gotten overdressed. Krista was wearing a white sundress with a floral pattern running up the sides, she was also wearing a pair of sandals that had leather intertwined running up to her ankle. He made her way over to her andplimented her on her appearance, not knowing what else to say. After an awkward moment of silence, Krista broke the tension. "Would you like to get something to eat?" she asked. "Uh yeah, eating would be great," Milo replied flustered. The two then made their way into the city to find a suitable restaurant. After finding one they both thought would be good, they sat down. While sitting down the two felt awkward, unlike their usual interactions, the two of them tiptoed around everything. The meal went on with them chatting for a bit before a long period of silence would weave itself in, not what either of them was expecting or nning for. They both felt that it was too awkward, when talking as friends it was so natural, but with them knowing this was meant to be a date they were holding themselves back more than usual. Following the awkward meal, the two decided to go take a walk around a park, which just like the meal was filled with awkward silence. Beforestly making their way to see a movie. Because one was supposed to be silent during a movie, it was the least awkward part of the date, or so they thought it would be. When taking their seats, Milo and Krista''s fingers brushed up against each other as they each tried to im the arm rest between them, causing them to pull their arms back all of a sudden. For the rest of the movie, the pair had their hands together in theirp. While the two were out and about, little did they know they had a group of spies watching their every move. "What are they doing now?" asked Chris. "Nothing interesting just stop talking and let me watch," replied Ana. "Are you sure that it''s okay for us to do this, you guys?" chimed in Mark. Chris and Ana had decided that they wanted to follow Krista and Milo and observe their date to see how things turned out between the two. Mark had unfortunately been dragged along. While spying on the two of them, Chris and Ana argued a lot about what was happening between the two, but they had bothe to the same consensus. The two both looked ufortable, like they were trying too hard to make it work and didn''t know how to. After the movie ended, Milo and Krista found a ce on the edge of the Acropolis where they could look out at the open ocean the artificial ind was floating on. After sitting in silence for some time, Milo finally broke the silence. "Did you have fun today?" he asked. "Yeah, but I can''t help but feel that it didn''t go exactly the way I''d nned it in my head," she responded. Milo felt the same way, whenever the two hung out as friends in the past, there was never this awkward tension in the air. It made the date seem like they were trying too hard. After talking some more, Milo found out that Krista noticed the same thing. "Maybe we were just meant to be friends," she said. "I think you''re right," Milo said in response, "Whenever we hung out in the past, it felt much more rxed. Today I felt so uptight and cautious because I didn''t want to say the wrong thing or disappoint you." After hearing him say this, Krista was a bit disappointed, she liked Milo but she liked the carefree Milo that came around when out with friends. If he couldn''t be that way while out on a date with her, she couldn''t see it working out. After the two had made up their mind, she and Milo made their way back to the campus, where Milo walked her up to her room. While standing outside the room Chris, Mark and Ana were standing inside with their ears pressed against the door, which slid open unexpectedly causing the snoopers to go tumbling into the hallway at Milo and Krista''s feet. "Uhhh, hey you two," said Chris, "How''d the date go?" Pressing his palm to his head, Milo said, "It felt too awkward so we decided to stay friends." Krista nodded in agreement before helping Ana up. "At least you guys tried," she said, "now you know whether or not it would''ve worked and no one will have any regrets." Chapter 67 66 - Boys Trip After the "date" he went on with Maria, the confession from Krista, and finally their trial date. Milo''s mind was frazzled. He spent the next week zoning out, mumbling to himself and was obviously out of it. Because of this, Chris and Mark thought it would be good for them to get Milo away from all the girl problems he''d been having at the academy, to get him back to his normal self. Along with this, after finding out that maybe Krista and him weren''t meant to be together, things got awkward between the two, and it would definitely be a little while before things returned to normal. And what better way than to put some space between the two so they could return to their normal headspace. After returning to his room that day, Milo was surprised by Chris, Mark and Zach waiting for him in his room. "Let''s go, it''s spring break and we are taking a boys trip," said Chris. Milo had been so caught up in his head, that hepletely forgot that their spring break had arrived. They had a week to unwind before the final stretch leading up to exams. Chris had gone through all Milo''s things and packed him a bag for their trip. Ana had pulled some strings by guilt tripping her brother, and had gotten them passes to use the teleporters at the association. After getting everything together, the group made their way to the building where Milo had gone to travel for his in field experience. Chris then pulled out a piece of cloth and tied it around Milo''s eyes. "You don''t get to see where we''re going, this trip is for you after all," he said. After getting to the portal they needed to take, the group stepped through, and arrived at their destination, Milo with his eyes covered could tell when they stepped into the teleporter due to the feeling that came with stepping through one. After arriving on the other end of the teleporter, Chris removed the blindfold and they made their way down to the exit of the GAA branch building they teleported to. The sun was beating down as the group walked through the exit into the warm humid air, and taking in a deep breath, Milo could smell the sea, Chris then spread his arms wide and said, "Wee to Miami, Florida." The group made through the streets taking in the sights while the sun shined brightly overhead. They made their way to the beach and found a ce to change into swimsuits before running out into the sand. This was something that Milo desperately needed. Chris went on to exin that while they were here, they''d be staying in a beach house his parents had rented for them. After hearing that news the group took some time to rx, digging their toes into the sand andying out in the warm Florida sun. After enjoying their first stop at the beach, the group made their way to the ce they''d be staying and were amazed by how nice the house they''d be staying at was. The house had two stories and had a very modern appearance from the outside. When making their way through the house they each imed a room and met in the kitchen. After meeting up they did a tour of the house and found that there was a huge pool on the back patio as well as beach ess directly to the house. The house had all thetest advancements in technology, and even had all thetest game systems in case the boys wanted to stay inside and rx for a day. After relishing in the ce they''d be staying for the next few days, the group changed and went out to get some food and n what they''d be doing while they were there. The beach was obviously a must but there were plenty of other things to do in south beach. They then returned to their house for the night to get some rest before the following days activities were underway. The next day the group all woke up and made their way to the beach once again, they all sat around enjoying cold drinks, the sand between their toes and the sound of the tide crashing against the sand. While the pair was there, they continued to enjoy the coast, ying many games with other people they met while there and unwinding from the tension that they built up at school. Milo had finally cleared his head and everything seemed to be going well. While the group spent most of their time at the beach, they also shopped around, went sightseeing, and even tried a whole bunch of foods they hadn''t tried before. Theirst day, the group was walking around the city sightseeing some more when all of a sudden a familiar feeling came over Milo. Milo looked into the sky to see a purple aura appear, before it slowly draped over the area around them like a dome. Seeing this, a lot of the people around them began to scream and sirens began to wail as a familiar announcement was made over loud speakers all over the area. "This is not what I had in mind when you said we''d be taking a vacation," Milo said to his three friends, as the rift finished forming. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 68 67 - The Rift After the rift enclosed the area around them, the group sprung into action, they ran through the streets looking to find an area where they could take cover. While the group had been training for a situation like this, the only two that had actualbat experience against beasts were Milo and Zach, and unlike that time they didn''t have weapons now. While running they heard the sound of sirens and a voice announcing the arrival of the rift. The voice informed civilians to hide inside and that gatecrashers were on their way. After running through the streets, they found a building where a group of civilians was hiding. After a few minutes, they heard a sound outside, before one of the windows burst inward. Outside the window was a beast that looked simr to a smander, it was purple in color with bright green bulges running down its back. After breaking the ss, Milo ran out of the building to draw its attention away from the people inside. He had already closed a gate, this would be nothing. After running out into the street, the smander beast turned towards him before opening its mouth, Milo noticed the stench right away, and just as he went to cover his nose, a yellow green blob was shot out of the smander''s mouth towards him. After jumping out of the way, the blob hit the spot on the pavement where Milo was standing before and as it made contact a hissing noise was made and steam rose as the blob melted through the asphalt. Milo then activated his inspect skill to see exactly what he would be going up against. [Umon Tier Beast] Species: Acid Spitting Giant Smander Status: Healthy Disposition: Aggressive An umon tier beast that is able to spit acid up to 5 meters. The acid sacks on its back will shoot acid out when they are popped. If feeling threatened the smander can burst them manually. [clear] After reading the description Milo knew he needed to end the fight quickly. Milo summoned three ice spears behind him and began to make them rotate, he hadn''t practiced a lot following the increase to his magic power, and after thrusting them forward, he was caught off guard by the speed and power. The smander didn''t have time to react as the spears pierced its head killing it instantly. After seeing Milo kill the beast so easily, the civilians hiding in the building cheered. This unfortunately brought the attention of more beasts, Chris and Mark then stepped out into the street with Milo, while Zach helped the people hiding inside to put up a barricade just in case. Zach felt bad that he couldn''t be of more help to his friends, but he hadn''t hatched the egg yet and didn''t have his weapon either. After seeing Milo y the smander so easily, Chris was getting fired up. Four more beasts were seening their way and Milo looked at his new helpers and asked if they were ready for a fight. After using the inspect skill, Milo noted the tiger of the iing beasts as allmon tier, allowing him not to worry as much for his two friends'' safety. Chris knocked his fists together kicking up little mes as he did, "Ready as I''ll ever be, let''s kill some beasts." Mark didn''t say anything and instead reached out, touching a metal pole nearby turning his arms into metal. "I''ll take the two in the middle, you each take one on the sides," Milo said as he charged in. Milo used his ability to create a sword and shield out of ice. Once he was close enough, he shed at the first beast, before creating a path of ice freezing the other beast''s feet to keep it from helping its teammate. Milo continued to hack and sh while blocking and dodging attacks from the beast that wasn''t stuck until eventually it fell over dead. While this was going on, Chris threw fireballs at his opponent, causing it to shriek in pain every time it got hit. After getting close it tried to strike at him, but Chris was too fast, dodging its attack and shooting out fire from his palm. Because they didn''t bring their gear with them, Chris didn''t have his weapon and had to depend on his mes to either defeat the beast or keep it at bay until he could get help. Mark on the other hand was using his ability to turn himself into a deadly weapon. The beast he was fighting was unable to damage him due to his body now being made of steel and it made it easy for him to kill. He continuously punched at the beast on the head, giving out a loud ringing sound when he did. Eventually, it fell over from the hard blows Mark was making with his steel fists. After defeating his beast, he went over to assist Chris in finishing off his opponent, soon the group of beasts had been defeated, and by some miracle, the only injuries the three friends had was a few scrapes and bruises, all aside from Mark who was a walking steel beam. While the group was resting, Milo went out and used the system to loot the corpses of the beasts they had defeated before going back and taking cover in the now barricaded building where the civilians were all hiding. About 15 minutes passed of eerie silence, when the group suddenly felt the ground begin to shake. This caused some of the civilians to whimper in fear, Milo knew he would do whatever he could to protect them if it was a beast. Peeking out into the street, Milo froze when seeing the beast that was walking down the street towards where they were. The beast he was looking at was one he had seen on the news plenty of times. Beasts were normally categorized into two different categories, regr which tended to take on the forms of animals or mythic beasts one would normally see in stories, and anthropomorphic which had a humanoid figure and oftentimes had good intelligence making them much trickier to fight. The beast Milo was looking at was of thetter. When standing its head was at the level of second story windows, there was a horn poking out of the top of its head and a single brown eye could be seen on its deformed face. It had green skin and in its hands a club the size of a tree trunk could be seen. It was mostly naked with only a piece of cloth covering its crotch, not leaving much to the imagination. When activating inspect, he got a screen and his fears came true. [Heroic Rank Beast] Chapter 69 68 - The Big Four [Heroic Rank Beast] Species: Greater Cyclops Status: Healthy Disposition: Agressive Arge beast that is known to have a hunger for human flesh. Despite the massive eye, they depend on their sense of smell, and can pick up the scent of a human from a kilometer away. [clear] Reading the description of the beast, Milo knew he and his friends stood no chance of defeating it, even the members of his team during the in field experience found troubles when dealing with a Unique rank rank beast. The cyclops lumbering towards them was of the heroic rank and was also humanoid meaning it would have a higher level of intelligence than normal heroic ranked monsters. The cyclops was about a block away and as it got closer, Milo could smell iting, it smelled like rotting flesh. When peeking out he could see blood on the beast''s mouth, meaning it had already found a group of people somewhere else. But was probably still hungry and would most likely sniff out the group hiding in the building they were in. While this was all happening, the sirens continued to re and the message about gatecrashers arriving soon was still on a loop, as if it were mocking the group that the gatecrashers would get there toote to save them. Milo could then hear screams and peeked out to see the cyclops reaching into another building and pulling people out before lifting them up to its mouth and chomping down. The beast was savage as it killed and ate the people attempting to hide inside the building only a block from where he was hiding. He could only crouch down and pray that the beast wouldn''t find them next. After the screaming stopped, the beast continued on getting closer to where Milo and his friends were hiding. "Where the hell are the gatecrashers, they should be here by now," he thought. A few secondster, the enormous leg of the creature could be seening into view outside the windows on the front of the building. After stepping in front of where they were hiding, the Cyclops began to kneel down. Once down low enough, it dipped its head down and gazed into the building. Seeing the massive eye stare at all of them sent the group over the edge, a woman hiding with them screamed. As soon as she screamed a twisted smile appeared on the face of the monster looking in at them as if it knew it had found another meal and there was no way that its food would be escaping it. The cyclops then reached its massive arm out, smashing the barricade at the front in the process. Splinters and broken ss rained down on the group hiding inside as they all scurried to try and avoid the beast''s grasp. Its grotesque hand touched around trying to find it prey, after failing to find its food, the beast pulled its arm out and peaked its head back down to peek at its prey once more. The beast reached its hand into the building again, this time it found its target. It grabbed a woman and lifted her with ease, before pulling her out of the front of the window. Seeing this Milo did something he knew he''d regret, running out into the street. He then formed an ice spear and threw it forward, where it lodged itself deep in the eye of the massive beast. The beast roared in pain and threw both hands to its face and dropped to one knee, dropping the woman in the process, who collected herself quickly and ran back into the building. After seeing her make it back inside the building safely, Milo turned to see the beast shake off its pain before roaring again in anger. While its sense of sight was now useless, it depended mostly on its sense of smell. Sniffing the air, it could sense Milo a few meters away standing in the street. It turned towards him, and roared again, mming its club into the building next to the one where the civilians and Milo''s friends were hiding, smashing the entryway to pieces and throwing rubble everywhere. It then got back to its feet facing the direction Milo was standing. "I''ve got a bad feeling about this," Milo said to himself. The beast then took a step shaking the street, seeing it start to move, Milo turned and ran. After turning a corner, he could still feel the rumbling of the beast lumbering after him. He felt relieved that his friends would now be safe from the man-eating monster, but he would now have to find a way to either kill or escape it himself. As he ran, he looked around to see if he could find somewhere to hide, but most of the buildings were newly renovated with security doors that would close over the front of the entrances and front windows to prevent beasts from getting inside, which in turn blocked him from getting in as well. Eventually he turned down another street to find himself cornered. Turning around, the cyclops paused as its target was now stuck with nowhere else to run. It began to slowly walk forward, licking its huge lips and smiling grotesquely. Without having anywhere else to run, Milo began to summon ice spears behind him, as many as he could muster. Eventually there were around 12 ice spears spinning behind him, making a loud whirring sound as they rotated faster and faster. As he stared the beast down, the beast suddenly sniffed the air and looked to the top of the building behind Milo. Milo tilted his head in confusion, as all of a sudden, a massive spike of earth shot up from behind the beast, piercing it through the chest and killing it. Milo blinked in surprise, before a man wearing enchanted equipmentnded on the ground in front of him. "Are you okay?" The man asked, "I''m a gatecrasher from the Olympus Guild tasked with closing off the rift." Hearing the name of the guild that came to close off the rift, Milo was surprised. The Olympus guild was considered one of the big four. The big four were the four strongest guilds found throughout the world, and the guildmasters of each were considered to be the strongest people in the world, outside of the GAA president. Milo had forgotten that the Olympus Guild headquarters was located in Miami. After a few more moments, the purple aura in the sky started to dissipate. Milo and the man who introduced himself as Marcus made their way back to the building where his friends and the group of people were hiding. Marcus had the earth ability and was a rank B adventurer, because it was a rift, he exined that the guild didn''t send their main strike force. When arriving, they helped everyone out of the building and Marcus checked everyone''s conditions, before noticing the dead beasts at the front of the building. He was confused, as no other guild members hade through this street yet. "Did you see who killed these beasts?" he asked the group of survivors. A man stepped forward and exined that Chris, Mark, and Milo had killed the beasts, while Zach helped the survivors to take cover, and also about Milo hurting and drawing away the cyclops that Marcus had killed earlier. Marcus told the kids well done, and was surprised when he learned that they were still students at the Awakened Academy. He was surprised as most students would have been too afraid to act in a life or death situation. After they were cleared to leave, and treated for the scrapes and bruises they had umted, Milo and his friends made their way back to where they were living for their little vacation to pack their things. "Well that was certainly an unexpected way to end our vacation," Chris said. After finishing up packing, Milo andpany made their way back to the GAA building where they teleported back to the Acropolis and made their way back to the academy. After getting back to their room, Milo sprawled out on his bed and went to bed. As he dozed off he was happy that he had a few more cores to absorb, but at the same time was nervous. Final Exams were only a few weeks away, and his first year at the academy would being to an end. Chapter 70 69 - Shopping The Big Four: The four strongest guilds on Earth. Each of them hold power equal to that of a country and their guild leaders are considered four of the most powerful people in the world. The four guilds are the Striker Guild which is based out of London, the Huntsmen Guild based out of Munich, the Sakura Guild based out of Tokyo, and the Olympus Guild based out of Miami. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Following their return from their trip, Milo had gotten even more experience fighting back the beasts of the dimensional doors, even if it hadn''t been nned. After the rift incident, Milo had obtained a total of five more essence cores. One umon tier and fourmon tier, after getting some privacy and pulling them from his inventory, Milo selected the absorb option, raising his magic power stat by another seven points bringing the grand total to 30. After absorbing the cores, Milo opened his status screen to check out his growth. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 19 Gold: 1,325 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 4) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 4) 3 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 5) 4 - Beast Tamer - Able to imprint on beasts at a young age and control them(lvl. 1) 5 - empty - 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [39] Agility: [35+3] Intelligence: [39] Stamina: [35] Constitution: [33+3] Magic Power: [30] [clear] Milo''s ability slots had now expanded to six after getting his magic power stat to 30. He still only had four abilities copied as he hadn''t found any abilities he wanted to add to his arsenal since Zach''s ability. After checking his stats, Chris asked Milo if he wanted to go shopping. Milo was feeling bored so he agreed and the two made their way into the city. While walking through the city streets, Milo and Chris entered an equipment shop. Milo still had a lot of credits saved up from his in field experience and was interested in getting some gear. By buying some gear he could also then go into his shop to see if there is anything worth purchasing, as he could say he bought it in the city. While looking through the rows of different equipment, he found a pair of unique ranked gauntlets that had a cool looking skill attached. When opening the inspect screen it said: [Midnight Chained Gauntlets(Unique)] Durability: 350 Armor Rating: 200 Str +8 Con +3 Attached Skill: Bind - When activated while using a physical attack it binds the target in ce for 3 seconds(Cooldown 20:00) Description: A pair of ck gauntlets that appear to have chains wrapped around the forearms. The chains appear to have a use but are strictly for decoration. [clear] Seeing them, Milo thought what adding them to his arsenal would add, not only would the attached skill be extremely helpful. But the idea of adding another item with a chain theme seemed to fit with his weapon of choice, as well as the different appearances of the system''s abilities, which all involved chains so far. The price also wasn''t too steep at 1,200 credits which was pretty reasonable for unique ranked gear. Trying them on, Milo wanted to try the attached skill but it probably wouldn''t go over well with the shop owner. While testing how they fit, a new group of shoppers entered the store. "I saw these gauntlets the other day with a binding skill, I hope they still have them for sale," the man said to the woman next to him. After trying them on, Milo caved and decided to buy the gauntlets he had found. He picked them up and went up to the counter where one would pay as the shopkeeper came out from the back room. As he did so, the man who entered after them made his way to the counter and asked the shop''s owner if the chained gauntlets were still avable. That was when he noticed that Milo had them and was about to purchase them. "Sorry," the shopkeeper said, "This young man brought them up first so he''s got first dibs." Hearing this the man gritted his teeth, "all good," he said before turning around. The man was visually frustrated as he left the store, and Milo went through with the purchase. He also chose to invest in a dimensional storage earring as well. Dimensional storage items weremon with gatecrashers as it was like carrying arge trunk that was the size of an essory. The main reason Milo chose to purchase this was due to the suspicions people might get if he pulled things from his inventory without it. By having the ear ring, it would allow him to have an excuse in case anyone caught him using his inventory, while also allowing him to organize his items more effectively. Milo had a total of 2,000 credits to his name, his total for the purchase was 1,800. Overall, Milo felt this was a small sacrifice to pay to get stronger. After the purchase wasplete, Milo and Chris left the shop and went off to a restaurant to get food. Milo had started to use his telepath ability when he was out and about as it could allow him to read the thoughts of those around him, and while walking to the restaurant, Milo could hear the thoughts of someone focused on him. Milo then scanned around him and noticed the man from the equipment store tailing him and Chris. Milo then used the inspect skill and got a system message: [Notice] Inspect skill has leveled up More information will now be revealed when using Inspect [clear] Chapter 71 70 - Inspect Level 2 Seeing this, Milo opened the inspect screen for the man: [Christian Jaeger(Rank C gatecrasher)] Ability: Hunter''s Eye Status: Healthy Rtionship: Stranger Target is currently thinking about how to steal the Midnight Chained Gauntlets [clear] The first thing Milo noticed about the new level of the inspect skill, was that it now told him the rank of the person who he used it on. Thanks to this, he now knew his tail was a C rank, this could be annoying to deal with, but Milo was confident in his abilities. He also noted that he could now see the target''s thoughts. This made his telepath ability somewhat redundant, however he wouldn''t just get rid of the ability just yet, as it may have a useter. The second thing Milo noticed was the man''s ability. Seeing his ability, Milo was curious and looked at more information about it, and his eyes widened. The ability allowed the user to activate a type of second sight that highlighted the target''s weak points. It was an extremely useful ability, and would makebat much easier. Seeing such a useful ability in front of him, Milo licked his lips, his Plunder ability was off cooldown and it had been forever since he had seen a new ability that he could use. He then opened the Plunder ability to figure out the copy conditions. Looking at the condition, it said that he needed to win a wager against the man, and thanks to this Milo came up with a n. Milo flipped his holo around to make sure the man wouldn''t see his rank as a student, if it was revealed he was in the X ranked ss, it may have made the man suspicious. Once someone got an official gatecrasher ranking it wasn''t publicly shown on their holo, like students. Milo then told Chris he knew a shortcut and turned into an alley, hoping the man would follow, and he did. After making their way down the alley, Milo stopped and said, "Can I help you?" This caught the man off guard, but he didn''t want to make the student think he was a pushover, "If you knew I was following you, you probably know what I want," he said signaling to the bag containing Milo''s new purchases. Milo then went on to say, "You know you could just take it from us, but then I report you to the GAA, based on the fact that you were shopping at that equipment shop, it''s safe to say they caught your face on their security cameras, and if you wanted the gauntlets you had the money to buy them. Instead let''s make a deal, we do an arm wrestling match, if you win you take the gauntlets and walk away scott free, if I win, you pay me let''s say 500 credits for wasting my time." The man paused for a second and thought about the proposition, he was a C ranked gatecrasher, and Milo was still a kid. Plus if he won and got the gauntlets from that, he wouldn''t have to deal with the kids reporting him. It was a good deal considering his strength. This would prove to be a huge mistake. "I''ll take your deal then," the man said, smiling in confidence. Pulling a crate over that was in the alley they were standing in, the man and Milo gripped eachothers hands and ced their elbows on the makeshift table to prepare for the match. Chris would call off the start of the match and once the two were in position he counted down from three and said go, signaling the start of the match. Milo wanted to see just how much he measured up to a C rank gatecrasher and decided to gather all of his reinforce ability into his arm, after doing that, he pushed with all his strength. The man was caught off guard as Milo mmed his hand through the cratepletely. The man went wide eyed, if he was a normal person, his hand would definitely be broken right now, that was the amount of force that Milo had used in the match. The man grit his teeth in frustration before collecting himself and standing up, he had just been humiliated by two students and wanted to get out of the situation as fast as possible before someone came to investigate the loud sound that was made when Milo shoved his hand through the crate. He transferred the 500 credits over to Milo before leaving the alley in a hurry to avoid being humiliated anymore. Before the man fled, Milo activated the plunder ability and the man was wrapped in the chains that emerged from Milo''s arms before they sunk inside him, signaling that the ability had been sessfully copied. Milo grinned, he had gotten a free 500 credits, and a new ability. He also now knew that with his reinforce ability, hepletely overpowered the upper echelon of lower ranked gatecrashers. Ranks F through C were considered lower ranks, while B through X were considered high ranks, as they had the biggest leaps in power scaling. Keeping the jump in power in mind, Milo estimated that in a contest of strength, he would be able to hold his own against a mediocre B ranked gatecrasher, when using his reinforce ability. After taking it all in, Chrisughed and elbowed him yfully, "I figured you knew what you were doing, but you could''ve at least given the guy a chance." Milo just shrugged and said, "he chose to target and steal from students just cause he wanted what I rightfully purchased, I put him in his ce now he should know not to mess with people anymore." The pair then went on to do what they originally nned and went to get food before returning back to campus. Once they arrived, Milo told Chris to stand still for a second before equipping his new gauntlets, Chris gave him a weird look, before Milo put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Bind," once the word was emitted, ck chains shot out from the gauntlets before theytched to the ground, rooting Chris in ce, the chains were giving off a dark smog as if signaling that it was a skill at work and not a physical structure. Chris shouted in rm, thinking Milo was going to hurt him but after he didn''t feel pain, he tried to move and found that he was stuck, unable to budge with the chains holding him. A few secondster the chains dissipated into the smog they were giving off and disappeared. Chris with a look of relief then spoke. "What the hell man, you almost gave me a heart attack." "I know, you should''ve seen your face," Milo said chuckling to himself before he went on to exin that it was the skill attached to his gauntlets. Chris gave him a look, before telling Milo to let him know what he would be doing in advance next time as he didn''t want to poop his pants. Chris chose to use some more choicenguage however. After seeing the skill in action, Milo''s mind ran wild as he thought of how useful it would be inbat. He was also curious as to if he could activate it while using a weapon as well. He then went on to activate his newly Plundered ability. Once he did, a red highlight oveid his vision when looking at people. He peered at Chris and found that the ability highlighted his head and the ce where his heart would be located. Seeing the ability in action, Milo was excited to test it on a beast as well. As the pair walked Milo also considered what he should do with the telepath ability now that the inspect skill read people''s thoughts for him without the use of the telepath ability. A few different thoughts came to mind, one was to look for another mental type ability tobine it with using fusion, and the other was to see if it was possible to fuse it with an ability he already had. Milo would investigate after ss the next day, as he was already happy with the upgrades he had made to his arsenal today. Chapter 72 71 - Hatching After getting to his room, Milo put on the dimensional storage earring and went in the bathroom, he had some things he wanted to test and after putting the gauntlets in the ear ring''s storage space, he then resummoned them, when doing so a sort of rainbow mist emitted from the earring and covered his forearms before solidifying into the gauntlets. The entire process took about two seconds. He then went about the same process, only this time, he ced the gauntlets in his inventory before taking them out again, this time the gauntlets didn''t automatically equip and instead appeared in his hands. This was good information to have, based on the information he had gathered, he decided to put all his equipment in the earring and any loot he collected, such as essence cores or beast parts, he''d store in the system inventory. That way he could equip his gear directly without having to put it on. After doing so, Milo looked into the mirror and noted how different he looked with the earring hanging from his ear. It had a ck setting and the dimensional storage gem was a deep purple in color. It made him look a bit tougher. After doing so, he equipped the gauntlets and opened his status screen to look at the changes they brought to his stats. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 19 Gold: 1,325 Abilities[5 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 4) 2 - Telepath: Can speak directly into others minds and read their thoughts (lvl. 4) 3 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 5) 4 - Beast Tamer - Able to imprint on beasts at a young age and control them(lvl. 1) 5 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 3) 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [39+8] Agility: [35+3] Intelligence: [39] Stamina: [38] Constitution: [33+6] Magic Power: [30] [clear] Milo added the new free stat points he got from copying a new ability to his stamina stat to better bnce all his stats. The gauntlets did just as they said and raised his strength by eight and his constitution by three, he found that this stacked with the essories he already had equipped frompleting quests earlier in the school year. After finishing checking out his status screen, he stored the gauntlets and just like when they were equipped, they turned into a rainbow mist before entering the earring. After storing the gauntlets, he did the same with his chain sickle so that all his gear was in one ce. Once he was done with his tests and storing his equipment, Milo thought it would be a good idea to check out the fusion skill, after upgrading his inspect skill, it took away his main use of telepath, as the inspect skill now included the recent thoughts of the target when using it. He opened his fusion skill and the screen for the skill appeared. [Notice] Ability: Fusion activated, select abilities to fuse [select] [select] [confirm] Milo selected the Telepath ability as the first slot to see if any of his current abilities werepatible. When opening the second drop down that would disy anypatible abilities, Milo saw one that he wasn''t expecting. When considering what coulde frombining the two abilities Milo couldn''t think of what evolutions to the ability would ur. He shrugged and clicked the confirm button after selecting the second ability. Based on his past experience, Milo couldn''t think of anything bading out ofbining the two abilities. Once again the two balls of energy emerged from his chest beforebining into one, chains then shot out wrapping around the ball before it was pulled back into his chest. Signaling the fusion skill''s sess. Right then a screen popped up. [Notice] Fusion of abilities Telepath and Beast Tamer was sessful New ability has been generated Tutorial has been generated based off current intelligence stat Watch Tutorial? [yes] [no] The ability that waspatible with Telepath was the Beast Tamer ability that originally belonged to Zach. Afterbining, the new ability that appeared in Milo''s status screen was called Beast Whisperer. The system described the ability as being able tomunicate and read the feelings of beasts, it also still functioned like the Beast Tamer where Milo could imprint on a beast and tame it. Seeing the new ability, Milo was happy that he could find a goodbo for the telepath ability, as it was a nostalgic ability for him, being the first one he ever used the system to copy. Not only this, but his new ability would be extremely useful once he tamed a beast of his own, as well as know what a beast was thinking while in a gate. While lost in thought about what the new ability would be able to do and also what beast would suit him best to tame, a notification came through on his holo from Zach. Clicking on the notification, Milo opened a message that was asking him toe down to Zach''s room, apparently the thunderhawk egg he had imprinted on was moving and Zach wanted someone''s help in case it would hatch. Milo had nothing better to do, as he had already finished all his work from sses, so he left his room and made his way down to Zach''s. Walking through the door, Zach had no roommates assigned to him by the school due to the nature of his ability, which left Zach alone in his room with the egg resting on his bed. Just like Zach had said in his message, the egg seemed to shake every so often so Milo activated his inspect skill which said that the egg was about to hatch. Seeing this, Milo knew it wouldn''t be long before the egg hatched so he took a seat near Zach and waited. Zach noticed the new earring and inquired about it, leading to them having a conversation about the equipment Milo had purchased. This led to another conversation about what type of equipment they would be looking for. A few minutes of speakingter, the egg resting on the bed began to vibrate slightly. Seeing this, Milo and Zach stopped talking and instead chose to focus on the egg that seemed like it would crack any second. The egg continued to vibrate faster and faster until Milo and Zach began to be slightly worried. Soon the egg began to emit short jolts of electricity that would arc around the surface of the egg''s shell. "I have a bad feeling about this," Milo said. The electricity arcing around the egg began to increase, eventually Zach and Milo took cover as electricity jumped off the egg zapping nearby objects. Once the pair dove down into cover, a crack was heard and electricity was fired off in all directions. Had Zach and Milo not taken cover they would''ve been fried by the bolts of electricity let loose by the egg. After the electricity seemed to calm down, Milo and Zach peeked over the edge of the bed to make sure that they were in the clear. When peeking over the top, they found the egg in pieces, and a small chick was standing where the egg once sat, staring back at the two friends. Chapter 73 72 - How To Raise A Beast Seeing the baby thunderhawk sitting on Zach''s bed, Milo and Zach did what any sane person would do when seeing a cute baby animal, or beast in this case. They freaked out. "Holy crap it''s cute," Milo said. The little chick was currently taking in its surroundings. It was about six inches tall with ck feathers covering its body. There were small gold specks on its wings and it had a small patch of yellow feathers running around its eyes and the top of its head like a pair of goggles, along with a yellow v shape on its tail feathers. Unlike most baby birds that looked like fuzz balls, the baby thunderhawk that came from the egg just looked like a miniature cutesy version of its adult form that their team had encountered on their in field experience. Milo then activated the inspect skill to check if there were any differences from the beast''s mother that they had defeated. [Unique Rank Infant Tamed Beast] Species: Greater Thunder Hawk Status: Healthy(hungry) Disposition: Tamed A tamed version of the unique ranked beast, Greater Thunder Hawk. Like other tamed beasts, they remain smaller in size whenpared to their wild counterparts, but still pack the same punch. They are very inquisitive creatures that always investigate things they deem interesting. [clear] Seeing the description, Milo heaved a sigh of relief, he had seen a few tamed beasts in his life, but assumed that they grew to the same size as the wild counterpart but it appeared that they stayed at a smaller size. He had an image in his head of stuffing the thunder hawk in a giant bird cage and feeding it full sized cows. Seeing the system say that tamed beasts stay smallerpared to wild beasts it also meant that his future beast he''d tame would also be smallerpared to the beast it came from. It most likely had a connection to the differences in appearance between dogs and wolves that came over time as people tamed them and bred them for different traits. Milo then noted that it said that the small chick was hungry. "Hey Zach, do you have any food for your child?" he said jokingly, "it''s probably hungry." Hearing the word food, the small bird cocked its head and let out a small chirp, curious about what the two were talking about. Zach said yeah, before pulling out a small container of worms. He grabbed a few out with a pair of tweezers and ced them on a te before setting the te in front of his new pet. Once the dish was set down, the bird made its first bit of movement as it hopped from its original position and made its way over to the te of small worms. It pecked at one of the small grubs before it took it into its mouth and swallowed it whole. The small bird paused for a second before spitting the worm out and squawking out of what could only be annoyance, no matter how cute of an act it was. Milo asked Zach if he had done any research about the species he''d be raising and Zach responded with a dejected no, as he now knew where he went wrong. After doing this, Milo and Zach made their way over to theptop on Zach''s desk and searched up what baby greater thunderhawks normally ate. After a second they found a website that had information on the small bird that had recently hatched. Seeing the two teens move over to look at theputer, the small bird grew curious and hopped over to where the two were sitting and looked at what they were doing. After doing some research, Zach and Milo found that infant thunder hawks ate what were called thunder grubs, which were small beasts that could be found out in nature due to them burrowing underground during gatebreaks. They were normally harmless but if stepped on would give a slight zap to whoever didn''t watch where they stepped. They also discovered that the little bird in the room with them was in fact a boy, which could be determined by the yellow feathers on its tail and around its eyes. Seeing this, Milo grew worried as to get their hands on them they would most likely need to find a vendor who would sell them which probably wouldn''t happen, as the beast tamer ability was pretty rare. That was until Zach reminded him of the gatecrasher market. An online database where gatecrashers could special order different materials or exchange information. The things that you could order would even be delivered through teleportation, and could be picked up from the lobby of their dorm where they had small teleporters for exactly that. Zach made his way to the website where he logged in, normally only gatecrashers could gain ess, but the school had made him an ount when he had arrived back to the school with an egg, most likely predicting something like this would happen. Zach searched up the thunder grubs and winced when he saw the cost. Normally one could feed a pet by spending anywhere from five to fifty credits depending on the type of animal, but the thunder grubs that Zach needed would cost him 100 credits, and based on what they read while researching, the amount he''d receive would only be able tost him 2 weeks at most. He put in his information and transferred the credits, before running to the lobby to fetch his package. A few minutester, Zach got back and opened the package, pulling out a bucket that apparently contained the thunder grubs he''d ordered. He put on a pair of rubber gloves in case the grubs shocked him and ced a few of the chubby ck grubs on a new dish before putting them in front of the small electrical chick. Once again the small bird hopped up to the dish and pecked at the grubs before gobbling one up. After swallowing it, the bird seemed happier than the first meal he had been served and ate the rest of the grubs with gusto. After its meal, the bird ruffled its feathers in joy and chirped. It then pped its wings in excitement letting off a small burst of electricity that arced along its feathers. For a few minutes the small feathered beast bounced around the room investigating things it thought looked interesting. Finally it hopped over to Zach''s pillow where it stopped jumping about. When it stopped searching around the room it seemed to yawn beforeying its head against Zach''s pillow, its eyes slowly drooped shut before it fell asleep. Zach and Milo were exhausted from trying to keep the little bird from getting into trouble. Milo was so caught up with helping Zach take care of the little beast that hepletely forgot to test out his new ability. Once the small bird was sound asleep, Milo and Zach took a seat to rest. "He''s definitely a handful," Milo said, "have you thought of a name for the little guy yet?" "I''m thinking Waki," replied Zach, "It''s a y on the word Wakinyan, which is what my grandpa used to call a thunderbird." Looking up the word, Milo learned that it was a Sioux word, which were a native american tribe from the central and western United States. "My grandpa used to tell me stories about a giant bird that would cause a sound like a thunder p when it pped its wings," Zach continued. Hearing his reasoning, Milo thought it was a fitting name, who knew how strong the little Thunder Hawk would grow up to be. After the little bird was sleeping for a while, Milo let himself out and made his way back to his room. It was gettingte after taking care of the tiny beast all evening. Milo once again began to wonder what type of beast he should tame to suit him best. He had a lot of ideas but they could wait, he was a ways off from being able to afford a beast egg and there was a very low chance of finding one in a gate as is. Soon, Milo had soon nodded off to sleep. Chapter 74 73 - Upcoming Exams Waking up the next morning, Milo told Chris and Mark about the shenanigans that happened yesterday in Zach''s room, and the two ended up wanting to see the new little mascot of their group. Milo then sent a message to Zach asking if it''d be okay if he brought them down to see Waki. After he told them it was fine, the group made their way down to Zach''s room and made their way inside. Zach was currently packing his school bag for sses that day, and Waki was sitting up on his shoulder. The two seemed to have done some bonding, which would''ve been easy for Zach with how his ability worked. Seeing the little bird resting on Zach''s shoulder, Chris and Mark had the same reaction as Milo and Zach the day before. "He''s so cute," they both said in unison. The baby bird, seeing new visitors, hopped down from Zach''s shoulder andnded on the bed, before cocking its head to the side, as if to say, "who are you?" Milo and his two roommates gathered around the tiny beast to get a closer look. Milo then reached out his hand and rubbed the little thunder hawk on the top of its head, before working down to under its chin. The bird seemed to enjoy the feeling of Milo rubbing under its chin and cooed with pleasure. It then hopped down off the bed and back over to Zach where it tugged on his pant leg, Zach then crouched down and allowed the hawk to hop onto his arm where he then lifted it up and allowed it to hop on his shoulder where it was sitting when they first came in. Zach was now packed up and ready to go, with how his ability worked, he was allowed to bring his tamed beast around campus. The school gave him a small ring that would tether the small creature to him using magical energy. It was almost like a leash to make sure his beast didn''t get out and make trouble around the school. The group then made their way out of the dorms and out into the main square of campus. Seeing all the new sights, sounds, and smells around it, Waki was hopping around from one of Zach''s shoulders to the other with the asional stop on the top of his head as well. Seeing the excitement of the little beast riding along with the group, the boys allughed as it was an adorable act of curiosity and innocence. The group made small talk on their way to the canteen where they ran into the girls. Seeing the little bird they had a meltdown about how cute the little bird was. Waki was quite the popr little guy, and he seemed to be caught off guard and a bit shy from all the attention, as he clung to the back of Zach''s shirt and peeked his head out from behind Zach''s head, trying to hide. The group then got their breakfast and took a seat, talking about everything Zach and Milo had to do the night before for the little critter. Waki meanwhile was still hiding looking at all the new people he had met that morning alone. After talking and eating, Zach and Milo split off from the group heading to their homeroom ss. When arriving, they took seats next to each other and pulled out their notebooks to prepare for ss. In the meantime, Waki seemed worn out from all the new stimuli around him, and hopped in Zach''s backpack. Soon ss was starting and Waki was fast asleep. Ms. Teller made her way to the front of the ss, before weing everyone in. "With this being ourst week of ss, I wanted to let you know what to expect for next week''s final exams," she said. Ms. Teller then went on to inform them of the contents of their exams. Their normal sses would proceed as they normally would for an exam; they would have a math test for their math ss. For their Gatecrashing 101 ss, which was the ss they had with Ms. Teller would have written exam where they would have to answer questions about the information they had learned, such as the different types of dimensional doors. This would also be their final exam they''d take. After covering the sses that would have written exams, she continued on to describe the contents of their practical sses'' exam. For their practical sses, thebat ss and practical training, they would be put in a sparring match against their fellow ssmates which would be graded by a panel of judges. Unlike the usual spars that they had done so far, the students would be allowed to use both their ability and their weapon in tandem. Thanks to this information Milo had a new goal to achieve before the final exams started, and that was to get to level 25 and unlock his next skill on his Plunder tab. The opponents of their sparring match would be determined the day of the exam, so Milo wouldn''t be able toe up with a n ahead of time. Having his new skill unlocked could be a trump card for him when the time of the exam came. After sses ended for the day, Milo went to the Sim Room to grind some experience. When arriving at the Sim Room this time, he discovered something new where one would go when signing in to reserve a station. When he approached thedy working the counter, he noticed a silver looking machine with a ss front behind her. When asking about it, the machine turned out to be a scanner that could replicate the object ced inside it in the simtion, Milo then pulled out his gauntlets and his chain sickle and asked thedy working the counter if they could be scanned. She took each and ced them into the scanner one at a time, pausing in between to allow the machine to finish scanning each. After both were done, Milo had to put in his login information for them to be tied to his ount. After each of his pieces of equipment were scanned and added to his ount, Milo made his way over to his designated station and logged into the simtion. In his lobby, Milo went into the options and selected his chain sickle and gauntlets that were recently scanned. Once he equipped them both he took a closer look and was amazed to see how well the items were scanned into the game. All the fine details he had taken notice of outside the game were perfectly replicated inside the simtion. After marveling at how far technology hade, Milo did a few pvp matches before deciding to fight waves of monsters in the PVE mode. A few hourster, Milo had finally climbed up to level 20. It took a lot longer than he was expecting and he soon realized he''d have to have no life for the next few days in order to reach his goal, and only grind in the game. After two days Milo''s level rose to 22 and he had studied as much as he could for his other exams. Another day passed and he had gotten to level 23. After five he was at 24 and that left two days to raise his level one more time before his week of exams began. The X ranked ss were scheduled to take their practical exams before any of their other sses. Milo would be cutting it close but his goal was still attainable. Right when he woke up, Milo made his way over to the Sim Room and hopped right back into the grind. After a few hours, he logged out as he needed to get some food. After eating his meal it was back to work. This schedule was repeated the next day and he had finally reached his goal. [Level Up] Congrattions you are now level 25 All stats +1 Extortion skill unlocked [clear] Seeing this Milo heaved a sigh of relief. He was exhausted and bored from repeating the same thing for the past week. He exited the Sim Room and made his way back to his dorm. Once their he went to his usual spot in the bathroom to check out his status screen. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 25 Gold: 1,325 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 4) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 5) 3 - Beast Whisperer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision with highlights that show the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 3) 5 - empty - 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [44+8] Agility: [39+3] Intelligence: [44] Stamina: [43] Constitution: [38+6] Magic Power: [30] [clear] Looking at his status screen, Milo''s strength was now over 50 when including the boosts from his equipment. He then opened up his plunder tab. When reading the description of the new skill he earned, his eyes went wide. Chapter 75 74 - Extortion [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] [Plunder] Plunder (lvl 4): Possibility to copy the ability of other awakened if certain conditions are met(Active) (Cooldown: 0:00:00:00) Fusion(lvl. MAX): Able tobinepatible abilities into a new stronger ability. Will consume the twobined abilities when used.(Active) ? (Cooldown: 3:00:00:00) Extortion(lvl. 1): Able to use two abilities at the same time. (Passive) Larceny: Locked until level 50 (Hidden) (Hidden) The extortion ability that Milo just unlocked allowed him to wield two abilities at once. This was a massive boost to his power as he couldbine abilities on the fly. He could picture many different things in his head, the one he thought could be coolest involved him wielding fire and ice at the same time like some sort of half and half type user. When thinking of how it applied to him, Milo could now use his newest ability, Hunter''s Eye, to view the weak points of opponents while using ice spears to strike at them, or even keep his body reinforced at all times while wielding his Ice, making him more strong and durable than he already was without the ability. Milo wanted to test the new skill but would have to sneak somewhere else to test it. It also seemed that unlike his Fusion skill, which only had one level and was already maxed, his new Extortion skill said it was level one, which made Milo wonder what increasing its level would do. His new extortion skill also caused new description boxes to pop up next to the skills. Itbeled his first two skills as active skills, most likely meaning that he had to activate them voluntarily like he had in the past. Extortion was insteadbeled as a passive skill, from this Milo could only guess that this meant he could always activate two abilities at once without having to think about activating a separate skill first. There was also no cooldown on the skill. Not able to wait anymore, Milo snuck out of his room while his roommates slept and went up to the roof of his dorm building. Once he got there, Milo checked to make sure no one had followed him up there, once he determined that he was in the clear, Milo began to activate his reinforce ability, he could feel the magical power reinforcing his muscles and making him stronger, he then attempted to form an ice spear, it took a bit longer than usual to form the ice into the shape he wanted, but he sessfully used both the reinforce ability, as well as the ice ability simultaneously. "Hah, hahah, it actually worked," he said. There was definitely a learning curve with using two abilities at once, it required much more concentration than before, but being able to use both abilities simultaneously would prove to be a massive increase to his power. After trying a few more times to increase the formation speed of his ice ability while using another ability, Milo made great strides increasing the speed but was still a long way off from if he was using the ice ability on its own. With his experimenting done, Milo made his way back down to his room and got into bed, while he was excited about his new skill, he had to make sure he had enough rest for his practical exam in the morning. After a few minutes Milo nodded off. Waking up the next morning, Milo met up with Zach and Waki and made their way down to the practical training room. After changing they went out to the main practice room where the exam would be taking ce. Once all the X ranked students arrived, Ms. Teller arrived and informed all the students of who their opponents would be, unlike in the past, Zach would be taking part today, due to the exam taking bothbat and ability use into ount, due to Waki''s young age however, Zach chose to let him watch the exams take ce. Waki had be quite a popr little guy since his first appearance in ss, and thanks to that Zach wasn''t dealing with as much bullying as before. For the exam he had already found a ce to watch and funnily enough it was on Mikael''s shoulder who would be acting a judge. It was quite the awkward sight, seeing Mikael, who everyone knew as a force to be reckoned with and even beasts feared being so buddy buddy with the little bird. Milo''s opponent was luckily no one he had been teamed up with for the in field experience, it also wasn''t anyone he had heard of before. Due to this, he was unsure what the student looked like. His opponent''s first name was Tyler but their ability hadn''t been revealed to make it as raw of a battle as possible. Searching through the different students with his inspect skill, Milo was searching trying to find out what his opponent looked like as well as what their ability would be. Eventually he had found the student, he was a smaller student who was holding a spear, and had a few pieces of armor that his family had probably given him. Milo hadn''t noticed the student before, he was quite small and scrawny, with a mop of dark hair on his head. After opening the inspect screen he took a look at his information: [Tyler Abbot] Ability: Density Status: Healthy Rtionship: ssmate Target is currently thinking about who his opponent is [clear] When seeing his ability, Milo drew a nk on what the ability did, he used the system to gather more information about it, and seeing what it did was interesting. Density allowed the user to change their own density, making them heavier or lighter and in turn it would also make them more durable. Due to this, Milo could see Tyler having a high defense. He wasn''t sure if there were any uses offensively for the ability, but he still decided to be cautious going into this match up, just in case Tyler had something up his sleeve. Zach''s opponent was a student with the telekinesis ability, this would make it an annoying match for Zach, but he was sure he could pull something out. After finding out who their opponents would be, Milo and the rest of the students made their way off to the side to allow for the matches to begin. Ms. Teller would be refereeing and the judges included Mikael and two other instructors at the school. Mikael seemed gitty about watching the matches, he had always been a bit entric and seeing him excited to watch the matches made Milo chuckle, as it fit Milo''s opinion of Mikael to a tee. A few minutester, once everything was set, the exams began, seeing the matches going on, Milo was impressed to see how the different students of the X ranked ss fought while using their abilities, he knew how most of the students were based on the practical ss andbat ss, but this would be the first time he would see people using them in tandem. As the matches went on he was able to pick up on some things he hadn''t noticed before when watching his teammates from the in field experience. This was the first time he had really gotten to examine how Luke fought, as he was in a support role during their expedition into a gate a rarely got into the action. He used a one handed sword and was quite skilled in it. Along with this, due to the practically invisible barriers he could form, his opponent was unable to use an normal attacks to get hits in, as if they did it would sh off the invisible shield he''d ce to protect himself. Along with this, whenever an attack got blocked he''d get a free counterattack due to his opponent staggering from their attacks being blocked. Chloe used a simr strategy to she did when closing the gate and would teleport short distances to avoid her opponents ranged attacks, while also taking shots with her crossbow at random angles to try and keep them from reacting in time. Zach''s opponent was a user that used telekinesis and a bow, Zach was able to close the distance fairly quickly and blocked majority of the shots taken at him with the shield side of his weapon, which allowed him toe out on top. Maria was skilled as always and used twin daggers with her lighting ability, throwing out bolts of electricity to distract her opponent as she closed the distance and ended the battle quickly in closebat. That left Milo as thest member of his group to take the exam and he was still racking his brain as toe up with a strategy to break through his opponents defense. Chapter 76 75 - Exams Milo''s turn was finally up, Zach wished him luck as he made his way up to the stage. Once he was up on stage, he pulled his equipment out and the rainbow mist enveloped his forearms and hand, two secondster the mist returned to the ear ring and on his arms were his gauntlets and in his hand was the chain sickle. Tyler was across the stage from him swinging his spear in preparation, but based on the look on his face, it didn''t look like he wanted to be there. A few secondster and the horn that called the start of the match sounded off. Wanting to scout out what the opponent''s ability did, the two stood there for a second before Milo chose to strike first. Swinging out his chain, Milo struck Tyler with it not using much force, but there was no reaction from Tyler rather than dodging it, he took the attack head on. After taking the hit, Tyler smiled thinking that he had this match in the bag if this was all Milo could do. Seeing his chain didn''t work Milo decided that ranged attacks wouldn''t be the move for this match. Instead he chose to move in for closebat, Tyler attempted to strike with his spear, but Milo avoided the attack. After avoiding it, Milo could hear the weight behind it, most likely due to Tyler increasing the density of his arm making the attack heavier. If he got hit directly, then he''d be in for some hurt. Milo made a bit of distance to think of a way to break through his defenses, he had an idea but it would take all his energy, for now he decided to try and throw a few ice spears to test their effectiveness. When colliding with Tyler, they just shattered leaving a small area of frost where they collided, but they didn''t appear to do any damage. Thinking this was the full arsenal of Milo, Tyler then took the time to push the offensive, closing the distance he thrust his spear forward again, due to the weight he put behind it, the attacks were slow but threatening, after a small flurry of attacks, one managed to clip Milo in the side, sending him sprawling. Luckily Milo had been hit by the side of the spear so he wasn''t bleeding, but the attack would definitely leave a big bruise if not treated, maybe a broken rib. Thinking that this was a chance to finish it, Tyler charged forward striking out, at that moment, Milo rolled and threw up a wall of ice to block the attack but the weight of the attack broke through the wall quite easily. The barrier still gave Milo a chance to get to his feet and distance himself from his opponent however. After getting to his feet, Milo decided to try a different approach. He swung out his chain wrapping it around Tyler. The attack didn''t do any damage, but would tie him up for a second. Once he was unable to move, Milo charged in to attack, seeing this Tyler activated his ability and became much heavier and sturdier. This was something Milo was expecting, once he was close, he froze Tyler''s legs in ce with his ice, and then verbally said, "Bind." ck chains shot from Milo''s gauntlets and wrapped themselves around Tyler before they wereshed to the ground, immobilizing him. Milo then activated his reinforce ability in his legs, jumping into the air. Once in the air, the surrounding air grew cold as a massive hammer of ice started to form in Milo''s hands, it was crudely made, due to Milo splitting his concentration from making the hammer and focusing his reinforce ability in arms. Once the hammer was fully formed and his arms reinforced, Milo swung the hammer as hard as he could down on the immobilized Tyler. Seeing the massive hammer of ice, Tyler activated his ability to its limit hoping that the attack wouldn''t be as powerful as it looked. Unfortunately for him, the hammer smashed down leaving a crater in the ground. While Tyler''s ability prevented any major damage, he still felt the attack, and he was left stuck in the floor of the stage like a crushed bug. After the massive attack, the rest of the room was in shock, Milo''s attack left a huge impact on the stage, and no one knew how to react. Milo was left sweating as it took a ton out of him, and after confirming that Tyler was unable to move the match was called over. Milo then slumped to a seat to catch his breath, it took his full concentration to use his ice ability and reinforce ability together, along with this he pushed them as far as he could without overloading himself. This was something Milo would definitely have to address and research to find what could counteract this issue. Meanwhile the judges wrote down some notes, before concluding the exams for that day, even if Milo''s match wasn''t thest, they''d be stuck for a while as the stage would need repairs due to the recoil of Milo''s finishing move. Milo was exhausted but forced himself up to go change out of his uniform for his practical sses. After changing, Milo met up with Zach who had also changed, they then went out to fetch Waki who was still hanging out with Mikael. Once they found Mikael, they found the little bird sitting on his arm eating some seeds that Mikael had produced from nowhere. Waki was digging in and when the pair entered the room he looked towards them with a few seeds stuck in the feathers around his beak, before blocking the view of the seeds as if to hide that he had been being a little glutton. "That was quite the show you put on out there Milo," Mikael said with a heartyugh, "and Zach this is quite the little friend you have now, I''m happy to see that you were able to find a beast for you to train." Mikael was one of Milo''s favorite teachers, and it was for reasons like this, he was always someone who voiced what was on his mind and tried to rte to his students, along with this, he didn''t care about background, he cared about merits. After talking some more, Milo and Zach left with Waki who chirped in frustration that his snack session was cut short. Once they arrived back at the dorms, they each went to their respective rooms. It was exam week and Milo wanted to prepare for his other tests as much as possible, but once he got to his room he was so exhausted from his practical exam that he passed out on his bed for a few hours. After waking up, he was weed by a notification on his holo from Krista asking to study together with her and Ana. He was hesitant to ept as this would be the first time since before spring break that they would be hanging out without the entire group being there, however seeing that Ana would be there too made him less worried. He figured it would be better to get used to hanging out again and decided to agree to meet up with them. The three decided to meet at the lobby of the dorm, once Milo arrived, they all got to studying almost immediately almost as if they were trying to avoid being social in case some awkward conversation came about. Although they were in different ranked sses, it was mostly to split them up ording to theirbat and practical ability, they still all had the same general education sses, so if they wanted to, they could study their general subjects together. After studying in silence for a few minutes, they finally caved and began to talk about their exams that day. Ana had taken her Gatecrashing 101 that day and because of her brother she already had an extensive background to gatecrashing even beforeing to the academy, thanks to this she was extremely confident with how she did on her exam. Krista said she had taken her math exam and due to this her brain was frazzled and she was struggling to study at the moment. Hearing this, Milo went on to say maybe they should do something different to get their minds off the exam and to study after. The group then texted Zach as they thought maybe some pet therapy could help them relieve some stress. Zach said they were wee toe up to his dorm to see Waki so they began to make their way there. On the way, Milo filled them in on what happened during his practical sses exam. They thought he was exaggerating a bit about how he done and figured they could ask Zach about it when they got to his dorm. Once they arrived, Zach let the three of them in and took a seat at his desk. Waki was currently sitting on the bed looking at the neers with curiosity. He knew Milo pretty well as he had been there when he hatched, so he hopped up to him and rubbed his head against his hand. Seeing this Milo smiled and the girls swooned at how cute Waki was. They then all sat down and began to talk to Zach about his exam and he told them about his spar with the bow and telekinesis user. After telling them about his match, he continued on to fill them in on how Milo had destroyed the stage with his massive hammer of ice. Hearing the storye from someone else made them realize Milo wasn''t kidding and the pair started to wonder just how strong her really was, as they hadn''t seen him fight since stopping the bullies he fought with at the beginning of the year. Milo then excused himself to go get a snack and left the room. Once he left, Krista''s mind began to wander about how much he had improved, as her friend she was happy that he was growing stronger but was now worried she would get left behind. While this was happening, Zach was ying with Waki and was having a st, seeing him smiling andughing as he yed with his tamed beast made Krista see him in a new light, he was much more handsome when he was smiling. This was her first time being with him when Mark, Chris and Milo weren''t there and thanks to this she started to notice new little things about Zach she hadn''t noticed before. When she first met him he was always so gloomy because he struggled to show his capabilities without being able to use his ability, but since then he had grown much more close and opened up to the members of the friend group. It reminded her a lot of the aspects that caused her to develop a crush on Milo. Seeing Krista stare, Ana decided to tease her a bit, "Whatcha staring at Krista," Ana asked. "Huh? Nothing," Krista responded quickly beginning to blush. Meanwhile Zach was too busy ying with Waki to notice anything that had happened between the girls. Chapter 77 76 - End Of The Year After Milo returned, the group realized it was gettingte, so they parted ways to go study in their rooms. Once they arrived back in their dorm, Ana teased Krista over the new crush she seemed to be developing. Krista kept saying that there was nothing going on, but couldn''t deny that she thought Zach was cute. When he was partnered with Waki, his new sidekick, he was like a different person and it reminded her a lot of Milo, he started as someone everyone considered weak but now that things were starting to change, he was acting much happier and expressed himself more, which made him much more likable and in Krista''s case desirable. Krista finally convinced Ana to put the boy talk on hold by reminding her that she needed to study for the math exam she''d be taking the next day, which was arguably her worst subject. The two finally got to studying, but Krista still couldn''t focus after realizing that maybe she was starting to like Zach. He was a good guy, he was cute, and most importantly they had just met each other this year which hopefully meant that they weren''t too close to make dating a weird idea. She still would consult with Milo, as he was her best friend and she wouldn''t want him to think that Zach was a rebound. Along with this she wanted to make sure that it wouldn''t weird him out being that they were all a part of the same friend group, but that conversation could wait until after exams ended. After that night, the week went on like a normal exam week for the group. Chris, Mark, Ana and Krista eachpleted their practical exams, Chris and Mark ended up being each other''s opponents, and Chris unfortunately burned himself out before he could break through Mark''s defense. Krista had won her match due to her being able to react to all her opponents moves by reading their mind, and Ana put on a fierce disy using her bone maniption. While they all took their practical exams, Milo was taking his general exams and each of them were stressing him out like crazy, due to him grinding out his level for the practical tests he hadn''t really gotten enough time to study and was cramming like crazy to make sure he knew all the information he needed to know, luckily his procrastinating in his first two years of high school proved to be the perfect training he needed for this week. Soon enough his final days of exams had arrived and all that was left was his gatecrashing 101 exam. It was quite a straightforward test and after he had finished he sat and waited as Ms. Teller informed them that there would be some information that would be being passed onto them before they were to leave. Once everyone had finished their exams, Ms. Teller went around the room collecting their tests, before pulling up a slideshow. The first slide said something that Milo would definitely be interested in. The slideshow was titled Summer Internships. After pulling up the slideshow, Ms. Teller began to tell the students about what the summer internships were and what they would consist of. Students would be assigned to their local branches of the GAA or to smaller guilds in the area and would be allowed to then assist in closing gates lower ranked gates as well as gain more experience in the life of a gatecrasher. The internship woulde with a list of benefits for the students, not only would they get more experience closing gates, they would also receivepensation for their work as well, this coulde in many forms, payments of credits, being given equipment or even essence cores as well. Along with this, they would learn of a few other ways that gatecrashers work, those would be detailed at the internship they were assigned to. She then went on to exin that their rankings for their exams had also been officially decided. Unlike other sses, the X ranked ss during their second year would receive rankings from the best to the worst in the ss. These rankings were decided based on their final practical exam their first year and the ranking would then have different things in their second year that would allow students to defend their spot, raise their rank, or lose it if they failed to meet certain requirements. If any students moved up to the X ranked ss, they would start at the bottom and have to climb their way up. The rankings were then used to determine different opportunities they received in their second year, as well as was a way for guilds to scout out the students once they graduated. Ms. Teller clicked a button on a remote, and the screen changed showing the rankings for all the X ranked students. Being used to his weak old self, Milo started from the bottom and began searching his way up the list. He luckily wasn''t inst ce which would''ve been embarrassing. There were 19 students total in the X ranked ss, and as he made his way up the list, he began to see the rankings of other students he knew, the student who had tried to hurt him at the beginning of the year was ced at 17 and Tyler the student he had defeated in his final exam was ced at 11. He then began to notice the ranks of his friends and teammates from the in field experience. Zach ced 14 which was the lowest of the group but given that he still didn''t have a fully grown beast to assist him this wasn''t a bad result. Chloe was ced two above him at 12, Milo definitely considered this usible, due to the creative way she chose to use her ability. With the Blink ability she wielded, most would consider using it as a sort of assassin type dealer that teleported around striking vital points, instead she used it with a crossbow to change and obtain desirable angles to overwhelm her opponent. Next was Luke he was ced at the number 8 position, Milo wasn''t expecting him to be ranked so high, but after thinking back to his final exam he felt it was understandable, he showed a great disy of swordy and was able to weave in his Barrier ability at the perfect times. Last besides himself, was Maria who was in position 4, this didn''t shock Milo, she had a very strong ability and was relentless and vicious when attacking, along with this she had a level of confidence not many others in the X ranked ss did, like Milo who still felt he had a lot to improve in. He hadn''t seen his name on the list, and went back through again starting from the bottom, but missed his name again, "where the heck is my name?" he thought. Finally he looked above Maria''s name, he doubted his name would be there but it wasn''t anywhere else. Number 3? Nope, number 2? Nope. When looking at number one his jaw dropped. "How did I get number one?" he thought. There were plenty of strong people in the ss, he knew he didn''t rank among the bottom but he just did what any person would do to win, he didn''t think it was anything special. One would think Milo would finally realize how powerful he had be after all the things he had done, but he waspletely unaware of how off the charts he really was. Once he finally picked his jaw up off the floor, he noticed all the looks he was getting, all of them mixed with different emotions; anger, envy, admiration, interest. All these different emotions were stered on the faces of the other X ranked students and all these emotions were aimed at him which made him want to hide. After finding out their ranks, Ms. Teller told them that if they were interested in a summer internship that they would have to tell her before the school closed for the summer which would be after another 14 days. The school gave these extra two weeks to allow students time to pack their things and make preparations to return home. Along with this, the school held a sort of end of year festival where people all over the Acropolis were invited to enjoy food, festivities as well as the biggest event, which was held in the academy''s colosseum that the second year students could take part in. It was called the Grand Showcase, and it had many events that pertained to gatecrashers, some of these events included a ranged event for ranged fighters as well as an overallbat tournament, along with this, there were many nonbat rted events as well such as a beauty pageant and an equipment show for the different artisans of the school that focused on creating essories, armor, and weapons for gatecrashers. This was the first time Milo had heard about this event, which was fitting for Milo who tended not to stay up to date about the different events going on around him. Ms. Teller went on to exin that many first and second year students set up their own booths at the Grand Showcase to make some credits before they went home for the summer as well. These booths were the only way that the first year students were able to get involved with the festival. After telling the students a little more info, she also mentioned that they could partner up with other students across all the different ranked sses to work together on their booth if they chose to open one. After wrapping up her little presentation, she wished all the students a fun summer and hoped they''d stay out of trouble until school started back up next fall. Herst remark to them was a final reminder that they needed to tell her their ns for the summer internship opportunity as soon as possible, before dismissing them. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 78 77 - The Start Of Summer Once the ss was let free, there was a cheery mood in the air, as summer break had finally arrived. A lot of the other students left quickly hoping to get a head start on their vacation, but a few came up and congratted Milo for taking the number one spot. Among them were his team from the in field experience; Chloe, Luke and Zach. Maria also came up to congratte and ask Milo what he would be doing for the school festival, this was something Milo hadn''t thought about yet and that''s exactly what he told Maria. He told her once he had an idea he''d let her know, before he and Zach left the ss and headed for their dorms. Once they arrived, Milo messaged the rest of the gang to find out their thoughts on the school festival. Chris and Mark had no idea what they would be doing yet, and Krista and Ana said that they weren''t nning on running a booth. Milo was hoping to run a booth but had no idea what would be a good product for them. The group had the idea to use their abilities in some way which would cut down costs. The abilities they had to choose from were Beast Taming, Ice, Fire, and Physical Transmutation, the group got together and began to brainstorm their ideas. Chris had the idea of doing a stunt course, using Milo''s superb agility they could do ming hoops or something for him to jump through, this was met with a resounding no from the group. Milo had no ideas to contribute, Zach was the same however he did have the idea to use Waki as a selling point or mascot for their booth. The final idea and probably the best was Mark''s idea of a snow cone stand, his idea involved either Milo making the "snow" himself, or if that was too hard for him, they could use his ability to chip away at bigger blocks to make the ice shavings as well. The rest of the group began to add more, such asing up with different names for vors, the name of the stand, and also how much they should charge per snow cone. After all the nning they finally had their idea flushed out and just needed to execute it. The group made their way into the city and started shopping, they bought all the supplies they might need. They even bought Waki a little perch where he could be front and center to attract customers. After getting all their supplies, the group let the instructor in charge of student booths know that they would be opening a snow cone stand. From there they were to select the days they would open, the festival was four days long and there were different events at the festival each of the days. The four boys decided that they would only open the first two days, that way they could have some time to enjoy the festival as well. The boys all wanted to go see thebat tournament which was on thest day, as the strongest second years in the school would all be going head to head. Milo also wanted to attend the equipment show, he was interested to see how good the students who focused on making equipment were, this was due to him eventually needing to find someone to make him new gear using the loot he had gathered from his in field experience and the rift from spring break. After turning in their booth ns, the group got started right away, they would be provided with a tent by the school but in terms of signage, menus, and work spaces they would have to prepare all that themselves. Zach proved to be quite the artist, as he made a bright and colorful sign that said "Thunder Hawk Snow Cones" which was the name they hade up with for the booth. On the sign there was a little cartoon picture of Waki pecking at a snow cone, which brought the sign all together. The group decided to charge 3 credits each for the snow cones, they then made a sign and came up with all the vors, they were able to get 6 different vors of syrup which meant that they would be able to offer 6 different vors. Thest thing they did was try to make an actual snow cone. Milo tried as hard as he could, but he couldn''t make any pieces of ice small enough so they went with Mark''s n of chipping away at the ice with his ability. After turning his arms to metal, Milo made a decent sized chunk of ice and he got to work shaving away at the ice until they had a decent sized pile of ice shavings. Chris then took a scoop and made it into a ball before picking a random vor and pouring the syrup over the top. Looking at their first snow cone, it was decided that Milo and Mark would have to meet and practice a bit more as it still wasn''t quite what they had in mind, but with enough practice they were sure it would work. Seeing that their idea would indeed work, the group finally sat down to rest. After running around all day preparing, having a break was nice. The group all gathered around the area they''d been working and talked about the exams that day. Meanwhile, Waki hopped over to their primitive snow cone and began to peck at it, wanting to get a taste. Over the next few days, the group got together and practiced making their snow cones and eventually they got to a point that they were happy with, and just in the nick of time too, as the next day, they would be open for business. Waking up the next morning, the four met up and made their way down to where their booth would be, while the boys were still tired from exams still, Waki was wide eyed and ready to go. The friends hung their sign at their assigned booth and set up their work area, after about an hour the festival had opened and people started to make their way around taking in all the sights and seeing was for sale at the booths. Most of the booths were all based around the abilities of the students who were running them, just like Milo and the gang. There were tons of booths, from drink stands, different foods, and even things like face painting and other activities. With the festival being open to the public, the different people of the acropolis made their way to the academy to take part in the festivities. At the start Milo and his friends weren''t doing much business, but overtime and with Waki hopping and pping about trying his best to help the group of friends, people started to notice their stand, or more urately their little mascot. Eventually they got busy enough that Milo was constantly producing new blocks of ice for Mark to shave away at. Waki continued to kill it at his role as the mascot of the stand and everyone who came to get a snow cone were looking at the little beast with glittering eyes. The group of friends each took one job, Zach was working the counter and taking orders, Chris would scoop the ice and pour the vor on top, and Milo and Mark would produce the shaved ice. It was quite the system and it was efficient as well as they went through order after order without rest. The festival was set to close at six when the finals of the event in the colosseum were set to end, and by four the group was spent. Even with how tired they were, they soldiered through until eventually the festival was finally closed for that day. After taking inventory, cleaning up their station and going to get more supplies they might need, the group went back to their dorms. They all copsed in Zach''s room as they talked about the day. Milo and Mark were barely able to function after using their abilities continuously for so long. Normally they wouldn''t be able to but with them not doing very big or shy moves with their ability, they were able to stick it out in the end. Eventually, Zach ended up finding a bunch of photos of Waki online from their stand and they all high-fived as they knew that using the little bird as a mascot would be a huge selling point, and seeing the buzz online about Waki proved that to be the case. The next order of business was to get rest for their next day of work. Even though tomorrow was theirst day being open, the event in the colosseum was more popr than the one on their first day which hopefully meant they''d be even busier. The group decided that they wouldn''t split the profit from the two days until they closed for good so as to not distract themselves. After some more talking the group finally parted ways as they were too exhausted to stay awake any longer. The next day went the same as the first only they were even busier than before, Krista and Ana also came by to check on the guys and to get snow cones. In truth they wanted to just see Waki who was fulfilling his role of pulling in customers perfectly. While the guys all were hard at work, Waki sat at his perch chirping at all the customers and was loving all the pets and attention he was getting. Seeing how well he was doing his job, Zach decided that he would definitely have to buy him something nice. Eventually the festival closed and once again they cleaned everything up but not before making a special snow cone for Waki who seemed to love the frozen treats. The group had worked hard for the past two days and after all their work, they had sessfully made a total of 4,128 credits, which they went on to split four ways. They had made a lot more than they were expecting to but none of them wereining. With this, they would have a bit of spending money for their summer vacation. After celebrating with a meal, the group split up and returned to their dorms to sleep. Milo was happy to finally have some free time and went to the bathroom to check out his status screen before going to bed, nothing should''ve changed but after a week he wanted to double check where his progress was at. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 25 Gold: 1,325 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 4) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 5) 3 - Beast Tamer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 3) 5 - empty - 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [44+8] Agility: [39+3] Intelligence: [44] Stamina: [43] Constitution: [38+6] Magic Power: [30] [clear] After refreshing his knowledge, he wanted to take a break from training himself more, and there was no better time to do it, with the school festival going on. Chapter 79 [Bonus ] 78 - Enjoying The Festival When waking up the next morning, Milo went through his usual routine, he brushed his teeth, went to the weapons hall to practice his chain sickle techniques and finally took a shower. Once he returned home for the summer he''d have to find a new ce to practice with his weapon. He was currently attempting to learn the master level tutorial and was close but would still need more time to practice the techniques even more. The simple way of describing the techniques would involve grabbing the chain at different lengths to change the way the de would swing. After showering and returning to his room, Milo was weed back by Chris and Mark, the two had grown ustomed to Milo leaving to go train in the morning. They even went with him a couple times, but were still happier getting the extra sleeping time, especially Chris. After they were all up, the group met up with Zach and went down to get breakfast. Waki was pooped from all the attention yesterday so he decided to allow him to sleep a little longer. Once the group had gotten their food and sat down, the girls also got food and sat down at their table. Eventually they were all talking about the festival and failed to notice a new face making their way over to the table. The group was interrupted when Maria sat her tray down next to Milo where she took a seat. This was the first time that Chris, Mark, Krista and Ana were meeting Maria and it caught them off guard to see a stranger take a seat at their table. Seeing who had joined them, Milo introduced her to the group. Chris was especially taken aback due to her beauty and for once seemed flustered when talking to a girl which was unusual as he was usually quite brash and confident in nature. Maria went on to introduce herself and told everyone how she knew Milo and Zach. She also mentioned the date that she and Milo had gone on, giving him a wink, and shot away any hopes Chris may have been harboring. Milo''s face went as red as the cherry snow cones they sold the day before, as he had only mentioned it to Mark and Chris, he also never told the two who exactly the mystery girl who took him on the date was, and here she as right in front of them. Hearing about the date, Krista and Ana nearly did a spit take with their milk. "Are you sure he knew it was a date?" Ana said, chuckling to herself. Krista had moved past her crush on Milo at this point but didn''t know why he never mentioned Maria. Although hearing Ana''s remark made her realize that this was Milo they were talking about, he wouldn''t know a date if it hit him in the face. "Honestly I''m not too sure," Maria said, "I never cleared up whether it really was a date or not, but I had a good time with him," she said, giving Milo a smile. Milo immediately tried to steer the subject away from his and Maria''s "date" but knew that he''d have countless conversations about itter, even Zach wanted to have a talk about it. Eventually the talk moved towards the festival and the group learned that a few years ago, Maria''s older brother had won thebat tournament. This ended up with them inquiring about her family, and when learning herst name they were shocked, she was a Van Orten after all. It was at that moment, that Milo saw something he had never seen from Maria, and that was her attempting to cover the shame she felt involving her family. He could tell she wasn''tfortable talking about it and moved the talking back to the festival, which got him a thankful look. After eating their breakfast, the girls asked Maria if she''d like to join them that day at the festival which she dly epted. Eventually the group left the cafeteria and stopped at their dorms to pick up Waki before they made their way out to where on campus the festival was taking ce. When opening the door, they found him with his face buried in a pile of seeds that was spilled out of the side of the bag. When seeing he had guests, he tried to hide the evidence, but his puffed up cheeks and the seeds stuck in the feathers around his beak gave him away, which got augh from the group. After a short scolding and cleanup Waki was sitting on Zach''s shoulder and the group made their way out to the festival. Instead of being stuck in their booth all day the group was able to finally enjoy all the different vendors and activities that were going on around campus. Vendors of all different kinds lined the square; food, equipment, drinks, there was even a stall for beast tamer supplies where Zach spent almost all of his cut of their earnings from the day before at. All the while, the group continued to have fun, Maria seemed to be warming up to the members of the groups as well, and chose to stick closer to Krista and Ana. Seeing this made Milo nervous that she''d spill about their day out on the town, but he chose to deal with it when the time came, rather than get into it in the middle of the street. While the girls were ahead of the guys, Chris finally saw the chance to pull Milo aside and get some answers from him. "That hottie is the one you weren''t sure if you were on a date with or not?" he asked. "Yeah, so what?" Milo said in response. "So what?! Bro she is gorgeous. What did you do to make her ask you out?" Chris said in response. Milo then went on to exin the whole in-field experience from meeting her when she was a more cold and domineering person, all the way up to where her cold outer shell finally thawed after he saved her. It ended with him telling him about her suddenly showing up at his dorm and asking to hang out, which at the time he thought was a simple hangout between friends. "So you saved her life huh?" Chris said as if lost in thought, "I stand no chance then, good on you man, I''d put a lock on her before she changes her mind about liking you," he said. Milo went on to think about Maria more after hearing Chris''s thoughts, he wasn''t sure if he liked her yet, but he definitely thought she was pretty, there was no doubt about that. He''d have to think about it some more before acting, not to mention summer vacation was about to start and her family was from Ennd, and he was from New York meaning they wouldn''t be able to see each other until they returned to school. This would give him plenty of time to think things over before just jumping into anything. He nced at her while walking and she caught his line of sight and smiled at him. It was nice seeing her being so warm after their first encounter. If she still acted how she did back then, then he knew there was no way there could be anything between them. After returning her smile the group continued on towards their destination. Eventually the group arrived at a ferris wheel, where Krista and Milo ended up on the same bucket, which meant the conversation he wanted to wait to have would being sooner rather thanter. Once the ride started he heard her say, "So Maria huh? Why didn''t you tell me about the date you went on with her?" "I was nning on telling you eventually," Milo said, "but that was when you confessed to me and things got awkward and yeah¡­" Hearing Milo trail off, Krista felt she should say something to keep things from getting weird again, "It''s all good, to be honest I''ve kind of moved on from my crush I had on you, I''ve started to like someone else now, or at least I think I do, I''m not sure yet." When adding thest part, Zach''s smiling face popped into her mind which made her blush. "That''s good, who''s the lucky guy?" he said with a cheeky smile. Seeing this, made Krista relieved, she was nervous it''d get things awkward again but Milo reacted exactly how he would''ve in the past. "Promise you won''t make fun of me?" she asked. "If you say Chris I might," Milo answered backughing. Kristaughed a bit with Milo, and once theughter subsided she said, "No not Chris, he''s too much." She paused for a second as if to gather the courage to admit who she liked before finally saying Zach''s name. Hearing this, Milo paused for a second, "wait really?" he said. Krista was worried he''d get mad and prepared for the worst. "That''s awesome!" he eximed. "Wait what? It''s awesome?" She asked. This wasn''t the response she was expecting, but hearing him say it made her want to make sure she heard him right. "Yeah, my girl best friend likes my guy best friend, and he''s much better than the jerks you liked back in New York," he saidughing out loud. Hearing Milo say this, Krista heaved out a sigh of relief, "So you aren''t mad?" she asked, making sure once again she didn''t hear him wrong. "No, why would that make me mad?" Milo said, "I think you two would be good for each other," after answering her final question their ride of the ferris wheel wasing to an end, and the rest of the group were waiting for them, Chris seemed to be talking Maria''s ear off which led to desperate looks to Milo, as if she was saying "please help me." Chapter 80 79 - Equipment Show After stepping off the ride anding to Maria''s rescue, Milo convinced the group that they should head over to the colosseum to watch the event taking ce that day. Unlike most events, this event had a section for both first and second year students. It acted as a way for uing equipment artisans to get their name out there as well as maybe make some customers that they can then make equipment for during the school year. It was for this reason that Milo wanted to go, he was hoping he could find someone their age that was good at making equipment so that he couldmission something with the unique ranked essence core he obtained on his in-field experience. After some more walking, the group had finally made their way to the colosseum. It was a huge round building that had entirely ss walls. It looked more like a stadium from the outside, but was called the colosseum because of its use being simr to that of the colosseum in ancient Rome. It was only used on asions such as this, to host events for the school. Since abilities began to appear, sports and the Olympics began to decline in poprity due to ability users having an extreme advantage. Since then, diatorial type events grew very popr and the school''sbat tournament was no different. It attracted the attention of many, and was even broadcasted out to the world for many to watch. The majority of guilds also used this as a major scouting opportunity as well, sending guild invites to many of the participants. The equipment show, while not as popr, had a simr use, the school invited many high profile guests to the event, including the lead artisans at many of the equipment firms of the world that were known for creating the best equipment for gatecrashers. The students who created the best gear would then receive invites for internships or even job offers. When entering the colosseum Milo was taken aback by the sheer size of the building, he had seen it from a distance while walking between sses but had never gotten up close enough to see howrge it actually was. Inside the outer shell, there were many different stands and booths selling refreshments and food for the spectators to eat or drink, and the floor was packed full of people there for the event. The group made their way around the colosseum checking out all the different things that were for sale, Milo didn''t recognize any faces, but other members of the group began to pick out different gatecrashers and artisans that they knew. Mark was especially flustered after seeing one of his idols from when he was younger, it was a gatecrasher that used an ability very simr to his. Eventually Milo andpany made their way to the stands where they could watch some of thepetitors in action making their equipment. It looked like a hard job, between the high heat that would be emitted from the forge to the strength and stamina it took to hammer a piece of metal into the right shape, Milo couldn''t imagine what kind of resolve it would take to want to do this as a job, but there were people his age right in front of his eyes that were doing it. Most artisans used abilities to help them with their work, the mostmon one was the reinforce ability, being able to strengthen one''s body was especially useful in a smith''s line of work. Othermon abilities included elemental resistance, metal transmutation, and even the fire ability which Chris used. Looking at some of the first year students working, Milo began to realize that without his system, he could''ve ended up out there. After watching the students work, he began to see some of the students finishing the pieces they were working on. This early on, most of the ones finishing were second year students, as they had be more efficient at doing their work. Once all the students were finished, they would be judged by a group of appraisers before being put out for people toe and look at. Seeing what the rest of the students were working on, there was a wide variety of gear being produced. The mostmon were swords and chest pieces, the strangest looking piece of equipment looked almost like the student was attempting to make a crossbow that reloaded with a magazine rather than inserting arrows one at a time. After watching the students for another few hours, thepetitors had all finally finished their work, and the equipment was taken to be appraised. Another hour after that and all the equipment would be on disy for the public, and an hourter, Milo and his group proceeded down to the presentation room where all the armor produced by students was put out on disy. Looking at all the pieces of equipment, they all were differing in color and materials. Some looked better quality than others, but Milo was able to look at the actual details using his inspect skill. There were plenty of different ranked equipment, ranging frommon all the way up to unique. While going through the pieces of equipment they all had different stat boosts, out of all the pieces of equipment, only 4 of the 28 or so pieces had an attached skill. 3 of which were unique ranked and 1 was at the rare tier. Looking at the different stat boosts between the pieces of equipment, the rare rank obviously had to lowest. Milo began to wonder what made active skills appear, which made him ask his friends if any of them knew. All of them shrugged, except for one person, Maria said she wasn''t sure what the exact cause of it was, but she heard a story from her brother about it, part of it involved the rank of the essence core that was used; the higher the core''s rank, the higher chance there was of an attached skill manifesting. The other part of it involved how the creator made the equipment, some artisans had better control of their magic power flow and in some cases, the creator would forcibly overcharge the core with their own magic power on ident. She went on to add that her brother said that no one was one hundred percent sure how the overcharging process worked, but whoever discovered it would be someone found in history books 100 yearster. Based on this information, Milo took a look at the stats of the different pieces of equipment, the armor rating his system applied varied depending on the type of equipment he was using inspect on, which was expected, a chest te would obviously have a higher armor rating than a helmet for example. The next thing to check was the stat boosts applied by the different pieces of equipment. Whenparing the stat boosts to other pieces of the same rank, Milo found the first big difference, for some reason the rare tiered piece of equipment offered higher stat boostspared to the other rare ranked pieces, where inparison the unique ranked pieces of equipment offered a much more average boost. Milo wasn''t sure why this was but when doing a bit of math, he found that the stat boosts for the rare piece were about 20 percent higherpared to other rare ranked pieces, while the uniques were around the same boost in stats as other unique ranked pieces, and in some cases even had lower boosted stats. Based on this, Milo had found the person he wanted to make his unique ranked piece of equipment. Not only did they sessfully add an attached skill to the equipment, but their equipment was much more efficient overall as well. Now the only thing Milo would have to do is find and meet the creator in person. Looking at the tag of the entry, the creator was actually a first year student, meaning Milo could evenmission things next year as well, if things worked out. Finally he checked the name of the creator and took a note of it in his head. The creator''s name was Avery Becket. After picking out the student he wanted to make his equipment, the group finally decided to take a look at the entry that had won the event. It was a heroic tiered chest piece that was mostly silver in color with a bronze looking trim that made a filigree pattern running down the sides as well. Milo opened his inspect skill to take a closer look. [Silver Defender(Heroic)] Durability: 350 Armor Rating: 600 Str +10 Agi +15 Sta +5 Description: A lighter piece of silver armor meant to allow the wearer to have close to full mobility, what itcks in defense, it makes up for in flexibility. [clear] Seeing the winning piece of equipment, Milo realized that the judging was a bit unfair, it looked like the judges favored higher tiered equipment over the overall quality. Not only this but it didn''t seem that attached skills affected their opinion either, that is, if the judges even tested the equipment for attached skills. The only way one could do this, was by injecting magic power into the equipment, from there if there was any reaction from the magic power, the skill''s effect would then be named and its effect would be written down. The system streamlined this process by giving the skills effect and name for Milo. In theory, one didn''t need to use the name of the skill to activate it, but it took a lot of practice with magic power control. After the winning piece was announced and put on disy, the festival had ended for the day and pretty soon the campus began to be empty again other than the students. Milo and his friends went back to their dorms to sleep before thest day of the festival and what would probably be the most exciting day as well. Chapter 81 80 - Combat Tournament Once the next morning had arrived, Milo once again went about his morning routine, this time however, Zach decided to join. While training, Zach inquired about Milo''s date with Maria who went on to exin about what they did that day. Zach was surprised by this, as he was there when she first joined their team and saw how cold she acted towards everyone, not only this but he had heard the rumors about her shooting down every guy who approached her with dating in mind, being in the X ranked ss. Zach continued on to ask if Milo liked Maria back, as he also was aware of the little test run that he and Krista went on and wanted to know where Milo was on the whole girls front. Milo answered with a lukewarm response, he still wasn''t sure if he liked Maria yet, but he knew where his feelings for Krista stood, and that was strictly as friends. After responding to Zach, he asked him if he had any girls he liked. This was something Zach hadn''t thought of yet. This is what he told Milo, but it started to get his thoughts moving. Were there girls at the school he thought were pretty? Sure, but he hadn''t thought deeply about whether there were any stand out girls that he would say he was crushing on. He eventually decided to go through the girls he knew the best to see if any of them stood out to him. Ana was too forward and aggressive for him, Maria was already crushing on Milo and was also too forward for him, finally when getting to Krista he paused. He thought she was cute, he also thought that her personality was much better than the other girls. Eventually he got so distracted that he messed up a move and got caught up in Milo''s chain while they were sparring. After Zach got too lost in thought Milo thought it would be a good idea to end their practice session there. The pair began to head back to the dorms where they ran into Maria, Ana and Krista. The girls decided to go out and get breakfast together so that Krista and Ana could get to know Maria more. The girls asked if the guys would like to join them, but Zach and Milo said that they needed to shower first. Seeing Krista''s face after the thoughts that Zach was thinking earlier sent a jolt up his spine, it was something he hadn''t had happen before. Eventually during the conversation, the pair made eye contact for a split second before they both looked away blushing. This gave him a realization, maybe he did like someone, and that someone was Krista. After the interaction with the girls, Milo and Zach each made their way back to their rooms and showered before meeting up with Chris and Mark and going to get some food before the festival. At the school cafeteria the group grabbed their food and took a seat. With thebatpetition going on that day, the group was talking about who they thought would win. Milo had no idea who waspeting so he stayed out of the conversation and instead tried to think of a way that he could find and convince the person who made the rare ranked equipment with an attached skill to make him a piece of equipment using the unique ranked core he had. His only idea was to go down to where the artisan students worked and use his inspect skill to find who Avery Becket was. He then began to think of what type of equipment he should ask them to make it into. As of now he wanted to get his hands on either a chest piece or a new chain hook. Due to him already having a weapon that he could reliably use, he figured the former would be a better choice. Milo eventually got snapped out of his daze by Chris, the group had finished eating and Chris was asking Milo if there was anything else he wanted to do at the festival that day other than go to see thebat tournament. Milo didn''t have anything else he wanted to see, so the group made their way to the colosseum right at the start of the festival. Thebat tournament was set up in a bracket format, and thepetitors drew lots to determine who their opponents would be. At the start of the tournament, there would be 32 studentspeting and it would end with one overall champion. While a majority of thosepeting were from the X ranked ss it wasn''t umon for a few A ranks to also get into the bracket, if their abilities were better suited forbat than some of the X ranked students. When the guys all arrived, the tournament was getting set to start with the first match. When they took their seats, Milo looked out at the venue. In the center of the colosseum 16 small stages were set up around the main floor. At each a teacher was stationed who would be in charge of refereeing the matches. Eventually the amount of stages would be cut down to one, once the quarterfinals arrived. This was simply to keep thepetition from running for too long, as they needed to have a break in between each match to make sure the students who needed it received healing. There was a small pamphlet handed out that had all the matches listed in a bracket so people could know who was fighting at what stage, and also so they could keep track of the matches. Looking around the venue some more, Milo was able to see countless cameras set up around the different stages to broadcast the various matches. Eventually the seats around them began to fill, and the girls hade to join them. Milo ended up getting a seat next to Maria, who wrapped her arm around his. When she did this, Milo was too flustered to try to separate himself from her so he let her do it. After a couple more minutes an announcer began the opening ceremonies. Soon after the opening ceremony, the 32peting students made their way to the stages they''d be fighting on. All the students who werepeting were covered from head to toe in magical equipment, making them all look like gatecrashers. Using the inspect skill, Milo also was pleased to see that there was a wide variety of weapons and abilities that would be showcased, as he was worried that there may be too much of the same thing. Eventually the matches began and the tournament was finally underway, there were a few matches that ended quite quickly and when looking at the matches in the program, Milo was able to learn that the students who had lost that quickly were A ranked students who got partnered against X ranked students. Of the remaining matches that were still underway, there were 3 abilities in particr that seemed like they could be interesting matches to watch. One was a student who used an ability called Physical Clone, they were able to make clones of themselves that were just like his main body and could push in and attack, when cloned all the equipment he was wearing would also be cloned which made it difficult to determine clones from his actual self. The second was a student who used an ability that allowed him to make himselfrger, he wielded arge spiked club that grew with him, Milo imagined that fighting the student would be like fighting the cyclops he and the guys had encountered while on spring break in Miami. The third student had an ability that allowed them to grow and fire off spikes from their body, almost like a porcupine. Eventually all the matches in the first round had finished and they took a short intermission to heal the students who had been injured, as well as lower the number of stages to 8 for the round of 16 matches. In the round of 16 matches only one student from the A ranked ss remained, he had luckily been paired up against another A ranked student and had won in a close match. After the intermission ended, the matches resumed. Still hanging on his arm, Maria asked Milo who he thought would win, at this point he wasn''t sure but figured it could be one of the three students he had noticed earlier. Just like in the first round of matches, thest remaining A ranked student was knocked out of thepetition quite quickly, and the rest of the matches took a bit longer. All three students Milo liked had won their matches, one of them was paired with the A ranked student so they had an easier match whenpared to the other two, but all 3 of them won quite convincingly. Watching the matches, Milo began to realize the gap that existed between the X and A ranked students, the A ranked students didn''t stand a chance when fighting the X ranked students, which made Milo wonder where exactly his friends in the A ranked ss stood on getting moved up to the X ranked ss. Eventually the round of 16 had ended and they once again took a short intermission to prepare the colosseum for the final 6 matches, and drop the number of stages down to one. Milo took this opportunity to get away from Maria who hadn''t let go of his arm since the matches started and excused himself to go get some food as well as to run to the bathroom. Once he had left, he got a message from Chris with a winky face emoticon that Milo rolled his eyes at with a chuckle. Apparently Chris had noticed how touchy Maria was getting with Milo. While that was going on, there was another boy and girl who got seats next to each other, in this case though neither of them knew whether they should make a move or not and it caused an awkward tension to form in the air. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 82 83 - A Date Messed up the scheduling for the release of this chapter by ident. This is chapter 83, chapter 81 is the next chapter after this one, then 82. After reading those two chapters, return to this one to keep the order right. I apologize in advance for the confusion, won''t happen again. - Kowatch24 - - - - - - - - Once Milo arrived at Maria''s door, he knocked not knowing what to expect from the lovestruck girl hoping she wouldn''t make a huge deal out of their get together. Eventually the door opened and Milo was taken aback by how pretty Maria looked. Her ck hair was draping over her shoulders and was loosely curled, her blue eyes were sparkling and popped against the makeup that gave her a more mature look. Her outfit was ck dress that was definitely meant to catch people''s eyes as it hugged her figure quite tightly which made Milo blush when seeing her. Around her neck was a small golden pendant that had a lightning bolt. "Wow," Milo said without realizing. After hearing the wordse out of his own mouth he couldn''t disagree with them, but he blushed when realizing that he had actually said it. Maria was a total beauty, and Milo knew this, but for whatever reason, she chose him as the one she liked. She smiled at him before saying, "you look handsome," eyeing him from head to toe. He felt self conscious being checked out so obviously. "Well what are we doing tonight?" Maria asked Milo after taking in his appearance. "I was thinking we could have dinner and maybe a walk through the park," he responded. "Sounds good to me," Maria said, "and I''d like to clear this up now so that things don''t get weird, are we doing this as friends or is it a date?" Milo paused when hearing this, he knew that she liked him, but he still wasn''t sure if he liked her. Due to this, he began to run scenarios through his head as if the two were dating. He knew she would stick up for him, she obviously had already shot down plenty of other guys in the past, so he knew she wouldn''t be unfaithful. He then went on to think about the things he liked about her, first was obviously her looks, she was gorgeous, he also admired how headstrong she was, she wasn''t one to shy away from a challenge. She was strong as well, in more ways than one, she was strong inbat being the 3rd ranked member of the X ranked ss, but she also went through a lot at home, dealing with her judgmental family. Seeing Milo pause to think after her question, Maria began to feel a bit down, she liked Milo a lot but thought maybe her aggression in pursuing him may have scared him off. She opened her mouth to say that it was fine if it wasn''t a date but before she could Milo hade up with his answer. "It''s a date, but before we go too fast, I want to know more about you, I barely know anything about you besides your ability, that you''re a good fighter, and that even though you''re so strong, your family doesn''t get along with you." He said, "I want to know your likes and dislikes, your dreams, the deeper stuff." Hearing this, Maria smiled as she hadn''t scared him off yet like she thought she had. She was also expecting something like this to begin with. She barely knew anything about Milo as well, besides how strong he was and his family situation, but just like him, she wanted to know more about the deeper stuff. "Okay, but no backing out now," she told Milo with a wink before taking him by the hand. The two walked hand in hand towards the school''s entrance, causing them to get stares from other students who were out and about. "Holy cow, what a lucky guy." "They look so good together." "I wish he was my boyfriend." These were some of themon things they''d heard the other students say while on their way to the entrance to campus. Milo hadn''t thought about it before, but some of the other students may consider the pair to be a power couple of some kind. Hearing this made Milo giggle a bit as he still didn''t consider himself all that strong, even though his strength was off the charts whenpared to other students. Seeing himugh, Maria asked, "What''s so funny?" "The other students probably see us as a power couple or something," he said stillughing. "Well one of the reasons I started to like you was because of how strong you are," she said, smiling at him. After hearing the different things the students were saying about them. The two had finally made their way to the entrance of the school. Milo was still a bit flustered about how to act during his and Maria''s date. Maria seemed to pick up on Milo''s thoughts and said, "there''s no need to worry, I don''t bite. Just be yourself." Hearing Maria''s words of encouragement calmed him down a bit but he was still nervous to say the wrong thing. The couple made their way into the city, before finding a restaurant to eat at. Maria picked the restaurant and when entering, Milo looked at the grand appearance of the decorations only to be a bit nervous about how expensive it might be. "Don''t worry about paying, tonight''s dinner is on me, it''s only fair considering I picked the restaurant and used my family''s name to get us a table," said Maria, as if reading his mind. Hearing Maria say this, Milo felt bad for making her pay, but he had never eaten at a restaurant that was so fancy, and after paying for his new piece of equipment earlier that day, his funds were a bit scarce. Eventually Milo and Maria were shown to a table. The table they were seated at was in the middle of the room, surrounding their table were many other tables where many well dressed people were sitting. The people at the other tables were most likely sessful business men and women, as well as strong gatecrashers. Milo felt very out of ce, but Maria assured him everything would be okay, before they took a seat. After taking his sear and opening the menu, Milo''s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He would usually spend close to 20 credits total when going out to eat, but the cheapest item on the menu was 100 credits. Seeing the prices listed on the menu, Milo asked Maria if she was sure that she could afford eating here, but she assured him that she had enough money, although they called her the failure of the family, Maria still received a hefty allowance to spend. Milo still felt ufortable making Maria spend so much money on him, so he ordered the cheapest item he could find which ended up being a piece of meatloaf. Eventually once their orders had been taken, Milo and Maria got to talking about the things he mentioned wanting to learn about each other. While talking Milo was able to learn that Maria wanted to eventually be strong enough to stand on her own and get away from her family name. He considered this to be quite admirable, Milo himself would want the same thing if his family was as powerful and influential as hers. Milo then went on to tell her his dream of being able to stop the dimensional doors from putting those he cared about in danger. After talking more, Maria began to fall for Milo more and more, as he told her all his aspirations and dreams. Maria had never met someone as young as she was that had already been through so much. When he told her the stories of him being bullied in his first two years of high school, she couldn''t believe it at first, due to how much it contrasted who he was now, but just like when Chris didn''t believe him, Milo pulled up an old photo of himself from his days in New York. Seeing his scrawny old self once again reminded him of how far he hade. Maria thought the same, when seeing the old photograph of Milo, she was surprised at the difference between his old self and the hunk sitting across from her, but there were enough simrities that she could tell that it truly was Milo in the photo. Later, after enjoying their meal and making some more small talk, Maria paid for their meals which totaled at a whopping 348 credits, before the two of them made their way to one of the many gardens the city had to offer. With it being quite early in the summer, all the nts were lush with greenery, and all the flowers were in full bloom. Walking through the gardens, Milo and Maria continued to talk, as their date continued on, Milo had gotten morefortable interacting with Maria and did as she said, choosing to let loose and be himself, which calmed him down immensely. The date was nearing its end, and Milo and Maria had made their way to a park bench that looked outwards toward the ocean. The Artificial Ind was currently making its way towardsnd in order to allow students to depart a few dayster and return to their hometowns for the summer but at the moment was still in the middle of the sea. The sun was setting, casting a burnt orange glow on the water and painting a myriad of colors across the sky. While looking out over the golden, shimmering waters, Maria rested her head on Milo''s shoulder. Milo became a little flustered but calmed himself so that he didn''t show any sign of being nervous. He then did something that took him some building up to do, and ced his hand on Maria''s. From there on, Milo and Maria sat in blissful silence, watching the sun disappear beneath the waves. After the sun had set, Maria and Milo made their way back to the school and to their dorm building where Milo walked Maria back to her room. "Thank you for today," she said, "I had a great time." "I did as well," Milo said. Looking at Maria, Milo felt that their day together was a good one. Learning more about her, Milo began to find himself growing more and more attracted to her. When saying their goodnights, Milo got lost looking into her eyes, and before he knew it, she had pressed her lips to his, stealing a kiss before he could react. Just like her first time with him, when she kissed him on the cheek, she rushed into her room before Milo could say anything else, leaving him red in the face standing at her door. Chapter 83 81 - Combat Tournament II While Milo was locked arm in arm with Maria, whether it was against his will or not, Zach and Krista ended up with seats next to each other. The two had only recentlye to the realization that they liked each other, and because of this, they still were unsure whether the feelings they had were mutual. Because of this fact, there was a certain level of awkward tension in the air while watching thebat tournament, as if both parties were still unsure of whether or not they should make a move. Ana knew that Krista had started to develop a crush on Zach following their study break they took in Zach''s room a little over a week before. Because of this, she was keeping a close eye on the pair. Chris began to notice this, and leaned over to Ana, signaling he had something he wanted to whisper in her ear. She leaned closer so he could say what he wanted to say, "Why do you keep looking at Krista and Zach, is something going on that I don''t know about?" Ana wasn''t someone who you wanted to know your secrets as she was a big gossip. She went on to exin what had happened when she, Krista and Milo went to study in Zach''s room, and all the stares that Krista had thrown Zach''s way, along with her reaction to Ana''s teasing. Chris grinned, as he could now tease Zach about the whole thing, and who knows maybe, he could be the me wielding cupid that the two needed. After Milo excused himself, Chris tried to get Zach to run to get some snacks with him as well. Once the pair had gotten some distance away from their seats, Chris finally asked the question, "So what''s going on between you and Krista?" "I''m not sure, she''s definitely been acting differently than she normally would when talking to me," Zach responded. "I meant with you dude, you''re acting strange too," Chris said back. Hearing that someone else had noticed that he had been fidgety while sitting next to Krista had Zach hoping that she didn''t notice. After looking at Chris''s face, he knew that there was no way to hide what was on his mind, so he spilled the tea. Hearing about the strange feeling Zach was feeling around Krista made Chris sh a devilish grin. "Don''t you dare say anything," Zach said to Chris when seeing his reaction to what he said. "I won''t," Chris said, "but it''s a good piece of info to know. Have you talked to Milo or her about it yet?" "No, I haven''t but I n on it, now let''s leave it at that," Zach said, cutting off the conversation. Eventually the pair bumped into Milo who also left to get some food, as well as to get a break from Maria. Chris gave Zach a look as if to say, it''d probably be better to talk sooner rather thanter, before excusing himself, leaving the two friends to their own devices. After Chris was gone, Milo turned to Zach and gave him a weird look. "I need to tell you something Milo," Zach said. Seeing that the situation took a turn towards a serious mood, Milo was a little nervous to find out what Zach had to tell him. "So the thing is," Zach continued, "I''m not a hundred percent sure yet, but¡­" Zach paused for a second making Milo wonder what the heck he could be talking about. Did Milo do something to make him angry? Did he not want to be friends anymore? Or worst of all, did he find out about the system? "Ugh screw it, I''m just gonnae right out and say it," Zach finally went on, "I think I have a crush on Krista." Hearing the news Milo was shocked, "he had that much trouble thinking of how to tell me that?" he thought. Zach looked at him to see his reaction to the words, which made Milo feel the need to reply to the statement. "What about it?" he asked nonchntly. Milo had already told Krista about his thoughts on the two getting together, and he didn''t see any drawbacksing from it. Zach didn''t know what to think, he had just told Milo that he had a crush on his best friend, and not only that, but they had gone on a date a few weeks ago. "So you aren''t mad at me? I thought you''d have more to say, considering your history with her." "After everything we''ve been through, I''ve seen her date a few guys, but all of them were guys I considered to be trash. After trying to voice my opinion to her, she made a point to remind me that it was her life and not mine, even if I protect her like a sister. Unlike the guys she went out with back in New York though, you''re someone I consider to be a good guy." Hearing Milo''s exnation Zach hadn''t thought about whether she''d dated other guys, and hearing that Milo thought he would be good for her, made him feel a bit more at ease about something happening between the two. "Didn''t you two try to go on a date a few weeks ago?" When Zach asked this, the pair had already received their orders and Milo was in the middle of a drink causing him to make a spit take. "Yeah we did, but please don''t remind me of it, it was uber awkward and we both decided not to speak of it again," he said. After talking to Krista on the ferris wheel the day before, he and her had agreed that they would never speak of it again as it was the most awkward moment the two had ever been through together in their 16 years of knowing each other. This even included the time when the two were 6 and Milo had asked their parents why she and him didn''t have the same parts down there after taking a bath together, which grew into quite the inside joke between their families. After the two had augh, they made their way back to their seats and sat down just as the semifinals were about to begin. The 3 students Milo thought had a chance of winning were still in thepetition and two of them would be forced to face off in this round. The student who could gigantify ended up being ced up against the student who could grow spikes from their body. The match took longer than previous matches due to both thepetitors being quite skilled. Eventually the power of Gigantification ousted the student who could grow spikes, and the finals matchpetitors had been decided and there was onest break before the finals match began. Eventually an announcement had been made and the crowd began to cheer. The top twopetitors made their way to the stage, where they got an introduction reminiscent of a pro wrestling match, with nicknames, theme music and more. Once the introductions were over, the match began, the finalists were the student who could gigantify themself and the physical clone student. The match went on for a while, but simr to David and Goliath, the student who was able to grow to a massive size was defeated. After the match''s conclusion, the students were treated for their injuries and the awards ceremony began. The students were all given medals for their achievements by the academy''s headmaster and the tournament was finally over. Milo and his friends began to stand up and make their way down to the exit, with the tournament over, the final part of the festival was a fireworks show. The group all decided to watch from the roof of their dorm building. Once they arrived, the fireworks began. The group all made their way over to the balcony that overlooked the square and watched the colorful explosions light up the night sky. Once again, Milo was positioned next to Maria, and Zach next to Krista. Maria pulled Milo''s arm around her shoulder and settled up close to him. His face immediately went red and he was too flustered to say anything or try and remove his arm from its new resting ce. Zach and Krista on the other hand were standing close to each other, but both were fidgeting and too afraid to make a move. Seeing the pair standing there, Chris snuck over and whispered into Zach''s ear, "trust me," before he proceeded to grab his arm and ce it around Krista''s shoulder, before Zach could protest. Krista wasn''t expecting this at all, but leaned into him, seeing her reaction Zach heaved a sigh of relief, "maybe she likes me back and something really wille out of this," he thought. The group continued to watch the balls of colorful mes ignite across the academy''s skyline as the festival came to a close. Summer would bring many new changes and experiences for the group of friends and Milo also had a new goal, find the person who would create his next piece of equipment. Chapter 84 82 - Finding Avery With the festival having concluded, Milo had a new goal to aplish before he would be heading back to New York for his summer break, and he had ten days to do it. He needed to find the student named Avery Becket, who had created the rare ranked equipment with an attached skill from the equipment show. Milo made his way down to the smithing hall, where there were many rooms that had students working away at the stations creating equipment. Milo wasn''t sure what method of finding the student named Avery would be the most efficient. Milo eventually just started using his inspect skill to check the names of all the students he saw. Making his way down the hallway, Milo checked every boy he saw looking for the student he was trying to track down. He hadn''t been able to see them yet, so he began to peek his head into rooms checking each student that way. After going through every room, he still hadn''t found the person he was looking for. Milo didn''t know where else he may be able to find Avery, being a smith he expected them to be in the smithing hall working on anymissions they may have received following the Equipment show, but maybe they had gone to work on themissions at their home forge already. Because of this, Milo thought that maybe he had missed the chance to talk to Avery, he got bummed out and began to make his way to the exit. As he was about to step through the door he heard amotion in one of the rooms. "What the hell Avery, take a break you''ve been working non stop for 2 days! I''m surprised you haven''t passed out from exhaustion already." Hearing the name Avery perked Milo''s ears. Could it be the student he had been looking for? Milo tracked down the room that themotion wasing from, and found a smaller student shouting at another student through a thick mask with a dark visor over the eyes. Milo inspected the student being yelled at first, but it wasn''t the right person, meaning that it had to be the stranger in the mask. Opening the inspect skill, he looked down at the skill window that popped up: [Avery Becket] Ability: Reinforce Status: Healthy Rtionship: Stranger Target is currently angry at another student for interrupting their work [clear] Seeing that it was indeed the Avery he was looking for, Milo waited for the argument between them and the other student to settle itself, before he walked up to introduce himself. Once he introduced himself, he got quite an aggressive response. "The name''s Avery, why are you here?" they said, their voice was a bit muffled from the smithing mask they were wearing. Not expecting the straightforward response, Milo stuttered for a second before saying, "I saw your entry in the Equipment Show and was wondering if I couldmission a piece of equipment from you." "Unfortunately I don''t do favors, so unless you have the money to pay for the materials you''re out of luck." Milo was once again shocked into silence by the straight forward response of the student in front of him. They had a very candid personality, Milo knew this wasn''t necessarily bad, but it would take some getting used to. "I already have a core to use, as well as some parts from the monster that the core was in, but I don''t have any metals to use, how much would it cost?" he said. "Depends on the piece of the equipment you want and the core you''ve got," Avery replied. Milo went on to pretend to reach into his backpack, and pulled all the beast parts and the unique core from his inventory, if he hadn''t Avery might question why they appeared out of no where and he didn''t want to have to think up some lie. He then ced them all on the table in front of Avery. Milo couldn''t see it beneath the mask, but Avery rolled their eyes before taking a closer look at the core ced on the table. When taking a closer look, they were able to realize that it was in fact a unique ranked beast core. "Where did you get this?" they said. "I got it from a gate when I was out on an in-field experience," Milo responded. "Wait, you''re from the X ranked ss?" they said, "Why didn''t you have your family buy you a piece of equipment?" Milo went on to exin that he didn''t have a rich and powerful background like other X ranked kids, before asking, "well how much is this going to cost?" "How much do you have?" she asked. Milo didn''t want to lose all the credits he had, so he threw out a number and said 1,500. Which was about 500 less than the amount he currently had. After thinking about it for a few seconds, Avery said that it would barely be enough. They went on to mention that that would only cover the materials they needed to make it. Milo hadn''t realized how expensive the materials needed to make equipment cost. He then said, "is there amission fee?" Avery then thought for a second, they had only been able to work onmon and rare ranked cores so far due to them having insufficient funds and said, "instead of paying me for the equipment, make a deal with me instead." "What kind of deal?" Milo asked. "Whenever you need equipment,e to me. Make me your exclusive smith, if you are in the X ranked ss, you must be pretty strong, and that means you could go on to be a great gatecrasher. If I made your equipment, it could end up being a huge profit for me in the long run." Hearing this, Milo couldn''t have asked for a better deal. He was hoping to find a smith as good as Avery once he graduated but with this, he''d always have one when he needed it. While it annoyed him a bit that they wanted to ride on his sess, he had received the offer that he had been looking for. Avery then went on to exin that it would take them 5 days to make a chest piece and toe back then for the finished piece of equipment, they also asked if there were any specific requests in terms of design, but Milo decided to leave it up to Avery. After transferring the credits for the materials, Milo added his new exclusive smith on his holo before leaving the smithing building and heading back to his dorm so they could get to work. He had five days to kill and he had no idea how to do it. Eventually he decided to see if any of his friend''s wanted to hang out, and sent Zach a message on his holo asking him if he was free, but he said he was supposed to hang out with Krista. Seeing this, put a smile on his face, it was something he figured would happen, but wasn''t sure how long it would take. Since Zach and Krista were busy, he sent Mark and Chris a message but they said they were busy as well. That left Maria and Ana as the only two left in the group to ask to hang out. After debating whether he should bite the bullet or not, he figured now would be as good a time as any to figure out whether he really had feelings for Maria or not. Aftering to this conclusion, Milo sent Maria a message asking if she''d like to do something together, and it wasn''t long before he had received a response, she said she''d love to but asked him to give her some time to get ready. Milo then got dressed and prepared for his get together with Maria, he wasn''t sure whether to call it a date or not but just in case she thought it was, he wanted to dress appropriately. After showering, he checked his hair in the mirror and it still had the look of a young actor from when he went with Chris to prepare for his test date with Krista, but was a bit messier, so he cleaned it up a bit before going to pick out an outfit. He went with a pair of ck cks, a white shirt and pulled a ck zer over the shirt to give himself a bit of a business casual look. He went with a nicer pair of shoes and took a look in the mirror, the outfit wasn''t far off from when he went out with Krista that one fateful day, but he still thought he looked good enough for his night out with Maria. After getting ready, he waited for Maria to let him know when toe pick her up from her room, and once she did, he left his room and made his way up to her room. Chapter 85 84 - New Equipment After his date with Maria, Milo''s days began to blur by as the day he''d be returning home to New York for the summer grew closer. He had since told Ms. Teller that he wanted to do a summer internship and would receive his assignment, either the GAA or a guild, the day he returned to New York. To help the days go by faster, Milo continued to train in thebat hall, hang out with his friends, and did some grinding in the Sim Room. Because of this he had leveled up one more time, bringing his level up to 26. Which caused his stats to grow once again: [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 26 Gold: 1,325 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 5) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 6) 3 - Beast Tamer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 5) 5 - empty - 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [45+8] Agility: [40+3] Intelligence: [45] Stamina: [44] Constitution: [39+6] Magic Power: [30] [clear] He had also increased the level of all of his abilities a bit more, other than the Beast Whisperer ability, which he hadn''t been able to use much. He had used it once to read Waki''s thoughts, but all he got from the little beast was the word food on repeat, which made some sense considering how gluttonous he was. By raising the level of his Reinforce ability, he once again saw a small increase in the strength that it allowed him to use, he also was able to form ice a tad bit faster after increasing the Ice ability''s level by one. The biggest change in Milo''s abilities was in the Hunter''s Eye ability, by increasing it two more levels, he was able to see different colored highlights in his vision when using the ability, he found that red was vital points such as the heart or brain, and yellow showed weaknesses in the target''s body, such as tendons that would take away the target''s ability to use their limbs. Milo wanted to raise the ability even higher to see what other types of weaknesses it would allow him to see. Milo wasn''t the only one who had stayed busy the past few days, Chris and Mark continued their training hoping to join him and Zach in the X ranked ss at the start of their second year. Zach and Krista had been hanging out quite a bit making Milo wonder if they had decided to start dating officially yet. Ana seemed to have gone quiet since the festival, Milo wasn''t sure why but guessed that maybe she had already returned back home. Lastly was Maria, their date, the two had been messaging back and forth more, she had gone back to Ennd the day after their date, and like Milo, was also going to be doing a summer internship. All the X ranked students who agreed to do internships would receive their assignments for where they''d be working once all the students had arrived back at their hometowns, meaning that Maria would have some free time back home before she would be assigned to either the association or a guild. Milo wasying in bed the day before he was to receive his new piece of equipment, wondering what his fate had in store for him when it came to his summer internship. He would find out in the next few days, but waiting was making him more and more anxious to finally find out where he''d be interning at. Eventually he nodded off to sleep, tomorrow was a big day, it would be the day he''d be receiving his new chest piece. When waking up the next morning, Mark and Chris were still in bed sleeping, since they had started training more, the pair had been sleeping in longer than usual. Milo was tempted to mess with the two but decided to spare them as he didn''t want to get an earful about itter. After brushing his teeth and taking a shower, Milo received a notification on his holo, the one he had been excited to see for the past few days. Avery had sent him a message letting him know his chest piece had beenpleted, and he could stop by whenever to pick it up. After reading the message Milo threw on some clothes and ran all the way to the smithing hall where he had first met Avery, when he arrived, he made his way over to the room where he had asked them to forge him a piece of equipment, and when walking through the door, Avery was already hammering away at a new piece of equipment, Milo couldn''t help but admire how hard of a worker they were. Seeing that Milo had arrived, Avery said, "you got here sooner than I thought," pausing their hammering on the unfinished piece of equipmentying in front of them. It appeared to be a shield of some kind, but was still too early in the creation process for Milo to be sure. Milo''s eyes were then drawn to the table in front of Avery, where there was the shape of a chest piece covered by a ck, opaque cloth. Avery grinned under their mask before ripping away the sheet, revealing the armor underneath. Once the cloth was removed, Milo was looking at a beautiful piece of armor, its overall material was a ck metal of some kind. On the shoulders, Milo could see what looked simr to talons gripping the shoulders of the chest piece, and on the chest was a silver ornament that appeared to be a set of wings. Milo was in awe of the piece of equipmentying before him. "Don''t let your jaw drop yet, I know it looks pretty, but its what''s inside that matters," Avery said, sounding as if they were proud of themself. Hearing his smith say this, Milo finally did what he should''ve done from the start, and opened his inspect skill. [Thunderbird Chest Piece(Unique)] Durability: 600 Armor Rating: 800 Str +15 Agi +10 Con +5 Attached Skill: Discharge - When activated the chest piece will give off an electric shock, stunning enemies within 5 feet of the user(cooldown: 30:00) Attached Skill: Charge - When receiving electrical attacks, the chest piece will absorb them decreasing the cooldown of the attached skill Discharge, if attached skill Discharge is already off cooldown, the attack will be nullified(Passive) Description: A chest piece created by Avery Becket, it offers superb protection, especially against the electric element. Due to the excellent craftsmanship, it offers more powerful boosts to stats, as well as two active skills. Its design pays homage to the beast that was used to create it. [clear] Reading through the screen in front of him, Milo was beyond impressed, it was probablyparable to a heroic piece of equipment, and not only did it have an attached skill, it had two of them. One of the skills even nullified lightning element attacks, allowing him to be more effective when fighting electric type beasts and ability users. "Well what do you think?" Avery asked. "It''s beyond my expectations, I knew you were good, but didn''t think you were this good. It''s amazing," Milo said smiling. "d to hear it," Avery said, "if it ever needs repairs then you know where to find me." Avery then pulled off their smithing mask up, revealing their face for the first time and stuck out their hand for a handshake. Seeing what Avery looked like Milo was in shock. They had caramel colored skin, bright blue, almond shaped eyes, and a button nose. Seeing Avery''s true appearance, he was surprised. Since they, or she had only talked to Milo up until now wearing a smithing mask, Milo had never considered the possibility of Avery being a girl. Seeing his jaw drop, Avery started to giggle and dropped her hand, making her seem more like a girl now. "Is it really that surprising that I''m a girl?" She asked. Milo collected himself before answering, "Well since seeing you handle that other guy 5 days ago and since we had only talked while you had your mask on I could only assume you were a guy." "Well surprise," she said, stillughing. "You already paid, so it''s all yours," she said, gesturing to the chest piece, "Now I have a lot of work to do, so you can see yourself out when you''re ready." Milo put his hand on the chest piece and ced it into his dimensional storage earring. After it had turned to mist and entered the dimensional storage, Milo said one more thanks to Avery before he returned back to his dorm to show off his new equipment. He couldn''t wait to test it out. Chapter 86 85 - Back To New York After receiving his new chest piece, Milo spent thest 3 days he had at the school, packing up his things to take back home with him in New York. Milo hadn''t talked to his cousin since arriving at the school, she said he needed to start to learn how to live without her, iming that it wouldn''t be long before he was out on his own in the world. As thest 3 days flew by, Milo spent as much time as he could with his friends who were still on campus. After the three days were up, the Acropolis had docked on the eastern coast of the United States, from here, he and Krista would take a train back to the station in New York where they originally left from, in order toe to the artificial ind the school called home. After saying goodbye to their friends and promising that they''d send them messages, Milo and Krista boarded the train that would be making its way to New York. Krista took an especially long time saying goodbye, the pair hade to be quite cozy after watching the fireworks on the dorm roof. After boarding the train it wouldn''t be long before the pair arrived back home. Milo began to wonder how his cousin was doing in his absence; they hadn''t been apart for this long since he had taken a week-long trip with his school during his freshman year. Milo was just hoping she wouldn''t make a big deal out of weing him home once he and Krista arrived, like she normally would. It seemed like only yesterday when she had set up their apartment full of balloons, streamers and a banner for his 16th birthday. Eventually Milo could hear the magical drone of the high tech train begin to slow down as it came into the station right outside New York City. When departing the train, Milo saw his cousin running towards him and Krista with a wide smile on her face. For some reason though, she immediately swept Krista into a bear hug instead of him. Both her parents were at work, so Corinna had offered to bring both of them home. "Oh my gosh, I''ve missed you so much," She said to Krista, "Now where is Milo, is he still getting his luggage?" Hearing this, Krista gave Milo a funny look. He had changed a lot since leaving for the academy, so much so that Corinna didn''t even recognize him. He had grown another inch or so taller, and because of his system, and his training, he had be quite buffpared to the scrawny Milo that she knew before he left. "Umm," Krista said giggling a bit as she gestured to Milo who was standing next to her with a confused expression on his face. Corinna then paused for a second, before she looked at the finer details on Milo''s face. "Holy Crap!" she eximed, "Who the hell took my Milo and turned him into this." Corinna made a big deal out of inspecting every part of Milo, and even joked around asking him to pull up his identification on his holo to prove it was really him. Eventually she stopped joking around and helped the two best friends get their stuff into the taxi that would be driving them back to their apartment building. While on the ride back to their home, Corinna made Milo tell her what he had done to change so much. While the system had done most of the work for him, he told her about his morning training sessions, as well as the help he had received from his teachers, namely Mikael. Eventually the three had arrived, and after paying the taxi fare and retrieving their things, they made their way back up to the apartment where Milo had been living ever since his parent''s disappearance. His room was a lot less luxurious than the one at the academy, having only a bed and a dresser, but it was all Milo needed. He wished he could one day return to the house where his parents and he had once lived, but unfortunately it had since been demolished and reced with a new home. When he was younger, he and Corinna would sometimes visit the house so Milo could remember some of the fonder memories from his childhood, but they were no longer able to. Milo eventually wanted to build a home himself where he could create new memories with his own family, but first he would have to gain enough of a fortune to be able to do that. After setting his stuff down in his room, Corinna wanted Milo and Krista to tell her all about the academy and what they had been through so far. Milo went on to retell all the stories he could think of from the past school year; him getting into the A ranked ss, his retest getting him into the X ranked ss, his in field experience, even the snow cone stand he and his new friends had run during the school festival. Corinna couldn''t believe the words Milo was saying, seeing how happy he was now made her happy as well, it looked like the Milo she had known as a young boy who was always happy had finally returned. She could only consider his new boost in strength to be attributed to good genes, as his parents were both strong gatecrashers themselves before they disappeared, otherwise they wouldn''t have been going off to the dungeon that took them away. Back then however, gatecrashing hadn''t be a well paying profession, which was unfortunate as they barely had anything to leave to Milo, and in today''s society, where gatecrashing was considered one of the most well paying jobs, they would''ve been rich, maybe even as famous as most celebrities. Krista had also told her stories as well. She avoided any parts that involved Milo using anything but the reinforce ability however, as Corinna still wasn''t aware of Milo''s system. This would prove to be something Milo would have to try and hide while he was in New York for the summer, as if she saw him using the Ice ability she''d wonder why he had that ability when she had only ever known him to use the reinforce ability. Eventually she let the pair of friends go so that they could unpack and unwind after returning back home. Krista returned to her apartment and Milo went to his room where he unpacked all his things. Once he unpacked, he had received a message from Chris, Mark, and Zach, the trio had made a group chat so that they could all chat together while at their hometowns. Everyone appeared to have made it home safely, and Chris said that he was trying to convince his family to take a trip to New York so he coulde and visit Milo. Seeing that his friends had made it all home and were already talking about trying toe see him made him happy. Before going to the academy he had only ever had Krista, but he had arge circle of friends he had made while at the Acropolis for school. After reading his messages from Chris, Mark and Zach, which included plenty of jokes, weird photos and memes from his buddies, he received a message from Krista that had surprised Milo a little bit. Apparently some ssmates of his school in New York had been nning a sort of ss reunion. The Awakened Academy wasn''t the only school where students could go after their first two years of high school, there were many others, such as trade schools, schools dedicated to the creation of magical equipment, as well as normal schools, that acted as an in between for high school and university. Since Milo had wanted to be a gatecrasher he chose the Awakened Academy, and Krista had decided to follow him there to make sure he stayed out of trouble Milo was unsure whether he wanted to go or not, but Krista argued to him that he should go and show off his new self. Milo was still unsure, not only would his old ssmates be there, but some of his past bullies as well. Danny Li and his 2 goons, who had been killed in the rift that caused Milo to awaken his system, weren''t the only bullies Milo had to deal with in high school. Along with this he knew that the minute they saw his name on the list they''d be prepared to mess with him, no matter what he looked like now. For the time being, Milo said he''d think about it, so that she would stop pestering him about it. After answering Krista, Miloid down on his bed, thinking more about whether he should go or not when his holo got another notification. Milo had been getting a ton of messages, and because of this he was getting a bit annoyed, as he wanted to rx a bit after finally being home. "Who could it be now?" he thought out loud. It turned out to be Maria who had asked him if he saw his cement yet. At that moment, Milo looked at the rm clock on his dresser to check the time, it read 7:02, which was two minutes after he was set to receive his cement for his summer internship. Milo then rushed to check if the school had sent him a message and sure enough there was a message titled "Internship cement." Milo closed his eyes for a second, praying for the best before opening the message. He began to read his way down the message, "Thank you for applying for the summer internship program, h, h h." Milo skipped all the way to the bottom of the message where it told him where he would be interning for the summer and seeing where he got ced he jumped up in excitement. Next to where it said, "internship cement," he read "Incubus Guild." He would be working at the guild that had saved him almost a year ago from the rift, and the guild where Ana''s brother was the guild master. Chapter 87 86 - Provisional License Test After receiving his cement for his summer internship, Milo was happy that he had been ced at a guild over the GAA. The guilds were in charge of closing higher level gates than the GAA, as most higher ranked gatecrashers would choose to work for a guild. This was due to the glory and money that higher ranked gatecrashers could make inparison to lower ranked gatecrashers that worked for the GAA. Along with this, guilds were privately owned, while the GAA was essentially a government agency, meaning that association members would be paid ording to the taxes collected for the GAA. Because of this, a guild could offer higher sries than the association, where the association could offer more power over other gatecrashers, as they were the entity meant to keep awakened people in check. Milo''s goal was to get stronger, and the only way to do that would be to enter gates of higher difficulty and fight stronger beasts. By doing so, not only would he gain more experience for his system, but experience fighting against more powerful foes as well. This was why Milo was more inclined to join a guild or start his own when he graduated rather than join the association. After reading through the full contents of his message from the school, Milo learned that he would have to report to the association the following day in order to receive a provisional gatecrasher license. While there he would be guided around by a member of the association and would go through the normal process a new gatecrasher would go through, such as measuring their abilities. After receiving his license, he''d report to the guild headquarters the following week to start his internship. Milo couldn''t wait to start working and experiencing what it would be like to work for a guild. It would be a great experience for him, and would allow him to learn a lot, ahead of his graduation and eventually working as a gatecrasher. After reading through all the nitty gritty details of the message, Milo noticed another message from Krista, saying that she would drag him to their ss reunion if she had to, making him realize he had no choice in the matter from the beginning. Milo went to bed that night with two thoughts on his mind, what rank would he receive when having his abilities measured, and what would people do when he showed up to his ss reunion two days from then. Waking up the next morning, Milo ate a quick breakfast with Corinna before throwing on a jacket and making his way to the local branch of the GAA. It was quite a distance away, as the apartments close to the association headquarters were quite expensive and Milo and Corinna couldn''t afford to live there. Their value was much higher than other apartments, due to the safety from the dimensional doors that came with having the association close by. Milo hailed a taxi and told the driver his destination. "Awakened are ya?" he said, "Going to take the gatecrasher test?" Milo told the driver about his summer internship and made a bit of small talk on the way there. Most of the time, Milo wouldn''t talk so much to a stranger, but he was bursting at the seams with excitement from getting his provisional gatecrasher license. The license symbolized that someone was a gatecrasher, and the higher the rank on the license, the more respect someone usually got. Once the taxi had pulled up to the front of the GAA''s New York City branch, Milo got out and paid his fare, before turning and looking up at the towering building in front of him. Like the other buildings in the city, the GAA branch building was massive, towering over the nearby buildings. Taking in the view of the tall ss skyscraper, Milo calmed his nerves before making his way inside. When entering, Milo was surprised by the number of people milling about, all of them were either awakened or worked as office personnel for the GAA. After taking in the view for a second, Milo found the front desk and told the receptionist why he was there. She checked his name, and then showed him to a conference room where a few others were waiting. The group waiting included a member of the Incubus guild, the person who''d be conducting his test from the association, and finally a representative from the academy who hade to make sure everything proceeded smoothly. Milo then took a seat and was briefed on what the tests he''d be taking consisted of. Unlike the academy''s tests, he''d have only two tests that he had to take. The first was abat test, where he''d be ced into a sort of augmented reality room, where holograms of beasts would appear that he''d have to defeat. The beasts that appeared would increase in difficulty, and would be used as a way to measure hisbat capabilities. And the second test was simr to the magic power test at the academy, where they''d measure his magic power output using a device just like the one he used to take the test for his ss cement. After his small briefing, he was guided to a room that he was told to enter, equipped with any equipment that he''d be using. The room was definitely the room for thebat test, so Milo equipped all his equipment from his dimensional storage earring. Rainbow mist snaked from the earring and wrapped around his forearms, hands and chest. Once the mist dissipated, his gauntlets, and new chest piece were equipped and in his hands was his chain sickle. The test giver opened the door and gestured for him to enter, the door closed behind him and Milo saw the other three people he was just with enter another room with a window that overlooked the interior of the testing room. Once the three were all gathered inside, the man who was supposed to watch over his test spoke into something that looked like an inte, and his voice could be heard from a speaker in the ceiling. "The test will be starting momentarily, it will start with the holograms being set to level one, and as you defeat the waves of beasts, I will slowly increase the difficulty. There are five levels in total," he said, "as soon as you give me a thumbs up I will activate the first level." Hearing the instructions given by the man from the association, Milo hyped himself up before giving the signal. As soon as it did, a few groups of beasts seemed to build themselves out of pixels. There were three groups around him, all three were groups of what looked like little green men, that Milo knew as goblins. One of the three groups wielded bows while the other two appeared to have small knives or clubs. After they had all formed the two groups wielding melee weapons rushed in, goblins weren''t intelligent and to Milo looked like a group of ugly, vicious kindergartners. Before the two groups could get close, Milo shot out a path of ice freezing the two groups in ce. Normally holograms would be able to run right through it, but the simtion being shown appeared to be lifelike enough to recognize that a physical being would be stuck in ce if their feet were frozen to the floor like Milo had intended. After stopping the two groups of melee fighters, Milo dashed towards the goblins wielding bows, seeing him do this the group watching his test grinned. Milo, as well as the three watching, knew that the ranged fighters would be troublesome to deal with if he was caught in a battle up close. Because of this Milo closed the distance with the ranged weapon users and cut them down quickly and cleanly using his chain sickle, rather than using his ice ability, Milo instead used his Extortion skill to activate his Reinforce ability and his Hunter''s eye ability at the same time to highlight the weak points of the green creatures. After finishing the group of goblins using bows, Milo made his way up to the goblins that were frozen and killed each one at a time, avoiding the iling attacks they made at him while frozen to the floor. With this, he hadpleted level 1. The man giving the test announced that level 2 would now be starting, and Milo readied himself. Soon enough he had passed level two without much trouble as well. It was simr to level 1, only the groups of goblins were a bitrger and there were two more additional groups with the original three. Level three was a bit tougher, rather than goblins he was faced off against a group of wolf like beasts. They were much quicker than the goblins and were able to avoid being frozen to the floor, which forced Milo to change his tactics up a bit. Instead of freezing the wolves, he chose to build walls of ice to give him more advantageous fights, singling the wolves out. Eventually he had killed thest wolf, but it took him considerably longer than the goblins. Level 4 had just begun and Milo''s previous strategies would no longer work. His opponents were holograms that appeared simr to humanoid lizards,monly known as lizard men. The group he was facing included a mage which was quite annoying. They were much faster and smarter than the goblins and avoided his ice path the second he sent it out. Along with this, they wouldn''t rush in and attack and instead chose a strategy involving protecting the mage who was sending balls of magic Milo''s way that Milo was sure would hurt if it wasn''t a hologram. He avoided the magic attacks and used walls of ice to block the ones that got too close, before turning to his tried and true method of using spears made using his Ice ability. The spears moved much faster than his ice path and eventually all the guards were dealt with and Milo could get in close to defeat the mage. During this strategy, one of the lizardmen had pushed forward to attack Milo up close, forcing him to use his bind skill in order to keep it from advancing, and allowing him to finish the test beast off quite quickly. He had justpleted level 4, which chose to be the toughest so far, as intended which caused Milo to grow a bit tired, all that was left was level 5. Chapter 88 87 - Provisional License Test II While fighting the lizard men at level 4 of the provisional test, Milo felt something he hadn''t encountered previously while fighting, besides when he used all his power in one move for his final practical exam. He was feeling tired, using two abilities together as often as he had been during the test was draining him much faster than he anticipated. He''d have to invest more time leveling up and allocating any free stat points he got into his stamina stat. Milo wiped the sweat from his brow, and took a second to get his breathing back under control before level 5 of the test began. Eventually the monsters he''d be facing for level 5 began to appear, growing from small blocks just like the beasts in the previous difficulty levels. There were two groups of beasts this time, which confused Milo as this was the smallest number of beasts he''d be facing so far. Within each of the groups, there were 4 beasts, and each of them were taller than Milo was, with him being close to 6 foot 3 inches tall, this made the beasts quiterge. After the pixel like blocks stopped getting taller, they began to show the beasts more clearly, they were humanoid with green skin, just like the goblins he had faced at the first two levels, this was where the simrities ended however, the beasts he was going to be facing now had bulging muscles, looking like professional wrestlers, and ck tattoos running all over their bodies making different shapes and patterns. These new beasts he would be facing reminded him of a lesson they had in his gatecrashing 101 ss at the academy. That lesson they were learning aboutmon beasts they may encounter in the dimensional doors, of the mostmon humanoid beasts they would encounter, the highest ranked among them would appear in A ranked gates. They had excellent noses andmonly wieldedrge clubs or swords like the ones in front of Milo now. They were savage beasts and were very cunning in how they fought, showing no mercy to those they killed, often times they appeared to see their prey as a trophy animal treating their killing as a sport. The beasts he would have to defeat at level 5 were orcs. After the beasts were all done being built by the hologram, there were 8 of them in total. The orcs all looked at Milo at once and charged, Milo threw ice spears to slow them down, eventually a few got close and he was forced to activate his Discharge skill that was attached to his armor. When he did yellow electricity arced up the chest piece before being sent out in all directions, electrocuting and stunning the orcs in proximity of Milo when he activated the skill, this allowed Milo to create some distance. Two of the orcs were unlucky enough to have ice spears shoved through their heads while they were paralyzed and unable to avoid the attack. After seeing theirrades fall, three of the remaining six orcs rushed at Milo, while the other three moved around to his back in order to surround him. The 3 that rushed him snarled as they rushed, spewing holographic slobber all over. Milo chose to use only his Ice ability to maintain any stamina he had left, and stomped his foot, sending a wall of massive ice spikes jutting towards where the orcs were rushing, one was a step too far and met its end as it was impaled by three of the newly formed ice spikes. The other two were lucky to avoid the attack, and after avoiding it shed the icicles away with their swords. 5 now remained, Milo had onest trick he could think of and in order to do it, he had to get all the orcs on one side of him. In order to do this, Milo threw up 2 walls of ice on either side of him and rushed to the corner of the room. The spectators watching his test clicked their tongues in disappointment as Milo had essentially trapped himself, or so they thought. Once all the orcs, now in front of him, encircled him in order to pounce all together, Milo jumped in the air and whipped his chain sickle out to full length. When the chain was at full length, he froze the chain in ce, and a massive de of ice was formed all along the chain. He then swung it as hard as he could, just like he had done so while sparring months ago. The orcs were not expecting Milo to use his weapon at such a range, as previously he had only thrown ice spears at the distance he was at now. One of the orcs was fast enough to avoid the giant de, but the other 5 weren''t as lucky, as they were bisected at their waist, causing them to fall to the ground as a pile of pixels. After this attack, Milo''s stamina could no longer hold out and he copsed to the ground trying to catch his breath. Seeing its opponent copsed on the ground, the orc slowly lumbered over while grinning. With no stamina left, Milo had no choice but to let the beast strike him. It lifted its massive sword over its head and brought it down on Milo. At that moment, the hologram froze and Milo heard the GAA member announce that the test would be concluded at that moment over the inte. Thest remaining orc hologram then fell apart into pixels. Milo forced himself to his feet and caught his breath before making his way over to the door where he entered. The door opened and waiting for him were the three who were watching his test from the viewing window. The Incubus guild member had a smile on their face, along with the school''s representative. "That was quite an impressive showing young man," the representative from the Incubus guild said, "I apologize for not introducing myself earlier, my name is David ck, and as you could probably tell, I am the representative from the Incubus guild who was sent to oversee your tests." Milo shook the man''s hand and introduced himself. What the man didn''t know was that Milo had already known who he was after using the inspect skill when they first met in the conference room where they had briefed him about his tests. The association member then told Milo that it wasn''tmon for a student to do so well in thebat test, previously the furthest he had seen a student get was level 4. Milo could see this being the case, as the level 4 difficulty was still tough for Milo toplete. After hisbat test, Milo was led to another room where he was allowed to rest for a bit before taking his Magic Power measurement. Milo was thankful that they''d be allowing him to take a short rest, as he feltpletely drained of both his physical stamina as well as his magic power. Milo also returned his equipment to his dimensional storage, and was now in his regr clothes that were under his armor. After his test, his clothes were now sticking to his body due to sweat which was making him quite ufortable. Eventually he felt his magic power restore a bit, and as if on cue, the association member returned to take him to the room where his Magic Power measurement would be recorded. Now that he had recovered a bit, Milo got to his feet and followed behind the association member as he and the other people there for his test were guided to a new room. When entering, there were a few machines in the room, all of them looking simr to the machine that had originally been used to test his Magic Power at his rank evaluation at the start of school, as well as his retest when he was moved to the X ranked ss. The test giver then gave him the same instructions he had received his two previous times his magic power was measured. Milo did as the man said and stepped up to the machine cing his hand on the orb in the center. Once he had done so he began to activate his magic power which caused the orb to glow. Milo''s guess was that the man was looking at abination of his magic power stat as well as his intelligence stat on the monitor connected to the machine, like the number that appeared when he took his rank evaluation. Due to this, Milo assumed that the number on the screen this time would be 75. After marking the Magic Power measurement on his clipboard, the man said that the tests would be concluded there and Milo, the Incubus guild member David, and the academy''s representative were guided to a waiting room. Milo was told that he''d have to wait there until they finished preparing his provisional license and paperwork. Eventually the man returned with a man folder that contained a stack of papers. He handed them to Milo and informed him that inside was a copy of his results, as well as his information which had been sent in by the academy when he agreed to do an internship. The man then handed Milo a silver pyramid shaped object the size of a paperweight. There was a button on the side that the man said would project his rank and information when pressed. This was his provisional license, and would act as a sort of badge that he would have to present when closing dimensional doors. Due to it being silver in color, rather than gold, it allowed the association to know that it was a provisional license, which would limit some of the things he could do, inparison to what a full gatecrasher''s license would allow. Most of these included things such as entering gates on one''s own, entering dungeons which the association wouldn''t allow provisional license carriers to enter, and other privileges tied to the profession of gatecrashing. Milo was tempted to open his provisional license badge right there and then but controlled himself as to not appear too immature. The academy rep as well as David then informed him of his day that he''d be starting at the Incubus guild, which just like his message about his test said, would be the following Monday. On that day, he''d be given a tour of the guild''s headquarters as well as briefed on the things he''d be doing. Hearing this made Milo a bit worried he''d be stuck behind a desk for his internship but hoped maybe his performance in thebat exam would sway their opinion enough to allow him to close gates with an attack force. After giving him a bit more info, such as where to report to for that day, as well as what time he needed to arrive, he was free to leave. After leaving the association''s New York branch office, he hailed another taxi and made his way back to his apartment. He chose to wait and look at his rank with Corinna and Krista, as the two of them would also want to know which rank he was given. When he arrived the two people in question were already back home waiting for him. When he entered they all gathered around the small kitchen table in Milo''s apartment, and he pressed the button on the silver badge he was given. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 89 88 - Class Reunion When Milo pressed the button, a small hologram projected out of the top of the pyramid shaped badge, casting a blue glow on the table. The seal of the GAA that was engraved on the side of the badge was projected above the top of the badge, and below that it showed his information; his name, the guild he was a part of, as well as his rank were all shown in the hologram. The rank that was being projected showed a capital B. His first thought was, "did I really do that bad?" He reached out to Maria to find out what rank she had received, to which she answered C. What Milo failed to realize was that the ranking given by the school was much lower than what they would receive when actually being evaluated as a gatecrasher. Even with this being the case, he had been evaluated as a high ranking gatecrasher, X ranked gatecrashers weren''t amon urrence in the world. Close to 25 percent of the world''s poption at this point had awakened abilities. 93 percent of that 25 percent would be evaluated at C rank or lower, only 5 percent of awakened people would be B ranked, and a little under the two percent remaining would be A ranked. Among all the awakened people in the world less than one percent would be considered powerful enough to be X ranked. Milo pressed the button again, deactivating the hologram projection and put the small pyramid in his dimensional storage. Milo was a bit discouraged until he saw that he had ranked higher than Maria, as he used her as a gauge to measure someone''s strength at the academy. Corinna and Krista both told him how proud they were of him, and after telling the guys in their group chat, they were all amazed that Milo had gotten ranked so high. After talking more, he learned that ording to Chris''s brother who had gone to the academy a previous year, the number of students who had been ranked higher than C could be counted on one''s fingers, making Milo a rare existence. Milo was feeling a bit overwhelmed by his friends'' support, he didn''t think he deserved the B ranking. As he had always been someone who was weak before this previous year of school, he wasn''t able to gauge strength very well. Some considered this as him just being humble, but Milo was clueless about how strong he had be. He went on to tell all his friends about the uing ss reunion that would be happening the next day. When asking if he should go or not, he got a resounding number of answers encouraging him to attend the event, all with different reasons. Chris like usual told him to go and show off saying that he was a big shot now and he should rub it in. Mark said that he should go just to go, he wouldn''t get opportunities like this all the time and who knows how long until he''d be able to see his ss again. Thest of the opinions that surprised him, was Zach. Zach had told him to go for two reasons, one was to keep Krista out of trouble as he knew she''d probably get in trouble or start a fight if anyone talked bad about Milo for not showing up. The bigger of the two, was that Zach said that he should go and see how people changed, Milo had changed a lot in the past year, and maybe the bullies he dealt with were now nobodies, he thought seeing how other people changed might help Milo out of his slump he seemed to fall into when thinking about when he was bullied. After all the encouraging words, Milo texted Krista and said that he would go as long as she stayed by his side, he didn''t want to deal with anyone there without her, and he was determined to keep her out of trouble at Zach''s request. Plus she was the only one who knew about his system and could keep him from revealing anything if things went bad for whatever reason. The next morning Milo woke up and continued about his usual routine, minus thebat training, and proceeded to hang out until the reunion was set to start. Krista informed him that he should dress somewhat nice for the asion as other people most likely would so he got ready and met her out in front of their apartment building. The two of them then got into a taxi and were on their way to their old school where the get together was taking ce. As the taxi got closer and closer to the school, Milo began to get nervous about who he would see from his old ss. He began to ruffle through some of the people that he had encountered while going through his first two years of high school. The first face that came to mind was Danny Li and his henchman, who after their untimely demise in the rift where Milo awoke his system, would not be attending for obvious reasons. That made one less face that Milo wouldn''t have to be nervous about seeing. Another couple of faces that came to mind were some of his old crushes, Milo was clueless when it came to girls and reading emotions, but he himself had had the asional crush growing up, just like any other guy. Thinking about seeing them, even though he never told them he had liked them before increased his already mounting stress. The final student Milo thought of was someone who had actually been a friend of his and Krista''s growing up, following the disappearance of Milo''s parents he began to resent Milo due to him getting extra attention since he was orphaned, and from then on he would try to bully Milo. With how scrawny and weak Milo was back then, it wasn''t hard for the kid, who was named Truman Murphy, to push Milo around. Thinking of Truman, Milo was practically jumping out of his seat, hemonly made rumors up about Milo during school and would even tell Danny, who was Milo''s main bully, fake things that would make Danny angrier, effectively facilitating the beatings Milo received. He asked Krista if he would be there, but Krista wasn''t sure who all from their ss would be attending the reunion. The taxi eventually pulled up to the school where Milo''s worst part of his life had urred, New York City Preparatory High School. Seeing the front gates of Milo''s former hell, he tensed up a bit as he saw ces where he had been shoved, book checked and all around bullied. He heaved out a deep breath to calm his nerves after paying the driver, and stepped out of the Taxi. He saw some of his former ssmates all making their way towards the front entrance, where a sign was ced that read, "Reunion for ss of 2100 located in the gymnasium." "Welp, here goes nothing," said Milo nervously. "You''ll be fine," Krista said in response as the two walked towards the gym. When entering, there was music ying and many of his ex ssmates had already arrived and were congregating around talking. There was a table with snacks and drinks, as well as a table with photos of the ss. Milo chose to avoid those and instead chose to go sit off to the side with Krista. Milo was sitting talking to Krista about random things he was noticing about their old ssmates when he began to see staresing from the people in the crowd. "Who''s that?" "I don''t remember a hottie like him in our ss." "Is that Milo? Krista is sitting next to him and I know they were close, but he''s changed so much." Krista read the minds of some of the people looking their way using her telepath ability, and smiled wryly. She nudged Milo and informed him of the thoughts their ssmates were having about him, and his face went slightly red. It felt good that people were noticing him now, but he was embarrassed that he was getting this much attention. Milo eventually grew the courage to join the group of other students who had been talking and informed them a bit about what he had been doing since going to the academy, mainly him meeting a ton of new people and who some of his well known teachers were. While at the school, he never used his ability and only Krista knew he had awakened the reinforce ability during their second year at the school, which is why people were so surprised when he told them he was going to the Awakened Academy. He also chose to omit the fact that he was in the X ranked ss, otherwise he''d get double the attention he was already receiving. Eventually while retelling some stories, Milo felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see the one person he was hoping he wouldn''t run into. Truman had shown up and seeing Milo socializing and getting praise from their ssmates, he decided to try and rain a bit on Milo''s parade. "Hey, Milo, how''ve you been buddy?" He said. Running into Truman made Milo freeze, his eyes darted towards Krista who had just noticed who had shown up, she was talking with another group of their ssmates and once she saw Truman she started making her way over. "I''m doing pretty good Truman," Milo said, trying to act natural, "I was actually about to go out and get some air." Once Krista had finally gotten over to the group she pulled Milo away from Truman who waved bye to Milo before taking his spot in the group he was just a part of. Krista guided Milo out into the hallway so that he could calm himself down, and after a few more minutes, he had done just that and the two of them entered the gym again. When entering, the president of their ss was up on a makeshift stage towards the edge of the gymnasium and started to make some announcements and jokes about the things that had happened while they were in school. He then went on to read some of the supetives of the ss, and pointed out the people who had earned them to see if any of them had arrived, such as ss clown which had been awarded to Truman when they were in school. Eventually Truman found a way to get up on stage, where he was able to get the microphone away from the ss president. "I''d like to start by weing you all here today," he said. When Truman got up on stage Milo had a bad feeling start to rise in his gut. "Especially my old friend Milo Fenix!" Truman continued. Krista turned to Milo at this moment, expecting to see a look of panic on his face, but instead she saw a look of determination. Chapter 90 89 - Class Reunion II Milo had a revtion while taking a breather in the hallway with Krista. When Truman put his hand on Milo''s shoulder his first emotion he felt was uneasiness, but when doing so Truman squeezed his shoulder in an attempt to intimidate Milo, and when doing so he noticed something about Truman. He was weak. Milo never thought that he''d call someone who used to push him around so easily weak, but that was the only way to describe the grip Milo felt. ? This action gave Milo the realization that he really had grown more than what he had expected inparison to his former ssmates. This led him to think of other things from his past involving Truman, and whole doing so, he remembered a moment from when the two were still friends. It was during a heat wave one summer before the dimensional doors had begun to wreak havoc on the earth, and Truman and Milo were still in elementary school. Truman was determined that he would be able to cook an egg using the sweltering summer heat. Milo disagreed and said that there was no way the sun was hot enough to make the egg cook. Milo had also tried at one point when he was younger but his parents had told him that it wouldn''t work, saying they had tried the same thing as kids. Because of this Truman spent an entire week trying to prove to Milo that he could cook an egg with the sun. After failing for a week straight and getting in trouble for taking all his family''s eggs from their fridge, Truman admitted that he was unable to do it. Milo jokingly told him, "I told you so," and after saying these words, Truman grew angry and frustrated, he hated being proved wrong and after the incident he refused to talk to Milo for a month. Eventually the two made up but it was something that Milo still remembered as a funny story from when he was young. Remembering this little moment from their past, Milo began to formte ways that he could get back at Truman for calling him out. Truman was unaware of Milo''s strength and thought that since he had always allowed himself to be pushed around, he could stroke his own ego by reminding the ss of the old Milo. His main downfall was that he couldn''t handle being proven wrong, and Milo figured he could use this to his advantage. Truman continued on after pointing out that Milo was attending the reunion. "He''s changed a lot since we left this school, but he''s still probably the same old Milo we used to know. Come on up here Milo let everyone see you, I know I didn''t recognize you at first." Hearing Truman ask him toe up on the stage, Milo walked over to the small set of stairs leading up to the stage and made his way over to Truman. Truman was pretty tall at 6 feet even, but after awakening the system, Milo had grown to be close to 6 foot 3 inches tall. Previously, they were about the same height, but now Truman had to look up at Milo to make eye contact, not only this but Milo''s physique was leaps and bounds better than Truman who had maintained his pot belly from school. Milo strode over to where Truman was standing, as Truman continued to speak. "Now many of you probably don''t know this but Milo enrolled at the Awakened Academy after graduation. They have quite the rigorous test to rank students based on their strength. I wonder what rank Milo was given?" As he said thest part, he turned to Milo and offered the microphone with a sly grin. Truman was hoping that he could embarrass Milo by exposing that he was in a low rank. Milo smiled back at Truman and took the microphone from his hand, and opened his mouth. "Yeah, it was a tough test, you''d probably give up when you saw some of the stuff they made us do, but it''s no biggie," Milo said exaggerating a bit about the schools ability evaluation, "I started at the A rank and was the only student to retest for the X rank," he then said. Truman smiled thinking he had caught Milo in a lie, and took back the microphone, "Ha ha, very funny, Milo''s always been a real jokester huh?" he said. "Nowe on, tell us what you really ranked." The rest of the ss began tough a bit, Milo didn''t back down though, instead he activated his holo and brought up his ss info. Once it opened, a hologram projected up above his wrist and a bright red X was shown, glowing strong. He then looked at Truman and said, "is this enough proof?" Truman grit his teeth in frustration due to him being embarrassed in front of the ss, he didn''t think Milo was serious, as if he had that much power why hadn''t he fought back their first two years of school. Because of him awakened the system sote, Milo was weak in his first two years of school, it wasn''t until the end of the summer following graduation that he finally began to grow strong, but Truman wouldn''t have known about that. He then handed the microphone back to the student president who stood up on stage during the whole confrontation and refused to get involved. Once Truman left the stage, Milo shrugged and shut his holo off. He then walked off stage and returned over to Krista who was smiling. "About time you showed him up," she said. Seeing Milo act so boldly and standing up to Truman made Krista happy for him, he was finally putting his old self behind him and moving forward with who he was bing. Milo smiled hearing Krista''s remark. It had been a long timeing and it was an action that was a turning point in Milo''s mentality. Zach was right about people changing to some extent, Milo had been improving at an rming rate, and Truman hadn''t changed at all, he was still a person who couldn''t handle someone else proving him wrong or taking the attention away from himself. Eventually the reunion had gone back to its previous mood, and everybody had forgotten about the little incident that happened up on stage. The only change being that Milo became a lot more popr, once everyone knew he was among the strongest at the Academy, everyone wanted to know more. It eventually slipped out that he would be working at the Incubus guild for the summer, and people wanted to see his provisional gatecrashing license. Milo showed it to a few people but eventually put it away as it was drawing a lot more attention than he was hoping to get, thanks to it saying that he was a B rank. Truman was now sitting at the back of the gym and watching Milo enjoy himself, he hated his guts now even more. He had received a ton of attention following his parents disappearance and he had found a way to turn it around, so why couldn''t he do it now? He began to think up a n that could get Milo away from the center of attention, then he would be able to get back at Milo for embarrassing him on stage. Milo eventually started getting thirsty and made his way over to the punch bowl which was located on a table with snacks for the students at the reunion to enjoy. Truman took notice of this and decided that maybe if he got punch all over Milo he would be able to get him to leave and thus lose all his poprity killing two birds with one stone. Truman stood up and made his way over to the punch bowl and made a show out of pretending to trip smashing into the table and sending snacks everywhere and tipping the punch bowl, he was waiting to hear the ssh of punch on the floor but instead all he heard was a loud thud and felt the air around him grow cold. Milo could tell Truman was up to something, as he took notice of him approaching the table, Truman was bad at hiding when he was going to try something, as he still had a smug grin on his face as if he was nning something when he approached. Eventually Milo saw him take a tumble into the table and everything appeared as if it was moving in slow motion, this was most likely thanks to his agility stat being raised so high, he could see the snacks begin to fall to the ground and saw the punch bowl begin to tip towards him, the punch was sloshing around as it fell and at that moment, Milo activated his Ice ability, frost began to spread through the punch as it was frozen solid in its bowl, and Milo took a step to the side so the newly formed red ice sculpture wouldn''t hit him. Truman stood up to see the eyes of all his ssmates focused on him lying on the ground, and Milo standing off to the side with the frozen bowl of punch at his feet. A cold mist appeared to be forming around Milo''s feet as the water in the air froze from the cold air he gave off in order to sh freeze the punch bowl. Truman mmed the ground in frustration before standing up and leaving the scene. Milo grinned in satisfaction from being able to ruin his bully''s n and picked up the frozen punch bowl before shouting out, "Uhh, we might need a new bowl of punch!" This drew augh from his ssmates before the party returned to normal. The rest of the night Milo continued to be Mr. Popr as people inquired about his ability, and Krista enjoyed seeing Milo finally let go of some of the demons of his past. Eventually the reunion came to an end and Krista and Milo returned home. Milo was happy at the result of the night''s activities. Not only had he gotten one over on his former bully, but he had also put a stop to his n of embarrassing Milo again. His former ssmates who hadn''t paid him any attention all talked to him, and he was enjoying the changes that came with him awakening the system. Milo had a big daying up soon, the next Monday, he would be starting his summer internship. The Incubus guild wasn''t considered one of the big four but it was still the biggest guild in New York City, and it would be his starting point as a professional gatecrasher. Chapter 91 90 - Surprise Waking up the next morning, Milo got dressed and ready, before walking out to the living room part of his and Corinna''s apartment. Corinna was sitting on the couch sipping a cup of coffee and watching the television. Apparently the Fellowship had been causing some trouble in Canada, and had been preventing gatecrashers from closing gates which caused beasts to break through the dimensional door and wreak havoc on some towns in the Ontario region. Seeing the Fellowship on the move made Milo curious about how Mark was doing. His father who was taking care of him and his brother were killed when the Fellowship wiped Toronto off the map. Milo remembered the news reports. Rumors of people turning on their fellow man, corpsesing back from the dead and attacking the living and green mes swallowing up people and buildings alike all spread following the attack. No one knew if it was the Godfather or his Cardinals that coordinated the attack, but it had been from then on that the Fellowship had be a worldwide terrorist organization rather than just a cult religion that appeared following the dimensional doors'' first appearance. Eventually the news on the television returned to normal reports, such as weather, things happening in themunity, and traffic. Since the dimensional doors opened and ability users began to emerge four years prior at this point, the news had begun to change a bit of what they covered. There were still themonce things, but following the first gate''s appearance, there were now sections covering new gate and dungeon appearances, news about the various guilds, and more involving the gatecrashing profession. Sports had taken a major hit and weren''t as popr now that super humans existed. Instead people preferred seeing gatecrashers in action. It was one thing Milo didn''t think would change much that took a major change in direction. Milo tried messaging Krista, but she didn''t answer, which Milo thought was a little weird. He was expecting her to want to talk more about the previous night''s activities. But guessed maybe she had something going on and couldn''t respond. Eventually he went about his usual routine of working out. He then hopped in the shower as he had worked up quite the sweat working out in the summer sun. When he got back, Corinna had made some food so he grabbed a te and ate with her. Eventually the two finished eating and Corinna told Milo to get ready, "what for?" he asked. "You start working at the Incubus guild next week," she said ,"We need to go get food that you can use to pack lunches." Milo couldn''t argue with her logic and went to put his shoes on. Eventually the two made it to the store and Milo picked out all the food that he''d need for gatecrashing. Trail Mix, Beef Jerky, gran bars, as well as all the things he''d need to make a sandwich. He also chose to purchase some sports drinks and water bottles to bring as well. Corinna went around doing some more shopping as well, since they needed to shop for groceries anyways. Eventually once Milo had picked out everything he''d need he met back up with Corinna who had a full shopping cart. Corinna asked him if he''d need a lunch box, and after thinking a bit he said it might be a good idea, so the two picked out a decent sized container that could hold his lunch and went to check out. At this point Milo had all he could need and the two were on their way back to their apartment. While on the way, Corinna asked Milo if he had any idea on what kind of stuff he''d be doing at his internship but he was told he would find out when arriving at the guild headquarters his first day. He was hoping that of all the things he could get tasked with, that he would be closing gates. Being stuck doing office work would drive him crazy and along with this, he wanted to achieve as much growth and gain as much experience in the gates as he could. Not only would this raise his stats, but his overallbat experience would allow him to be a more efficient fighter in the future. Thinking about the fact that he could be closing gates for the summer, he decided to set some goals for himself, in terms of what level he hoped to achieve, as well as where he''d like his stats to be. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 26 Gold: 1,325 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 5) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 6) 3 - Beast Tamer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 5) 5 - empty - 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [45] Agility: [40] Intelligence: [45] Stamina: [44] Constitution: [39] Magic Power: [30] [clear] He was currently level 26 and as he raised his level he found that more and more experience was needed to raise it each time. Granted he had raised it without closing gates consistently, and depended on the lower rate of experience gain he got fighting beasts in the Sim Room on campus. Due to this he wanted to set himself an achievable goal rather than an unachievable one. He wanted to raise his level to level 35 during his internship, this all depended on him being sent out to close gates. All his stats were reaching close to or above 50 and some of them were even higher when factoring in the bonus stats from his equipment while it was equipped. They would all increase by 9 when he achieved his goal, which Milo considered to be good growth. The one stat that didn''t raise when leveling up had been stagnant at 30 for awhile now. His Magic Power stat was the stat that revealed the different system skills and also allowed him to use his abilities at a higher level. The system skills were still locked behind a level, but he wanted to reveal them so he''d have a name at least. He went into his plunder tab and when looking at when the skills unlocked, he discovered that after getting his Magic Power stat to 5, every time it doubled he revealed a new skill; at 5 was Fusion, at 10 was Extortion, at 20 Larceny was revealed but was still locked behind level 50. Based on this he figured he would reveal another once his stat hit 40, and thest one at 80. Based on this, he chose to set his goal at 60, this would not only unveil the name of the next skill, but also get him one step closer to unveiling thest one. Eventually he and Corinna arrived back at their apartment. Milo with his increased strength stat easily carried all the groceries and wouldn''t allow Corinna to lift a finger, he looked a bit ridiculous carrying around all the bags for the groceries they bought but didn''t care. Eventually The two made it all the way up to their door, and Corinna unlocked it entering their apartment. As soon as the two entered, Krista along with a group of people he wasn''t expecting to be in his home all jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!!" Milo was taken aback and had no idea what was going on. Corinna then walked back in from the kitchen holding a cake with two candles in the shape of a 1 and a 7 nted on top. "Happy birthday dummy." Milo had been so distracted with school, the festival, his provisional license exam, the reunion, and his internship he hadpletely forgotten it was his 17th birthday. In years past, he never really threw a birthday party because he wasn''t very popr in school. Seeing all his friends there he gave a big smile and joined them in the festivities. Ana had used her brother''s connections as the guild master of the Incubus guild to get ess to the teleporters so that everyone could be there to surprise him. Milo smiled and enjoyed his birthday party with his friends, life was going good, he was getting stronger, he made new friends, and he would soon be starting an internship with a major guild. He hoped things would continue to go as well as they have been going so far. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meanwhile somewhere in Ontario¡­ "Have the preparations beenplete?" "Yes, we now have to wait for the Cardinal''s orders tomence the operation." "Excellent, for the Godfather." "For the Godfather." A group of hooded people sat around a table lit only by a singlemp hanging from the ceiling of the room they were in. Screams of pain could be heard in the background as they discussed the n they were set to act on. A hologram of the Earth could be seen, and on North America an X could already be seen on Toronto, red dots could be seen marked across the continent in different locations. One of the markers read "New York City." Chapter 92 91 - First Day After his birthday party, the group stayed for one more day and all went out for a day on the town. They went to all the major sites, the Empire State building, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Central Park, and the Grand Central station. As years passed, new buildings sprouted up, and climbed ever taller into the atmosphere. Skyscrapers were now an understatement, and instead skypiercers would be a more fitting name, as they towered above the clouds. For the members of the group who had not been to New York before, they were amazed at the sheer size of the buildings. Zach in particr was excited about visiting the city as he had grown up in a more rural area, and while the acropolis was big, they couldn''t make the buildings too tall as the ind needed to be able to move. He had brought Waki with him and the still young beast was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the city and kept jumping from one of Zach''s shoulders to the other, taking in the sight of the massive buildings around him. More than once, Zach was zapped when Waki gave off small shocks from his sheer excitement of exploring the city. Eventually it hade time for the group to leave and Milo and Krista escorted their friends to the GAA branch in the city where they all took the teleporters that would lead them back to their hometowns. Milo and Krista stopped for food while they were out and talked a bit about what Krista would be doing for the summer while Milo worked at the Incubus Guild. She told him that she would be looking for a part time job. Something to help her earn some ie before returning back to the academy at the end of the summer. Eventually they finished their food and returned back to their apartment building and made their way up to their homes. Milo wanted to get a bit of rest so for the next few days leading up to his first day at his internship he chose to not do much. Only really getting up to work out in the morning as well as to eat. He hadn''t been aszy as he''d been those few days ever since starting at the academy. Eventually Monday had rolled around and he got up and worked out just as he had been doing since his first daily quest appeared. He ate a good sized breakfast and packed his lunch before heading down to the address that he was given the day he took his provisional license exam. He had everything he thought he might need, he found out he could store his lunch in his dimensional storage earring. So his lunch along with all his equipment was currently in his dimensional space. Since he had turned the unique core into a piece of equipment, his system inventory was currently empty. Once he arrived at the building, he entered and made his way to the front desk where he introduced himself. Once he had informed the receptionist who he was, she asked him to wait for a while while she called the person who''d take him on a tour of the building. Eventually a familiar face was seen getting off the elevator and made their way over to the small sitting area where Milo was waiting. "Wee to the headquarters of the Incubus Guild," said David, the guild member who came to his provisional license exam. "This building is where all guild activities are carried out, aside from gatecrashing of course. Now follow me and I''ll give you a tour of the rest of where the guild operates." Milo stood up and followed David to the elevators. "The guild only uses the top 25 floors of this building, out of the 80 floors it has, the first 30 floors are rented out to businesses and other people who need office space, and the remaining floors act as apartments for our guild members to use, should they choose to live here," he said. Once the two were in the elevator, David pressed the button for the 56th floor and scanned his holo on a small scanner next to the console that held the buttons to select what floor you''d like to go to. The doors then closed and the elevator zoomed to the first floor the guild used. The elevator moved very quickly and it was apparent that the guild spared no expense on making sure that the newest and most advanced technology was implemented into the building. Once they arrived, Milo and David stepped into what appeared to be an office space. "The first 10 floors are offices used for many different things: Scouting out possible new recruits, reserving gates and dungeons for the guild to close, going over attack ns with our strike squads, et cetera," David said. "Onto the next floors." The two of them then got back on the elevator and went up 11 floors. When they got up to their floor, rather than sit in front of the elevator and exin, David signaled to follow him, and the two began to walk down the hallway. "This floor as well as the four above it are dedicated to weight rooms and other rec rooms where our gatecrashers cane to workout, use the sauna, the steam room, the pool, and more. We offer the top of the line equipment and as an intern you are allowed to use them as well. If you would like, we can also set you up with a trainer who will help you work out with a dedicated training n." Milo then was taken through the weight rooms, and David wasn''t kidding when he said that they had the top of the line equipment, while walking through he could see both male and female gatecrashers working out as well. David then guided him up to the next floors where they''d be seeing new stuff. The next thing they went to view were the training rooms. The training rooms were in the next section of floors, each training room was reinforced with magical technology, just like the room where he took the provisional license exam, holograms could be set up for whoever was training to have targets to practice on. The training rooms had the regenerating dummies that could be used as a practice target, just the like the Academy as well. The rooms had windows that people could use to watch who was training and through a few of them Milo could see gatecrashers firing off different abilities at holograms and training dummies. "As you can see these are the training rooms," David said, before reiterating everything Milo had observed so far. "These are also open for you to use at any time, and take up the 5 floors above us." They continued on, and the next floor was dedicatedpletely to virtual reality stations just like the Sim Room back at the academy. "I''m sure you know what these are used for already, being that the academy has a room dedicated to them as well, but these stations are all dedicated for our gatecrashers to practice closing simted gates. It''s also where we start training for new recruits, so this is where you''ll be starting off tomorrow." Hearing David say this, Milo felt a jolt go through him. If this is where they practiced closing gates, and it was where Milo would be starting¡­ It took Milo a second to do the math but eventually he came to the conclusion that he would be being ced in a strike squad. He didn''t want to disappoint himself, so he decided to hold off on getting excited until he knew for sure. He and David took a tour around the floor, and he noticed that there were 10 stations per room, which was the mostmon size of a gatecrashing squad for gates C rank and higher. After touring the floor they made their way to the elevator and went up another floor. This floor wasn''t like any of the other floors and instead looked like a party room. There were couches, pool tables, arcade machines. Milo was a bit confused before David exined, "this floor and the one above are strictly for the rxation of the guild members. Gatecrashing can be a stressful line of work and you and your fellow gatecrashers will encounter many horrors thatmon citizens can''t even imagine. Because of this, our guild leader wanted a space where you could rx and unwind, and overall just let the stress of the job go." Hearing that this was the case, Milo was amazed at the person the Incubus guild master was. He truly cared about his colleagues and Milo was grateful that this was where he would intern for the summer. "Thest part of the tour is the top floor, which is where the guild master''s office is located," David said. The two then made their way over to the elevator and David once again scanned his holo to go to the next floor. Once the elevator arrived, the two walked out and were met with a hallway that led to a door. The door was more in than Milo was expecting but they both made their way to the door and David opened it. Walking into the room, Milo could see a very luxurious looking office space, which severely contrasted the simple door. At the end of the office, arge desk could be seen and sitting behind the desk was someone that had once saved Milo''s life. He was also the older sibling of one of his friends. Milo used his inspect skill out of habit and a screen appeared. [Jorge Ortiz(Rank A gatecrasher)] Ability: Bone Maniption Status: Healthy Rtionship: Leader of the Incubus Guild Target is currently thinking about why the user looks so familiar [clear] Chapter 93 92 - Meeting His Savior The man sitting at the guild master''s desk was Jorge Ortiz. He was Ana''s older brother and was a very experienced and strong gatecrasher in New York City. Although they had no X ranked hunters, the Incubus Guild was the strongest in the city, and it was the creation of Jorge Ortiz. He had gained the nickname "The Reaper" due to the way he used his ability, as well as how deadly he was inbat. He had short ck hair, and the same brown eyes as Ana. Currently he was wearing a ck suit that was fitted to his built frame. The Reaper looked at Milo and said, "You look very familiar¡­" there was a hint of a Spanish ent to his words. Milo went on to tell him that he was the intern from the Academy that would be working for his guild for the summer. He chose to leave out that he was the unconscious student that he had dragged out of a back alley during a rift a little under a year earlier. "Ah well wee to the Incubus Guild, I see David gave you a tour of our headquarters?" asked Jorge. "Yeah he did a great job showing everything you guys have to offer here," Milo said in response. "Good to hear, there''s a reason I chose him as my vice guild master," Jorge remarked. Hearing that David was the vice guild master came as a shock to Milo, he had no idea that he was so highly ranked in the guild, and he seemed like an everyday person the way he interacted with Milo, not someone who held a level authority only one level before the man behind the desk. "Now let''s get down to business, take a seat, I wanted to discuss a bit of what you''ll be doing here as an intern," Jorge said gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. Milo took a seat, as did David so that Milo could learn what his duties as an intern were. "We discussed a lot with the academy as well as the association about where you should be ced for your internship," Jorge started, "Your teacher Mikael gave extreme praise for your performance in hisbat sses¡­" Hearing that Mikael had praised his performance in ss his first year gave Milo a warm and fuzzy feeling in his stomach. Mikael was his favorite teacher he had ever had. Not only did he push the students to be their best, but he did so gently and allowed them to find their own strength without forcing them towards enlightenment. Along with this, he allowed Milo to take karma into his own hands when deemed necessary, through the spars that allowed him to silence his bullies. His grades and treatment were based solely on merit not on how much money your family could provide. "Anyhow, we heard a lot about yourbat capabilities and it''d be a shame to see you stuck behind a desk while you were here. Because of this, we will put you onto a squad with a group of new recruits and your time here will be as if you were in our recruit training program," Jorge continued. Hearing that he''d be being treated as if he were a new recruit made Milo begin to shake in excitement. "As you will be acting as if you were a new recruit, tomorrow you''ll meet the rest of our new recruits who you''ll be going through training with. Remember, they all have received permanent licenses, not the provisional license you yourself have. Your training with them starts tomorrow at noon sharp on floor 78 in booth 13, I''ll have David here bring you aplete schedule of your training regimen tomorrow." Milo took a mental note of the time, and what booth his new squad would be training in. He knew that the floor would be the one with all the virtual reality stations, as David had mentioned that would be where he would start. "As you know already gatecrashing squads are split into different roles to make it easier to defeat beasts and close gates. You''ve got your tankers who are your durable front line that take attacks, your supports who use their abilities to buff and heal the tankers and damage dealers on the squad, and finally your dealers, the ones who are tasked with dealing damage to beasts and killing them." Milo nodded as he already knew the structure that gatecrashing squads used. When on his in field experience they were limited to 5 students after Maria was ced on their team, and luckily because it was a low ranked gate they got away without needing to use a tanker. As gates got higher in rank however, so did the difficulty and it only made it that much more important to follow the rmendations that were set forth by the GAA. They rmended that at least 10 gatecrashers enter a gate at a time and they have at least two that are one rank above the gate they were closing, so it was rmended that at minimum for a C rank gate, that a squad would consist of at least 8 C rank gatecrashers and 2 B ranks. Jorge wasn''t done speaking, so Milo continued to listen, "You will be in a squadposedpletely of B ranks, and you will be slotted in as one of the damage dealing roles. Our guild typically uses a 3/3/4 strategy for our squads, 3 tankers, 3 supports, and 4 damage dealers. Each role is then split more into subsses. For tankers we use 2 shielders and 1 brawler, support is split into 2 healers and 1 buffer sh debuffer, and damage dealers are normally split into 1 ranger, 1 mage, and 2 warrior or assassin type fighters." The subsses were pretty self exnatory and were also covered in Milo''s gatecrashing 101 ss at the Academy. Shielders were self exnatory and used a shield to block iing damage, they typically drew the most aggro from beasts as well due to them having the highest durability. Brawlers were in some way a hybrid between a dealer and tanker, they were mainly there to tie up beasts that went after the backline. Healers healed their team as the name implied and buffers and debuffers applied helpful effects to their allies or debilitating effects to the thing they were fighting in order to make a battle more favorable. During his in-field experience, Luke would have been ssified as a buffer due to his barriers acting as a buff to a teammate''s defenses. Dealers were split into many different subsses, warriors were the mostmon and would use their abilities to help them in closebat, they typically used swords and sometimes a small shield, like Zach did at the in field experience. Mages were people who used their abilities to deal damage at range, this was what Milo would most likely be filling, and were the second mostmon type of dealer. Mages were typically elemental ability users but there were a few other abilities that could be used at this role. After mages, assassins were the next in terms of rarity, and were fast, high damage, low defense attackers that finished off opponents using sneak attacks and confusing their opponent, Maria would''ve been the closest to filling this role, due to her choice of weapon and herbat style, although she could also fit into the mage category as well due to her ability. Lastly were rangers who used ranged weapons to deal poke damage at a safe distance, like Chloe had done with her crossbow. "For your squad, Milo I was hoping to change things up a bit, Mikael mentioned a lot about your capabilities not only using your ability, but also your closebat strength as well. Thanks to this I''d like for you to act as a sort of hybrid mage and warrior, a spellsword if you will. I think that by having you rotate between using closebat as well as your ability it will not only put less strain on you and make closing the gates more efficient, but would also give your support better protection." Milo nodded along in agreement, Jorge made good points and the idea of acting as a hybrid subss type dealer fit Milo''s fighting style perfectly. "That pretty much covers all the info for what you''ll be doing for the summer, once your team bes efficient at closing gates in a simted environment we''ll send you to real gates to close, to start they will be lower ranked for your teams safety while you build more experience. I highly rmend getting to know your teammates a bit more as well, they''ll be good connections to have once you graduate if you choose to join a different guild or start your own, and who knows they could turn into lifelong friends, that''s how me and David originally met," Jorge said wrapping up his spiel for Milo. Jorge then stood up, as did Milo and David, and made his way around to the front of the desk. He was shorter than Milo but had the body of a seasoned wrestler, making him much thicker than Milo, with arms as thick as telephone poles and legs as thick as tree trunks. He stuck out his hand and Milo grabbed it, shaking it. "Wee to the Incubus Guild, Milo Fenix," Jorge said while shaking Milo''s hand. "Thank you for having me," Milo said in response with a smile, "please take care of me." After shaking his hand, Milo was told that there was nothing else he was needed for that day and he was free to head home, so Milo said thanks one more time and headed out the door that he and David entered through. After he left, Jorge turned to David and said, "It''s still hard to believe that he almost beat level 5 at only 17," referring to Milo''s provisional license exam. "I know," said David, "that kid is special, not only does he have an extremely powerful ability, he knows how to use it creatively, and flexibly. He''s deadly with that strange weapon of his as well." Jorge nodded, he had watched a recording of Milo''s test and still had the image of Milo swinging the massive de of ice and cutting through the hologram of the orcs like a frigid executioner. He then looked down at his hand, shaking it a bit. "He has a hell of a grip too," he thought to himself. Chapter 94 93 - The New Team After Milo finished up at the guild headquarters, he made his way back to his apartment to inform Corinna and Krista of what his job at the guild would be. They were both happy for him as he had gotten exactly what he wanted. Not only that but since he''d be going through their new recruit program, if he came back to the Incubus Guild after graduation, he''d possibly be able to skip and go straight onto a gatecrashing squad. Milo continued to rave about all the facilities he''d be able to take advantage of and even more about the guild and what he had experienced when touring it. Eventually it became night and he decided he should get some rest before the start of his rookie training the next day. Waking up the next morning, Milo packed a lunch, made sure he had all he needed and headed to the guild headquarters, when he entered he got his picture taken and was given an ID badge that would allow him to enter the facilities and use the elevator. Looking at the card, it was ck in color and showed the photo they had just taken, along with his rank, and name. Next to his photo was the guild logo, a white skull with blood red horns. He walked to the elevator and scanned his card going up to the gym floors. He did a bit of weight lifting and when entering he was one of many other people taking advantage of the equipment. He considered talking to David about getting a dedicated trainer, but first wanted to test out just how strong his strength stat was making him. He made his way over to a barbell and slid a 20 kilogram weight onto each side, he decided to just do deadlifts as it was an easy and quick way to test what the max weight he could lift was. He picked it up with ease and dropped it. Since it was way too light, Milo added 2 more weights on each side, bringing the total weight to 60 kg on both sides, and did another deadlift, it was still too light so he ced it back down and added more weight. He eventually got up to 150 kg on each side of the barbell where he started to need to push himself a bit. He could still lift it but he guessed that if he added another 50 kg on each side he''d barely be able to finish the dead lift. Some of the other gym goers were wide eyed seeing the 17 year old continue to climb in weight. Most of them would struggle with just 200 kg on the bar, but Milo made that weight look easy inparison to what he was lifting right now, at 300 kg. Milo decided not to test any more max weights for different workouts, as he didn''t want to strain himself before training. He did a light workout in the gym and then headed up to the training rooms on the higher floors to practice some morebat with his chain sickle. While practicing, Milo couldn''t help but feel that there were some ways he could improve the weapon he was using, as he felt that the sickle had too small of a range for him. He''d have to talk to Avery at some point to see if she had any ideas. After practicing for a while he took a shower in the gym locker room, and made his way up to the floor and virtual reality booth that his new squad would be training at. He was 15 minutes early and was the first to arrive. Eventually David had also arrived and was happy to see Milo so motivated to get to work. Eventually more people began to enter the room, all of them different in one way or another. Soon aside from Milo, the nine other team members had all gathered. David then told everyone they should introduce themselves, and started with arge man who was to his left. The man introduced himself as Harvey, he was huge, even taller than Milo who was 6 foot 3 and had a bald head. He stated that he would be filling one of the tanker roles, and stated that he had an ability called Stalwart. His ability significantly raised his defense in exchange for preventing him from moving. The next team member was a woman named Helena. She was a healer who used a healing aura ability, simr to the GAA member who hade on the in-field experience. Third was a pair of twins named Conner and Cameron, they were both dealers who had an ability called Power Link. It allowed them to buff their stats by touching hands with other people who had the Power Link ability, and because they were brothers, the two of them had plenty of chemistry inbat. The pair seemed a bit cocky but aside from that didn''t seem like bad people. Milo was the next to introduce himself, and when hearing that he was still a student at the Academy, Harvey, therge man who was a tanker, pped him on the back in surprise. He has a bit of an intimidating appearance but Milo could tell based on how he acted that deep down he was probably a big softie. The group continued to introduce themselves one by one, until everyone had gotten a turn. David then gave everyone a login ID for the virtual reality machines. The new ID was specifically for guild use and would be used every time they went into the simtion for training. David also stated that he would be spectating their training, and after their first gate they''d meet toe up with a specific n for their squad including formation, battle strategies and more. Before logging in he allowed them to have their equipment scanned and tied to their ount so that they could use their own equipment in the simted gate. Everyone then took a station and logged in, before all joining a room that David was hosting. Milo was using lent gear for the stuff he didn''t have, including boots and leg armor, but currently was the equipment he owned as well. A helmet wasn''t required, and Milo figured a helmet would mess with his field of vision anyway and would be more of a hindrance than a help anyways. Unlike Milo, all the other gatecrashers had full sets of equipment already, ranging in rating and type. He noticed that the support members were mainly wearing robes of some kind, something that allowed for movement so they could flee if necessary, in contrast the tankers all wore heavy gear that made them appear even bigger most likely to protect themselves as best as possible, the dealers were wearing a sort of middle ground between the light armor of the supports and the heavy armor of the tanks so that their movement wasn''t too obstructed. Milo could then hear David speak, "To start we''ll send you into a randomly generated C ranked gate, remember the basics you learned in your gatecrashing course, we''ll go over specifics after your first run." David then activated the gate and went into spectator mode to watch them. Milo could then see his vision warp a bit as the interior of a gate seemed to be built around them within the simtion. Harvey decided to take up a sort of leader position and helped decide on a basic formation that had the supports in the middle the tanks up front and the dealers on the sides and their nk. This would protect the supports from all angles and whenbatmenced they''d move to the back. And the dealers would assist the tanks up front, aside from the ranged attackers who''d stick close to the support members. Everyone seemed to agree to this n and began to move forward. Eventually they got into their firstbat situation. There was a bit of disarray due to the group not having fought together but they were able toe out of the encounter mostly unscathed. As a gate''s rank increased, so did the size of the groups of beasts one would encounter. Each member was forced to take on 2 beasts each, but because 3 of the members were focused on being nonbatant and 1 was a raged attacker the closebat fighters were forced to face 3 to 4 beasts at once. The tanks were able to pull most of the aggro luckily, which freed up the dealers a bit more to kill off the enemies one at a time. The tankers took the brunt of the damage during the fight and after being healed back to full by the support members they continued on. The gate continued in this way until they got to the boss room. The boss was a massive scorpion that had other smaller scorpions that acted as guards, and it was the first time that the group found difficulty. Because it was their first time working together, theirmunication and chemistry wasn''t very good and a few stray arrows from their ranger identally hit one of the tanks. Along with this, one of the two twins seemed to be a bit overconfident and charged in without any assistance from a support or tank and took what would''ve been a fatal attack in real life, when the scorpion spit a stream of poison out of its tail, hitting him in the chest. It almost seemed like they were attempting to show who the stronger of the two twins were and it backfired horribly. Their formation also copsed a bit at one point as well, which forced Milo to swap to more of a mage role, using ice spears to protect the support members who were being attacked by the bosses guards. By the time they had defeated the massive beast, they had lost a total of 3 people, one tanker who Milo recalled as being their brawler, and the two twins who were dealers. After the boss was killed the group was warped back to the room that acted as a sort of lobby and the entire team was back alive. David then went on to critique some of the things they could''ve done differently that may have resulted in them preventing their teammates from being killed, as well as ways to prevent the formation from falling apart. Overall, he said they hadn''t done a bad job but rmended that they work in the training rooms with some of the other team members to practicebat in tandem with one another, as well as to help increase their chemistry as a group. He also made a point of telling the team members to act as if it was an actual gate and to not try and show off, which drew looks towards the twins who smiled in embarrassment and scratched the backs of their heads. He said that they would conclude the training there for the day and everyone logged out, because it was a C ranked simted gate, it was muchrger in size andplexity than the E ranked gate he closed on his in field experience. Back then it took their group around 4 hours to close the gate, and for the simted gate, even though they had double the number of people closing it, it still took them close to 7 hours to kill the boss. The next day they were to meet in one of the office floors to discuss strategy a bit with David, and there they would find out who their team leader would be and also would discuss a formation that would work best for their group due to Milo acting as a hybrid mage and closebat dealer. Milo was satisfied with his training thus far, he got to meet more people who were somewhat new to the guild like him, since the rest of the members of his team were new recruits. He was surprised about a few things as well, such as the range in age among his team members but knew that they''d be a great group to learn more from. He returned home that night with many different things on his mind. The majority of these thoughts were focused on what formation would fit them best, who would be selected as the squad captain, and finally what changes could be made to his weapon to increase hisbat strength. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 95 94 - Strategy Meeting When he got home, Milo went straight to bed, and went through the same process he did the day before once he woke up in the morning. Since he wouldn''t be training in a simtion that day, he decided to do a more intense workout. Eventually after putting the rest of the other guild members to shame with the amount of weight he was using in his workout, Milo had worked up quite the sweat and took a shower before going to his meeting with his squad. He was early again, and once everyone had arrived, David got the meeting underway. David started the meeting by pulling up a video of their simted gate from the previous day. It was yed on a screen in the conference room they were meeting in, and at different times he would pause the video and draw shapes and symbols on the screen to show areas where different decision making could''ve helped the team to be more efficient, as well as avoid being injured or killed. Milo could see bags under David''s eyes most likely meaning he stayed up all night finding the different points in the video where he paused to show them every little change they should make. Milo appreciated David more and more everyday, he was really helpful and did whatever he could to help Milo and his team be the best gatecrashers they could be. After going over all the film, David walked through a list of all the different callouts they should use when closing a gate. All of them were short and simple phrases that would be efficient while also giving each other the information needed to help them make decisions inbat. Each role was then given specific call outs they should listen for. As a hybrid mage and closebat role, Milo would have to memorize double the amount that his teammates at other roles would have to learn to listen for. This would make his role a bit harder, but Milo wasn''t one to back down from a challenge. Milo jotted down all the call outs on a notepad he had been given, as well as the meaning each one meant. The most important one he would need to listen for was "Support" which meant that a beast had broken through the formation and was targeting the support role members of the team. This role included Helena, who was the area healer. A girl who went by Pixie that had bright pink and blue hair and used an ability called Healing Spirit, which allowed her to ce a "spirit" on a target that would heal them over time. The "spirit" was a green floating orb like object that would float around the target it was healing, but it was unknown if spirit was what it really was. Thest member of the support squad was named Seamus, he was a bit older looking, appearing to be in histe 30s, and his ability was called Soul Siphon, it allowed him to drain a certain amount of power from the target and would instead allow Seamus to use the power himself, although he wasn''t well versed inbat and was a bit too old to learn and because of this, couldn''t take advantage of the second part of the ability. Milo was interested in the ability as it was a unique ability that he could use inbat in order to weaken his opponents. With him having the Extortion skill he was able to use two abilities at once which meant that he could use the ability while still using another ability forbat. It would act like his Hunter''s Eye ability which acted as more of a support ability for him, rather than an attacking ability, like Ice. When activating his Plunder skill, he got the usual screen he got when viewing an ability and its copying condition: [Notice] Ability: Soul Siphon detected Conditions to copy: Defeat 10 enemies that are afflicted by Soul Siphon plete condition to copy ability: Soul Siphon] The condition to copy the ability was straightforward but after testing it in the Simtion the day before it didn''t count meaning he''d have to wait until attacking an actual gate and until they fought actual beasts. Now that Milo was in a guild he''d be able to see different abilities in action which made him think it''d be worth it to scout out some other abilities he might want to copy, and Seamus''s ability was a perfect example. He thought it may be a good idea to be on the lookout for a worthwhile healing or regenerative ability as well, as if he could heal himself, it would bring him closer to being a one personbat squad. He''d also have to consult with Navi about more things as well. There were some things he had been wondering about for awhile but still hadn''t gotten an answer through testing, but maybe Navi would be able to answer the questions instead. She was extremely helpful when helping him learn abilities using the tutorials tab and he hadn''t tried to ask her anything other than ability rted questions, which he just now realized was a mistake as she could hold the answer to a lot of his questions. After the talk about callouts and things that should be used formunication in the gates, David went on to exin a formation that he felt would suit their team best when taking all their abilities andbat styles into ount. The formation was simr to the one that Harvey hade up with the day before but was tweaked a bit in order to better protect the backline. In the center of the formation, there were the 3 support roles as well as the ranged dealer. This would keep the supports in the safest position, and would even give them a sort of escort in the form of the ranged dealer. On both the right and left of that group would be the twins, since they were close ranged fighters, they''d be the main line of defense on the sides of the formation. In front of the supports and the ranged dealer was where Milo would sit, due to him being a hybrid ranged and closebat fighter, he could rotate between protecting the supports as well as assisting the front line. Next, the rear of the formation would be covered by their brawler, he would be an overall bodyguard for the supports and would also tie up beasts for the ranged dealer to finish off if they broke through the front line. Finally, at the front would be the remaining two tankers. All the other members of the team had no problem with this, aside from the group''s brawler. His name was Ken and he had an ability called Berserk that caused him to be stronger and more resilient based on how much damage he took. Because of his ability, he was the perfect choice for a brawler. "I don''t want to be stuck in the back babysitting the entire time," he said. David then reminded him that he could leave if he''d like but he''d be forfeiting his sry as well as any bonuses he was promised. Along with this, it wouldn''t look good to other guilds if someone was dropped from one of the strike forces for the strongest guild in the area. After hearing David''s words he shut up. Milo then chimed in saying they could take rotations so that he could use closebat at some points, and still fulfill his role as a mage and attack at range. Satisfied with this, Ken crossed his arms and nodded, agreeing with Milo''s idea. David grinned as well, seeing Milo act how he did. Milo''s main reason for this was to avoid any discourse in the group. They were already new andcked chemistry as it is, and he wanted to avoid adding any new bad ingredients to the recipe. "Okay," David continued, "for team leader, we decided to try something a little different with you guys, due to how your team''s roles are spread, we think having two team leaders who are in charge of specific roles will be good, and because of this, we''d like Harvey to be the leader for the tanks and supports, he will be in charge ofmunication for those two roles. For the dealers, me and the guild leader decided to put Milo in charge, with his hybrid role he will be able to seebat from both the ranged and close up perspective which will give him the best overall view of what direction the battle is headed and where specific dealers are needed most." Hearing the n David and Jorge hade up with Milo was stunned that they''d leave leadership in his hands. He was still a student after all. But Jorge and David watched Milo during the simted gate the day before and they could see his mind working at all times, and every decision and move he made did a good job of keeping his teammates out of harm''s way. Harvey pped Milo on the back again. "I think it''s a great idea! Two minds work better than one after all," he said giving Milo a wink, "and this''ll keep me from having to focus on where the dealers are which will lighten my mental load a good bit so I can focus on tanking." Milo couldn''t argue with the points that Harvey made, although he''d definitely have to get used to him pping Milo on the back, as every time he did it felt like he was being pped by a bear with how big Harvey''s hands were. The rest of the group seemed to nod in agreement and there were no arguments from Ken or the twins as well, which is who Milo thought would have the biggest problem with this. Milo had also gotten a new screen that he hadn''t seen before once everyone agreed to him being a leader. [Notice] New Title Obtained: [Squad Leader] [clear] Seeing that he obtained a title out of being chosen as a leader, he was mind blown. The title section of his status screen was something he hadn''t seen before and was still fuzzy on what it would do. Seeing his surprise Harvey chuckled thinking that it was a surprise for Milo to be chosen. While this was also true he was mainly surprised about receiving a title for the first time. He wanted to check it out right away but decided to wait for awhile as he was still in the strategy meeting. After the meeting ended, Milo checked out his title, and when opening his status screen found that there indeed was a title where it was indicated. Selecting the title he was able to see the effect of the title and it would be very helpful in the future. [Squad Leader]: Gain 1.5x more experience from teammates who defeat enemies under yourmand Based on the effect it gave, Milo wondered if the whole squad would give him bonus experience or just the dealers as that was the role he would be in charge of. He would have to find out next time they went into the simtion. Milo had a big role now and he was both nervous and excited to get started. When getting home that night he memorized the list of call outs he would need. And finally got ahold of Avery to ask about what changes might be good to make to his weapon. When telling her about his current weapon, he mentioned that he liked the range of the chain, but in closebat using the sickle made it a bit harder due to how hard it was to defend with. Avery was surprised to hear that Milo chose to use a kusarigama. It wasn''t amonly used weapon but when thinking of simr weapons an idea came to mind. There was a weapon that had a simr range, it was a bit shorter but defensively it worked a lot better and would also probably be more useful in closebat as well. Milo received a new message that she sent, reading it he wondered what the heck the weapon looked like because it had the name of 3 different weapons in its name. The message read, "Have you ever considered a chain-whip sword?" Chapter 96 95 - Implementing The New Strategy Reading the name of the weapon that Avery rmended he check out, Milo had no idea what it could be. The name of the weapon alone contained the name of 3 other weapons. Chain was self exnatory and it was something he already used. A whip was something Milo knew of, but what it had to do with a chain and a sword he had no idea. Seeing the word sword in the name led Milo to the same question, how did it work like a chain, a sword and a whip all at once? He decided to look up what the heck the weapon looked like and wanted to see if any videos existed of one in action. When looking at the images of the weapon, Milo became intrigued. It had the overall look of a sword. The main difference came when looking at what was attached to the hilt and pommel. The de of the weapon appeared to be split up into linking des that were attached at the center. Some photos showed the de loose, stretching and bending like a whip, but others showed it rigid like a normal sword. He then made his way over to the videos of the weapon and he could now see what Avery was talking about when rmending he check out this weapon, if he liked the way the kusarigama felt while inbat. The video he found showed a man using the weapon on a dummy and like a sword he could sh and hack at it while the de was rigid, but then he shifted his style and all the links disconnected making the weapon more like a ded chain, the man in the video whipped the weapon around leavingcerations across the torso of the dummy every time he swung it out like a whip would, but the des caused deeper cuts that a normal whip probably would. The range wasn''t asrge as the chain he currently used but it was still close to triple the range had the man in the video kept the de links connected and rigid. Not only did the man use the sword like a whip but he also threw it out causing it to wrap around the dummy, simr to some of the techniques Milo used with his chain. On a normal enemy without armor, this would also allow the des to dig into whatever it wrapped around which would cause extreme pain. Milo then saw an attack that he knew would hurt big time. The man yanked on the hilt like a rip cord which shredded the section of the dummy he had the chain wrapped around like paper. Milo became entranced seeing the weapon as it was exactly the change to his current weapon that he needed. With his Ice ability he already had a wide range of long distance attacks he could use which mitigated the loss of range if he did change his weapon. The pros definitely outweighed the cons which led Milo to ask if Avery would be able to make one. Avery responded confidently that as long as he gave her some time to research it and find out the materials she''d need she could get it done. This was perfect as Milo would need to gather some funds anyways, which would hopefully be soon if his raid team did a good job in their next simted gate, and the simtions that followed. The next day, Milo and his squad were set to once again go into a simted gate and Milo saw a screen he hadn''t seen in a long time. [New Quest] [Status: Iplete] Prevent any deaths while training in the simtion Reward: 300 gold, 10 free stat points [clear] Not only did he get a new mission, but it also fell in line with exactly what he''d be doing as a group leader anyways. The group was set to do another simted gate using the things they''d talked about the day before, and when Milo arrived, David said that just likest time it''d be a randomly generated gate at the C rank. The group logged in and attacked the new gate with much more sess using what they learned the day before. Using the new formation that they had been shown in their strategy meeting proved to make it a much smoother time duringbat. The group sessfully closed the gate without any difficulty and Milo cleared the new quest as well. Overall the team looked much better and with the improvedmunications, and because of this they had 0 casualties. They stillcked a bit of chemistry but with more raids it would improve and their were no mishaps like their first gate. David was waiting for them after they cleared the gate and told them they did a great job. He didn''t notice any mistakes they made the day before when they were closing the gate and because of this, he told them that the next day they''d be closing a B rank gate, and once he felt they were ready, he''d find them a real gate to close. After the training had ended Milo went home and checked his status screen. Afterpleting the quest he had free stat points to distribute, and also had earned a bit more gold as well. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [Squad Leader] Level: 26 Gold: 1,625 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 5) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 6) 3 - Beast Tamer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 5) 5 - empty - 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [45] Agility: [40] Intelligence: [45] Stamina: [53] Constitution: [40] Magic Power: [30] [clear] Milo chose to add one point to Constitution to make it 30 even and added the rest to his Stamina, due to his past few times using two abilities at once. He found that when doing so he would get tired much faster and wanted to counteract this. In order to do this he knew he needed to raise his stamina, so he dumped all the other free stat points into stamina to focus on helping him be able to fight for longer while using Extortion which arguably was his most overpowered skill at the moment. After sorting out his new stat points, Milo also decided it was about time he used his gold that he had saved up. He wanted to check to see if there was any useful equipment in the store that could raise his stamina. He thought that the most useful armor for him at the moment would be a piece of leg armor, rather than boots. With his 1,600 gold he found that the highest tier equipment he could purchase was Unique ranked just like his chest piece, which was good as too high a tier of equipment would draw unwanted attention. He was considering purchasing a weapon, as his current weapon was a basic weapon that didn''t have any stat boosts, but wasn''t able to find one with a Stamina boost. Which led him to decide on a piece of armor instead. He also thought it would be better if he waited to have Avery forge him a weapon as it could get attached skills with it. Thinking of this, he''d have to find a way to exin to Avery about the equipment he was purchasing as they had made a deal to have her be his exclusive smith. He eventually found a piece of equipment that seemed like a good choice. [Mythril Scaled Leg Armor(Unique)] Durability: 500 Armor Rating: 650 Sta +12 Agi +6 Con +3 Description: Mythril leg armor that appears to have a scale pattern simr to a snake. The light weight Mythril allows for superb movements and allows for the wearer to have superb protection while promoting energy conservation. [clear] The armor had a stat boost close to the level that Avery''s armor boasted, but unfortunately had no attached skill. It was made of Mythril which was one of a few different magical alloys that had been created following the discovery of essence cores. Melting the essence cores and mixing them with certain metals allowed some alloys to form but if mixed with a nopatible metal, it would result in a violent reaction of magical energy. Because of this only a few different alloys had been sessfully found. The mostmon magical alloy was Mythril which was formed frombining an essence core with steel, Orichalum was also prettymon which was made by adding an essence core with silver, and the most well known was Zeurichium which was made by adding an essence core to tinum. As its name implies, Zeurichium was the first alloy discovered, and it was found by Dr. Francis Zeurich. He was also the one who discovered the undesirable reaction that came from mixing ipatible metals with essence cores, when experimenting with more metals. It was unknown why not all metals worked, but scientists had their theories. After selecting the equipment he wanted to purchase, a system screen came up informing him that his new equipment could be found in his inventory. So he opened his inventory and pulled it out. Milo was amazed at the system, he wasn''t sure how but it had made a piece of equipment appear out of this air. The leg armor had cost him most of his gold bnce at 1,450 but he considered it a worthy investment for the stamina boost, and it wouldn''t be long before he''d be able to test it, as his team was set to take on a B rank simted gate the next day. Chapter 97 96 - One Rank Higher Milo wanted to test out the new equipment so he put it on along with the rest of his equipment and checked his status screen. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [Squad Leader] Level: 26 Gold: 175 Armor Rating: 1650 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 5) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 6) 3 - Beast Tamer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 5) 5 - empty - ? 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [45+23] Agility: [40+19] Intelligence: [45] Stamina: [53+12] Constitution: [40+14] Magic Power: [30] [clear] With his equipment on, Milo''s stats were all close to 60, with some being even higher, aside from Intelligence. Milo thought he already had raised his abilities to a high enough level and didn''t think increasing his intelligence would help him increase their strength much more. Along with this, his stamina had been bottoming out when he was forced to push himself inbat so he felt his stamina was the most important thing to increase based on his current needs. Milo then took off all his equipment, allowing it all to return to the dimensional storage earring. After this mist disappeared into the ear ring, Milo went to bed. Tomorrow was the teams first time attacking a B ranked gate, simtion or not, a B rank gate would take a lot out of him. Waking up the next morning, Milo ate a big breakfast and made his way to the guild headquarters. He took the elevator up to the correct floor and made his way to the room where his team would be entering the simtion. Once everyone had arrived they got to work immediately. David set the difficulty to rank B and just like their two previous attempts the gate started and formed around where they were standing. The gate this time would prove to be the toughest one Milo had been in so far. The groups of beasts were not as quite asrge as the two C rank gates they''d taken on, but the beasts they were facing making their way through the gate were at the unique rank which was the strongest tier that Milo had faced so far. Not only this, but the beasts were particrly annoying as they used both ranged and close ranged attacks. The beasts were strange looking lizards the size of wolves. They had a trail of me that ran down their back starting at the back of their heads. They could spit balls of fire that would burn for a while where itnded, almost as if their saliva was a form of napalm. When up close they''d shoot mes out of their neck almost like a frilled lizard would when threatened. The tanks would need extensive attention from the healers after every fight, and the dealers were getting burned quite a bit from the ming lizard. Milo had learned a secret weakness using his inspect skill which allowed him to have an edge inbat his teammates didn''t but he used the knowledge he''d learned using the skill to make callouts to assist his team and they had gotten to the boss room without any casualties thus far. His Ice ability was extremely effective against the lizards, as using it he could disorient them out by putting out the mes that shot out of the lizards'' bodies. Once the mes were put out, they grew much more sluggish and could no longer use their mes to attack. [Unique Tier Beast] Species: ze Necked Fire Lizard Status: Healthy Disposition: Territorial A fire elemental Unique Tiered beast. Their saliva acts as a fuel and burns slowly causing them to spread fire at a scary pace. They are extremely susceptible to their fire being put out, and when it has been put out, the lizards enter a sort of hibernation in order to allow their inner me to reignite. [clear] These beasts were the first elemental ones he had fought outside the acid spitting smanders he had killed in Miami, and the boss of the gate he first closed on his in field experience. Seeing them in action and so high in number made Milo realize just how troublesome elemental beasts could be, as without the right abilities they''d be especially troublesome. Chris would''ve struggled a lot in a gate like this, as the monsters were essentially fireproof, although he would''ve also fared a bit better against their attacks due to him gaining a bit of fire resistance due to his ability. Eventually the group had finished off the all of beasts found in the gate''s interior aside from the boss room, mostly due to the help Milo had given them. This only left the boss and its guards if it had any. The group got into formation and slowly entered the gate. Unlike the previous gates, when entering the room, there were pools ofva spread around. Some of them were as small as puddles while others were almost 50 feet across. Along with this, in some of theva pools there were pirs ofva pouring down from the ceiling feeding into the bigger pools. It was almost as if the group was in some cave under a volcano. Not only this, but the heat given off by theva was almost unbearable, Milo wasn''t struggling too terribly with the heat, but he wasn''t sure if it was thanks to his Constitution stat or his Ice ability that was helping him withstand it. He felt sorry for the tanks who had to endure it while wearing their massive suits of armor. Seeing theyout of the boss room made Milo a bit more nervous than he was before, as this was his first time seeing a boss room with hazards likeva inside. Not only this but it most likely meant that the boss would thrive in an environment like this, as the beasts they''d fought so far had also been of the fire element. Milo scanned the room and noticed a small group of the unique tiered fire lizards they had fought already, but couldn''t see where the boss was at. Normally the boss would be in the center of the room or at least visible, and because it couldn''t be seen Milo was unable toe up with a n to defeat it ahead of fighting it. Milo and Harvey made the call to move cautiously as without any knowledge on where the boss was, they were susceptible to a surprise attack. The group inched forward and eventually drew the attention of the group of fire lizards. They immediately jumped intobat and soon only one of the fire lizards remained. After fighting so many of them in the gate, the team had a good system figured out for exterminating them. When the beast noticed it was alone it turned and ran towards a pool ofva, as if it were trying to escape. Once it got near the pool, the entire chamber rumbled and the boss finally made its appearance. The boss burst out of theva pool and snapped up the fire lizard that looked dwarfed next to the boss. The boss was still partly submerged in theva but once it appeared, Milo scanned over it taking in its appearance. Like the lizards, it had scales running down its long sleek body, each scale was surrounded by an orange glow as if there wereva flowing beneath them rather than blood. As his view got close to the head, the body widened out, and on its stomach a pattern that somewhat resembled ck mes could be seen. On the back of its head, two long horns could be seen spiraling out like two menacing spears. Eventually looking where its face would be, Milo could see two huge glowing yellow eyes with slitted pupils staring towards the group with hatred. Milo finally activated his inspect skill to see what exactly they''d be fighting. [Heroic Tier Beast] Species: Horned Magma Cobra Status: Healthy Disposition: Aggressive A fire elemental Heroic Tiered beast. Their internal body temperature gets so high that just touching the scales on the outside of their body can leave a burn. When battling one, they have a tendency to sprayva from their mouth. [clear] Reading the description of the beast, Milo first noted that once again it was an elemental beast which could be easily seen by the fact that it was hiding in a pool ofva. Not only this, but like the other beasts they''d fought and killed so far, it was of the fire element. The second thing Milo noted was its tier, Heroic. This would be the first time Milo would be fighting a beast at the Heroic tier outside of the cyclops that had cornered him in Miami. Unlike the cyclops though, this one was elemental and he wouldn''t have a gatecrasher from one of the big four to protect him. Chapter 98 97- The Horned Magma Cobra After seeing that there were intruders, the giant snake slithered its way out of theva pool it was resting in. Once it had pulled itself out of thevapletely, Milo noticed a row of spikes that trailed down its back to match the two spiraling hornsing out of the back of its head. The snake was as wide around as a person was tall, and was as long as a train. The beast let out a hiss that shook the boss room, before spitting out a stream ofva, as soon as theva started to fly towards them, Harvey and Milo both screamed, "Scatter!" With their only being the boss remaining, the team could split apart from their formation with less fear of there being consequences. Once the group had split up and avoided theva being spewed from the snake''s mouth, the tanks got into position and attracted the snake''s aggro. Seeing the tanks in front of it, the snake swiped its tail, there was a loud bang once the snake''s attack made contact with Harvey''s shield, and Harvey was pushed back a bit. The ground where his feet had stopped was torn up from the force of him pushing back, trying to endure the attack. Without his Stalwart ability, he would''ve been flung across the room like a rag doll. "It packs quite the punch," Harvey yelled through gritted teeth, "make sure you don''t get hit." The other shield tank, a man named Chuck, had a simr ability to the student Milo had faced in his final exam. The main difference being that rather than manipting his own density he could only manipte the density of an object he was carrying. Chuck ran forward and raised the density of his shield, nting it into the ground; with his help, Harvey was able to withstand the onught of the boss''s tail. Once the tanks had gotten the aggro as well as the attacks of the boss under control, the dealers could finally get to work. The two healers were constantly healing the tanks, while Seamus siphoned away some of the snake''s power. Noticing that the snake''s power was decreasing, Ken also pushed in to help the tanks more. Due to the general sturdiness of the tanks, even the heat given off by the snake''s body was being withstood. Once the snake was a bit under control, Milomanded the dealers to get to work. Activating his Hunter''s eye ability, Milo was able to see red glows that showed the beast''s weaknesses, with it not having limbs there was no way for them to slow down its movement permanently by cutting tendons, but the snake''s eyes, as well as a small section of its torso glowed. Milo could only assume that the glow on its torso symbolized the location of the snake''s heart but based on their ranger''s call outs, the scales covering its body were very tough to break through, meaning they probably wouldn''t be able to take it out so easily. Their ranger was a telekinesis user named ire and she had tried to shoot arrows into the chinks of the snake''s scales but with every attack it made, it made it practically impossible for her to get a clean shot off. "Aim for its eyes!" Milo shouted, "take away its vision!" Hearing Milo''s callouts, she began to shoot arrows towards the snake''s head aiming to take out one of its eyes. While this was happening, the twins pped hands to activate their ability, and attempted to run up the snake''s torso to reach its head. Conner swung Cameron up to the snake''s eye, who shed at it, causing the snake to howl in pain, as its vision was taken away from it. The snake then did something that the team wasn''t prepared for. With its one good eye, it spotted Cameron and Conner regrouping and made a loud hiss obviously angry for having its eye taken away, once it did this, it ignored the tanks and rushed the twins going straight towards them. Seeing the twins in danger, Milo charged forward hoping to intercept the snake before it got too close to them. He activated his reinforce ability to boost his strength to the max. He then dashed and let loose a reinforced punch with all his strength, the punch sent the snake off to the side, away from the twins, and allowed them to reposition with the tanks for protection. Once the snake recovered from the attack, it turned and eyed the group again, seeing that the twins, its original targets were now standing behind the people it had a lot of trouble dealing any damage to, the snake turned to face Milo who had just delivered the attack. With hatred in its eyes, the snake spewed another stream ofva towards Milo who dodged the attack rolling to the side. After dodging the magma spit of the giant cobra, Milo began to think of how his team could kill it without taking it on much longer, he could see that the heat from the room they were in was taking a toll on his teammates and wanted to clear the gate before they sustained any major damage. Looking at theva pools, the gears in Milo''s head began to turn. "Tanks! Pull it towards ava pool, I''ve got a n," he yelled. Hearing the call, Harvey and Chuck both banged on their shield trying to aggravate the boss, they weren''t sure what Milo''s idea was, but they figured it was better than trying to brute force the beast. Eventually it worked, as it turned towards the two of them. The twins had since vacated the area, prepared to make another attack in case Milo''s n didn''t work. Once it had locked onto its targets the snake made another dash towards them, Milo once again charged up a reinforced punch to knock the snake into theva pool that the tanks had pulled it towards. After taking the hit, the snake flew into the pool sending up arge wave ofva that the rest of the team had to avoid, Milo then jumped onto the snake''s head and used his bind skill to lock the snake in ce. When it was activated, chains wrapped around the neck and torso of the snake andshed it to the ground holding it inside theva pool. Once the snake was immobilized by the chains Milo leapt off its head and activated his ice ability. Mist came from his mouth as the freezing air from his ability met the heat inside the boss chamber, and he let out a massive wave of cold energy towards theva pool the snake was stuck in. When the cold air met the molten rock, it sh cooled it causing it to revert back to its solid form. Milo didn''t let up,pletely cooling theva pool, trapping the snake inside the rock that was melted rock not long ago. This happened just in time too, as the chains dispersed releasing the bind effect that held the snake in position. The boss thrashed about trying to yank itself free from the newly formed stone, but to no avail. With the snake nowpletely stuck, it allowed the group to finish it off rather easily, only having to avoid theva it spewed and blocking any strikes that it made with its head. Eventually the group managed to exterminate the beast only sustaining a few injuries which were easily healed by the team''s supports. After the snake had been killed, Milo had received a level up which he figured would being soon, due to the beasts he had killed in the simtion over the past few days. They gave much less experience than actual beasts but it was still gained exp nheless. With this he had reached level 27, each of his stats had risen by one aside from the Magic Power stat, and nothing new was unlocked in his plunder tab, as the next skill was locked until level 50. After the boss was defeated, the heat from the boss room seemed to disappear immediately as it reverted back to the lobby where the group had started before the gate simtion was started. David had also appeared after spectating the group close the gate. He went through all the goods and bads he saw, but luckily there were more positives than negatives. He gave extreme praise for Milo''s use of the environment against the boss, even though they were fighting in a room that it should''ve been at an advantage in. He also praised the tanks for doing a good job keeping the boss''s aggro long enough for the dealers to hurt the beast. Hisst bit of praise was for the whole group, as they had done a good job dealing with the gate overall, he had actually threw them into a more difficult B ranked gate for them to clear. At the B rank, elemental type gates like the one they had just been through weren''tmon and were considered some of the toughest to clear. Because of this, outside the simtion once people entered and realized it had a specific elemental attribute, they''d normally back out and get a raid team centered around countering that attribute, which was something Milo''s team didn''t have the luxury of doing. After going through the goods and bads of their run and informing the team of what their training would be like over the next few days, the group logged out and hung out in the lounge to build some more chemistry. They goofed off, yed games, and talked about their experiences so far while training. After doing that for a while, Milo headed home and got some rest. It had been a long day and he was tired after clearing his first B ranked gate. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 99 98 - More Training After resting for the night, Milo woke up and went to the guild to work out and practice a bit with his chain sickle. His team was given the day off after constant simtion training so Milo chose to spend it checking in with his friends. He first checked how Krista was doing, she had gotten a part time job at a store working as a cashier to pass the time and earn some credits. She hadn''t done anything other than that but she got some fun out of using her ability to read people''s minds while working. It made for some funny moments, like when she would hand someone what they were looking for before they could find it. Ana had been practicing with her ability at her family home, due to her brother being guildmaster of the Incubus Guild, he had amassed a ton of wealth which allowed him to put training rooms like the guild had, in his own home. She was trying to get to the point where like her brother she could use her bone maniption to give her extra armor. Milo could see her bing a tanker in the future if she was sessful, maybe even an all rounder like her brother, something he hoped to be eventually as well. Chris had been practicing at his family''s home to train his ability as much as possible. He hade up with some new techniques with his ability and couldn''t wait for school to start back up so he could test them sparring with Milo. He was still hell bent on beating Milo''s ice with his mes, and while Milo considered this a hassle, it pushed him to improve. Chris was also hoping that he would be strong enough to test into the X ranked ss once school started back up as well so that he could be in the same ss as Milo and Zach. Mark had been helping his aunt take care of his younger brother. He was also aware of the Fellowships movement in Ontario as it was making national headlines, and seeing they were on the move again he had been training his ability as much as he could. Just like Chris he wanted to get into the X ranked ss when school started, although his reasons were a bit more righteous than Chris. Milo then checked in with his other friends in the X ranked ss. Maria was stuck in an office position at her guild, and also made appearances in advertisements for the guild. Given how beautiful she was the guildmaster most likely chose to use her looks to their advantage. She was annoyed that she couldn''t get into anybat force but hoped that maybe they''d eventually recognize her skills and allow her to join a strike force. Zach chose not to do an internship, and instead focused on raising Waki. He had been practicing with Waki, learning to fight with him was important and having his ability allowed Waki to easily learn to respond to hismands. Waki had grown quite big and was beginning to look more and more like an adult Thunderhawk, only since he was a tamed beast he wasn''t quite asrge as an adult thunderhawk would normally be. Since taming Waki, Milo was wondering just how much Zach''s ability had grown. It wasmon for those with the Beast Tamer ability to tame multiple beasts once they had grown their ability high enough. At a low level, a user of the Beast Tamer ability wouldn''t have enough mental capacity to tame more than one, but if Zach had trained his enough he could be looking for another beast to tame. Milo informed his friends of his doings since his birthday party they had all gone to. Hearing that he was a part of a strike squad his friends were all super proud of him. It wasn''tmon for students on an internship to be ced on a strike squad right off the bat. Not only this but he had been chosen as a squad captain, Milo argued that he was only a co captain and that in reality, Harvey was also amander but that fell on deaf ears as he still was in charge of a group of other gatecrashers as a student. Chris and Mark in particr toughened their resolve and decided to double their training in order to reach Milo. Overall, it seemed to Milo that his friends just like him were still training their abilities as often as they could, even Krista, by using it while at work. This made Milo happy that they would also being back to school having some growth. He was afraid that he would outgrow them with how much he had been training and growing, but they were growing right alongside him even with the countless number of miles between them while home for the summer. Milo''s schedule over the next few days included more simted gate training in B rank gates. These gates were much easier due to them not being elemental types and the team continued to make their clear time faster with each new gate they closed. Milo had also improved vastly, his decision making and leadership skills grew with each gate they closed. Seeing Milo''s improvement, David and Jorge were amazed. He was doing things and making decisions that seasoned veterans would do, and on the rare chance he made a mistake he never made it twice. The rest of the team was also makingrge strides in their development, the twins were no longer attempting to show off, Ken was doing a much better job at monitoring the backline and the supports as always knew when to heal their team at opportune times without putting themselves in danger. Overall the team was beginning to look like a seasoned strike squad and within two weeks they were clearing B ranked gates at the same pace as any other squad in the guild. It was now the end of June, and school was set to start back up at the end of August. Milo had grown to level 30 by this point and was inching his way towards his goal. He was currently resting in the lounge with the rest of his team following closing another simted gate when David walked in. "Everyone gather round," he announced, "I''ve got big news." Milo and the others who had been goofing off and ying games all made their way to the seating area and looked at David curious what the news was. "As of today, I got clearance from the guildmaster to send you guys to a real gate," he said. Hearing this news Milo got excited, after training in the simtion for so long he was itching for some live action for multiple reasons, he''d get more experience from defeating real beasts, he could also get essence cores to grow his magic power stat. Overall, the prospect of taking on a real gate had Milo itching to get started right away. "In terms of details, the gate is C ranked so you shouldn''t have any difficulty with it." David continued, "Along with this, it is located on the outskirts of the city. You''ll be apanied by me, however I''ll be functioning as a sort of spectator and will also be a porter, carrying any loot you guys get. You''ll all be receiving amission for closing the gate, as with all gates, and a certain percentage of the loot will be spread among you, while the rest is distributed to the guild as it normally would. Your set strike time is 12 noon the day after tomorrow, so get to headquarters around 10 am for a briefing and we''ll leave from here to head to the gate. In the meantime get some rest and prepare yourself how you see fit." Hearing all the details for the gate, Milo signaled this as the start of his grind to reach his goal. Now that he was going to be closing a real gate rather than a simted one he''d be getting credits and loot. After closing the gate he could probably send Avery the stuff she needed to make him a chain whip sword. Milo went home and did some research on different things to find out metal prices and a bit more. With the E ranked gate he received a 2,000 creditmission meaning for a C rank gate he''d probably get more which would mean he could afford to put more into it. He wanted to get something that would hopefullyst him a long time as well as something that would be of a high tier. Milo continued to think of things he could do, and he hadn''t considered asking if multiple essence cores could be implemented at once. Because of this he asked Avery if that was possible and she informed him that it was indeed possible and most of the time it would be better tobinepatible cores from elemental beasts, by doing so attached skills of that elemental attribute tended to appear more often. The lightning element core he used for his chest te was luckily strong enough to make an elemental attached skill appear. Milo then decided that he''d have to keep that in mind when deciding what to use essence cores for. First though he had to get into a real gate to get cores, which would be happening the day after tomorrow. Chapter 100 99 - The C Rank Gate Milo rested the next day as per David''s rmendation and went into the day that his team would be closing the C rank gate at top condition. Showing up at the guild headquarters for their briefing before closing the gate, Milo learned something new. For gates closed by guilds, if the gate was a low enough rank, either ranks C or B, they''d send a scout team ahead of the main strike force. Usually it consisted of 2 or 3 people who would just survey the interior of the dungeon using stealth rted abilities. They''d gather intel such as what types of beasts could be found within, as well as if there were any strange variables to watch for in the gate. Based on the scout team''s intel, the beasts the team would be facing in this gate were undead type beasts. They were called Ghouls, which were considered to be some of the easiest undead creatures to fight besides Zombies, although that didn''t mean the gate in general would be easy. Ghouls had extremely fast regenerative powers and would attack relentlessly, as they had an endless hunger for flesh. They also learned that there were a few Blood Ghouls inside as well, these were stronger versions of the ghouls and in some cases would lead a pack of regr Ghouls as they were considered a bit more intelligent. They hadn''t gotten a peek at the boss, but the scout team said it most likely was also a beast of the undead variety. Using this information David formed a game n for the squad, such as where to attack the ghouls to limit their regeneration, what to avoid, and other things of that sort. The main thing they needed to look out for was a type of attack Blood Ghouls would do, it involved throwing up some sort of bile at them and the bile was highly acidic and would attract nearby ghouls and send them in a frenzy. It was decided that Milo would be the one set to look out for this, as he showed very high awareness when training in the simtion. After their briefing the team made their way outside to the front of the guild office and boarded a group of ck SUVs with the guild logo on the side that would guide them to the gate they''d be closing. After about an hour of driving, weaving in and out of busy streets in the concrete jungle that was New York City, the envoy filled with the strike squad arrived at their destination, close to the outskirts of the city, an abandoned warehouse stood on the bank of a river. The building itself was made of metal and was rusting all over. It looked as if no one had been to the building in years. Without the magic detection satellites that had been designed to pick up onrge traces of magical energy, Milo wasn''t sure anyone would have found the gate before a gate break urred. When stepping out of the vehicles, arge group of people were already on the scene at the warehouse. Some were guild members taking measurements of the gate with different strange devices, others were reporters who were on the scene to witness the first attack of the Incubus guild''s newest attack force, and thest of the people already at the warehouse were GAA members keeping a perimeter around the gate and also preventing the reporters from getting too close to the gate''s entrance. Seeing the amount of attention that the strike squad Milo was taken aback, he wasn''t one to seek out attention and because of this, when seeing the reporters he wanted to hide in the back of his group. Seeing Milo a bit ufortable, David took the forefront and answered any questions from the reporters about the strike force. David understood Milo''s stance on attention, he also wasn''t big on wanting attention but hoped that for Milo''s sake he would get used to it. Being a gatecrasher, especially a strong one drew a lot of attention, and with Milo being so young, he was bound to attract even more attention if reporters ever found out about how strong he was. Eventually David had quelled the curiosity of the reporters, saying that they could contact him directly and he''d answer any questions they had about the next generation of gatecrashers from the Incubus guild. Even if some of the team''s members were a bit older, they were all considered new to gatecrashing. The group was now all gathered around the entrance to the gate and checking their equipment. Milo checked in with all the dealers to make sure everything was set and they knew their strategy. The twins were told to stick together and fight ghouls 2 on 1, Milo on the other hand would be focusing on protecting the backline and fighting at range with ire, their ranger. Milo''s main focus throughout the whole gate would be to use his ice to keep the ghouls locked down, freezing them in ce until it was safe to dispatch them. Due to the strength and regenerative abilities of ghouls, they wanted to avoid getting into a dog fight. Once their equipment was all checked and they were ready to go, the team, with David tagging along, headed into the gate prepared to finally close an actual one and not some simtion. When crossing through the dimensional door, Milo felt a cool breeze and once the distortion from going through dimensions finished, he immediately noticed the smell. "Ugh, they weren''t kidding when they said this was a dungeon full of undead type monsters, it literally smells like death," one of the team members remarked. After getting used to the smell, the group began to make their way through the gate carefully, they encountered a few odd ghouls who were out on their own or in small groups. Just like the intel they received, the ghouls were extremely vicious when attacking, they showed close to no intelligence and just rushed in attempting to sh and bite at the strike team. Milo had only had to freeze a few of the ghouls in ce as they mainly targeted those closest to them, which led to them mostly targeting the front line which consisted of the twins and tanks. While they continued on through the gate, David was the unfortunate one that had to cut the essence cores from the corpses of the ghouls since he was joining this raid as a spectator and porter. Eventually entering into another chamber within the gate, Milo noticed a Ghoul that looked strange. It had darker skin, rather than a pale gray like normal Ghouls, its skin almost looked like stone. Along with this, there was a yellow green foam around its mouth. "Stay sharp, we''ve got a Blood Ghoul," Harvey said. It was just as Milo was expecting, they knew that there were Blood Ghouls inside the gate thanks to their intel, but Milo wasn''t sure what they looked like. He then used his inspect skill on it in order to get some more details on it from the system. [Unique Tier Beast] Species: Blood Ghoul Status: Diseased Disposition: Aggressive An undead type beast that is a diseased version of a regr Ghoul. They are in constant pain due to their unending hunger for flesh. Once they smell blood they will hunt for the source of it even if it means they have to injure themselves. They are stronger and faster than regr Ghouls in exchange for weaker regeneration. Their stomach bile is extremely acidic and causes extreme pain when touched. [clear] Reading the description of the Blood Ghoul, Milo was able to learn that they wouldn''t heal as fast as regr Ghouls but they would be stronger. Based on this info he chose to let his teammates know so that they would be prepared for this difference. The battle took a bit longer due to the monster seeming to be a bit more intelligent than regr Ghouls. It easily broke out of Milo''s ice path so Milo chose to focus on closebat for this battle. He used his chain at mid range rather than up close to avoid getting struck by the savage undead creature. Eventually the beast was defeated and Milo and the team stopped for a rest. A few times the beast seemed to projectile vomit in an attempt to cover the gatecrashers with its acidic bile but thanks to their intel and Milo''s callouts, they were able to avoid it, and it proved to be the right choice as it seemed to eat away even the ground they were standing on as if it was butter. The team continued on from their defeating a few more Blood Ghouls and groups of normal Ghouls. Their toughest battle came when they came across a Blood Ghoul that was leading 4 normal Ghouls. Their n was for the tanks to be extremely defensive to allow the damage dealers to dispatch the regr Ghouls before they took on the Blood Ghoul as a team. While the dealers were taking out the enemies, one of the twins, Cameron, was too careless and ended up getting himself surrounded by three of the ghouls. When this happened, Conner, his brother rushed in to try and help him, but was swatted away into a pile of rocks towards the backline. Cameron was fighting for his life trying to hold off the bloodthirsty creatures, seeing his teammate in that position, Milo did the only thing he could think of, he took the sickle side of his weapon and created a small cut on his arm, between his chest piece and gauntlets near his bicep. When blood was drawn, all the Ghouls in the room sniffed the air and all turned towards Milo with their mouth''s watering. While watching this all unfold, David began to pull his weapon from his back thinking he''d have to get involved. When the Ghoul''s attention was drawn away from Cameron, Milo did the same move he did in his provisional license exam. He ran to a wall essentially cornering himself, before vaulting off the wall and creating a massive de of ice before swinging it beheading all the Ghoul''s that were chasing him. Even the head of the stronger Blood Ghoul made a wet thumping noise as it hit the floor. While Ghoul''s could regenerate from almost anything, even a lost organ, without their head they weren''t able to do anything. Chapter 101 100 - Closing The Gate After defeating all the Ghouls, Milo had used a lot of energy, had he not spent all his free points on his Stamina stat afterpleting the mission awhile back, he may have been too tired to move. David also thought he may be out for the count, as it was the same attack that took up all his energy when he took his provisional license exam. After hepleted the move andnded with a bit of a stumble, Milo felt arge hand p him on the back. "Putting on quite the show, aren''t ya kid?!" he heard Harvey say. Milo staggered again from the bear like hand hitting him on the back, andughed a bit scratching the back of his head, "it was the only thing I could think of," Milo said bashfully. Cameron then came over and thanked Milo for saving him and told him that he would be receiving his cut of the loot, he was fine giving that much since Milo had saved him from being torn apart by the Ghouls, all he needed was the credits to pay for rent and food anyways. Milo thanked Cameron for the gesture and said that first they''d have to survive the rest of the gate which got a chuckle from the group. They decided to take an extended break so that Milo could recharge a bit after using such a big attack. The main reason this attack took so much out of Milo was due to how fast he had to form the ice de, as well as how sharp he made it. If a piece of paper was dropped on the de he made, it would cut cleanly in half. After resting the group got back to work and continued on, they no longer ran into any incidents like they had previously, where a Blood Ghoul was leading a group of regr Ghouls, however they did fight a pair of Blood Ghouls, the pair seemed to get into a fight amongst each other during the battle with the raid team, most likely trying to fight over who among the team each Blood Ghoul got to eat. After defeating the two, Milo and his group moved on to what appeared to be thest chamber in the gate. When entering what could only be the boss''sir, Milo scanned the area. Strewn about the ground of the chamber were bones and mutted corpses of what Milo could only assume were Ghouls. The group then heard what sounded like flesh being torn from bone. Hearing this noise, they immediately prepared forbat. Milo signaled for the group to wait, and he pressed forward, looking for the source of the horrific sound. After slowly making his way deeper into the room, Milo stepped around arge pile of bones and saw a gruesome scene of the boss eating one of the corpses that could be seen littering the floor. The boss was strange looking to say the least, it stood on two legs but had no arms and looked like someone had taken a bunch of flesh and just mashed it together without having a specific shape in mind. It had what appeared to be bones covering the outside of the fleshy body, almost like an exoskeleton. Running down its back to the end of its tail were spines that looked to be made of the same bone substance. Lastly Milo looked towards its face. It was horrifying looking, it had a skull like helmet that looked almost reptilian. The locations in the helmet-like skull where its eyes and nose would have normally been located had the fleshy mishmash bulging out. After taking in the appearance of the monster, Milo activated his inspect skill to find out exactly what the name of the creature they''d be fighting was. [Heroic Tier Beast] Species: Bone Homunculus Status: Undead Disposition: Aggressive An undead creature that appears to be a number of different creatures mashed together. They depend on their bone-like armor for defense, as their flesh is easily damaged. By feeding on flesh they can add to their own body to growrger and stronger. The spines on their tail are very sharp and are its main source of offense. [clear] Reading what the creature was called made it even more hideous in Milo''s mind. An undead creature that could make itselfrger by consuming flesh made Milo shiver, but luckily he''d be able to kill the nightmarish creature here and now. After scouting the boss out, Milo returned to the group that was waiting near the entrance of the room and informed them of the beast waiting for them. Describing the Bone Homunculus to them, the rest of Milo''s team shivered. It sounded like a disgusting sight, and they weren''t wrong. Milo went over what he figured would be its weak points, as per the system''s description, and the group came up with a n. While Milo told the team what the boss looked like, he exined there were many ces on the beast''s body that were not protected by bone armor. This would be where the dealers would focus their damage. Milo didn''t want to hold anything back during this fight and would be using as many ice spears as he could muster without tiring himself out too much. After their nning, the group entered the chamber where the Bone Homunculus was waiting. It was still feasting on dead Ghouls and had its back to the team. Milo chose to use this opportunity to get off a surprise attack, plunging an ice spear into a chink of the bone ting protecting the creatures body. When it sunk into the beast''s flesh, Milo controlled his ability, freezing a bit of the area around where the attacknded. When the attack connected the Bone Homunculus let out a bone chilling shriek, the attack obviously hurt the beast, and due to iting out of nowhere, the beast thrashed out smashing the piles of bones near it. After the surrounding area had been cleared of skeletal remains by the beast''s thrashing, the monster could finally see the person responsible for its wound. By this point, Milo had begun to form more ice spears, and held them hovering above his head. Seeing the person with ice swirling about its head, the Bone Homunculus charged towards the group where it was met by Harvey who raised his shield to meet the boss''s attack. He smashed the shield into the beast but all it did was prevent it from moving forward, it took no damage from the attack, after Harvey had prevented its advance, the other tanks took their positions, prepared to help Harvey hold the beast back for Milo and the other dealers to inflict some damage. The twins smacked hands activating their ability and leapt towards the beast, shing anywhere they saw open flesh, just as Milo had instructed. The beast howled in pain from receiving all the attacks the twins threw at it. In the next moment, a barrage of arrows from ire''s bow and ice spears from Milo pierced the beast in different chinks of armor located around its body. After throwing the barrage of ice spears, Milo chose to hold off on using his Ice ability unless necessary, as the more spears he threw the more tired he got. Instead after throwing the spears, he rushed in and chose to use his sickle to causecerations wherever his Hunter''s Eye ability showed a weakness. He skillfully cut different joints and tendons, preventing the creature from being able to freely move. While continuously hacking and shing at every opening, the damage dealt was beginning to add up and the beast eventually began to slow down, not being able to keep up with the damage it was receiving. All the while, the tanks continued to hold back the beast''s attacks, keeping it safe from breaking through to their backlines, and keeping it fromunching counterattacks at their closebat dealers. The beast grew enraged and once again thrashed about swinging its tail in all different directions attempting to push the tanks back but the attacks simply bounced off the massive shields of Harvey and Chuck. Soon, the beast was on itsst legs, and Milo decided that now was the time to end it. He reinforced his legs jumping into the air and once high enough a massive hammer of ice began to form in his hands. He mmed the giant ice mallet downward on the top of the beast''s bone covered head. As soon as it made contact, there was a cracking noise and the beast''s body gave out mming into the ground, throwing up a cloud of bone dust and debris. Once the dust settled, the body of the beast could now be seen smashed into the ground. The bones protecting its body were splintered from the force of the blow, and the fleshy bits now were ttened like a pancake. All that remained was the essence core of the beast as well as another small gem that seemed to originate from inside its body. Milo then heard a ping. He had leveled up once again after defeating the Bone Homunculus, along with this, he noticed when activating his Plunder skill that there was now a green symbol floating above Seamus, signaling he hadpleted the copy conditions for his ability. After seeing the remains of the beast, the team cheered and celebrated at them closing their first gate. Spirits were up following defeating the boss and closing the gate. While the team celebrated, Milo took a seat to catch his breath. He definitely needed an ability to improve his recovery asap, but for now was happy that the team hadpleted their goal. Eventually the team began to return to the entrance of the gate and once they had exited, all the members gathered at a trailer that had been setup for them to receive treatment in and rx while they waited for their loot to be split up and for their payments to be tabted. Chapter 102 101 - Collecting Payment Once the essence cores and beast parts had been checked over, David entered the trailer with all the loot they had gathered. Undead beasts didn''t have many useful beast parts, and because of this, Milo only received essence cores from them, which all beasts contained, and the one strange gem that was dropped by the boss of the gate. For now Milo pretended to put all the stuff he''d been given in a backpack and instead stored it in his system inventory. Seeing the loot disappear into thin air would definitely cause his teammates to think something was up, and could lead to them finding out about the system, which Milo wasn''t ready for, maybe one day he''d reveal publicly that he could copy abilities but that would only happen once he was powerful enough to fend off anyone who came at him. Soon, Cameron came over and handed over the essence cores he had been given as his cut of the loot and told Milo to keep them. It was his way to pay Milo back for risking his own life attracting the attention of all the Ghouls to save his own. Milo dly epted them, as that meant he''d be increasing his magic power stat even more, storing those cores in his inventory as well. In total he had received 3 unique cores from Blood Ghouls and 7 rare cores from basic Ghouls. The heroic core that was contained in the boss was taken by the guild as part of their cut. Milo was a bit sad to not get it himself, but this was something that came with being part of a guild, as if they gave away all the loot from gates they closed to the gatecrashers they wouldn''t have any way of making money. After the loot had been fully distributed, David also gave them theirmission for closing the C rank gate. For the E ranked gate he closed on his in-field experience, Milo was given 2,000 credits as themission by the GAA. The higher the difficulty of the gate, the higher themission rate, and since it was the Incubus guild, they had some of the bestmission rates around. Milo had earned 7,500 credits for his role in closing the gate. Seeing the credits load into his ount, Milo smiled in satisfaction, hopefully now he could buy the materials Avery needed in order to create his chain whip sword. David ended their time in the trailer meant for them to rx after closing the gate by announcing that they would now head back to headquarters where they could hang out in the lounge for the day or go out and do whatever they wanted to do. Closing a gate took a lot out of a gate crasher and for this reason, the group was also given the next day off to recharge and they''d reconvene the day after to reflect on their experience in the gate This was weed by Milo as he had used a ton of energy while closing the C ranked gate, almost using up all his stamina not just once, but twice. Because of this, after returning to the guild headquarters Milo got on the first taxi he could find and headed home to rx. Once he arrived back at his apartment the sun was beginning to set, they had closed the C rank gate in 8 hours. This was longer than their simtion runs but since it was a live gate, the team was a lot more cautious than they normally were, as a death didn''t mean they''d have to wait to respawn, it meant the end. Milo stared out at the golden light falling over the city and was happy for the life he was currently living. He had good friends, he was growing stronger and was gaining experience in the field he wanted to pursue after graduation and was excelling at it. He was earning a good ie doing this as well, which was just the cherry on top. The system had changed his life, and in the next few minutes it would expand even more. Milo extracted all the cores from his inventory other than two of the unique ranked cores from the Blood Ghouls. The other cores were all nowying on his bed, the strange crystals looked like all the others he had seen so far, with some strange power flowing inside of them. The unique tier cores seemed to have more colors flowing through them inparison to the rare ranked cores. Milo wanted to take a quick look at his stats before absorbing the cores so he could see exactly what changes urred once they were absorbed, so he opened his status screen. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 31 Gold: 175 Armor Rating: 1650 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 5) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 6) 3 - Beast Whisperer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 5) 5 - empty - 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [50] Agility: [45] Intelligence: [50] Stamina: [58] Constitution: [45] Magic Power: [30] [clear] When looking through his status screen he first checked his abilities. Whenever he absorbed cores they seemed to increase in level, allowing him to use them at a stronger degree. While checking them, he realized he hadn''t attempted to copy Seamus''s ability with the Plunder skill, which was Soul Siphon. If it was sessfully copied, Milo''s strength would take another jump, as it would allow him to take power from another target and add it to his own. It was a debuff and self buff skill that would flow well with how he fought. He also noticed that he had yet to increase the level of the Beast Whisperer ability, which most likely came down to the fact that he always used his inspect skill to find out info on beasts rather than using the ability to read their thoughts, his main reason for holding onto the ability was so that he could one day tame a beast, like Zach. Next were his stats, since beginning at the guild he had gotten up to level 31. One of these levels came while he was closing the gate, causing all his stats to be boosted again. He smiled seeing the level of his stats before moving on. Hestly noted his Magic Power stat was at 30 and turned to the essence coresying on his bed. He decided to absorb a rare ranked core first. He absorbed the core, the system then began pulling the energy from the core into his body causing the core to disappear in a strange rainbow mist that dissipated into the air, simr to what happened when storing something in his dimensional storage earring. When he did, a screen appeared. [Notice] Rare Essence Core sessfully absorbed Gained 3 points in the Magic Power stat Gained 50 exp [clear] Seeing that his magic power stat grew by 3 he absorbed another and another identical screen appeared however this time an additional screen came with it. [Notice] Due to Magic Power stat reaching a certain level, essence cores will lose some effectiveness when absorbed. [clear] Reading the message, he figured it''d get to this point as if he could continuously absorb essence cores to make it so his Magic Power stat increased, he could just clear low ranked gates on his own and use all the low tiered essence cores to increase it. This was likely the system''s way of preventing him from cheating his growth, even though he had already be extremely strong. He just hoped that the level at which the system nerfed it wasn''t too high. He absorbed another rare core hoping for the best and his heart dropped reading the message that appeared. [Notice] Rare Essence Core sessfully absorbed Gained 1 points in the Magic Power stat Gained 10 exp [clear] At this point Milo chose to absorb all the remaining cores he wanted to absorb, as even increasing it by one point would help him reach his end of summer goal eventually. After absorbing the cores his Magic Power stat had reached 44. The unique ranked core he absorbed along with the 7 rare cores gave 14 points total, and it was almost halfway to what Milo had set as his goal from where he started. He then opened his status screen to see if any changes were made to his abilities. When he absorbed the cores, he could feel the increase in magic power flow through him but wasn''t sure to what extent it''d increase the level of his abilities. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 31 Gold: 175 Armor Rating: 1650 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 7) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 8) 3 - Beast Whisperer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 3) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 7) 5 - empty - 6 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [50] Agility: [45] Intelligence: [50] Stamina: [58] Constitution: [45] Magic Power: [44] [clear] Each of his abilities had grown two levels from the 14 point increase to his Magic Power stat. To what extent that affected his strength when using the abilities he would have to test the next time he went to the training room. Overall however, absorbing the essence cores was a great boost, and Milo couldn''t wait to test things out the next day after resting for the rest of the night. He also nned to send a message to Avery about creating his new weapon. Chapter 103 102 - Ordering A New Weapon Milo sent Avery a message, asking if she had made any headway with learning how to create the chain whip sword they had talked about. She said that she had made a lot of progress and had sessfully created some prototypes using cheap materials she hadying around at home. Most of these prototypes were just ded chains, she had yet to attempt to make aplete chain whip sword but by being able to create the linking des, the weapon was essentially created, all that was missing was the end of the de and the hilt. Milo hade to find out that Avery came from a family of cksmiths, while magical equipment had only emerged when the dimensional doors began to appear, her family had been using traditional forging for generations. Because of this, she began learning how to work a forge at a young age, and her family even had a machine shop where she would go to practice her craft. Milo informed her that he had two unique cores he had gotten from his internship and said that he had also received a decent amount of credits that he wanted to put towardsmissioning a chain whip sword from her. Avery said to give her some time to crunch some numbers and that as soon as she could determine a cost, she''d let Milo know how much he''d need to pay, but that it probably wouldn''t be until the next day, as she would need to check the market for metal prices. Satisfied so far Milo closed his messages and went to bed, he nned to go to the guild the next day to see just how much his increased Magic Power stat affected the strength of his abilities. Once the next morning arrived, Milo headed to the guild building and made his way into one of the training rooms on the upper floors. He activated his Ice ability to test for any changes in output, once it activated, Milo could sense that the strength of the freezing aura emitted seemed even colder than usual. It almost seemed that as he raised the level of the ability, his sensitivity to the amount of power he could use with the ability seemed to be more and more acute as well. Through some testing he found that he could now urately pinpoint how much power he used at one time, when using a low percentage of power, Milo could focus it just on the area around his hands, this made it good when he needed to freeze something he was touching or when he needed to make a quick weapon of ice. At max power, Milo could cause enough cold energy to freeze the entire room over. While he was training he found that he had identally frozen the door solid when testing his maximum output, causing him to have to wait for it to thaw before he could leave. While Milo was in the training room, Jorge noticed that the training room was in use and returned to his office, opening the security feeding from the room. Hemonly checked these cameras as it allowed him to monitor the growth of the guild''s gatecrashers. Jorge could see Milo testing his abilities in the center of the room, at first he seemed to be holding back, creating small daggers of ice in his hand. All of a sudden, frost rapidly spread from where Milo''s feet were contacting the floor, it was faster than any Frost user that Jorge had seen. Since Milo hadbined the Frost ability with the Water ability, it had resulted in the Ice ability manifesting, the Fusion skill as its description said caused two abilities tobine to be one strong version that was abo of the two. Because of this the Ice ability was extremely powerful inparison to the basic Frost ability, almost double the strength of the two, and was unknown to the world, Milo was the only person who had the Ice ability, as normally people would just use the Frost ability at an extremely high level to do the same things Milo did. Eventually the ice snaking out from Milo''s feet froze the camera over causing the screen on Jorge''s end to show static. Unlike the camera, the rest of the room was reinforced with magic technology which helped keep the lights and other things in the room safe from damage but not the security camera hanging from the corner of the room. Seeing the camera get destroyed, Jorge''s eyes shook. He had never seen a student this strong before, if he had better training in maintaining his stamina Milo would be unstoppable, he may even rank at the X rank for gatecrashers which was extremely umon. Jorge made a vow to himself at that moment that he would try to convince Milo to join the guild after graduation no matter what it would cost him. Milo''s growth rate was something Jorge hadn''t seen before in a student and he showed no sign of slowing down. At this rate, Milo could be a gatecrasher thatunches the Incubus guild to be one of the next big names in the world. After testing with his Ice ability, Milo tested his other abilities, after leveling up Reinforce, it allowed Milo to use more power and he could focus the ability into specific parts of his body even better than before. With his Hunter''s Eye ability, he had to use the training room''s hologram function in order to test it. When activating the ability, he could begin to see lines that showed where a target was aiming their attack, this would allow him to avoid attacks with much more uracy. He was unable to test the beast whisperer ability, but his guess would be that it had an increase in range, and also would maybe allow him to read a beast''s mind to a greater extent. After finishing up in the training room, Milo went to the locker rooms and took a shower to wash off the sweat and stink from working out and training. After finishing up he checked his holo and found that he had received a message from Avery telling him to give her a call once he had a chance. Because of this, he returned back to his apartment and gave Avery a call right away, it rang a few times before she picked up the video call and her soot-covered face could be seen on the screen. She was the first to speak, informing Milo that she had finished crunching numbers and had a few options for him to choose from. The first was to use a regr metal and a single core to make the weapon; this would result in the weakest result but would allow her to finish faster. The second option was to use two cores, one would be used to create a magic alloy and the other to be implemented into the weapon which would be the strongest of the two options. The first option would be much cheaper, costing around as much as it did to create his firstmission from her, and the second would be around double the cost. Depending on the alloy that it was made from it could be even more, as creating a magic alloy took extreme concentration as to avoid any adverse reactions between the core and metal being mixed and some alloys used precious metals. Milo immediately chose the second option, he wanted something he could use for a while, that would also be powerful. The next thing she asked Milo about was what type of beast the core came from, when he told her it was a unique ranked core from an undead monster, Avery determined that Orichalum would be the best alloy to use. Silver fused better with undead attribute cores better than steel or tinum, and silver was the metal used in the Orichalum alloy. Each alloy was more efficiently infused with magic power if it was mixed with apatible attribute essence core. Mythril was best when steel wasbined with elemental abilities, steel in general had this type ofpatibility. Orichalum was best when silver wasbined with more evil abilities, such as the undead, darkness, or poison. Zeurichium was overallpatible with almost every attribute, however due to it not specializing in an attribute the attribute used wouldn''t be as powerful as when it were used to make Mythril or Orichalum, depending on the attribute. Based on the alloy she would be using, Avery determined that she would need approximately 6,500 credits toplete Milo''s weapon. Milo then told her that he would head down to the closest transport station and send her all the essence cores, after transferring 7,000 credits to her ount. He added an additional 500 in case she needed any extra materials, as well as for her to keep any extra credits as she still insisted on working for free, which Milo didn''t think was fair. Transport stations were like post offices, only they used teleportation technology to send packages and letters, simr to what they used at the academy. The packages could then be picked up by going to the transport station of whatever city it was sent to. After sending off the cores, he got a message from Avery saying that she received all the stuff she needed, and would get started the next day. Synthesizing the Orichalum for the weapon would take at least 2 days and then the actual forging could take anywhere from a week to two weeks depending on how hard Avery worked. Now Milo had a timeline and couldn''t wait to see what Avery came up with this time. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 104 103 - Delivery Over the next week and a half, Milo''s team closed more simted gates in the guild''s training room. The team was working on treating the simtions as real gates in order to get a more realistic training regime. Because they acted like they did in the real gate, it took the group a bit longer to clear each of the gates. David had decided that they should revisit the simtion due to their unconscious change in their tactics when moving from the simtion to a real gate. Because of this, since the day Milo sent Avery the materials for his new weapon, the team closed 5 simted gates of the C rank, and 1 of the B rank. The C rank gates would be the best practice for them as they would only be sent to close C rank gates until David or Jorge cleared them for B ranked gates, which they weren''t sufficiently prepared for. While the group closed the simted gates, David had pulled Milo aside and instructed him to focus on conserving stamina, as this was his weakness. He was obviously their highest source of damage, but he burned through too much stamina too quickly. Because of this the gates took a bit longer, but Milo was able to be a bit more free in the boss fight and could use his full strength for longer. The real gate the team closed took them 8 hours to clear, and the simted gates they had been closing took them an average of 6 hours at this point, after adapting to the more carefulbat style they took. They had be extremely efficient inbat, even though Milo held back a bit more, and they were still training as if they would die for real if killed in the simtion. Through this practice they had cut their average clear time with their new gate closing strategy by 2 full hours, which was a huge improvement. The B rank gate simtion they had been thrown into took them 11 hours to clear when they treated it like a real life gate. They would need a lot more training to cut down this time before attempting a real B rank gate. Soon, almost two weeks had passed and after clearing yet another C rank gate, Milo received a message from Avery saying that his weapon was ready to be picked up at a transport station. Milo''s eyes glittered with excitement reading the message, his training was done for the day and the following day would be a free day for the team so Milo decided that it would be time for him to start his training using his new weapon. When Milo arrived at the transport station, he approached the counter and gave the person working the transport code that Avery gave him that would allow Milo to pick up his package. The employee of the transport station stepped into the backroom where the packages were stored, and a few minutester returned to the front carrying a sword shaped item wrapped in a ck cloth. Milo received the package and rushed home to open the package up. When he got back to his apartment, he rushed into his room without saying hi to Corinna. Corinna was confused at first but brushed it off, as Milo seemed excited about the thing he was carrying whening through the front door. She yelled that dinner was on the counter whenever he was ready for it and returned to her work on herputer. Hearing Corinna, Milo was too excited to worry about eating and decided he''d eat after seeing Avery''s new creation for him. Once in his room, he set the package on his bed, and pulled the strings undoing the knots holding the cloth to the weapon. After the strings fell to the sides, he gently pulled the cloth open revealing his new weapon. The weapon looked menacing at first nce. The orichalum used made the segments of the de a dark gray that would look ck without light shining on it. There was a line of silver towards the center of the de segments, running from the hilt to a bit under the tip of the weapon. Overall the weapon had the shape of a spine of some strange creature. The grip was leather and had a ck intricate pattern pressed into the side that looked like a chain simr in appearance to the ones on his gauntlets. And there appeared to be a small button towards the top of the hilt as well. There was a note tied up in the cloth with the weapon, Milo grabbed it and read what was written: "Hope this is to your liking, I noticed the chains on your gauntlets you use and thought I''d include them in the decorative elements on the hilt. If you press the button it should swap between the sword and whip mode with the assistance of a small device in the guard. -Avery P.S. This is probably my best work so far, so use it well" Reading the message, Milo smiled at the idea that Avery used his other gear when taking appearance into ount. Most gatecrashers got matching sets of armor and weapons, and so far Milo had just got what he thought would be useful without considering if they looked good together, ck was a color present in all his equipment so far, and the new chain whip sword fit with his other equipment. Not only this, but chains had be a sort of symbol for Milo, as all the plunder skills involved chains in some way when visualized. Milo couldn''t wait any longer and picked the new weapon up. Unlike most swords Milo had picked up, this one was made with Milo in mind and felt well bnced in his grip. He could tell Avery thought of everything when making it for him. He then pressed the button on the top of the grip and the de separated into its different segments, with a ck sort of cord running through all of them holding them together in the middle. The whip mode of the weapon seemed to be about half the range of his chain making his mid range attacks when not using his ability a bit shorter but it was a worthwhile sacrifice as now his closebat capabilities would be stronger. Seeing how the weapon worked when shifting between modes, Milo grinned, it felt exactly like his chain sickle did when using the chain side. He then pressed the button again and a soft whirring sound could be heard as the links reconnected with a satisfying *clink* noise as they locked back into ce forming the sword de. The change from the whip form to the rigid de took a split second, much faster than Milo was expecting which would allow him to quickly swap between the two modes while inbat. He wanted to swing it around but chose to hold back to avoid destroying anything in his room. He chose to wait on checking the weapon with his inspect skill and would do so after using it in the training room the next day at the guild headquarters. He wanted to keep some things a surprise as he didn''t want to go through everything that night, since the weapon already seemed too good to be true. He put the weapon in his dimensional storage earring and ate the dinner Corinna set out for him, before turning in for the night, it took him awhile to fall asleep however as the excitement he felt from being able to test the new weapon the next day robbed him of some sleep. Eventually he nodded off but not before thinking of what the weapon would do to the training dummies the guild had. Waking up the next morning, Milo wasted no time, rushing off to the guild building to test his new weapon. When he arrived at the right floor, he ran into Harvey who was also there to test some new equipment he had made for him from the cores he received from the C rank gate they closed. Milo had his new weapon in his hand, as well as all his other equipment put on as well. "Milo, you''re using a sword now? What happened to that weird chain thingy you had before?" Harvey asked. Milo said that he still had it, but thought this might fit him better, Harvey shrugged and asked if Milo wanted to share a training room with him. Milo agreed to the proposition and the two co captains of their raid team entered one of the training rooms together. Milo immediately pressed a button on the consoles by the door, causing three regenerative training dummies to rise from the floor. Milo started with the new weapon in sword mode, hacking and shing the dummies into ribbons, the de felt good in his hands, and while his swordy was still obviously novice, the sharpness of the de allowed him to make up for it. Watching Milo at work with the sword, Harvey didn''t note anything spectacr about the weapon. It was indeed sharp but it seemed to be like any other sword, aside from the strange shape of the de. After regenerating the dummies, Milo pressed the button on the guard and the de split up, transforming to the whip mode. Milo swung the weapon out holding onto the hilt, and shed the dummy, leaving argeceration across its torso. While whipping the weapon around, he noticed that the cord holding the links together stretched giving the weapon a bit more range. With the sticity of the cord, the range was around 3/4 the range of his chain. He then tried the move he saw when researching the weapon online, swinging the weapon out allowing it to wrap around the dummy, digging the ded segments into its midsection, he then ripped back the de, shredding the dummy where the weapon had wrapped around it originally. After Milo transformed the weapon, Harvey could see why Milo would say it suited him; it mixed the closebat superiority of the long sword with the ranged advantage he held when using the chain sickle he''d normally use. He nodded, obviously impressed by Milo''s ingenuity with weapon choice, before beginning his own training a bit away from Milo so that he wasn''t hit by Milo whipping the whip like weapon around. Milo then activated the inspect skill, finally ready to reveal the statistics of the weapon to himself. And seeing the screen his eyes widened. Chapter 105 104 - Ghouls Bane After opening the inspect skill, Milo''s eyes widened reading the description of the new weapon: [Ghoul''s Bane(Unique)] Durability: 400 Damage Rating: 300 Str +7 Agi +5 Attached Skill: Blood Mark - When an attack draws blood, this skill causes a mark to appear on the target whose blood was spilled. The mark causes the target to receive increased damage from all iing attacks. A max of five targets can be marked at one time, and the marksts for 15 minutes following the skills activation. (cooldown: 10:00) Description: A chain whip sword that offers an extremely sharp edge. By pressing the button on the hilt, the weapon can change modes from sword to whip. Due to the metal used to create this weapon, it offers a goodpatibility with the undead element. [clear] Milo''s new weapon had incredible stats, exactly what he was looking for. It also came with a very useful attached skill that would allow for him and his teammates to do more damage to beasts. By reading the skills description Milo determined that he could also mark multiple beasts at once using a single activation of the skill. This would decrease his team''s gate closing time significantly by allowing them to finishbat faster. Since it was a weapon, the stat boosts were less than that of his armor, but Milo expected this to be the case. He also noted that his chest piece had two attached skills and his the Ghoul''s Bane only had one. Although the two skills on his chest piece worked in tandem with each other, the charge skill also required a lightning element attack to be able to be activated. Because of this fact, Milo wasn''t upset that the chain whip sword that was made only had one skill, as it was an extremely strong one, and it was a debuff skill no less, which were fairly rare, especially on weapons. Milo wanted to test the skill asap, and decided he would have to jump in a simtion to test it, as the training dummies didn''t spill blood when attacked which was required to activate the skill. While in the simtion, Milo could turn on a damage indicator as well, that would show a numerical value for damage done using an attack, which would allow him to know just how much more damage the debuff caused. Because of this, Milo ran to the simtion floors and jumped into the lobby of the simtion, turning on the damage indicator before summoning a dummy beast to test it on. Milo set the beast to frozen mode so it didn''t fight back, and created a small cut drawing blood from the test subject. After a bit of blood could be seening from the cut, Milo activated the skill, and a strange ck mist emitted from the blood that was spilled. The strange mist then moved to the beast''s back where it covered the area behind the beast''s shoulder. When it dissipated, a strange symbol could be seen where the mist just was. The symbol looked like four w marks and had a red glow to it. After the new symbol appeared, Milo received a notification screen from the system stating that the target had been sessfully marked. After testing the skill, Milo went into the settings of the lobby, spawning another test beast. He then shed the beast with a normal attack, and a 300 popped up above the unmarked beast''s head. Milo then turned to the beast that had the new marking from his skill and shed at it doing the same attack. This time the number 360 popped up above the beast''s head. Milo calcted it in his head quickly and determined that the mark would increase damage received by 20%. This wasn''t a crazy boost in damage but the extra 20% would add up quickly if he had teammates assisting him. He assumed this was the case, as the description of the skill didn''t state that only his attacks would deal increased damage, instead stating that all iing attacks would have the damage increase. After testing, Milo chose to create a random D rank gate to test the weapon some more in a simted gate, and also to test the new attached skill as well. He noted that the weapon was a bit more tough to use than the chain sickle, since he had used the system tutorials to learn how to use it and its fighting techniques. He took note of this and decided that he''d have to check the tutorials tab to see if any new tutorials were generated from him equipping the new weapon after finishing with closing the simted gate. As he made his way through the gate, he found that the thing that would need the most work was his swordy. He hadn''t used a sword extensively before and it showed, as he still wasn''t used to the difference in range, as well as weight when moving from the sickle to the sword. His attacks were very simple and it was obvious that he was a novice with a sword the minute he got intobat with it, but this would not deter him. The chain whip sword also only used one hand, whereas with the chain sickle, he had the sickle in one hand and the chain in the other. Overall this was another thing Milo would have to adapt to, but this also freed up his offhand and would allow him to maybe dual wield swords, or add a shield to his equipment. With the new attached skill, as well as the other attached skills he had on his chest piece and gauntlets, Milo was able to clear the gate quite easily, the strongest beasts he faced normally throughout the gate were of the rare tier and the boss was only unique ranked. After training in C rank gates where unique tier beasts appeared normally throughout the gate, Milo dispatched the boss at the same pace it took him to kill a beast in the C rank gate. The gate had taken him around 4 hours to clear on his own, and after logging out, Milo went to shower since he hadn''t done so after training with Harvey earlier in the day. Jorge was currently in his office and noticed that a new video had been uploaded from one of the simtion stations'' cloud server. Jorge had the simtion stations set to automatically record when a simted gate was formed. He did this, so that they could use the footage to go back and review the raid team''s strategy and critique on mistakes the team made following a training session. Jorge didn''t recall having any of the raid teams set to clear a simted gate that day, and opened the file out of curiosity to see what could have activated the automatic recording option of the simtion. When watching through the tape, Jorge was confused seeing Milo wielding a new weapon, but overall was surprised to see that he was the only one clearing the gate. Not only this, but he cleared the D rank gate quite quickly even though it was obvious he had close to no idea how to use the sword in his hand effectively. Watching the tape from beginning to end, he began to see Milo adapt to the new weapon, and was amazed to see the weapon morph from a sword to a ded whip in the blink of an eye. Seeing the sword change forms, he could finally understand why Milo would be using the new weapon after seeing him train with the chain sickle for as long as he had been working for the guild as an intern. Jorge was engrossed, watching Milo adapt to the newbat style and learning to use the strange weapon in real time. After the tape ended he made a call to the Academy to put in a special request for Milo, one that would prove to be extremely helpful at allowing him to grow even faster with his new weapon. Milo had since finished up at the guild building, and returned back to his apartment to rest ahead of the continuation of his training at the guild the next day. Milo''s team was set to attempt another B rank gate in the simtion so he decided to hold off on using his new weapon. He would use it once he learned it to a certain extent, but still felt he was too inexperienced in swordy to use it in a B rank gate where his team would be depending on him. Harvey questioned why he chose to use his chain sickle again, but after exining it, Harvey nodded in understanding. "Makes sense," he said, "once you get better at using it, I''d rmend swapping to it. Your new piece of equipment looks a lot higher quality than what you''re using now, and I''m excited to see you ughter some beasts with it following your demonstration in the training room yesterday." After finishing his thought, he gave Milo his usual p on the back, before returning to the front of their formation in preparation of their simted gate training. The team still was too slow closing the gate, but had cut a significant chunk off their time, being able to close it in 10 hours instead of 11. Milo predicted that David and Jorge wouldn''t send them to a B rank gate until they cut their clear time to at minimum 8 hours, and because of this, he decided he''d ask David for the footage he captured of them clearing the gate so that he could study it and find areas where he could improve, as well as help the other dealers improve, being that he was in charge of that part of the raid team. Milo headed back home, and stayed upte reviewing the footage of them inbat and tried to pick out any things that they could change in order to dispatch groups of beasts more efficiently. Eventually he nodded off, still in the chair at his desk. Corinna came in to see if he was still awake and seeing that he had passed out, she put a nket over his shoulders allowing him to continue sleeping. He had been working so hard over the past few weeks, and she thought he deserved the rest. Milo eventually woke up and moved to his bed where he continued to sleep until the next morning. Milo had no idea, but a familiar face would be visiting him that day at the guild when he went in to train more with the new Ghoul''s Bane. Chapter 106 105 - A Familiar Face Milo arrived at the guild and when entering the lobby, the receptionist working at the front called him over. She informed Milo that Jorge wished to meet with him in his office, and so she told Milo that he would be waiting for him on the top floor of the guild building. Milo was a bit confused by this, as Jorge hadn''t requested a one on one meeting with him before. He was a bit nervous thinking he may have done something wrong, but still made his way up to the top floor to avoid making Jorge wait any longer. Once arriving, the elevator opened up to the small hallway leading to the door that entered into Jorge''s office. Milo steeled his resolve thinking he was about to get chewed out and opened the door. When the door swung open, Milo could see Jorge standing next to someone Milo knew very well. He was very confused as to why he was in the city, as he expected him to be at the Acropolis preparing for the uing school year. The two seemed to be locked in conversation about closing gates and when they saw Milo enter, they beckoned for him toe over. "Long time no see Milo," Mikael said, "Jorge contacted me saying that he noticed you had a new weapon you were using and thought having mee by to assist in teaching you how to use it would be a good idea." Milo had no idea that Jorge knew about the chain whip sword and gave a confused look. Jorge went on to exin about the recording of him in the simtion and for that reason, he thought having Mikael who was known as a master swordsmane by to teach Milo the way of the sword would be a good way for Milo to quickly make progress learning the new weapon. Hearing about this, Milo was happy that he hadn''t made any obvious moves that would reveal that he could use more than one ability while in the gate, as revealing the system to strangers was something he didn''t think would go over well. He also thought having Mikael there to teach him would be a great opportunity. Not only was he alreadyfortable with Mikael, but thought that there could be no better person to teach him swordy. After talking a bit more, Mikael asked Milo if he could show them the weapon up close so he knew exactly what they''d be working with. Because of this, Milo summoned Ghoul''s Bane from his dimensional storage and seeing the vicious de appear, Jorge and Mikael were astounded at its craftsmanship. One of the most famous equipment smiths in the world was someone who went by the pseudonym Hephaestus, and the sword was so beautifully made that both Mikael and Jorge asked if he had somehow gotten the legendary craftsman to make him a weapon. Milo went on to exin that it was a friend at the academy who made it for him, causing looks of amazement toe from the two men. A student so young could make a weapon like this, and that thought was crazy to them. Jorge was especially astounded, as not only was Milo himself extremely powerful, but he surrounded himself with others who excelled in their own fields. Milo then went on to tell the two about the weapon. When describing why he changed, he exined that while the chain sickle offered more range, he found limits in its closebat capabilities. Mikael nodded hearing Milo''s exnation and was impressed that Milo had the insight to consider other weapon options to maximize hisbat abilities, while also being modest enough to know what his weaknesses were. Milo was an extraordinary young man in the eyes of the sword master and it was this precise reason why he favored Milo so much after having him in hisbat ss. Milo then went on to show them the features the weapon had to offer. He chose to leave out the part about its attached skill as he still hadn''t had it officially appraised and was worried they''d be suspicious about how he knew that there was a skill attached to it. Milo then pressed the button on the hilt causing it to shift to its whip mode. The de segments separated allowing it to flex and bend the way a whip would. Seeing the transformation, Mikael grinned, seeing Milo''s ingenious way tobine his preference of keeping the chain sickle''s ranged attacks while improving his closebat by using a sword which was considered to be the strongest closebat weapon around. He asked Milo if he had ever used a sword before, to which Milo admitted that he never had. Mikael nodded and then said, "Then starting today, I will teach you the way of the sword." Mikael and Jorge then went with Milo down to a training room where Milo began his training. Mikael thought it would be best to first show Milo what he would be working towards and pulled out his own sword. Seeing the sword, Milo could tell that it was an extremely high tiered weapon. Milo asked him about it, and was able to learn that it was a sword he had been using since his days gatecrashing, when his nickname was the Beast Butcher. The sword had a dark red de and almost looked to be made of crystal. The ruby colored de looked extremely sharp and Mikael swung it around his body in fluid motions. Milo could see discipline in his motions and could tell that the sword was something Mikael had been using for years, probably long enough to date back before the dimensional door''s first appearance. He said that the sword''s name was the butcher which fit Mikael''s nickname and that it was at the legendary tier. Mikael then went through his motions, mercilessly striking at a test dummy that had been summoned using the console by the door to the room. His swordsmanship was beautiful, almost resembling a dance of some kind, and in no time the dummy was reduced to scraps. He said things to Milo throughout his motions, telling Milo that his motions should flow not like water, but like the blood through his veins. He told Milo not to think of the sword as just a weapon, but as if it were an extension of his body, to pretend the sword was a deadly extension of his arm. Milo had heard things like this before, to treatbat like the flow of water and that it was important not to be rigid, but hearing Mikael say to treat it as if it was the blood flowing through him made more sense to him, for whatever reason this metaphor clicked with him better than imagining his motions as water. Milo attempted to recreate some of the moves Mikael was doing, but the level of his skill was obviously novice inparison and the moves seemed to be missing some level of ir that Mikael''s had. Mikael then stopped his own motions, choosing to guide Milo more closely, he started with basic techniques, how to attack using shes, stabs and cuts, while moving in a flowing motion. He exined that by being more fluid in his attacks, it would allow Milo tobo attacks better without having to pause in between to reposition where his weapon was. Milo continued training this way for hours, until his attacks flowed to the level that Mikael considered to be eptable for the time being. Milo was drenched in sweat after training with Mikael, this wasmon even at the academy as for whatever reason, Milo worked even harder, wanting to impress his teacher. While in the city, Mikael would be staying at the guild building in their dorms, which were more like luxury apartments. Milo went home after showering at the guild and when he got home, opened his status screen, and jumped over to the tutorials tab. He was happy to see that just like when he first used the Kusarigama, the system produced a tutorial video for him to use with the chain whip sword. He wasn''t sure if the weapon was one that it could produce tutorials for, and because of this he wondered just how far the system''s limits could stretch to. He opened the video curious to see if it resembled Mikael''s style, but the style shown in the video was very different, instead focusing on strong strikes, unlike Mikael''s swift flowing strikes. He figured he would still try to learn some from the tutorial and acted out the motions shown in his room without the sword in his hand. The attacks seemed to be focused more on chopping and causing deep gashes on the opponent, focusing more on strong strikes, meant to take down the target in one or two strikes. Mikael chose to focus on using fast flowing shes that were meant to overwhelm the opponent with speed that would then rack up in damage over an extended period of time. Milo wondered if there was a way he couldbine the two styles to make his own. He would test it eventually, but wanted to sleep as he was exhausted from Mikael''s training earlier in the day. Milo copsed in bed feeling sore all over, which wasn''tmon for him as he was in great shape and with his magically enhanced body due to his awakening and the system. While repeating the motions shown to him that day in his head over and over, sleep eventually snuck up on him and he began to snore away. Milo woke up the next morning and went to the guild as they were set to close another C ranked gate. When entering the simtion station his team was meeting at, he was surprised to see that Mikael hade along with David who was in charge of the team''s training. While talking about what they would be doing in the simtion, Mikael asked a question Milo wasn''t expecting to hear. "Would it be alright if I joined in with the team to close the gate? I haven''t been able to let loose for a while against beasts." asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 107 Character Information Finals week has left me very busy, so I figured I''d release this as a sort of filler chapter. Releases should hopefully pick up in size and pace after myst finals this uing Wednesday, thanks for your understanding, and I hope you continue to enjoy. -Kowatch24 --- Milo Fenix Ability: The Plunderer System(allows him to wield numerous abilities) Race: Caucasian Age: 17 Height: 6''3" Build: Skinny build before the system improved his physique Hair: Usually Messy ck hair Eye Color: Blue eyes Description: A teen whose parents mysteriously vanished inside of a dungeon. Originally from New York, he mysteriously awakened a system while his life was in danger. Before awakening the system he was considered weak andmonly experienced bullying from other people due to his appearance and status as an orphan. Since then he has had the ability to raise his physical stats like a video game and has gained unheard of skills that allow him to copy the abilities of other people. By leveling up and raising his stats, he has be very powerful even if he may be unaware of it sometimes. ----- Krista Bruinhardt Ability: Telepath Race: Caucasian Age: 17 Height: 5''5" Build: Average Hair: Long Blonde Hair Eye Color: Light Blue Description: Milo''s childhood friend and someone who Milo considers to be family. She lives in the same apartment building as Milo and his cousin and also goes to the Awakened Academy with him. At one point she had a crush on Milo but eventually the two decided being anything more than friends would be too weird, which led to her developing feelings for Zach, a friend they met at the Academy. She is the only person who knows about Milo''s system and volunteered to be the first person he tested his new powers on. ----- Chris Newman Ability: Fire Race: Caucasian Age: 17 Height: 5''6" Build: Average Hair: Messy Brown Hair Eye Color: Blue Description: Another friend of Milo and Krista''s as well as Milo''s roommate at the Academy. The two faced off while Milo was still in the A rated ss and Chris was defeated by Milo who was using the Frost ability at the time. Chris is a hot head both literally due to his ability, and mentally, as he gets emotional very easily. Of all of Milo''s friends, he is the most outspoken and always talks and moves before he thinks. ----- Mark Renault Ability: Physical Transmutation Race: ck Age: 17 Height: 6''1" Build: Athletic Hair: Normally brown; wears his hair in a mohawk that has bleached ends Eye Color: Brown Description: Milo''s second roommate and another member of his friend group. He is an orphan like Milo and lost his parents when the Fellowship destroyed the city of Toronto where he is originally from. After losing his family, aside from his little brother, he was taken in by his aunt who lives in Pornd. He isn''t very outspoken and instead chooses to keep to himself. Of all the members of the friend group, he is considered to be a voice of reason as he is always able to keep a level head. ----- Ana Ortiz Ability: Bone Maniption Race: Latina Age: 17 Height: 5''6" Build: Average Hair: Curly Brown Hair Eye Color: Brown Description: Krista''s roommate and another member of the friend group. Her brother is the guild master of the Incubus guild in New York. She is very outgoing and loves to tease Krista when she bes flustered. Chris and hermonly butt heads due to how much their personalities sh, the only time they get along is when they can find some drama they can get involved in. ----- Zach McDonald Ability: Beast Tamer Race: Caucasian Age: 17 Height: 5''7" Build: Skinny Hair: Long(For a guy) Dirty Blonde hair Eye Color: Blue Description: Milo''s best friend that he made since going to the Awakened Academy. Zach was originally unable to use his ability due to its special requirements and no prestigious family to sponsor him what he needed, but thanks to Milo''s help he was able to find the egg of a thunderhawk. Because of this, up until the in-field experience, he was considered the weakest in the X ranked ss and due to this he was teased quite a bit. Recently he began to get close to Krista and feelings have begun to develop between the two. ----- Waki Species: Greater Thunderbird Owner: Zach McDonald Age: Infant Height: 6" Appearance: ck feathers with golden specks spread throughout, he has a yellow v shape on his tail and yellow rings around his eyes Description: A Greater Thunderhawk that was tamed by Zach using his ability. Milo was the one who discovered the egg he hatched from while on an in-field experience. He is a gluttonous little bird and will do anything to get food. He has grown to be a sort of a mascot for the group, and is much more intelligent than other birds. ----- Maria Van Orten Ability: Lightning Race: Caucasian Age: 17 Height: 5''4" Build: Athletic Hair: Long Wavy ck hair Eye Color: Blue Description: The newest member of Milo''s group of friends. She was ced on Milo''s team for the in-field experience against his will and at the time was very stuck up. While in the gate, Milo saved her life which made her begin to have an interest in Milo. After getting to know her more, Milo learned that she was considered the disgrace of the Van Orten family who are known to be a powerful family of lightning ability users. When learning more about Milo, Maria also began to treat Milo and his friends with more respect, eventually joining the group for the end of year festival held by the academy. She is very bold, and has been very forward about her feelings for Milo. ----- Avery Becket Ability: Reinforce Race: Mixed Age: 17 Height: 5''1" Build: Athletic Hair: Curly ck Hair Eye Color: Blue Description: The smith who designed Milo''s chest piece and chain whip sword. Milo discovered her skills with a forge due to an entry she put into the equipment show for the festival held at the end of the school year. Milo didn''t know she was a girl until after receiving his chest piece. She formed a partnership with Milo instead of charging him amission fee, bing his personal smith, after seeing the potential in Milo''s future and hoping to ride along on his path to sess. She has a very straightforward personality and doesn''t sugarcoat her words when speaking. ----- Corinna Fenix Ability: None Race: Caucasian Age: 27 Height: 5''8" Build: Average Hair: Mid Length Brown Hair Eye Color: Blue Description: Milo''s cousin and the woman who raised him following his parent''s disappearance. She is only a few years older than Milo making them feel more like siblings than cousins. She would do anything to protect Milo, and even took on multiple jobs to support the two of them while he was still in high school. ----- Mikael Matthews Ability: Double Impact Race: Caucasian Age: 57 Height: 6''2" Build: Average Hair: Long ck Hair with Gray peppering throughout Eye Color: Blue Description: Milo''s favorite teacher at the Academy, he prefers people to call him by his first name rather than an honorific. He is considered one of the strongest swordsmen in the world despite his age and was among the original gatecrashers to appear. He assisted in iming Man back after it fell to the first gatebreak that happened in the world. Since then he has been teaching at the academy and became interested in Milo due to the speed of his growth and his determination to get stronger. He now serves as a mentor to Milo in swordsmanship. ----- Dr. Francis Zeurich Ability: Unknown Race: Caucasian Age: 64 Height: 5''10" Build: Average Hair: Thinning Gray Hair Eye Color: Brown Description: An extremely intelligent scientist that is responsible for all the advancements in magic technology. He discovered the magic energy given off by the gates and was able to find a way to harness the energy that was released into the atmosphere, now known as the magisphere. Some of his inventions include: the Holo, Teleportation technology, the stabilizers that allow the Acropolis to stay afloat and many more. ----- Richard Brand Ability: Burst Race: Caucasian Age: 53 Height: 5''9" Build: Average Hair: Long messy Brown hair Eye Color: Brown Description: The GAA President and someone who is considered to be the strongest man on Earth. He was the leader of the first strike squad sent to retake Man from the beasts released by the first gate that appeared, and he has a strange obsession with the abilities people have, and how they work. His appearance and personality don''t fit his high position, and he''d rather speakfortably with everyone without being shown immense respect for his position or aplishments. ----- Sheldon O''Neal Ability: Unknown Race: Caucasian Age: 61 Height: 6''2" Build: Athletic Hair: Short Gray Hair Eye Color: Green Description: The Headmaster of the Awakened Academy. He is a close friend of the GAA President, Richard Brand, and is usually too busy to make any appearances at the academy. ----- Mr. Kruz Ability: Water Race: Latino Age: 23 Height: 5''9" Build: Athletic Hair: Long ck Hair he ties in a pony tail Eye Color: Brown Description: Milo''s first homeroom teacher at the academy before he transferred to the X ranked ss. He began teaching at the peak of his gatecrashing career due to an ident in a gate that left him missing a leg. He is able to function and use his ability normally due to a high tech prosthetic but the guild he was signed to dropped him due to the injury. Milo''s strength is something he became intrigued by due to the extreme rate of improvement Milo showed in his first year at the academy. ----- Ms. Teller Ability: Unknown Race: Caucasian Age: 29 Height: 5''7" Build: Skinny Hair Color: Shoulder length wavy White Hair Eye Color: Blue Description: Milo''s new homeroom teacher when transferring to the X ranked ss. She was previously part of one of the big 4 guilds but decided to leave gatecrashing for teaching after witnessing more of the horrors found in higher ranked gates. ----- Truman Murphy Ability: None Race: Caucasian Age: 17 Height: 6''00" Build: Chubby Hair: Curly Brown hair Eye Color: Blue Description: Milo''s ex friend turned bully. He grew jealous of Milo for getting attention following his parents'' disappearance within a dungeon and took it out on Milo by trying to make him an outcast. He can''t stand being proven wrong and is desperate for attention. He tried to embarrass Milo again at their ss reunion but failed to do so, causing him to storm out in frustration. ----- Danny Li Ability: Water Race: Chinese-American Age: 17 Height: 6''5" Build: Athletic Hair Color: Short ck Hair Eye Color: Brown Eyes Description: Milo''s biggest bully in highschool. He would torture Milo before he became strong, along with his two goons that would follow him everywhere. He was set to attend the Awakened Academy with Milo and Krista, but died trying to fight a beast in the rift that appeared while he was beating up Milo in an alleyway. ----- Chloe Park Ability: Blink Race: Korean-American Age: 17 Height: 5''4" Build: Average Hair: Shoulder length ck hair that shemonly wears in two buns on her head like bear ears Eye Color: Brown eyes Description: One of the members of Milo''s group for the in-field experience and a member of the X ranked ss at the academy. She chooses to fight by using her ability to blink short distances and firing bolts from her crossbow, changing the angles consistently to keep her opponent guessing. She is considered to be one of the most friendly girls in the X ranked ss. ----- Luke Valentine Ability: Physical Barrier Race: Caucasian Age: 17 Height: 5''10" Build: Average Hair Color: Mid Length Brown Hair Eye Color: Brown Eyes Description: Thest member of Milo''s team for the in-field experience. He fights, using his barriers as a shield, essentially making him a sword and shield user. He approached Milo to introduce himself following Milo''s sparring match where he turned a student who attempted to bully him into an ice sculpture. Chapter 108 106 - The Beast Butcher Hearing Mikael''s proposition, Milo grew excited, hoping to see the skills of the man so notorious for killing beasts, that he was nicknamed the Beast Butcher. Seeing the same look Milo had in the eyes of the other members of the team, David shrugged and figured it could be used as a motivational tool to get them to work harder so he agreed to allow the master swordsman to join them. Mikael then nodded in understanding and left the room. When he returned he seemed to have a light set of leather armor on and what looked like an ordinary sword. It was the rental gear the guild offered for trainees to use until they got their own equipment. Seeing Mikael in the getup, Milo was a bit confused. He expected Mikael to use his crystal looking sword from the day before and a set of super powerful armor but he was using ordinary rental gear. Mikael seeing the team''s confusion assured everyone that this would be all he''d need, David nodded in understanding and then loaded up the simted gate they''d be closing. Like they had been doing, David threw them into a B ranked gate. The gate itself seemed to have a low hanging mist covering the floor, and sharp icicles could be seen hanging over their heads. Seeing these characteristics Milo knew the group was most likely in a frost attribute elemental gate. The group could see their breath, and the sound of crackling ice could be heard echoing through the gates interior. "I''ll stay towards the back," Mikael said, "Don''t change your strategies for me, I''ll act as a support and join in when I feel it is needed." Milo and Harvey nodded, Mikael meant to help clear up anymunication problems that would have arisen from him joining the team. Some of the other members may have thought he''d be the leader since he was such a well known and experienced gatecrasher, but he intended for the leadership of the team to remain the same as usual. While the team made their way through the inside of the gate, Conner, one of the twins came over and seemed to want to ask Milo something. Apparently Conner was a huge fan of Mikael''s and seeing how Milo and him interacted, he was curious about how Milo and Mikael knew each other. Milo went on to exin how he and Mikael met, and about how he was thebat teacher at the academy. He then told him how Mikael hade to the guild to help teach him about his knew weapon, he held Ghoul''s Bane out in front of him in order to allow Conner to see the menacing de. Hearing all this, Conner seemed to go ck jawed. "So he taught you how to fight, and now your his apprentice?!" Milo wanted to exin that it really wasn''t that big of a deal, but Conner kept raving about how lucky Milo was, and if he could, to introduce him to Mikael sometime. Milo said sure just to get the conversation over with faster, and soon the team had arrived at a room that held the first group of beasts they''d be fighting. The beasts had primate-like appearances, and were around 8 feet tall. Their body was covered in thick, dirty white fur, and their faces seemed to be curved into a constant scowl. Their red eyes were glowing in the subtle darkness of the gate, and Milo could see tusks of some kind glistening from their bottom jaw. Milo had an inkling as to what these beasts were, but used his inspect skill to confirm it. [Unique Tier Beast] Species: Berserk Yeti Status: Healthy Disposition: Aggressive Amon beast in frost attribute gates. They are very aggressive and have immense strength. They aren''t known to be very intelligent, and because of their love for the cold, they have arge fear of fire. They have grown ustomed to their cold environments they call home, and because of this have a very high resistance to the Frost ability. For some reason they are verymon in gates that appear around Nepal. [clear] Seeing that his guess was right, Milo figured that he''d stick with closebat for this gate due to the Ice ability being weak against the yetis. This would also be a great opportunity to train the swordsmanship he had learned the day before. Mikael was watching the team go through their engagements with the Yeti from a short distance away, and as he had said earlier would only get involved if they needed it. Milo was using the sword style that Mikael had shown him the day before, it was still at a novice level, but it proved to be effective, and due to him being unable to use the Frost ability he chose to use Reinforce instead, making him stronger, as well as making his body more resilient to attacks. Because of this any attacks that snuck through his defense didn''t cause any severe injuries. While fighting the yetis, Milo noticed one break through the formation and make their way to their ranger who was near the supports at the center of their team. Before he could shout to get one of the tanks'' support though, Milo saw Mikael strike at the yeti. Milo could''ve sworn he only saw one strikee from Mikael''s sword, but 5cerations appeared on the yeti simultaneously. This was Mikael''s ability at work. With his ability Double Impact, Mikael could cause multiple strikes to appear when attacking once, it was extremely strong when paired with his swordsmanship, and the yeti that broke through was dismembered by Mikael in an instant. With rental gear no less. Seeing the wless swordsmanship from his teacher, Milo became lost in thought. Because of this, he allowed an attack to get through, it was a punch to the gut that sent him flying backwards. It didn''t do much damage due to him using Reinforce, but it was enough to annoy Milo. He wanted to rx and watch Mikael fight more, and the yeti was getting in the way of this. After getting back to his feet, he stared the yeti down, there was around 15 yards between the two and as soon as they made eye contact, the yeti snarled and charged at Milo. Milo wanted to kill the beast in front of him quickly, and at his current range he pushed the button on the weapon''s hilt, deciding the whip mode would be perfect at this moment. While the sword was transitioning into the whip, he swung it out quickly making an X shape. 2 deep gashes appeared on the chest of the yeti, who stopped stunned that it had been attacked from this range. This made it snarl again in anger from seeing its own blood get spilled. At this point, the de segments hadpletely separated and Milo swung the weapon out wrapping it around the yeti''s throat. He pulled the hilt like a ripcord, and the yeti''s head was separated from its torso. Thest thing that the yeti saw was the ded whip wrapping around its throat before everything went ck. Milo flicked the whip out to clean it of the blood that had been left on the de from the simted beast before returning to the rest of the team who was finishing upbat. No one had been hurt thanks to Mikael intervening, and the support from the teams healers. Cameron, the other twin had seen Milo''s attack that killed the yeti and seemed to be bouncing on his toes in excitement from watching the exchange, "Holy shit that was insane Milo, that attack was insane the stupid thing never even saw iting," he eximed. Milo shrugged, reverting the whip back to sword mode, and the group continued on through the gate, Mikael hadn''t gotten involved much, only assisting when a beast got too close to the center of their formation. The yetis they had been fighting thus far didn''t use any strategies and instead just rushed in, which made it pretty easy for the tanks to capture their attention and keep them upied for the dealers to exterminate them. Eventually the team had dealt with all the normal beasts in the gate and had arrived at the boss room. The boss of the dungeon looked like a giant turtle. Icicles could be seen growing on its underside, and it would undoubtedly have an extremely high durability thanks to itsrge shell. While the group prepared forbat. Mikael stepped forward. "This one is mine," he said. Strolling forward, the boss screeched in anger at the human approaching it. The boss then reared its head back and when thrusting it forward let out a freezing cold stream of air from its mouth. The ce where Mikael had been standing was now covered in spikes of ice. Mikael was no where to be seen however. Milo could then see Mikael up above the top of the turtle''s head, he pressed his feet off the ceiling, after avoiding the breath attack with a jump andunched himself towards the beast. He held the sword high above his head and when he got close enough began to spin, turning into a wheel of death. As soon as the sword made contact with the beasts neck, the de cut through the boss''s thick scales like butter, and with a loud thud, the body of the turtle copsed to the ground, no longer having a head. Soon the gate had begun to revert to the lobby and Mikael flicked his sword to rid the de of any blood left behind from ying the boss. He then turned to see the jaws of Milo and his teammates dropping to the floor. Chapter 109 107 - Progressing After closing a gate with Mikael on the team, Milo realized that he still had a long way to go. Mikael''s skills at dispatching beasts were legendary and seeing them in action, Milo resolved to get to his level one day. Once everyone had picked their jaws up from the floor following Mikael''s demonstration, Milo and the rest of the team logged out of the simtion and thanked Mikael for showing them what it meant to be a high ranked gatecrasher. After closing the simted gate with Mikael joining the team, Milo continued his training, closing simted gates and training with Mikael. He absorbed the techniques extremely quickly and soon could be considered an intermediate level swordsman. Mikael was impressed by his progress and was happy to see how seriously Milo pushed himself to learn. He was on track to be an amazing gatecrasher after he got out of school. One day while practicing Mikael made a shocking proposal. "How about a spar?" he asked Milo. Hearing Mikael asking to spar with him Milo was debating whether he should or not. Mikael was unimaginably strong and would easily handle Milo. If it was a real fight to the death, Milo didn''t think he''dst for even a second. It was then that a familiar pinging noise could be heard, and a system screen appeared. [Notice] (New Quest Generated): Surpassing your Master (Description): Defeat your master in a sparring match. (Time Limit): None (Rewards): Hidden (clear) Hearing the ping and seeing the quest message in front of him, Milo gulped. The system wanted him to fight with Mikael 1 on 1 and even said he needed to win toplete the quest. Milo thought about what he should do, and reluctantly decided to go through with the spar. The two would be doing the spar in the simtion, that way neither of them could be injured in the real world. Milo wasn''t sure if this would allow him to clear the quest but figured it''d be safer, just in case Mikael went too hard and identally killed him. Once the two were situated in a closed lobby where no one else could join. Mikael said that Milo could start a countdown. Once it reached 0, the two would begin to battle. Milo was still a bit unsure about all this, but decided to steel his nerves and instead of being nervous, to use this as a chance to learn. Mikael thought that reading Milo was very easy, as almost all of the time, the emotion he was feeling could be seen on his face. Once he went from a sort of solemn, nervous look to one of determination, he knew Milo had decided to give it his all. The countdown was then started and when it reached zero, Milo charged in, he knew how powerful Mikael''s attacks were and thought that maybe if he closed the distance and forced him on the defense, then he wouldn''t be able to attack. The two of them made a promise to not use abilities and instead allow Milo to focus on using the sword by itself. This was important for instances just like the day before where he couldn''t use his main ability due to it being nullified by a resistance or type of gate. But also allowed him to train himself not to rely solely on his ability. By focusing on training both his ability and weapon training separately, Milo would be able to use both at a higher level individually which in turn would allow him to use them together at a higher level. Once Milo got close, he struck out towards Mikael attempting to sh down between his neck and shoulder. Before the attack could reach though, Mikael struck the de with his own, knocking it away. Milo continued to charge in and strike, Mikael would defend the same way, using his sword to hit the de of Ghoul''s Bane away from his torso. Milo was trying to think of what he could do to break through Mikael''s defense and when doing so he paused for a second between his attacks. Mikael took no time jumping onto the offensive once Milo became lost in thought. He struck out with his own de, attempting to sh Milo across the stomach. Milo could see where the attack wouldnd and put his sword up to block the sh. Once Mikael''s weapon got in close, its direction changed however, leaving aceration on Milo''s arm. Milo was confused at how the attack hadn''t been deflected and once again went to block Mikael''s attack. Just like the first attack however Milo received more damage. Mikael was obviously baiting Milo into blocking certain parts of his body, so Milo chose to once again push the attack. Milo chose this time to try andbine the techniques he learned from the system with the ones he learned from Mikael. By using the flowing attacks and finishing with strong strikes he thought maybe he may stand a chance. Milo started by using a rising strike, Mikael dodged it quite easily, but Milo continued pushing. He turned the de going in for a sh across Mikael''s chest, to defend, he swung his own sword, knocking Milo''s arm upward. This was exactly what Milo wanted, he then swapped into a strong sh downward. Mikael wasn''t expecting this change in style and was unable to block in time, forcing him to parry the strike so it didn''t hit him in a vital spot. Milo''s strike missed, only creating a gash on Mikael''s arm. The strong strike then continued into the ground, causing dust and debris to be sent into the air. Milo hadn''t used an ability, the sheer power he exerted in that strike came from the level of his strength stat alone. It seemed like this strike caused Mikael to up his game a bit as he finished off Milo quite quickly after. After Milo logged off following his loss, Mikael looked at the deep gash in the ground created from Milo''s strike and smiled. His arm still felt numb from trying to absorb the blow. In the end all he could do was divert the strike to make it nonfatal. "Phew, just how strong is that kid?" he said to himself. Following the spar, Milo and his team were sent to two more live C ranked gates which were considerably easier after training more and more. They had cut down their closing time quite a bit and Milo was bing more and more deadly with his new weapon of choice. His decision making inside the gates was much better and his switching between sword and whip modes was much more fluid while inbat as well. After closing the two gates Milo had leveled up another 3 times and he had also finally plundered Seamus''s ability Soul Siphon which allowed him to leech power from the beasts he had been fighting. It worked extremely well and gave Milo an even easier time when fighting opponents. He had also received more essence cores andmissions for closing the gates. The gates they closed were on the lower end of the C rank so the cores weren''t that powerful but that wasn''t a big deal to Milo. As long as they were high enough to raise his magic power stat, then it''d be worth it in his eyes. He hadn''t made any major purchases or changes to his equipment, and instead chose to save up the credits he received. There were a lot of expensive things one would need while gate crashing, and if he didn''t have a good amount of savings for when he''d need it, he''d be screwed, so saving for now was the best option in his mind. After the level ups in the gate, Milo had reached level 34 and was soon reaching his goal. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 34 Gold: 175 Armor Rating: 1650 Abilities[4 / 6]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 8) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 9) 3 - Beast Whisperer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 5) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 8) 5 - Soul Siphon - Allows the user to absorb the life force of another living thing, it drains the targets power and raises the users(lvl. 6) 6 - empty - 7 - empty - [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [53] Agility: [48] Intelligence: [53] Stamina: [61] Constitution: [48] Magic Power: [53] [clear] After absorbing the 9 rare cores he got from closing the gates, his Magic Power stat had reached 53, and after reaching level 34 he had gotten one of his stats to 60. His abilities had also increased in level. The final change that came with increasing his magic power, came in the form of opening another ability slot for him to use. Overall, he had gotten another boost, he was one level away from his end of summer goal, and he was 7 points away from his magic power stat goal. Once he had absorbed the cores, he had also revealed another new skill from the system¡­ Chapter 110 108 - The Underground Once his Magic Power stat hit 50, Milo received a notification from the system telling him that another new skill had been unlocked in the Plunder tab of his system. This was a bitter than he was expecting, as he expected one to be revealed at level 40, but the pattern he thought he saw must not have actually been a thing. Milo opened his status screen and went over to the Plunder tab. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder] [Plunder] Plunder (lvl 4): Possibility to copy the ability of other awakened if certain conditions are met(Active) (Cooldown: 0:00:00:00) Fusion(lvl. MAX): Able tobinepatible abilities into a new stronger ability. Will consume the twobined abilities when used.(Active) (Cooldown: 0:00:00:00) Extortion(lvl. 1): Able to use two abilities at the same time. (Passive) Larceny: Locked until level 50 Burn: Locked until level 75 (Hidden) The first thing Milo thought of when reading the name of the new skill, was the fire ability. Burn just had that ring to it. Milo doubted this was the case but couldn''t just throw away the idea as it was the system that named it. Milo gave up on trying to guess what the skill could do and decided to just wait until he unlocked it to see what it did for sure. Milo went to the guild that day and was expecting to be closing a simted gate again with his team, but when entering their usual station they trained in he was surprised to see no one there. He sent David a message and asked what was going on. He responded soon after, saying that the group would instead be meeting in the lounge. Milo wasn''t sure why the team would be meeting there but shrugged and made his way over to the elevator to go up to the lounge. Once he entered the rest of the team was gathered around a coffee table. A chess set was on the table and Seamus and Harvey were both locked in a game. Milo took a seat next to Seamus as there wasn''t enough room next to Harvey with howrge of a person he was. "Anyone know what''s going on?" Milo asked, watching the two older members of their team continue their chess match. Harvey picked up his rook and moved it forward taking a pawn before answering, "no idea, but David should be up here soon with the answer." Milo nodded in understanding and went to get a drink from the countless fridges that were there filled with refreshments for the guild''s gatecrashers to enjoy. After grabbing a can of his favorite soda, he made his way back to his seat and watched the end of the chess game. As Seamus put Harvey in checkmate, David entered the lounge with Mikael in tow. Mikael had a slight grin on his face and winked at Milo as he was entering. It was obvious he knew what the meeting was all about and based on his actions, it would most likely be something Milo would be excited about. David came up to the group and handed each of them a small folder. When opening it, Milo''s eyes widened at its contents. David then went on to say, "I called you all here today to let you know that you are going to be sent to close a B ranked gate." The team got excited hearing this news, nking their drinks together and making some cheering noises. David exined that the team would be spending a week in Antic City, Marnd to close some gates in the area. There was 1 B ranked gate and 3 C ranked gates. They would be receiving their usualmissions and rewards, but David would not be apanying them this time. Essentially they were officially recognized by Jorge and David, and their training wheels would be getting removed. With it being mid July, the summer would be ending in a month and Milo would be returning back to school. He wanted to get as much experience as possible before then and this would be his chance to do so, now that David had decided to let them go out on their own. David went on to tell the team to pack up by Friday and that until then they were free to do what they like. They''d meet at the guild and then take a teleporter to Antic City. While there they''d be put up in a hotel by the association. Milo was going home to pack but was surprised by the twins when they approached him and asked him if they could talk somewhere before he could leave. Milo agreed and the two met up at the entrance to the guild. Once he arrived the twins gestured to meet them a bit ways away from the entrance, the two said that they wanted to avoid people hearing what they were about to talk about. This made Milo a bit confused but he agreed toe with them. It was getting prettyte in the day at this point due to David going over all the details of their assignment in Antic City, and the sun was setting causing the sky to be a deep orange color. Once the three of them were a ways away from the guild they turned down an alley and the twins finally fessed up as to what was going on. "Have you been to the Underground?" Cameron asked. Milo had never heard of this before and said that he hadn''t and didn''t even know what it was. This came as a surprise to the twins, and they were shocked but Milo had no idea why. "How have you not heard of it before?" Conner said, "Every gatecrasher should know about it." The two of them went on to exin that it was essentially a ck market where gatecrashers could go to buy items that normally wouldn''t be sold at a normal market. It could range from essence cores to beast parts, some even had elixirs that were meant to increase one''s magic power output. Hearing about the ce, Milo thought that it was too good to be true. A ce where gatecrashers could get their hands on hard to find items would be extremely useful. Milo questioned the two about it more and they said that they were nning to head to the Underground tonight to get any things they might need for their assignment and thought Milo might want toe with them. Milo agreed toe with the two and so he followed the two of them to where the entrance to this ck market for gatecrashers seemed to be. They entered Central Park and made their way towards where an old amusement park ride used to be. Since the dimensional doors appeared the carousel had been abandoned. With the help of magical energy, amusement rides had be much faster and more thrilling, causing the carousel to lose poprity until it eventually fell into disrepair. Once they got to the carousel, Cameron and Conner checked the surroundings to make sure no one was watching. At this point, the sky had grown dark and the only light in the area was being emitted by streetmps. Once they confirmed the coast was clear, Conner climbed aboard the abandoned carnival ride, and started to walk around the carousel checking each of the horses. Milo was curious about what he was doing, until he apparently found what he was looking for. He waved the other two over and Milo immediately took a look at the carousel horse to see if there was anything different about it. Like the other horses it looked run down and didn''t appear to have anything special about it. That was until Conner pointed out a peculiar symbol on the horse''s saddle. The saddle itself was red and had a gold trim going around the outside, on the top of the saddle, right behind the horse''s head, an upside down triangle could be seen with an eye in the center of it. Conner then walked around to the front of the horse and pressed on the roof of the horse''s mouth. Once he had done that, the horses eyes glowed yellow and a panel on the inside of the carousel could be seen sliding open, once inside the center of the carousel the panel slid closed again and Milo followed the twins down a thin staircase that led to a sort of storage chamber under the carousel itself. Once they got down to the bottom of the stairs, Milo''s eyes widened at the sight in front of him. Among all the run down tools and recement carousel horses, there was a glowing green ring that seemed to be warping by the second and above it etched into the wall was the same symbol that was seen on the back of the saddle of the horse that seemed to be the lock to this ce. The twins then walked into the warping circle, disappearing through it. Milo walked forward to get a closer look at the strange ring and couldn''t help but feel that it looked familiar. He stepped through and felt a strange feeling, he had felt this feeling before and while it didn''t hurt, it did feel weird. Once the feeling ended, Milo opened his eyes and could see the twins standing next to him. In front of him there was what appeared to be a small city that was built inside a strange cave like structure. Improvised buildings could be seen and hundreds of people could be seen milling about in the streets between them. Milo then looked up towards a tform at the back of the improvised city and what he saw was another surprise. On top of the tform, arge cage seemed to be standing and inside it was something Milo wasn''t expecting. It looked like a bird type beast, and when activating inspect he could see that it was in fact a gate boss. This could only mean one thing, the Underground was hidden inside of a gate. Chapter 111 109 - Exploring The Underground Once Milo had realized this fact, the twins seemed tough at his reaction. They went on to exin that around 1 year ago, the man who owned the carousel discovered the gate in the storage area they entered from, He chose to reach out to a private gate crashing crew. These private crews were lessmon nowadays due to the GAA running extensive background checks on gatecrashers and using magic satellites to detect gates. Back when the gate was first discovered, these satellites hadn''t been invented yet. Since only the boss remained in the gate, the magical energy signature given off by the Underground was too small for the association to determine it was a gate that needed to be closed. After hiring the private crew, the man worked with them to clear out all the beasts aside from the boss. It took the crew a long time to sessfully capture the boss without killing it, but now it acted as a sort of mascot for the ck market found within the gate. It was also rtively friendly to the people who ran the market, due to it recognizing them as the ones who fed and cared for it. Milo was amazed by the ingenuity of the man who was the reason for the Underground''s existence. It wasn''tmon for someone to use a gate to their advantage, most people feared the terror that could be found within but the man turned it into an investment. ording to the twins, the man passed away a year after the Underground was established due to old age, but his family still receivedpensation from the group that ran the market. After exining how the Underground came to be, they went through a few rules as well as how the market worked. There was a sort of tax that would be added onto the price the items were purchased for, this was what was used for the upkeep of the market. These taxes were also used to pay the family of the Underground''s founder. The people who ran it were members of the original crew the man worked with, so they made sure that the man''s wish would remain. It was also crucial that the location of the Underground not be revealed to the association, while this meant that the Fellowship could ess the market, it also meant that it wouldn''t be shut down for all the gatecrashers who used it. If members of the Fellowship were discovered in the market, they''d also bebeled as criminals. While the Underground wasn''t sanctioned by the association, everyone knew that the Fellowship was evil and wouldn''t tolerate them using the market. There was one case where a group of Fellowship members were using the Underground to purchase elixirs for the evil group. Once it was discovered by the leaders of the ck market, they captured and killed the cult''s members in order to send a message that the Underground was off limits to them. Overall, this made Milo like the idea of the Underground even more, it was like a secret society for gatecrashers, and it still recognized the differences between evil and good. In cases like these, that line would often be blurred but Milo was thankful that they tried to keep it clear. Once the twins had finished telling him about the Underground, they started to walk through the streets. Inside the town most of the shops were more akin to market stalls, being inside of tents rather than buildings. As they walked Milo took note of tons of different products he saw; there were equipment stalls selling armor and weapons like any other shop outside of the Underground, along with these there were shops dedicated to beast parts, some for essence cores, elixir shops that sold various recovery potions and more. Seeing all the different things for sale, Milo vowed to return whenever he thought of something he might need, as it would prove to be a valuable resource to him. As the team continued walking, the twins entered a tent that seemed to be selling elixirs. The shopkeeper was an older woman which shocked Milo a bit. In order to enter gates one had to be awakened, Milo figured that there would be awakened people who were elderly but hadn''t considered them to be the type to enter a gate. The elderly woman seemed to recognize the twins and weed them in, even giving them a hug when she saw who had entered. After greeting her, the two of them introduced Milo to her. Apparently her name was Vi, she originally owned a medicine shop before the dimensional doors opened and after she became awakened she found out she had a knack for creating elixirs. After the people of the Underground discovered her talent they invited her to open an apothecary there so that she could help gatecrashers to stop the dimensional doors. She agreed and this was where she currently was. Milo also found out that she was a friend of the twins'' mother. This was why she and the twins were so close, she had assisted in raising them andmonly baby sat them when they were kids. In a sense she was like an aunt to the two of them. Once the twins got everything they needed, they said bye to Vi and continued to window shop looking at all the things that were for sale. Eventually they came across one of very few permanent structures found inside the Underground. Milo inquired about what it was used for and the twins informed him that this was where the council in charge of keeping the Underground up and running stayed at. They lived there and would only leave the gate the Underground was found in in order to buy essentials. Milo took note of its location and then continued on. While walking through the streets lined with market stalls, Milo couldn''t help but think about how his friends would think of the Underground. It was a ce he nned to introduce them to after they graduate, it could even prove to be somewhere where Zach could purchase food for Waki. Avery would love it as well as she could purchase materials for her creations. Overall, he was sure his friends would love this ce as they would all be gatecrashing after graduation. Eventually Milo came across something that intrigued him, one of the stalls wasbeled "Fortune Telling." Milo was confused seeing a fortune teller in a ce like this, why would they open shop in a ck market for gatecrashers? Milo shrugged and entered the tent to see if it was the real deal. When entering, he saw a young woman sitting at a in wooden table. She gestured for Milo to take a seat and then put her hand out. Milo activated his inspect skill and saw that her ability was one that allowed her to see into the nearby future. He wasn''t sure how far ahead she could look but this was most likely why she opened shop here in the Underground. With her ability she could tell gatecrasher whaty in store for them and maybe even change their decisions so that they could change what fate had in store for them. He paid a man at the entrance the fee for the reading and took a seat before cing his hand in the young woman who was reading the fortunes. She then asked his name and after giving it to her she closed her eyes. Her hair seemed to begin to resist gravity and began to float a bit as she activated her future sight. After a short amount of time she began to speak. "I see you forming a new bond, one that will be strong, it seems as though this bond will start while you are away on a trip." Hearing this Milo wondered if it could have to do with his trip with the guild he was about to leave for. She still kept things vague however just like every other fortune teller would, almost as if to keep her act up, even though she could see exactly what would happen. "This bond will be key in oveing trials in your future¡­" She continued. "I also see great pain, and anguish. mes of evil will swallow your happiness for a time, this pain will lead to either your downfall or a rebirth, allowing you to surpass everyone." Milo was worried after hearing these words but decided that anytime evil looking mes made an appearance he would be sure to avoid it, this was the only way he could truly stop it from ruining his future. "If you aren''t careful this pain and anguish will drag you into despair. Stick close to your friends you make along the way, they will be the guiding light who will help bring you out of this pit." After finishing her fortune telling she let go of Milo''s hands. She seemed extremely calm considering the sheer weight her words contained. Milo guessed this was because of how often this happened. After thanking her for the reading, he left the tent and returned to the twins. After Milo left the tent, the young woman attempted to stand from the chair she was sitting at causing her to stumble. The man at the front collecting the fee for her readings saw this and rushed to her side. Once she collected herself and stood back up, tears could be seen streaming down her cheeks. "That poor boy, his future holds many trying times. I pray that he heeds my words and is able to ovee the ordeals he is destined for," she said aloud. After getting his fortune read, Milo looked for the twins and found them in a group surrounding a cart that Milo hadn''t originally noticed. He made his way over and could hear the crowd cheering. He walked over and his eyes widened. A sign could be seen, "guess which cup contains the ball and win a prize" it read. When he got close, he could see why, one of the prizes was a beast egg. This was a chance for Milo to finally use his Beast Whisperer ability. Chapter 112 110 - The Cup Game Hearing the crowd cheering, Milo could see a man sitting at what appeared to be a wooden crate. On the crate there were three cups, the man showed the newest contestant a silver ball before cing one of the cups over the top of it. At this point, everything seemed normal. That was until the man started shuffling the cups. The man''s hands moved so fast, it was creating after images, almost making it appear as if the cups weren''t even moving. The shuffling continued for around one minute before the cups came to an abrupt stop. Watching the man stop moving the cups Milo could''ve sword he saw steam rising off the man''s hands after he stopped. The person meant to guess which cup the ball was in was sweating, it was obvious he had underestimated the difficulty of the game and bit his lip trying to think of which cup the silver ball was located in. He took a guess and was way off. After watching the first contestant fail, Milo got a bit closer to see if he could follow the man''s movements, with the next person who was attempting to guess. Just like thest time, the man at the crate began his shuffling, this time the new contestant was able to follow the movements a bit more, most likely due to him being a higher rank than the previous person. As a person''s rank increased, so did the magic power increasing their body''s capabilities. After the first round of shuffling the man guessed sessfully the location of the ball and received a round of apuse and cheering from the audience. Milo was also able to keep track of the ball, even to the point that he thought that the game was too easy. If others were to hear this they''d call him crazy. After a sessful guess the man shuffling the cups brought out two more cups, making the total amount of cups 5. He then went through his shuffling again, the man guessing was able to guess correctly again but Milo could tell that he was second guessing himself. The man went through the shuffling again, this time going even faster than before. He was shuffling so fast, he was giving off enough wind pressure to rustle the hair of the audience. The man guessing conceded when the man started his shuffling. Milo could still see the location of the ball in as day, even noticing a few times that the man picked the cup up allowing the ball to move between the different cups while shuffling them. After the man failed level 3 the other people who wanted to attempt the game seemed to back down realizing they stood no chance. At that point Milo decided to take a turn. This was received with multiple reactions from the crowd. Most of them yelled for Milo to save his money, that it wasn''t worth the risk. Others called Milo a young fool, saying he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Milo ignored the yelling and took a seat across from the man. The man gave Milo the courtesy of asking if he was sure he wanted to go through with the game, saying that there would be no refunds no matter how young Milo was. Milo nodded in affirmation, before the man said, "suit yourself," he then got into position with the three cups. He would be starting at the first level since Milo was ying for the first time. After a minute of shuffling, the man looked at Milo signaling for him to make his guess. "Left," Milo said aloud without changing facial expressions. The man grinned and lifted up the leftmost cup revealing the silver ball. This kid may prove to be interesting, he thought to himself. The man then went on to level two using 5 cups. "Second from the right," Milo said. Just like the first round, the man revealed the ball hidden under the cup that was second from the right. "Okay, time to take it up a notch," the man said. For the third round he once again used 5 cups but used a much higher speed. While the man was shuffling he swapped the ball to a different cup a total of 5 times. He thought this would be enough to fool Milo. Once the shuffling was over, the man thought he had finally fooled the teenager. "Middle cup," after Milo said these words the man lifted the center cup and sure enough the ball was seen sitting under it. When Milo focused extremely closely on something, due to his agility stat, it seemed to move in slow motion, this was the same case for the cups, however as they were moving very quickly due to the man''s ability, they moved at what someone would consider to be a normal speed. After getting guessed on the third level for the first time, the man brought out his final trump card. There were now 7 cups on the table. He had nned 5 levels for this, but never expected someone to get this far. Milo was the first person the man had ever met that could keep up with his speed. He wasn''t the fastest awakened by any means but he was a close up magician before awakening so he was extremely skilled at games like this and up close sleight of hand. The man went for the slower of the two speeds for the fourth level, attempting to throw off Milo''s guess. He did everything he could think of, swapping the ball between cups, using one cup to mask the ball''s movement in another cup. Anything he could think of to get Milo off the ball''s trail he tried. Soon the shuffling came to a stop and Milo paused for a second. Seeing Milo pause, the man thought he was finally victorious. The man originally made this game to try and cheat some money out of people. He wasn''t using it for a bad cause, such as drugs or alcohol, but this was his way of making money, no matter how dirty it was, it was his ie. Milo then said his answer and the man was stupefied. Lifting the cup the ball was under, Milo was sessful at guessing the ball''s location at level four. At this point, the cheering from the crowd had turned into whispers, they were wondering just who in the world the kid guessing all these correctly really was. Conner and Cameron had gone to finish their shopping around the Underground and were stunned to see Milo sitting in the chair where the cup game was being yed. They thought he was about to lose some money in the gamble, but then they saw that the man had seven cups on the crate. This was the most they had ever seen and theymonly came to the Underground just to watch the man toy with people. Just who really was Milo the two thought. After guessing correctly, the man knew he had to do something to make Milo lose, if he didn''t he''d lose the beast egg he spent a fortune on to put up as a prize, he figured the egg would draw in a ton of customers and he was right, but he still hadn''t made enough profit to say that it was a worthwhile investment. He eventually nned to resell the egg at a higher price after no one could clear the game, but Milo hade along and was going to ruin his fortune making n. The man this time when shuffling went as fast as he possibly could. The crate under the cups was visibly shaking from the wind pressure given off by the man''s hands. Eventually the cups began to glow as the air pressurized around them, causing them to glow red with heat. Through all this, Milo was still keeping track of the ball. The man looked at Milo''s eyes and saw them dart side to side in tandem with where the ball moved. The man then made a move he used when performing magic, the ball slid out from under one of the cups and slid down his sleeve while he continued shuffling the cups around. Milo was still aware of his surroundings at all times while all this was happening. He noticed the man look at his eyes, he noted the man''s breathing pattern, even his heartbeat. Milo''s senses were dialed to 11 and he didn''t fail to see the ball disappear into the man''s left sleeve. He continued tracking the cups as if he lost the ball however. He didn''t want the man to know he had caught onto his little trick. Eventually after around 2 minutes of shuffling the man''s hands came to a stop. Steam was rising off of the cups that were now glowing red hot. The man was grinning waiting for Milo to make his guess. Milo paused looking at each of the cups, he then smiled and looked the man in the eyes. "You really thought I wouldn''t notice would you?" he said to the man. Hearing these words, the man began to sweat a bit and the crowd was beginning to murmur. "What''s he mean?" ? "I couldn''t even tell what was going on." "It''s in your left sleeve," Milo said aloud. The man first lifted all the cups revealing the ball was in fact not under any of them, he then reached into his sleeve and pulled out the silver ball. Revealing it to the crowd. Seeing that Milo had caught the man''s trick, the crowd went into an uproar. The man then stood and grabbed the beast egg from the cart behind him and handed it to Milo. The next thing he did caught Milo by surprise. "I''ve never had anyone keep track of the ball that long, you''ve got damn good eyes, I respect that. Take this, it''ll help once that egg hatches," he said, handing Milo a silver ring with a bright red stone ced in it. After receiving his prizes and thanking the man for the fun, Milo returned to the twins'' side and the three of them returned to the Underground''s exit. Chapter 113 111 - The New Assignment After receiving all his prizes forpleting the highest level of the cup game, Milo and the twins returned to the exit of the Underground. After arriving back in the storage room of the carousel where it was located, the twins walked over to a small device hidden in the corner and pressed a button. Soon a new gate appeared in the storage room of the carousel. ording to the twins, this was a special type of teleporter that would send the person to various locations located around the city. Most of them were alleys but a few of the locations logged would send the person who used it to the roof of a random building. By making it random it made it harder for the GAA to track the location of it when used. The twins said goodbye as it''d be sending them all to different locations and stepped through the teleporter one after the other. Milo paused for a second when thinking about what it would look like if a teenager was seen walking around downtown with a massive egg in their arms. When at the academy, the school arranged it so the egg Zach got was delivered to his room after he got it from inside the gate, but Milo was back home for the summer and wouldn''t have the academy to keep things discreet for him. He then remembered back to the man giving him the ring saying it would help with the egg. Because of this, he used his inspect skill to see what the ring truly was. [Beast Vessel Ring] Description: The red crystal that is set in the ring has special properties simr to dimensional storage. Contained within it is a pocket dimension where living things can be contained, organisms ced inside the pocket dimension can only be released from the outside. To pull a living thing inside, the keyword "return" needs to be said and to release the organism contained within the keyword "release" must be said. [clear] Reading the description of the ring, Milo could see why the man said it would be useful someday. For a normal gatecrasher who didn''t have a beast taming ability, the beast they would attempt to tame wasn''t forced into loyalty by an ability making it dangerous to keep them outside the ring at times. Those who used a taming ability were able to givemands to the beast making them more docile. Because Milo had a taming ability copied he knew he wouldn''t need the vessel ring as much but felt that it was good to have just in case. If the beast he tamed was scary looking, people would avoid him which wouldn''t always be helpful, so it was definitely a useful item to have. Milo then tried the capture mechanic of the ring and focused on the egg in front of him and said return. As soon as he did, a yellow glow was emitted from the egg before it burst into small floating yellow orbs that were then pulled into the ring. After absorbing the egg into it, the red crystal now had a slight glow to it, this most likely just symbolized that something was inside the pocket dimension contained by the crystal, so Milo then decided to step through the portal. After stepping through the portal Milo found himself in an alleyway somewhere in the city, he made his way to the main road and waved down a taxi which he then took back to his house. Once arriving he made his way up to his room and set the egg in a small nest of pillows he made. He then got packed up for the trip he was set to leave for the next day. After finishing packing his bag, he crashed on his bed and was soon fast asleep. After falling into a deep slumber, Milo was snoring away, the egg in its nest of pillows made a gentle shake before returning to its motionless state. Waking up the next morning, Milo said goodbye to Corinna and sent a text to Krista saying he would be leaving the city for a week before heading to the guild headquarters where the team was set to leave from. After arriving at the guild building, Milo made his way to where the team was set to meet and took a seat among the team members where they waited for David to guide them to the GAA headquarters where they''d be getting teleported to Antic City. Once David entered, the team went outside and climbed into the vehicles that would be taking them to the GAA, and some of the members started to talk to Milo. Apparently the twins told the other members of their team about his sess at the cup game in the Underground and the rest of the team wanted to hear his story about the event. He told them the story and Ken, who was their brawler, seemed to brush Milo''s achievement off. He was verypetitive and got annoyed when other team members outshined him. He had attempted the cup game before and lost in the second round, so hearing that Milopleted all 5 levels annoyed him. Soon the team had arrived at the GAA and David handed Harvey and Milo each a man folder containing all the info they''d need while in Antic City, and also had the times they were supposed to be meeting to close each of the gates as well as their locations and information gathered by the guild''s gate scouts. After receiving the info, David wished them luck and the team entered the GAA where they were guided to the teleporter leading to the Antic City. Once he stepped through the gate, Milo would officially be a gatecrasher, not a trainee, he would no longer have anyone there to babysit the team. Milo stepped through the teleporter with a grin on his face. After stepping through the teleporter, Milo eventually felt the usual feeling of teleportation fade and opened his eyes to the GAA branch building in Antic City. After stepping through the rest of the team had also arrived. A member of the GAA escorted them outside, when stepping out of the building''s front door, Milo could pick up the faint smell of the ocean in the air and the sun was seen reflecting off the ck paint of the GAA vehicles meant to escort the team to where their lodging was. After stepping into the vehicles they were off and on their way to where they''d be staying between their gate closing sessions. Milo sat in one of the window seats staring out at the cityscape rush by. Eventually the vehicles came to a stop outside of a massive hotel. Stepping out, the team all made their way into the lobby and were fascinated at the size of the inside of the hotel. The lobby alone was massive and put the Guild''s lobby to shame. Crystal chandeliers were floating over their heads being held up by magic technology, a grand piano could be heard, giving off the chorus of a jazz song. It was the makings of a 5 star hotel. The GAA members gave each of the members a room key and gave each of them their room number before informing them that they''d have vehicles to pick them up at 10 am the next morning to take them to their first gate. He also told them that the association would be covering any costs while staying at the hotel, and thanked them for their assistance in closing the gates. ording to him, gates were popping up more frequently and the strongest guild in the area didn''t have the manpower to close the gates themselves causing them to reach out to other guilds for help. Harvey and Milo thanked the man for the hospitality and then told the team to rest up for the night, the next day they''d be busy so they wanted everyone to be at their top condition. The team split up and Milo made his way up to his room. Once he pulled his bag out of his dimensional storage earring and set it on the bed, he went over to the window and opened it to take in the view. His hotel room had a perfect view overlooking the ocean. The waves could be seen crashing into the shore and families that were there on vacation could be seen ying in the water. Seeing the other people visiting Antic City for vacation reminded Milo of why he wanted to begin gatecrashing in the first ce. His parents had been trapped within a dungeon, anything he could do to keep the same thing from happening to another kid in the world he would do. Eventually the sun could be seen beginning to set and Milo chose to turn on the TV. After kicking off his shoes, he pulled the beast egg out of his new Beast Vessel Ring and sat it on a chair in the corner of the room. After resting for a while , the sun was almost finished setting and Milo picked up the tablet on the bedside table to put in an order for room service, when suddenly he could see the egg start to shake. He had seen something like this before but for some reason he couldn''t ce his finger on when. He then opened his inspect skill to see just what was going on with the egg. [Beast Egg] Species: Unknown Status: Healthy(hatching) [clear] asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 114 112 - Beast Whisperer Reading the description of the egg in its current state, Milo''s eyes widened in surprise. He wasn''t sure what could''ve caused it to hatch so fast, but he could''ve sworn it wasn''t this close to hatching when he first received the egg from the man running the cup game. Seeing that it was close to hatching also caused him to panic, he had nothing prepared for when the egg hatched. All he could think of was to ask the system what caused this, and suddenly Navi could be heard inside his head. "It is an additional effect caused by increasing the Beast Whisperer ability''s level. At a high enough level, hatching speed of beast eggs that are imprinted on is significantly increased. If raised enough, it can even allow the beast within to grow at an elerated rate" This was his first time checking with the system in awhile, and hearing Navi give the answer so easily made him vow to ask her more questions whenever any came about. He hadn''t been taking advantage of the system''s encyclopedia like knowledge as much as he should have been doing. On the egg''s inspect screen he was unable to see what the species of the beast that would emerge from the egg would be, but he was hoping that it would be something of a high tier. If he was able to have a high tier beast under his control, Milo would be even stronger. Eventually the egg started to crack, from between the cracks in the egg a slight red light could be seen being emitted. The egg continued to shake and vibrate violently. Eventually the chair began to shake as well. The red glowing cracks continued to spread around the egg''s surface until it eventually burst. Milo had taken cover by the bed at this point, as he knew that beast eggs had a violent way of hatching for some reason. After the egg burst he peeked his head up from the edge of the bed in order to see what hatched from the egg. Looking at the tiny beast sitting where the egg once was, Milo was surprised to see what it was. It had a sleek long body. ck scales could be seen running down the beast''s body, with a red belly. The scales on its body protruded a bit making the serpentine beast appear spiky. It reminded Milo of a type of viper he used to think was cool looking. This was where the simrities ended however. Sprouting from the small snake''s back were two pairs of wings that were covered in red feathers, the wings resembled those of a cardinal due to their red color. At the back of its head down the center as well as at the tip of its tail, there was a small plume of red feathers as well. Seeing the little winged snake Milo grew excited, partly because of how cool his tamed beast looked, and also because he finally had a beast of his own. Images appeared in his head of him fighting alongside the ck flying snake. While checking out the snake a bit more, he suddenly heard a small voice in his head. "Food, want food." Hearing the voice Milo was taken aback. Navi then popped into his head and exined that this was the Beast Whisperer ability in action. He was able to telepathicallymunicate with the beasts he imprinted on. After hearing this, he scrambled onto his Holo and looked up what sort of food he''d most likely need. But realized that it all depended on the species of the beast, which he wasn''t sure of yet. Because of this, he opened the inspect skill hoping that now that the beast was hatched it would clue him in on what species of beast the little winged snake was so he knew what food to order. [Legendary Rank Infant Tamed Beast] Species: Crimson Wing Spiny Viper Status: Healthy(hungry) Disposition: Tamed A tamed version of the Legendary ranked beast, Crimson Wing Spiny Viper. Like other tamed beasts, they remain smaller in size whenpared to their wild counterparts, but still pack the same punch. They are very intelligent creatures that take down their prey only aftering up with a good strategy to avoid receiving any unnecessary injuries. The spiny scales covering their body are extremely tough and can be shot off to attack opponents at range. When the spiny scales are fired off, they be smooth until the spines regrow. Their bite also has the ability to drain the life force of their opponent. [clear] Reading the screen given by the inspect skill, Milo''s eyes nearly popped out of his head. The small baby snake resting on the chair in his room was the offspring of a Legendary tier beast. This was a tier higher than anything he had ever faced. Looking at the beast in its bright red eyes, Milo realized that the little creature could be strong enough to kill even rare tiered beasts on its own, even though it had just hatched. Milo snapped out of his stupor when he heard the voice repeating "food" in his head over and over and looked up what type of food the beast would need to eat. The only downside he realized at this point would be the cost of food needed to feed his newly hatched tamed beast. After finding out the correct food using the gatecrasher''s server, Milo ordered some of it and headed down to the lobby of the hotel where they had a transport station that could receive teleported packages. After picking up his package, he rushed back up to the room to feed the Crimson Wing Spiny Viper. When entering, he could see the snake coiled up on the bed in the room keeping its eyes locked on the television. Egg shells were still everywhere, and when opening the door, the snake''s head honed in on Milo who had the snake''s food in his hands. "Food?" he heard the little snake say in his head. Once Milo pulled out the food for the small snake, it pped its wings and bolted over to Milo''s side. Its wings were pping as it floated near Milo''s head, not taking its eyes off the container in Milo''s hand. The little snake''s tongue was flicking in and out of its mouth, tasting the air to see if Milo truly had brought it food. Milo opened the container and the snake went into a frenzy, flying in circles around Milo''s head. Navi then informed Milo that he could also speak to the beast if he pictured its appearance in his head and thought about what he wanted to say. He chose to tell the snake to calm down and that he was getting the food out, as long as it went back to the bed and stayed there he would bring it to it. Hearing this the snake rushed over to the bed and coiled back up looking at Milo in anticipation of its first meal. The food Milo''s beast was supposed to eat was a type of mouse found in low ranked gates. They weremon creatures that were essentially normal mice, but due to them being found in gates, they had a small amount of magical energy contained within them. It was this magical energy that was important for young beasts to eat. As they originated from gates, the best food for them to eat was food that contained magical energy. This would also allow them to grow to be as powerful as their wild counterparts. Beasts that ate food without magical energy in it often grew up to be weaker whenpared to those who did. Milo pulled the dead mouse out of its container and ced it in a small dish that he found in the room and putting it in front of the little snake. Had he not seen the corpses of beasts in a gate, he probably would''ve shuddered while cing the mouse on the dish, but he was used to seeing dead things at this point. As soon as it had food in front of it, the snake dug in, snapping up the food as fast as it possibly could, swallowing the mouse whole. Milo chuckled seeing the little snake gobble down its meal. It had only been a few months since he had seen Waki chow down, and seeing his tamed beast eat in the same manner reminded him of the funny memories he had seeing Waki around food. While the beast ate its meal, Milo picked up the egg shells from when it burst from the egg and threw them in the trash. He''d feel bad if the cleaningdy came up to his room to see parts of the beast egg strewn about. While cleaning he was thinking of what to name the small creature and couldn''t think of anything that fit the little beast. "What should I name you?" he said to the beast telepathically. "Name?" the snake said in response. Milo thought for a bit and something finally hit him. The description of the beast gave him an idea, reminding him of a certain legendary blood sucking monster. The monster''s name was Count Drac, the vampire king. The name of the legendary vampire''s son, the prince of vampires'' name would be perfect.. "Alucard, your name will be Alucard." Chapter 115 [Bonus ] 113 - Alucard After giving the small snake a name, Milo asked it what it thought about the name telepathically and Alucard responded with a childish cheer. Hearing that Alucard liked its name, Milo smiled at the snake and gave it a small rub under its chin. It was good to see that the snake already seemed to like Milo, it would make raising the little beast even easier than the Beast Whisperer ability already did. After finally cleaning up the mess from when Alucard hatched, Milo did onest overview of the room to make sure it wasn''t too messy, when all of a sudden his stomach growled. Once his stomach made the gurgling noise signaling that he should eat something, Alucard once again spoke the word, "food?" into his head. Miloughed at this, the Alucard was really smart and was even able to tell that Milo himself was hungry, seeing this Milo wondered just how smart the little snake really was. He spoke like a child but maybe one day the two would be able to converse as he would with any other person. Soon after hearing his stomach make noises, he ordered himself some food, and spent the rest of the night ying with his new partner. Eventually he fell asleep with Alucard coiling up on the pillow next to his head. He had a gate to close the next day and he''d hopefully be able to see Alucard in action, but not too much, he was still a baby after all. Waking up the next morning, Milo put on tight clothing that would be going under his armor for the gate and made his way down to the hotel lobby. Alucard had coiled himself around Milo''s neck, giving Milo a sort of living ne. At his current size, Alucard was about 16 inches in length and about an inch wide, meaning he could only get one full wrap around Milo''s neck. His tail could be seen swinging down past Milo''s shoulder, and while walking his head was at attention and his wings would flutter asionally as he took in all the sights, sounds and smells of the hotel. He seemed to be almost as curious as Waki, as he absorbed all the sensory information of his surroundings. Once the pair got down to the lobby, the rest of the team were surprised to see the small beast coiled around Milo''s neck. Milo greeted all of them, and there were mixed reactions from the group, the twins were especially surprised as Milo had received the egg only a few days ago. Harvey with his papa bear instincts walked over, and reached out to rub Alucard under the chin. "Who do we have here Milo?" he said, as Alucard pushed his chin deeper into Harvey''s giant hand, enjoying the attention. Milo went on to exin what had happened the night before and introduced Alucard to the team. If he yed it off that Alucard was friendly to him after hatching, he figured he may be able to avoid any unnecessary questions as to why his bond with the snake was already so close. Harvey nodded in understanding, "I know the species, they''re incredibly smart so he probably knows you didn''t want to hurt him after you brought him food. You got yourself a good little ally Milo, wee to the team Alucard." Milo then heard Alucard say, "team?" in his head. He exined that these people were friends of his to Alucard in his mind, and after the exnation Alucard seemed to understand. Milo could hear Alucard say, "friends!" in his head, before he seemed to p his wings a bit in excitement. Soon all the attention was on Alucard as the rest of the team came over to introduce themselves to the little snake. With all the peopleing up to say hi, he slithered down Milo''s arm and was now wrapped around his hand interacting with all the team members. Eventually the vehicles meant to transport them to the gate arrived, and the team checked to make sure they had all they would need. After their checks, the team got into the SUVs and rode to a park that was located in the city. Alucard had his eyes on the window watching the buildings of the city move by as they drove to their destination. Once they arrived, the team disembarked from their vehicles and walked to an area that was roped off. At its center, the gate could be seen, GAA members and other people were milling about the area, keeping reporters at the rope barrier at bay, taking measurements of the gate''s activities, and preparing for when the strike squad was ready. While the rest of the team put on their armor and prepared, Milo was locked in an argument with Alucard. Milo wanted to ce the little snake in the beast vessel for now for his own protection, but Alucard was adamant about staying outside and helping Milo. Eventually Milo convinced Alucard that it would be safer in the beast vessel and that once they closed the gate or found a situation where Alucard could help he coulde back out. He also had to bribe him with another dungeon mouse in order to get him topletely agree. After agreeing to stay in the ring, Milo said "return," and Alucard was pulled inside the ring, causing the red gem to glow brightly. Once Alucard was safely inside the Beast Vessel Ring, Milo pulled his equipment out of the dimensional storage earring, causing it to auto equip. His armor was now all put on, and he returned to the rest of the team where they were having a strategy meeting for the gate. Harvey had the information provided by David when they were leaving for the GAA branch building in New York City in his hand. ording to the reports from their scouts, this was a standard C ranked gate, which was symbolized by the yellow color of the gate they were about to close. The guild was popted by lizardmen which meant the team would have to be cautious as lizardmen were a bit smarter than normal beasts. The team had gone over their strategy and was finally set to enter the gate. Milo would be focusing on ranged attacks in this gate, as Lizardmenmonly used weapons they made to fight. By keeping at range, he''d be able to deal with their ranged attackers and throw up ice walls to protect their supports and ranger. Once inside, the team was doing well, clearing out the lizardmen. That was until they reached the boss room however. The boss of the dungeon was a Lizardman Shaman. The shaman was able to use magic and the spells he was using were proving to be extremely annoying for the team. The shaman would keep up a protective barrier around it that no one was able to break through. Along with this, it kept bringing back dead lizardmen to fight for it. No matter how many lizardmen they killed, they would be brought back as zombies to keep fighting. If they continued on in this way much longer, the team would run out of stamina and may have to retreat. It was at that moment Milo could hear Alucard''s voice pop up in his head. "Alucard help," he heard the snake say. Milo thought he was hearing things at first until he heard the same plea. This was something that the description of the Beast Vessel Ring left out. Not only could Alucard speak with him, but he seemed aware of what was going on outside the pocket dimension inside the ring''s gem. Milo wasn''t sure if he should let Alucard out, as he was still a baby, but eventually after a close call with one of the zombified lizardmen he gave in. "Release!" Milo shouted and soon Alucard had materialized, flying next to his head. Alucard then did something strange, he flew up above the shaman and shed some of his feathers. Once the feathers touched the barrier made of magic power, the barrier began to disintegrate as if it were made of tissue paper. Once the barrier was down, the shaman turned to look at Alucard with hatred in its eyes. It knew exactly who caused its barrier to go down and prepared a spell to fire off at the small snake that was flying over its head. The shaman threw out a fireball, but Alucard easily avoided it, twirling in the air like an acrobat. Before the shaman could let out another attack, Milo was at its side and had his sword shoved through its chest. As soon as the shaman''s life was extinguished, the zombified lizardmen that they had been killing over finally fell to the ground as the magic fueling their new life force disappeared. After the shaman and all the other lizardmen were down for the count, the team collected all the loot and made their way to the gate''s exit. Alucard was getting lots of praise from the members of the team for his move that allowed them to defeat the boss. Meanwhile Milo was shocked to find out that Alucard''s feathers had a sort of magic power draining effect. This wasn''t covered in the system''s description of Alucard, and as if on cue, a ping was heard in his head and a new screen popped up in his vision. [Notice] Tamed beast status is now viewable from the user''s status screen (clear) Reading that he could now view Alucard''s status screen, Milo was grateful that he''d finally be able to see exactly what Alucard was capable of. The system seemed to evolve and react to all his thoughts and the things going on around him. This made Milo wonder if there was anyone who was controlling the system from the shadows and spectating everything he did. ----- Thanks for all the summoning pens, the semester is finally over so I can spend some more time writing, hoping to get up to releasing 2 chapters a day, or at least 12 a week. I hope you continue to enjoy, and as always feedback is appreciated whether it be throughments or sending power stones. :) Chapter 117 115 - More Gates The rest of the week seemed to go on in the same fashion as the first day of closing gates. They''d go close to the gates, return to the hotel, Milo would send his report and then spend the rest of the night watching TV with Alucard. As they closed the remaining two C ranked gates Milo had leveled up 5 times, and Alucard had jumped all the way to level 7. Milo chose to allow him to help more inside the gates, as now that he knew he could level up he wanted to start on his growth ASAP. Milo was now at level 41, his growth in the real gates was much faster than the simted gates, as real beaststed him more experience. Along with this, whenever Alucard killed an enemy he got the full amount of experience he''d get from killing a beast. This was different from when teammates killed beasts as he''d only get a small amount. It also seemed that Alucard only received experience from beasts he dealt the final blow to. This was unlucky, as Milo couldn''t grind out kills to raise Alucard''s level, the little snake had to kill the beasts himself. Fortunately Alucard was much stronger than he looked, making leveling not too difficult. Because of this, Milo would weaken beasts up to the point of death and allowed Alucard to finish them off, which was why he had grown so quickly. Unlike Milo''s own level ups, Alucard''s worked a little differently. Instead of adding a point to each statistic, 3 free stat points would be earned that Milo could then designate to whichever stat he wanted. Because of this, Alucard acquired less points total per level up than Milo, but Milo would be able to choose which stat to raise each time. Milo also found that like himself, the magic power stat couldn''t be increased using free stat points; he guessed that Alucard would have to absorb an essence core''s power to increase it just like him, something he''d have to test after getting his cut of the loot for this week. After leveling up to level 7, Alucard''s status screen had progressed nicely so far. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Tames] [Plunder] [Tames] Name: Alucard Species: Crimson Wing Spiny Viper Level: 7 [Skills] Wings of Strife: contact with a Crimson Wing Spiny Viper''s fallen feathers causes the target to lose magic power Scale Shot: A Crimson Wing Spiny Viper is able to shoot off its spiny scales at opponents to deal damage. The spines must regrow before it can be reused. Stupefy: Crimson Wing Spiny Vipers can stun opponents who look them in the eye (locked until level 10) Vampiric Drain: Crimson Wing Spiny Vipers are able to drain the life force of the target using their fangs, adding the targets life to their own(locked until level 20) Crimson Domain: Designated Targets within the radius of the Crimson Wing Spiny Viper are slowly drained of their magic power(locked until level 30) [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [10] Agility: [15] Intelligence: [20] Stamina: [12] Constitution: [5] Magic Power: [15] [clear] Milo thought increasing Alucard''s intelligence would allow him to bettermunicate with Milo and would also allow them to coordinate better. He also upped his stamina so he didn''t get worn out as much. Strength was an obvious need, as it''d allow Alucard to be stronger inbat, andstly he boosted Agility a little more to increase his speed a bit more. With the increase of the Intelligence stat, like Milo guessed, Alucard had started to talk in moreplete sentences, and less of the childish one word sentences he originally used. After watching the medieval drama that Milo had been putting on the TV for him, he also had developed a habit of calling Milo "master." While it wasn''t what Milo had nned for, it wasn''t annoying, so Milo chose to leave him be on the subject. Thest major change since leveling up, Alucard had visibly gotten bigger as well. When he first hatched, he was only 16 inches long but after leveling up, he had grown to 24 inches. The snake''s wings had also grown in size with hisrger pair now spanning 18 inches, this growth most likely was tied to him leveling up. At the moment, Alucard was smooth as well, this was due to him having used his Scale Shot skill in thest gate they closed. Milo learned that the spiky scales he shot off regrew in 48 hours after he used it for the first time, which meant the skill would be ready to use for theirst remaining gate they were set to close. The B ranked gate. With the B ranked gatecrash being the next day, the team was fully focused on resting for the day, differing from the partying they had done on their previous days resting. Since it was their first B ranked gate, there was a bit of tension when they met in the lobby the day of. They had been training for it, but jumping from a C ranked gate to a B ranked gate was a muchrger jump in difficulty than it sounded. Because of this, rather than focusing on allowing Alucard to level up, Milo would finish his kills and not leave them for his beast to finish off. Arriving at the gate, the team disembarked the vehicles and went to put on their equipment. Milo simply extracted his armor from his dimensional storage earring and within a split second he was decked out in his magical equipment, with his weapon of choice in hand. Since training so hard with Mikael, he could be considered an intermediate swordsman. He still required quite a bit of training, but was confident he''d learn more and progress further in no time with Mikael''s help. The gate this time was located on a pier, at the end of the pier, an orange vortex of magical energy could be seen, swirling and undting as the group finished up on their final checks of their equipment. Once their final checks were done, the team entered the gate, stepping through the dimensional door to exterminate the beasts held within. When the team entered, they checked to make sure everyone was ready to go before diving deeper into the gate''s interior. As they got deeper they came across the first set of beasts they''d be killing in the gate. The creatures were the same beasts that attacked him in the rift that caused him to awaken the system almost a full year ago, ckfang Direwolves. This brought back memories of that fateful day in the alley where he was being beaten by Danny Li and his goon friends. But Milo was no longer the weakling he was then, and he was nning on taking out his anger from almost dying that day on the beasts in front of him. As soon as the pack of wolves noticed they had visitors they charged in, Milo chose to show off a bit and killed 5 of them in an instant shooting ice spikes through their skulls. This brought the remaining total of wolves to 7, down from the 12 that were originally alive. The team then charged in after Milo barrage and within 10 minutes the wolves were down for the count. The ckfang Direwolves were quite fragile, but were very fast and dealt quite a bit of damage due to their ws and fangs. Because of this, Milo stayed at range and shot ice spears at them, and used the whip mode of his sword to keep them at bay. After dispatching the first group of beasts, the team received healing from their supports before pushing deeper into the gate. The beasts they were facing were of the unique rank, and all of them resembled predatory mammals of some kind. Aside from the wolves, the other beasts they had faced were massive bears that had a sort of protectiveyer of fat covering their body. This armor likeyer of blubber seemed to be hardened by magical energy making them much more damage resistant. Like the wolves they packed quite a punch but they were quite slow, trading speed for durability. The number of bears in each group of beasts was also less than those in the wolf packs. Alucard was having trouble killing the beasts, and instead chose to keep Milo updated on the situation his teammates were in, flying up above the group to get an aerial view. He asionally would use his Wings of Strife skill on the bears, as it would weaken their armor likeyer of fat by draining the magic energy from them. Aside from this, he chose to stay out of the fray. Overall, the gate was going very well, due to their healers, the team was in great condition after each battle and any injuries they sustained while fighting the beasts would be healed before they moved on to the next area of the gate. Eventually the team came to their toughest fight so far, a group of beasts made up of 2 of the bear like beasts and 7 direwolves. With both types of beasts being there, the tanks would be tied up distracting the bears, meaning that Milo and the dealers would be left to deal with the wolves in the meantime. Milo chose to fight at range in order to better protect the supports against the faster, more agile direwolves. After summoning some ice spears, he was able to dispatch 3 of the wolves while the twins dealt with one each. Ken, the team''s brawler was trading blows with the remaining two keeping them distracted and away from the backline. Milo pulled the aggro of one, while the twins pulled the aggro of the other to allow Ken to go assist the shield tanks who were tied up with the bears. Milo shoved 3 ice spears through the wolf he had pulled off Ken, and turned his attention to the bears that were attacking the front line. Alucard flew overhead dropping feathers on the two bears to weaken their defense which allowed Milo to send a spear through the torso of one of them. The bear he speared roared in pain, he then charged in with Ghoul''s Bane in sword mode and shed at the beast''s torso leaving a cut and drawing blood. He did this again to the other bear before activating the sword''s active skill, causing the bears to receive increased damage. Once this was done, the fight went on smoothly from there, resulting in all the beasts being killed. After being healed of their injuries, the team pushed forward until they reached the boss of the gate. Chapter 118 116 - The Boss Once the team arrived at the boss room, Milo instructed Alucard to scout out the room from above. Alucard did as he was told and flew up to near the ceiling of the boss room to see what exactly the team would be facing. He soon returned with a report for Milo. ording to Alucard the boss appeared to be a giant three headed wolf of some kind, along with this, there was a pack of ckfang direwolves as well. In total there were 9 enemies. The boss, along with the 8 wolves that were acting as its guards. Learning this info, the team formted a n focused on defeating the direwolves before then killing the boss. By doing so they would be able to avoid the most injury and would also be able to iste the boss. The team pushed into the room, Milo would be pushing forward as a closebat dealer rather than fighting at range this time. As soon as the boss''s guards noticed the team, they all pushed in together. The boss was indeed a giant three headed wolf. It had ck fur covering its body. From the maw of each head, slobber could be seen dripping between its fangs. The three headed wolf reared its heads back and howled and as soon as this happened, the ckfang direwolves seemed to get faster all of a sudden. Seeing the change, Milo immediately activated his inspect skill on the boss to get any extra information he could about the beast. [Heroic Tier Beast] Species: Ebony Haired Cerberus Status: Healthy Disposition: Aggressive A heroic tier beast that is often found as normal beasts in the highest tiered gates. Unlike other beasts their size, they are extremely agile. Their best weapons are the jaws of each head as well as their sharp ws. The alpha is able to boost the power of the pack by howling. [clear] Reading the boss''s description, he was able to learn that the sudden increase in agility of the smaller wolves stemmed from the Ebony Haired Cerberus''s ability to buff their pack. He made the call out and each member of the team knew to be on higher alert, as the direwolves they fought previously would be weaker whenpared to the wolves they were about to engage. He wanted to prevent any members of the team underestimating their opponent. After making the callout, Milo reminded himself that this was a heroic tiered beast. The strongest beast he''d ever fought outside of a simtion. Once steadying himself, he engaged the 3 wolves that wereing his way. The three wolves were rushing towards him at full speed. To slow them down he threw up a wall of ice in their way. Once he did, the group split to go around it. Thanks to this move, Milo was able to surprise the one on its own with an ice path. Freezing the wolf''s paws to the floor. This would buy him some time to take care of the other two. When the other two got in close, he used Soul Siphon to drain the strength of one, boosting his own strength in the process, while he did this, he used his Hunter''s Eye to check the weak points of the wolves. Once this was done, he used the swordsmanship that Mikael had been drilling into him, using quick flowing shes that cut through the first wolf, before dispatching the second the same way. By this time, the third and final wolf had gotten free from Milo''s ice path and charged him. Milo changed Ghoul''s Bane into its whip mode and wrapped the wolf up in the ded chain, before pulling it back tearing into the beast''s flesh. With the wolf wounded, it took no time at all for Milo to finish it off. With Milo finishing up with three of the wolves on his own, he swapped over to attack at range in order to assist the twins who were also facing off with the smaller direwolves. Conner had sessfully killed one so far, meaning that only 4 more wolves remained before the team would tackle the boss. While this was happening, the supports were focused on keeping the tanks healed as each of them took on one head of the 3 headed boss to allow Milo and the twins to kill the members of its pack. While the tanks had the boss tied up, it couldn''t buff the other wolves. To nullify the original buff that the boss used, Alucard flew over the wolves using his Wings of Strife skill to drain the magic fueling the boost. Once this was done, 3 of the wolves had sessfully lost their buffed status, making the fight with them much easier. After close to 5 minutes of trading blows, the twins with Milo''s backup had sessfully finished off their opponents, leaving the boss by itself. Once the boss saw it was alone, it made some distance between itself and the team. Once it had done so, it looked at all of the members with hatred. The three heads then roared before the beast charged again, only this time, the beast looked even faster. In the blink of an eye, the beast crossed the room and was right in front of the tanks, without skipping a beat, its ws swung out and struck Ken, the team''s brawler. At this point, his Berserk ability had amplified his resilience, but he was still sent flying across the room before striking a wall. As soon as Ken was sent flying, the team was shocked. The power of the wolf itself nearly doubled after the team finished taking out its pack. As if on cue, Navi could be heard in Milo''s head. "Warning, the boss has activated its enrage skill, its attack power and pain tolerance have significantly increased. Avoid receiving damage from here on out," she said. Hearing about this change, Milo noticed Pixie had run over to check on Ken, ording to her, he was still breathing, but had multiple broken bones and was only unconscious. It would take some time to heal him, so the team would be without one of their tanks for the fight. Milo then made the call out about the boss''s current state. The team took note of its enraged state and would have to avoid attacks from here on out. Any attack thatnded would definitely take them out of the fight, for the non tanks, it could even kill them. Milo took this split second to order Alucard to use Wings of Strife on the beast. Unfortunately the beast knew better than to let the falling feathers touch it, causing it to jump out of the way before the magic energy draining feathers could contact the beast and nullify its buff. The beast then jumped up attempting to bite at Alucard. The Crimson Wing Spiny Viper dodged at thest moment while in flight, twisting his body to do a barrel roll. After doing so, Alucard quickly returned to Milo''s side. Not wanting to risk Alucard getting hurt Milo said "return," after doing so Alucard was pulled into the Beast Vessel Ring. Milo then got to work. Forming a spear using his Ice ability, he focused on making one as sharp as possible rather than making a bunch of them. In seconds the wicked sharp spear was formed and Milo elerated it towards the wolf, the boss was currently chasing after the twins who had drawn its attention, they were barely staying out of reach thanks to the boost they received from their ability, but would soon run out of running room. The spear was moving too fast, and soon pierced the leg of the boss. When it made contact, the ice that pierced its leg spread, causing a mass of frost to cover the leg that was hit. This seemed to slow the wolf down as the twins finally created a good enough distance to escape. Seeing that the prey it was chasing was now too far away, it turned to Milo who had thrown the spear. Thinking that because of the ranged attack that Milo would be slower, the beast charged towards him. Unfortunately for the beast, this was exactly what Milo wanted. He activated the Soul Siphon ability, stealing the boss''s strength. He then used Reinforce to boost hit strength even further before punching the huge dumb dog in one of its three faces. The beast was knocked back, obviously stunned from the sudden attack. Milo then sent an ice spike up from the floor piercing one of the heads through its bottom jaw, pushing through its brain. ck blood could be seen dripping to the floor as the head that was pierced was now drooping limp. The other two heads howled as if mourning the death of one of theirrades. The beast then leapt towards Milo again, attempting to bite at him with its two remaining heads. When it got close, Milo activated his discharge skill on his chest te. This stunned the beast as it had electricity sent coursing through its body. Milo then linked the bind skill with the stun, locking it in ce. With this, it couldn''t avoid Milo attack using Ghoul''s Bane, as he used the whip mode to wrap around the neck of one of the remaining heads and pulled it hard, lopping off the second head of the boss. After two of its 3 heads were killed, the boss backed off to reassess its situation. It now was being more careful, keeping itsst head back and out of the range of Milo''s attacks. It swiped its massive tail at Milo who dodged while throwing up an ice wall to avoid the attack. Even if Soul Siphon had drained some of its power he didn''t want to get hit. While this was going on, Pixie had healed Ken to a more stable state. The tanks had also received healing and were now ready to assist Milo in holding off the boss. Milo went to dodge another tail attack, this time however a massive body stepped between Milo and the tail. A loud ng could be heard as the tail made contact with a massive piece of metal. Harvey had stepped into the middle receiving the attack with his shield. "Thanks for stalling Milo, you''ve done good work thus far, let us handle holding the beast off," Harvey said, as the beast struck his shield again. Milo was exhausted at this point having killed two of the heads on his own. He distanced himself from the tanks to give himself a breather, and for the rest of the fight used his ranged attacks, staying near the supports and ranger. Soon the boss''sst head had been destroyed with the full help of the team aside from Ken who was still unconscious. Harvey picked up Ken, who was still out cold, and ced him on his back as the rest of the team gathered the essence cores and useful beast parts from the boss and the pack of wolves that was present in the boss room. After all their looting wasplete. The team returned to the exit of the gate. Chapter 119 117 - Trouble Back Home Once the team exited the gate, they were surprised to see that many of the association members that were there when they arrived had vanished. With the other 3 gates they had closed, the association had many of their employees to help the team with all the operations involved once a gate was closed, including a report, checking loot, etc. But this time, there was only one person who was there. The man said that first he''d collect their report and then they had an urgent message for the team. Milo was wondering what could be so urgent that the association would pull all their members back to headquarters. The team headed over to a trailer where they could change out of their equipment, and gave the man their report. After receiving it, the man turned on a TV in the trailer and said, "Something happened in New York¡­" After saying this, the man changed to a news channel where breaking news was being shown. On the screen a part of New York City could be seen, and it was a part that Milo was quite familiar with. The only difference, ck smoke could be seen painted across the sky, and purple mes could be seen giving off an haunting glow. Overall the section of the city shown on the television was turned to ruins. Buildings had copsed, the strange purple fire devoured everything in its path and rubble covered the streets. Milo could see figures covered in white robes adding to the destruction using abilities. It was as if hell hade down to earth. Seeing the image on the screen, the team was visibly in shock. Being that they all came from New York, the thought of it being attacked was a nightmare to them, this was where their family lived, where their home was, where their friends lived. Milo was especially shaken seeing the news. The section that could be seen ming on the screen looked to be only a few blocks from where he and Corinna''s apartment was located. Seeing the ominous mes, Milo was reminded of the future that was seen by the woman in the Underground. She had said, "mes of darkness will swallow your happiness." The purple mes in the breaking news broadcast were almost certainly the mes of darkness she had mentioned. After seeing the screen, Harvey asked the man to turn up the volume so they could know exactly what was going on. The man turned up the volume of the television and the team watched and listened to hear what was going on. A man''s voice could be heard through the speakers of the TV, he was currently in a helicopter flying over the scenes of destruction and narrating everything he saw. "I''m currently flying over the scene of where the attacks started.," the man said, "It is unknown how long the Fellowship had this attack nned, but their movement over the past few weeks in Canada signaled they had nned to enter the US at some point. What their ns are for the city of New York is anyone''s guess but authorities are currently fighting back against the Fellowship''s followers. Any survivors are urged to report to the refugee camps located around the city where the Fellowship has not reached yet." All of a sudden a random ability was fired at the helicopter destroying the flying vehicle''s tail. "Mayday, Mayday!" the man said as the helicopter began to spin out of control, "we''ve been hit!" Before the scary scene was shown to the public anymore, the screen changed to show a woman behind a desk. "This is a scary time, as Steve just said, all survivors are urged to seek out refugee camps located around the city, food and shelter will be provided until refugees can be evacuated. I wish you all the best of luck and stay safe." After her remarks, the screen went ck and the broadcast was over. The GAA member shut off the TV before asking if any of them had questions, but none of them did, all they knew was that they needed to get home asap. The GAA member got the idea and took the team to the branch building located in Antic City where they could take the teleporters to the New York City branch. When the team arrived at the GAA building, they rushed to the teleporters and all ran through them, nning to help the association with fighting off the Fellowship who were running amok in their hometown. The team arrived through the teleporter back in New York City and rushed down to the front of the building. All of them were still wearing the equipment they took into the gate with them. Normally members of the association would be there to receive the people teleporting and check them over to make sure they were who they said they were and also check to make sure they didn''t bring any illegal substances with them through the teleporter. This time however there were no employees of the association waiting for them, all of them were too busy trying to assist in stopping the Fellowships attack. Once the team collected themselves, all of them aside from Milo said they''d be returning to the headquarters to see what Jorge would want them to do. It was a given that the guild would assist the association in the resistance and rescue efforts. Once the team had split off from Milo, he immediately called Corinna, there was no answer which caused his stomach to drop. If anything happened to Krista or Corinna, he would be alone again. He then called Krista, "pickup, pickup, pickup" he repeated in his own head. After ringing for a bit, there was finally an answer. "Milo?" Krista''s voice could be heard on the other side of the line. "Where are you? Are you safe?" panic could be heard in her voice. "I''m fine," Milo said, feeling relieved his best friend was okay. "Is Corinna with you?" "Yeah, she''s fine," Krista answered. "Her Holo got busted while we were escaping. My mom and I got her out once the attack started." Milo could hear her start to get choked up as she said the next part, "Our home¡­ It''s gone, the building¡­ The Fellowship they¡­" Milo stopped her before she said anything more, he could tell what she was about to say, their apartment building was destroyed, all their belongings, all their photos, memories, destroyed. Most likely burned away by the evil violet mes. "It''s going to be okay," Milo said, "as long as everyone got out okay." Milo then asked where he could go to find them. ording to Krista, they were in a refugee camp in Times Square, the association had set up arge camp there where refugees were heading in order to get protection from gatecrashers, and association members. Milo then got another call, he said he''d meet Krista at the camp as soon as he could and answered the call on the other line. It was David, he said that the other members of the team had arrived and he noticed Milo wasn''t there which caused him to wonder where he had gone. Milo told him about his call with Krista and David understood. He told Milo to do what he needed to do, as an intern he was a student before he was a gatecrasher, and a student shouldn''t be thrown intobat with the Fellowship. The Fellowship were well known to be savage and evil, they wouldn''t spare anyone, teens included. For this reason, Milo chose to meet Corinna and Krista at the refugee camp, he had already lost his parents and after the close call today he didn''t want to risk losing the only family he had left. He ran through the streets until he reached Times Square. While on the way there he passed thousands of others who were disced by the attack. Many of them held as much of their belongings as they could carry. Some people had nothing in their hands, and blood could be seen on their clothes that were tattered. All of these smaller groups of people also had dirt caked on their face, they were most likely the ones who were caught in the middle of the Fellowship''s attack. Those who still had their stuff were definitely living in areas that hadn''t been put under siege yet, as they had time to pack some of their things before fleeing their homes. Of all these people, Milo was the only one who was decked out in gatecrashing equipment, making him stand out quite a bit. Eventually he got to Times Square, when arriving he could see crowds of refugees moring around a barrier. Surrounding the area, it had been put up by the association as a sort of checkpoint. Gatecrashers and association members were stationed around the perimeter all wearing full gear. Milo ended up seeing a familiar face among these guards. He went over and said hello to the man who gave him his Provisional License Exam. Seeing the teen decked out in equipment, the man recognized Milo almost immediately as he had left quite the impression on the man seeing someone so young, be so strong. Milo informed him that his family had already been admitted and the man let him through. Milo searched through all the tents that had been set up to take in the injured as well as those who had simply fled home to avoid the impending danger. Eventually he found who he was looking for. Corinna had a bandage covering her forehead. All three of them, Corinna, Krista, and Krista''s mother all had dirt caked on their face and their clothes were partly tattered. Krista''s father was currently out of town on a business trip so he was safe. He had already contacted Krista and her mother to check in on them. As soon as Corinna saw Milo, tears filled her eyes as she ran over and embraced Milo in a hug. They were safe, for now. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 120 118 - The 3rd Cardinal After being bearhugged by Corinna, Milo felt a feeling of calm wash over him. All this time he had been worrying that he was toote, that the Fellowship had taken away thest family that he had, but that wasn''t the case. Corinna staggered after releasing Milo from the bear hug. Milo noticed then that her leg was wrapped in a cast. She told Milo that when the Fellowship first attacked, she was cooking dinner. The attack started a few blocks from their apartment. She could hear boomsing from outside as bombs went off in some of the surrounding buildings, causing them to copse. Once she got over her initial panic from what was going on, she rushed down to exit the building, as she was on her way out the door a bomb went off in their building. The bomb caused pieces of rubble to fall and hit her, this was the reason for her leg and the bandage covering her head. Hearing about what had happened he wondered where Krista and her mom could''ve been to avoid the st. Krista was apparently at her part time job when the attack started. She had to run towards where the attack started from in order to get Corinna and get out of there. Her mom was out grocery shopping a few blocks over, she was the one that found them fleeing the attacks and got them to the camp. Hearing what they went through, Milo was thankful none of them were killed. It sounded like the Fellowship nned to take out the city just like they did in Toronto. Milo hoped that the association and the gatecrashers would be prepared enough to prevent this from happening. By this point, the sun had gone down and the stars which were usually invisible due to all the light pollution could be seen. Due to the attack, the screens showing advertisements and more in Times Square were turned off. While the nickname of the city that never sleeps usually fit perfect, the area was dark. The screens that normally would be lit up, would onlye on to make emergency announcements for the refugees. Milo and Krista went to get a hot meal for all of them. It wasn''t anything fancy but for now it would do. ording to rumors, the association had hovercraftsing from all over to pick up the refugees and take them to safety. The association headquarters were too close to where the attacks originated from, so using the teleporters there would put the refugees too close to danger. The hovercrafts would be there the next morning, but in the mean time, the people fleeing the terrorist group would have to wait and hope the association and gatecrashers could hold them off in the mean time. After getting their meals, the two friends returned to the tent where Corinna as well as Krista''s mom were waiting. The camp wasid out with the sleeping quarters near the barrier around the outside of the camp. In the center was where all the medical tents could be found, as well as where people could go to get food. Along with this, the association had a tent set up in the middle where people could go to find out if anyone they knew was still missing, or if they had checked in at another camp. Milo and Krista weaved their way through the numerous tents until they arrived back to where their guardians were waiting for them. They all got their food and began to dig in. The food wasn''t anything fancy, just some type of stew and a piece of bread. It was only meant to give enough food to hold them over until they were evacuated. Milo wondered where they would be evaced to. There were thousands of refugees, so there was a high chance not everyone would be sent to one ce. While Milo, Krista, her mother, and Corinna ate their food, more and more people were being brought into the refugee area. Because of this, more and more people who were from the association and gatecrashers were showing up to help keep the peace with the influx of people fleeing to the camp. If they didn''t there was a good chance it would''ve devolved into anarchy. Milo''s holo soon started to ping him, he checked it and noticed he was receiving messages from his friends. They had seen the news and wanted to make sure he was safe. He said he was and that he and Krista had made it to a refugee camp. He then told them that he was actually away closing a gate in Antic City when the attacks started. He had received messages from everyone, Chris wondered if he had gotten to take out any of the Fellowship members. Mark was reminded of the day his home was destroyed by the evil cult, because of this, he was especially heated that Milo and Krista were being put through the same thing. Among his friends, Zach seemed the most worried, about Krista in particr. She assured him she was fine and not to worry, Milo wouldn''t allow anything to happen to her anyways. After checking in with all their ssmates, Krista wanted to hear about Milo''s summer so far, the two hadn''t gotten to talk since the ss reunion due to Milo having been so busy. He went on to regale them about everything he''d done the past two and a half months. There was onest thing he had forgotten about since finding out about the attack, he said "release" and the beast vessel ring gave off a glow before Alucard had materialized. He appeared to have been woken up out of a sleep when Milo released him, "Master who are these people?" Alucard asked Milo groggily. Seeing the snake materialize, the other three''s eyes widened in surprise. "You have a tamed beast?!" Krista asked in shock. Milo figured she would be surprised, but finally went into detail about what had happened with the twins and going to the Underground. He kept things vague, as only Krista knew about the system''s existence. He then went on to exin about Alucard hatching in his hotel in Antic City, as he rubbed the little snake''s chin. Milo then introduced the other three people in the tent with him to Alucard as he hadn''t met them before. Alucard seemed to understand that this was Milo''s family and vowed to protect them as if they were his own. This made Milo happy, it seemed as though some of Milo''s personality was rubbing off on Alucard and his familial protectiveness seemed to be included. Eventually Krista, her mother and Corinna started to y with Alucard, it was good to see them distracted from the terror they would''ve been dealing with ever since the Fellowship''s attack. After ying with Alucard for a few more minutes, amotion could be hearding from outside their tent. Milo was curious about what was going on so he walked out into the center of the camp. All of the screens in Times square hade on out of nowhere and a figure could be seen on the screen. The figure was dressed in a red robe and had a mask covering his face. The mask was simple looking, but how the figure could see, Milo had no idea. This was due to the mask''s design, everything; his eyes, nose, and mouth were all coveredpletely and the only thing that could be seen was the number 3 written on the mask''s forehead. When the figure spoke, their voice was warped so that their identity could remain a mystery to those who were watching. "Hello citizens of New York City. My name will remain a mystery but you all know me as one of the 7 cardinals. To be exact, I am the 3rd cardinal." Hearing that a cardinal was involved with this caused Milo to get a shiver down his spine. The 7 cardinals of the Fellowship were nothing to scoff at, not only were they evil but they were powerful as well. "As you can tell, our followers are currently taking over the city, this is a necessary step towards a brighter future for the. As humans we are parasites that have infected the Earth. The so called beasts thate from the dimensional doors are merely saviors sent from a god above in order to cull the herd. It is for this reason that we must cure the Earth of her sickness, only then will the dimensional doors close for good. I hope for the world''s sake you do not resist fate, allow your death to be part of the solution." As he said his final words of his speech, a series of explosions could be heard from around the camp. Screams ensued as refugees ran for their lives. Milo could now see more hooded figures, these were in white robes which contrasted the red robe that was worn by the cardinal. The association members weren''t prepared for the ambush, as it appeared that the Fellowship members were hidden among the refugees in the camp. In a split second, the camp went from safe and calm to utter chaos. Milo ran for the tent that Corinna, Krista and her mom was in with Alucard. He''d protect them no matter what. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 121 119 - Righteous Fury As soon as the ambush on the refugee camp started, Milo took off running. He had to get back to Corinna, Krista and her mom before any of the Fellowship members got to them. He sent a message to Alucard using the Beast Whisperer ability and instructed him to protect them as he sprinted back to their tent. As he ran, he saw Fellowship members ughtering refugees all over. Abilities were used to kill other humans, this was something he figured he''d witness at some point but he was hoping it wouldn''t be for a long time. While on his way a Fellowship member stepped into his path. The man was wearing the usual white robes the fellowship wore except this one had blood sttered on it. In his hands two shortswords could be seen also stained with the blood of innocents, and on his face a disgusting smile could be seen. Milo had on all his equipment still and drew Ghoul''s Bane. The man charged in shing wildly. Based on his attack, Milo figured the man was a low ranking member of the Fellowship, he obviously hadn''t trained with the weapons and seemed more crazed than anything. When the man pushed in, Milo swung his sword, he shed the tendon of the man''s leg which slowed him down. He roared in anger as he swung his daggers wildly once again. Milo dodged the crazed attacks before disarming the man. With the man now disarmed, Milo chose to knock him out, mming the hilt of Ghoul''s Bane into his nose. He wanted to keep his hands clean of human blood for now, if possible. With the man now out cold, Milo pushed on, fighting more Fellowship members on the way to where Krista, Corinna and Krista''s mother were located. The attack started on the north side of the camp, and luckily Milo''s loved ones were stationed in a tent on the south side. Running through the crowd to get there, Milo had to dodge countless abilities. Elemental abilities could be seen being used, causing fire, water and wind to strike both the fellowship as well as refugees. The association was doing their best to hold off the Fellowship cultists but were hesitant to kill them, causing them to be fighting a losing battle, as the soldiers of the Fellowship had no qualms with killing another person. Eventually Milo had gotten to his desired destination. While fighting off the lower ranked Fellowship members who had gotten in his way, he had only sustained a few scratches, other than that he could be considered in good condition. Once he was outside the tent, he heard a screame from Krista, he burst inside and watched Alucard bite down on the neck of a fellowship member who had found his way into the tent. Alucard had been hiding in the top of the tent waiting in case someone came in and it just so happened that Milo came in at the same time. Soon the Fellowship member fell to the ground dead as Alucard ripped out his throat using his sharp fangs. "Yuck," Milo heard Alucard say in his mind, "he tasted disgusting." Milo got a notice that he had gained a sizable amount of experience for the kill, and Alucard had even leveled up one more time. He immediately put the points into Alucard''s strength stat as he knew that his help would be crucial if they were going to escape to camp safely. Once the man was dead, Krista ran up and hugged Milo with tears in her eyes. Milo hugged her tight and Corinna and Krista''s mom thanked him for saving them. Corinna also gave him a hug and checked him over to make sure he was okay before they did anything else. The screaming from the Fellowship''s victims could still be heard outside so now was not the time to dilly dally. Milo told them the n. They would make a break for the southern barrier, from there they''d hide out until hopefully the attack was stopped or until the Fellowship moved on. Milo''s n hinged on the hope that the Fellowship would be too busy chasing those fleeing the camp to search the building beyond the barrier. Milo then texted David and Jorge to let them know that the Fellowship had attacked the refugee camp, Jorge was quick to respond saying they''d be sending reinforcements and they''d be arriving soon. The Incubus guild was tasked with being on the frontline fighting off the Fellowship from where they originally attacked from. Based on this information Milo expected that reinforcements would arrive in 10 minutes or so. That was ten minutes they''d have to survive without any backup, only having the association and weaker guilds who were there to depend on. Milo gave an order to Alucard to help Corinna walk as she had the cast on her leg and the four of them started to walk towards the exit of the tent. When Milo pulled back the curtain the group came face to face with a Fellowship member repeatedly stabbing someone they had pinned to the floor. Seeing the man with sickening glee on his face as he repeatedly stabbed the person triggered something in Milo, suddenly the thought of avoiding taking a human life seemed to flee from his head. Milo raised his sword hand, causing a shadow to fall over the man. The man turned up to see what was making the shadow only for his vision to go ck as his head was separated from his neck. Krista looked at Milo''s face, only to see it filled with righteous fury, before it hardened as he looked towards hispanions. "Let''s go." After killing the crazed psychopath, Milo and the group began to make their way towards the barrier on the south side of the camp. As they made their way there, Milo continued to fight off any Fellowship members that targeted them, this time not hesitating to use his de to extinguish their lives. At this point he recognized that it was a dog eat dog situation and would have to put aside his distaste for taking the lives of people. Soon the group was a football fields distance from the barrier. A group of people could be seen climbing over the barrier that was set up by the association originally meant to protect those seeking refuge in the camp. A man had just made it over when all of a sudden an explosion triggered. The barrier was destroyed as purple mes swallowed the people who were attempting to climb over the wall. In the center of where the explosion was sourced, a figure could be seen in a red robe, covering his face a red mask could be seen with a number 5 on its forehead. Surrounding him were hundreds of more Fellowship members wearing the white robes that the lower ranked members wore. The man put out his arms and the group he was leading charged the refugees that survived the attack that destroyed the barrier. A smaller group stayed with the new cardinal acting as a sort of escort Krista and her mother sank to their knees as they felt hopeless in the face of terror from seeing another wave of Fellowship cultists appear. Corinna had tears in her eyes thinking that there was nothing they could do to escape. Their previous route to freedom that was open seconds ago was taken away in the blink of an eye. Milo turned to look at the group epting their fate as hopelessness consumed them. Seeing this happen something welled up in Milo''s stomach, it felt like his muscles were screaming. Seeing the 5th cardinal making his way through the hole he made in the barrier towards him and the ones he cared about brought forth a feeling of rage Milo had never felt before. It was running wild inside him fighting to escape. All Milo wanted was to keep the people he cared about out of harm''s way and it seemed like at the moment the world was trying to stop him from doing so. It was at this moment, a Fellowship member came running up from behind the group, in his hands was a spear aimed for Milo''s back. Milo was oblivious to the attacking from his blind spot. Even Alucard missed the man as he, like Milo, was focused on the cardinal and his dark purple mes that seemed to spread and swallow up more of the refugee camp with each step. Krista noticed the iing attack and screamed Milo''s name but the man was already thrusting the spear forward. Milo reacted to Krista''s scream but it was toote. He turned around, Corinna had put herself between the tip of the spear and Milo. Milo cut the man down where he stood, but the attack had alreadynded. Corinna fell to her knees as the spear impaled her through the stomach. Blood was soaking through her clothes as Milo screamed and went to catch her. She raised a shaking bloodied hand to Milo''s face and smiled at him with blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She spoke the words, "In the end I still got to protect you, even if it was only this once." Tears began to stream down Milo''s face as the shock of seeing his guardian and cousin dying before his eyes finally hit him. A few secondster Corinna took herst breath in Milo''s arms. Krista and her mother were now bawling. Milo knelt, still visually stunned by what had just happened. Not even a week ago, his cousin was cooking him dinner and leaving cheesy notes in his lunch for him to read while at the guild. Now, she was dead in his arms, killed by the spear of a random member of the Fellowship cultist who had originally nned to take out Milo. "Master, we need to run," Alucard said, seeming to be the only one in the group who was still aware of the chaos taking ce around them. While he knew the great pain Milo was feeling due to the connection through Milo''s ability, he knew that they would be killed if they stayed there any longer. At this moment, a new emotion could be felt through their connection, and Alucard trembled in fear feeling the new wave of emotion. Milo set Corinna on the ground gently and then stood as Krista and her mother still knelt near Corinna weeping. He turned around to look at the 5th cardinal and the group of Fellowship members who were all brandishing weapons that were now a little under 40 yards away. The man in red continued forward towards the middle of the group as ominous violet infernos spread out behind him. As they moved, the entourage in front of him would kill anyone in their path who still showed signs of life. Milo was trembling where he stood not from fear but from anger. He began to walk towards the man and readied his weapon. Once he got a safe enough distance away from Krista and her mom, he screamed and activated his ice ability, not holding back. The temperature dropped to sub zero in an instant and dozens of spears appeared behind Milo''s back. Chapter 122 120 - System Overload Milo screamed, throwing forward all the ice spears he had formed. The cardinal threw out a wall of purple me to destroy some of the iing projectiles but a few members of his escort weren''t so lucky. A few tried to destroy the spears of ice with their weapons and abilities, as others were impaled by the icicle rain. After the attack had ended, the ones that survived charged at Milo to kill the person who was fighting back. Seeing this, Milo deactivated the Ice ability and changed to his Reinforce ability, he then changed to the whip mode on Ghoul''s Bane and began to try and ward off the Fellowship members from getting too close, every time the ded whip snapped, a loud crack could be heard each sounding like a small explosion. In total around 16 Fellowship members remained from the 24 that were originally surrounding the cardinal. 5 were dead while 3 were too injured from the ice spears to move forward. Milo sessfully dispatched 2 of them, before they got too close to use the whip. He swapped back to sword mode and engaged one of them, slicing the man quickly and fluidly as Mikael taught him. One of the cultists was a hulking man and carried a hammer with him. He suddenly activated his ability and gigantified before mming the hammer down on Milo. Milo rolled out of the way, slicing the man on his achilles tendon. The man came down to one knee and Milo activated the bind skill on his gauntlets locking him in ce, before sliced at his throat killing him. While this was happening though, the remaining group of the cardinal''s guards circled Milo, surrounding him. Milo was in a bind, as 13 of the Fellowship members encircled him. He threw icicle spears at the ones in front and turned to face the ones in back, expecting them to attack his back. Three of them rushed in for the kill, Milo activated the discharge skill on his armor stunning the 3 that rushed in, he cut two of them down before he had to dodge an attack from the group he had distracted with the barrage of ice. Because of this, he allowed a cut to be made on his shoulder. He created an ice wall to make space again before taking out another Fellowship member. There were 10 left but Milo was in pain and could feel blood dripping from his shoulder. Milo swapped to the whip mode and swung it out cutting the leg of one before whipping it around tocerate the arm of another. While doing this, some of the Fellowship members threw out elemental attacks. Milo took on the force of a water de head on, causing another cut, this time on his leg. He then jumped in the air making a massive ice de before cutting down 3 of them at once. He was doing well considering being severely outnumbered. That was until the cardinal got involved. The cardinal created a path of purple mes, the ominous dark mes snaked towards Milo as if they were alive. Milo tried throwing up an ice wall to block the attack, but the mes burned through it faster than Milo was expecting, this opened him up to another attack as he was forced to roll out of the way. Milo was running out of stamina and the damage to his body was stacking up as time passed, all the while a number of the cultists still stood. Milo looked over towards Krista and her mother at that moment to make sure they were still safe. They were still on the ground, the shock of Corinna''s death had taken away any hope they had left of escaping. One of the robed figures broke off from the group as he noticed Milo''s eyes that looked over towards Krista and her mother. Seeing that Milo was ncing towards the two defenseless people, he chose to exploit that and target them, figuring they were important to him. Seeing the man heading towards the two of them, Milo roared in anger, throwing an ice spear that went through the back of the man''s head, opening up Milo to an attack. At this moment one of the escorts stepped forwards and shoved his sword through Milo''s back while he was distracted. While this was happening, Alucard was busy fighting off the other Fellowship members who had been attempting to target Krista and her mother. He turned to see Milo get impaled and cried out for his master. He himself wasn''t in great condition, with many of his feathers missing and cuts covering his body, but as long as his master was fighting he would as well. Once the sword was inserted in Milo''s back, he felt the pain Milo was suffering due to the connection through Milo''s ability as well. Milo looked down at the sword de that was sticking out of his front side. His blood could be seen on the de as the Fellowship member pulled it out. Milo fell to his knees. Milo began to feel angry. Angry at the Fellowship. Angry at his own ipetence Angry that he couldn''t protect Corinna. Angry that Krista and her mother would be next. But most of all angry at the world for taking away his happiness after thinking his summer was going so well. Milo roared in anger as another sword got shoved through his chest, causing him to spit up blood. By this point any refugees who hadn''t already escaped the ambush were dead, and more and more Fellowship members were flooding towards Milo''s position. All of them hungry for more bloodshed. Hundreds of the robed individuals could be seen moving closer to witness Milo''s end. Thinking this was the end he wanted to at least kill the man who stabbed him. He stood, causing the man who had just stabbed him a second time to release his sword in shock. Milo turned around and cut the head of the man clean off. He then screamed as his eyes began to glow purple. Milo noticed a screen that appeared in his vision as the pain from the two holes in his torso began to fade. [Notice] Self preservation mode going into effect System is going into overload Magic Power stat has been temporarily unsealed [clear] Magic Power erupted centering around Milo, as the pain from the two stab wounds became a dull ache. As the magic erupted from Milo, the man who had just been beheaded, froze in ce before his body could copse to the ground. Milo''s Reinforce ability was then activated in his legs, he body shed towards another one of the Fellowship soldiers, moving at an unimaginable speed due to the boost in his legs. Another head was sent rolling. His abilities had received a massive boost in power after the system began to overload and unsealed his magic power. Milo then roared again shooting a massive wall of ice spikes out, impaling countless members of the Fellowship. By this point, the amount of freezing energy had caused snow to begin to fall on the camp even though it was the middle of summer. Milo activated Soul Siphon next, unlike previously it seemed to pull the strength of all the Fellowship members in the wide area boosting Milo''s strength even more. Milo continued on his rampage killing all Fellowship members who were around him. Milo ran through the group of cultists, hacking and shing as he was boosted by his abilities. Milo then summoned a massive amount of ice spears. Hundreds of the menacing icicles floated in the air above him. He threw out his hand and all of them flew out going through the bodies of all the Fellowship members he could see. Thanks to the system overloading he felt like he had unlimited magic power. Because of this, he could use his abilities to a degree that made his previous strength look like child''s y even though he was quite strong. Seeing all this happen before him, the cardinal knew he had to stop the rampaging teen. He gathered his power and sent forth roaring wall of amethyst colored mes at Milo hoping to stop him before he could kill anymore. Milo didn''t see the attacking, unlike Chris''s mes the purple mes weren''t extinguished by the freezing energy that Milo gave off. He was so caught up in the huge amount of magic power flowing through him that he thought he was invincible, causing him to let his guard down. The mes immediately consumed Milo like a beast, burning everything they touched. Milo copsed in pain as the mes ate away at his life. "It was admirable but I must stop you here," the cardinal said as he walked up to Milo''s writhing figure. "May your death bring about a better world." Milo screamed in pain, the burning sensation ate away at all his senses making him wish that death woulde sooner. As the mes melted his bones, he could feel his very being slipping away. There was no way he would be walking away from this. His vision was beginning to go dark as the pain of being burned alive continued to eat at his sanity. Thest thing Milo saw was a pir of lighting down from the sky and enveloping him. It reminded him of the day the system had awakened, "this is the end I guess, this must be the light people say they saw when they died," he thought as his vision went dark. A system message had appeared but his vision had gone dark before he could read it. [Notice] User''s vital signs are fading Temporary Unlock of all System Functions granted System will temporarily possess the user¡­ After this message appeared, ck chains exploded from Milo and flowed towards the cardinal and remaining followers like a tidal wave. Unlike previously when the system was used, the cardinal and the few other remaining Fellowship members could see the chains burst forth from Milo and screamed as they swallowed them all, turning their world''s ck¡­ - - - - - Not long after this happened Jorge along with David had arrived at Times Square with the other members of the Incubus Guild, only to be greeted by eerie silence and a light snowfall. "I thought Milo said that the Fellowship was attacking the camp?" David asked Jorge, "Where''d they all go, they should still be here if the attack was as bad as Milo made it out to be. And what''s with this snow, its almost August." Their steps crunched in the smallyer of snow that was covering the ground as they continued to walk through the remnants of the noiseless camp. Bodies of both refugees and the members of the Fellowship could be seen littering the ground, being covered by the snow that continued to fall. The group of gatecrashers continued on through the camp until they came upon an area that waspletely destroyed, a hole could be seen in the barrier not too far off and smoke was rising as if it was previously burning. Countless bodies wrapped in white robes could be seen on the ground, stained red from their own blood. In the center of the area, a girl could be seen crying over the body of a boy who was lying unconscious in a pool of blood, a woman was at her sideforting the weeping girl. As they got closer a ck snake was seen coiled up on the boy''s chest, wings sprouting from its back. A huge man ran forward recognizing the little snake and boy who was lying in the bloodstained snow. "We need medical now! That''s Milo!" Harvey screamed as he ran forward. Healers stepped forward and got to work healing Krista, her mother and Milo. A few meters away from Milo and the two girls, another figure could be seen on the ground wearing a red robe, on his face was a red mask with the number 5 on the forehead. Chapter 123 121 - The Administrator When Milo cked out, he found himself transported to what looked like an old school smoking room. Arge wooden door was right behind him and bookshelves lined the walls between windows that had scarlet curtains on them. A table was at the center of the room, with 2 leather chairs on either side, and standing on the side of the room furthest from the door was a man who was wearing a id suit, he looked to be getting up in his years. His peppery hair was slicked back, and a gold monocle could be seen over his right eye. He was standing near a window staring out of it twirling his van dyke style beard as he smoked from a pipe. "Ah, the view of the dimensional ne looks so beautiful in the morning," the man said with a rasping deep voice that had a tinge of an ent that Milo couldn''t quite recognize, "ah well, please sit Milo I have much to discuss with you." Milo still didn''t know what was going on, one second he was fighting with the Fellowship and the next he woke up in this strange room. He stepped to look out of the window to see where in the world he was only to gasp in shock. Looking through the ss pane, all he could see were millions of stars, gxies could be seen swirling and nebe seemed to be floating all around as auroras danced in the star painted sky. Where the ground should be, there was nothing, the room appeared to be floating in the middle of space. "I will exin what is going on, but I''m afraid time is short, so please sit," the man said as he pulled the chair nearest to Milo out gesturing for him to sit in it. Miloplied still in confusion as to what this strange dream was all about. "Is this the afterlife?" he thought to himself, he was sure that there was no way he''d survived the attack that the cardinal had just used on him. "Now I''m sure that you are confused about where you are, why you''re here, h, h, h, but I can assure you that you are very much alive. This is simr to that little gemstone on the ring you are wearing," he said pointing to the Beast Vessel Ring on Milo''s hand as he took the seat across from him. "This room is located on the dimensional ne, separate from the one you live in, where Earth is located. You can think of me as your benefactor. Some of the other administrators have decided that Earth is due for a reset and wanted to make a little game out of it this time. Last time it was that sted meteor wiping out the¡­ What were they called again? Dinosaurs? Well, anyways among the administrators there is one who wants to see the world continue as it has been, and that administrator is me, and my name is Zenox." Hearing the man talk of this, Milo had so many questions, what are the administrators? Why did they want to destroy earth? How was Zenox his benefactor? Milo was stillpletely lost as to what this was, was it a strange dream his mind came up with to help him cope with being burned alive before he died? "I can tell this is a lot for you, so I will give you a second to digest this information, would you like anything to drink?" Milo slowly nodded his head as he processed the things Zenox had said, "Navi! Please bring in a drink for our guest!" Zenox shouted. The door then opened and Milo''s eyes widened in surprise. The woman who had just entered with Milo''s drink was the same woman he saw in the tutorial videos from his system. She walked up and ced the drink in front of Milo before smiling at him. "It is nice to meet you like this Milo," she said before exiting the room. The voice was the same one that gave him information when asking the system''s questions. Milo had just met Navi, the AI that was in the system, at this point Milo thought for sure this was a dream. "I brought your consciousness here to inform you of something that will being to earth in the near future. You see another Administrator has done something simr to me, they chose a champion of sorts, granted them information beyond what is normally allowed to be spread to lesser beings. Unlike them however I have decided to go a step further allowing you to grow, to be stronger and gain the strength to save your. If they found out about my schemes there would without a doubt be war across the dimensional nes," Zenox continued. "They feed this champion damning information that could cause your to sumb to a horrible fate and I am afraid that it won''t be long before their champion makes a decision using said information to spread chaos. It is for this reason that I hope you continue to fight and gain strength. The sooner you defeat this champion of theirs, the sooner I believe that the Earth can be returned to the path of normalcy. As for the champion you must defeat, I''m afraid he is still outside of your grasp. He has rallied powerful people around him, gaining their trust and forming a religion of sorts. You have already defeated one of his men with a bit of my help but I''m afraid I won''t be able to do it again without the other administrators catching on. That is why I brought you here to tell you that you will now have to defeat your enemies with your own strength. The man you must defeat, the man you must stop at all costs is the one you know as the Godfather." Hearing this additional info caused a change in Milo. Hearing that the Godfather was actually a puppet of one of these so called administrators, made some sense to Milo. The Godfather was the one who recruited the weak minded to follow his ideals. The same ideals that Milo was fighting back against before waking up in this strange room. Like the other administrators that Zenox had talked about, the Fellowship believed that the dimensional doors would bring about a new era of earth by killing off the weak allowing only the strong to survive. The big difference being that they didn''t believe that the world would be destroyedpletely. Unless the Godfather was leaving that part out so that his fathers would be blind to his true intentions. "I must send you back now, gather strongrades, build your strength and defeat the Godfather that is the key to saving your world. I know you are in good hands with the system, afterall, I am its creator," Zenox said smiling, causing his crows feet to crinkle. Milo''s eyes widened as Zenox raised his hand and snapped his fingers, causing Milo''s vision to go ck once again. - - - - - White lights. This was what Milo saw when he woke up. He could hear a heart rate monitor beeping away and on the table to his left a bouquet of flowers could be seen. Milo wasn''t sure what had happened between his fight with the Fellowship and now, but he appeared to have been moved to a hospital room. It was then that he remembered the pain of being burned alive by the ominous purple mes. Milo checked over his body that was now covered in a backless hospital gown. He stood and staggered for a second before going into the bathroom to take a look at himself, he stripped off the gown expecting to see a body covered in burn scars but his skin looked pristine, there weren''t even any scars from where he had been cut and stabbed during the fight. He ran his fingers over his chest where a sword had pierced and was astounded at the level of healing he must have had to receive to not receive a scar. He put the hospital gown back on and finally checked his system, there were a ton of notifications that had appeared during the fight that he had been unable to check. He opened the first one, to see that a level up had gone through before the system had overloaded. The second notification was about the system overloading, this he was still unsure how it had happened but if the strange dream was real then it had something to do with Zenox intervening. Following this he received another 7 level ups while the overload was in effect. The next message was the one that hadn''t appeared until after he cked out from the pain of the violet mes eating away at him. [Notice] User''s vital signs are fading Temporary Unlock of all System Functions granted System will temporarily possess the user¡­ Reading the message, Milo didn''t know what to think, the system had temporarily possessed him? What could that have meant? Most likely this was another intervention by the so called Zenox from his dream. There were a few more messages that could be seen after this one, so Milo moved onto the next one choosing not to think too much about the strange idea of his system taking over control of his body. [Notice] System Overload has ended Magic Power stat has been forfeited as penalty Current Magic Power: 30 [clear] Seeing the system message Milo''s heart sank a bit, all the Magic Power stat he had built up apparently had gone away, meaning that all the essence cores he had used were flushed down the drain. There was 1 more message following this one, he opened it and his eyes widened in shock from the contents of the message. [Notice] Skill [eRroR] sessfully used: Magic Power sessfully Plundered from the target Current Magic Power: 69 [clear] Chapter 124 122 - Not A Dream Apparently when his body was possessed, all the skills were unlocked for the system to use, whatever skill it used had to be one of thest ones he would unlock, as it seemed extremely powerful. Milo hadn''t raised his Magical Power stat high enough for that skill to be revealed yet, but it did something that allowed him to drain a target''s Magic Power. What else it did, Milo had no idea but he would find out once it was unlocked. The idea of draining Magic Power from a target was definitely an attractive skill to have as it would add one more way to increase his Magic Power stat. After checking himself over still, he returned to the hospital bed and went through the events that had happened during the attack over again in his head. He started to tremble in anger and sadness recounting the events leading up to Corinna''s death. This caused his heart rate to increase sending a message to the nurse who was caring for him. The nurse entered soon after to see what triggered the change in Milo''s status and saw him sitting up in bed. They immediately called for a doctor. The doctor informed Milo that he had been in aatose state for 5 days; they had transported him to the Acropolis after the attack on New York. Milo asked the doctor what the state of his home city was; ording to him, the Fellowship chose to retreat following the attack on the refugee camp, due to their leader being captured. Milo didn''t know that the cardinal had been captured as he had cked out before this had happened, but assumed that the Incubus Guild must have showed up. The doctor then checked over Milo, checking all his vitals and told Milo about when they had found him. Apparently he was found lying in a pool of blood, but there were no visible wounds on his body, this news left Milo somewhat dumbfounded, as he had taken a lot of damage in the fight against the Fellowship''s followers but chalked it up to the system at work. The doctor called it a miracle and said that theatose like state was most likely caused by Magic Power exhaustion. The doctor then told Milo that if he needed anything to use the call button, in the meantime however there were some members of the association that wanted to talk to him and would be stopping by at some point. Milo nodded in understanding, still a bit lost about all the things that happened in the Fellowship''s attack. There was one thing he did know though, that the Fellowship needed to be exterminated at all costs. Once the doctor left, Milo opened his status screen to see what changes had urred following the battle of New York. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Tames] [Plunder] [Stats] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 43 Gold: 175 Abilities[7 / 7]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. MAX - upgrade avable) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. MAX - upgrade avable) 3 - Beast Whisperer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 8) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. MAX - upgrade avable) 5 - Soul Siphon - Allows the user to absorb the life force of another living thing, it drains the targets power and raises the users(lvl. 9) 6 - Fire - Allows the user to control wind currents allowing them to use it as a weapon(lvl. 7) 7 - Earth - Allows the user to control the ground as if it were a part of their own body(lvl. 6) Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [62] Agility: [57] Intelligence: [62] Stamina: [70] Constitution: [57] Magic Power: [69] [clear] From the 7 level ups he had received during the fight, Milo had reached level 43 and all his stats were all encroaching on 60 or had already reached it. Along with this, the skill used when he was possessed had raised his Magic Power stat to make it his second highest stat he had, something Milo never would have thought would be possible due to the difficulty of raising it previously. Moving on from the stat values, Milo looked at his abilities. While he was possessed he had apparently copied the Fire and Earth abilities. Normally there was a cooldown but when possessed the system must have bypassed all the limits it had when Milo was in control. This had also filled all of Milo''s ability slots. He''d have to check if fusion was possible for any of his abilities when he was done looking over the status screen, and also couldn''t wait to see what they did. He then noticed the level of his abilities had increased, three of them had even reached the max level the system designated for them, most likely it was level 10. His other abilities had even reached levels 8 and 9. There was also something that appeared next to the max level abilities. Milo wasn''t sure what upgrading the abilities would do, but it would definitely make them stronger otherwise why would it be considered an upgrade. Milo had reached a new level of strength in the fight with the Fellowship, but it was all in vain. He had lost one of the most important people in his life. Corinna was the only family he had left and she was gone, her life cut short protecting Milo from a bloodthirsty lunatic who wanted to kill off the human race. Memories appeared in his mind of him and Corinna, her taking him in when his parents disappeared, themughing and smiling as they joked and yed games together, her dressing the cuts and bruises he got from being bullied before going to the academy, her hugging him tightly as she sent him off to school with Krista, finally ending with her smiling up at him as he held her in his arms following her being stabbed. Tears began to stream down Milo''s face as the reality of him now really being alone hit him. All the emotions he had tried to keep down flooded out from him as he sat in the hospital bed. After crying for a few minutes in solitude, a knock was heard at the door and Krista entered with her mother. Krista had a bandage over her forehead and a few other ces, covering the wounds she received during the attack. Her mom had her right arm in a sling. Seeing Milo''s eyes still full of tears, Krista herself began to cry as she ran forward and embraced Milo in a hug. "I''m all alone now," Milo sobbed to her. "I''m still here," she said in response, "and I''m not going anywhere." They two stayed embraced crying for a while before they finally calmed down. Krista went over what had happened with Milo since they had been brought to the Acropolis. ording to her, the Fellowship had gone back into hiding. They vanished as quickly as they had appeared in the city. Milo clenched his fist in anger that they had gotten out of the city and were on the run again. She then told Milo that Alucard was currently with his team members from the Incubus Guild, they said they would take care of him until Milo had woken up. Milo was sure that they''d be spoiling him, as they took quite a liking to the little winged viper on their trip to Antic City. The Incubus Guild had also offered to take care of all of Corinna''s funeral expenses. They felt it was the least they could do considering Milo was the one that had to fight the Fellowship alone until they arrived. Krista asked her mom if she and Milo could have a second alone and sheplied, closing the door to the hospital room behind her, saying she would go to get them a snack. Once she had left, Krista asked Milo about what had happened when he seemed to go berserk. He told her about what had happened with the system, about it overloading and the massive amount of Magic Power that he felt at his fingertips. She then questioned what happened after the cardinal attacked him. He told her about the system possessing him, exining that when he cked out from the pain of being burned alive he got a system message and couldn''t remember anything after that. Krista then told him what she witnessed. After Milo had cked out, his body began to float into the air and his eyes opened but were giving off a violet light, the whites of his eyes, his pupil and iris all disappeared. ck shadow-like chains then exploded from his chest. as the chains moved as if they were alive and whipped out towards the surviving Fellowship members, the cardinal included. The chains wrapped around them for a few seconds and then snaked back towards Milo returning to his chest as if they never existed. The minute the chains released the Fellowship members, they copsed unconscious and all the purple mes that were burning went out as well. It was as if whatever was fueling them was taken away. Once the mes went out, Milo''s body fell back to the ground where he originally rose up from, and all his injuries seemed to have vanished. Hearing the tale, Milo didn''t know what to think, he was sure after being burned alive, that he''d be dead, but the systempletely reverted all the damage he received and even used skills he himself couldn''t activate yet in order to keep him alive. Milo thought about it and then told Krista about the dream he had, when he called it a dream, a system screen popped up in his vision that stopped his story in its tracks... [New System Message] It wasn''t a dream, remember my message, gather allies whether you tell them of the system is up to you but this isn''t something you will be able to do on your own¡­ -Zenox [clear] Chapter 125 123 - Strange Phenomenon Reading the message, Milo made a face that made Krista curious about what was going on. When she asked, Milo came clean, exining from the beginning what happened in his meeting with Zenox, and told Krista about the Administrators and their n. About how they wanted to "reset" the earth, most likely meaning they wanted to wipe out all the''s lifeforms and restart from scratch. Like Milo, Krista took some time to digest this news, it was a heavy thing to know about, the idea that there were beings controlling what happened in the universe behind the scenes was something that many people believed in. The idea of a god, but Milo had met one of these so called gods, and not only this, but the gods weren''t merciful beings that wanted to save everyone, they simply saw life as some sort of game and when it got boring, they wiped the save file and started over. After processing the info, she inquired with Milo about it some more, he mentioned that Zenox was the one who had made the system. ording to him, the dimensional doors were at first a way for them to begin killing people. Apparently somewhere along the way, the universe decided to bnce this out by giving humans abilities to fight against the beasts. To push their agenda even further, one of the Administrators chose to use the Godfather to reach their goals, making him believe that humans were a disease and the dimensional doors were in a sense the''s way to cure this so-called disease. "So what are you going to do?" Krista asked Milo. Milo hadn''t thought this far ahead. He knew that he wanted to take revenge on the Fellowship, but just like Zenox had said, he couldn''t do it alone. There were too many variables, but above all else, no one had seen the Godfather or his cardinals without their mask. This also led to more decisions Milo would need to make, should he inform others about the system? If so, who should he tell? Who should he ask to help him fight the Fellowship? Among all these questions, Milo was still a student so he would have to return to the Academy in less than a month. For this reason, Milo decided to put it off for now, he would be stronger first, strong enough that no one could stand in his way. He clenched his fist causing his nails to dig into his palms, "for Corinna," he thought. His reason for wanting to get stronger had gained a new aspect, not only was it to protect those he loved and to ovee his former self, but also to get revenge. Seeing the hardened expression Milo made while thinking about what to do caused Krista to worry, Milo noticed this and put her mind at ease, saying he would have to finish school first anyways so he didn''t have to make a decision now. At this moment, a knock was heard at the door. "Come in," said Milo. The door opened and two people entered, each wearing ck suits. These were most likely the association members Milo thought. They asked if they could talk to Milo in private, and Krista nodded and left the room to sit outside. Once she was gone, the two association members took a seat near Milo''s bed and asked him to tell them what he witnessed during the attack on New York. Milo started from the beginning, retelling what he remembered leading all the way up to him cking out. Hearing the story being told, the association members showed no emotion, nodding along as he retold the horror he had just lived through. They also asked questions, such as what Milo''s ability was, which he answered Ice, what abilities the Fellowship were using, and more. They really wanted to get into the nitty gritty and get all the facts. They were writing everything Milo said on a tablet so that they could get a detailed record to take back to the association. Eventually the man who was writing everything down turned the tablet towards Milo and showed what seemed to be a mugshot of a man Milo didn''t recognize. The man had a hardened look on his face, and the date appeared to be from before the dimensional doors appeared in the world. "Do you recognize this man?" the man asked Milo. Milo shook his head as he had never seen the man before. "His name is Jacques Dubois, he is a French Canadian who, before the dimensional doors appeared was arrested for many crimes; Arson, Armed Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Illegal Firearm Distribution as well as Murder. He was being held in a prison in Toronto until the Fellowship destroyed the city; he was thought to be dead due to the attack." Milo nodded along in understanding, he was a wanted criminal who had been caught, but why were they telling him all this? "The man known as Jacques Dubois also went by another alias¡­ the 5th cardinal, the man you defeated during the attack at Times Square. His ability was dubbed Spiteful Fire, it allowed him to create mes that burned violet and as long as the ability was kept active, they would burn anything in their path. When we took him into custody after finding him unconscious near you following the Incubus Guild''s arrival on the scene, we checked him for Magic Power to determine where he would rank among today''s gatecrashers as he had never been measured before. This resulted in a very strange discovery." The man paused for a second before continuing. "The reading showed he had no Magic Power, essentially it was a reading that would only ur if we measured someone who didn''t have an ability..." This floored Milo, he obviously remembered the purple mes destroying and burning everything in their path. He had even been burned alive by the mes, there was no way he imagined all of this. The man then swiped on the screen showing the faces of more people Milo couldn''t recognize. "All these people that I''m showing you are people who were previously known to have abilities that after being captured no longer had any Magic Power. We are unsure why this is, but we suspect it has something to do with the Godfather, or the Fellowship as a whole." Hearing all this info caused Milo to think of many different scenarios, the one that stood at the forefront was the strange skill the system used that came up as an error. It gave him Magic Power, but what were the odds that it couldpletely take away an ability and turn it into Magic Power for him to use. If that was the case, it was another reason he needed to keep his system away from the public eye. Zenox encouraged him to gather allies, but if Milo truly could take away abilities, it may cause too much fear for anyone to join him. Along with this, if the Fellowship learned of this, they may try to exploit Milo for their own gain. "Do you have any idea what could''ve caused this phenomenon? We are still investigating what could''ve caused this, but the Fellowship wiped out all CCTV in the city so we have to go by eye witness reports." Milo said he had no idea what could''ve caused it, which was received with a nod of understanding. The association members then told Milo that once he was released from the hospital that they encouraged him to get an evaluation at the association to make sure his ability wasn''t missing as well, they also gave him a business card to contact them if he remembered anything else he thought may be important. They thanked him for his time and left as quickly as they had arrived. Krista entered again with her mother this time bringing snacks and drinks. They talked for a while before visiting hours were set to end, mainly about summer vacationing to an end. The two then left which allowed Milo to think more about what he should do next, as there was a lot. He had to investigate the system more, he had new abilities to try out, new features to try like the upgrade function on some of his abilities, more skills to unlock through leveling up, practice with the sword more. Overall, the list was long and with the Fellowship''s attack and the meeting with Zenox it had just gotten even longer. Milo looked out the window at the sun setting on the skyline of the acropolis. Some of this would have to wait, as in a little over a week it''d be back to school. - - - - - Meanwhile in an unknown location¡­ "After the failed attack on New York, we must be wary of the hidden strengths of the world." A table surrounded by 6 people wearing red cloaks could be seen. Each of them donning red masks that were numbered 1 through 7 could be seen, the number 5 was the only one missing. All 6 of them were unique in their own way, both men and women could be seen all of different ages, races and body types. At the head of the table was a person wearing a white robe, unlike the others they wore a ck mask adorned with a golden filigree design and on the forehead a golden logo portraying a weeping angel could be seen. It was the symbol of the Fellowship''s leader, the Godfather. "It was a disappointing result to say the least, the loss of number 5 is also an unexpected turn of events as well. Even so, we must continue to strive towards our goal, so that his capture does not end in vain. Only then can we say that his sacrifice towards a better world was worth it," the Godfather said in a deepmanding voice. After the Godfather spoke, the meeting was concluded and the 6 remaining cardinals returned to their duties. The Godfather returned to his office, pulling off the mask to reveal a scarred face. He poured a ss of wine and watched the surveince video taken of a young teen releasing chains from his body after appearing to be burned alive by the 5th cardinal''s ability. The chains attacked his soldiers and theirmander, causing them to go unconscious before returning to the teen who summoned them. The video was taken from a CCTV in Times Square before they wiped them clean. Unfortunately for him, the quality of the video was too blurry to see the face of the teen clearly. "Just who in the world are you?" the Godfather said aloud as he sipped from his ss of wine. End of Arc 1: The School Arc - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Following this chapter''s release the novel will go on pause for 3-5 days for me to stockpile some chapters for the next part of the story, thanks for your understanding and thank you for reading. :) -Kowatch24 Chapter 126 124 - Moving Forward Milo was released from the hospital the next day, he was as healthy as he was before the attack, maybe even healthier thanks to the system. It was a miracle to the doctors who heard about how he was found following the attack. But after waking up, they kept him under observation for 24 hours and he showed no symptoms of anything bad, so they couldn''t keep him any longer. After getting out, Milo was quick to return to the Incubus Guild headquarters, it had been outside of the area where the Fellowship attacked so it was left unscathed. Milo and Krista took a teleporter at the association headquarters and got a taxi to take them to the guild from there. While riding through the city, Milo took note of the destruction left in the wake of the attack. It was definitely a day that would be put in the history books. The president of the United States had already announced that it would be a day that would be remembered each year, as a day where the American people triumphed over evil. As the taxi he was riding in made its way through the war torn streets, Milo saw hundreds of memorials lining the road. This caused him to slip into sadness a bit as it brought memories of Corinna to his mind. Krista who was with him put her hand on his shoulder attempting to console him. Like Milo, Corinna was someone who was important to Krista, she was like a big sister and Corinna''s death brought nearly as much despair to her as it did her best friend. It wouldn''t be the same toe home without her being there to ask them how their day had gone. Eventually the taxi had pulled up to the front of the guild building and the two friends made their way inside. When they got up to the right floor, they entered to see Alucard flying around the room carrying what appeared to be a holo. Conner was chasing the snake around in annoyance because his holo had been taken. Milo could sense the feeling of mischievous glee that Alucard was feeling thanks to his Beast Whisperer ability, causing him tough for the first time in days. Hearing Milo''sugh, the rest of the team turned to see that their intern wonderboy had returned. Some of the girls on the team had tears in their eyes seeing he was alright, Harvey had mentioned the state Milo was left in when they arrived at the refugee camp and it left a scary thought in their mind. Speaking of Harvey, he ran forward and picked Milo up in a bear hug. After nearly squeezing the life out of him, he remembered Milo''s condition before the hospital and gently set him down. After catching his breath, Milo smiled seeing that everyone was still there, it would have been anotherrge blow if any of his team members had died during the Fellowship subjugation. Alucard seeing his master enter dropped the holo he was carrying and made a beeline for Milo wrapping himself around Milo''s neck and nuzzling him, once again causing Milo to struggle for air. "I''m so happy you are alright master, I did as you asked and kept those women alive," Alucard spoke into Milo''s head. Right before taking on the Fellowship, Milo ordered Alucard to protect Krista and her mom at all costs, and he had followed through. Milo rubbed Alucard''s chin, thanking him for doing what he asked, he''d have to reward the beast for following through. If he had lost Krista along with Corinna, Milo may have lost it for good. Milo then introduced Krista to his team, and asked them what they dealt with during the fight with the Fellowship. Hearing them retell their experience during the attack, Milo realized how bad everyone had it. The Fellowship showed no restraint and wanted to inflict maximum damage to the city, had Milo not been there to fight them at the refugee camp and stop the cardinal they may have seeded in doing a repeat of Toronto. The team then began to ask how much time Milo had before leaving for school. This was when David and Jorge made their appearance. There was also a face that Milo and Krista were quite familiar with. Ana rushed forward and pulled the two into a bearhug. Milo had the air squeezed out of him for a third time. "I missed you guys so much, thank god you both made it through the attack," Ana said with tears in her eyes. Alucard had apparently met her while he was staying with the guild members. Ana and her parents had been staying at the guild headquarters since the attack to be near Jorge, he didn''t want to take any chances in case the Fellowship came in with a secondary attack. This annoyed Ana but seeing her interact with Jorge it was obvious the two were brother and sister and Jorge was extremely protective of her. David and Jorge asked if they could meet with Milo in private, Milo nodded and the three of them made their way up to Jorge''s office. When they entered they all took a seat and Jorge started talking. "First things first, I wanted to thank you for your good work over the past few months, your growth as a gatecrasher has been a wonder to watch and I know you''ll do great things in the future," he said. "I want to apologize for ourte appearance at the refugee camp, had we been there faster we may have been able to save more people, for this reason we would like to offer our support with whatever you may need, if you ever need our support please give me or David a call, we will do everything in our power to be there." Milo was expecting this as Krista had mentioned that they wanted to cover the costs for Corinna''s funeral. "I also know you will be leaving for the academy in a week''s time so for that reason we want you to get the rest you deserve after working so hard, not only for the assignment in Antic City, but also for your work in defeating the Fellowship. With that being said, you are more than wee to use the guild''s facilities and we have also put aside dorms for you, your friend and her mother to use." Milo was grateful to them for everything they had done for him. They recognized his talents from day one and ced him on a strike squad so that he could experience gates firsthand. They had given him a leadership role as a student when there were probably more qualified people for the job. They called Mikael to allow him to learn even further and make him an even better gatecrasher. Overall they had invested a lot in Milo and Milo wouldn''t forget their support. Not only this but Milo had made many new rtionships after joining the guild as an intern. He thanked them again before returning to Krista, Ana, Alucard and his team mates. "That kid has a bright future," Jorge said after Milo had left the room, "to be able to push forward after going through so much at his age is a feat in itself. Soldier on young man, soldier on." Once he returned the team held a sort of party for Milo, this was Krista''s idea as she wanted Milo to have a day where he could let loose and forget about what had happened over thest few days. Milo did just this as he decided to unwind, Krista was happy seeing that Milo could still smile after being put through hell during his fight with the Fellowship. His mental fortitude was something she greatly admired and seeing the strong face he had on at all times crack at the hospital the day before had caused her to hurt a great deal. As the festivities calmed down, Milo excused himself early, he was having a good time but there were some things with the system he wanted to experiment with, as well as get some alone time as he hadn''t had any since getting out of the hospital. Once he got to the dorm room that Jorge had set aside for him, he entered and took in the contents of the room. It was very simr to the dorms at the academy, but was a bit more luxurious with a bigger bed, a TV and a great view of the city. Looking out at the skyline, it was strange to see the buildings in the distance that looked damaged and destroyed but it would take some time before the city could be returned to normal. Thanks to the help of abilities it''d be faster than in the past but it would still take time nheless. After taking in the view Milo opened his system: [Stats] [Tutorials] [Tames] [Plunder] [Stats] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 43 Gold: 175 Abilities[7 / 7]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. MAX) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. MAX) 3 - Beast Whisperer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. MAX) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. MAX) 5 - Soul Siphon - Allows the user to absorb the life force of another living thing, it drains the targets power and raises the users(lvl. 9) 6 - Fire - Allows the user to control wind currents allowing them to use it as a weapon(lvl. 7) 7 - Earth - Allows the user to control the ground as if it were a part of their own body(lvl. 6) Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [62] Agility: [57] Intelligence: [62] Stamina: [70] Constitution: [57] Magic Power: [69] [clear] The first thing Milo wanted to do was try out the upgrade function of the system. It appeared when his abilities reached their max level duringbat with the Fellowship so he had never done it before. Milo was thinking of what ability would have the most obvious change. After thinking for a second he made his decision and clicked upgrade. [Notice] Are you sure you would like to upgrade the selected ability? [yes] [no] Milo clicked yes and a new screen appeared. Chapter 127 125 - Upgrades After selecting yes to upgrade the ability, a new screen appeared: [Notice] Congrattions the Beast Whisperer ability had evolved into the Beast Lord ability [clear] Seeing this pop up, Milo checked the description of the ability to see what changes had urred. Thergest change made it so he could read the thoughts of all beasts, it didn''t have to be one of Milo''s tames. This was a major change for two reasons, first it would allow him to read the thoughts andmunicate with other tames beasts like Waki, making him able to be more versatile with his teammates. Along with this, he could read the thoughts of wild beasts, meaning he could learn who they were targeting and also what they nned to do next, allowing him to n his strategies ordingly. The only downside was that the ability returned to level one, but it would most likely remain at the same strength as before the upgrade just with the added effects included. Milo wanted to upgrade the rest of his abilities but showed restraint as he had two new abilities that he was hoping could be used as fuel for fusion. He asked Navi and she said yes, because of this he activated the skill and selected Fire and Earth as the two abilities tobine. After doing so he pressed confirm and the visual effects tied to the skill happened before the sess screen appeared. [Notice] Fusion of abilities Fire and Earth was sessful New ability has been generated Free stat points have been granted following sessful fusion Tutorial has been generated based off current intelligence stat Watch Tutorial? [yes] [no] Milo chose not to watch the tutorial for now, and went on to his status screen to see what the new ability was. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Tames] [Plunder] [Stats] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 43 Gold: 175 Abilities[6 / 7]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. MAX) 2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. MAX) 3 - Beast Lord - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of all beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 4 - Hunter''s Eye - Allows the user to ovey their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. MAX) 5 - Soul Siphon - Allows the user to absorb the life force of another living thing, it drains the targets power and raises the users(lvl. 9) 6 - Magma - Allows the user to create and control magma as if it were an extension of their own body(lvl. 5) 7 - Empty - Free Stat Points: [5] Strength: [62] Agility: [57] Intelligence: [62] Stamina: [70] Constitution: [57] Magic Power: [69] [clear] Reading the description of the skill Milo was pleased, it was simr to what extremely powerful fire and earth abilities could do. The main difference being that Milo could create theva he could control, the other two abilities could just control magma that already existed. He now had two opposite attribute abilities he could wield. He decided to upgrade his other max level abilities next. Hunter''s eye evolved into an ability called Predator''s Eyes. The main change was that it added two new effects when activated. The first was that it would allow Milo to see when a beast was close to death, Milo had gotten pretty good at reading this already but this would act as a confirmation now. The second part stated that when the ability was active, lower tier beasts may get stunned for a second if they made eye contact with Milo. Milo would have to test the ability out to see how the effects performed in action. Milo was about to upgrade his main ability, the Ice ability, as well but Navi''s voice popped up in his head stopping him before he confirmed the upgrade. "My rmendation would be to wait for the cooldown on the fusion skill to finish before upgrading the Ice ability," she told him. Hearing this Milo was tempted to still upgrade the ability as it was his most useful and strongest one but decided to wait and see why Navi advised him against it. Three dayster, Milo had somewhat returned to his normal routine of working out in the morning before training with the sword. It seemed like the world wanted to push past the attack by the Fellowship instead of allowing it to cause everything to go into a standstill. Alucard would join and watch his master workout every morning. Milo was waiting for the skill cooldown for Fusion toplete before trying out the newly upgraded abilities in a simtion as he wanted to try all of the changes at once. That was when a familiar ping was heard and a system screen appeared informing Milo of the cooldown for Fusion beingpleted. Milo returned to his room in hurry, anxious to see exactly why Navi told Milo he should wait to upgrade the ability he used the most. He had left his TV on and a news report was talking about a gatecrasher who had gone through a second awakening while inside a gate resulting in him defeating the boss and saving his injured team members. These days, reawakenings were bing moremon. As the number of dimensional doors appearing increased, more and more people were awakening abilities and some gatecrashers had gotten a second awakening causing their original ability underwent an evolution, sort of like Milo''s upgrade function or fusion skill, and they received a massive boost in Magic Power. Milo''s Ice ability wouldn''t be considered one of these cases however, as Milo could just say that the Ice ability was just him honing the Frost ability to the max, as strong Frost users could also summon ice in a way simr to Milo, through freezing the water that was trapped in the air. The fusion skill giving him the Ice ability just streamlined the process in a way. Because these reawakenings were urring more and more often, Milo was less worried about someone discovering the system as he could just y it off as a reawakening and get reevaluated following the evolution of his ability. This would also exin why his Magic Power stat had jumped so much. With this easing his worries, Milo activated the Fusion skill again and selected the Ice ability as the first ingredient. He then opened the options dropdown for which abilities werepatible and seeing which ability was able to be fused with Ice caused Milo to be puzzled. The ability that he couldbine with Ice was the Magma ability, this made no sense to Milo as they were opposing attributes. Milo thought for a moment and decided to trust Navi''s advice. He selected Magma as the second ability to fuse and clicked confirm. The two balls of energy emerged from Milo''s chest as usual, one blue and wispy and the other being red and burning like mes. They were wrapped in chains andbined before being yanked back into his chest. When this happened the screen Milo hoped would bring good news appeared. [Notice] Fusion of abilities Ice and Magma was sessful New ability has been generated Free stat points have been granted following sessful fusion Tutorial has been generated based off current intelligence stat Watch Tutorial? [yes] [no] Once again Milo clicked no, wanting to see the name and description of the newly formed ability first, so he instead opened his status screen. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Tames] [Plunder] [Stats] Name: Milo Fenix Title: [None] Level: 43 Gold: 175 Abilities[5 / 7]: 1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. MAX) 2 - Beast Lord - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of all beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1) 3 - Predator''s Eyes - Allows the user to see a target''s vital areas and when they are close to death, eye contact with weaker targets may induce a stun(lvl. 1) 4 - Soul Siphon - Allows the user to absorb the life force of another living thing, it drains the targets power and raises the users(lvl. 9) 5 - Disaster - The user is a walking natural disaster, able to control andbine elements ording to their own will(lvl. 1) 6 - Empty - 7 - Empty - Free Stat Points: [10] Strength: [62] Agility: [57] Intelligence: [62] Stamina: [70] Constitution: [57] Magic Power: [69] [clear] The name and description of the skill seemed too good to be true. Most elemental users were able to control at most two elements if they reawakened, maybe more if they reawakened multiple times but there were no confirmed cases of this happening before. Milo was able to control all 6 elements; Frost, Wind, Earth, Fire, Water, and Lightning were all now at his fingertips, even though the lightning and wind abilities weren''t in the original ingredients he had. The system most likely supplied them due to two elemental abilities that were already fused were used. Milo noticed that the ability level also reset to 1 which was strange since most of the time abilities averaged out based on the levels they were at previously. Milo inquired with Navi about this and her exnation made sense. The Disaster ability was one that couldn''t evolve any further. In a sense it could be considered the peak of elemental abilities. Milo was thankful to Navi for guiding him to this result, she most likely knew that if he upgraded the Ice ability that it would no longer be able to be used in Fusion. Essentially he traded the ultimate Ice elemental ability for the ability to control all elements. Along with this due to using Fusion twice he had gotten 10 free stat points. After some consideration, Milo invested 5 points into the agility stat and 5 into constitution, he felt that by bncing out his stats he''d be more well rounded. After cing the stat points where he wanted Milo decided that he would have toe up with a n to y off the creation of the Disaster ability as a reawakening to others so that he didn''t reveal the existence of the system. His fight with the Fellowship may prove to be the excuse he needed. Only Krista would know the real reason behind the change in Milo''s skillset. Chapter 128 126 - Reawakening Milo went to bed that night thinking of who he should tell he reawakened. He hadn''t used any abilities since fighting the Fellowship besides the Beast Whisperer ability that became the Beast Lord ability, which didn''t have any shy visual effects when being used. Because of this he thought maybe he could talk to Jorge or David about it. Maybe Mikael could help him out as well. Milo could use him pushing himself against the cardinal as an excuse, ying it off as a catalyst that caused the reawakening. A life or death situation was the mostmon reason a gatecrasher had a reawakening afterall. With his n decided upon, Milo now had to set it into motion. Aftering up with the idea he decided he would just request a meeting with Jorge and tell him up front, it was better to be blunt about this sort of thing, and by confessing to Jorge, his role as a guildmaster would most likely allow him to know how to keep it quiet without the media finding out. Afterall, Jorge said that they would give him any support he needed. Milo requested a meeting with Jorge when he woke up and Jorge told him toe up to his office whenever he was ready. Milo took the elevator to the top floor and entered the office before taking a seat. "What''d you need Milo?" Jorge asked after Milo took a seat across from him. The request seemed urgent, so Jorge was a bit worried about what the issue was, he had heard about the Fellowship members losing their abilities and was worried Milo was affected by it as well. "There''s something that happened to me when I was fighting the Fellowship," Milo said. He then went into a made up, but believable story about how during the fight he felt his Magic Power explode and he found he could use more than just Ice. This was themon thing people felt during reawakening, Jorge was shocked hearing this, because the Fellowship wiped all the surveince from that day, no one could confirm this other than seeing Milo use more than one element, this also could exin why Milo was able to defeat so many members of the Fellowship on his own. "I just went through a lot and I don''t want to be hounded by reporters about this, especially since I lost my cousin in the attack," Milo continued. Jorge nodded in understanding, it made sense. Who in their right mind would want to be stered all over the news after losing a close family member in that way? Jorge told Milo that he would handle it with the Academy and let them know what was going on, he also said he''d let Mikael know, as he had connections inside the association that could update his ability information without it leaking to the media. "If I may ask, how many elements can you control," Jorge asked. "All of them," Milo said, causing Jorge''s jaw to drop. He thought Milo was kidding at first, but the look in Milo''s eyes showed that he was telling the truth. "Can you show me?" Jorge asked in excitement, he already thought Milo was extremely talented with just the Ice ability but if he truly could wield all 6 elements then he would be unimaginably powerful. Milo wanted to test his abilities in the simtion anyways so he agreed and he and Jorge made their way down to the simtion room. While on the way, Milo had the tutorial for the ability ying on the way, he didn''t want to look like an idiot when trying to use the ability so he wanted to know the basic ways to use the ability before entering the simtion with the gatecrasher known as the Reaper. When they arrived at the floor with the Virtual Reality Stations, they entered the first room and both logged in, Milo and Jorge both appeared in the same lobby and Jorge stood back to allow Milo to show off his reawakened power. Milo did what the system tutorial said and activated the Disaster ability, he first tried to form ice spears like he had done previously, it worked without any issue. He then tried to make a small fireball in his hand, it took a bit of concentration since it was his first time trying, but it was sessful. The next element he tried was earth, then water, then air. He ended the demonstration by firing off a lightning bolt, baptizing a training dummy with electricity. Seeing that Milo wasn''t kidding about using all the elements, Jorge was shaking from witnessing the event. Milo was already someone who greatly interested Jorge and now he had gained an unbelievable power by reawakening. He reassured Milo that he would handle everything before returning to his office, still shaking from the experience in the simtion. Once he had left, Milo practiced more and more, eventually attempting tobine elements, like the system said was possible, the Ice ability he had previously was already proof that it was possible but now he could use all the other elements as well. There were some limitations to this, at most Milo found that he couldbine 3 elements if they weren''t opposing attributes. For example if he tried to create ming ice spears it wouldn''t work. His tests allowed him to learn that he could create blizzards bybining Frost, Wind and Water. He could make a thunderstorm with Lightning, Wind, and Water. The one that was the hardest tobine elements with was Fire, he could only find ways tobine one other element with the Fire attribute, but they were overall more destructive than others, such as forming small volcanoes bybining it with the Earth element, or tornados of fire whenbining it with wind. Overall the ability was extremely versatile and with enough creativity would be unbelievably strong. The level of concentration it took tobine the elements took a lot out of Milo, but maybe by increasing his intelligence stat this could change. Milo went into a low ranked gate simtion to try out all the system changes that he had gotten over the week. The first thing he attempted was to use Beast Lord ability, just like it said, Milo could read the thoughts of the beasts that he encountered, because of this, he was able to tell where the beasts were targeting on his body and also what type of attack they nned to use. He chose a low ranked gate so the beasts he was facing were of the low tier. Because of this, he chose to try the Predator''s Eyes ability next. He activated the ability and his eyes glowed yellow, his pupils slitted like the eyes of a snake. Once he did so, he could see the vital areas of the beast like usual. He lowered its health and once it was close to dying, the beast''s entire body lit up red symbolizing that it was on the verge of death. Seeing this, it would allow Milo to raise the level of Alucard even faster, as he could weaken it and allow his tame to finish the beast off and gain the experience, a purposeful kill steal if you will. He then tried to use the stun effect, he tested it a few times and after 2 failed attempts, he locked eyes with a third beast and it shrunk back and a system screen appeared informing Milo that the beast had been sessfully stunned. It didn''t work as often as Milo hoped but it would be useful nheless. Knowing the system, the chance to stun would most likely go up as the ability''s level increased as well. Overall, all the upgrades to his system made Milo a much more formidable force than before. He was pleased with the results as he zapped another beast with lightning from the Disaster ability. Being able to control all elements gave him a ton of versatility and he wouldn''t be stuck if the beasts he fought were resistant to a certain element as he could just swap which elements he used depending on what he encountered. Not only this, but the upgrades that happened with his other abilities were very useful as well. Once he found a recovery ability and a better tanking ability, it was safe to say that he would be a one man strike force. Milo continued to test the new abilities for the rest of that day, he found he could nowbo Disaster with Ghoul''s Bane in more ways, previously he could only freeze it into a massive de, but now he could electrify or light the whip on fire. He could also do the same when in sword mode. Overall he''d have to experiment more to find every possible thing that was possible, with enough creativity there would be close to an endless amount of possibilities. Eventually he had grown tired and decided to retire to his room for the day. When he returned he fed Alucard and climbed into bed. Alucard had grown a significant amount while he was unconscious. He had also grown to level 9 during the fight with the Fellowship which meant he was only one level away from unlocking a new skill. The snake had grown even smarter while staying with his team members, his vernacr was growing and he seemed to show more emotion as well. Overall his baby snake was growing up. Miloid down in the bed of his dorm and fell into a deep sleep, exhausted mentally from trying his new powers all day. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 129 127 - Returning To The Academy Thest few days leading up to returning to school life went smoothly. No new news hade out about where the Fellowship disappeared to, but their activity seemed to have slowed down since failing to destroy the Big Apple. Milo continued to stay at the Incubus Guild as he had nowhere else to go. With Corinna''s death and his old apartment building being destroyed the only thing still tying him to the city was Krista. Milo upgraded his Reinforce ability as well, it became simr to Ken''s ability, allowing him to reinforce to a more extreme degree depending on how much damage he received while the ability was active. Milo had also received his cut of the loot from closing the gates in Antic City, in total he had received 12 rare ranked cores, 5 unique ranked cores and 1 heroic ranked core from the Cerberus boss. Overall it was a major haul and he debated what he should use the cores for since his Magic Power stat had taken a major leap. He had continued his practice with the new changes to the system, using both the training rooms of the guild and the simtion to test his limits. Following the information provided by Zenox, Milo knew he had to improve and training was the easiest way to do this. Through his practice he had improved at spreading his focus to control multiple elements at once and also using all the elements more effectively. Through his experimentation, he divided the elements into 3 categories; damage, utility and defense. In the damage category, Milo found that Lightning and Fire worked best at dealing damage, all 6 elements could do damage, but Fire and Lightning offered the most destructive power. For the defense category, he ced Frost, Water and Earth due to their ability to block attacks and control areas the best. Finally for the utility category, it left the Air element, this was because it seemed to work best at enabling Milo, by controlling air currents, he could speed up his melee attack speed, change the direction of Ghoul''s Bane in whip mode, and he had even improved his control over Destruction enough that he could fly a short distance while controlling the movement of the air around him, while still wielding one other element. Mikael had contacted Milo as well, asking him about how he was doing since the attack. Mikael cared deeply for Milo, enough so that he chose him to be his apprentice in swordy. Hearing about what Milo was put through caused him to worry deeply for the student he chose. He feared that the attack may cause Milo to be unsure of his decision to pursue the life of a Gatecrasher which would be a shame considering his talent, but Milo was still dead set on the path he was paving for himself, even more so after fighting the Fellowship. Mikael had also received the news from Jorge about Milo''s apparent reawakening, he told Milo that he had handled the matter of his reawakening within the association, so he shouldn''t have to deal with any media appearances. Milo was grateful for Mikael''s help, he had helped him a ton thus far, dating all the way back to the first day ofbat ss the previous school year. Milo had just finished packing his things when Krista knocked on his door. He had lost everything but what he was wearing in the Fellowship attack, but his team at the guild hade together to help him, Krista, and her mother all get the essentials that were destroyed including a new wardrobe. They had even put together money to buy Alucard enough food and treats tost Milo for months. The night previous they had thrown a going away party for Milo. Due to him only being an intern, they would be recing Milo after he went back to school, but they were thankful for all the things he had done to help elevate the team to another level. Harvey had even broken into tears over Milo leaving, contrasting his brutish personality. Milo felt sad to leave the team behind, but he would be forever thankful for their help in improving himself as a person and Gatecrasher. Corinna''s funeral had also urred, it was a small ceremony and not many people came, as Milo was the only family she had left. She was buried at small memorial to remember those that were lost the day of the attack. Milo struggled to keep it together throughout the ceremony, breaking down a few times. But it felt good to finally put Corinna to rest, he knew life wouldn''t be the same without her, but if he didn''t move on and live his life, he knew she''d give him an earful in the after life. This was the day before Milo and Krista were to leave for the Academy. Milo and Krista were teleporting through the association to the Acropolis where the campus was located rather than taking a train this time, as public transportation was still in disarray from the attacks. They took a taxi to the GAA branch and were escorted to the teleporter that would take them to the artificial ind. ording to reports, the Acropolis had upped its security in response to the Fellowship attack on New York. They were worried that the Fellowship may attack the GAA headquarters, when stepping through it was strange to see the level of security that the Association had put in ce. It felt different from their first year at the academy when things were morex, and almost seemed more like a military base. This wouldn''t be the only change that they''d encounter. When they arrived at the campus, a security checkpoint was at the front entrance. After getting through it, they went through a simr process to when they first enrolled. Milo was exempted from the Ability Evaluation as he was already in the X rated ss, but Krista would have to retake it to see if she had improved any over the summer. After splitting up there, Milo sent a message to his friends to see if any of them had arrived yet. Ana hade a day early, one of the perks of being a sibling of a guild master. Maria was included in this group too as her family had a lot of prestige tied to their name. Chris and Mark were waiting for their evaluation like Krista, and Zach had already unpacked and was up in his room. Milo thought about what he should do, and decided that he should get unpacked before anything. Along with this, Alucard was speaking to him from inside the Beast Vessel ring asking to be let out so he could stretch his wings. For this reason, Milo headed up to the dorms. Unlike the previous year, Milo was given a luxury dorm. This was one of the perks of being X rated in his second year. He had no roommates and instead got a room to himself. It was located on the top floor of the dorm building. So Milo pressed the top floor on the elevator and in no time he was at the correct floor. He made his way to the room that he was designated and scanned his holo to enter the room. The dorm was much more spacious than the previous year. Bigger bed, bigger dresser, bigger bathroom. Overall, everything about the room seemed more like an apartment, it even had a small kitchen that Milo could use. Unlike his old apartment though everything had the newest technology implemented. Milo set his luggage down on the bed and released Alucard from the pocket dimension in the ring. Once he was free, he immediately spread his wings and stretched himself all the way out. Alucard was now close to three feet long, almost double the length he was when he hatched and his wing span had grown with him. It was strange for Milo to think that under a month ago he was just a baby. After stretching himself out he flew around the room eventually settling on a chair that was in the corner of the room. Miloughed at the little quirk of finding his perfect spot before he began to unpack. Eventually he had his toiletries out and went to put them in the bathroom. Looking in a mirror for the first time in a while Milo realized that he desperately needed a haircut, since heading home for the summer he was too busy to get one causing his hair to be way too long. He took note of this before continuing about putting things away. After everything had been put away, Milo checked his phone and saw that everyone had finished what they were doing. Chris and Mark wanted to meet up with Milo, as they had seen Krista and she told them they were in for quite the surprise when they saw him. He told them his room number and after waiting for a few minutes he heard a knock at the door. When he opened it, he could see Chris looking at him with a shit-eating grin on his face. He held up his wrist to show that he too had finally made it into the X rated ss. Milo weed the two of them into his room. He learned from them that Chris, Mark and Ana had all reached the X rated ss. This caused Milo to wonder how many other students had advanced as in their first year, there were only 19 students including himself. Krista had pushed into the A rated ss, as her training of reading customer''s minds while doing her part time job seemed to have made her improve. After talking about their rank, Milo''s old roommates noticed the coiled up snake in the corner of the room. Alucard was currently fast asleep, as apparently it was difficult to sleepfortably in the Beast Vessel Ring. Milo was surprised he hadn''t woken up with how loud Chris was when talking. Seeing the beast his two friends went wide eyed in surprise. They hadn''t expected Milo toe back with a tamed beast. It was already rare enough to find a beast egg, but to tame one without a tamer ability(ording to their knowledge) was even rarer. Milo exined that he won the egg in a game at the Underground. The two of them had no idea what that was so Milo exined that it was a sort of underground market for gatecrashers. Hearing this the two of them realized that Milo had a lot of stories to tell. "You must have a lot of stories from this summer," Chris said with a sly smile, "well while you were busy, so was I and I think I''ll finally be able to wipe the floor with you in a spar." He formed a small fireball in his hand, it was glowing a pale blue as if to show that he had improved, as previously Chris''s mes were orange in color and weren''t as hot. Milo grinned back, activated the Disaster ability to create a small arc of electricity between his finger tips, causing Mark and Chris''s eyes to widen. "I doubt that," he said. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 130 128 - More Changes "I''m not seeing things am I?" Chris said, shocked from seeing Milo control electricity. "Nope, you knew I had stories from this summer, this is one of them, and it isn''t a good story." As Milo finished this sentence he trailed off and a lot of pain could be seen in his eyes. Chris and Mark knew that New York had been attacked, but Milo, Krista and Ana hadn''t informed them of how bad things had really turned out. Milo did so out of wanting to forget what had happened, while Krista and Ana just weren''t as close to the two boys as Milo was. Milo took a seat as he retold the story of the attack for the umpteenth time. He had grown more numb to the feelings tied to what went down by this point. One would only see how much pain he was in when telling the story if they were able to read his mind. Chris felt bad for being so brazen with Milo after hearing what he went through. Mark knew exactly how Milo felt, as he too had been a victim of the Fellowship. As Milo told the two of them about the reawakening that urred from it, and about his fight with the cardinal, they were able to see just how evil the Fellowship were. Hearing Milo recount the sights he saw of people being killed at the Fellowship''s hands, they knew that if they were in Milo''s shoes that they wouldn''t have been able to stomach it like he had. The thing that drove Milo to fight on his own at that point, stemmed solely from his desire to keep his loved ones safe. "Once we''re outta here, we''ll definitely put a stop to them," Chris said in an attempt to cheer Milo up. Mark nodded in agreement to the statement. Like Milo, Mark also wanted to get revenge on the Fellowship. Seeing the determination from his friend''s allowed Milo to rx a bit more. They truly cared for Milo and his mentality after going through something like this. The two of them were definitely candidates for what Zenox had said about gathering allies. Mark would also be likely to help solely for getting revenge for his family. Before asking them for their cooperation though, he wanted to get through school first. Living his life would be a priority before delving into some mission to save the world, he still wasn''t strong enough. After telling them more stories, particrly about what life closing gates was like, it was gettingte. Milo still hadn''t heard from Zach or any of his other friends, so he assumed everything would be going smoothly. His friends left soon after as they hadn''t unpacked yet, and it was also gettingte. The next day, Milo would be seeing just how many people were joining him in the X ranked ss. They would be future teammates as well as opponents based off of how the X rated ss rankings worked. Not only this but he would also get to finally see Zach and Maria for the first time in ages. Waking up the next morning, Milo made his way to the weapons hall and when he entered, Mikael was practicing the swordsmanship he had been teaching to Milo. Milo stood there watching his teacher strike and sh as if it were a dance. He was in a trance seeing the masterfullypleted moves. Eventually Mikael noticed he had a visitor and stopped his practice. Milo walked up to his teacher. ? "It is good to see you again Milo, I look forward to seeing how far your training hase," Mikael said. Mikael didn''t daddle any longer and asked him to show him some sword techniques. Milo did as he was told, showing some of the fluid like motions, seeing this Mikael frowned a bit, causing Milo to stop when he noticed. "Am I doing something wrong?" he asked his teacher. "No, however I feel you are trying too hard to emte my own style," Mikael responded, "you should think of the sword as an extension of yourself, by trying to emte me, you are taking away from your own strength, by not infusing your own self into your sword. It is more like you are trying to put me into your sword if that makes any sense. I am grateful you see me so highly, but I want you not to be shackled by the limits of my swordsmanship, and instead prosper by developing your own style." Hearing this, Milo thought on it for a bit, this made sense, he and Mikael had different builds, Milo was also significantly younger and with the system he would eventually be stronger. By using Mikael''s style and only Mikael''s style of swordsmanship, he was using a style of swordsmanship that may not suit himself. After this realization was seen in Milo''s eyes, Mikael smiled, with Milo''s growth rate, it wouldn''t be long until Milo came up with a solution to the problem that was shown to him. After his training, Milo returned to his room and showered before getting ready for ss. He got everything he might need, but decided to let Alucard stay in the room rather than bring him to ss. Alucard still hadn''t met Waki and Milo wanted the two to meet outside of ss before bringing him to ss. By promising that Alucard could watch TV while he was gone, he convinced the snake to stay behind in the dorm. Milo headed down to his homeroom ss after getting a quick breakfast to see his friends had already begun to chat. Chris, Mark, Zach, Maria and Ana were all sat down chatting about their summer. It was strange seeing Chris, Mark and Ana in his normal sses but it was a weed change. Milo made his way over to the group and took a seat among them. When he sat down, Maria was telling them a story from her summer internship, apparently she was stuck in an office position for a guild located in London. A rift opened around the guild headquarters while their strike forces were out closing gates. Because of that she was forced to protect the other staff members who worked in the office by fighting the beasts that appeared, until backup arrived. Hearing about Maria''s experience that summer made him feel bad as she definitely was someone who wanted to close gates and gain experience like Milo. After telling her story, Maria turned to Milo and asked how his summer internship went. When he told the story of his summer, she puffed her cheeks in jealousy, it was obvious that she wanted the same experience Milo had. Hearing about how he was put on a strike squad off the bat and was even given a leadership role in the squad was a crazy thought. He was a student just like them and he had already been set as a strike squad leader. It wouldn''te as a surprise to them if he started his own guild once he graduated. After chatting some more, Milo noticed Waki was nowhere in sight, he asked Zach and apparently like Alucard he was back at the dorms. ording to Zach he was being a bit more rowdy recently as he had gotten older, and he didn''t want his beast to give their homeroom teacher a poor first impression. Milo told Zach that after sses he had someone for him to meet, but wouldn''t tell him who, which caused a puzzled look from Zach. Chris and Mark both knew what he was talking about but decided not to spoil the surprise. Soon their homeroom teacher arrived and seeing who it was caused a bit of shock among the group. Their homeroom teacher was none other than the headmaster of the Awakened Academy and a close friend of the GAA president. Sheldon O''Neal or as he told them to call him, Mr. O''Neal started the ss by weing the new X ranked students. At the end of thest school year, there were 19 students in the X rated ss. Now 28 students were present, meaning 9 new students had tested into the X rated ss at the ability evaluations for their second year. He started by introducing the ss ranking system, each of the X ranked students were ranked ording to their scores on their final exams at the end of the previous school year. The new student''s names were added to the bottom of the list. Seeing his name at the first ranked position reminded Milo that many people would try topete with him for the top spot. Mr. O''Neal was going over how to rise in the rankings and had just finished exining that a spot could be imed by defeating the person who they challenged for their rank, when a student who Milo didn''t recognize raised his hand. Mr. O''Neal stopped and called on the student, allowing him to speak. The student was one of the newly X rated students that had gotten in through the ability evaluation on the previous day, and was ranked at number 24. "How soon can we challenge those who are ranked above us?" The student asked. Mr. O''Neal smirked as he knew why the student was asking. The student thought he could contend with the previously ranked X rated students. "You can challenge someone now if you truly wanted to," Mr. O''Neal said to the student. Mr. O''Neal knew that the only way for the new students to know their ce in the ss was to see first hand howcking they were whenpared to the students who hadn''t needed to retest to get into the ss. The student then smirked arrogantly, "then I challenge the number one ranked student," he said. There was silence from the ss, everyone who knew who Milo was all turned to look at him. Milo originally didn''t want to fight anyone on day one, but at the same time, by being the first ranked student he would have to deal with a lot of challenges throughout the school year. By being challenged today, he could make a statement. A statement that said, "go ahead and challenge me, but I won''t lose." Thinking this way, Milo stood and looked at the student who had challenged him, "I ept." Chapter 131 129 - The First Challenger Milo''s friends aside from Maria knew about Milo''s reawakening. Chris and Mark were witnesses to it and Ana had overheard it from her brother. Hearing the student challenge Milo, the three of them knew the thrashing that was toe. "Oh boy," Chris said, "this kid is in for it." "Anyone else excited to see Milo throttle this kid with his new powers?" Mark said. Hearing Mark say this, Maria was confused for two reasons. First, Mark was usually a calm and collected person who didn''t care much for fights unless they were necessary, and second the mention of "new powers." Maria asked Mark what he meant, and the group exined what happened to Milo during the attack on New York. Milo was too busy with Mr. O''Neal listening to his exnation on what would happen during the challenge to hear them talking. They exined everything just like Milo told them, from the start of the ambush on the camp, to Corinna dying, all the way up to his fight with all the Fellowship members. They then went on to exin how he had supposedly reawakened during the fight with the cardinal. Hearing this news made Maria nce at Milo, he was too busy listening to Mr. O''Neal to notice, but it was a look of worry. Maria was worried about Milo, why hadn''t he told her about Corinna or anything that happened to him during the attack? She thought the two of them were closer, based on the date they went on at the end of the previous year, but Milo must not have thought that way, or at least he was too caught up in everything to worry about telling her. Mr. O''Neal was finishing his exnation and the rest of the ss got up to go to where the challenge would be carried out, when doing so, Milo noticed Maria looking at him. He gave a gentle smile causing her heart to settle a bit, but she was still worried about what was going through his head. Soon the entire ss was moving towards the arena. ording to Mr. O''Neal, all the challenges would take ce here. It was made forbat and also would allow them to all watch the challenge from the seats surrounding the battlefield. The challenges for one''s ranking would consist of one on onebat, students were allowed to use all abilities or equipment they had at their disposal. It was exactly like the final exam Milo had to take at the end of his first year at the academy. Milo and the student who challenged him were in the arena set to start. Mr. O''Neal and the rest of the X rated ss were in the stands waiting for the fight to start, while two academy employees were set to referee the match. Mr. O''Neal signaled the start, and the student who was Milo''s opponent began his offensive immediately. The student had an ability that allowed him to throw out strange balls of energy. There were different types as well, three to be exact. One would hit the target like any other projectile, the second was able to burst into smaller projectiles almost like a grapeshot, and thest would trigger a small explosion. The student also carried a sword on him, as well as was wearing a full set of equipment. He was most likely from a rich family but his ability wasn''t raised high enough to be ced in the X ranked ss his first year. The student threw out a ball of energy that rushed towards Milo. Milo chose to defend it using the ice attribute since it was the one he was mostfortable with. He threw up a wall of ice, and the orb mmed into it creating a small dent. The student threw out two more orbs after the first and they too collided with the wall Milo made. Seeing this, the student chose to try and different approach and threw out an explosive orb and followed behind it. When it collided with the wall it exploded, shattering the wall and the student who was following behind the orb swung his sword towards Milo once he had reduced the distance between them. Milo chose to just bring Ghoul''s Bane with him, he didn''t think that he would need to use the rest of his equipment, and for the most part it was still in tatters from the attack in New York. He''d have to visit Avery sometime to get it repaired. When the student moved in close, he made a vertical sh with his sword. Milo easily blocked the onught of sword attacks and after exchanging blows for a short time he created some distance, throwing another wall up in the way of the student to stop his advance. "Quit being a coward ande at me!" the student shouted in frustration. Up until this point Milo chose only to defend, he didn''t want to attack andpletely ruin the student''s pride. The student then shouted something that caused Milo to change his mind. "You must not be attacking cause you''re too weak, all you can do is defend, you coward." Hearing the student say this, Milo felt that maybe he should show off a bit of his power. He wasn''t weak, he had heard that his entire life and now that he wasn''t, he felt that he should make it known. Along with this if he didn''t, the other new X ranked students might get too overconfident and send him an endless number of challenges which would be quite the hassle. The student was going to say more, but he suddenly felt an immense amount of pressureing from Milo. Milo had activated the Disaster ability, and the student could feel a sense of dread as the Magic Power given off by Milo hit him in waves. Milo chose to try something he hadn''t done yet. He knew he couldn''tbine all the elements into one, but if he tried to use all 6 in their own separate forms maybe he''d be sessful. Chunks of ice and rock began to orbit around Milo. Following the ice and rock, lightning and fire began to course around Milo as well, finally water was added as a hard wind gusted around him. Milo was sessfully using all 6 elements simultaneously but it was putting an extreme strain on his concentration. Milo threw his arms forward and the student he was challenged by was subjected to a barrage of all 6 elements. Watching from the stands, the other X rated students had the same thought of the challenger at the beginning of the match, "why wasn''t Milo attacking?" All of the returning X ranked students knew of Milo''s strength so why didn''t he just end it right away? Then Milo began to let out an immense Magic Power. Even the headmaster''s eyes widened in shock from feeling the waves of Magic Power Milo was giving off. Then he gathered all 6 elements around him and the jaws of the other students dropped. Ice was all he could control previously and now he had summoned all 5 other elements, no other awakened in existence could do this that they knew of. Milo''s friends were also bbergasted that Milo was using all 6 elemental attributes, he had only shown Chris and Mark that he had gained control of the lightning attribute. Maria in particr was shaking from seeing the immense power that Milo had at his fingertips. She had seen a simr power one other time before, when watching her brother in action. For reference, her brother was an X ranked gatecrasher in one of the big 4. He was an extremely powerful person, and while she didn''t have the best rtionship with her brother or the rest of her family for that matter, she acknowledged his strength. Milo was giving off a simr level of Magic Power to him during the fight. The student wasn''t able to avoid the elemental punishment as he was burned, shed, electrocuted and smashed by the attack. The student was down for the count from one attack and Milo himself was left standing, he staggered a bit from letting loose, but it wasn''t enough to knock him over. He felt more tired than he was expecting as using all 6 attributes at once had taken a lot out of him. He stood there huffing for air as the studentid unconscious opposite him. The referees, Mr. O''Neal, and the other students were shocked into silence from the attack. The referees finally shook off their shock and checked the students status, he was sent to the infirmary and they then announced Milo as the winner. The fight hadsted a total of 60 seconds, that was all it took for the student to be incapacitated, even though Milo chose to only used defense at the start. Had he attacked from the start, the fight may have ended in just one second After Milo showed off the power he had gained, the rest of the students who were considering challenging him immediately changed their minds. Milo had essentially secured the number one spot, at least when considering challengers as Mr. O''Neal would soon exin the other ways to increase their rank. After the challenge wasplete, the students all returned to their ss to continue their lesson. No other challenges were issued as Milo had essentially shown the new students that they shouldn''t let being put in the X rated ss get to their head. Mr. O''Neal began by saying that the Academy had chosen to change a bit of the curriculum to better prepare students to be able to fight not only against beasts, but against the Fellowship as well. The recent attack on New York caused the GAA, as well as the board in charge of deciding how the Academy was run, to decide that they needed to help students to be better prepared for dangerous situations. For this reason, they added an option for second year students to get more experience fighting beasts. This would be in the form of weekly in-field experiences. Unlike the previous year where students had one opportunity to enter dimensional doors, they would be allowed to go every week to test their skills against the beasts. This would allow students to grow at a much faster rate. Hearing this, Milo knew who his group would be, the others also turned to him as if knowing exactly what he was thinking. With his experience from the summer under his belt, Milo would help his friends be the most efficient gatecrashers in the Academy. Chapter 132 130 - New Techniques After learning about the changes to in-field experiences for this year, Milo had already begun writing up a training regimen for his friends. It was very simr to the training regimen he had during his internship, involving a lot of simted gate training, he chose to include some weight training in as well, mainly for Zach, as he could use some bulking up, but also because it would allow them to be more physically fit which would help them even more in the gates they''d be closing. After ss had ended, Milo and his friends had a sort of strategy meeting for lunch. Milo led the charge as he was a member of a strike squad for the entire summer, which gave him the most experience when it came to gatecrashing. During the meeting, Milo had drawn up formations, assigned roles, he even told them his ideas for training to better prepare them. All of the members that he had chosen had already experienced either gates orbat with beasts aside from Ana, but with her brother being a guild master, he was sure she had already used a simtion to practice. For their formation, Milo had both Ana and Mark as tanks, as their abilities allowed them to dramatically increase their durability. Mark by changing the substance he was made of, and Ana by hardening her bones and turning them into armor like her brother. Milo chose to do a simr role to what he had done previously, abined ranged and melee dealer, Chris would also do this as he couldunch fireballs at beasts from range and also was pretty good at closebat as well. Maria and Zach would be close range dealers, Zach because when partnered with Waki he could use his weapon to a good level while his tame supported him, and Maria because her choice to use two short swords while using her lightning to enhance her speed would make her more powerful up close than at range. This was her own advice to Milo as she could see the gears turning in his mind when the in-field experiences were first announced. The rest of the team thought Milo''s formation was perfect as it took advantage of all of their strong suits. The only thing they were missing was a healer but there were a few in the X rated ss that Milo thought he could try proposing the idea to. His friends also looked over his training regimen for them, while it would certainly be tiring, until they were actually sent out to gates it would allow them to learn how to be most efficient when closing the gates and also train them to be as prepared as possible. ording to Mr. O''Neal''s information he had given, the highest gates they''d be sent to were D rank, they wanted to send students to gates that wouldn''t be ranked higher than they could handle. Because of this, the rmended squad size was smaller than what was needed for the gates he was closing as an intern. For D ranked gates, the association rmended at least 6 members. Currently they had 6 but were missing a crucial piece, being a healer. Like he told his friends, Milo had some ideas for who could be their healer, now he just had to convince them to join the team. After lunch, Milo had a few more sses, including practical training which was hisst of the day. During practical training, Milo was the center of attention for the ss. After seeing the Disaster ability, the other students were all trying to get Milo to join a team with them for the in-field experiences. Milo politely declined them all as he had already decided on who he wanted for his team. He felt that putting together 6 super strong abilities wasn''t the best way to close gates, but gathering a team of people who were of a simr mindset was best. This was the driving factor for why he wanted a team made up of his friends, plus they''d already have some chemistry and knew how each other thought and behaved. During the training, he kept track of the students who had healing abilities. The most notable one was a student named Courtney. Her ability would be an extremely useful one, even if it was a simple one. The main reason for this, came from the idea that students who had simple abilities that weremon in lower ranked sses required an extremely high test score in other areas in order to be ced in the X ranked ss, meaning that she had to have tested highly in other areas. Her ability was Healing Aura, it was one of the mostmon wide area healing abilities and allowed the user to heal people that were within a certain radius of them when the ability was activated. Milo approached her, she had long hair the color of cotton candy and bright blue eyes. She had a very girly appearance and when she opened her mouth, it fit her appearance like a glove. "Hiii Milo, what''d you need?" she asked with a smile. When he first approached her, Courtney wasn''t really practicing and was instead looking in a handheld mirror and touching up her makeup. Like Chris, Mark and Ana, Courtney had tested into the X ranked ss this year, and his performance in the challenge had left an impression on her. Milo asked her if she had a team yet for the in-field experience, and when she said no, he asked if she wanted to join him and his group. She agreed as quickly as Milo had asked her, causing Milo to be flustered a bit, but he was d that they now had their healer. He told her he''d set up a meeting for the team and let her know when they''d be meeting and went to continue his practice of using other elements he wasn''t versed in yet. Courtney then went over to another student and began talking to him, it was the student Milo had beaten in the challenge. "Sorry I can''t be on your team anymore, I joined a different one," she said to the student before she pranced off back to where she was "practicing." Chris was practicing with the fire ability, shooting targets with streams of me, Milo noticed that his mes had returned to their usual orange color which made Milo wonder what the blue me he produced the day before was all about. Milo approached him and asked what the difference was and Chris exined it as him condensing his Magic Power fueling the me into one small point, rather than spreading it out. Milo thought that the exnation made enough sense. "It took me half the summer to get it to work, so don''t feel too discouraged if you can''t get it to work today," Chris said. Milo then tried it for himself, he began to produce a me from his hand. The me he produced was orange, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate, soon the color of the me began to change, going from orange, to yellow, to blue until it eventually turned white. Chris could feel the immense heating from the me Milo now held in his hand, rather than flickering like a campfire, it looked like a blowtorch one might see in a machine shop. "I forgot that I can''t treat you like a normal person," Chris said feeling a bit defeated from how fast Milo figured it out. Milo looked at Chris feeling puzzled about hisment, but then turned his attention to the white me shooting from his palm. Milo began to wonder if he could do something simr with the other elements by condensing the magic power as much as he could. Chris also exined that by condensing the me the power behind the small fireball in his hand would also be higher. He showed this by forming a normal fireball and throwing it at a dummy, a small explosion urred when the fireball made contact and the dummy was now charred ck. He did the same thing, this time with a condensed me, the explosion from the condensed me was much more violent and caused part of the dummy to be destroyed. Milo nodded in understanding before throwing the white hot me at a dummy of his own. The explosion that urred was even bigger than Chris''s blue fireball, and the dummy waspletely vaporized from the attack. Milo then went off on his own, receiving looks of surprise from the other students. The only thing on his mind was still whether or not he could condense the other elements like Chris had shown him with his fire. Milo started by going through each element one by one, he started by using air, forming a small tornado in his hand. It began to shrink in size, spinning faster and faster as he focused his magic power to a smaller point. When he couldn''t make it spin any faster he threw it at a dummy causing the dummy to burst apart. Milo tested it with the other elements, while it didn''t change their appearance much it definitely increased attack power. Thest element he tested was the earth element, this one had a more visible change, like the fire element. As he condensed it down, the rock ball he had pulled out of the ground began to condense itself down, until it became smaller and smoothed out, no longer having the rough appearance it originally did. The ball itself had a metal sheen to it after he condensed it as much as he could, and once he let go of the ball, it fell to the ground and caused cracks in the concrete. By condensing the earth enough, it had be extremely dense, dense enough to damage the floor they were practicing on when it fell. Overall, using Chris''s advice, Milo could do even more using the Disaster ability now. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 133 131 - The Beast Tamer Zach and Milo met up outside the dorms and made their way up to Milo''s room. When they were outside, Milo could hear the sound of the TV from outside the door. He had left it on for Alucard who only agreed to stay in the room if Milo allowed him to watch TV. When he opened the door, Zach was visibly confused as to why the TV was ying, and when the door was opened, he wasn''t sure what to expect. When the two entered, Milo set his bag down and Zach took in the view of the room. On the bed, he could see a coiled up snake, the snake was staring intently at the screen that was showing a drama of some kind. At first he thought it was a normal snake and thought that maybe Milo had brought a pet to school with him. That was until the snake suddenly moved and blood red feathers could be seen sprouting from the snake''s back. When he noticed this physical trait of the snake he turned to Milo with wide eyes. "I''d like for you to meet Alucard, my tamed beast," Milo said aloud. Seeing that he had visitors, Alucard turned to see his master and someone who appeared to be a friend of his. He stretched his wings, before flying over to Milo''s side to see who he had brought with him. The person seemed to be in shock for a second before the two began to speak some more. "Where''d you get another egg?" Zach asked Milo. He knew Milo was on a strike squad, but eggs were extremely rare, and no person had ever been recorded to have found two eggs since the dimensional doors had opened. Milo exined about the Underground and his gambling he did in order to win Alucard''s egg. He was very fortunate to have had the chance to win the egg. Not only were eggs rare, but very few were of a high tier. Zach knew that people tamed beasts even without the Beast Tamer ability as well which made him oblivious to Milo''s system. "What species is he?" Zach asked. Being someone with the Beast Tamer ability, he was very knowledgeable about beasts and the variety of known species. He didn''t think that Alucard was a very high tier beast, and none of the lower tiered beasts that he knew of had an appearance quite like Alucard did. Milo told him that he was a Crimson Wing Spiny Viper, causing Zach''s jaw to drop. Hearing the name of the species, Zach had heard of them before, they were very intelligent beasts and were of the Legendary Tier. Whenpared to Waki who was a Unique ranked beast, Alucard would be iparably powerful once full grown. Along with this his species had many powerful abilities that could weaken a target. Zach got close and began to inspect Alucard, looking at his wings, his eyes, his tail. He was going over everything about Alucard, Zach was truly fascinated by beasts and it was easily seen by how he looked over Alucard. "Has he made any progress towards his progression?" Zach asked? Milo had a curious look on his face, "Progression? What''s that?" Milo asked. Zach exined it as a way for beasts to increase their tier. The more Magic Power they umted, they would go through an evolution of sorts. It was a phenomenon only seen in tamed beasts that allowed them to increase theirbat power. When they increased their tier, there was also a chance that the beast could evolve and develop new skills and such as well. Milo had never heard of this before, but hearing the exnation he checked with the system to see if it had any hints. Navi''s voice could then be heard exining that by allowing Alucard to absorb essence cores, it would allow him to increase his magic power stat and at certain checkpoints, like with when Milo revealed new system skills, it would allow Alucard to progress in tier. Zach then went on to exin that because of how expensive essence cores were he had gotten Waki a few but not enough to progress. Milo then remembered he had some from the Antic City trip during the summer, maybe he could help both Waki and Alucard make some progress towards evolving. Zach then asked Milo if he wanted to see Waki, it had been a whole summer since Milo had seen Zach''s tamed beast, and Milo wanted to see just how much the Thunder Hawk had grown. Milo was part of the reason that Zach had tamed Waki, as he was the one who originally discovered the egg in the gate they had closed as part of their in-field experience during their first year at the academy. Milo agreed to seeing Waki but first showed Zach the Beast Vessel Ring he used to transport Alucard. Zach had only used a Tethering Bracelet that acted as a leash for Waki, but with a Beast Vessel ring it would allow him to go out in public without having to deal with people wanting to interact with Waki, who pulled in quite a lot of attention from people. Zach was fascinated by the ring, it was something that would be a great investment one day but first he wanted to help Waki progress to the next tier. After showing Zach Alucard and the Beast Vessel Ring, he was happy to see that Zach wasing more and more out of the shell he was in when Milo had originally met him. When the pair first met, Zach was being bullied due to his inability to use his ability without a beast egg, but ever since meeting Milo, he was bing more and more confident in himself, and was even bing more and more popr with the help of Waki, who was quite popr with the students at the school. The two of them then made their way to Zach''s room. Like Milo, Zach decided to keep Waki in his room for simr reasons as Milo. Eventually the pair made it to their destination and they could hear loud noisesing from inside Zach''s room. The two friends looked at each other with a bit of worry, Zach looked especially worried as he knew how rowdy Waki could get. When entering the room, it looked like a storm had blown through Zach''s room. There was food all over the floor, nkets and pillows from the bed were strewn about and some of Waki''s feather''s could be seen on the floor. Waki, who had heard the door opening, appeared to be trying to hide. He had his head under part of a nket but his body could still clearly be seen under where the nket ended. "Waki! I thought I told you to behave yourself while I was gone, now I have to clean up this huge mess you made," Zach said a bit dejectedly. Hearing his master say his name, Waki peeked out from under the nket. Milo activated his Beast Lord ability to read Waki''s thoughts. "I got hungry and the food bag was too hard to open," he could hear Waki thinking. Waki had grown in size by quite a bit, he now stood around 22 inches tall, the gold flecks in his feathers were now more pronounced and the yellow markings on his tail now resembled a lightning bolt. He had grown up resembling an adult hawk in size, but he still had the mentality of a child, and was still as gluttonous as ever. Milo chuckled a bit to himself before assisting Zach in picking up the mess Waki had made when trying to get to his food. Eventually the room was looking back to normal, Waki had helped as much as he could, picking up pillows and nkets and moving them up to the bed. Once they were done, Waki hopped over to Milo''s side and brushed his head against him; he still recognized Milo from the previous school year and seemed to like him the most out of all of their friends. Milo told Waki that he had someone for him to meet, Alucard was in the Beast Vessel ring witnessing everything that was going on, and could see the bird who seemed to like his master. Waki seemed confused by what Milo was saying, and tilted his head to the side wondering what Milo meant as he couldn''t see anyone or anything new for him to meet. Milo then said "release" and the Beast Vessel ring gave off a slight glow before Alucard materialized on the bed next to Waki and Milo. Waki jumped up in shock and flew over to Zach''s side, surprised by the sudden light the ring gave off. Once Alucard had finished being freed from the pocket dimension, he took in the room around him and noticed the other beast in the room. Milo could hear the confusion in the two beasts'' heads using the Beast Lord ability and introduced the two to each other, after the introduction, the two tames sat facing each other on the bed checking each other out. The two were silent for a few seconds as they observed the other''s movement. Eventually Waki was the first to move, he spread his ck and gold feathered wings, Alucard mirrored the motion, spreading his crimson wings as well. Seeing that they both had wings, Waki hopped up and down in excitement for a second before wrapping his wings around Alucard. Alucard''s eyes widened in surprise and looked at his master who wasughing hysterically, asking him for help. "Seems like they get along," Zach said smiling. Milo was stillughing from the thoughts that he could hear Waki thinking. As soon as they presented their wings to each other, with the Beast Lord ability active, he could hear Waki exim, "Brother!" Before he embraced Alucard with his wings, once Waki had done this he could hear Alucard was saying, "Master, please free me from this bird''s grip, he is too close." asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 134 132 - Training Begins Following the two beasts'' eventful first meeting, Milo took Alucard back to his room and went to bed, the next day he''d be beginning his training with his team. When waking up, he found Alucardying in a coil by his side, he was still sulking from being embarrassed by Waki''s show of affection towards his self imed brother. Milo told Alucard that Waki was a valuablerade, causing Alucard to steel his will. If it was for his master, he''d do anything to help him, even dealing with a birdbrain like Waki. The two of them each got ready in their own ways, Milo showered and got dressed, Alucard groomed his wings and ate his food. The two then made their way down to the cafeteria to get some food for Milo before their training began. After eating his breakfast, Milo made his way down to the gym where the rest of the team was waiting, even Courtney had shown up and seemed ready to start. Milo immediately broke down the workout routines he had nned for the team, after having a trainer for himself at the Incubus Guild, he had learned a bit about nning workouts tailored specifically for a person, so he had done so for each role of the team. For Ana and Mark he made a workout tailored to their cores and upper body, this was to allow them to best prepare their bodies to withstand damage as well as improve their stamina, their abilities would help a great deal but by honing their body it would in turn allow their ability to grow as well. For Maria and Chris he gave them an overall workout to improve their strength. As a dealer, the more damage they could output, the faster they could eliminate enemies. Zach and Chris were put through the ringer, being the two scrawniest in the group, they would need to bulk up the most, Zach would especially need to bulk up as his ability didn''t allow for a high damage output like Chris''s fire and instead gave him a sort of personal supporter, so improving his solo capabilities was important. Finally Courtney was told to improve her stamina, as a healer she wouldn''t really get involved withbat much so improving her ability to hang with the rest of the group and avoid stray attacks from beasts would be essential. Once they got to work, Milo got to work as well, his body was already far ahead of the other members so he did a light workout and instead thought about his conversation with Zach the day before. After the Antic City trip, he had been given some of the cores from the gates he closed and hadn''t done anything with them. Now he had a use, not only could he increase Alucard''s tier but by helping Zach to improve Waki''s tier he would be helping to improve one more possible ally in the fight against the Fellowship and during their in-field experiences. In total, he had 4 Unique rated cores and 9 Rare rated cores from the assignment, which would all be used to improve Waki and Alucard. After thinking about it some, he decided to use most of them to improve Waki, as Alucard had already proven hisbat capabilities. There was no reason at the moment to raise his own Magic Power any higher as well, as he had already proven he was the most powerful in the X rated ss. Waki hade with Zach and was trying to help his master through his grueling workout Milo had given him to do. He activated the inspect skill, it had improved a lot and had even reached level 3 from him using it repeatedly while acting as an intern. He used it on Waki and just as he was hoping it gave a status screen simr to Alucard''s. [Unique Ranked Beast(Tamed)] Name: Waki Species: Greater Thunderhawk Level: 3 [Skills] Conduction: Greater Thunderhawks can absorb and redirect electricity simr to a lightning rod Thundershock: Greater Thunderhawks are capable of shooting off electricity causing it to stun nearby enemies Charge: Greater Thunderhawks can increase the electricity in their body by charging it, allowing their body to be stronger and more agile (locked until level 10) [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [6] Agility: [7] Intelligence: [4] Stamina: [5] Constitution: [3] Magic Power: [8] [clear] Seeing his stats whenpared to Alucard''s, it made sense, being that Alucard was a higher level and tier, he should have higher stats and more skills. Most of Waki''s skills were more offensively focused as well, rather than supportive like Alucard''s and his strength and agility had a higher ratiopared to Alucard''s stats which were more focused on intelligence and agility. Overall it seemed like Waki''s species of beast was focused more on their offensive capabilities. Because of this Milo wondered just how much stronger Waki could be. Milo called Zach over in between workouts causing thetter to feel a bit of relief that he would be getting a break. Waki flew over with him as Milo told Zach about the cores he had. Zach told Milo that he should use them on Alucard, but Milo insisted that Zach should take some to use for Waki. His argument that improving Waki would help him as well as the team finally convinced Zach and Milo pulled the cores out to give to him. He gave 3 of the Unique ranked cores and 4 Rare ranked cores. He felt that Waki could use the most improvement considering he hadn''t gotten a lot ofbat experience, so he decided to give Zach most of the cores. After that the team''s workouts were done for the day and they all left the gym, Zach had the cores to allow Waki to absorb and Milo had the same to do with Alucard. Milo made his way up to the dorms and entered his room. Alucard hade with him but stayed in the Beast Vessel ring during the workouts he wanted to avoid dealing with Waki while there so he asked to stay in the ring once they arrived. Once he had settled in his room, he released Alucard from the pocket dimension and pulled out the essence cores he had left. Alucard looked at the cores with wonder, taking in all the colors flowing inside of its crystal like exterior. A system screen appeared in Milo''s vision: [Notice] Essence Cores detected: Choose an Option [Absorb Cores] [Allow Tame(Alucard) to Absorb Cores] Like Milo expected, the system gave him a shortcut when it came to allowing Alucard to absorb the cores, he selected the option to allow his beast to absorb the cores and like when he did it, the cores gave off a glow before being absorbed by Alucard''s body. He then got a screen telling him the absorption was a sess, the cores absorbed had even given Alucard a level up sending him to level 9. [Stats] [Tutorials] [Tames] [Plunder] [Tames] Name: Alucard Species: Crimson Wing Spiny Viper Level: 9 [Skills] Wings of Strife: contact with a Crimson Wing Spiny Viper''s fallen feathers causes the target to lose magic power Scale Shot: A Crimson Wing Spiny Viper is able to shoot off its spiny scales at opponents to deal damage. The spines must regrow before it can be reused. Stupefy: Crimson Wing Spiny Vipers can stun opponents who look them in the eye (locked until level 10) Vampiric Drain: Crimson Wing Spiny Vipers are able to drain the life force of the target using their fangs, adding the targets life to their own(locked until level 20) Crimson Domain: Designated Targets within the radius of the Crimson Wing Spiny Viper are slowly drained of their magic power(locked until level 30) [Stats] Free Stat Points: [0] Strength: [15] Agility: [15] Intelligence: [20] Stamina: [13] Constitution: [5] Magic Power: [23] [clear] After the level up, Milo put 2 points into strength and 1 point into stamina; this would improve Alucard''s closebat a bit. Along with this, his Magic Power had reached 23, there were no visual changes and there was no indication from the system telling him that Alucard had increased in tier. This was to be expected though. Alucard was already a Legendary tier beast it would be awhile before there was any increase in tier since he was already at such a high tier to begin with. Overall, it was a slight boost but every little improvement would add up to reach Milo''s final goal. There was a good chance that Alucard would also level up and unlock his next skill the next time they closed a gate. As the in-field experience went deeper into the year, Alucard would show extreme improvement. Milo felt he was strong enough where he was at for the time being so he would focus on raising the capabilities of his future allies for now. If he improved too much, he''d leave them behind and that was the opposite of what Zenox said he needed to do to be sessful at stopping the administrators. The first gate they''d be closing was a little under a month away and in that time, he along with his teammates would have to do their utmost to make sure they werepletely ready for it. Chapter 135 133 - Leaked The next day, Milo''s training regimen involved getting the team involved in closing a virtual gate, this way he could get a baseline to determine a strategy for when they closed a real one. Overall the team did well, Chris was being a little too aggressive and was needing help more than anyone else, but the formation Milo came up with worked very well for the abilities that the team had. After closing the gate, Milo and his friends were eating lunch when a group of first years came up and approached Milo. Milo was not expecting this, the student had heard about his reawakening and also about the New York incident. Milo wasn''t sure how this had spread but his friends appeared to be just as confused as he was. The student asked for his autograph before going back to his table. "Do any of you know what that was about?" Milo asked his friends. "No idea, but someone obviously dug into some info on you, maybe someone from the X ranked ss? Any students who were in the ssst year would know about your reawakening since you showed it off when that new student challenged you." Milo thought about it for a bit and figured that could be the only exnation. After eating his dinner, he and his friend''s made their way out of the cafeteria only to stop in shock. Cameras were shing, and reporters could be seen trying to break through a line of school security that had stopped them before they could enter the building. "There he is! There''s the student who reawakened during the New York attack!" Hearing this, the other reporters all began to fire off questions towards Milo who was wide eyed in shock. Camera shes filled his vision as the security guards continued to block the wall of reporters attempting to get to Milo for an interview. Maria, who had dealt with the press in the past, due to her family name, pulled Milo and the rest of the group out of the area and got them back to the dorms safely, avoiding the cameras as they moved. After they were safely inside the dorms, Milo said thank you to Maria before splitting off from the group to collect his thoughts, he was obviously flustered. He asked people to hide that he was reawakened so the fact that it had somehow leaked made him worry about how crazy people would act now. Milo flipped on the TV and wasn''t surprised to see his face on the local news channel. "As we said, a local student at the Awakened Academy was recently found to have reawakened thanks to an anonymous source. The student whose name is Milo Fenix is originally from New York City and is believed to have undergone reawakening during the recent attack by the Fellowship there have been sightings of the student around the Academy''s campus but no statement from him or the academy has been recorded yet. As more informationes out you can find it here¡­" After watching the short report about himself, Milo began to weigh his options about what he should do about his secret being revealed. After Milo turned off the news channel, Alucard who was sitting on the bed began to speak into Milo''s mind. "Is master famous now?" he asked. Milo chuckled a bit before responding, "I might be, although it wasn''t the n." Milo flopped onto the bed still unsure what to do. Soon he heard a knock at the door. He opened the door to see Krista who appeared to be out of breath. She immediately asked if Milo knew about what was going on. He told her all about being ambushed outside the cafeteria. Hearing about this she wondered how Milo was going to deal with this. She knew about him wanting to cover it up, but thought that maybe revealing it might be the better choice. If he truly wanted to find the Fellowship, building connections with the media could be a good way to start. Milo still wasn''t sure about Krista''s idea but it could be a good ce to start. First he would have to talk to Mikael, David or Jorge about it, being professional gatecrashers, they would know better than anyone about how rtionships with the media could be both good and bad. He''d handle that in the morning however, as all this worrying about being revealed had left him beat. When he woke up, Milo jumped into his morning routine hoping to maintain some normalcy. During his training in thebat hall, Milo talked to Mikael about his new media attention. Mikael said he should do what he felt was right, if he felt that the media would be able to help him reach his goal faster then he should use it to his advantage. Mikael said that personally he avoided the media as he was focused solely on ying the beasts he didn''t care for the exposure, he exined that his goals didn''t line up with the exposure so he avoided it but another person''s goals may be different and they should be considered when doing something like this. Milo continued to think on it while he practiced his swordy. Mikael''s words left quite the impression on Milo. It made Milo think of his goals, first and foremost was to get stronger, would getting involved with the media make him stronger? He ran through different things, although it wouldn''t directly impact his strength, through the exposure he could get contacts from higher ces, this would allow him to meet more powerful people and maybe even earn some extra credits through media appearances. His second goal was to defeat the Fellowship, with the media exposure he could do a few things with it to get closer to this goal. He could use it for information by getting contacts with the news to feed him information. The only downside would be the exposure this would also give the Fellowship, his name would be out there for the world to see, at the same time though he could get information if the Fellowship sent people after him. Overall Milo was seeing more upsides than downsides. His biggest worry was that his system could end up being exposed, but as long as he was careful he should run into no issues, and by giving into the media it would also allow him to sate their appetite for his attention which would also allow him to avoid exposing it once all the rage about him finally calmed down. It seemed like Milo had made up his mind, the media would lead to more horizons so he would give them at least one interview to test the waters, or at least to calm the attention towards him for the time being. Milo texted David and informed him of the craziness he had to go through, causing the other party to feel very sorry, they were in charge of keeping this under wraps and it had somehow gotten leaked to the media. David asked if there was anything he could do, Milo told David about his n to just go through with an interview and asked him if he could set one up for him. David said he''d see what he could do and the two''s conversation ended there. A few hourster and some more craziness from the reporters and Milo received a new text from David. David had set up an appearance on a popr TV show that was focused on gatecrashers. It was started a year previously by an ex gatecrasher and was amon show for people who were interested in the people who close gates to watch and see what was going on in the gatecrashing world. It was verymon for up anding gatecrashers to appear on the show. Jorge had even made an appearance before he started his own guild. Milo thanked David for his help, and marked the date for the interview on his calendar, it was set to happen 3 days from then. He also received a message from the show''s producer who told him some more details. The interview was set to take ce on the school campus in the practical training hall, they apparently wanted to paint Milo as a bright up anding gatecrasher who overcame a horrible trial. Hearing their n, Milo couldn''t reallyin, his hope in doing this was to draw attention from guilds to get connections and their idea would do just that. They told him the questions they would be asking so that he could n his answers in advance and thanked him for choosing them as the ones to break the story. After hanging up Milo prepared himself for the interview. The questions were basic ones that he''d seen other reporters ask reawakened people. There were also a few others asking about his life at the academy, what he had been doing previously and other basic things like that. Overall it seemed like the interview would be a normal, but it almost seemed too normal which caused Milo to wonder if there was anything they weren''t telling him. - - - - "So the mystery student''s name is Milo Fenix," a man in a ck mask said. On his forehead a golden weeping angel symbol could be seen. "I will be keeping a close eye on you, your strength will be arge thorn in our side from here on out." Chapter 136 134 - Preparing The following day, Chris and Maria took Milo to get a sort of makeover for the interview. Their first stop was to get him a haircut, as they walked through the city, a lot of people recognized Milo from the news reports about his reawakening. The stares he got and thements he was hearing were a lot more than Milo was prepared for. Reawakening was a big deal, but being the one who was getting the attention because of it really showed Milo how big of a deal everyone thought it was. Ever since he gave the first year student an autograph it seemed like Milo''s days were getting crazier and crazier. When he got to the hair salon for his haircut, thedy who was to cut his hair recognized him immediately. The entire time she cut his hair, she was joking with him about him being the first famous person she had ever given a haircut to. Milo kept blushing and trying tough it off. He thought he was finally getting used to all the attention until thedy kept raving about his reawakening, asking him a bunch of questions about him, the attention he was getting and more. By the end of it, he was mentally exhausted from the sheer amount of questions he was getting from thedy. Eventually he was able to get out of there and continue on their little day on the town. Maria was in charge of dressing him for the interview, most people who did interviews with the show that would be conducting Milo''s interview dressed in suits, it was a way for them to show off the things they gained from gatecrashing. Maria took Milo to a tailor that was found in the Acropolis, it was a pretty famous tailor and many of its clients included famous gatecrashers, it was the same tailor where Maria''s dad and brothers went to get their suits made. When they first entered, a gentleman who was also dressed in a suit weed them in, Maria went and checked in with the man at the counter. After checking in, the man guided Milo, Chris and Maria to a back room filled with mirrors. In the center was a small tform. Nearby was a small seating area with a table that had magazines on top. The man guided the trio into the room and gestured for Chris and Maria to sit. "For the measurement I will need you to strip down to your undergarments so that I can get an urate measurement," the man said. Milo turned to see a sly smile on Maria''s face. Milo rolled his eyes realizing that this was all part of her n. He begrudgingly did as the man said and took off his clothes leaving only his boxers on. After doing so he stood on the tform and followed the man''s instructions moving his body this way and that so the man could take his measurements. While doing so, Chris was reading a magazine, looking visually bored, and Maria was taking in the view of Milo''s sculpted and cut body getting measured. After a few minutes, the man had finished his measurement, Milo was then allowed to get dressed and the man took Milo and his two friends to the front of the shop once again. Once they were there, Maria picked out all the important colors and such before they were set to pay. When paying the fee Milo''s eyes almost bulged out of his head reading the price of the suit he was buying. If he hadn''t been paid during his internship for closing all those gates there was no way he would''ve been able to afford it. They paid and were told to pick it up the day of the interview. Maria said she would pick it up for Milo that day and the three returned back to campus. When the day of the interview arrived, Chris and Maria were busy making sure everything was going smoothly, the interview was to take ce in the practical training hall, the academy had even canceled all the practical sses that were meant to happen that day so that the interview could happen there. After Maria arrived with the suit, Milo put it on. It was a fitted gray suit with a ck tie. It fit his form perfectly, thanks to the measurements taken at the tailor shop, the suit fit him like a glove. He looked quite dashing in it, resembling a movie star who was about to make a red carpet appearance. Maria was ooing and ahing admiring how Milo looked wearing the suit, even Alucard who would being with Milo to the interview made a remark about how Milo looked. With his suit on and his prep for the questions done, Milo put Alucard in the beast vessel ring and made his way over to the practical training hall with his friends. Standing out front was a man in a suit with a wire going up to his ear. He was the security in charge of only allowing people who were allowed to attend the interview to enter the building. Milo and his friends had to fight their way to the entrance as arge group of students had seen all the cameras and equipment being moved into the building for the recording of the interview. Once they arrived at the front of the pack, Milo walked up to the security guy and told him his name, as well as his friends who he was allowed to invite to watch the interview. The man checked his list and allowed them inside, seeing that someone was entering the building, all the students who were clumping at the entrance were all craning their necks trying to see who was going in. A few students recognized Milo and could tell what was going on, while others were oblivious to what was happening in the academy the past few days. Once they were inside, a woman with a clipboard guided the group to where the interview was taking ce. Inside the main hall, a makeshift set had been built identical to the set that was seen whenever the show aired. It was a simple set, with a ck wall with the show''s name in lights, and only took up about half of the huge room''s interior. In front of the wall were two arm chairs with a coffee table between them. Microphones could be seen hanging down above the two chairs. Cameras were seen at multiple different angles meant to capture the interview. Overall, it looked exactly like someone would expect the set of a TV show to look like. Thedy who was carrying the clipboard told Milo to head towards the makeup area so that he could have stage makeup put on, while she guided his friends to an area where they could watch the interview as it happened. Milo did as thedy told him to and made his way over to the booth where they''d put his stage makeup on. He took a seat at the chair and an artist immediately got to work making sure he had the right makeup on so he wouldn''t disappear with the lights that''d be on him. Eventually another person came over and took a seat next to him, Milo recognized him as Marcus Davis, the host of the show and the person who''d be interviewing him. He had dark skin, and a bright smile. He too was dressed in a nice suit and he seemed to take great care not to wrinkle it when he sat in the chair next to Milo. "Nice to meetcha Milo, thanks for the opportunity to be the first channel to break your story, everything should go off without a hitch, I''ll just ask you the questions we sent you and you answer them the best you can, you have any questions for me before we start?" Marcus said. Milo shook his head and said thanks for letting him appear on his show. The two continued chatting for a bit, Marcus asked Milo about his school life, and about his friends who he had brought along, he seemed simr to the association president, asking about all their abilities as well as what rank they all were. He was impressed that all of them besides Krista were X ranked students. Heplimented Milo on doing a good job of picking powerful allies. Being an ex gatecrasher, he knew how important having powerfulrades was, he also asked Milo if he knew if any of them would be interested in also being interviewed separately to spice up the show, he said that he''d have to ask them himself, but he was sure at least Chris would want to make an appearance with his personality. Soon it was time for the interview to start. Milo and Marcus made their way over to the makeshift set and took seats across from each other in the two arm chairs. The director then went through checks to make sure everything was working properly and the interview would go on without any issues. After a few minutes of checks, a man wearing a headset walked out in front of the camera with a pperboard. "Interview with Milo Fenix take 1," he shouted before pping the board together, and the filming had begun. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 137 135 - The Interview "Wee to the show, for those of you watching today we have a special guest joining me for today''s episode," Marcus started while looking into the camera. "As I''m sure you''ve heard following the attack on New York City, a teen was discovered to have reawakened. We are joined by that student here today. His name is Milo Fenix and he is in his final year at the Awakened Academy. He is currently the top ranked student in the X ranked ss. Based on this, he is obviously an extremely powerful awakened, even moreso following his reawakening. Could this be the birth of a new super rookie?" When he said thisst bit, Marcus looked into the camera with one eyebrow raised as if trying to raise a bit of suspense. Milo was impressed by Marcus''s showmanship. The camera then panned back so that both Milo and Marcus could be seen in the shot. "So how are you Milo?" Marcus asked. "I''m doing well Marcus, nothing toin about," Milo responded. The interview continued on from there, Milo answered all of Marcus''s questions. Most of them were about Milo''s school life and his life in New York before the attack. Eventually the topic turned to Milo''s experiences closing gates. Milo talked about his in field experience during his first year, as well as his experiences while gatecrashing for the Incubus Guild over the summer. ? "I figured you had some experience with closing gates, but I never thought it''d be this much. Although considering it was none other than David ck the vice guild master of the Incubus Guild who reached out about getting you on this show, I suppose I shouldn''t be surprised you have some connections to them. So I take it you are interested in pursuing gatecrashing as a career, correct?" Milo nodded his head in affirmation. Marcus then continued, "Have you received any offers from guilds yet?" "The Incubus Guild has expressed some interest in me, however I haven''t received any offers from other guilds, I also have to admit I haven''t thought that far ahead as well, with the world finding out about my reawakening, I''ve been too busy with reporters as well as school to think about my future ns, but I do know gatecrashing is what I want to do," Milo said. "Understandable," Marcus said in response, "the life of a student is definitely a busy one, what about forming your own guild?" Milo paused for a second, this was a question that wasn''t on their list of questions they had given him, "Like I said, I haven''t thought that far ahead, but what I will say, is I will do whatever I can to push myself to be the best I can be." Marcus nodded along with Milo''s answer, "That''s an admirable ambition to have. I''ve also heard you have an interesting friend, is there any way that we could see him?" Milo knew this wasing, they expressed that they would like to see his tamed beast when hearing he had sessfully tamed one, without the tamer ability(ording to the information Milo had given them). "Sure thing," Milo said before releasing Alucard from the pocket dimension ring on his finger, a lot of the members of the show''s crew gasped in awe seeing the red glowing from Milo''s finger and the beast that came out following the glow. "This is Alucard, my tamed beast." Alucard stretched his wings and took in his surroundings, Milo spoke into his head before releasing him from the ring so that he wouldn''t panic with all the lights and cameras. When seeing the snake beast appear Marcus''s eyes glittered, things like this guaranteed high ratings for the show. "So tell us about him Milo," Marcus said. Milo told the story of him obtaining the beast egg, leaving out the part about the Underground and instead saying he won it in a bet while working as an intern. He chose to add some extra bits about having to tame him down and train him out of his usual beast instincts to help cover up the fact that he had an ability that allowed him to easily tame beasts and even talk to them. After the story, Marcus picked up where Milo ended, "As some of you may not know, Milo does not have the Beast Tamer ability, meaning this was a bond forged from scratch without any magical influence. Can you tell us a bit more about Alucard himself?" Milo then told them that he was a Crimson Winged Spiny Viper, "When I first tamed him I didn''t realize how big of a deal it was because I thought it was like any other pet. When I did some more research I realized how wrong I actually was, as Crimson Winged Spiny Vipers are Legendary Tier beasts. Most of his abilities involve draining the Magic Power of his opponents which has been extremely helpful inbat." "Well you definitely have a strong ally by your side," Marcus said. "Okay let''s get into the juicy stuff, I''m sure many people want to know a bit more about how reawakening has affected you as it seems to be different depending on what someone''s original ability was. So can you tell me what your original ability was before reawakening?" "It was Frost," Milo responded. "So your original ability was the Frost ability, as many of you know Frost is considered one of the strongest elemental attributes. Could you demonstrate the level that you could use it at before reawakening? No need to worry about hurting anyone, there''s a reason we chose to have the interview here," Marcus said. The camera then panned over to a training dummy that had sprung up from the floor. Milo stood from his chair and walked over near where the dummy was. He then did as Marcus asked and attacked the dummy how he would have if he still had the Ice ability, he summoned some ice spears behind him and threw them forward causing them to pierce the dummy, this also caused the ground to shake a bit as the spears made contact. "That was an impressive show of power, so you had even honed your Frost ability to be able to freeze atmospheric water, correct?" Marcus asked Milo who was returning to his seat. "Yes, that''s correct, before reawakening I could summon around 20 of the those spears of ice you just saw," Milo responded, in truth, Milo used an evolved version of the Frost ability after using it in Fusion, he could also summon a lot more spears, but he didn''t want reveal that as it wasn''t normal for someone to use that many spears unless they were of a much higher gatecrashing rank. Marcus nodded hearing Milo''s answer, "Well there''s a good reason you were in the X rated ss your first year at the Academy. If you don''t mind me asking, can you tell me what you believe caused the reawakening to ur?" Milo nodded and told the story about the Fellowship''s attack on the refugee camp, he didn''t mention the appearance of a cardinal but said that he felt a surge of Magical Power while fighting off the evil organization. He described it as if every cell in his body was brimming with power. When the feeling subsided he found that there were some changes to his ability and he could use his old ability at a much higher level as well. Milo kept it vague enough that people watching wouldn''t question the reawakening and described it just how every other person who had talked about reawakening described it. Hearing the story, the crew of the show were visibly shocked, they had no idea a student so young could do all the things Milo could do, if they were in his position, they would shrink back in fear if an attack like that happened. Marcus could tell that there was a somber atmosphere hearing Milo retell his tale of fighting against the Fellowship and what he witnessed during the attack of his home. Wanting to steer the show back to a more upbeat tone he began to speak, "As everyone knows with a reawakening, one''s abilities also undergo a sort of evolution, these can vary in how they evolve. Milo could we see what changes urred with the Frost ability following your reawakening?" "Uh sure," Milo said. He then stood up and made his way over to a new dummy that had been set up, he then turned to the camera and began to talk. "When my ability reawakened I found that I had ess to more than just Frost." Milo then threw a fireball at the dummy causing another gasp from the show''s crewmembers. "So you are now a dual attribute elemental ability user?" Marcus said. "There''s more," Milo then calmly said as he threw a de of wind at a new dummy slicing it in half, it continued like this with Milo obliterating a new dummy with each of the 6 elemental attributes. After giving a dummy a baptism of lightning, reducing it to ashes and ending his demonstration, he then went over and took a seat at his chair. Jaws were on the floor following the demonstration, Milo nonchntly returned to his seat. When he took his seat, Marcus stuttered a bit, "S-so you c-can control all 6 elements?" He asked, still in shock from Milo''s performance. Milo simply nodded to confirm what they had just watched him do. "Well," Marcus paused for a second as if to recollect himself, "if that''s the case, then you are going to have quite the decision following your graduation with the amount of guild offers you''re sure to get. I have no doubt you''ll be getting hundreds of offers once this is done airing. Well folks, you saw it here first, Milo Fenix the up anding super rookie with 6 abilities in one, where will he end up once he graduates? Only time will tell, but he is sure to make it big in this world. Thanks for watching and we''ll see you next time. This is Marcus Davis signing off." "Aaaand Cut! Good job everyone," the director shouted. With that the interview was over, and Milo was officially known to the world. Chapter 138 136 - Cause And Effect Once the interview had concluded, the director of the show as well as Marcus thanked him again for his time and told him that if he ever was interested in appearing on the show again to just reach out. Milo and his friends then met up with him and were guided out of a back entrance to avoid the still raging crowd of students out in front of the practical training hall. Once they were out of the area, they all made their way to the Sim Room''s lounge to talk. "Are you sure this was the right move?" Mark asked. Like Milo, Mark wasn''t one to attempt to get into the spotlight. He enjoyed being able to work without any distractions which made him wonder whether Milo had made the right choice about getting into the limelight. "It was a necessary step to make, word would''ve gotten out eventually, especially if I took part in thebat tournament at the end of year festival. It may have happened earlier than I expected but at least now I can start doing things earlier." "What do you mean by things?" Chris then said. "Since my name is out there now I can start building connections with some of the stronger guilds and within the association, plus I can start gathering leads on the Fellowship now," Milo responded. "The Fellowship? Haven''t you had enough of those guys?" Zach said. Milo nced at Krista, who nodded, before spilling the beans, "I have a feeling that the Fellowship is a lot more threatening than we think they are, during the attack on New York I fought against one of the cardinals, it was during my fight with him that I reawakened. Ever since fighting him and then them killing Corinna, I have to stop them, I want to destroy them before they can destroy the lives of anyone else. I still can''t get the vision of purple mes burning people alive out of my head, I have to eliminate them before they can destroy our world." Hearing that Milo had fought a cardinal, the rest of the group''s eyes widened. "What happened to the cardinal? What number was it?" Chris finally asked. Mark was silent, hearing purple mes reminded him of the day his father was murdered. His hand tightened into a fist and his nails dug into his palm causing blood to drip. "It was the 5th cardinal, his ability was to control these purple mes that would endlessly burn whatever they touched as long as he kept his ability active. After the fight I passed out but apparently I defeated him, he was found passed out near me and the Association took him into custody. That''s all I know¡­" Milo purposefully left out the part about his ability disappearing. He didn''t want his friends to be think the Fellowship could take their abilities too, plus it would be best if he didn''t give any more leads that would result in them learning about the system. Hearing more info about the man Milo faced, Mark began to sweat as an image from his past appeared in his mind. The purple mes, the 5th cardinal all of them brought back his memories of the destruction of Toronto. It was the 5th cardinal who had burned his home to the ground and who had killed his father. He felt a small amount offort knowing that the person responsible was now in prison, but Milo was right, the Fellowship needed to be destroyed and Mark made a vow to himself that he would do whatever he could to help. Eventually the group fell into silence after hearing about Milo''s experience with the cardinal. Up until now he had chosen to keep it a secret but since his reawakening was now about to be known by the world he figured there was no point in hiding his goal from his friends. "I think that in the long run, the interview will end up being a good thing so I''m not really worried about what sort of things wille out of it." With this, the group decided to call it a day and went back to their rooms, it was back to sses the next day and they still had some homework they needed to finish. Milo himself was mentally exhausted, he had practiced his answers to the questions Marcus asked him, but still felt mentally drained from trying to make sure he wasn''t boring for the show. Not only this, but he chose to let loose a bit with his ability when demonstrating, he felt there was no need to hold back and also took it as a chance to see just how much power he could put behind each element. Eventually he was snoring away and had no idea what kind of impact the interview would have on his life. When Milo woke up, he went about his normal morning routine, he brushed his teeth, went to workout, showered, and ate some breakfast. Once he was done, he was on his way to ss, a few people he passed said they had seen him on TV the night before. Milo had expected this much at least, but besides this things had been pretty tamepared to the crowds of reporters from the first few days after his reawakening had leaked. Girls were talking about him more and looking at him even more than before, guys would notice this and get jealous, giving him dirty looks. Overall, his reputation around the campus had gone up, very few people didn''t know who he was. On his way to his homeroom ss, he got the first difference to his everyday life. While walking he saw a notification on his holo, it was a phone call from the director of the show he had appeared on the night before. ording to the director they wanted to thank Milo for appearing again and even told him that they had record-setting viewers on the show. Hearing this caused Milo to do a double take, "was it really such a big deal that my interview had broken their record?" he thought to himself. Following the call he had arrived at his ss and took a seat with his friends. "There you are, things have been crazy today, a bunch of people approached me on my way here, asking about you. The show must have gone crazy in the ratings department if people areing to us about you," Zach said. Milo smiled sheepishly, "I actually just got off the phone with the show''s director, turns out it broke their viewer record¡­" "Seriously?" Chris said, "You''re gonna be famous bro, good luck with all the attention you''ll be getting soon." ss started soon after their conversation, they went over a few different things rted to dungeons, and before Milo knew it, ss had ended. Milo was called to the front of ss by Headmaster O''Neil, so Milo went to the front. "Hello Milo, just wanted to give you some news. We have received hundreds of messages of guilds wanting to meet with you since your interview airedst night, including messages from the Big 4, I thought you would be interested to hear about it. If you head to the mail collection room, you''ll be able to view them all, along with this, the Association would like to retest you, considering you were determined to be a B ranked awakened when starting your internship, they want to find out where your abilities stand following your reawakening, if you would like you can take the test now, or we can schedule a time at ater date to take it," he said. Milo thought about it for a bit and decided that now would be as a good a time as any to take the retest, so he informed Mr. O''Neil. Mr. O''Neil made a call, and soon a vehicle was waiting for him at the Academy''s gates. He got in and was given a ride to the association headquarters. The towering building was the tallest on the artificial ind. When entering the lobby, Milo was surprised to see the association president Richard Brand. "Hello Milo, I saw your interviewst night, and I must say your reawakening has given you an extremely versatile ability. To this day, I have never heard of anyone wielding all 6 elemental attributes like yourself," he said. Milo had almost forgotten Mr. Brand''s obsession with abilities. The GAA President escorted Milo personally to the testing area and continued to talk about the possibilities of Milo''s ability. Once they arrived Milo went through the same test as before, he started with thebat portion and unlike his first time doing it he managed to clear all 5 stages, being able to use all 6 elements proved to give him an extreme level of versatility and it made the test much easier than before, the increase in his stats from levelling up had also given him a boost. Following thebat portion, Milo was guided to the room where the Magic Power measurement device was found. Milo entered with President Brand and the person recording his results, the man recording the results gave Milo the instructions he had heard so many times before, he walked up to the machine andid his hand on the crystal that would record his Magic Power, he then activated his ability to the extreme causing the crystal to glow brightly, brighter than it had ever done for Milo while taking the test. The number on the screen rose until it stopped at 139. Seeing the number on the screen the man had to do a double take. Richard Brand simply grinned from ear to ear. The man giving the test immediately unclipped a radio from his belt, "S-sir, we have an X ranked Magic Power reading in test room 12, I repeat we have an X ranked Magic Power reading in test room 12." Chapter 139 137 - The Strongest Following the X ranked test results, the rest of that day went by like a blur, they did countless retests to make sure he truly was X ranked. Following that they went through a few interviews. The way X ranked gatecrashers were categorized was different from the lower ranks. Because X ranked people were walking war machines, they gathered more info on them than anyone else to help better protect people. Milo had to give tons of information including his ability for them to put it into a database. Since no one had ever had his ability before, he got to name it and he decided to name it the same way the system had, as it had done a good job. Milo could literally create natural disasters through the use of his ability. The GAA then offered him a recruitment following his reawakening, apparently this was something that they did for all high ranking gatecrashers when they first awakened. It was to keep the power of the GAA strong enough to keep gatecrashers in check. They were sessful at recruiting some A ranked gatecrashers but aside from Richard Brand, the president, they hadn''t sessfully recruited anyone X ranked over to their side. This was due to the difference in ie a guild could offer. Along with this, the association wasn''t home to any big names, and most of the time would control media appearances for their members. Guilds were more lenient which allowed Gatecrashers to be famous for things other than closing gates. In some cases, you could even see famous gatecrashers in famous movies or TV Shows. One such case was a retelling of the recapture of Man, it was a wildly famous movie about humans reconquering the Filipino capital after its fall in 2097, and even had two members of the strike team that reimed the ind from the beasts star in the movie. Milo thought about it some when they first made the offer but when considering the pros and cons of it, he decided that joining or starting a guild would suit him better. If he joined the association he would be forced to follow their orders, along with this, the association very rarely closed high ranked dimensional doors which would cause his growth to stagnate which he couldn''t allow to happen. "So what do you say Milo? Following graduation how would you feel about being brought into the fold?" Richard Brand asked. "I''m going to graciously decline your offer, I feel that my ce is in a dungeon ying beasts. However I will dly assist the association in whatever way I can when I graduate, as long as I''m free, I will always answer your call," Milo said in response. By offering his assistance whenever he could, Milo hoped that it would allow him to get resources from the association. The association was the organization that had the most information on the Fellowship, and by staying on their good side, even if he wasn''t joining them, it would hopefully allow him to get his hands on the information when he needed it. "I see, we will dly call upon you if we need your help. There is one other thing," Richard said, "The big four have a tendency to get pretty aggressive with their scouting of high ranked gatecrashers, especially those at the X rank. I just felt I should warn you, when the database gets updated they will be among the first to make a move." "Thanks for the heads up," Milo said. With this their meeting was over and Milo was handed his license on his way out the door. Rather than a silver color this time, it was matte ck with a golden X engraved in the side. These licenses were only given to X ranked awakened people, no matter their age anyone who had one of these licenses would be able to ess things lower ranked gatecrashers would never know about. Along with this, someone could essentially join in on the closing of any gates around the world, even without a permit. That was the power of being X ranked, it came with privileges normally only allowed for association members. After receiving his license he returned to the Academy. By then sses had ended for the day and his friends wanted to know where he had been, once he told them about the retest and showed them the license they all got excited. Seeing he had an authentic X ranked license they were all moring to get a look at it. "So this is what they look like, I''ve heard about them but never seen one before," Chris said. "Only one of my brothers was ranked X," Maria added, "I guess this makes you a step above them, well all but one anyways." While his friends were all checking out his license, he received some messages on his holo, he checked them and was surprised about the uracy of Richard Brand''s statement about the Big 4. Among the messages he had received from the big four, there was also one from the Incubus Guild, Jorge was reaching out and wanted to congratte Milo on doing something not even he had done, being an X ranked awakened. The Big 4 were the four strongest guilds in the world, and their guild masters were among the strongest people in the world, no one was sure which one was the strongest, but they were all considered to be slightly below Richard Brand in terms of strength. Milo had seen the guildmasters of the big 4 plenty of times on television during interviews and broadcasts. They were prominent figures in society and were even considered to be equal in power to the leaders of some countries. Among the Big 4, Maria''s brother was the vice guild master of the Striker Guild, they were based out of London, Ennd. Their guild master was Helena Dempsey and unlike the other guildmasters she was reawakened like Milo. From the appearances Milo had seen on television, she appeared to be the most strict of the guildmasters and seemed almost like a boot camp instructor. Milo couldn''t remember a time where she didn''t have a serious face on. She was a support role and her ability involved buffing her allies, the more allies she had the more powerful the buff became. Because of this, the Striker Guild was known to use strike squads muchrger than what was considered necessary, with her buffs on the whole team however, it was nearly impossible for beasts to do enough damage to kill a member of their squad. In Europe there was one other member of the Big 4, this was the Huntsmen Guild whose headquarters were located in Munich, Germany. Their guildmaster was more of a figurehead and while he was considered the strongest of their gatecrashers, their vice guildmaster handled all of the administration work. The guildmaster of the Huntsmen Guild was Kristoff Jenkins, he filled one of the tank positions in their top strike squad. His ability allowed him to partly transform himself so that he gained the attributes of a bear. It fit his appearance as well as hisrge bushy beard and hulking physique gave him the aura of a wild animals. There was a scar over his left eye that he was rumored to have received when wrestling with a real bear before the dimensional doors appeared which is why he gained the ability he had. Asia was home to one of the Big 4 as well thanks to Japan''s Sakura Guild which was located in Tokyo. They had the most X ranked gatecrashers of any guild and all of them were gathered thanks to their guildmaster who was considered to be a super celebrity around the world. Her name was Mei Watanabe, she was among the dealers of the Sakura Guild, and herbat prowess was a major contrast to her cutesy and girly personality. Her weapon of choice was a Katana and her family was famous for their strength with a sword due to how well known they were in the world of Kendo, being the only girl from her family, she wasn''t recognized until the Dimensional Doors first appeared and she awakened her ability. Her ability allowed her to suspend time dyed shes in the air that then activated whenever she felt like activating them. Because of this she could pull off attacks simr to Mikael when using his double impact ability, striking multiple times at once by timing the dyed shes with her actual attack. Thest guild of the Big 4, Milo already had experience with. This was the Olympus Guild whose headquarters were located in Miami, Florida in the United States. They were the newest member of the Big 4 and this was mainly due to their guildmaster who was the youngest among the Big 4''s guildleaders. Like Milo he achieved an X ranking as a student and then went on to catapult straight to the top when he started his own guild after graduating. His name was Steven Smith and was also a dealer. His nickname was "the archangel" due to his ability which gave him the wings of an eagle. Unlike most abilities this was a permanent change to his body which meant he had to have special clothes made that allowed his wings to be free at all times. His wings allowed him to fly at high speeds and whenbined with his archery skills it made him quite the powerhouse. Milo had received messages from all of these guilds attempting to make a meeting with him to talk about joining their guild. His disy on the show with Marcus Davis had attracted their attention. He was thinking of ways to get information from all of them without joining one of them specifically, if he limited himself to one then he''d be stonewalled from the other''s information on the Fellowship. Because of this he thought up a slightly mischievous n. He agreed to meet with all of them, there was one catch that they weren''t aware of however. He had given all 4 of them the same date, time and ce. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 140 138 - The Meeting After setting up the meeting, Milo closed out the messages and finished his night with his friends. They had continued their training in preparation for the in field experiences and were looking more and more like a professional strike squad. Chris had gotten out of his bad habit of trying to go off on his own. Courtney had also started to build chemistry with the group as well and seemed to enjoy talking to Corinna and Maria about girl stuff. In the days leading up to Milo''s meeting Zach had also been allowing Waki to absorb the cores Milo had given him and ording to Zach he was close to increasing his rank. Overall things were looking good for their team and Milo was excited for when they''d finally begin closing gates. Before that however Milo was supposed to meet with the guildmasters of the Big 4. Milo had chosen to find out all their intentions and to try and make them throw all their cards on the table by setting up a scenario where they''d all meet with him at once, essentially forcing them into a bidding war. His friends were all asking if that was really the right choice. They were worried that it may offend the guildmasters of the Big 4 and cause them to withdraw their interest in him and maybe even make them hostile to Milo. Mikael on the other hand broke intoughter when he heard about Milo''s scheme. He thought Milo''s idea was genius because just like Milo he felt that there were things that the Big 4 would keep hidden when trying to recruit him. Because of their power in the world Mikael was worried that they''d attempt to take advantage of Milo due to his young age and inexperience. Mikael offered to oversee the meeting as a sort of third party, Milo agreed to this, as Milo felt that of all the people he knew, he could trust Mikael to help him make the right choice. Along with this, Mikael was well respected in the gatecrashingmunity and he hoped that with his presence it would keep the guildmasters from trying anything funny. The meeting was set to take ce at the GAA headquarters on the Acropolis; by having it there, Richard Brand was a small ways away in case any fights happened to have broken out. He also felt that the guildmasters may want to confirm his ability and skills so he could use the training rooms at the Acropolis'' GAA headquarters. The only way he was able to do this was by calling in a favor from Richard Brand as well, since he was a new X ranked gatecrasher he figured he should use the privileges he now had. When arriving, Mikael exined to Milo that the Big 4, or rather the Big 3 at that point since the Olympus Guild hadn''t risen to power back then, had tried to recruit him as well. He chose to work alone however and instead opted for a job as a mercenary, it didn''t pay as much as joining a guild, but money wasn''t what he wanted. He simply wanted to train his swordy more, and by joining a guild he would be forced to forfeit some of the kills to other gatecrashers. Mikael was also of the X rank, but chose to live a more secluded life of his own choice. He didn''t really take advantage of its perks like others. Milo admired this about Mikael, he was in his position simply through determination and hard work. His work spoke for itself through the stories and nicknames he had gained over the years. The names Sword Demon and Beast Butcher were two of many that were well known throughout the world. Eventually the first of the Guildmasters had arrived, it was Helena Dempsey of the Striker Guild. When entering the room, she wore her stern expression and showed no emotion as she took a seat across from Milo and Mikael. She was about to begin speaking when Mikael stopped her. "It''d be best to wait for the others to arrive," he said. Helena made a puzzled expression as Milo hadn''t informed the guildmasters that this would be a meeting between all of the Big 4. The puzzled look disappeared however as a hulking man entered the room soon after. His arms and legs were as thick as tree trunks and his torso resembled that of a grizzly bear, a pale white scar ran over his left eye which was cloudy white after healing from the original wound. His huge, scraggly beard gave him the appearance of someone who was stranded in the wilderness for years. "Kristoff Jenkins! It has been awhile, hasn''t it," Mikael bellowed as he pulled him into a hug. Kristoff said nothing and his face twisted into a smile as he squeezed Mikael back once he recognized him. Milo was sure his head would''ve popped like a cork from the hug Kristoff gave Mikael, but thetter appeared to be fine. Milo had no idea that Mikael was familiar with any of the Big 4 Guild Masters aside from the information Mikael had mentioned about them trying to recruit him. This was mainly due to Milo not being familiar with the remation of Man. Mikael and Kristoff were both among the team that recaptured Man, and if Mikael wasn''t a lone wolf, he most likely would''ve joined the Huntsmen Guild due to his friendship with Kristoff. Seeing who had entered, Helena had a look of enlightenment before going back to her stern expression. After pulling out of the embrace with his friend, Kristoff and Helena made eye contact before he broke it off and took a seat at the table. Helena was very calcting in her moves and believed in keeping all her cards hidden when dealing with things like this, including suppressing her emotions. Seeing that Kristoff entered, she could only assume that Milo had set this up on purpose. This was confirmed as another person entered the room. Unlike the other two, the woman who entered had a bright smile on her face and seemed to be dressed in fashionable designer clothes which contrasted the business attire of the other people in the room. She went up to Milo without even looking at the other two. "Hiii, it''s great to meet you, my name is Mei Watanabe of the Sakura Guild, your interview was awesome, your ability seems crazy powerful," she said. Mei''s personality was exactly what Milo had seen on TV. She was very outgoing and tried to start conversations with both Helena and Kristoff, but when she didn''t get a reply, she simply shrugged and started messing around on her holo. The group sat in silence for around 5 minutes, with the only sound being random noisesing from Mei''s holo. When the door opened and thest person finally entered. As they entered a massive pair of wings could be seen tucked close to their back. He yawned as he sauntered in and took a seat at the table. "Sorry I''mte," he said, not even acknowledging the other guildmasters. "Oh, hi Steven, long time no see," Mei said, snapping out of her trance of ying on her holo to see who had entered. Steven nonchntly waved his hand in her direction as if acknowledging she was there. His eyes were locked on Milo and not wavering, on his face a slight smirk could be seen. Unlike the others who made a point of dressing for the asion, no matter the difference in how they chose to do so, Steven looked like he had just rolled out of bed. His hair was messy, he was wearing sweatpants and a in t shirt, with sandals on his feet. Milo could sense a different air about him, as if his intentions were different from the other 3 guildmasters. Seeing four of the most powerful people on the sitting before him, Milo was slightly shaking both from excitement and nervousness. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and while most people wanted to meet just one of them, all 4 of them had requested a meeting with Milo and even came all this way just for him. Helena was the first to say anything, "To start I would like to see your ability in action, I''m sure all of us would like to, we all saw the interview you did with Marcus Davis, but he likes to be a bit theatrical with his show, this and I''m sure you left some things out." When saying thest part, she had a sly smile on her face, she read Milo as a person very easily. Like her he was secretive about certain things including the extent of his strength. "Yeah, I''d like to see what you''ve got," Mei chimed in without even looking up from what she was doing on her holo. "Do what you want," Steven said, seeming bored. Kristoff was thest to add his thoughts with a simple grunt. Following their request, Mikael looked at Milo, being his proxy he wanted to make sure Milo was okay with it before agreeing. Milo simply nodded as he was expecting something like this. He wasn''t showing it but his nervousness jumped higher following their request. Besides Mei, the other three''s eyes seemed to be piercing his soul trying to read him. It was the instinct of the Guildmasters to do so, especially when meeting the new so called "super rookie." Chapter 141 139 - The Meeting II After agreeing to showcase his ability, the 4 guildmasters, Milo and Mikael made their way down to a training hall. The association president had set aside his personal training room for Milo. His reasoning was that he wanted Milo to have a ce free of extra eyes and also because his room was set up specifically for his strength. He was afraid that Milo''s strength could possibly cause damage to a normal training room. When they arrived, the 4 guildmasters stood off to the side with Mikael while Milo made his way to the center of the room. Milo started by simply showing he could use all 6 attributes. The four guildmasters maintained their poker face while Milo did so, simply watching him destroy training dummies with different elements. He then stopped and turned to the group of them. "From here on out I''ll showcase the extent of my ability, the interview was more so a way to prove that my control over the 6 elements existed as no one would''ve believed it if it weren''t documented. My ability allows me to do more than simply control the elements, if they arepatible I canbine them to do things like this," Milo said as he lifted a ball of earth into the air, soon the surface of the rocks began to turn red as they heated up, until a ball of magma was floating near him. Seeing this, the guildmasters finally began to show their feelings. They were definitely intrigued by Milo simply because he could control the 6 attributes, no other gatecrashers were able to do this after all. His introduction to the possibility ofbining the elements broke down what they thought was previously possible, in a sense, bybining the different elements, Milo was able to create and control new elements. He then went through a few morebinations of elements, showcasing forming a ming tornado, forming a mist that covered Milo''s position, and finally creating a lightning storm, this was one of the very few three elementbinations he could make. After doing so, Mei seemed to have a lightbulb appear above her head. "So that''s why your ability was called Disaster in the association database, you create mini natural disasters," she said, appearing to be satisfied with her ability toe up with that on her own, no matter how obvious it was to the others in the room. He then showed a few more things, mainly having to do with his control over the elements and the different ways he could use them in tandem with his equipment. Rather than showing this part off, he chose to let them take his word for it. He had already shown them what they wanted to see, the fact that he had more to show than what he showed in the interview. In most cases, Milo wouldn''t have agreed to show them his strength, this was a dangerous thing to do, especially in a society where an evil cult could be hiding in in sight, but the people in this room were either people he knew personally or were well known figures of the world. Not only this, but they had valuable information he needed for when he took the fight to the Fellowship and he needed to gain their trust for that. Once it seemed like the guildmasters were satisfied with his showcase of sorts, they moved back to the meeting room that they were originally located in. All of them seemed impressed with Milo''s capabilities, other than one. Steven Smith still appeared unimpressed with everything he had seen, or so he made it seem. He sat at the table looking like he had something on his mind, his fingers tapping his chin as he continued to gaze at Milo with the eyes of a predator that was looking at his prey. While Steven was doing this, the other Guildmasters had begun telling Milo their recruitment offers, all of them offering various amounts of money, higher positions within their guild, bonuses, and other things in an attempt to entice Milo over to their side. This was when Milo could feel the shift in the power dynamic. When requesting to show his ability, Milo was being put through a test to see if he was worth their time, now that he had proven it, the power was in his hands to choose. While Helena, Mei, and Kristoff added more and more to their offers, an argument seemed to begin between the three of them. Tension was high as they tried to shoot Milo an offer better than the others. Mikael was able to somewhat keep things civil between the three of them, while Steven continued to sit silently. Eventually he seemed to get tired of their bickering and spoke up. "You guys areplete fools," he said aloud. Upon hearing Steven say this everyone turned to look at him. He was as calm as ever as he continued. "All your offers mean nothing, an X ranked gatecrasher no matter how powerful would give a reaction to the amounts of money and perks you are offering him, but he hasn''t reacted once." Mei, who seemed impatient with Steven''s remarks, opened her mouth, "So what? We have been adding to our offers, he''s just waiting for us to finish," she said. "That''s not why he''s been showing no reaction," Steven responded, "he''s already made his decision of what he''s doing, amiright Milo?" Upon hearing this, the 3 guildmasters, as well as Mikael all turned to Milo. He was still sitting silently at the head of the table. Feeling the eyes of everyone on him, Milo felt now was a good time to exin his true intentions for the meeting between himself and the big 4. "You see, my intentions for inviting you all here today weren''t necessarily for joining a guild. You saw my interview and my answer about joining a guild. Whatever decision will help me achieve my goals is the decision I will make, and I will make those decisions when they are presented to me. My current goals aren''t to gain fame and fortune through gatecrashing or joining a big guild. Following the attack on New York City, my eyes were opened to a lot of things. Mainly how dangerous the Fellowship is. My true intentions for today''s meeting lie in gathering information. My current goal is to put a stop to the Fellowship. Their existence is one of grave danger to the peace of the world, in some cases more so than the beasts that reside in the dimensional doors. I watched them ughter innocent people and for that reason I chose their eradication to be my goal. So rather than asking to meet with you today to discuss joining a guild, I would like to make a request to the four of you." In the four guildmaster''s position, all of them other than Steven were slightly annoyed that the teen in front of them had called them all here just to waste their time. Steven came expecting something like this, he was an expert at reading the room, and Milo''s actions made no sense to him if it was truly about joining one of their guilds. His demonstration of his abilities seemed too transparent to him, as if Milo was trying to say that he trusted them with the information. Steven himself was intrigued simply for this reason, what kind of request was the teen going to make he wondered. "My only request is for information on the Fellowship, my n following graduation is to work as a mercenary, or perhaps I''ll form a small strike squad of my own, I''m not sure yet. The main point of this strike force will be to hunt down the Fellowship. The more information I can gather, the sooner I can take them down and without them running rampant, it should make your jobs as guilds easier as well. If you do give me information, I promise to answer the call if you ever require my assistance." Hearing Milo''s request brought in mixed reactions to say the least. The oldest of the ones there, Kristoff and Mikael seemed to admire Milo''s resolve. Mei was still butthurt that she had been tricked but thought that Milo''s proposition wasn''t a bad one, his ability was strong and if a high ranked gate were to appear it wouldn''t be bad to have another strong gatecrasher to join them. Helena seemed the angriest of the group, she ran her guild more as a small military group rather than a usual guild, her guild''s information was treated as ssified, as if they were to leak information it could end with one of the other Big 4 getting a leg up on them in power. The final member of the meeting, Steven began to grin, he was able to see a bit of his old self in Milo. Willing to y dirty to reach his goals, Milo''s scheme was something exactly like he would''ve done back in the day. Of the four of them, Helena was the only one who hadn''t responded to Milo yet. The Hunstmen, Olympus, and Sakura guilds had pledged an alliance to Milo. Helena eventually gave in due to the pressure put on by the other 3 guildmasters. At the end of the day it was just their information on the Fellowship Milo was asking for, and if he seeded then they would be one less future enemy she''d have to deal with herself. The meeting concluded soon after with the Big 4 still trying to convince Milo to join their guild, albeit with less aggression than before. Mei in particr hadn''t given up any hope and told Milo that he shoulde tour their headquarters before deciding. By this point Milo was satisfied, he had gained some powerful allies in the fight against the Fellowship, once he graduated he''d have a good head start atpleting the mission given to him by Zenox. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. Chapter 142 140 - The Leaker After the meeting concluded, the 4 guildmasters stayed at the GAA for a while longer wanting to talk to Milo a bit more. The young man intrigued them, even if his scheme annoyed them a bit, it took a certain level of either confidence or arrogance to invite 4 of the world''s strongest and most influential people under the guise of joining hands with them. While talking to each of them, Milo checked all their abilities using his plunder skill to see the copy conditions of each. All of them were simple tasks but would be difficult toplete. There was one that stood out from the rest however. When testing the ability on Steven Smith of the Olympus Guild, he found that the Plunder skill wouldn''t allow him to copy the ability. Milo wasn''t sure why so he asked Navi for rity. She told him that due to the nature of the ability, the system is unable to replicate it, Steven''s ability caused him to grow a pair of wings, his ability changed his body physically when it manifested. This was most likely why it was impossible to copy. Abilities that physically altered the person who used the ability were very rare, so Milo didn''t see this downside of the system as a significant weakness. He had been on the lookout for strong abilities to copy for a while now, ever sinceing back to the academy, but none had tickled his fancy. Once the friendly conversations with the Big 4 had ended, Mikael and Milo made their way back to the Academy. "You know Milo, you really had me worried back there," Mikael said, "you could''ve at least clued me in on what you were scheming, I thought I was going to have to get serious." Hearing this, Milo wondered just what Mikael looked like when he took something serious if all he''d done thus far wasid back. It made Milo realize just how strong Mikael was, with his abilities Milo may be able to slow him down, but he would struggle based on what he''d seen Mikael do so far. If he took a fight seriously how much stronger would he be? The pair eventually had arrived at campus and split off at the front gate, Milo had thanked Mikael for his help and headed back to his dorm. He was set to have a meeting with his team about their in field experience. They had been training diligently and today they would be having a strategy meeting to go over ways to improve. Milo had treated their in-field experience like his gatecrashing squad from his internship and so far it had been working. When he arrived, he noticed that everyone had already arrived as well, they decided to meet in the lounge area of the sim room. Everyone was eating snacks and chatting so Milo made his way over and joined them. The group was talking about something that had happened during thebat ss that day, apparently Waki had gotten into some mischief during ss causing Zach to get in quite the pickle. ording to his friends, there wasn''t anything dangerous about what had happened but it was quiteical to those who were watching the events unfold. Krista was also joining the friend group for the meeting even though she wasn''t partaking in the in-field experience. Once Milo had arrived, everyone in the group asked where he had been, but before he could answer, Courtney spoke up interrupting him. "He was meeting with the Big 4, right?" she said. Everyone in the group started to have a small freakout about Milo meeting with Big 4, but hearing Courtney say it for him caused him to pause. He hadn''t told any of his friends about the meeting, not even Krista. "How did you know about my meeting with them?" Milo asked Courtney. "I have my ways," she said with a wink, "How do you think the press heard about your reawakening? Did you not realize how big of a deal that was? My family runs a prominent news agency based here on the Acropolis, so I figured I''d help you out with revealing it to the world." Hearing this Milo noticed a vein appear on Krista''s forehead. Milo could see the signs of a fight breaking out, so before anything else could happen he told Zach that maybe he should take Krista outside for a second to let her calm down. Zach figured it was a good idea and guided her outside. Milo then turned to Courtney who seemed clueless to what was going on. "So you were the one who reported about my reawakening?" Milo asked. Courtney simply nodded in response as she sipped on a soda she had bought from the lounge''s convenience store counter. She was nonchnt which made Milo realize that she had no idea why what she did was wrong. Milo sighed loudly before he exined to her why he was hiding the truth about his reawakening. When hearing about his cousin''s death and the fact that he may now be a target of the Fellowship''s Courtney immediately felt guilty and burst into tears. She was very immature for her age which made Milo wonder if keeping her on the team was going to be more trouble than it was worth, but at this point all the other teams had already finished forming so they were stuck with her. Milo heaved out another sigh, "There''s no point in dwelling on what''s already happened." Had ite with some annoyances? Sure, but now I don''t have to be careful about using my powers and I''ve built a rtionship with the Big 4, so it''s not all bad, Milo thought. After getting Courtney to stop crying and apologizing, Milo brought Krista and Zach back into the room. Krista seemed ready to give Courtney an earful until she saw her sniffling with marks from tears on her cheeks. Seeing that she had been crying she figured Milo had handled it and so she simply huffed before retaking her seat. Milo then carried on the meeting as that was the original point of their get together. The meeting ended on much better terms than when it started and Courtney had even apologized to Krista after as she could tell Krista seemed to get heated when hearing that she was the one who leaked the information. On their way out, Milo was approached by Zach who asked if they could go to the practical training hall. Milo was confused as to why they would need to go their but agreed. Zach said he''d need to pick up Waki first as the thing he wanted to show Milo included his tamed beast. Once they had gathered Waki, Zach and Milo made their way to the room. Zach then pulled out a short metallic spear of some kind, it looked more like a dagger with a long handle. It was silver in color and the handle looked to be about 18 inches long with a small ball on the end. Zach exined that he wanted to show Milo something he hade up with to help direct Waki''s electricity. Normally when Waki would shoot off his electricity, it would shoot out in all directions and would hit anything that was nearby which if used incorrectly could also hit their teammates. Zach then walked a few meters away and stabbed the short spear into the ground. He then instructed Waki to shoot his electricity out, the small spear acted like a lightning rod and pulled the electric shock towards it. Once the barrage of lightning had finished Milo noticed that the small spear was deformed. Zach exined that he couldn''t get a design right that wouldst more than 3 attacks from Waki and asked if he had any advice. Milo thought for a second then said that he had an idea, he decided that he should introduce Zach to Avery, with her expertise in cksmithing and working with metal, she may be able toe up with a solution to the problem. Not only this, but Milo''s equipment needed some work done to it, after fighting the Fellowship it had sustained a lot of damage and needed repairs. He told Zach to meet him tomorrow and he''d take him to someone who may be able to help so the two retired back to their rooms for the night. - - - - - "Yes, ma''am he didn''t suspect a thing," a young girl''s voice said, when speaking into a transponder in her dorm. Currently both her roommates were out doing their own thing so she was alone within her room. Another voice could be hearding through from whoever had taken the call. "Good, that boy is much too strong for his own good. He must be dealt with at all costs before he can stop our progress anymore. Have youe up with a way to stop him?" "Not yet, but in a few weeks there will be an in-field experience. The other members of the team will be troublesome but if ites down to it, I will sacrifice my own life in order to prevent him from increasing his strength," the girl said. "Wonderful, I saw his interview, and if what you say is true about his meeting with the Big 4, I worry that he may be untouchable following his graduation from the academy. The Godfather has stressed his strength so do not underestimate him, you must take care of him at all costs. He has already taken out one of us, the 7 Cardinals. Not only do we need to correct the mistakes made by the 5th cardinal at all costs, but this will also bring my rapport with the Godfather higher. You cannot fail me," the woman on the transponder said. "Yes ma''am I will not fail you. I will prove my worth," the girl said. "Good, keep me posted with updates on your progress. May our work lead to a better world," the woman said before ending the call. The girl then turned off the transponder and hid it inside her dresser. After doing so she looked in the mirror before speaking to herself. "For a better world." Chapter 143 141 - New Possible Ability The next morning, Zach and Milo met up at the front of the dorms. When they were walking to the cksmithing section of campus, Milo noticed a group of first years. Bullying hadn''t been a big issue in his grade due to the scene in the academy cafeteria the previous year, but it was obvious that the first years hadn''t heard about it. There was a shorter scrawnier kid being picked on by 3 other kids. Milo and Zach looked at each other, at this point, Zach knew what bullying meant to Milo and he felt the same way since he too had been a victim of bullying growing up, and even at the academy the year before. He sighed as he knew Milo would be getting involved even if he told him to ignore it, so he simply followed behind Milo. Milo checked the abilities of the students and was surprised to see an ability that could be useful. The scrawnier of the students had a low level regenerative ability, it wasn''t anything super powerful, but with Milo''s system he could increase its level and make it more powerful. The copy conditions were brutal though. [Notice] Ability: Regeneration detected Conditions to copy: Witness the user of the ability Regeneration mend a broken bone plete condition to copy ability: Regeneration] Milo wanted to copy the ability but in order to copy it, he''d have to do something that would be considered equal to or maybe worse than what the bullies of the school had probably done to the poor kid. The bullies were toying with the kid, they took his bag and were ruffling through it, it looked as if they were looking for something in particr. Milo was getting tired of watching everything happening and decided to make his way over to where the students were at. "You wanna give the kid back his stuff?" Milo said aloud. Hearing a new voice all the first years turned to see who the voice originated from. Two of the students seemed to recognize Milo while the third student who had the bag turned and shouted at Milo. "Maybe you should screw off and mind your own damn business, I don''t care if you''re a second year I''ll still bet your ass," he said. Milo didn''t back down which seemed to piss the student off, as he dropped the bag and turned to Milo. By this point the two goons he had with him were visually terrified as they knew of Milo''s strength and ability, most likely from his interview on the television. They began to back up as their leader stepped forward. The student in question was actually bigger than Milo. Milo was 6 foot 3 inches tall and well put together since the ability had boosted his physical traits. The other students, if Milo had to guess, were close to 6 foot 8 and had a healthyyer of blubber covering his body. He wasn''t muscr like Milo but size could be an advantage in itself, Milo knew this well and there was also his ability as well. Milo checked his ability and it seemed like Milo himself kept running into rare abilities. The student had an ability called Thick Fat. It was a physically altering ability like Steven Smith, the guildmaster of the Big 4. Unlike Steven''s however the ability was most suited for tanking, Navi exined it as an ability that allowed the user to receive less damage from physical attacks, it would absorb some of the power from attacks and nullify part of the damage. Milo saw this and then looked at the student''s wrist to check the ability level disyed on his holo. A bright red X could be seen. After all of Milo''s observations, Milo concluded that he could defeat the student. Since fighting many different people and beasts, his fighting intuition had improved and he had be more urate at gauging what he could and couldn''t handle and he concluded this student would be no problem. Now the only thing Milo had to decide was how he wanted to defeat the student, he could just use the disaster ability, but it was very shy and would draw unwanted attention. He could use the reinforce ability but his damage would be weakened but at the same time it would be a good challenge, first though he''d let the other student make the first move. The student so far hadn''t made a move, Milo guessed that this was due to him being cautious, most X ranked students were as they inherently had more experience inbat. He was just giving Milo the stink eye, the student who was being picked on grabbed his bag and moved behind Milo and Zach, seeing this the bully waited for Milo to turn before trying to sucker punch him. Milo expected this and turned his head with the attack to absorb some of the blow. The punch packed more strength than Milo was expecting, but not enough to knock him unconscious. It caused Milo''s brow to split and a small amount of blood began to drip down the side of his head. The bully looked proud of himself and had a smug smile on his face. Milo touched his forehead and touched the blood before checking to make sure he really was bleeding. At that moment Milo decided he was going to destroy the bully''s pride. Seeing Milo was going to fight back the student prepared himself and put his fists up. Milo thought he should hold back but with how the student''s ability worked decided not to. Milo pulled his fist back, used Reinforce to strengthen his arm to its limit and then used the Disaster ability to shoot mes from his elbow to speed his fist forward even faster. When Milo''s fist made contact with the student''s stomach it sounded like a firecracker, the student was sent flying backwards untiling to a stop almost 15 feet away. Milo held his position after the punch for a second and steam could be seening from his fist. The student was down for the count and his two goons ran off before anything could happen to them. After snapping out of it, Milo realized what he had done and went to check on the bully. He may have been a bully but Milo didn''t want to kill anyone. After confirming the student was still breathing, Milo decided to leave him there and hopefully his goons would get a nurse or take him to the nurse themselves. After checking with the student who was being bullied, he said he was fine and thanked Milo for helping him. He introduced himself as Duncan Tremaine. He was a B ranked student who even though he was of a decent rank had been bullied due to his appearance and size. He told Milo and Zach that his ability wasn''t one that was strong when fighting which only added on to the abuse he received. Milo hearing the kids story felt bad, he had been in a simr position before awakening the system. Milo began thinking about some things and came up with an idea. "I''m going to train you, I''ll take you under my wing, help you learn how to fight, learn how to use your ability effectively, I''ll make you someone the bullies are afraid to mess with," Milo said, "what do you say?" Hearing this, Duncan seemed happy at first but then seemed to look down to the ground, "I don''t want to be a bother to you, you already did enough stopping the bullies this time, thanks anyways." Duncan then began to try to rush off, but Milo stopped him. "At least take my contact down in case you change your mind." Duncan reluctantly agreed and exchanged information with Milo before thanking him again and going on his way. Meanwhile the bigger student who was bullying him was finally gaining consciousness and upon seeing Milo still standing there he struggled to his feet and attempted to run away, only for him to stumble and fall until he finally stood once again and escaped doing a strangebination of limping and waddling. It was quiteical and caused Milo and Zach to burst outughing. "All''s well that ends well I guess," Zach said between tears. The pair then made their way to get Milo''s brow patched up from where he was cut. Milo held out hope that Duncan woulde around, as if he had his ability then he wouldn''t have had to go all the way to the nurses office to get patched up and instead would just need to wash away any blood that may have resulted from it. The only issue with this, is that Regeneration would be a visible ability and if someone saw him healing so quickly they''d question how it was possible. At the end of the day it would be an extremely useful ability even with the risk. After getting a band aid for his cut, Milo and Zach made their way to the cksmithing area. It was time for Zach to meet Milo''s crazy personal smith. Chapter 144 142 - The Crazy Smith Milo and Zach were walking through the smithing hall listening to the nking of machines, the huffing of the bellows, and the hammering of metal. The smithing hall was noticeably hotter than anywhere else on campus due to the fires used for making the metal formable. Milo could deal with the heat just fine, but Zach seemed to begin sweating soon after entering, due to the disaster ability Milo had a certain level of tolerance for both extreme heat and cold, otherwise his own ability would hurt him. Milo guided Zach around the smithing hall until he finally heard a familiar voice. He walked into the room to see Avery berating some of the other smithing students working in the same room. Something about them ruining the metal she was using due to them using the bellows too much. Milo didn''t really understand cksmithing so he didn''t know what it meant, but it obviously made her angry for some reason. After shooing them out of the room she turned to see Milo and Zach entering. She pulled off her mask that she wore when working and smiled when seeing Milo enter. Milo was used to the appearance of Avery at this point even with how it made no sense that a short girl could do such grueling work, but Zach seemed bbergasted when she took the mask off. It made sense after seeing her boss around and scare off two big burly dudes who were also smiths. "There''s my little gold mine, what''d you need?" she said to Milo. Zach didn''t know about the deal Milo had with Avery so he looked visibly confused. Milo exined Zach''s idea about a sort of lightning rod to redirect the electricity his beast shot off. Avery scratched her chin in thought for a little bit before asking to see what instrument Zach was currently using. Zach pulled out the half melted spear thing and showed it to her. She took it and looked at it closely beforeing to a resolution. "I see what''s going on here, the lightning appears to be superheating the metal causing it to melt once it gets to a high enough temperature, you need to use a magical alloy for it to work the way you want it to andst multiple lightning attacks. Normal metal when ced under the stress of magic power crumbles quite easily," she said, "If you want I can make one that works simr, it''ll be a slightly different shape and will be made of a magical alloy so that itsts as long as you want it to." Milo wasn''t sure if anything she was saying was true, but she had been helpful to him with all his smithing needs so far and figured her opinion would be the best one for them to follow. He agreed to having her make one for Zach which caused Zach to freak out a bit as he couldn''t afford it. Milo then said there was one other thing he needed her help with before pulling all his damaged equipment out of his dimensional storage earring. All his equipment was trashed, it practically looked like scrap metal from all the damage it had received while he was fighting for his life in New York. Seeing all the damaged equipment Avery put her hands to her head and had a mini meltdown. "What have you done to my masterpieces? How did they get this damaged?!" she eximed. Milo informed her of the attack from the Fellowship he fought through and also all the gates he had closed working his internship. He then exined how without them he would''ve stood no chance. Avery pinched the bridge of her nose feeling somewhat frustrated but understood how serious Milo could''ve been hurt, even killed. She said that it''d take her at least a week to fix everything up and then she''d also make the spear Zach needed, Milo said thanks and transferred her the credits she said she''d need in order to purchase the materials for the repair and for the spear. Milo assured Zach that he had more money than he needed from the internship and to consider it as thanks for walking him to the nurse''s office to get patched up. Zach contested this but after some arguing he eventually conceded after much convincing from Milo. Avery asked Milo if there was anything new he needed made, and he said that he could use some better leggings. He made up a story that they were a gift from one of his guild members during his internship, but in reality he had purchased them from the system shop. She took a closer look at them and was actually amazed by the craftsmanship. She asked Milo if he knew who had made them or what smithing firm they were a part of but he told her no. She scanned them over but could find no signature like most smiths or firms did to identify their work. She asked Milo if he had any preferences, but he told her to go crazy. He told her his only request was to make sure they fit in with the rest of his gear. She nodded and said she''d do that. Milo then asked her to not worry about the cost and he''d pay her when it''s finished. She nodded then said that the longer they take to leave then the longer it''ll take for her to get started on the work. She then hurried them out the door and shut it behind her, leaving a do not disturb sign on it so she wasn''t bothered. Milo and Zach were a bit stunned by how eager she was to get to work and within a few minutes, they could hear some moring from within the room. Milo giggled a little bit as the two began making their way to the exit. After going to get their stuff fixed, Milo returned to his dorm and caught up on some work he had missed due to meeting with the Big 4. asionally missing content, please report errors in time. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!