"I want you to teach me ... everything you know about Aura, how to use it, everything you know about Deep Sky." Ralph spoke directly.
"This ... It's certainly a lot." Touka rolled her eyes and said.
"But you know that I also have use for you." Ralph said.
Touka shook his head and said:
"It is true that you are useful to me, but you are not the only one who can ... Well, the knowledge you want is not cheap, since I got it from my family and it involves many secrets."
"Do not underestimate me." Ralph smiled and said.
"??"
"I can not only be useful in relation to that art, but also in other ways." Ralph said slowly.
Touka looked deeply at Ralph and said:
"How about we go for a walk, I'm interested."
"So you mean these secrets are not so secret? Haha." Ralph took the opportunity.
Touka rolled her eyes and left the room, with Ralph following behind.
Aoi, who had overheard the conversation, sighed and murmured:
"This guy is selling himself again, I have to remind him that our agreement is still in place."
Aoi took out his cell phone and texted Ralph.
Ralph received the message and frowned as he read.
-That girl ... She's still considering our deal, huh? But I don't think I have much of a choice, I accepted the manual she gave me. But ... I need to modify our agreement a little.
"Hmm? Are you distracted? Ralph-san." Touka spoke with a slight smile.
"Cough ... I'm sorry, I think this is a good place." Ralph said as he looked around.
They had arrived at a public square near the school.
The two sat on a bench and Ralph started talking.
"I know you are not taking this too seriously, so I will show my sincerity."
Ralph then restricted his Aura completely, which did not escape Touka's sensation.
"Wow, have you reached that point-"
Ralph interrupted Touka's speech and then expanded his transcendent sense to the fullest.
After a brief silence, Touka asked:
"Ralph-san, how long ago did you start practicing?"
"A few weeks." Ralph replied and retracted his transcendent sense.
Touka put her hand on her chin and said:
"This is certainly very fast, beyond what I thought possible. Many people take years to reach that level ... Is that your sincerity? Show me how fast you grow?"
"Not over yet." Ralph spoke and held out his hand.
A short knife appeared in Ralph's hands, but Touka was not too surprised by this.
"I heard that your skill was quite unusual-"
Without giving Touka time to finish speaking, Ralph tossed the knife in the direction of the trash near the bank, the knife easily pierced the trash.
After a moment the knife disappeared, but the hole left by it remained.
"It is really interesting, your ability to delude." Touka nodded.
"Pay attention, the hole in the trash is not an illusion." Ralph said and smiled slightly.
Touka frowned slightly and studied the trash, and her expression then changed.
"That..."
"I can not only create illusions, but also directly affect the real world with them. I can basically convert any mental desire into something almost real ..."
Touka took a deep breath and looked at the sky, which was already getting dark.
"The world is really unfair, how can an anomaly have such a ridiculous innate ability." Touka murmured.
"...Anomaly?" Ralph murmured discontentedly.
"Hehe, that's what we call those who are born with innate abilities like you. But you are not only an anomaly, but also a mutant, someone who awoke Aura after reaching adolescence. The normal thing is to awaken the Aura still in the mother's belly or before one year old."
"... This is new to me." Ralph sighed.
"These two characteristics in a single person certainly caught the attention of many people. Finding just one mutant or an anomaly is already extremely rare." Touka spoke in a deep tone.
"..." Ralph was silent.
"If it weren't for the fact that my family and I have no ambitions, I would probably capture you and use you for our own purposes, or dissect you. An important characteristic of a mutant is that it grows very quickly and almost always becomes a powerful Aura Master. " Touka spoke lightly.
"There are probably a lot of organizations looking at you for a variety of purposes ... But that's also the reason why most haven't tried to capture you yet, you're a hot potato."
"..." Ralph pondered Touka's words.
After a moment, Ralph asked:
"Is there any way I can get time? So that I can stay strong enough to protect myself."
"... Perhaps, if you join the golden inspectors." Touka spoke weakly.
"I've heard of them before, are they really reliable?" Ralph asked.
Touka looked at Ralph strangely and asked:
"Don't you think you're depending on more than one person you hardly know? What if I'm lying?"
"... I'm betting." Ralph replied briefly.
Touka looked in shock at Ralph and asked:
"Aren't you afraid it will kill you?"
Ralph this time looked up at the sky and smiled.
"I'm afraid, but it doesn't matter, I can't get away from it, right?"
Touka looked at Ralph for a moment and said:
"I heard you can be invisible, right?"
Ralph nodded.
"I believe that golden inspectors can help you, especially with a perfect infiltration ability." Touka said and stood up.
"One more thing, my dad is part of the golden inspectors. Don't think that I'm trying to deceive you. I don't have many uses for your skills, but if you join the golden inspectors, I will help you as I can." Touka spoke and left, leaving only a small card.
Ralph looked at Touka as she left, and suddenly remembered Ana.
Ralph put both hands on his head and took a deep breath.
"This conflict in my head ..." Ralph murmured and took a deep breath.
"I think I'm going to have to get used to it."
"My Status."
[Ralph Karman
Age: 20 (Soul) 15 (Body)
Level: 1
Talents: Infinite; Aura; ...
Situation: Healthy; Psychologically influenced by Imamoto Ralph;
Skills: Indomitable spirit (Passive); Aura sensitivity, lv5; Inner Vision, lv5; Aura Fusion, lv5;
Beast Skills: Illusion, lv5 (Mastered);
Stats:
Strenght: (Standard)
Agility: (Standard)
Intelligence: 6
Dexterity: (Standard)
Vitality: (Standard)
Resistance: (Standard)
Will Power: 3
Latent Energy: 2
Available stats points: 10]
"Did this ... Did my level increase? And those stats points, I don't remember killing anyone ... Could it be ..." Ralph was surprised to see the changes and started to create a hypothesis.
"Maybe ... The fact that I mastered the beast skill increased my level, and that in turn gave me 10 stats points." Ralph murmured.
Ralph's melancholy mood was gone and he was very happy.
Ralph spent a lot of time pondering how to use the points, and decided to put everything into three attributes, intelligence, Will Power, Latent Energy.
The reason is simple, Latent energy is directly related to the power of his Aura, despite not having a very high efficiency compared to the strengthening of traditional Aura, if he manages to increase his stat quickly he will certainly not be left behind by others.
Latent Energy is also related to the potential of the illusion ability, as well as intelligence and Will Power.
In addition, if his Aura becomes more powerful, he can use it to strengthen his own body, this according to the 'Aura Flow' manual.
Ralph decided to apply five points in Latent Energy, four in Will Power and only one in intelligence. So he left the three stats balanced.
Taking a deep breath, Ralph felt the change in himself.
The world seemed to slow down, and an endless confidence filled Ralph as he felt a flame rise within him.
Ralph closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, he understood, he is not only getting stronger, he is evolving in every aspect, he is increasingly distancing himself from ordinary humanity.
Ralph got up and went to his apartment, feeling light as a feather.
Upon arriving at the apartment, he called Aoi first.
"Hello."
"Good night, Aoi-san. I have something to talk to you about." Ralph spoke.
First, Ralph told Aoi that he will do missions for her as payment for the manual, but that each mission must be kept completely confidential.
Second, Ralph said he will only carry out missions until he feels he has already paid for the manual, after which he will no longer follow the agreement for bringing more benefits than harm in the long run.
Third, he will give priority to other activities, and will only complete the missions if he has free time.
Aoi was pleased that Ralph would not simply come back with the word, but unhappy with the changes to the agreement. However, she accepted the changes by remembering the risks that the relationship between her family and Ralph pose to the boy.
"That's all, good night, Aoi-san." Ralph spoke.
"... Ralph, are you really going to keep selling yourself?" Aoi suddenly asked.
Ralph was silent for a moment and said:
"I am not selling myself, I am selling my workforce, that's all."
After that, Ralph hung up the call directly.
Ralph then looked at the card he received from Touka.
It was a gold card with a phone number written on it.
Ralph dialed the number on his cell phone, and after a few seconds someone answered.
"What's the password?" Someone asked on the other side, Ralph couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.
"34Y79" Ralph replied as he looked at the back of the card.
"This is the recruitment password, who recruited you?" The person asked.
"Mirai Touka." Ralph replied.
"...Just a moment."
After a few minutes, the person spoke again.
"Are you Imamoto Ralph? Are you sure what you're doing? There's no going back."
"There is no turning back from death either, whatever." Ralph spoke lightly.
"Good phrase, I like you ... I will send an agent to your home during the night, please stay tuned." After saying this, the person hung up the call.
Ralph sighed and looked at his table. There was the equipment that he spent a lot of money to assemble.
Ralph thought for a moment and decided to go and get all the money that was in the abandoned building.
The money cases were in the same place, and there were no signs of movement in the vicinity.
Ralph came home and arranged everything in a corner of the room.
He then took the revolver he had stolen, Ralph thought it was really cute.
"But he doesn't think that kind of weapon will be very useful in the future." Ralph murmured and put the gun away.
After eating something, Ralph started to practice. He coordinated the 'Aura Flow' manual with the 'Duality of Origin' Art.
Ralph had no difficulty in understanding the steps described, and moved forward easily.
Using the trance sense, Ralph was quite surprised to see that he was able to cover an area of 15 meters, and was able to perceive things with sufficient clarity.
-The first step now is to use Aura at the same time that I maintain the sense of trance. This must be like a domain.
Ralph held out both hands, a green Aura began to emanate from his hands, that was the color of his Aura when manifested manually, that is, when merged with his desire. Green like Ralph's eyes.
Ralph had no room to admire as he was concentrating on maintaining a sense of trance.
-I died once, how many times will I have to die to stop being hostage to fate?
Ralph was motivated.
The green Aura that came out of his hands was turbulent, and a shock wave rocked Ralph's room.
Ralph almost lost consciousness when he felt a strong impact, but luckily he was on the bed.
"It is very difficult, but I will make it, I bet I am progressing faster than anyone!" Ralph spoke with red eyes.
Ralph sat down again and held out his hands, the green Aura emanating again.
A series of trial and error started from there, the shock waves were fortunately not powerful enough to do much damage, but Ralph's neighbors certainly felt uncomfortable.
-The first part of the art comes down to dividing Will himself into two parts and merging them again but creating a different product ...
Ralph again looked at his own hands, this time the Aura, although turbulent, was under control.
His hands slowly met, and the turbulent Auras began to merge into one. Ralph felt a sudden impulse.
The aura in Ralph's hands shot forward.
~ Bang.
The door to Ralph's room was destroyed.
Ralph began to breathe heavily, and he felt weak and began to perspire.
"I did it, despite being imperfect and lacking control."
What Ralph did was based on the vector system. Ralph brought his hands together from different directions, resulting in a resulting vector in front of him, something like a Hadouken.
-The limitation of this art is clear, there is nothing to do without this division.
Ralph thought but was satisfied. He did this while maintaining his sense of trance.
Ralph took a deep breath and retracted Aura herself.
Looking at the time, Ralph saw that it was already three in the morning.
"It did not arrive yet?" Ralph murmured.
"I'm already here." A male voice came from Ralph's office.
Ralph frowned, he didn't feel anybody with his trancing sense.
Upon arriving in the living room, Ralph saw a middle-aged man dressed in ordinary robes, drinking tea calmly from the only chair in the house.
"Have you finished your practice session?" The man asked with a smile.
"Did I keep you waiting too long? Sir ...?"
"My name is Ikki, but you can call me a captain."
Ralph smiled and said:
"Nice to meet you, Sir Ikki, but I don't remember agreeing to join you yet so I won't be calling you a captain."
Ikki looked at Ralph with a smile and said:
"There were some mice watching your residence, I got rid of them, but I kept my heads, do you want to take a look?"
"There is no need, but thanks for the favor." Ralph thanked him.
"Hmm, look, we don't have anything like a paper for you to sign. We believe in good old confidence ... But there is a test." Ikki spoke.
"What kind of test?" Ralph asked.
"I have an innate ability, like you, and with it I can force anyone to show true nature." Ikki spoke and stood up.
"You just need to defend yourself from a punch from me, that's the test."
Ralph sighed and stood guard.
"Good luck, boy." Ikki said and punched Ralph in the direction.
Ralph saw only a normal punch, but he knew that was not the case.
Suddenly Ralph felt a deep fear, a fear he had never felt before. Then he felt unbelievable sadness along with fear, and then hatred.
The punch approached Ralph, who was about to collapse.
He felt like running away, crying, asking for forgiveness, fighting to the death.
But something kept him still and on guard, that was Ralph's rationality.
Blood ran down Ralph's face, blood came out of his eyes and nose.
With sheer strength of will, Ralph held his ground and slowly raised his hand to intercept the punch.
When he intercepted the punch, everything Ralph was feeling disappeared. And Ralph just felt blood dripping from his face.
[For reaching your limit and persisting, you have earned a +1 stat point in 'Will Power'.]
"At least you are not a miserable and mediocre person," Ikki said with a smile.
"Now tell me, do you accept joining my squad?"
Ralph, who was breathing heavily, spat some blood on the floor without a minimum of education and said:
"I will remember that, I will make you feel it all one day."
Ikki smiled and held out his hand to Ralph.
Ralph and Ikki shook hands.
"I trust you, Ralph." Ikki spoke seriously.
At that moment, Ralph felt a slight pain in the back of his hand, a gold dot appeared.
"This is the symbol of my squadron, the golden star. Welcome." Ikki spoke with a big smile.
Ralph smiled bitterly.