Yet, nothing was set in stone. If Adam absorbed this ability and the gluon energy couldn't fortify his other abilities, he would be in a big loss for him. Yet, Adam decided to gamble. He mentally wished to absorb the ability!
After a few seconds, Adam felt like his body was full. He realized that this was the conventional limit for the abilities within his body, yet because of Tenacity, he could tolerate one more ability beyond this limit.
Adam walked over to another old man who had a Grade H ability that wasn't useful to him.
[Ability - Irritating Heart]
[Grade H]
[Creates Irritation in the heart of people in a radius of 1 meter around user.]
[Absorb?]
Adam wished for it to absorb and within seconds, he felt an overflowing feeling that threatened to burst his body apart, yet Tenacity caused him to tolerate this feeling. Adam closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, as he looked at the old man, whose ability he just stole, continue to blabber about his children.
Adam then quietly activated Gluon Split upon this useless fourth ability. Within seconds, the fourth ability, which was bubbling out of Adam's body disintegrated and turned into a white colored energy blob within Adam's body.
Adam then crossed his fingers figuratively, and guided that white energy blob into the second ability - Tenacity. To his glad surprise, the energy was rapidly absorbed. Adam felt his Tenacity improve marginally, and realized that he needed nine more such white blobs to upgrade Tenacity by a grade to Grade G.
At the same time, Adam felt that his body felt a little stronger than before, and the vessel to hold abilities expanded a little bit.
"Does absorbing this gluon energy into the body improve the capacity to hold more abilities? This ability combined with Snatch was truly terrifying!" Adam screamed in his heart.
---
Another week passed after Adam had absorbed his third ability. During this time, he had absorbed several useless Grade H abilities and disintegrated them into energy blobs. His Tenacity had actually improved to Grade G. This had two amazing benefits.
His body could hold one more ability 'normally'. This was the benefit of absorbing the gluon energies. The benefit of Tenacity upgrading a Grade was that he could now hold 2 more abilities on top of that extra one. Hence, Adam could now house three more abilities. However, he wasn't in a hurry to fill these abilities up! He needed the perfect ability, that would turn his ability into an ultimate weapon of mass upheaval and make him unstoppable.
In the meantime, he did submit an article for the school newspaper, about old age homes and the shabby state which was published. The newspaper editor was quite surprised and glad to receive this kind of detailed work, and Adam had quickly entered the journalism club at the school. Even some teachers felt like the article was an eye opener.
After school ended, Adam and a group of friends went to the nearby cafe to relax. Adam's monthly subsidy from the government wasn't high, but since his rent was covered by the government, he still had some money to spend around.
In the cafe, the group were chatting frivolously.
"Did you see the last battle with the alien beast in the southern end of the city yesterday?" One person mumbled as they fiddled with their holo watch to pull the news.
"I saw it live! A mysterious ability user actually saved the people and defeated the alien before the registered heroes could arrive, but they weren't on the documented ability users directory."
"My father said that it was an underground organization!"
"Underground organization?" Adam asked. He was curious about that mysterious ability user as well.
"That's what my dad said. He works in the government. He heard gossip that the mysterious ability user was actually from an underground organization called Truth Alliance. "
"But, didn't the government and hero association jointly deem any other parallel ability organization illegal?" Asked another person.
"Yes, that is officially the law. But some groups have the power to resist these two behemoths, and the Hero Association turns a blind eye to them - after all the biggest enemy are the Alien beasts!"
Adam nodded. It was indeed similar to how the situation was in District 3, where Adam was originally form. Underground organizations were an open secret, especially those that were criminal in nature. They often clashed with hero association, but sometimes they even cooperated with the government.
While they were discussing these things, a duo of people in black costumes stormed the cafe.
"Don't make a f***ing noise! This is a robbery!" One of the two men in black costumes screamed out. His scream turned into a powerful sonic screech that suppressed everyone in the room, including Adam.
The other person in black costume was gently tapping the glass on the reception bar of the cafe, causing terrifying vibrations in everyone's hearts.
"Soul attack!" Adam immediately realized as he felt the fear within his body unconsciously rising. The combination of the two black costumed men was formidable. One used sonic pressure to weaken the mental and physical fortitude of opponents, while the other could create soul attacks just by tapping on objects!
At that moment, a person in the cafe suddenly stood up from among the customers who had been slammed to the ground. It was a young woman who struggled against the threat of the two mysterious intruders and stood up. She had a heroic look on her face.
Adam saw the girl and remembered who she was. She was actually a student from his school, and in his grade as well. She was considered as one of the city's ability prodigies. Her name was Lisa and her ability was supposed to be a form of Spirit Mind of Grade F or higher.
When Adam remembered her ability from the gossip, he wasm't surprised to see her resist the soul attack of the duo.