The suns in the sky were starting to set, with the furthest one already no longer visible from their position. It would still take around a whole hour before the nighttime started, however.
The fifty students had chosen to enter a cave to pass the night, since it had less risk of them being discovered than if they stayed in the wilderness, especially at this time when some Void Beasts were more active.
There was a rank one occupying the cave, but Mares took care of it fast, and currently, they were cooking the meat of said Void Beast. It was enough to feed all fifty, and still have leftovers.
Mares also could see the versatility of the students and space technology for small things at that instant. All they had to do was cut the meat using some weapons, lay down what seemed like a gray piece of fabric, and put some sort of seasoning on the meat, and it was ready for everyone in less than half an hour.
It was also possible to see the distinction of groups between the students in a more obvious way inside the cave. The ones that were injured were all in one area, groups of friends were spread out and talking between themselves, sometimes looking at Lhian that was further down from them. Most of those were male students.
Lhian herself was further from everyone else, being only near Mares and the quintet, that the silver-eyed ear dropped the other students calling the delinquent group. He could understand why from the attitude the five shared.
"Boss, how did you take that Inpati out so easily? Was that your technique?"
However, while they do have a deviant attitude against most students, even Lhian, they seemed utterly impressed by Mares' strength. The blue silver-haired seemed embarrassed by their constant barrage of questions towards Mares and kept sending glances to them, which went completely ignored.
"A technique."
He answered with the usual monotone tone in his voice.
"Cool! Can we see it?"
Calon asked enthusiastically. Now even Lhian couldn't help but have somewhat of an expectant look, as she also wanted to witness Mares' abilities. The other members of the delinquent group weren't much better, looking at the silver eyed with expectation.
Mares stopped for a second, considering if he should or not demonstrate the air ring technique.
'Hey, Mars, aren't you curious about their techniques as well?'
Esen suddenly asked.
'Huh? Yeah, but I can always ask you when I feel like it.'
'Hihi.' He knew she was up to something. 'Nop, I am not telling you. If you want to learn, have to ask them yourself.'
'Are you… why?'
He asked, and it is only because of his mask that the students could not see his slightly annoyed expression.
'Hihi, my Mars is making friends, I have to give you a push.'
He mentally sighed and decided to just do as she wanted.
"Ok, but I would also like you all to explain to me your techniques."
All of the six had their fastly nodded in agreement, looking afraid that he could suddenly change his mind. They were still very impressed with his previous demonstration of strength and were a bit proud he was curious about their powers.
"No problem!"
"Sure!"
"That would be great!"
Those were some of the responses he got. At least he had to admit, they had enthusiasm.
"Is nothing special really, you all shouldn't expect too much."
Mares said as he raised his right hand, ready to show the air ring technique. He could only wonder about what would be their reactions if they knew what he can truly do.
He raised his index finger, pointing it upwards. On the tip of his finger a dense ring of air, rotating at high speed like a circular saw, was formed. Mares took a look at a close rock and decided to attempt something.
Under everyone's eyes he pointed at the rock, and without them knowing, used another technique, the repulsing one, making the rotating ring of air in his finger fly to the rock, perfectly splitting it in two.
They had varied reactions but were all amazed, after all, they saw how big of an attack Mares could make, and it wasn't hard to imagine the cutting power he can show.
"Damn." Clest whispered.
"Yeah, now I understand why the Inpat was shredded." Venissino added, trying to imagine how it would be to face that head-on. He felt that he would be lucky if he still had a recognizable corpse.
"Hmm, M-, aham, sir, why didn't you use this technique during your fight?"
Lhian asked, almost slipping up his name. Fortunately, she corrected herself fast enough that only Mares had gotten hold of it.
"Of course I used."
He said as he repeated the motion he just did, once more cutting a rock in two, but this time they couldn't see the air ring. The demonstration made all the six sweat cold, thinking the same.
'I am glad we got him on our side.'
Mares had to admit, he had some fun with their reactions.
Seeing that demonstration of his, there was something more that Lhian thought about, but this time she kept it to herself, deciding that she would bring it up to Mares if the situation allowed.
"Now I believe is your turn to show me your techniques."
The silver-eyed said, facing the group of six.
"Me first!" Luo said with a smirk, pointing to himself with his thumb.
"And why you?" Lhian whoever asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, so should we let our great leader go first?" Winna remarked, putting a special ironic tone when saying, leader.
The blue silver-haired pouted and blushed a little in shame. She didn't feel much like a good leader after all. The rest of the group seemed to also want to join Winna's side.
"It's ok, any of you can go first."
But before they could Mares stopped their rather childish discussion. The fact that he didn't do much to hide the annoyance he felt from their small dispute made everyone embarrassed.
They all realized how they were probably looking, and a veil of silence took the group.
"Sorry."
It was Lhian that brook the silence, apologizing timidly. The silver-eyed looked at her, who he seemed ashamed of, and tried to avoid his gaze. He couldn't help but sigh.
"You apologize too much. Well, I am really curious about your technique, so why don't you start?"
He had to admit. The way she smiled excitedly after hearing that, was really cute.
[…]
It was deep on the night; the students had most gone to sleep. They had decided to take turns watching the cave, but those that should be watching had also fallen asleep. Only Mares was awakened.
'Hmm, yeah, she is cute.'
Esen said in his mind space, as she watched Lhian sleeping.
'Why do I feel like you are having weird ideas little bunny?'
He asked, standing up, making sure no one noticed him. Wasn't hard considering everyone was deep in their slumbers.
'Me? Hihihi, no, I don't have weird ideas, Mars. Only great ideas.'
She smiled playfully.
'Sure you do…'
He said as he got out of the cave unnoticed, with a speed that wouldn't allow the students to find him even if they were awakened.
'Am I mistaking something or it feels like there is more Astral Energy around?'
The silver-eyed asked as he looked around, feeling more energy than he had felt around during the day.
'Look at the sky.'
He did as Esen said, and realized that of the planet's five moons, three were fully visible, and the fourth and fifth were almost fully visible, even if they were the furthest ones from the planet.
'Even your planet had periods of the month with a full moon, but in planets with Astral Energy manifested in the air, during the full moon is the peak of natural energy in the environment. From one full moon to another, the energy disperses naturally but it also slowly accumulates naturally.'
Esen explained as Mares nodded in understanding. It is just a shame he isn't a mage, as he couldn't make use of the energy around as he could on minerals or cores.
He looked around for some time, his sight allowing him to look far into the distance. The darkness of the night also did not bother him in the slightest. In his hand was the spatial box Qiulei had him borrow to put the void beast's core.
'Do you think they will make any difference?'
Mares asked the white-haired in his mind, as he appeared on the top of a large tree. It was far enough from the cave for him to not wake up the students, while still being close enough for him to be able to pay attention to it, in case something happened.
'I don't think so. They were only rank two void beasts, so I doubt they will be very useful to you.'
She said with a shrug.
'I see.'
He lost a good chunk of interest, but still took out the first core. He noticed that, as Esen had pointed out, there was much less energy in this core than the two others he had previously absorbed. He still did so, and in seconds the energy that once belonged to a void beast entered his body as the core turned gray, before breaking into dust.
'Useless.'
It was his evaluation. The energy he had just absorbed was like drops of water in a lake or ocean, it made no difference.
'Why did she even give me this?'
He wondered looking at the box, which now looked more like a waste of space.
'Mars, you can't blame her. She didn't give you those thinking you would absorb them.'
Esen said, resisting the urge to facepalm as she understood that Mares' complaints would make anyone else think he was insane.
'What do you mean?'
He asked with a raised eyebrow.
'Mars is not normal to be able to absorb Void Beasts' energy directly. No, scratch that, is not normal to absorb any type of energy directly. Normally, the energy first needs to be refined before someone can absorb it. In this process, a considerable part of the energy would be lost. What you can do, is something no one else can't.'
She explained, sighing that she should have told him about this before. Though it was never really a worry or a priority, hence it had completely slipped her mind.
'I see. And what might happen if someone tries to absorb the energy without it being refined first?' He asked, wanting to know what could be the negative side effects.
'It varies. One can die exploding, or simply die painfully. Dying is the most common, and honestly, best outcome. The worst is that someone can become bedeviled, losing all sense of self, becoming even more savage than a void beast.'
A moment of silence fell between the two. Undoubtedly, Esen understood what Mares was thinking.
Before he got captured, how many before he fell to such a destiny?
They didn't know and probably did not care a lot. Still, it was a reminder, they were walking in a pile of corpses.