After that session of explanations, they kept walking until they reached their houses, as for the goodbyes for being the last day of school, they were not necessary.
The three of them were neighbors after all.
"Well then, see you tomorrow guys, oh and thanks for the sweet James~" Sarah said from her front door as she said goodbye to them.
Her house was quite large, it had 2 floors and had a british style, red brick walls along with white decorations that went well with the overall design of the house, it was also surrounded by a small fence, even though it looked a bit old, it didn't take away from the fact that it was a luxurious house.
"Bye~"
"You're welcome and see you tomorrow too, Sarah."
After they said goodbye to Sarah, she went inside her house, Jay and James kept walking, although only a little more, Jay's house was next door after all.
Unlike Sarah's house, Jay's on the other hand was quite normal, it was also two-story, white walls, had red roof tiles and some plants outside for decoration, he also had a garage, even though he didn't have a car.
"Bye, James~"
"Bye."
After saying goodbye, Jay entered his house, as for James, he still had to walk some more to get to his house.
Not that it was far away or anything, in fact it was right next to Jay's, or rather, the yard of his house was right next to Jay's, Jame's house was so big that only the yard was the size of several houses placed side by side.
After entering his house, Jay took off his shoes and went through the entrance, which only consisted of the entrance to the garage and a coat rack to leave coats, jackets, etc, although he didn't use it much.
Passing the entrance was the living room, a fairly average room, a few armchairs, a TV, a centerpiece and a sliding door that led to the backyard.
Because Jay liked the concept of open space, this floor was shared by the kitchen and the living room.
On the left was the staircase to the second floor which is where his bedroom, the bathroom and the room where he did all his laundry were.
After drinking a bottle of water from the fridge he went upstairs to his room to rest a bit.
"I'm tired even though I haven't done anything...weird."
Once in his room, he jumped on his bed still with his uniform on.
"Open." He suddenly said, lying on his bed.
Then, a transparent interface containing some words appeared in front of him.
_____________________
[Parasyte System]
Carrier: Jay Sacrest
[Status]
[Hosts] (New)
_____________________
This was the reason Jay had risked confronting Carl, as well as the esper skill he possessed.
However, although he believed that, he wasn't really sure if this was an esper skill or not since he hadn't heard of any similar skill before.
But since the espers were the ones that had the most diversity out of the three classes, he figured that he would have to be an esper.
As for how he got it, it came naturally about 3 weeks ago.
It was a normal day, Jay went to class, hung out with James and Sarah, they went out to eat something, then he came home, did his homework and finally fell asleep, the same routine that he had been following all these years.
However, the weird things started from there, specifically with what he dreamt about that night.
He remembered being in a totally dark space, where all he could hear was his breathing, it was as if he was in the middle...of nothingness.
Everywhere he looked, all he could see was darkness, adding that to the feeling of being suspended in the air, it wasn't pleasant for him at all.
Even then, he just thought that it was a weird dream, but just when that idea crossed his mind, he heard a voice.
"Jay..."
It was a deep and strong voice that was heard very close, so close that it resonated throughout his entire body, as if it came from inside him.
He looked around for the person who said that, and that's when he saw "him".
In the midst of all that darkness, a pair of little red eyes suddenly opened, staring straight at him.
"Come..."
He remembered that for some reason, it's voice sounded really sweet and convincing to his ears, making him unable to resist... so he inevitably approached.
Jay felt that it wasn't a very smart decision, but it was a dream and he wasn't at his best.
The closer he got, the more clearly he could see the silhouette of the "person" to whom those red eyes belonged.
Finally, when he was a just a few meters away from it, Jay managed to see it, it was a small golden worm the size of a thumb, it had very sharp teeth which together with its eyes made it look quite dangerous. Although... Jay couldn't feel any danger coming from it.
After he got close enough to the worm, his first reaction was, for some reason...to touch it.
The worm just stood still as Jay's hand came closer and closer to it, his red eyes following his hand.
Suddenly, just as Jay was about to touch it, the worm moved, causing Jay to reflexively close his eyes.
By the time he opened them, the worm was nowhere to be found and Jay was left alone once again in that dark space.
"Argh!"
Suddenly, he felt a great pain in his chest, forcing him to press on his chest in a desperate attempt to lessen even a little the intense pain he was feeling.
Unfortunately, it didn't help much and the pain just kept getting worse and worse until it became unbearable.
Just when he was about to pass out from the pain, he heard the voice again...
"Say it..."
"What? Argh! What do you mean...?!"
Jay didn't know why It was saying that so he just kept pressing his chest, it was a really confusing and painful moment for him.
"Open..."
"Open what?!"
The voice didn't answer him and just kept saying that, so Jay, without much else to do in that situation, did as the voice told him.
"Open!"
Suddenly, a transparent interface filled with words appeared in front of him.
_____________________
[Parasyte System]
Scanning [Carrier]...5%
Scanning [Carrier]...17%
Scanning...
_____________________
Unfortunately, he couldn't see more of those messages as he fainted from the pain.
By the time he woke up, his chest still hurt, which made him think that maybe it wasn't just a dream.
Then, hoping that it wasn't just a dream, he repeated the same thing he did there.
"Open..."
Unexpectedly, it worked, although the message that appeared before him was different from the one that he saw in his dream.
_____________________
[Parasyte System]
Carrier: Jay Sacrest
[Status]
[Hosts]
_____________________
Jay didn't sleep or went to school that day because of the excitement je was feeling, instead, he spent all day researching the functions of this so called "Parasyte System".
What he first discovered was that "Status" showed the physical state of his body in grades.
The initial state of his body was like this:
_____________________
[Status]
Strength: (E-)
Agility: (E+)
Resistance: (E-)
_____________________
He was surprised that his physical condition was displayed in this way, and he also felt a little embarrased, his stats were horrible after all.
Although there were different ways to classify supers from the different classes, the best known way was by means of letters, from the (F-) rank to the legendary (S) rank.
(E-) rank meant that he was in worst shape than most of his classmates and he also was sure that there were even some kids stronger than him.
The reason why his physical condition was so deplorable was because he didn't really exercise at all, he preferred to spend his time doing other things like studying, reading or something like that.
But now that that has changed, he decided to increase his stats, exercising like never before.
It took him about a week and a half to increase his strength stat, however, he indeed felt that he had become stronger than before.
As for agility and endurance, although he trained them, he couldn't increase their rank for some reason.
Another thing that he noticed was that he felt that the energy he possessed had increased. Specifically, the speed at which he recovered, for example, if he spent 3 hours exercising, he only needed half an hour of rest to exercise another 3, and the same was true for other aspects of his daily life, such as sleeping.
Although the amount of food he needed also increased a lot compared to before, it was a good thing that he could train faster.
Then, with that covered, the next thing he researched was the "Hosts" option.
Initially it showed this:
_____________________
[Hosts]
You currently do not have a host.
Infect another individual to get a host.
Parasites Available: 10 (As a gift from the system, the [Carrier] has been awarded with 10 parasites.)
_____________________
That part interested him even more, it was telling me him that he could have "Hosts", and the system even gave him 10 parasites as a gift!
Jay then started wondering what exactly he could do with the hosts...
However, no matter how much he thought about it, the only thing that came to his mind was that he had to test it in order to discover more, he just hoped that he wouldn't have to devour someone or something like that.
As for the part about having to infect someone else, he didn't know how to do it or who to do it to.
So, without much more to do, he decided to put it aside at the moment due to his lack of knowledge and a suitable test subject.
Luckily, he still could experiment with the last part of the "Hosts" option, the so called "parasites".
The first thing that came to his mind was to say "out"... but it didn't work.
After that Jay tried several more things, like doing weird poses, trying to throw something out of his mouth, putting his hands together, shooting with his fingers...but nothing.
Finally, he decided to try something simpler and less silly than the above.
He sat cross-legged on his bed and focused on his body, trying to feel where the parasites might be.
Fortunately, Jay was able to discover why it hadn't worked for him before.
He had tried to get them out of his stomach, mouth, chest or fingers before, and they weren't there.
They were in his right arm, the same arm that he touched the worm in his dream with...