On the morning of the next day, after Sarah and Jay had breakfast, he went out to the backyard to see the harvest that he got after patiently waiting for ten days.
He had not done so yesterday because talking to Carl and Sarah had tired him mentally, so much that he went to straight to bed after she did.
However, that didn't take away the fact that he was very excited to see what he could do with the parasite he had recovered.
Then, after sitting in the middle of the backyard, simply because he thought it looked cool, he said the key words to open the system.
"Open."
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[Parasyte System]
Carrier: Jay Sacrest
[Status]
[Hosts]
[Skills] (New Function Unlocked)
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'...Hell yeah! It's just as I thought!' Jay thought as he closed his fists in excitement before selecting the new option that appeared.
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[Skills]
Currently the user does not possess any special skills.
Available Skills:
Parasite: Wind Control (D) (Ready for assimilation) (Unstable)
Do you want to assimilate this parasite? (Y/N)
(Warning: The parasite is currently in an unstable state due to a body compatibility, the rank of the skill may vary. )
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'...Body compatibility huh, so I'm not a esper after all...?" He thought, wondering why that had appeared. 'And it says that the rank will vary...oh well, I guess I have to start somewhere~'
The supers had several ways to classify their skills, however, the most used and known way was the classification with letters, which went from (F-) to (S). Whether it was the martial techniques of pugilists, the spells of mages or the special skills of espers, they all shared that system.
Normally, most people's skills were in the range of "F-" to "F+", with the difference between them and people with no skills being almost zero, and because it was incredibly difficult to increase this rank if one wasn't talented, many people decided to look for normal jobs.
Seeing that Carl's rank was "D", one could see that he was somewhat talented despite his young age.
Because the parasite was in an unstable state, even though the skill was "D" rank, it could reach the worst range, which was "F-", giving Jay the ability to throw wind in his face without the need for a fan, which although it sounded convenient, was not what Jay expected at all.
Unfortunately, even though Jay looked at other system options to see if there was a way to "stabilize" the parasite, he found nothing.
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Do you want to assimilate this parasite? (Y/N)
(Warning: The parasite is currently in an unstable state due to a body compatibility, the rank of the skill may vary. )
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"Haa...well, I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best." Jay said in front of the system window as he closed his eyes in fear of seeing the range he would get after the assimilation, then he selected the "Y" option.
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Beginning assimilation.
Assimilation Progress: 0%
Unable to assimilate safely...
Error found: (Carrier's body is extremely incompatible with the skill)
...Proceeding to solve it.
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"Wait, wha-ARGH!!"
Suddenly, Jay felt great pain throughout his body, at the same time, the parasite he had recovered from Carl began to move from his left arm to the middle of his chest, and right there, Jay clearly felt how the parasite was slowly fusing with him and disappearing in the process.
"F*CK!" shouted Jay as he fell to the ground, however the pain did not diminish one bit, in fact it got worse, especially in the chest area.
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Assimilation Progress: 30%.
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"HOW IS THIS JUST A 'LITTLE PAINFUL'?!" He shouted as he lay face up on the floor while clutching his chest, enduring the intense pain he was feeling right now.
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Assimilation Progress: 60%.
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Luckily, it seemed that the assimilation process was advancing rather quickly, so Jay just had to grit his teeth and hang on a little longer...although it's not like he had a choice anyway.
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Assimilation Progress: 90%.
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Despite the tremendous pain he was going through, Jay also felt like a refreshing sensation was slowly beginning to appear in his body, in fact, when the assimilation was at 30% it was barely distinguishable, but now it was as noticeable as the sun.
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Assimilation Progress: 99%.
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"OH, YOU BASTARD, WHY ARE YOU STOPPING RIGHT THERE?!" Jay shouted indignantly with little tears in the corner of his eyes.
"Ah."
Suddenly, as quickly as the pain came, it was gone, and what replaced it was the same refreshing sensation he had been feeling, but much stronger this time, so much so that it even escaped his body, giving rise to a small current of air that moved the grass around him.
The next moment, two system windows appeared before him.
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Assimilation Progress: 100%.
Rank of acquired skill...(D-)
[You have acquired "Wind Control (D-)]
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[Hidden Task: "First skill" completed.]
[Reward: 10 Parasites]
Remark: A little but unavoidable step, congratulations to the carrier!
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"...ouch." Jay said, relieved that it had ended, even though he was happy he got almost the best result, the pain he had felt was no small thing.
However, despite being tired and the fact that his body aching, rest was not in Jay's plans, at least not today, when he had finally acquired a skill!
Plus, he had even completed a hidden task!
"The next time I do something like this, I'd better be in bed, I wouldn't want to pass out from the pain in the backyard"
Standing up, though still a bit sore, Jay reopened the system interface, wanting to see what had changed, he quickly selected the "Skills" option.
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[Skills]
Wind Control (D-): (0%)
Available Skills:
Currently there are no skills available to assimilate.
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"...Definitely worth the pain..." Said Jay as he sat back in the center of the backyard while seeing the percentage next to the skill, various ideas taking shape in his head...as for the matter of the hidden tasks, he decided that he would think about it later, it wasn't as if he could complete another one right now after all.
Although the (D-) rank was not something that would make him incredibly stronger, it was much better than the (F+) rank.
"Now, let's see how can I use this."
The first thing that came to his mind was to imitate what Carl did, to make a little swirl of air in his hand.
Then he put his right hand in front of him and tried to control the refreshing sensation he felt in his body before.
*Fuu*
Unfortunately, the only thing he managed to get out was a breeze that moved his hair.
"...Ok, I honestly don't know what I expected, I just got this a minute ago." He said while trying to control the energy again, but this time without trying to make a swirl, but simply to create a strong breeze.
Although espers were mostly talented, that didn't mean they didn't spend hours and hours perfecting their skills, after all, even the first esper, Cyra, despite being practically blessed by the heavens, had never forgotten to perfect her skills to the point of exhaustion, which was a well-known fact among the espers.
Taking that into account, Jay wanting to run without really knowing how to walk was impossible.
Then, wanting to test if the percentage next to the skill was what he thought and also wanting to familiarize himself with it, he spent all afternoon training his newly acquired skill, and many hours later he finally came to a conclusion.
"This will take time."
"Yep, I think even the fan we have in my house is stronger than you right now." Said Sarah, she was sitting cross-legged, floating about six feet above the ground, no longer wearing last night's pajamas, instead she was wearing a black sports outfit which showed her abdomen and enfatized her curves, her hair tied in a long ponytail.
She had joined Jay after they both had lunch, due to today being her free day, she spent the entire morning watching tv, but after seeing that Jay was training hard, she decided to train for a few hours too.
She was using a spell which allowed her to remain suspended in the air, although it had no use in combat and one couldn't fly with it either, it was a great spell to practice mana control.
Jay didn't answer to what she said, instead he just started inhaling a lot of air, before blowing hard at Sarah, causing her to slowly move towards the wall of the house.
This was something he discovered he could do while testing different ways to use his skill.
Because the spell Sarah was using required a lot of her concentration, she could not activate any other spells that could stop Jay, and deactivating the one she was currently using would take at least a minute, so the beatiful mage simply kept floating in the direction of the house.
"Oh oh, Jay, uh, help...I'm going to crash...I'm going to crash...I'm going to-"
*BAM*
Although the speed at which she crashed was by no means fast, there still was a not very pleasant sound of a person crashing against something.
In this case, the person in question was a girl who had hit the wall using nothing more and nothing less than her forehead
Then she slid slowly down, her forehead still making contact with the wall.
"...Jay..." Said Sarah slowly as she turned her head to look at Jay, her white forehead a little red from the impact, however, although she looked a little pitiful right now, the intention emanating from her gaze was one of anger.
"...It's just...I'm doing my best and you say that a fan is stronger than me!" Replied Jay, somewhat frightened by the look he was getting.
"I'll do my best to beat you up!" Shouted Sarah as she pulled out her wand and got up off the ground.
"Come on then, I'm not afraid of you, I'll make sure to muss up that cute ponytail for you until you get an afro!"
Despite being scared, Jay decided that if he was going to get beaten up anyway, he might as well try to improve his skills while doing it.
That's how the first battle between the strongest human fan in the neighborhood and the great mage Sarah began!