Waking up he saw it was early morning the next day. His mother left him a cake and a glass of milk and a note saying she would be back by 11:00AM.
"Urh..." With a few groans, Thomas got off the bed and immediately felt some changes. First was his ears, through it he could hear even the clear voice of the pedestrians on the street from many meters away.
"Did it work?" Focusing his consciousness he tried to feel traces of the anima energy in his body. Right now he should be able to absorb the traces of Anima energy left by the dimensional rifts.
According to teachings in the institute, the anima energy once absorbed would merge with the flesh and blood, and the true key was whether or not he could control it. Extending his right hand, he Thomas put all his focus on the hand and soon a bright green aura was then emmanating of his fingertips
"Anima Energy! I did it!" No matter which method he used, it was still valid as long as it could help him reunite his family. He then remembered the weird gray mist that was flowing inside his body, the demonic energy.
Because most demons can't use it quite like humans use Anima, it is rare for others to see its true appearance. Back when he fought Luccas, the energy instantly mobilized the second it felt threatened, giving a power that could match the Anima energy,
* BEEP BEEP *
After typing in his mother's ID, Thomas waited.
"Hello." The cell phone carried his mom 's voice, Thomas laughed and said. "Hello mom, it's me."
"Of course I'm fine. Just a little bit tired because of the exam. Okay, just had my breakfast, uhum, I will remember to take out the trash."
As he heard his mother 's voice across the phone, the sides of Thomas' eyes started to become moist, as he was closer to his greatest dream. "Mom, you asked three times already. I was alright. It doesn't matter if I need to leave the institute. Huh? Look for another Adept Course, not sure. We will see this later, bye."
After he hung up, he decided to go back to the institute. Luckily, his body was fully healed the moment he was taken from the stone arena or his mother would freak out if she saw him returning in an unconscious state and filled with scratches.
This time he was too happy and decided to take his time walking towards the Institute.
"Huh?" Thomas noticed something, but he held back and continued on his path, when he was a few meters away from the institute.Thomas gave a side step, entering a desolate spot between two buildings.
All of a sudden, his eyes snapped open, his gauze focused on a spot in the distance. In a biting cold tone, he said: "Since you are already here, why are you hiding yourselves?"
As if responding to his words, a single figure jumped out from the top of the closer building.
It was a beautiful young woman wearing military clothes, and long black hair tied into a ponytail. Who else could it be other than the Elite Adept Katherine Shade.
"Adept Shade, why did you follow me."
"Follow you? I was just a bit curious about how you cheated on the exam yesterday." Katherine's face seemed a little somber as she reached out towards his neck. Due to her power of hers, Thomas who just got anima energy couldn't resist at all and was grabbed by her, that was before a wave of green particles burst out of his body.
"I knew it, you are also an newly-awakened adept just like that guy." Her facial expression eased up and she let go of him.
Only now did he realize that maybe this Elite Adept saw he did something
"Alright, yes I am. How did you guessed?" Knowing there was another way to explain, Thomas decided to drop his hands in a sign of defeat.
The weak green energy blew past her face, leaving her in a daze. Katherine relieved Thomas, as countless thoughts passed by her mind.
Katherine tried to hold back her laugh when she heard that, then she realized he was really confused. "Wait, you really don't know?"
She waved her hand and a barrier of light surrounded the two, and so all the sounds from outside as well. Back then when she first saw that gray mist he used to knock back Luccas, she felt it was strange and went to look for information on this strange youth. When she saw the boy only had a genetic awakening of 3% and that he barely survived the demon raid a few days ago, it only made her suspect even more that the Thomas was an Adept all along
"I must say no matter what you did to bypass the body scanner of the institute, it was an amazing work. However, I'm still curious about throwing all the acticting away by challenging Luccas, there is no way an more experienced Adept won't notice the use of energy even as subtle as that. If it wasn't for the duel between the two I would have never noticed."
"...." Thomas didn't reply and only stared at the ground feeling a little embarrassed. Challenging Luccas for a duel was really something he did without thinking much, and maybe it was really a horrible mistake of his part. However who could blame a sixteen-year old kid who didn't understand how the world works, it was pretty normal for him to be a little hot-headed.
Pity there is no medicine for regret, and now this tyrannosaurus of a woman had caught up on him. At least he could learn from these mistakes and not repeat it again.
Having a closer look at the bright green light around Thomas, Katherine seemed to find something strange in its color. "Green? I thought your Anima energy was grey."
With his right hand still holding onto the green light, Thomas reached with his left hand from him, strands of gray mist were flowing around his fingertips.
"Dual-attribute Anima Energy?! Lower that hand, quickly!" Katherine seemed to find something astonishing and screamed as she reached out for his hands to hide it from view. She breathed deeply before regaining her calm, her eyes searching for anyone that might have seen that. "We must go to somewhere safer.
Pulling Thomas by the hand they passed by the street and headed into the institute while ignoring the many gases directed at them. She took him to an empty testing room on the first floor and locked the door after the two were in there.
Crossing her arms from her, she stared at him with a neutral expression as she noticed Thomas' lack of knowledge. "Did you really not know anything about the Attributes of Anima energy?"
"Of course now, even I don't know why there's two. Which is why I tried to hide it from others, and then I saw Luccas getting all the glory and couldn't hold back. Still, I had a few trump cards." Thomas told her about the two energies in his body, and his past with Luccas as well as the reason it made him blew up his cover.
Katherine who thinking about the words he said, called out to him "Hey Thomas, can you please try to hit me with this hand of yours?"
"Are you sure?" Despite he knowing very well of Katherine's strength, it was strange for him a woman asking him to attack her.
Katherine also saw that and assured him. "I'm not weak, Just hit me with everything you got."
Thomas nodded, taking a deep breath as he slowly lifted his left hand.
"Miss Shade, be careful. I am about to attack."
Katherine smiled faintly. With her 2-star Elite Adept power, she naturally did not think that much about Thomas' attacks. However, she still raised his senses to the maximum.
Thomas grew even more serious and focused. At the side, Katherine was surprised to find that the previous bright green Anima Energy within Thomas that she could sense easily, had now changed in that instant. When the right hand prepared to strike, both the Anima energy and the right hand which was covered in green had turned red the moment he attacked.
Bang!