"Ohh, so this is what happened yesterday? I see then, you did well. From what you said, those eight must be students from some other Adept preparatory course." In one of the empty training rooms in the Dexia Institute's first floor, Thomas told Katherine about the abandoned factory and the eight adepts that ambushed him.
Katherine seemed calm, but her eyes shook a little when she heard about the red-colored energy that flooded his body.
'It's good that I brought that thing with me.' She thought to herself before handing a small metal handle over to Thomas.
"And this is?" Thomas held the strange device in his hands as his gaze turned to the Elite Adept. At this point, Thomas already had an idea about the person behind the attack he suffered yesterday, and it was this that made him even more decided. From what he searched on the web, only thirty people are selected in every selection, some times only there were less than ten. Those who didn't succeed will have to enter the army's Adept Division where the freedom was too little when compared to the former.
Luccas could bypass that factor because of his background, yet Thomas couldn't and would certainly be forced to served the Human Alliance forces as an Adept if he failed here. At least he had a enough time to prepare himself.
Katherine who could see the determination behind his gaze said: "Do you remember what I said before? Anima Energy is way more complex than most civilians know, do you remember the color of my anima energy being blue? It represents the attribute of my Anima Energy."
"Intelligence, Strength, Agility, Vitality, Charm and Dexterity. These are the six main attributes of the Anima Energy. Mine is the Intelligence-attribute Anima Energy, which makes my mind faster, perfect memory and the ability to learn Anima Techniques faster. As for what I just gave you, it is a prototype the Association just finished, in theory it can analyze the energy and its properties and the possibles effets it may have. I found strange you showed not only two, but three different colors of Anima Energy, so I went to Bluewind City to borrow this device."
"Oh." Looking at this metal handle, Thomas didn't know what to say. In fact, only he knew that it shows only two colors of Anima Energy, since the gray mist was actually Demonic Energy. Following the instructions, Thomas held the handle with both hands as he tried to feel the anima energy in the interior of his body.
A strong flow of energy was drawn towards his hands, belong long the metal handle lit up. The red energy surrounded the body of the device before expanding, the energy then felt something coming from the device and shook violently as if it felt pain. It tried to escape but to no effect, the energy shook a little more before it grew pale, thin green dots grew within the mass of red energy before taking over and so fully changing into a green energy.
The prototype was still active and continued drawing that energy, this time instead of previous two colors, yellow particles gathered around the energy. Red, green and yellow, until now the energy has shown three different colors.
Shiiing! However this time was different as Thomas had used his demonic sense to feel all the changes on the energy and there was is a faint purple layer that was nearly invisible on the surface of the energy.
Something the eight adepts back then, Luccas and Katherine didn't have. As if confirming his guesses, the device let out a sound before showing the result
[Inspection completed: Heart-Attribute Anima Energy.]
"Heart Attribute?!" "Heart Attribute!!!"
Both Thomas and Katherine screamed at the same time but for different reasons. When Anima Energy made contact with earth for the first time, some minerals mutated creating what was the prime material of all sorts of things, even the transformation of mars into a more friendly planet for the human race, the Animanium.
Just like the Anima Energy of Adepts, the Animanium also had the same attributes. In fact the division of attributes was made first for the mineral then later adapted for the Adepts. When Katherine told Thomas about the main attributes, she kept something from him.
This device she made him use wasn't made for Adepts, but for the Animanium as it was too hard to inspect such material without this device. Other than the six attributes that had been seen in other Adepts several times, there was a single attribute the scientists deemed it to belong only to the Animanium that was the Heart Attribute.
"I didn't expect it..." Katherine sighed. "At first I thought it was that you had multiple attributes, but even that has appeared a few times. Thomas, the attribute you just showed is something no other Adept has ever showed. Even I don't know if it is a good thing or bad. Your attribute is what we call Imitation-type Anima, it can imitate any other attribute of Anima Energy."
"The pieces of this Imitation-type Animanium we have found would radiate with any of the six other attributes. The tests we made showed that this unique attribute can't be controlled by normal means, further tests however proved that human emotions of those close to it can affect the way this attribute manifests, so it was given the name Heart Attribute." Katherine spoke loudly to herself as if she was reflecting on the information she had. Thomas could see a faint blue glow on the center of her pupils as she tried to analyze.
'When I first confronted him, he showed the pale-green Vitality Attribute. Latter when I went to test him his energy turned into the red Strength Attribute the moment he attacked, and when met people with the yellow Agility Attribute he also managed to use it. There is also the gray energy of unknown attribute he used against the Kyle kid....'
After reaching this point Katherine gave the youth a look. There has never been a human with the heart attribute so the way it worked was a complete mystery to her, if there was only a way she could improve it... Her eyes suddenly shone in a suggestive light. "Alright. Thomas, come here."
Thomas was confused, yet, as a person who was here to learn he didn't think much and stood in front of him with a surprised face. This was because the moment he stepped forward, Katherine had pressed her body to her against him, his face to her immediately turned red as his blood boiled.
Shiiiiiiii!
Crystal Green light radiated from every single of his pores, maybe the stimulus of a mature woman in her early 20s was too much youth who deprived himself from relationships most of his life.
The amount of energy wasn't that much given he was only a 1-star Adept, however the purity in the Crystal Green light was much higher than normal.
Suddenly a notification appeared before his eyes that make his face lose all color.
[Alert: The user is in a aroused state. Effects of the passive skills Aura of Vitality and Aura of Fertility have been boosted.]
[The Area of Effect of the Skill Aura of Fertility has increased to sixty meters for the period of 30 minutes.]
[Alert: 10 females have been successful impregnated with the blessing Aura of Fertility. 1 Evolution Point acquired! You can use EP to evolve one of your skills.]
[As children that have been brought to this world with the power of the user, every children shall receive the Blessing of the God of Fertility]
[Blessing of the God of Fertility: Children born with the Blessing of the God of Fertility will be immune to poison and an increased lifespan of 30 years.]
Thomas was in utter shock, no even in his most strange dreams would he imagine such weird skill, it even gave rewards!
When he finished reading the notifications, Katherine had already stepped back and was looking at the green energy while nodding to herself.
Worthy of the Heart Attribute, it really functioned based on emotions. Not only the type of attribute but its purity as well.
For the next few weeks, Thomas mostly was either resting at home or training in the Institute with Katherine.
By this point he already got the hang of his Anima Energy. When angry or stressed, his energy would stay as the Strength Attribute, in this state both his attacks would be a lot stronger. Fear would trigger the Agility Attribute. When he was Focused on something it would activate the Intelligence attribute.
He also learned more about the system, now he was used to some of the store potions and would use it to relieve his fatigue.
Since then there was also no other moves from the Adepts who attacked him, they seemed to be more cautious since he gave them that beating. Now, Thomas had changed into a leather jacket and jeans as he prepared to head his last training session with Katherine.
Both Thomas and Katherine were facing each other in the training room stone arena while wearing the institute's training suit.
"Instructor, I'm ready. This is the only day we have to test everything I learned for the Selection Tomorrow."
Katherine who had forced the young adept into calling her instructor grinned happily and said: "That's okay, I'm sure you will pass with everything I taught you. Just remember to not let other know about your unique attribute and When you pass, remember Today we are practicing everything you learned, just give it your all and I will receive your blows. How about that? "
Thomas immediately felt more relieved when hearing that. Amongst everyone he knew, Katherine was definitely the most powerful, with only that middle-aged man from the exam behind her.
After all the training he went through, although his own personal combat strength his was not the strongest, but he proved talented enough in both coordination and harmonizing of his skills.
He even had the trump card Titan God's Hand he evolved with the EP he got from the system. With the Aura of Vitality passively healing him and those around him and his unique attribute, he could raise the entire power level of the whole team which was way he was made to promise he would enter Katherine's team when he entered the association.
"Let's go!"
[Bio Class Anima Technique: Viper Claws!]
Thomas had charged directly towards Katherine with a pair of faint crystal red claws on each hand. Because the system didn't gave him any other skill for attack other than the Titan God's Hand, the first thing he did was to learn an Anima Technique for close combat.
Viper Claws was a technique of the High-Grade Bio Class, it wasn't that much good but its long-term use of forming sharp claws of Anima Energy that could be maintained for a long time was really good, especially when he had no weapon to fight a beast or demon such claws would work a lot better than the knife he used on the low-rank demons that year and it was also a lot cheaper than the Anima Weapons designed for Adepts.
His hands instantly switched from one side to the other but Katherine was too fast, almost like she could predict his next move.
"Come on." Thomas grinned, before he changed his strategy. With the swift feet skill he raised his own speed as he tried to think of things that made him angry.
He thought of a cat breaking his computer, the face of Luccas when he looked at him in contempt together with all his classmates of him that treated him badly, the day he had to sacrifice his favorite cake of him when fighting the demons.
Thomas felt his blood his boil as the passive green energy began to show a reddish glow. Thomas has already enchanted over fifty blows, but he could not hit Katherine as she would always avoid his attack at the last second.
As this was the last day they had of training Thomas decided to show something he had kept a secret.
[Titan God's Shadow (Titan God's Hand Alternate Form)
Description: Creates the manifestation of a titan's shadow with energy. The size and strength of the Titan Shadow can vary according to the amount and purity of the energy used in its activation.
Cooldown: 12 hours.]
A fifty feet tall (15m) humanoid shadow began to manifest behind Thomas. This massive creature was covered in a crystal red layer of energy as it stood still on the stone arena.
This was the trump card he kept for the near Adept Selection, being the one who trained him for weeks, Thomas thought he should at least show it to Katherine.
"Instructor I want to see you for this dog. Titan Punch Barrage!" As the titan shadow mirrored his moves, Thomas welcomed Katherine was a barrage of fists. With the Titan overhaul size being a little smaller in comparison the manifestation of the Titan Hand.
After all if it was to be the same size the Titan Shadow he summoned would at least be the size of a mountain.
Still, its hands that were at least about a upper half of thomas body unleashed a dozen punches that even Katherine would find it hard to defend.
[Tera Class Anima Technique: Glacial Beam!]
Like a instinct, she formed a three meter tall crystal shield with an single eye in the middle. As Katherine infused energy into the skill, its eyes opened, her own eyes turned into a pair of vertical black pupils.
When the eye of the shield was fully opened, it shot a single icy ray at the Titan Shadow standing behind Thomas.
Boooom! The entire building shook scaring all the students and researchers in the other floors, when the dust lowered Thomas was lying on the floor while Katherine leaned on the stone wall still feeling a little dizzy.
"This last move of yours was really impressive. The only adept with the Heart Attribute is truly special. When you get better I will pay your dinner, It was really a eye-opening experience to teach you for those past five weeks."