Kal knew he was plenty strong but he was cautious of being blinded by his own power. There were countless of much more powerful hunters if he would compare himself to the even if he had his items. He wasn't quite doubtful of his own strength but he still wished to become stronger, he wasn't doing this for fame, or even for money, or even to protect someone since he clearly know that he didn't have anyone worth protecting. He did this all with his own greed of becoming stronger but having the limits. What more is that after that blue ray of light which had came from the eye of the crumbling statue. He felt the sense of affinity with what God statue it may have been. Not only was the eye connected to his innate talent, Kal had thought it deeply that he might know what that statue may have been if he connects himself with what he may do and as he had observed the weapons he carried, if he would try to learn those weapons, he might get a hint or something similar. Still, it was quite a vague theory but it was still best to learn as this also increased his [Analysis] and a body like his that could naturally learn and adapt any fighting style. He wanted to prepare himself to what the threats he may face in the future and becoming versatile was the only way to that since enough everything could be solve with brute strength alone. You can't use a sword in a tunnel so you must use the knife, you can't also pierce a knife of a thick hide so you must use the spear. Each weapon had their own uses and versatility so it was better to learn every one of them.
Kevin was still trying to understand what Kal had just said but seeing that he was asked to leave, it must've meant something private.
'What did he mean by learning everything? Those martial arts were all of S-rank quality and the difficulty of learning them was very complex, it could take years and years to learn one of it and to master would take a century. Or maybe that's what I'm thinking, he might be choosing a suitable martial art for his body and use his knowledge to try and readjust the martial arts so that he can learn it faster since he's hiding his identity but still, can't he just pick like two or three martial art? Even if he does manage to learn every martial art, he wouldn't to show its full potential or even use it in real battles without showing flaws since the human anatomy can't adapt to too many movements.' Kevin had all these thought ramble in his head as he tried to assume the most reasonable possibility he could think. His doubts about Kal had already thinned since he had personally displayed what he was capable of, what he had done to Kevin was something short of a miracle since even the most powerful and the wisest among his teachers that have taught him in controlling aura, Kal had outdone them by a hundred folds.
'For sure he might be the best aura controller in the world and calling him an aura master is not an exaggeration but his martial arts is still a mystery for me since I haven't seen him show it. Maybe I should ask him later.' Kevin thought to himself with a bright smile.
***********
In his training room, Kal watched the videos displayed in the glass screen. He wasn't focusing on just one video like he usually do but he was able to watch 5 videos simultaneously due to his [Analysis] percentage rate increasing by a large margin. Each videos were all 10-12 hours long and as an S-rank they had their own Martial fluid and a martial script. While he was watching the videos he was also reading the martial script, he even rear the other scripts from the videos he haven't seen yet while watching the current footage.
5 days passed quickly and it was only a day left until they arrived at the destination. Kal had finished watching all the martial arts and learned it with 100% accuracy. This was all of them: 4 sword arts, 3 spear arts, 3 club arts, 2 hammer arts, 2 knife arts, 3 axe arts, 3 bow arts, 4 staff arts, 4 blade art, 4 fist art, 4 body arts, 3 dual welding arts, 2 shield arts, and 2 scythe arts. Each of their weapon mastery reach advanced level and the percentage didn't budge anymore at the 95% mark. He also learned 50+ martial skills which were all applicable to a specific martial art he had learned, Kal wanted martial skills since they didn't cost mana but energy of the user which means his fatigue would build up faster. What's more was that Kal had absorbed wills or minds from the martial arts he had learned which in return strengthen his will by a dozen folds. All resulted in his [Analysis] reaching 54% which was considerably small considering that he had learned hundreds of years of knowledge.
"Now that I've learned which I could say a lot of martial arts that already surpassed the limits of what a human body could learn it feels great but I still feel like there is still a lot of space in my brain left to learn more." What Kal said sounded exaggerated but it was true. If his brain was a memory storage, it would've been about a trillion terabytes, what he learned filled about 40 million terabytes in his storage which if one thinks is a lot was unimaginably small for Kal.
'They say that the more knowledge you get, the bored you become and it is a proven fact but I don't feel those emotions at all. I can make myself happy or sad with absolute control, and I could choose to forget memories I don't want to remember and completely forget about it but the only thing I can't control yet is my heart.' Though he was still full of energy, Kal was mentally drained, he wanted to take some rest with the last day before they could arrive at the University but someone knocked on his door so he didn't had any choice but to answer the door. He already knew who was in the door using his senses but he was still surprised at what he brought.
'Why is Kevin with a lot of people and these people don't seem to be his guards.' Kal opened his door slightly as he peaked to the open door as he went on to ask Kevin, "What is it?"
"Teac- I mean Kal, there's an event at the top floor and I would like to invite you. My colleagues here also wanted to meet you since they've heard about what had happened on the previous days and were interested about you. Do you want to go? There's a lot of high profiles in the party and making connections with them would be great since this would help your stay in the university a lot easier." Kevin said to Kal enthusiastically.
'I suppose he's right, I do need to get information about what to expect in the university since I can't find anything on any of the information sites. Maybe meeting with these high profiles will help me on the information I need.' Kal said to himself.
"Sure, you can go ahead, I'll meet up with you." Kal quickly closed the door and changed himself in a proper attire. The event was held at the upper level of the ship where only yellow patched guest could enter. There were about hundreds of people gathered around the wide coloseum and frantically, each one of the guest where of high power. Kal could see a lot of familiar faces which he mostly on TV and on the Internet, and he couldn't believe his eyes that he was now meeting his idols.
"Kim Tae Sin, the gunslinger of Korea, Ras Putin, the golden boy of Russia and also the son of the legendary Vladimir! Even Don Chang, the best martial artist of Thailand is here! This is first time I've seen so many celebrities gathered in a single place!" Kal felt ecstatic and also out of place as he felt like he was undeserving to be in such a grandiose event. He continued to stroll around and as he looked at on one of the tables, he saw a familiar face and immediately ran up to meet her.
"Lin Wei! You're here!?" Kal said to Lin Wei who was wearing beautiful purple gown. When Lin Wei saw Kal, she had mixed emotions that shown in her face but the first thing she did was slap Kal in his face.
Slap!
-20
The damage indicator appeared above his head and touched red cheek. Kal didn't dare to ask why she slapped him and apologized.
"I'm sorry." Kal said as he lowered his head. Lin Wei had teary eyes and stood up from her seat as he embraced Kal.
"Do you know how long we've searched for you? Do you know how worried we were as you suddenly disappeared? We had accepted to ourselves that you had died but Dante was the only who still believed you are alive. And here you are, suddenly popping out of nowhere." Lin Wei cried in his arms and the people around them watch with contempt and envy.
"Let's not cause a scene please. People are watching us." Lin Wei realized the eyes staring at both of them and let go from her embrace. As they sat on their seats.
'Let's use mana transmission since we have a lot to talk about.' Kal said to Lin Wei and she was surprised after hearing him use mana transmission.
'You can use mana transmission!? Have you already became a B-rank last year?! But weren't you still an E-rank? Don't tell me you had a double reawakening? But to be able to go past 2 levels, you must had been very lucky!' Lin Wei felt happy and envious for Kal but Kal only showed a wry smile as he thought that if he had told her that he was already an S-rank, it would make too much trouble so he decided to hide that fact for now. Kal had already concealed most of his mana so that people would only sense him as a B-rank hunter at most.
'Condolence to what happened to Dante and it was quite a shocking news. Although he already passed away, he died heroically.' Kal said to Lin Wei.
'Yeah...' Lin Wei suddenly felt gloomy and the mood was quite dull and as he realize what he had just done, Kal coughed out loud as to try and change the topic.
'Ahem! So why are you here? I came here because I wanted to enter the University and also meet Dontrelle.' Kal said to Lin Wei who once looked grief-stricken, now returned normal.
'I attended this ceremony since I have to meet up with my master, I won't be going to the University and I'll be back right after I meet up with her. You can also choose to not come to the university, there's a far better place for you. Maybe I could even relay you to my master, she's an S-rank hunter.' Lin Wei was speaking like she was hiding something in which made Kal feel odd.
'What do you mean by not go to the University? Isn't that where most of the elite hunters have graduated? I don't know much about what the actual university is but I'm pretty excited.' Kal said with a wide grin,
'What!? You came here without absolutely no clue or information to what the University is!?' Lin Wei exclaimed.
'Why? What's with you're reaction? Isn't it great to be in the universe since it'll be easier for me to get strong?' Kal responded with a confused expression.
'Sigh, where you are going is straight to hell and when I meant hell, I meant it literally not metaphorically. That place is lurking with demons disguised as humans and if you are tied up with their plans, you'll have no choice but become and demon yourself. Although this story doesn't have solid proof, my master and her team has been investigating the stuff that are happening in the university and if I were you, it's best if you don't go. It's such a waste of someone as genius as you, my teacher would easily help you climb up ranks and make you the best hunter in the world.' Although Lin Wei sounded arrogant and boastful with how he speaks so high to her teacher the warning about demons made Kal pique his interest.
'I'll decide after I hear what this hell stuff is all about.' Kal replied.
'This is gonna be a classified information and you must never tell a single soul about this. I know that I can trust you since Dante had put a lot of faith in you. The Hunter's University, which was one could consider as the most prestigious educational system is now hell's stronghold. Did you know that the whole university spreads out as big as old Japan and with such a big place, it wouldn't be rare to find a lot of sanctum and portals popping up. An expeditionary force found a cave below the ground and when they began searching the cave they found out it was as huge labyrinth with a lot of tunnels and pathways to enter through, they couldn't use machines to drill the tunnels since the environment on the labyrinth made technology useless, so they found out it was actually a sanctum since sanctums are the only environment that could do this type of effect. The labyrinth was so wide that it spread almost half the entire size of the land. It took them years to scavenge through the maze-like cave but what made it all so mysterious was that such a big cave didn't have any monsters inhabiting it and what's more, they couldn't find acetone single living organism in the cave, they tried bringing a location finding monster pet but surprisingly, the monster would run away even before it could step foot at the entrance of the cave. Without any tools to help them, they had to use their own instincts to find out what lies in the cave. 7 years after the nonstop searching in the cave, they had finally reached the center of the cave. What they found made their eyes open wide, in the center was a giant temple and this temple didn't look any holy at all, in fact it was a satanic temple which had a demonic statue placed at the center, the domino statue didn't look like the demons stated in the bible or any of the religious books. It looked humanoid but it lacked some of the human features, it didn't had any horns, tail or wings of a typical demon, it almost looked alienated because they had never saw such a statue. What they found in the temple was books with language that had never existed before. That was the only thing that they found and aside from the demonic statue which the only thing they could understood was the Roman number 22 (XXII) engraved below the statue. There weren't any harm that came their way and ha successfuly left the cave, they researched the books contents and what they learned was unbelievably shocking, most of the books contained a forbidden martial art that could enhance one's power by over 10 folds from their previous levels and an ingredient to make a pill that could make a B-rank instantly into an S-rank. It was all too good and they were able to make the pill, one of their subjects was my master and that's how she had manage to achieve the S-rank level but as an result, she was controlled by a very unfamiliar yet powerful mana that caused her to go insane and bloodlust that she would dine on humans but thankfully, she had manage to controll the binding power with the help of the forbidden martial art which she had manage to steal one book. Now she was stronger than ever that even 5 S-ranks ganging up on her wouldn't be able to defeat her. Now master and I are gonna meet up with our spy as soon as we arrive and leave immediately since the demons would probably waiting for us.' Lin Wei explained to Kal.
'So you're saying that if I go in the university, I might become apart of the demons?' Kal asked.
'That's why I tell you not to go, it's too dangerous. Even if you don't get captured by them, there are a lot of hunters there coming from powerful families who will target the weak and use them as a former of entertainment that they are actually worse than the hiding demons.' Lin Wei said.
'Then what about your master? Who is she?' Kal asked.
'Oh, speak of the devil, she's here.' Lin Wei stared at Kal's direction and when Kal looked back at the direction she was looking at, Kal was astounded at what he saw.
"Han Qingcheng?! The domination queen and the next in line of the throne!?" Kal was astounded at what he was looking as he feel like his soul was leaving his body. Han Qingcheng was the daughter of the Heavenly King, Han Sen who was one of the first generation S-ranks and was considered a mortal god by many due to the fact that he was too strong, unfortunately, he had died in an expedition as he wanted to break the barrier that blocked them from searching the unexplored parts of this big world. Han Qingcheng, despite being the 3rd daughter of the Heavenly King, her potential and what she was able to display exceeded everyone's expectation, her growth was unrivaled and the reason why she was next in throne despite being the 3rd child was because she had the highest potential to be the next Heavenly King that will rule over the mainland China. So seeing her in real life was just like winning a lotto.
"Lin Wei, who is this handsome young man with you?" Han Qingcheng spoke to Lin Wei as he looked at Kal. Her voice was calm and rosy and her appearance was what anyone would consider a jade beauty. Kal couldn't help but be stunned by such beauty since he had never seen someone as beautiful as her.
"Ah! My name is Kal Nietes and I'm and big fan of yours. Seeing you in real life is like watching myself in the mirror, I can't stop looking at it with admiring such beauty."
"Hahaha, you're such a funny young man and you're right, you are quite handsome, in fact you are probably in my top ten of the most handsome man in the world." Han Qingcheng complimented Kal as she released a gentle chuckle. Kal's face was turning red as he was very happy to make someone like her laugh.
"I'm deeply honored!" Kal bowed to Han Qingcheng but suddenly a window panel appeared in his view.
Ting~
[YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED A MUTANT DEMON!]
'..! [Instant Analysis]!" Kal was shocked at what he was seeing and immediately use [Instant Analysis] on Han Qingcheng. His eyes began scanning her and it didn't take long for a window panel to pop up.
Ting~
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[UNDERSTANDING OF THE PERSON IS TOO LOW, LEVEL IS TOO LOW, INFORMATION ON THE PERSON IS BRIEF AND LACKING]
[Han Qingcheng
Sex: Female
Race: Corrupted Human/ Half-demon
Level: 68 (12.3%)
Traits: (UNDERSTANDING IS TOO LOW)
(LEVEL IS TOO LOW)
?
?
???
???
?????
?]
'So Lin Wei wasn't making up stories, her master truly is a demon or precisely a Half-demon. Her level is a lot higher than mine but if I use my soul shard and distribute all my status points, I may stand a chance or even dominate her in battle but it's still too dangerous since the fact that she is still a demon. Let's see...' Kal used his aura manipulation to check on Han Qingcheng's aura and he saw that Han Qingcheng was hiding her aura that no one could tell that she was actually an S-rank hunter but just a normal person. But Kal, even with her hiding her aura, Kal could sense the presence of the hell element inside her body radiating like flames.
'She is very good at hiding her aura that I myself can't even tell how string she is, luckily I have [Analysis] which can see through any concealment just given enough time. But it seems to me that she can't properly hide her element even though she's an elite S-rank.' Kal's [Aura Manipulation] made it possible for him to conceal even the single speck of mana inside his body as if mana didn't exist inside him at all and he could control which mana to release or not so hiding his element was relatively easy, unless he had to use a skill with the effect of a certain element, no once could tell what type of element Kal had.
"I heard about you from little Wei and she said that you are able to learn a martial in just a single night. You even manage to defeat her, now that you're in the same level as her, you could easily beat her since she had been slacking on her training a lot." Qingcheng said to Kal.
"It shouldn't be easy to defeat Lin Wei, she's one of the best knife users I've seen and I almost died on her hands. Even if I'm now in his level, her experience is far higher than mine so defeating her, is a near impossible task." Kal humbly spoke as Lin Wei nodded in agreement.
"How about this, if you accept to become my student, with my teaching defeating little Wei will be far easier." Qingcheng proudly said as she opened her hand.
"Becoming your student is every hunter's dream and to be personally given the offer is quite amazing. But I'm truly sorry, I can't do it, if I were to become your student, people may look at me so differently and I don't want that. I also need to see my best friend who is in Hunter's University and if what I've heard about it being dangerous, I'll try my best to be cautious as possible and try it save my friend from harm." Kal said as he felt obligated to bend and apologize
"I see, but you can't always take your time and think about my offer, you have an exceptional talent like no other and if I nurture it, you can become the next Heavenly King." Qingcheng refrained as she still wanted for Kal to accept her offer.
"I'll think about your offer if you give me some information and advice in the Hunter's University, I heard that it was heaven for the rich and hell for the poor."
"Okay sure, but Hunter's University is not just that, it's a university of survival of the fittest." Qingcheng said to Kal. Qing Cheng started to give Kal valuable information he needed before he set foot on the university and after getting the information he needed, he gave his thanks to the both women and went with Kevin's group who were mostly compromised of rich kids.
Kal was introduced and was immediately looked down upon since majority of them being A-ranks, as Kal being a B-rank made them see him as a weakling but they didn't try and show it directly. Their eyes and expressions where enough to show it, even Kevin understood what they felt but he was the only one there who knew how wrong they were to look down on Kal, his teacher.
It was fun event and Kal manage to meet with powerful members, although majority of them were just arrogant and smug people, there were still some of then who were kind and approachable guys.
The next day arrived and the ship had departed. There were a lot of people waiting on the entrance of the land mostly lining up with their sign boards as they wait for their member to arrive. Kal was given a luxurious service as he left the ship and even without anyone expecting his arrival, he was still happy as he stepped into the prestigious hell, Hunter's University.