"That's it?" I exclaimed after I finished reading the news post.
__________________________
{ Breaking News Post }
"TERROR ATTACK BY A DJINN"
On Sunday yesterday, a dungeon break reportedly broke out in the middle of Midas City square simultaneously with a terror attack at Hargan National Museum.
Luckily the authority managed to handle the situation on time, preventing further damage. The number of casualties is unknown so as not to alarm the masses. However, the authority said the casualty was only a single digit.
The authority is still investigating whether these two incidents are related to each other or not. Stricter surveillance has been enforced throughout the empire to find any leads for the case.
_________________________
"It's understandable since a royal family member and two members from two prominent noble families were accidentally involved in the incident" Shino commented after taking a peek at my phone screen.
"You mean they try to cover it up?" I asked.
"Not a cover-up but to prevent unnecessary information leakages. There's a possibility of a spy working with the government thus only certain individuals will know the real situation. This is just my guesses since my father asked me to shut my mouth from talking about this incident"
"That must be why we were given a week break to recuperate"
"Yeah sort of"
"Young Master, you and Sir Cedric's discharge process have been completed. We will bring both of you home now" said Shino's butler who suddenly showed up.
"So how are the second prince and Ares. They didn't discharge yet?" Shino asked curiously after we sat in the car.
"Both of them had been discharged yesterday" answered the butler honestly.
"Wasn't their condition worst than us?"
"We should get discharged two days ago but you insisted on resting more" I reminded him.
".... That's because I thought I have to go back right away to HGA" he rebuked.
"So do you know where our club president went to?" I asked the butler since I've just remembered that during the day of the incident, she was supposed to be with Ares and Prince Theo so I asked the butler to check on her.
"Miss Nikki Flonne was lucky since she spent the whole day in a fortune-teller shop a few minute's walks from the museum. She thought that young master Ares would come to pick her up after he finished looking through the museum but that didn't happen"
"....Ares might have forgotten about her after everything that had happened"
"It will be even better if she's with us at that time since I heard that she has a healing ability" Shino complained.
"It's already happened. Nothing changed even if your complaint"
"Fine"
"I think I need to train harder at home" I muttered.
"Is it because of the upcoming midterm test?"
"Yes"
"I think I know what you felt after seeing Prince Theo and Ares that day. Even if Ares didn't do much but seeing the prince didn't bother to help him too much, he must be confident that Ares will be fine"
"So do you know what that power is?" I asked referring to Ares's metal chains.
"This is just between us ok. My dad said it might a family technique and by being a Zanuki, they only have one known family technique that no one can imitate which is the sealing technique. That must be some kind of a basic version of that technique since he can only restrict the Djinn movements to a certain extent. It's kind of like a bloodline technique just like my family taming technique."
"Will he use that when facing other students?"
"No, I don't think so. That technique is not easy to use so why should he use it in a mere academy test. You saw him unable to move when using that technique so it is not a technique for battle"
"..."
"Yes I know you're aiming to be the strongest but be patient and not always compare yourself with others. You're already more talented than me and even my parents believe in you more than me, their own son"
"Yeah thanks for the advice"
"This is what friend is for isn't it," he said while patting my shoulder.
"So how do you feel fighting alongside Prince Theo"
"Hmm, I felt confident just like when I'm with you since he didn't show any hesitation at all. Maybe he was that confident with Ares's technique."
"They are strong"
"So does us. Don't worry too much Ceddie. Remember what the shaman in my family told you? You have a bright future with a difficult road in front of you which means you will become stronger from all the hardships you've been going through. So cheer up man"
Shino patted my back and started to ramble about nonsense things and rumours he heard. I just listened to him while still thinking of a plan to become stronger.
Next morning
"Ceddie, are you sure you don't want to accompany me going to town? Message me if you want me to buy you something"
I could hear Shino's voice in front of my bedroom door. I've been living here for two years now after my orphanage collapsed. The director and a few employees there were arrested for embezzlement and money laundering.
"Sure. I just want to rest for today"
"Ok then. I'll be back during dinner"
The room became silent once again. Currently, there's a yellowish beast core on my right palm that I just got from my system.
====================
{Holy Beast Core}
Description: This core came from a type of bird species beast that contains holy power which is different from the monster core that only contains specific mana and abilities of the beast. This core has to be consumed and regulated inside the body. The rate of absorption differs for each individual.
Ability: Increased holy power in the body. The body will become healthier and sturdier. Protect body and mind from curses and illusions.
Limit: Only for humans. Can be fatal for demons or black mages.
Restriction: Can't be used on weapons. Only for oral consumption for humans that have an affinity to holy energy. Please don't rush during consumption.
=======================
This is the core that I've been planning to buy for the past two years. I went to dungeons and trained as the system instructed to collect points.
I used 90% of the points I've been saving up just to buy this core.
Based on my research reading from books in the academy library and the internet, there's not much research had been done about Holy Beast core since they were considered sacred animals.
Holy Beast had been considered endangered species and they were hard to come by thus none of them was allowed to be caught for any reason let alone be killed to take the core.
Hargan Empire forbids beast hunting in its territory. Two types of beasts exist in this world, the mythical beast and the holy beast. Both are considered sacred and scarce.
If anyone saw I had this Holy Beast core, I could be sent to prison without any proceeding.
Some of the research papers that I've read said that a few people became disabled after consuming an unknown monster core that they suspected was actually a beast core. The plate in their body shattered while their mana pool cracked and couldn't be used anymore.
"Here it goes"
I decided to take the risk and hope luck was on my side. While sitting with crossed legs on the tile floor, I consumed the core in one go.
Tsssss
Sitting shirtless with only long pants on, sweat started to come out, faint steam slowly rose from my body.
I felt hot all over, my heart beat faster and faster, and my stomach felt upset. I was feeling extremely uncomfortable.
As I tensed my muscles, the outline of my vein that traced all over my body became more apparent and glancing at the full body mirror not far from me, I looked scary.
I felt like I'm going to faint at any minute but I kept on going. After a full hour of continuous tensing and relaxing, I released a long heavy breath.
My eyes still blur but I could feel the hot sensation flowing inside my body in my blood veins.
Standing up and taking a towel from a nearby chair, I dried my wet body. Turning around I looked at my reflection in the mirror.
The body, which was chiselled to perfection had multiple scars in both the abdomen and chest areas. The back was even worse, as it was riddled with scars that ranged from different sizes and shapes. Notably, there was one that stretched halfway through my back.
Tracing the scar on the chest, I remembered the time I fought with an intermediate monster after I just graduated from the intermediary academy.
It was a mission the system had given me in exchange for a self-healing ability that enable me to heal myself to a certain extent which was useful when I was on a brink of death.
The long scar on my back on the other hand was when I was almost killed a few years ago. If not because of a kind wandering priest who found me when I was on the brink of death, I would have already died.
In the end, if not for the fact that I had multiple trump cards on me, I would've long have died a few years ago.
All the scars on my body were reminders of the hardships that I've been going through to get to where I was.
Throwing the towel on the bed, I took my phone which was on the table and saw a notification from Kiba Mercenary Group.
[Mercenary, Cedric Hel- Mission target: Venison Hugh, mid-tier priest in Moon Goddess Church in Mayorika Harbor. Crime: Corrupt priest, paedophile and illegal human experiment on orphans. Target location : xxxxxxxx.....]
".....Corrupt priest huh."
I looked through the document sent to me carefully before stopping at the crime description.
"Charity money embezzlement, sexual harassment towards orphan kids, soliciting and acting as an intermediary for children trafficking, illegal human experiment on kids, producing illegal dangerous drugs....."
The more I looked at the list of the crimes my target was accused of, the deeper the frown on my face.
"....such trash"
After taking a quick shower, I put on a simple white shirt with a black leather jacket and black tight fitted pants and went out of my room.
Ding!
[Host has received a new quest. Would you like to view it?]
Not surprised by the sudden notification, I just nodded lightly.
"Open the quest interface"
======System Quest======
Difficulty: Mid-tier
Quest: Eliminate Venison Hugh, a corrupt priest from the Mayorika Habour Moon Goddess Church. He was guarded by one Abnormal level bodyguard.
Reward: Increased aura control and proficiency (Low -->> Low-mid)
=========================
Looking at the popped out in front of me, I frowned seeing the difficulty of the mission but I became relaxed thinking that this kind of human trash should die.
Opening my status window, I looked through my stats.
=====Status Window=====
Name: Cedric Hel
Real name: ***********
Rank: Low-tier Abnormal
--->Profession:
[Swordmanship Lv4]
---> Martial Arts Technique
∆[Solar Eclipse Sword Art ✪✪✪✪] - Intermediate
Sword art primarily focused on sharp and precise attacks. Formed a ring-shaped like sword shots when using aura. Capable of creating multiple illusions of sword arts, making the enemy harder to predict which attack is true as true attacks will always mask between multiple faints.
∆[Flash step ✪✪✪]
Movement art that will increase the user's agility and speed. Upon reaching the perfect proficiency, it will evolve into a lightning step.
---->Skills:
∆[Sacrifar]-extreme
Known as the bloodless, grants extreme power to the user but in exchange, it will conceal all of the user's emotions and will slowly grow to ensnare the user until he's at his limit. The user will realize his strength and ability increased at least double. After usage of the skill. the user will experienced extreme fatigue making it difficult for them to focus and carry out the normal task for the next few hours.
Time limit: 5 minutes
∆[Perfect Consciousness]-extreme
Use alongside Sacrifar skill to ensure the user's mind is still in control of the body. The skill could help the user make choices in critical conditions by showing the probability for each choice. Help to cleanse the user's mind. Can't be used for a long time for each use due to the risk of brain trauma.
∆[Mana Pores]-basic
Enable user to replenish mana inside the body more quickly by absorbing mana more efficiently towards the body through all the pores on the human skin.
∆[Holy Explosion]- extreme
Releasing an extremely suppressed holy energy from the user's body to a certain target or the surrounding. The user will be in a comatose state for a day after using this skill.
∆[Holy Area] - Decent
Skill to purify the surrounding area from demonic energy by spreading the holy power in an area within a certain radius. The radius size will increase when the user becomes stronger and have an increase in holy energy in the user's body.
∆[Holy Flame]-basic
The flame was created with a mixture of mana and holy power. Could be used to coat weapons. Suitable in fighting demonic creatures. Could be used in different ways if user proficiency improved.
=======================
After four months, I still remain a low-tier Abnormal rank. Pack schedule in the academy made me reduce the time for training thus my strength and abilities didn't improve much.
If before my enrollment at HGA, the system always gave me difficult missions to me and I almost died multiple times. But the peaceful environment at HGA makes me a bit dull.
I still remember the time when my life was always at the edge, constantly on a verge of dying but that what's made my sense sharper and keener.
The current peaceful life made me dull and a bit slow, that must be why I couldn't sense the Djinn inside the museum when he was standing just not far from me.
A disappointment.
I walked to a teleportation gate at the outskirt of Kiba territory, Yaro town.
"Where do you want t,o go Sir?" The staff smiled and asked me politely.
"Mayorika Harbor"
"Oh, you can't go there straight. From here, we will teleport you to Balthazar City first before you can be transported to Mayorika Harbor."
"Yeah sure. How much?"
"Only 20U to Balthazar City and another 20U from there to Mayorika. Here are two tickets for you."
I paid the price and went inside the teleportation portal to complete my mission as soon as possible. I planned to kill Venison at night since he always love to drink at night inside his bedroom before he went to sleep.