"H-how?"
Only when Miya blurted the question was Sho awakened from his daze. The echo from the underground tunnel made it easier for him to shake from his stupor.
He didn't know when, but it seemed that Miya was awoken by Sho's sudden surge of energy.
*She even felt that small ripple. Truly amazing. And she's the same age as Sho. There are really many talented people around.*
However, although there was a little jealousy for her talent. He also felt extremely proud with what he just achieved with his experiment.
He sheepishly smiled. "I'm not good at explaining, but…" he soon tried his best to describe what he experienced.
He respected Miya a lot after going through with her and Alpha in a life and death situation. He admired her bravery too. It was amazing whenever he recalled how an eighteen year old girl decided to stay instead of running to safety. Thus, he didn't see a need to hide his discovery. Although, it could be something like a secret weapon. He deduced it was better to have a collective strength than his strength alone.
He analyzed his battle with the wolf pack. He realized it was better to fight with as many as possible than being alone. Only protagonists who are overpowered or have plot armor could really achieve a battle alone. He was too weak to even dream about being a protagonist. A plot armor? He would just be smashed to death.
Though he also dreamt of being his own protagonist. For him, protagonists and heroes are different from each other. A hero is someone on the side of justice while a protagonist could be anyone, be it hero, villain or ordinary person, all could be the protagonist of their own story. Of course, only as long as they are alive.
The main point of being the protagonist is to live long enough to tell the tale. And he was too weak to even hope for it. If he wanted to live long, he needed to be strong and have reliable companions.
Even Fenrir has his own companion even when he was as strong as a boss monster.
There was strength in numbers.
Miya looked at him strangely. She just blurted the question because she noticed the ripples of unusual energy on Sho. She really didn't expect him to answer.
In her own environment where she grew up, people were greedy. They wanted to be the best. And often, they wouldn't share their knowledge. Sharing knowledge was the last option they would do. No one wanted to help their competitors. Everyone wanted to be at the top. She never experienced people giving her something free. All things come with a price.
She wanted to ask Sho what he wanted in exchange for information he gave. But then, she didn't ask. She felt he would insult him if she asked. She didn't know him, but she had the gist that she also knew him.
It was a weird feeling.
"T-thank you." she sincerely said.
The arrogance and her prideful appearance really did disappear. All pretense couldn't even be seen in her shadow.
"It's nothing, we won't be here if we won't help each other. I've actually gained inspiration from how you were recovering so quickly. Let me know if you discover something new, let's grow stronger together."
Sho wasn't aware of what Miya was thinking that's why he paid no attention to it.
His mind was still in the knowledge of the weird energy he dubbed as Qi Energy. He still didn't have enough of what he unearthed. He concentrated on his discovery. It felt cool knowing the energy flow he has. It felt like he had better control of his body.
Feeling too excited, he sat down and tried to get a better feel for his energy.
Another discovery, the energy became easier to control when he sat up. He didn't know the logic, but still was able to feel the difference.
Trying to figure out what else he could do with the energy, he experimented some more. He felt Sho's curious nature rubbed on him, making him feel he was also born curious. The original Sho watched a lot of anime, movies, read a lot of books and mangas and played a lot of games because of curiosity. He wanted to see what they would offer. Until his curiosity is satisfied, he won't stop gaining new knowledge.
And the true him, whenever he gained new intelligence, he felt extremely satisfied.
The original Sho was extremely lazy. But whenever he found something interesting, that laziness would subside. It was the same thing when he started playing in the stock market. He was just curious, before anyone knew it, he became an expert stock agent just because he wanted to try a lot of things in the stock market.
Now, even without his inheritance, he would still be considered rich. Only if that money would still be available in the new merging world.
A curious nature that would stop at nothing to satisfy it.
He and the original Sho were similar in this aspect.
Even without his memories, he felt happy knowing he found something that really was his.
I'm born curious. I'm someone who wants to know more. And he really did, he wanted to know who he really is. What his name is, where did he come from. But even with that strong desire, he was left with a dead end at the moment. He still knew surviving is the best option he has to move forward.
As his thoughts went on, he suddenly had an idea.
*Can I put that energy in my head so that when I use my brain power, I won't get a headache?*
He gasped at his own brilliant idea.
*Am I a genius?*
He made fun of himself but he was really hopeful. If he couldn't solve the weakness and problem with his skill, he couldn't use it carelessly. Just like how it was reckless of him to try using his skill while fighting Fenrir.
And if an enemy knows that this was the kind of power he has, he would be in a huge disadvantage. If Fenrir knew about his skill and he thought Sho was dangerous, he might have killed him instead of mockingly waiting for him to struggle. Of course, without the knowledge that he could cut his chain and free him from his restriction, an enemy who can find your weakness would be a strong priority.
On the other hand, if he was successful in eliminating the side effects of his skill, he could use his ability whenever he wanted. Maybe, he could be a formidable foe who knows every weakness of his enemies. He would also be an indispensable ally. People would listen to someone who has use. If that happens, then he could fulfill his promise to Asahi.
He really wasn't hoping for the headache to be gone altogether. Though he was hoping for the best, he really just wanted for the side effects to be reduced.
*If it was enough for me to endure the side effects, then that is better than being a liability. Ideally, I want to be able to use my skill in combat without having people to protect me. If people around me keep on protecting me, then I can't even count as support. My goal for now is to be able to support the group I am in. I don't want to be a burden. But I also need to survive.*
He concentrated. He guided his energy towards his brain, but unlike earlier, it was harder. The potion energy was almost used up now that he healed himself. There was little excess energy for him to manage.
But even so, he wanted to try if it was possible.
A man needed courage and perseverance to succeed! Even if failure seemed to be scary, he would still bravely step towards his goal.
Everyone has their own desire to be a protagonist of their own story. He wasn't different in that aspect. He wanted to take control of his own story. And the only way he could do that is by becoming stronger.
Slowly, he guided the excess energy towards his brain. Just like how he guided the medicine energy towards his whole body, he ushered it from his stomach towards his Qi veins leading to the brain waypoint.
Beads of sweat started to show on Sho's forehead. He was not doing good, but he refused to give up. He continued guiding it one step at a time. He was making sure the medicine energy wouldn't pay the toll on the waypoints.
Suddenly, his concentration broke off when he saw Miya slowly getting up.
He was stunned. And he saw new meaning for the word genius. Or maybe, it was the real definition of genius. Miya was a true born genius.
He just vaguely described everything to her. And knowing how he explained it, he was not good at how he described it. He even thought he had Miya confused while he was explaining earlier. But, lo and behold, Miya actually finished what he described to her in little over a half hour.
*Is this how it felt like earning a one thousand bill, bragging about it, only to realize your coworker earned ten thousand bills.*
He actually felt pouting. The world seems unfair. He had tried a lot of things, but when someone like a genius tried it, the process would be over in a jiffy.
He sighed. He was a little jealous of Miya, but he also admired her endless talent. He felt he needed to do more if he wanted to catch up with her. Suddenly, he felt motivated. The competitiveness inside of him woke up. His mind worked very simple. If others could do it, he could do it or try doing it! He believed that although there are many talented people, they should be viewed as motivation instead of jealousy. Jealousy was a petty emotion that would only limit his growth. If he wanted to be stronger, he should strive forward!
But before he could go back to his meditation, the branches that were covering the underground entrance started moving.
Both Sho and Miya assumed battle positions. They were wounded earlier, but thanks to the potion that they refined to go through their waypoints, they were almost healed. But that didn't mean their vitality was back, they still felt tired, but they weren't wounded anymore. Sho in particular had a hard time standing up, however, he wouldn't weakly wait for his doom!
"You really did it."
Hearing Alpha's voice, the two teenagers let out a sigh of relief. Sho couldn't help but let his butt hit down the floor. He was still tired and wanted to rest. Miya was more composed and she sat gracefully.
Alpha put the branches back to cover the underground entrance and walked over to the two. But when he saw the two, he was shocked. "You healed?"
The two were confused by the sudden question. "Yes?" Sho who was puzzled has a question on his tone.
"Didn't you ask us to heal ourselves? You even gave us a clue. Sho used the hint and arrived at a solution for us to heal faster." Miya was also confused and couldn't help but ask.
For the first time since they met Alpha, he let out a huge smile. And then, he burst out in laughter giving the two both surprise, worry and confusion.
Miya let her eyes wander to the entrance, she was afraid that the enemy would hear Alpha's laughter. Sho, on the other hand, creased his brows looking intently at Alpha. He had been together with Alpha longer than Miya. He knew the guy to be strict and serious. He also didn't let emotion be seen through easily. Him laughing out loud seemed to be out of his character.
"Are you fine?" Sho asked when Alpha finally calmed down.
"More than fine. I was just giving you a task to generate more energy for yourself. So that you both wouldn't have a problem standing up. I even gave six hours because it's not easy to feel the energy. But I didn't know you both would get to the extent of healing yourself. I'm so glad I met both of you. I didn't know it was possible to use energy to heal yourself." There was still laughter in his voice.
When the two realized what he just said, they were both stunned.
They didn't know that even when they did the task, it wasn't the task that was really given to them.
It was really best to describe it as failing successfully.
Sho didn't know whether to laugh or cry because he created this situation.
Maybe his luck did its work.
[Author's Notice: Heeey~ I realized that having short Chapters and updating daily is better than long Chapter and updating just 4x a week compared. That's why I'm going to adjust the update and cut the Chapter short (approximately 1000 - 1500 words) starting next chapter and would also move the update back to 17:00 GMT +8. This is only possible since I've finally got used to setting scheduled updates, because before, I can only post past 17:00 with all the things I had to do before touching writing. :D)
Also, since I'm usually not doing info dump in one Chapter… because, well, as I reader myself, I couldn't understand so much information in one Chapter. Expect that I scattered the information Chapters after Chapters.
With this setup, I expect to have 45-50 Chapters to end Arc 1. I know it's too long and it feels like it dragged out. But Volume 1 actually had too much in it that I can't move in other Volumes. Every Chapter was so essential that some back stories I'll cut and shorten and put the whole story in the Lucky And Hero: Side Story. I've actually cut Volume 1 into 4 parts: Creating Threads, Entangling Threads, The Threads That Would Last and Cutting Threads.
All of which are introduction to characters, backstories, growth, changes, world building and introduction of villains. I really did try my best to compact it *cries* it's just Volume 1 but it's already long. Volume 2 onwards would be much longer with different but connecting plots. Well, I just really want to let my Characters be born in this story. And this is just Book 1 *cries*.
Welp, since I don't have super powers of writing 24/7, I'll do my best to finish this since all plots are done.
I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I've enjoyed writing it~]