"Nice work old man." Asher praised.
Some time later, Asher had regained consciousness, and he could see the messages his system had sent while he was 'away', so Asher knew the Old Man had done the deed. There was only one thing he needed to confirm first before he was fully rest assured.
"You didn't do anything that would have brought me unwanted attention did you?" He seemed to be typing something on his watch.
"That... No, no no." The Old Man laughed nervously. "Of course not."
"Okay." Asher shrugged. He realized that he didn't really care what the man had done anyway.
"Yeah, yeah. By the way, what are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be heading over to that dude's house?"
Asher had arrived at Ansel since almost a day ago. But for some reason, the first thing he decided to do was head to the farming grounds to hunt. The Old Man found it quite weird, even though Asher had told him it was because of the rare 'Nightmare Cat' beast that resided in that forest.
Was he getting jittery?
Asher kept on with what he was doing, sitting silently on a roof top before exclaiming. "Done."
"Huh?"
"Nothing." Asher answered suspiciously.
The forest he had gone to, like many others of its kind, was known as a farming ground.
Farming grounds were private locations owned by mostly large companies and organizations made for people to hunt in.
They contained wild and violent creatures with no possibility of being tamed. Creatures like that only served to increase the powers of super humans either by providing EXP from being slain or by being used as material to make equipments.
The environments of farming grounds differed, but the most popular were forest type farming grounds.
That being said, not just anybody could hunt in farming grounds. For that, super humans needed to get registered and licensed as certified 'Huntsman' before they are able to get permission to use a farming ground.
And as the farming grounds were artificial and required high capital and maintenance cost, it was expensive for a super human to get permission to use one.
However, this farming ground Asher had come to, required no cost at all.
Not that he lacked the funds to afford a private ground anyway.
'Now if I remember correctly, that silver haired baldy's office should be at the far end of the island.'
Asher thought, referring to the President of Ansel as the 'silver haired baldy'.
He looked at a map that suddenly appeared in mid air and realized that his location was still very far from that end.
"Why don't we look around while you go? We might see something fun along the way." The old man suggested.
Asher agreed. So much had changed on Ansel that it felt like it was an entirely new place. It wasn't a bad idea to get himself familiar with the place since it was likely, he would be here for a long time.
Ansel was an island the size of 2.1 million cubic kilometers; a size that could be considered as colossal two thousand years ago, but was small for nowadays.
It functioned like any regular country but was obviously not a regular country.
The island was an artificially made one, and a place made by a single authority that stood above every hierarchy in the country, the President.
So in a way, the entire range of two million kilometers was the property of one man who just allowed other people to stay and use the place as they liked.
As they liked, as long as it was within the set rules of the land.
So, Ansel was an individual country on its own with many happenings and businesses.
But the primary purpose of the island was to serve as the location for the best and definitely the most mysterious super human school on Earth, Ansel Academy.
———
At the part of the island where Asher was going, there was a three storey tall building in the forest, with a beautiful pond at the front and a beach with the ocean behind it.
The ambience was very peaceful and calming. Plus, the modern style of the building's exterior didn't conflict with the natural beauty of the environment, but emphasized it, creating a modern to rural style balance.
The edifice was one with nature as vines and flowers crawled along it's walls.
It looked like a dream house.
And in that dreamy place was the person responsible for the existence of Ansel itself, Lucius Tuttel.
And he was currently in a conversation with someone else.
"You know you don't have to stay here right?" Lucius said to his daughter.
"I have free time." Nova responded sharply.
Nova was aware that Asher would be coming to the island today. And this was because she had received a sudden text from him when she checked her computer that morning.
She didn't have Asher's contact and Asher didn't have hers, but he had his ways, so finding her wasn't hard at all.
"Whatever." Lucius sighed.
"I just hope you won't pick a fight with him when he gets here."
As soon as the last words escaped Lucius' lips,
BOOM!
A loud crashing noise echoed throughout the forest, sending the animals (domestic beasts) close by running out of fear. The once peaceful and perfect atmosphere was ruined just like that.
Something unknown had fallen from the sky, into the roof of the building and unto the ground floor, pushing out waves of violent winds and scattering the objects and furniture around the room, like a windstorm blowing in a house.
Nova had to close her eyes because of how strong the wind blew beside her.
But after a few seconds, all the dust in the room finally settled, and Nova could see clearly, what had just fallen from the sky.
Standing afloat, ten centimeters in the air, with his body fully clad in black, Asher looked like a shadow standing up right, at the center of the chaos.
"We have doors here." Nova said coldly to the man standing next to her.
Asher sat down on the chair in front of Lucius' desk and gave the silver haired girl a playful wink, "I missed you too."
"What did you do that for?!" Lucius hit his desk and screamed. He rose his head to look at the hole that Asher had just made from two floors up with fake tears in his eyes.
"If that stunt you pulled destroyed any of my consoles, you'll pay full price!"
"Oh, pardon me gentle sir, I only wanted to surprise you like you did back in Ursalin 5." Asher answered sarcastically.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Lucius squinted his eyes as he provoked.
"Pssh." Asher rolled his eyes.
The two hadn't seen each other for a very long time and yet they were acting like a pair of brothers in an argument.
After looking around, and not finding the other person he was looking for, Asher asked, "Where is..."
"On a mission."
However, before he could even fully word out his question, Nova had already answered.
"You'll be lucky if she even wants to see you again."She added, folding her arms.
"Of course she will." Asher answered confidently.
Nova looked at him with one eye open.
"I mean look at this, you don't see a face like this everyday, do you?" He shrugged.
"You'd be surprised." Nova scoffed.
Nova thought Asher had really changed since seven years ago. He had developed a sense of humor, and she had even heard his chuckle a couple of times.
But then again, her behavior had taken a 180 degree turn as well.
"Where is it?" Asher suddenly asked as he placed both of his legs on Lucius' desk, with a straight face.
"It's on a short break." Lucius answered stupidly, knowing what Asher was asking about.
"What?" Asher rose an eyebrow.
"Em... what I mean is, I'm not going to give it to you just like that."
Asher frowned, "Do you want something from me Lucius?"
Lucius rose his hands up, signalling for Asher to calm down.
"It's not that hard of a task." He smiled.
All of a sudden, his cheeky smile regressed and Lucius then said,
"All I ask is for you to stay."
Asher turned to look at the girl beside him. But seeing her eyes closed and arms folded like she didn't care about what was happening, he answered.
"I guess I could stay for a while. But I still need to find the shards. Eventually I'll have to—"
"Why are they so important to you?" Lucius questioned seriously.
Asher took in a breath of fresh air, "I don't know."
Nova opened her eyes a little in his direction as he continued.
"I don't know what I am, who I am or where I'm from. Heck, I don't even have any memories of life up until when I was six years old.
But the first time I sensed the energy of a shard, it felt so natural to me, so familiar.
So Lucius, I don't know why I want the shards. I just know that I have to get them. Any more questions?"
Lucius stared without a word for a while, but a smile later came to his face.
"Did you just open up to me?" He asked jokingly.
However, Asher just gave him a cold gaze.
"Don't forget, the only reason I still bear your last name, is because it came from mom's side of the family."
"Ooh!" Lucius clutched his chest like he had just been struck in the heart by an arrow.
"Okay then. If you attend a year at the academy, and come out on top, then the shard is all yours."
"..."
"..."
"..."
After saying that, the room was plunged into silence for a while.
"I don't wanna bully your daughter." Asher suddenly blurted out.
Immediately after he said that, he noticed that one of Nova's eyebrows were twitching.
Suddenly, the silver haired girl launched a fist coated in light at the young man's face.
"Woah!" Asher swiftly moved his head backwards to dodge the attack.
BOOM!
As he turned to look in the direction of where Nova punched, he saw a hole in a wall, three meters away.
"That was a slip, I promise" A nervous sweat fell down his face.
Nova was strong, but Asher didn't deem her strong enough to be able to pose a threat to himself.
After all, he was at the peak A-rank level 69 while she was still a level 59 super human.
And on top of that, Asher's strange genes allowed him more stats than any average human.
For example, his strength, stamina and speed stats were almost twice a normal super human's, he had six abilities and even his health allowed him fast regeneration, she just didn't stand a chance.
Nova pulled back her hand and stood up to leave. But as she opened the exit door, she looked over her shoulder and said,
"I admit I'm not at the level you are right now. But there are those on this island who are, and if you're as arrogant as I think, then you'll surely die." She shut the door behind her.
Asher turned to look at Lucius with a puzzled expression on his face. He didn't understand what Nova had just said.
But luckily, Lucius was there to help explain.
"You're a rare case Asher, and if it wasn't for you needing to level up every ability in your system, then you'd most likely be an S-ranker by now."
Lucius was right. But Asher was only able to reach this level because of those many abilities that were weighing him down now.
To reach a level such as his for a normal person with only one ability was simply unheard of. Even the elites among elite super humans were those who manage to reach the S-rank division below two hundred years old.
But here's the thing, Asher was only twenty one.
"Now let me ask." Lucius suddenly said.
"Have you ever been in the presence of another rare case?"
However, Lucius knew humans who were not much older than him in that S-rank division.