Roar!
Currently in the middle of the forest, Sebastian was fighting against a large beast. During his stay with the man, he learned a couple things from him, including special techniques that were unique to the man himself.
Sebastian's capability to adapt quickly and learn techniques fast surprised the man. He taught many people before Sebastian and each person managed to learn his techniques in a few weeks to months but it only took Sebastian a couple hours to a few days.
'I actually was able to pass my entire legacy onto the boy… He might be able to fulfill my dream of revenge.'
Bang!
In front of the man was the mutilated corpse of a beast and surrounding him was the body parts and bones of the beast. This was the result of a technique that was taught by the man.
This technique involved controlling the energy of the world and condensing to a point of release. Though this technique had to be used with absolute care otherwise, Sebastian would lose his life.
Most people would think the energy of the world would be mana but it's only secondary to the primary energy of the world. The primary energy of the world would be the life force of the world. If the life force of the world didn't exist, then nothing would exist.
Every being of the world requires life force to live and to increase their ranking of the world.
Sebastian is one of the very few beings closest to the life force of the world as he's a blackhole when it comes to absorbing the life force of the world.
Harness too much of the life force and it will overload, or harness very little and die of a short lifespan.
"Very good! You're getting the concept of harnessing the energy of the world. I've taught one person other than you the ability to harness the life force and they tried to use it to take over the empire but sadly met a rather gruesome death to the ability.
That person is why I'm trapped here. I want revenge against the empire for my false imprisonment."
While listening to the man's words, Sebastian learned to expand his energy to find living things around him. He found this skill useful as it would be best against ambushes or assassination attempts on his life.
'Found you' Sebastian said, internally.
Flash stepping from his location, he found a beast with mantis-like features and noticed it was a higher rank than he had expected.
"I swear, you're so prone to kill that you forget to even check their ranks." The man appeared by his side.
Not only did the man teach how to expand his energy to search for living things but he also taught him how to gauge a living being's rank.
"Cleave"
Small strings, which almost looked invisible to the eye, descended upon the unfortunate beast and cut it into five different sections. Unbeknownst to Sebastian though, he didn't realize his arm had been cut from his body and abdomen slashed nearly open
"Arrgggh!!" Sebastian groaned in great pain as it was his first time having a limb cut clean off from his body.
"Hmmm… I made sure its attack couldn't reach you so how did its attack reach?" The man said.
"Have I gotten weaker?"
"No, you dumbass! Your string cut me!"
Looking toward the boy, the man realized one of his strings had been cut by the beast, thus creating Sebastian's injury.
"Interesting! A beast was actually capable of cutting my strings!" The man was intrigued. "Hold your arm up while I fix it."
Listening to the man, Sebastian saw him weave his strings and repair his arm on a molecular level.
'To be able to repair my arm on this type of level… His mastery is scary.'
Swoosh!
Suddenly a beast jumped from the trees and instantly targeted the man.
Slash!
Within one second, the beast was decapitated and a chunk of its body was missing. This was part of the new skill Sebastian was currently trying to learn but found it hard to learn.
Like the other techniques he learned, he had low mastery over them and could only use about one percent of the true power behind them.
"I think it's about time I send you back. You've been here for a couple months now and I've taught you everything I know. All you gotta do now is get complete mastery over them and you'll be a powerhouse even Jack himself can't ignore."
"What? I want to stay here longer, master."
"Unfortunately, it isn't up to me. Every person Jack had sent only stayed for four months before heading back."
"Then I'll find a way to free you. I can try to convince Jack to let you free."
"I appreciate the thought but I won't be able to live much longer. Especially since that beast will kill me soon."
"Beast? I'll help you kill it! Then you can live so I can try to free you."
Beneath Sebastian, a glow circle appeared and his body started to glow.
"Listen to my words, boy. Don't die and don't try to use my technique in front of Jack. You're the only one I've taught all of my techniques to."
Before Sebastian could respond, he was teleported instantly. Looking around at his surroundings, Sebastian saw multiple magical spells heading straight toward him.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
"We got him!" A girl shouted, happily.
"Mia! Keep your guard up!" A boy told the girl.
The boy was right to assume as Sebastian appeared from the smoke, harmed yet fine. Everyone wasn't surprised that Sebastian survived as he already proved to them he's strong but this time was different.
While Sebastian was away, everyone trained themselves to the limit so they could surpass or at least break Sebastian's pride/ego. Though they knew it would be hard to beat Sebastian, they all began to practice Sebastian's speed skill: 'Flash Step.'
"Sebastian, you may have been labeled the 'Strongest' or 'Unrivaled' during your stay here but I'm here to change that!" Lycaon announced.
Within moments, everyone unleashed their auras and magical powers toward Sebastian.
"Bring it on!" Sebastian said smiling.
Bang!!!
A crater had appeared where Sebastian was standing and blood could be seen dripping from Sebastian's arm. This surprised Sebastian as he didn't expect himself to bleed from such feeble attacks but the others found it as an advantage as Sebastian's arrogance allowed them to injure his body..
As Sebastian was analyzing the damage to his arm, Lycaon appeared behind him holding a knife. Sebastian, taken by surprise, couldn't react in time and sustained a few major injuries from Lycaon's surprise attack.
"You seem to be the only one to use 'Flash Step' properly."
"Ha, you think I would be like them? I'm royalty and I'm of a superior bloodline but even still, I treat everyone equally unlike you."
Throwing his fist, Sebastian attempted to hit Lycaon but he disappeared. Trying to predict his next location, Sebastian struck above himself.
Bang!
"Quit ignoring us!" Sophie shouted.
Sophie Jupiter, wielder of lightning magic and purple aura, a mixture between the red aura and blue aura. She's capable of using her magical power as an augmentation, which makes her powers difficult to deal with.
Zap!
Multiple different electrical needles launched themselves into Sebastian's body, which caused damage to his nerves. His arm, now paralyzed, and his body were slowing down from all the damage.
Slowly the ground started to become covered in lava by a boy and the air was being poisoned. The scene in front of Sebastian left him baffled as they weren't powerful enough to fight him four months ago but now they're more powerful.
The poisoned air moved faster toward Sebastian as another boy was controlling the air. Three different barriers were erected as a girl used her water magic and a boy froze her water barrier. The second barrier was created by a boy as his magical power was barrier magic and the third barrier was made of metal by another boy.
The battle wasn't looking too good for Sebastian as not only was he imprisoned, hurt and surrounded by poisoned air and lava but special runes were appearing on his body as they were meant to seal Sebastian's strength.
Sebastian's blood around him turned into small daggers and were shot at Sebastian's abdomen by a girl. He tried to move but it proved to be nearly impossible as he realized his shadow was being affected by shadow magic. Kane Umbra, a wielder of shadow, was someone Sebastian hadn't expected to fight against him as they were close friends back in the village
"Ready to give up!?" Lycaon shouted.
"Oi! Oi! Oi! Do you really think you can hold me!? I'm unrivaled!" Sebastian replied.
"Finish him!" Lycaon shouted.
As Lycaon finished his words, mostly everyone was ready to finish Sebastian but someone unexpectedly stepped in causing Lycaon's plan to break.
"Earthquake!" Baron shouted.
Everyone looked at Baron and were taken aback by his sudden betrayal. The ground began to rumble, breaking everyone's concentration and trust for him
"Tch! You bastards are really getting on my nerves!" Baron continued.
"Baron, how could you?!" a boy named Kai Halogi shouted.
"Are we really gonna do it now?... Fine, let's do this!" another boy shouted.
"Lendell, I knew you were gonna betray us someday!" Kai shouted again.
Everyone except Baron and Sebastian felt pressure being applied onto them. Lendell's magical power is the ability to control gravity, which went along with his white aura.
'Why do children always have to be so difficult to deal with…' Jack said, shaking his head.
While Baron and Lendell were causing a ruckus, Sebastian was slowly breaking through all the barriers and the seal on his body. Though everyone that attacked Sebastian was acting tough, they were very low on mana.
Half of them were out of mana while the other half had yet to do anything. The reason being is because they had yet to master their magic and couldn't form offensive skills yet.
Bang!
Both Baron and Lendell were Sebastian's closest friends and chose to help him though they both did it for different reasons. Baron helped Sebastian because of their friendship while Lendell helped Sebastian because he favored the strong.
Bang!
"Be careful! Lendell is capable of taking nearly half of us on by himself!"
Lendell had been holding back several of the children while Baron held off the other three children that were on the weaker side of the scale.
Bang!
Fragments of ice flew everywhere while everyone was still fighting but only a few realized what had happened.
"Hello, my friends!" Sebastian shouted while smiling crazily.
Everyone looked toward Sebastian and felt a rush of adrenaline enter their body as Sebastian's body was leaking his killing intent. Sebastian was serious about killing his fellow friends but then Jack stepped in to prevent further problems.
"That's enough. Any further and I will have no choice but to put you into solitary confinement." Jack said.
Everyone stood still except Sebastian as he was angered by Jack's interference in his battle. Lendell and Baron appeared by his sides and held his arms back while dragging Sebastian away.
"Hey! Let go of me!" Sebastian tried to refute.
"That's enough. We already did enough." Baron tried to calm Sebastian.
"Take a nap!" Lendell shouted while throwing his fist augmented with gravitation force.
Bang!
Falling unconscious, Lendell began to drag his body back to Jack's mansion.
"Take him to his room." Jack spoke.
"Yes sir!" Baron responded.
After bringing Sebastian to his room, he woke up and glared at Lendell and Baron. Though they were friends, Sebastian didn't agree with their plan to knock him out and bring to his room.
"We can't go ahead with our plans, if you're in solitary confinement." Lendell spoke.
"Besides we still have Alejandro watching and providing information for us." Baron smiled.
"Tch! I'm just pissed off that Jack interrupted my fight!" Sebastian said with an angered face.
…
"Lycaon, were you trying to kill Sebastian?" Jack asked
"I was only trying to teach him a lesson." Lycaon replied, kneeling down.
"Listen, I know his arrogance and abusive behavior is agitating but it's proving to be a good thing. If it wasn't for him, then most of these guys including you wouldn't have gotten stronger."
"A good thing?! Each time he gets pissed, he tries to kill us!"
"Relax, this next upcoming test will separate all of you into groups and Sebastian will be by himself. He'll have no choice but to rely on you guys."
Casually walking back outside, the misfit trio listened to what Jack had to say.
"Listen up! I'm sending to a forest that all of my trainees have been sent to in the past. The Forest of Strengthening."
Flash!
Everyone was suddenly flashed by a bright light and opening their eyes, they were in a new environment.