Chapter 10 - Crystals! Part 2

[Time: Around 1 hour later]

Vorst donned the protective armor provided to him and exited through the main gate. No one was allowed to leave the school grounds without it. The guards briefly glanced at him and let him pass. Inside the armor, no one could recognize him as the 'powerless' one without an [Inspection], and the guards didn’t have to check students.

<You left school grounds. Armor offline. Activating Armor.>

Normally, students would activate the armor immediately after equipping it, but Marc had forgotten...

<Welcome, Vorst. Measurement of your core indicates 2nd LST. Change in rank noted. Congratulations!>

It dropped, though...

<Map updated. Please register party members. When finished, please issue command End.>

[Vorst: End.]

<Your party has one party member: Vorst. Enjoy the Hunt.>

Though it was the first time he used it, Marc had already memorized the entire textbook about armors, so there were no problems. He quickly found a suitable cave. It was a 3rd LST-sized cave, and there were no other parties nearby. He promised to stay low-key, after all.

***

A dense killing intent poured out of the small body of the boy.

Several black wolves hesitated... They were surrounding their 'prey', but somehow that small thing exuded a terrifying aura. The beasts shook off their unease; they could easily identify the power level of the opponent through smell, and the one before them was weak.

HOWL!

One of the wolves released a loud howl to encourage its comrades. Several of them lunged together towards the child.

<Alert! Black Wolf 3rd LST - retreat recommended.>

<Alert! Enemy numbers: 12.>

<Alert! Danger crossed acceptable numbers. Activating ENDANGERED signal.>

<Alert! ENDANGERED signal failure. Hardware malfunction.>

Right now, inside Vorst's helmet, tens of red warnings popped up. A normal person would be scared out of their mind seeing those signals, but Marc just let out a sigh.

[Vorst: Those things are so annoying...]

Of course, he had sabotaged his ENDANGERED signal himself.

A mocking smile appeared inside the helmet. His killing intent was so thick it created an illusion of solidity. If he retained his previous power, just his aura alone would be capable of finishing off those small fries. But right now, they dared to attack him!

Just as his head was about to be crushed by big jaws, he instantly dodged by throwing his body to the ground. His left hand hit the ground, and as he shifted his center of gravity, his body turned, and his right leg, using centrifugal force, crashed into another wolf's head.

Instantly regaining his balance, he swung his fist at another...

***

[Vorst: Hmpf. Ha. Ha. Small fries. Ha.]

Twelve bodies lay still before him. The little boy's breath was quick and irregular, but his armor showed nearly no signs of damage. He took another deep breath.

[Vorst: This body is too weak.]

The system finally became silent. Defeating a dozen 3rd LST monsters with a 2nd LST body was a miracle in itself, but Marc complained. Though he had lost his powerful body, one thing he hadn't lost was his experience. During the last battle, his mind was serene, with decisive movements, immediate responses, and impeccable timing, which allowed him to easily defeat the wolves.

[Vorst: Not only that... my reaction was way too slow... This body isn’t used to fighting... What was that kid doing all the time? Was he really training?]

Marc realized that the body lacked battle experience. There is a thing called 'procedural memory'. Thanks to it, the body 'remembers' actions. Reflexes are trained; there is no other way. No matter how much one 'visualizes' things, the body has to 'experience' them to learn. Automatic, trained movements in battle are essential!

The body’s reaction has to be immediate; any fraction of a second wasted could mean the difference between death and life, between victory and defeat!

[Vorst: From tomorrow... It's time to start special training...]

Marc then suddenly remembered the old days. Long, long ago, he trained as hard as hell. Various gods' apostles were looking for him, dragonlings were chasing him, and demons appeared from time to time too. Not to mention the regular beings of the same plane who also wanted his head. Death could come at any second. Nostalgia washed over him!

Inside his soul, Lily was nodding with extreme excitement. Marc’s weak body, though quite cute, didn’t get her going; while she was attracted to his soul radiance, his body was a turn-off. If she wanted a cute, soft thing to hug, she had thousands of plushies in her room, but there was no Marc!

That night, he ached all over since he had pushed his body past its limits.

***

It was a day before the transfer to Athena's Institute. A special battleship was scheduled to pick them up the next morning, with several destroyers escorting it. There were even rumors that three Rankers would show up to ensure their safety! Just that shows how much they valued the White Wolf Princess.

Being accepted into Athena’s was a dream for every single cadet girl! Just imagine how shocked they were when they found out about Vorst’s transfer—not only a 'male' but also the 'powerless.' From that day, the number of 'death glares' Marc received increased every day.

[Mersa: Aaan~. Vor-chan, where are you disappearing after lunch these days?]

[Vorst: Aa... *Nom Nom* Special training.]

The wolf girl wasn’t entirely surprised. She took it as one of Vorst’s usual bursts of hype that he had in the past, which passed as quickly as they appeared. Though now he had those alluring green eyes that radiated rock-solid determination.

[Mersa: I see... Aaan~ Well, it's fine to be motivated, but don’t overwork yourself.]

[Vorst: Aa... *Nom Nom* Got it.]

If glares could kill, Marc would have been turned to dust by now... several hundred times over.

***

[Vorst: Last day, huh.]

Right now, Marc was engaged in his 'routine' solo special training, which included black wolves as sparring partners. Those sparring partners perished in the process too. His level had increased to 4th LST, which was an incredible pace. To compare, it took the original Vorst 5 months to go from 1st LST to 4th LST; Marc achieved that result in less than a week!

Right now, beating dozens of wolves didn’t even make him sweat. The main improvement was due to the new technique he invented. He discovered that he could redirect the 'impure' nano-photons directly into his muscles to reinvigorate them, which doubled his stamina recovery. His overall body strength improved too, and his reflexes were honed to a level incomparable to the 'dull, forced' reactions from several days ago.

[Vorst: *Bow* Thank you for your time. Now, next... Since it’s the last day, let’s go all out and enter the cave!]

Three collection bots were moving around busily dismantling the bodies of dead monsters. To enter the cave, one would typically need a 10-man team with soldiers at 2 ranks higher than the cave’s rank. If anyone heard that a single 4th LST was entering the 3rd Low Step Tier Crystal Cave alone, they would definitely treat it as a suicide. That’s what the 'powerless' did.

***

Vorst stared down at the lying Wolf King. The annoying red messages were still popping up.

<Alert! Black Wolf King 6th LST - Retreat recommended.>

<Alert! Danger crossed acceptable numbers. Activating ENDANGERED signal.>

<Alert! ENDANGERED signal failure. Hardware malfunction.>

Blood trickled down the wolf’s head, entering its eye, but it didn’t dare to blink as its world was colored red. The enemy before him was 'weak', but he was incredibly strong. The sense of smell told the wolf that the small boy before him wasn’t a threat, but the pressure the 'weakling' emitted wasn’t a joke. What’s more, the Wolf King himself had just been thoroughly trashed several seconds ago...

Totally confused, it couldn’t comprehend what was happening. As the boy entered the main room of the cave, over three dozen Black Wolves immediately jumped at him... And they all perished...

The boy moved...

The Wolf King found itself flying again.

It squealed pitifully as it crashed into the wall once more.

[Vorst: Heh.]

Yes, Marc was playing around. Before entering the cave, he had released all of the runic formations inside his Photon Core, allowing him to utilize 100% of his Power. Right now, he was enhancing his speed to the utmost levels while casting only a bit of defensive power on his fists and feet.

The Wolf King jumped to the side, only to crash into the wall again.

The most effective method against large numbers of enemies was speed. As long as you are fast enough, you can avoid being surrounded, fighting only against two or three enemies at most. Moreover, speed was closely related to strength. The faster something moved, the higher the damage it would inflict. But it worked both ways; that’s why Marc had to use protection on his hands and feet.

Another crack appeared on the wall as Marc performed a kick.

[--Calla--: A Hero, huh...]

[--Lily--:

... I-I’ll make him! ... I’ll definitely make him a hero! ...]

[--Calla--: I see...]

With another punch, the Wolf King crashed into the wall again. This time, it remained motionless.

[Vorst: It was a good stress reliever, but I guess fun time is over, huh?]

Marc waited for a while, then brought out his sword to dig out the crystal. In fact, he had used the sword to kill most of the creatures in the cave; he only sheathed it to play with the big wolfie.

[Vorst: Hand over the crystals. Sell the rest.]

The boy gave commands to the bots.

The fangs, teeth, and leather were good materials for alchemy, while the meat could be consumed. After collecting the crystals, he headed back to his dormitory. Tomorrow, they would move to Athena's Institute...