(Aden's P.O.V)
I wanted nothing more than to explore the lush jungle growing out of the Lion turtle's back but my patience won out. There was something more urgent I needed to take care of. I flew down to the beach and settled into a meditation pose, legs crossed while my hands rested on my knees.
I lifted a hand and tapped on the minimized icon of the system at the corner of my eyes. The display enlarged and instantly, my sight was assaulted with a prompt.
(Congratulations!!!! You have unlocked a New Achievement:- Striking Out.
Striking Out- After trying out the team thing and following a few unpleasant situations, you have finally decided to leave the nest and strike out on your own. Due to that, you have received a new perk, Blank Slate.
Blank Slate:- Your abilities cannot be copied whether through scientific or magical means.)
Perk List:-
Adaptable Body:- Your body is susceptible to different exotic stimuli. As a result, it grows to adapt to different things without any drastic change of form.
Chi-blocker:- Take down your enemies by targeting their chi points.
Dragon Fist:-(Air Variation) - Combine Air Bending with Chi Blocking to send a small shockwave through a target's body, successfully knocking them out. With each unlocked Element, Variations of the technique can be acquired upon completion of the Advancement Trial to Grandmaster Level.
Blank Slate:- Your abilities cannot be copied or stolen, whether through scientific or magical means.)
The new perk Blank Slate was a breath of fresh air. As I got stronger, there would no doubt be people like Lex Luthor who would try to copy my abilities or clone me. This perk would also allow me to deal with Supervillains like Parasyte who couldn't steal my abilities anymore.
I swiped away that window and looked at the training points I'd accumulated so far. Interestingly, the points had increased. A lot.
Training Points:- 25
A smile appeared on my face. With this, I wouldn't need to simply go through the stances and forms of Firebending. I could now spar against a Firebending opponent and acquire experience along with perfecting my bending. To do that efficiently, I decided I wouldn't use air bending until I mastered Firebending to the Expert level. That way I didn't fall back to airbending as often, giving me enough familiarity with Fire.
Plus, I have to admit, fire was my favorite bending. There was just something fucking cool about blasting shit up. I wasn't a pyromaniac by any means but damn, if I didn't want to explode Klarion apart. Infact, knowing Klarion, that would happen sooner rather than later. Call it a gut feeling but just because I left the team, didn't mean that it was the end of my feud with The Light. Taking into account the 'other' thing, it was a definite that I was going to interact with them more than I was comfortable with.
I clicked on the Training Points tab and a new window popped up in my vision. It was a list of characters names made up of notable airbenders from regular practitioners to grand masters like Aang, Tenzin and Zaheer. There was a section depicting a list of Firebender characters, but this one was incredibly sparse. The only notable name I saw was, Firebender soldier, which was 50 points. The rest were grayed out and I wouldn't waste my points on a firebending beginner. They basically had the same starting line as I, hence I would probably learn nothing from them. Maybe for mob training, I could use them en masse.
The prices set to buy each character was different. For beginner benders, it was 25 points, For experts it was 50 points, masters was 100 points and Grandmasters, the highest level, was a whooping 200 points per character.
The points I had were only enough to get a trainee bender. I sighed and closed down the window. I ran a hand across my face in frustration. Seems like getting these points is not going to be easy.
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"We all have to start from somewhere."
I told myself while getting up. I would hold on to my points for the time being and try to follow the basic Firebending stances and forms I got once I had unlocked the element.
Sparring with a beginner was useless and to get an expert I needed 50 points. The way to get the Training Points was through doing missions however. How would that translate into real life though? I mean, I had left the team and struck out on my own so to speak. Would I get the Training Points based on missions I would give myself or missions that I would get from others? Lucifer probably had a lot of things he needed me to help him out with. Would that count as a mission?
On the flip side, I realized the word mission was used very lightly here. The Training Points had jumped from 5 to 25, an increase of 20 points after my battle with the Team and The Justice League. That wasn't a mission I'd been issued with. So maybe it meant, I could get the points simply by being proactive in the use of my powers. Though it had to be a combat setting. And not a spar, I doubt the Avatar System would allow that loophole. If my theories were correct, getting the points would not be as hard a task as I'd initially imagined.
I looked at the points flashing at the corner of my eyes and smiled. Just you wait…
For the time being though, it was time to explore and hopefully get something to eat. The Avatar State always left me feeling drained. Maybe it was from the strain my body was under, bending all those elements and their Sub-skills at the same time but I needed to feed and sleep. The sleep thing could be delayed until I knew where I was though.
Flying was too eye-catching, so I decided to use the trees, jumping from one to the other like a ninja. Plus, the self restrictions on the flying thing was also to make sure I stuck with the rule I had made for myself. No use of airbending unless it was an emergency. Despite that, the air itself helped me slow my descent onto a branch, as well as keep my movements silent, even without my urging. Perks of being a grandmaster, baby.
The island was actually deceptively huge. From a bird's eye view, it looked no bigger than two soccer fields. But walking on the ground or in my case, leaping from one tree to the other, I realized just how large the damn thing actually was. To get to the center of the island, which was where I was going, was taking longer than I thought it would. Wow, the humans from the Avatar world were fucking bold for hunting this thing to near extinction. Then again it's a fine line between courage and stupidity so who knows.
I delayed mostly to see if I could come across something to eat in the way of fruits. My efforts were eventually rewarded when I saw a purple mango like fruit on the tree to my left infront of me. I took a leap and landed on it's branch. My hand reached out, plucked the strange fruit and studied it.
"It's not too late to go for the coconuts Aden. It's not too late."
I joked. What of this thing was poisoned? Then again, I had my adaptive physiology to help out with that. As long as the poison wasn't too strong, I should adapt to it. Too strong and we would have a problem.
I really needed to find a way to increase the strength of adaptive physiology or maybe even get regeneration as a perk. I do remember healing after being shot on the chest two times. Maybe I should look into that and figure out how it had happened. Did the Avatar have a high proficiency in water healing or was it something else?
And the list of shit I need to do continues to grow longer and longer."
I sighed while turning the fruit in my hands.
I shrugged and decided to take the plunge. Biting into the fruit, my face lit up at the unexpected sweet flavor. It was a combination of the slight tanginess of grapes and the tasty quenching juiciness of mangos.
"A Mangrape? No that sounds wrong. A Grapango? Manpe? Sounds like a disease. Grango? I guess Grango is fine. Man I suck at naming things."
This was interesting. A fruit that was a fusion of two. Exactly in line with the animals in the world of Avatar. A perfect example would be the island I was standing on. A Lion Turtle had the claws and teeth of a lion but the body structure of a turtle, hence a Lion Turtle. Zoologist would go crazy for this island. I imagine it would be interesting for them to track the evolution process of the different animals here. Which increased my curiosity as to where I actually was. Was I in Avatar?
I plucked another Grango and ate it, letting the purple juices flow down my throat and easing my thirst. I still needed water but this was a great substitute for it. Atleast for the time being. M'gann would go crazy for this, trying to find ways she could use the fruit to bake something. And Connor... I paused in my eating and sighed.
I had been avoiding thinking about the team. The betrayal was still fresh in my mind. The worst part was that I missed some of them except Wally and Robin. Fuck those two little shits. Seeing a pattern there? One of them was a self righteous piece of shit who hated me because I was the object of his jealousy. The other was nosy and curious, playing detective not because he wanted answers but because he wanted to copy his mentor. The other ones I was mostly angry at and...hurt. I still couldn't believe that they had all been apart of it. Even Artemis.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. There was nothing I could do now except move forward. It was time to come to terms with the fact that The Team and I were done. Even if things worked out in the future, I. Was. Not. Going. Back.
It was time to start changing the world, just like I'd said I would. After eating my fill of Grango, I went back to leaping from one branch to the other, headed to the middle of the island.