After the events during Christmas except for new years the family didn’t leave and it was only because Robin said he didn’t want them to be stuck inside because of what might happen because of him.
Because he insisted they went to watch the new year's fireworks at the change of the year but besides that Robin and even Ruth, trained themselves. Robin felt his lack of strength and Ruth felt that even more since she could only help by taking her family away.
Robin didn’t hold back as he went to his school's track with the Atlas stone and spent hours just running to impact his body so that when he arrived at school he would have even one or two levels increased. He was now determined to at least gain control of his mental energy but he also needed some stats for constitution to see if it helped regenerate a lot of his lost life essence.
Of course, just like life force users like Lola who require 24 hours to regenerate life force lost from the death of their summons, he was also regaining it honestly pretty fast. It was the result of a healthy lifestyle, his body was accustomed to a certain amount and it would compensate to eventually balance that out.
His young siblings also wanted to be ready by the time they got to high school to get their license for trainee.
Judith was probably the most intense because she was only 2 years younger than the two so she would be the first to reach it. Of course, the gravity bracelets came into play greatly with this but Robin just helped her with physical training. He was already too strong to beat her down to train her hardening. She would need to get friends at her strength level to help her with that.
The week after was the last one for winter break and it was pretty quiet but they worked hard finally to return to school.
Near the school was a newly opened area which was building a condominium and surprisingly the school had begun large expansions to the training fields.
Mr Might smiled as he saw class 1 of the elite class on the first day back, “Heh, you might have noticed the big changes going on to the school. Well the schools have been privately sponsored.” He said simply.
“Is it you sir?” one student asked.
“Nope, I don’t have large companies that can provide me with that much money. No, Server Admin is financing it and the main reason is to build a new HQ in Richmond. You will all feel the change soon because as you all should be aware, during christmas, Kevin’s gamer space connected with hundreds of gamers and his gamer space blossomed. Now, the time limit for the gamer space is infinitely longer.” he said.
“Huh!” everyone but those in the know exclaimed in shock.
“Alright, quiet down. This is still top secret so not a word. Anyways the new HQ is a large housing unit for thousands or possibly even tens of thousands. Server Admin is going to start gathering any and all Gamers and you are likely to see many of them living around here and moving around the city. The plan is to continue building Kevin’s system but at present we are missing a few key parts. That isn’t going to change how we do class, however the utility of the gamer space is going to skyrocket because of its class system.” Mr Might said.
From there he exclaimed the class system after Server Admin had gone through a thorough examination of its functions.
First off, what everyone currently has as their class is their ‘view’ of their class but it provides no benefits, it is just a representation. Server admin and those with the class system pieces all obtained a unique class called Class Manager which gives them the gamer ability to assign classes with actual effect but these effects work only in the gamer space.
They had tried this on a few normal heroic class students and gained positive results.
This result was called Trainee Crimefighter. Almost every student of heroics they tested had this and the class effect was a x2 buff to training and skill development.
When this was tested on teachers, they actually were given a basic option which was just like the students but almost instantly the system calculated class advancement.
Every class advancement was achieved at level 50 and most teachers gained the Crimefighter Mentor class. This was the first advancement teacher class which improved their capacity to teach and for students to understand what they were teaching.
Normal teachers however were regarded as NPC but their skill set allowed them a wider range of classes and methods to gain exp for levels. There were regular professions and teacher subverients of those same professions.
It was a complex system but in all, the result of this meant that the students would gain an amazing advantage of using the system as a means for doubling their growth rate.
“Sir, why are we focusing on using gamer space when previously you prevented us from using it telling us to not become dependent on it?” One student asked.
“Because we had no information on it and we didn’t want you getting used to a crutch that might not always be there.” he said.
“What is different now?” the same student asked.
“The difference is the possibility that this power will continue to grow until it covers the globe. Kevin’s current range for his gamer space covers half of Richmond and can be sustained for a full month at that size. This is with his level 1 game master clearance that he has developed. What do you think level 2 will give or beyond that. We don’t know how many levels there are but we do know that there are tens of thousands of gamers who have incomplete gamer abilities which we’ve proven to be fragments of a larger whole that Kevin can piece together and install into his gamer space. If it goes until all gamers are part of this, who knows if the gamer space won’t impose over the whole world. It is an option we can live with and would cause immense growth to humanity as a whole. What we are doing at this stage is experimenting and understanding it while benefiting at the same time.” he explained.
The students understood and soon it was time for PE and they headed out and changed properly. Robin was empty of Titan Force, he had taken to emptying his body to constantly train his mental energy but even now he can’t obtain any hint of control.
After a bit, Kevin talked with the teachers until they could decide the full size and the proper rules.
It naturally had to cover the construction zone but they had to properly pinpoint the students from civilians so they had to use the System AI to first mark all the PE students before blocking the stat system and notification from everyone else.
After that he expanded it until it fully covered the school and the sprawling construction complex and soon the systems were fully activated.
On the side were also the class managers just waiting for their time and soon they were called.
“Now students, these are the gamer Class Managers, we will proceed with the proper trainee class for all students. Please line up in your class to quickly get through this!” Mr Might said and each class gathered up in four lines.
Soon it was Robin’s turn and the Class manager activated the skill.
Notice
Class Manager has given the option for a class change, do you accept?
“Yes.” Robin said.
Notice
Scanning...
Alert
Unique condition achieved, unlocked unique class.
Class Change Menu
Trainee Crime Fighter
The first step to become a defender of peace. Trainee Crime Fighters are taught under Crime Fighter Mentors and Heroic Expert to efficiently learn the skills of the trade to fight while protecting the weak
Effect
x2 Training efficiency - Gains stats easier through physical or mental training
x2 Skill training - gains skill proficiency faster under the tutelage of a teacher
Hero’s Disciple
A unique class possessed only by those when a proper hero takes you as an apprentice as well as the apprentice having the appropriate potential to reach the master’s heights. You are taught directly by the Hero and have his focus in your growth making it easier to train
Effect
x3 Training efficiency - Gains stats easier through physical or mental training
x3 Skill training - gains skill proficiency faster under the tutelage of a teacher
Level up requirements increase meaning level up is much slower, does not affect existing levels
“Huh?! Is this right?” the Class manager said.
“So it’s not just me seeing it.” Robin said. “Could it be a hidden mechanic not yet developed? Achievements maybe?”
“Ah! That makes sense. Sir!” the manager called Mr Might and showed what was going on and he checked both screens.
“Well, it depends on your choice, the bottom one means you take on higher responsibilities in your future.” he said, serious, clearly not making a choice for Robin.
Getting a full value higher in growth rate is a big deal because that means he will start outclassing his fellow students very quickly and it only widens the gap.
“Let me say one thing, the weight heroes carry is the safety of millions or even billions. If you don’t feel like this is a weight you can carry then you shouldn’t accept that class.” he said.
Robin frowned and pressed Hero’s Disciple. “I said I wanted to discover a cure for countless disabilities whether medical or through research. Kevin’s power is one possibility but there are still countless others, influence and strength are required to be able to make people follow my lead.” He said.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Mr Might grinned and nodded after hearing that..
On the side, Silk and Marcus were walking after changing when they stopped and instantly both eyes turned towards Robin and stormed at them.
“Hey! What is this? Why does it say I gained a title ‘Hero Disciple’s Rival’! What the hell is a title!” Marcus shouted.
“Huh?” Everyone stopped and they both turned their own status screen and the gamers looked at it and at each other. “So there are still a lot of hidden mechanics. We should tell Server Admin!” One of them said.
Notice
You’ve gained the title, Hero Disciple’s Rival
Titles
Hero Disciple’s Rival
This title is awarded to those who see and are seen by a Hero’s Disciple as his rivals.
Effect
Trainee Crime Fighter buff improved to x2.5
“What is a hero’s disciple?” Silk asked.
“I joined this school primarily to train Robin because of the large rock. The gamer system probably picked up on these facts and gave Robin a unique skill and it seems these titles enhance the effect to certain people.” Mr Might said.
He looked at Kevin and asked if he got anything similar before he smiled and showed his class. There were actually two classes, one was Game Master for his power but under it was Hero’s Disciple.
“Ah, no wonder. Server Admin huh.” He said and chuckled and looked at the two boys. “You boys had best work hard if you don’t want to be left behind by these two. They unconsciously gave you benefits but you have to work hard.” he said.
Marcus grumbled and walked off to the bleachers while Robin and Kevin smiled weakly and went to their seats. Soon the others were finished and everyone was messing with their stats.
Robin checked and was happy that he had gained 3 levels which meant he had 30 free stats.
“Is it safe to load a lot of stats into wisdom?” he asked under his breath.
Notice
There is no danger in any stat growth, there are only after effect feelings that must be adapted to.
“How much wisdom do I need to gain control of mental energy and how much do I need to get the capacity to store it in the upper dantian?”
Notice
35 Wisdom will produce sufficient mental energy that your body mind can truly recognize the energy separate from your natural control, 50 wisdom is required to produce sufficient mental energy to surpass the barrier to the upper storage vessel.
“What other effects come from 50 points?”
Notice
It may cause some level of confusion as you adapt to the changes, the stable mental energy will help stabilize your brain and maintain it’s high development however your brain is still not evolved enough to handle psychic energy. Sufficient adaptation period required and your genetic traits block system trait shop from genetically augmenting that sort of power into your body
Robin naturally knew about this, it was obvious that he checked during Christmas Eve. Traits he had were surprising, improved flexibility, enhanced rubber control, enhanced life force system. Most of them were all enhancing separate body structures, his power was rubber body originally so almost all the traits involved enhancing specific systems to improve the biological factor in these areas. There were also natural things like improved recovery, kinetic vision and such traits but there were no psychic abilities.
“Let me guess, 100 points is required for my brain to handle psychic energy?”
Notice
Affirmative, non psychic power users who develop psychic energy require long periods of growth and adaptation and further biological evolution caused by the stress of using it to fully handle even low levels of psychic energy. If done without 100 points on wisdom, the user may end up with the same problems that victims the user aids in curing.
That was a pretty strong warning that anyone could understand. He didn’t mind though because his focus was on gaining control of his mental energy. He put 20 points into wisdom and 10 into the constitution and accepted it.
He leaned back as his mind blanked.
The power gathered in his heart first as the power filled his life essence making it multiply and begin to spread and soon it returned to the balance and spread through the body before growing and helping enhance his body before the energy went into his nerves and brain.
He was empty of Titan force, he didn’t want it absorbing mental energy anymore so he did this without the energy despite the Atlas stone being nearby.
It continued for a while as his brain evolved. It stopped multiplying after using 10 points of energy reaching the full capacity of growth through division. The other ten points began to affect his brain differently.
The wild and chaotic nature of the brain began to change slightly as it began to rearrange the connections throughout the brain bringing some more order to the network of connections as well as making it a bit more efficient.
This was key to future growth, if the brain only grew through division, eventually everyone would be big headed, what needed to happen now was improving the efficiency of the brain and it did that forming only a very basic structured arrangement in the chaos of the expanded brain but it was this structure which was required to control mental energy.
When Robin woke up, he felt the world was shaking and his mind was all over the place. When he moved he felt like he was overly sensitive to everything in his body almost like his conscious and subconscious was forced to blend but he still naturally didn’t control subconscious actions like heart beats and things but it felt like it.
It took him some time to get used to the feeling and he soon felt a headache as he keenly felt the mental energy now. He also felt a pretty serious throbbing in his brain and wished he knew what it was.
The source of this was a useless organ known as the pineal gland, it surprisingly was much larger now and its connections were connected to the new structure and mental energy was stimulating.
Mr Might naturally came over to check on him and he just told him that he had added stats to wisdom and would be fine soon.
A lot of students were similar so they tend to let their heads and stomachs calm down for a good while.
During that down time, Robin slowly tried to control mental energy but still controlled his elastic control for almost ten minutes until he finally understood the difference.
His body slowly stopped moving while the mental energy got better until he fully split the subconscious usage of this energy in his control and after twenty minutes he began to channel it towards the front of his forehead.
The energy hit a barrier and he kept at it while having his head down and each hit would push it back and he would regather the energy he could with better grasp until finally he had almost all the mental energy and attacked at once putting pressure until it finally broke past it and filled the vessel and quickly began to spread through the channels and nerves of his brains sending his brain into overdrive and he blacked out.
When he woke up, he was in the nurse's office and Shoji was sitting there quietly doing maintenance on the katana he uses for training now.
He saw Robin move and smiled at his friend.
“So you were that desperate for mental energy.” He said.
“No… maybe.” he said. “An awakened force that is untapped is a wasted potential.” He said.
“Did you benefit from it?” he asked.
“Yeah… I found out all the elements of my rubber control.” Robin said and looked at the message that appeared as he sat up.
Notice
By awakening and understanding both Life essence and mental energy separately from your elastic control, you’ve gained 10 levels in elastic control. Skillful usage of both forces can produce a much greater effect on the usage of your elastic body.
He read the message and Shoji smiled, “Then it’s fine then. That is sure to be an eye opener to many people who have elastic control.” he said.
Robin nodded and looked at his friend who was very peaceful now. It was a state of mind that had been brutally cultivated during his training. His sword training was one thing but what really pressured Shoji was his mental training.
At the start he only had enough to make his Sense Emotion slightly change but level ups were a source of potential he didn’t pass up and at least added 2 points of every level to wisdom. So from his original 15 after the first time they used the gamer space and his level 7 to his current level 27 he added means his wisdom was at 55.
His powers never stopped growing until 40 points. At 50 points he actually surpassed the limit of just his normal power, he gained the ability to project some of his psychic energy like actual psychics.
As for his sense of emotion, it had grown quite scary. It had expanded from not only his eyes but to his ears. When his power fully stabilized at 40 wisdom, it had given him the ability to hear the voice of the emotions.
Unlike the voice of a person, emotions only spoke the source of that emotion. It meant that he could stand on the side and listen to an interrogation and hear the emotion’s voice while ignoring the voice of the person and obtaining the true reason behind such feelings. It was a surprising form of mind reading honestly.
This had also cultivated a much more empathetic feeling from him and he gained a very serene feeling to him like a confident older brother others could rely on. Whether it is a therapist, investigator or student counselor , he would make a great professional in the future.
“How long have I been here?” he asked.
“We found you had blacked out by the end of PE, the power of classes is pretty amazing even for someone like me who can almost be considered an NPC. I probably wasn’t counted as one because of the heavy work I put into training from young and my power which had at least strong man potential.” He said.
“You know it’s much higher already.” Robin said.
“I know, when my family heard about it, they came to thank Mr Might personally and ask to teach them how to channel mental energy. Kevin’s gamer space is really making a lot of difference, most of my family already opened their storage and are working hard to compress their mental energy.” he said.
“They should properly level up their wisdom first. They could get stuck like those in the institute.” He said.
“Yeah but almost everyone used their excess potential to reach 40 wisdom. I told them that I had been the level that my blossoming power stabilized at. Their mental energy really increased so it is easier for them to compress it but it still is hard.” he explained.
“I honestly wish I didn't need the gamer space. It's a very great power but it puts an immense target on Kevin now. If the school continues to grow, our year is likely to turn into something even better than elite heroic academies.” Robin said.
“Yeah, I heard my dad commenting. At present there are two heroes who are investing in different forms into this school. If it were to continue like this and new hero candidates in our school appear then it's possible that our public high school becomes a Hero Academy funded and sponsored by several heroes together.” He said.
Robin looked at Shoji who had a smile while his eyes were laughing.
“That would be interesting, a hero academy. But it would be subject to the focused fire of all super villains trying to tear down the future.” He said.
Shoji looked at his friend, “You shouldn’t feel down about your decision to become a Hero’s Disciple. Each person has their own views towards heroism and what actions we should take to prevent crime and how criminals should be dealt with. You’re hiding it but your emotions speak for themselves. While you were asleep, it just constantly rambled about Heatwave and the others who are licensed criminal killers because of their overbearing power. I understand that you think things could be different but what would you want? Let the metal arm guy kill you so that he could become rich and stop doing crime?” He asked.
Robin frowned, “Of course now!” he said.
“Then just focus on getting stronger and eventually we will get the strength and political influence to actually change things in our modern society.” Shoji said.
Robin looked and sighed, “You should be a therapist instead of a crime investigator or an interrogator.” he said
“Who knows.” Shoji said with a smile. “You should properly stabilize your mental energy, make it flow several times and gather all the loose energy and adapt to it. I’m sure by tomorrow your control of your rubber powers is going to be pretty extreme.” he said.
Robin looked and smiled before thinking for a while and laying down and breathing steadily and channelling the mental energy. They went through his brain and constantly stimulated that gland in his head which kept giving off heat before spreading through his nerves and back. It stretched, got lightly processed before the thin energy was lightly compressed just like the single spin that all the energies had without the acupoints being filled to compress it.
When he woke up it was already time to go home and he went with Shoji.
On the way, Robin was silent but the only time he wasn’t he pulled out his phone and went to the last contact, the only one he never used, and sent a simple message, “Next time you get access to Kevin’s system and have at least 30 points, make sure to raise wisdom to 50 or you will never be able to control mental power.”
He sent it and didn’t look.
Ruth was at her academy when she heard her phone ring while she was exercising. A full day had gone to testing her enhanced capacity in battle and she felt amazing after not having anyone to fight with. Her textbook fighting style had changed since her spar just as Captain Stretch had hypothesized and it was far more efficient and deadly.
She took a break and looked at it and was shocked to find Robin’s number and read his message in silence before looking around and simply replying “Okay.”