On the bus, although everyone was worried about the training, no one showed it because they were there out of their own desire and this was something that everyone did.
As for the later year students, they have already gone through this and were learning other things already and had internships with many types of people to learn to work in different conditions.
That said, there were a lot of wildlands all around. What had once been short trees during the 21st century were strong forests. Many wild animals that were on the brink of extinction had also been repopulated but in doing that also bred a rare kind of threat which was the actual reason the children were scared.
They are called monsters, the 1 in 1000 animal which had powers just like humans had developed.
For animals who lived in the wild constantly fighting for survival, these creatures were extremely powerful because like humans they don’t have the same limit as powerless humans and animals.
As shown by Shoji, as long as any form of ability exists, their strength can still reach pretty high but monsters are honestly crazy.
Just like humans, monsters equally produce very strange abilities that don’t match their environment requirements for survival but the powers cause them to become amazing hunters.
As seen by the proportion of animal to monster, it wasn’t as big a change as humans that had at least 70% of the population with abilities.
Thankfully, these monsters were also many times more intelligent compared to normal animals and could easily recognize the threat of humans, especially very powerful humans like the Hero that was casually sleeping on the roof of the first bus while his true qi seemed to hook him securely to the surface.
In the bus, everyone was just talking or playing around trying to deal with the subtle tension as they wondered what would happen.
After several rest stops they finally reached a random empty campground on the side of a mountain with just a gentle incline into the forest. The trees were cleared for about 20 meters around the flat camp space so it was possible to see very far into the distance and several dozen kilometers away they could actually see thin smoke like from a chimney.
All the students, both elite and normal, walked out with all the teachers before it slowly gathered up and Mr Might jumped down from the bus.
“Alright children, welcome to your training camp.” He said.
Robin was at the front and looking at the smoke he pointed, “Is it at that smoke?” He asked.
“Yes, that is my Omega camp, one of twenty camps I have spread through North america. I have about 30 others spread in South America as well for when I travel and stay there.” He said.
“Why are we all the way over here, then?” One of the students asked.
Mr Might grinned and Robin already knew what he was going to say without even saying it.
“This is your first test, there is 20 kilometers from here to there and you have to reach there.” He said.
Psh!
Suddenly the side of all the buses opened and hundreds of suitcases appeared which weren’t the ones they had with their clothing.
“We have taken the liberty to prepare your heroic work equipment since they are also armor and you will need it.” he said.
Robin’s face scrunched and looked into the forests, “Don’t tell me, this is a monster infested forest?” Robin asked.
“Indeed it is, monsters become as intelligent as humans and can learn to understand our language so around every camp I built I gather local monsters and train them while also making sure they don’t attack humans. I’ve already talked with them by the time I caught up to you all after dropping off the big rock so they are well aware. They can’t kill but they are to attack and test you. Depending how far you get to the camp before sundown, the better your score and reaching it gives this exercise a 100. Once the sun has set, a loud alarm will sound and the monsters will instantly stop and all those defeated will be picked up and brought to camp.” he explained.
Robin sighed as soon as he finished hearing it but many children were fearful and began to complain to the teachers but their faces were scrunched.
“Sorry to say but your teachers are also being tested and trained by me. This way your school will maintain its quality of teaching staff even after I’ve left after my contract ends.” He said laughing.
Their faces were unchanging but everyone saw it was stiffer.
No one could do much except find their own suits and put them on.
Robin was surprised to see his suit had been changed slightly and a note.
“We have added a proper coolant system along with a new pouch to hold it alongside your oil. We have also changed the material to be able to handle over 1000 degrees of heat without damage as well as the coolant which is liquid nitrogen. The tubes are as thin as the oil ones so that the cold doesn’t freeze you. Once your temperature passes 250 degrees, the automatic cooling activates.” the note said.
Using a small changing space made from just some curtains, he put on the tight suit before letting the next one in and putting on the gloves, boots, belt and the nitrogen tank and oil pouches, and finally the helmet with some help to connect it.
Soon the others slowly arrived and began to fix things up and Robin was with his friends. He was curiously looking at Milo who worked a strange head piece and held a metallic staff with a really weird thing at the end.
“What is the staff?” He asked.
“The staff, it is a low quality psychic stone, it reacts and amplifies any form of natural energy from the mind including my spiritual power. The headpiece has several smaller ones and works as a spiritual load support item. Each gem helps me support at least 10 more skeletons.” He said.
“Aren’t psychic stones really expensive since they aren’t natural things?” He asked.
“Depending on the grade, these low quality ones are also called civilian grade, they are pretty cheap because they use low grade gemstones with a lot of defects. It also doesn’t take a lot to make them into psychic stones. The most expensive was the one in the staff because of the size but that is about it, it is equally low quality.” he said.
“Have you felt any changes since Scar upgraded to a true death dragon?” Lola asked.
“A little, I’ve started to be able to personally control death energy but it is really difficult and it seems to affect my own vitality so I don't do much with it.” He said.
“Yeah, without clear experimentation you shouldn’t try it.” Robin said.
“Oh, another thing is that I've been able to spawn raw bones from the netherworld and a lot of them are really strong.” He said and showed them as he summoned a sharp bone about the length of a hand with a sharp end.
“What does it do?” Lola asked.
Milo smiled and pointed at a tree and surprisingly it shot like an arrow from the bow and half of it penetrated.
“I think I’ve begun to enter the level of death mages who use nether bones and energy to cast magic and such.” He said.
“Hmm, that would make sense for a necromancer. Skeletons in front while they spam long range attacks but remember to be careful of your own health.” Robin said.
Milo nodded and slowly they gathered near the teachers and soon everyone was dressed and ready.
“Alright, it is 5 minutes to noon, you children have roughly seven hours to get to the camp. If you are all ready… Go!” he shouted.
The first to rush were the kong clan members as they rushed and transformed and rapidly climbed while Marcus rushed and began to change and rapidly grew into his massive form and roared into the woods before rushing through.
Right after, many of the others began because they wanted to be first while others were calmer.
Robin was among them.
Milo turned away from the people and after a moment the space in front of them began to shift drastically before Scar walked out and roared to announce his presence.
Already he had riding equipment and it was already on him and it laid down at Milo’s command and he climbed on.
“Want a lift?” he asked Shoji.
“No, this is training, each with their own capacity.” Shoji replied.
“Cool.” he said and sat down as Scar got up and standing up it spread it’s massive wings. The body actually looked thin compared to the wing span and it raised a powerful wind that made many scream as he took to the air.
“Hey! That is cheating!” one kid said after the dragon had taken distance.
“Nope, he created that with his own power so it is naturally permitted, each their own capacity.” Mr Might said.
Many growled and rushed into the forests.
Lola was next as she formed an orb of life force and from it, Galman formed bigger than his original shape of a child. This was the tengu that looked a little more mature while his swords looked large for his size.
After that Lola released 29 tiny dots which changed into tiny demons.
“Fusion.” She said and they all turned into lights and rapidly gathered into Galman and his form shined as he grew taller.
She did this two more times until he had roughly 45% of her life essence and he looked like a teen but his muscles were well defined.
He opened and closed his hands,
“Mr Might, do we just run from the monsters or is there a problem if we kill them?” Lola asked.
“Hmm, I would prefer if you don’t kill them, if you can just defeat them then I would appreciate that.” he said.
Surprisingly his voice had a very loud echo as it traveled even through the woods that should block sound for those already in the woods.
BOOM!
The sound of crashing and explosions came already followed by a loud roar from Marcus while far off a very loud roar came from Scar as he began an aerial battle with avian monsters.
“Cool, you heard him Galman, don’t kill, just incapacitate.” She said.
“Understood.”He said simply and Lola hopping on his back, the tengu spread two long black wings and with Lola, took to the air while drawing his long katana.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Robin looked at Shoji who smiled before drawing his own katana and running after Lola.
This left Robin on his own and he prepared his arms and legs with their new reach and pulled it even tighter as a result of a minor strengthening on his control.
After it was all done, he shot his arm to the very top of a tree before doing the same to another one just beside it.
Finally pulled back all the way to the road and aimed towards the camp.
“I’ll see you.” He said to the teachers and his entire body hardened and he let the force pull as he slingshot himself with immense force.
They all watched as he flew and Mr Might covered his eyes to follow, “Hmm, the boy got some good air time.” He said.
“A good 3 or 4 kilometer from about 100 meters of extension to his arm.” Rain said.
“Heh, less.” Mr Might said.
At that moment, out of nowhere, a large snake appeared, nearly 20 meters long, surprising Robin but he pulled his legs forward as the snake swung it’s thick tail at him.
Instead of being sent flying, he smashed into the body despite swinging at him, he extended what remained winded and gripped the tail and he grinned at the snake.
He let go and stood on its body. Indeed, the snake had not only some kind of camouflage ability but also some kind of flight ability.
Robin didn’t wait as he turned and stomped hard with both spring legs and shot himself.
The snake hissed and it’s back shined as wings formed revealing the source of it’s flight.
This is a perfect example of both human and animal anomaly evolution. Many humans had strange evolutionary traits that had nothing to do with their abilities and could even just be a passive evolution from the many strange abilities that formed.
The snake glared at Robin and he turned and rushed at him while turning invisible.
Robin frowned as he guided his falling figure towards the trees and aiming his legs forward he aimed for the central truck and caught it just before an invisible tail smashed into his back and broke the tree and sent him to the ground.
“Urg… damn that snake is tough.” He groaned as he looked up but didn’t see it. “Invisibility plus a very high strength is such a bull shit combo, and the wings, seriously.” He complained as he dusted himself off as he wound up his arms to have something to actually fight with later. “Camp positioning.” He said.
“Calculating flight trajectory and landing position.” the helmet said and quickly a map formed of the area plus the point they saw the camp at and then his starting point plus a line to the position he was standing on.
“Hmm.” He muttered and looked at the dot pointed in his vision and nodded while looking up. “I should get them to prepare heat and night vision for my helmet visor.” He muttered and sighed before he bent down and jumped up and quickly broke through the canopy and pulled his legs back. He landed on a high branch and looked around.
Explosions and screams were all around and even in the air where he saw many avians.
Even now he could see Milo in a fierce air battle against several of them while Scar released true fire breath instead of acid breath like it did before.
He looked around him hoping that the snake invisibility was a form of camouflage instead of true invisibility.
Invisibility suggests it allows all light through his body so it doesn’t form distortions in the air while camouflage would distort light around the body to hide but it has flaws.
Sadly he couldn’t see much because it likely hid properly. Robin leaned in and his leg springs shot out but he was paying attention, he would definitely knock this snake out of the air next time.
It didn’t take even a second for him to feel the wind rush from behind.
His legs whipped back to he used the recoil to turn his body as he saw the vague distortion of light as the snake came off invisibility but the wings were still hidden but Robin didn’t wait as his arms were launched.
It had come from behind and he couldn’t dodge and he was hit this time but the arm that extended whipped around and wrapped against its body and he stopped his own momentum as he instantly pulled back and smashed into the snake before jumping at the head and before it reacted, he punched it down with the full extension shooting it’s head down to the ground and crashing through the trees.
He pulled back and gripped a tree before jumping on one with thicker branches before shooting off without caring about the snake.
He could hear the hissing rage but he didn’t wait as he kicked and slingshot himself over the canopy and several times he would get into engagements with the snake and several others, many of them much more dangerous including a strange frog that sat on a tree and could shoot a high speed water droplet at bullet speeds showing how dangerous monsters could get.
Several of them he outright had to fight and knock out while others he had to work hard to avoid.
Among them the most dangerous was a toxic dart frog that was literally a dart and it would shoot itself while it had a sharp nose that injected venom.
The first time it shot at him it scared him so much because it had stuck itself into a tree and it took seconds for the entire tree to turn black.
He didn’t even wait and ran as fast as possible and wondered what Mr Might was thinking about having such toxic creature in the woods they were going to train in and it actually chased him and for over 5 kilometers he felt the dangers of death and his instincts were stretched so thin that even without looking he had dodged several times out of pure instinct and the most dangerous time he had actually grabbed onto a very large monster just to get away and he also got away like this as the dart frog fell into a river below.
Of course he had to deal with the flying monster but it was much tamer than the frog.
In the end, it took about 4 hours to cross the 20 km and he was dead tired.
Even now it was possible to hear explosions and clashes from the monsters.
There were already a number of people there, among them the teachers.
Lola and Milo had arrived among the first. It seems Galman was extremely skilled and after a few encounters, the monsters grew to fear him because he truly only left the monsters alive but with few swings he would leave them with serious damage.
It should be said that he wasn’t even fully formed with his true power showing just how powerful they are and even more, how powerful Lily was for being stronger than those four.
When he got through, some students who were better off came to help him and he got water and treatment in case of any dangerous injuries.
Finally he was left at his giant stone which was next to one of many small huts.
The hut had a single large room with four bunk beds, a living room and two bathrooms.
There were wide open spaces, though from far away it didn’t seem like that because the trees were surprisingly tall.
He laid down on the rock and began to absorb the energy despite how thin it was but he felt it was strange that it had so little.
He absorbed and processed most of what it had and jumped down.
“Mr Atlas…” he called out.
There was still no response even after a week making him think there is something lacking so he touched it and released his titan force through the entire stone but the stones weren’t absorbing anymore and he kept feeling the entire thing and remembered one last part and almost facepalmed as he focused on the force binding it, Mr Atlas’s ‘being’.
He sensed for the area through the energy and soon discovered it and energy began to flow into all the cracks and the life force slowly energized and began to drink the energy like there was no tomorrow from the outside in and it came out stronger until there was barely any energy left but once the last bit was saturated all the energy remaining was instantly pushed out and the stone seemed to become one full system again and instantly it began to release a glow.
After a moment, a groan came from the stone,
“Mr Atlas!” he said.
“Urg… yeah… what happened…” he groaned as if waking up from a bad sleep.
Robin began to recall everything while at the same time the large stone began to produce a more steady stream of energy and spread it through the entire stone.
“I see… that explains why I felt like I was being crushed.” He said.
“Sorry that i didn’t notice earlier.” Robin said.
“Don’t be, it wouldn’t have been any different even if it was someone else.” he said. “This energy is quite different and strong, have you tested it?” he asked.
“Yes sir, my test last week produced 15k points with my strongest punching setup but when i channeled this energy, which I am calling Titan force, through my body, i produced 75k of points with just a straight punch and it blew up the machine.” Robin explained.
“What is your strength?” he asked.
“110 in my stats so just my base strength I produce 1100 kilo of force with a straight punch.” He said.
“Did you do the count?” Mr Atlas said groaning
“Yeah… the total was around 24k of force, 5 times the force I can produce using my spring style.” Robin said.
“And side effects?” he asked.
“Well my body can’t totally contain the force so it slightly heats up but the energy quickly absorbs the heat.” he said. “It is hard to move as well.” He said.
“Alright… let me rest a bit, I’ve just gotten out of this pressure and even my ‘head’ feels like it is hurting. I should be fine with some proper rest.” he said.
“Alright, today we have just arrived at Mr Might’s camp for power stimulation and development.” Robin said.
“Alright.” Mr Atlas said.
Like that Mr Atlas fell silent and Robin headed inside to rest as well.
What he never expected was that Silk would be sent to the same cabin and he woke up Robin instantly followed by an even more annoying figure with Marcus.
“Shit.” Robin just said as he laid on his bed.
Eventually the last figure appeared after sun down, being Kevin followed by Mr Might, and he looked at the four.
“Alright boys, i know you three want to complain about the arrangement but this is pretty important since you have to learn teamwork. You four all have the strongest physical powers in the class. All of you have braveman potential and maybe higher if you train right. Having such high strength also means you are most likely to work together in the field when the time comes. I am aware that a few of you have a rough past with each other but you had best leave it in the past and grow up.” He said.
“Sir… why am I among them? I’m not nearly as strong as them. I wasn’t even able to reach the camp before sundown.” He said.
“You are playing catch up to those who have trained since young, don’t try to compare your condition to them. Your stats are already base 60 so don’t think you are far behind, only your physical strength is lower but that can change with proper training. You will all learn about this tomorrow.” He said and looked at them, “Don’t you dare fight in these rooms or you will be sleeping under the stars.” He said and walked out.
The four boys looked at one another stifled.
“Alright… so bedding arrangements… I don't think there should be any problems if donkey kong is on the bottom.” He said.
“Call me that again and I really won’t care about sleeping under the stars.” Marcus said, getting in Robin’s face instantly.
“I’m bottom bunk as well.” Silk said, crossing his arms.
“Alright, it’s decided.” Robin said snorting while hopping up.
Marcus growled and walked out while Silk didn’t keep himself in there but Kevin didn’t have anything to do so he climbed up to the other top bunk and opened the field while taking out his notebook from his suitcases and Robin noticed.
He watched curiously as Kevin touched a spot and Robin noticed how he started to turn pale while his lips turned very white until the first parts of the ring formed and suddenly he got feedback and gasped.
Only when he was done Robin asked, “What were you doing?” he asked.
He looked and was surprised Robin was watching all along.
“Ah… well…” He said.
“Is it the notes that Admin Server left you? I heard he asked for paper and activated a gaming skill on you and you wrote for almost 2 hours once. Are they instructions?” He asked.
Kevin forced a smile and nodded and timidly held it out.
Robin hopped down and took the notes and began to read quickly and raised a brow as he got through. “I see, that makes a lot of sense, a game master while the game server is built into your body using all the natural energies the body has. It stimulates every one to power the body but you can’t personally produce sufficient amounts to use.” he said.
“Basically yeah.” He said.
“Well not like you need it.” Robin said.
“Huh?” Kevin said.
“Well, you can activate the status without the field open now right?” Robin asked.
“Yeah.” He said.
“Then you are becoming like Admin Server, your body will always have the system active meaning you can constantly train under the influence of the system and level up greatly. Also you get 10 points per level so you likely have much more growth potential compared to most people. You are soon to pass a lot of people but I still don’t get how you get skills, maybe it is a ‘shop’ that we are lacking at the moment.” He said and actually opened the book back up and tried to find some kind of system but all the options that made up the basic mainframe didn’t activate anything like that, it just constructed the base game systems.
“I wonder…” Kevin muttered, drawing Robin’s attention, “In the future, do you think this ability will get so strong that it covers the entire world and connects to all gamers?” he said.
When he said that, Robin’s eyes opened wide, “Right… other gamers. I heard that many have very weak abilities but they can connect to Admin Server so maybe they contain pieces of a whole.” He said.
“Well we can hope for the future. Right now our job is to grow. Maybe in the future we can finally get rid of all the negative effects that powers are causing in the world but that also means villains might get stronger so we will really need to figure something out.
“That doesn’t matter.” Kevin said.
“Huh?”
“A lot of villains or petty criminals at least, become criminals because their form is just distorted so fixing that might deal with a large number of their problems, limiting people would just breed more problems.” He said.
Robin looked and smiled before nodding and handing it back, “Make sure to take care of your health and not overdo it, your life force is being consumed for this next part.” He said.
“Yeah but it grows stronger with the feedback.” he said and after a rest he continued building the next plug until around 10 oclock when he was too tired and just ate dinner that was prepared for them and collapsed in bed.
Robin followed him so that there would be no conflict among the room’s occupants.