March 23, 2248
Milo, Shoji and Lola look at a small diagram that Robin had drawn out. All of them were now 13 and nearing the end of their middle school 8th grade year. From 5rd grade to 8th grade, Robin had studied the basics of countless types of powers and looked through the internet to slowly build his own categorization.
Finally he finished and was showing his friends.
“So three years lead you to seven categories huh.” Milo said bored.
“What about it? You expected there to be hundreds?” Robin snorted.
Milo couldn’t reply to that but was pretty bored with being dragged into this. Sadly he could not escape since this was his house, something Robin naturally planned out since it was hard, nowadays, to drag Milo out of his home. The degree of misconception towards his power was really too much for him and he does internet schooling now. Only their small group often visits, something Milo’s mother is more than thankful for, or he would have become a shut in completely shut off from the world.
The seven categories Robin organized are as follows: Energy, Attribute, Mutation, Transformation, Psychic, Dimensional Power and Emitter. Even those with disabilities fall into one or at least two of these categories as he had noticed. Furthermore, several of these categories have subcategories to differentiate specifics of powers instead of making one general group.
Now the description of each category is also worked out after extensive research of each group after a long time of looking through hundreds of similar powers.
Energy, People who possess one form or another of special energies that power their abilities.
Attributes, Powers that are solely based on the base attributes of the living body, Strength, Speed, Intelligence/Wisdom, healing factor, etc.
Mutation, a type of power that causes passive and active change directly to the body of the person. Passive powers means extra limbs and active means growing or pulling back body parts.
Transformation, A type of power used to change one's body structure into a more powerful form, most of the time they are normally animalistic one.
Psychic, abilities involving the mind from mind reading to seeing and talking with the dead. They include all mental abilities involved with the brain in any form.
Dimensional Power, powers that involve the movement of energy and space. It is generally regarded as different from energy powers but many can be regarded as half of the energy category due to directly controlling different forms of energy.
Lastly emitters, a power which doesn’t use inner energy to emit forces like fire, ice, explosions and more.
If professionals actually saw it, they would agree with the categorization but many companies or organizations have their own ways to categorize powers.
“Okay, so we have a way to categorize abilities, now what?” Milo asked.
“Well the start of a hero’s company starts in school. Pretty much it is a high school club.” Robin said and started at the recluse.
“What?” Milo asked.
“You are gonna have to go to school as well.” He said.
“Hell no.” He said bluntly without even having a change in expression.
“Milo, you are the smartest of us. You know you need extracurricular activities to pass in high school.” Shoji said.
“I’m not going, not to be called a Lich again.” He said as his poker face finally changed as he said that.
The three sighed, “Why are you letting Marcus’s shitty insult get to you? I mean, he calls me a succubus and ever since the kitchen oil incident when Robin began using all types of oils and moisturizers he is called lotion boy.” Lola said.
“Hey!” Robin exclaimed.
“Well you are, you have already tested nearly 1,000 different oils and lotions since then when you felt that strange itchiness after using your hardening while covered in kitchen oil.” She said.
Robin could not retort but he didn’t like the insult to the point that when he was first called, he almost beat up the boy again when they were in middle school.
“Why do we even have to do a heroics club to begin with.” Milo asked.
“It's the basis of a heroic company. We can't exactly join others since our ideals are different from the normal.” Robin said.
“Also all children with trainee level licences are required to do active heroics work most of which start out in clubs in high school where they start to figure out their limits, their desired public and more. Also this is also the time we have to gain popularity which we need to advance to vigilante.” Shoji explained.
“I find it hard for me to gain popularity.” Milo said.
“Don’t worry, since we all will have our license that means we don’t need to worry about the legal use of our powers outside of places like home and PE. That means you can actively use your undead.” Robin said.
Milo frowned but nodded. Behind his frown he was inwardly happy to hear that. The misconception towards undead is deeply rooted in all living people. It is different for bone manipulators like his father who can control his bones. Even so, his powers are actually very powerful. Out of the four, his power is the strongest without a doubt, especially after he began to actively evolve his crafted undead.
Although his ability did not use his own inner energy to use the ability, it used exterior energy coming from his undead. This energy was known as spiritual energy. It is a special energy the undead produce from their souls when the soul is experiencing vast growth to accompany their bodies.
This feedback all ends up in Milo’s brain which develops it making him the smartest of the group and the one with the strongest mental fortitude and through this he can control many more undead compared to when he was young. Not only that but he has bred several strong breeds from Bargo, the Skeleton Warrior and his dream pet, what he calls a baby zombie dragon.
Both were currently the basic strength level of a trainee, which is very amazing, and he could control only one of them at a time but that is the two strongest. On the other hand, weaker undead he could spawn in mass, numbering close to 50 weaker skeleton soldiers. This went to show how strong the souls of the two undead were. This did not include his own strength that was at the base performance needed for those regarded as summoners.
In fact, the three did not expect him to be a fighter, not unless he wanted to himself. The huge number of undead he could control was a huge attraction for the manual labor force. In fact, it was even a good thing to have someone who can suddenly spawn a huge number of helpful creatures under his suppressive control. In case of a disaster, the undead could be used to quickly move injured people out of the disaster zone and because all undead have an innate ability to sense ‘life’, they can find living but trapped people. Though more powerful undead can feel it much better naturally.
“So I don't follow you guys on the research and stuff so what exactly do the hero companies even do? I know they are supposed to be the aid of heroes and be the ones connected to the police transmitter to constantly be on the alert but what else?” Milo asked.
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“Well like all companies really. They sell goods and services. Although trainee run companies don’t do much, we still sell items to generate funds normally based on those that work doing the heroics with the company logo.” Robin said.
“Okay so what would be our items?” he asked.
This actually stumped the three. Although they all knew they needed sales goods to generate funds but suddenly getting asked that really did stump them.
Milo sighed, “We need to recruit people who have marketing sense.” he said.
The three others smiled weakly and nodded. They simply didn’t know much about the marketing side of the company, much less how to run one even if they wanted to make it. Although they are only 13 at this time, they can officially establish the company upon graduating high school as long as they have the required conditions.
These are naturally starting funds, a fixed address and at minimum someone that works as the operator to pass information to the heroes of the company.
At that moment, Yez, the succubus, suddenly thought of something and unfolded her crossed legs in the air and moved towards the group, “What about selling the demon world vegetation?” she asked.
“Is there even vegetation there?” Lola asked, frowning.
A snort came from Lily, “Of course, you just didn’t notice because they are mostly short and pretty dry but don’t underestimate the demon world, even common bush plants have some kind of effect or another.” She said.
Milo rolled his eyes, “What is the point of just grabbing any random plant and trying to sell it. It is like going into the wild here on earth and grabbing a handful of random branches and leaves and trying to sell it as medicine.” Milo said.
“Child, do you think that all demons are just savage killers?” Lily asked, frowning at Milo, “We also have our own societies even if we are not as advanced as this plane's humans. Still we learn a great deal from you humans and herbology and pharmacology are things we have learned. Furthermore, in several planes there are people like my master who can open a passage to our world and in these instances our world has indeed provided many things that greatly aided the development of medical science for mortals. A random plant that doesn’t affect us can be the key to a major cure.” Lily explained.
“What is the point?” Milo said.
Pa!
“Ouch!” Milo said, holding his head.
“Stop being such a damned pessimist Milo.” Robin growled while his arm returned after stretching behind the gloomy necromancer.
Milo in turn looked angry at Robin but sighed and remained quiet.
Robin turned to the demons, “So what kind of things can these herbs and plants even be used for?” He asked.
“Healing creams to even perfume and skin care.” Yez said grinning as she stood up straight in the air and did a twirl, “How do you think us succubus have such beautiful skin despite living in a world where the temperature is at both extremes.” She said.
Lily on the other hand just rolled her eyes, “Besides those, there are also some methods of training through the use of medicine. For instance, the Minotaur, they require a special yearly bath of special medicines or their muscles will start to cramp or they will start to build up internal injuries. The medical bath aids in healing as well as strengthening their bodies making them as strong as they are.” Lily said.
Broncos grinned upon hearing her words.
“Exactly how strong is strong?” Robin asked.
“Equivalent to this world’s Strongmen for the common minotaur, Bravemen for the truly powerful lords and chief among minotaur while the legendary minotaur of legend is probably even stronger than your heroes.” Lily explained.
Broncos became excited when hearing about their greatest member but they aren’t actually unable to speak unlike the other humanoid demons.
Robin thought really hard on this now, it goes without saying that medicine like that would be sought after but it should be known that it was made by minotaur for minotaur and not humans. Even without saying it, all the four children knew that it wasn't possible to use the original concoction on themselves.
“Do you know any mixtures for humans?” Robin asked.
“Most of the succubus mixtures were originally made by humans during their contract in which the succubus provided the herb and the humans made the produce which worked greatly on both.” Yez explained.
“Beyond that, a very large amount of healing concoctions were made by humans but their effect is pretty efficient on demons as well.” Lily complimented.
Lola suddenly thought of something and looked at Robin strangely, “Robin… by chance are you thinking about seeing if these herbs have an effect on you?” Lola asked.
Robin, in thought, was surprised by the question and chuckled weakly, “Um… yeah. When Yez said that the succubus used it to counter the intense effect of the demon world environment, it made me think that maybe the moisturizer or skin creams might actually work on me.” He replied.
“Oh, is that what you wanted? It will take a little while but I can get a few items from my village for you all to test.” Yez said.
“Can you do that?” Robin asked excitedly.
“Sure, it will just need master to open the gate between the worlds to get the containers but nonetheless I can get a few containers so that you all can see if there are people who desire it or test it on yourself.” She said.
“Really! Thank you!” Robin said.
The others chuckled, just as the insults from Marcus said, he was heavily invested in lotions and creams to find a cure for his weakness.
That said, just as they ended something came to Shoji’s mind. “Hey, if the demon world has items, doesn’t that mean that the undead world also has stuff?” he asked.
At that moment, everyone looked at Milo who, in turn, blinked and then shrugged, “Don’t ask me.” he said.
“Come on, summon Bargo.” Lola said.
Milo sighed before summoning the undead knight.
Different from when he first formed a conscience, he now had much more armor. Besides the glove, there was armor up to his elbow and the metal boots rose to the knee. The bone club had become a proper sword now and he wore a helmet over his skeletal head.
“What do you require of me, master?” He asked, kneeling.
“Bargo, are there any kinds of plants or herbs found in your world?” Milo asked with a bored tone.
“There are but most of these are plants with dangerous nature, most of which eat the souls of the undead and use their bones as nourishment. The most peaceful ones grow upon the countless plains of bones of fallen undead.” He explained.
“Do you know the use of the safe ones… and also the dangerous ones if you can kill and obtain them?” Milo asked.
“The safe ones are said to possess countless magical effects. The simplest act as food for conscious undead, both zombies and skeletons, as we eat and absorb their essence through our soul fire.” He said.
“What kind of minor effects do they have?”
“Some of them aid in strengthening our bones, strengthen our souls and some of the rare ones even aid in our evolution to a higher form by causing our souls to produce an immense amount of spiritual energy.” He explained.
“Are any of these useful for humans?” Milo asked.
“Yes master, from what I have heard in the few cities of conscious undead, our world was originally created to serve as a birth zone for people like master and most herbs are safe for both living and undead. This is because most if not all plants in the netherworld exist to improve the bodies of those who consume them.” Bargo explained.
Milo, now, was very interested because if he took this into consideration, he might be able to accelerate the growth of his undead.
That said, Robin had shining eyes, “These bone strengthening herbs, it would sell for a huge amount of money to make bone supplements for people who have bone deficiency and older people who have weakening bones that come from aging!” Robin explained.
His words caused three of the groups to realize how important this discovery was but Milo narrowed his eyes, “Bargo, is there a way for you to bring items in and out of the netherworld with you?” Milo asked.
“As long as I have it on my body, I can bring it with me when master summons me.” he said.
Everyone looked at each other and smiled. They knew that they had resolved a good part of their money problems with this. Now they would need to figure out how to process them even if slightly and see how much of an effect it had on people.
Robin instantly thought of many sick people in the Institute of Power Disabilities who have bone type problems. As long as these could help alleviate the problems, he would definitely promote the sale and development of supplements from these plants.
“Bargo, can you control dumb undead?” Robin asked.
“To a minor degree, as a higher level undead, I can indeed control some undead but I am limited in this aspect due to my own low ability.” he replied.
“Milo, try and gather up a group of undead later and have them work with Bargo to make a small farm to gather and rear these bone strengthening plants. If you can, maybe even make some kind of skeleton farmer like how you made Bargo a skeleton knight so that they can control lots of undead in the netherworld and provide a lot of plants we can sell.” Robin said.
“Right, with the knowledge of these herbs, I will start rapidly developing them now. Since this is important to me as well, I will try to research and properly identify many more kinds of herbs with Bargo’s help.” Milo said.
“Great! Now we just need to see those demon world products and then we can start to plan how we will make the club.” Robin said happy.
The most exciting thing was the product he wanted to test, without a doubt it was his biggest desire.
They continued to debate before they each went to their own homes.