“Welcome to the team, buddy. Run while you can.” A fatty among five grinned as he warned Miles. He had hazel eyes with blonde hair. All in all, he looked like an easy to get along person. “My name is Piero, Piero Tauro.”
“Nice to meet you all. I am Miles.” Miles shook Piero’s hand and looked at others while telling his name. As usual, he refrained from giving away his last name.
“Welcome Miles. Is it true that you don’t have any superpowers? I heard you used the Strengthening Serum.” A girl approached to shake his hand next. “Ah, sorry. I am Lara Raffo. My superpower is Heat Sense. Pretty useless right.” She smiled self-mockingly.
“Must be pretty good at reconnoitering.” Miles encouraged her. “Yeah, I have no superpower, and used the strengthening serum.” He answered with a smile. Since they were nice to him, he wouldn’t be rude to them.
“I forgot to mention mine. My superpower is the Air Wall. I can compress the air to form walls.” Piero said from the side.
“I am Samuel, my superpower is the lightning step.” A brown-skinned man said. He too, shook Miles's hand.
“I am Alma, my superpower is Ice Blade.” A girl with icy blue hair and bright blue eyes said. She was smiling brightly.
“And we are Bari brothers! We will support you with everything we have.” A pair of twins jumped in front of Miles and introduced them.
“They have support-type superpowers, so they are auxiliary.” Alma said as she explained, “If I am correct you and Piero will be the defense, while Captain Quinn and Samuel will be on the fast attacks, luring and distraction, Bari brothers are the supports. Vice-captain Lucy will control the enemy, while I will be the main attack.”
“Seems about right,” Piero said, then looked towards Lucy walking over. She just finished her conversation with Quinn and she looked angry.
“Alright, you good for nothing! It is time to put you in shape.” She shouted and pointed at the weapon rack at the side. “Grab a bow, we will work on horse stance today.”
“But, Vice-Captain. We don’t use bows.” One of the Bari brothers said.
“It doesn’t matter. And raise your hand before you speak!” Lucy lashed out. “Horse stance is basic military training to strengthen your formation, muscles, and concentration. Grab your bows, now!”
“Yes, ma’am!” They all saluted.
Miles went to pick up a random bow when Lucy appeared beside him. “You are not going to take a regular bow, right?” She asked with a sneer.
“What do you mean?” Miles asked.
“You are twice stronger than any of them. Shouldn’t you challenge yourself?” Lucy said with a smirk and explained, “The aim of the training is developing yourself, right?”
“Makes sense. Any other bow?” Miles asked. She made sense. She was from the military, after all, so her insights were better than Miles.
“Here, use this,” Lucy said and took the bow she was carrying behind herself. “This is my personal bow. Since I can use it, it shouldn't be too hard for you, right?”
“Alright, thanks.” Miles smiled and grabbed the bow. He knew Lucy was trying games, but he didn’t mind. As Lucy said, if he couldn't challenge himself, what was the point of training?
“Let’s start. The key to bow mastery is being able to control your breath! Now, pull the strings and stay in that position until I tell you to release. Control your breath! Control your muscles. You shouldn’t move even a hair!” Lucy shouted!
“Yes, ma’am!”
———
Miles walked back to his room and threw himself to the bed. He was dripping wet with sweat thanks to the heavy training Lucy forced onto him.
Archery wasn’t foreign to Miles. Thanks to his family and the fancy schools he went to, he learned much practical education— archery, swordsmanship, spearmanship, and many more. But they were mostly superficial.
Archery though, was one of the best finesse Miles had. Because he didn’t have any superpower, he was weak against people who could attack him from afar. When he was smaller, he couldn’t use the serum to gain power. Thus, he had to fight with his raw strength. To compensate, he learned the skills of shooting with bow and arrows and other ranged techniques. Archery was his forte.
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However, what Lucy made him do was torture. It was cruel torture.
First, he was ordered to stand in a horse stance for half an hour. It was nothing challenging, no. But the bow he was given was super hard and needed 30 kg force to draw it. Standing in that position for thirty minutes drained him. But training continued. While others were playing with their superpowers, Miles ran for 20 kilometers, did a thousand push-ups and sit-ups, squats, and other workouts. When he was done, he could barely lift his arms.
Miles looked at the small bathroom and battled against his tiredness. In the end, his will power won the battle, and he took a shower before he collapsed to the bed. He was dead tired. His eyes failed to stay open any longer, and he succumbed to the comfort of his bed. Not long later, he was dreaming of a better world.
He woke up after a good night's rest and without any intervention. He looked around his room and pulled out the red orb under his pillow. It was blood red, and as if a pair of menacing eyes were looking at him from within the blood-red sky.
“What kind of equipment will it be, I wonder?” Miles silently mused.
“Let’s try it, shall we?” Coin said and supplied the orb with electricity.
The orb glowed, but nothing changed.
“What! What is going on?” Coin questioned, trying again for the same result.
“Is the electricity insufficient?” Miles asked Coin.
“No, not that. The monster was the pinnacle of Grunt-Rank when we first found it, and later evolved. Its tier definitely didn’t change to Frenzy, so the orb should be pinnacle-tier at maximum. Yet it is not changing its shape.” Coin said ponderingly.
“Do you wanna increase the output with the armor? It may also have evolved to Frenzy-Tier.” Miles said.
The final form of the monster was nothing like Grunt-Rank. If it wasn’t for its weakness, and constant blood loss, Miles wouldn’t even be able to hurt it.
“Let’s do that.” Coin said.
Miles wore the maroon armor, charging the orb with stronger electric voltage. Then he increased the output higher and higher, but even at the highest point they could control, the orb only glowed.
“That is odd.” Coin looked at the orb with its two virtual eyes appearing on the hologram screen.
“Let’s ignore it for the time being. Not like we can come up with a solution just by thinking over it.” Miles said and hid the orb once again.
As Miles opened the safe, five spherical objects came into sight before him. He then placed the blood orb for safekeeping before grabbing the five ice blue cores, which he had obtained a while back from the Blizzard Wolves, overlords of Parallel Forest.
Miles left with the orbs in his person.
He first went to the administration to rent a room belonging to Ezio Firenze, aka The Marooner. Luckily no one knew who Ezio was, thus it wasn't a problem for him to get another room under his alias, and he had no trouble with it.
He then sold the four cores and the dagger orb he looted from Blizzard wolves and earned 500.000 UD. He kept the money in his alter bank account before leaving the stronghold with Dimensional.
He appeared in the train station once again and luckily didn’t run into anyone.
Miles took the train to the place he visited so many times before - The Army Headquarters.
Because people may recognize him there, he wore a hood and a medical mask over his face. He didn’t want his mother or father to see him, or they would kill him if they knew what he would do. Because he had to scan his AI at the entrance, covering the face wasn't a big issue in the headquarters. It was the safest place on Earth, and no one could or dare create a ruckus.
Miles scanned his AI and passed through security with ease. Even though Mama Hill was watching over this building all the time, it couldn’t find anything amiss with Coin’s alter id. All the major government facilities are under constant watch of Mother AI, yet Miles and Coin passed through the security without any problem.
Miles passed through the security and walked towards the lab's direction.
When he got there, he saw a familiar person that walked by him.
“Luckily I wore a mask, or Uncle Roger would recognize me in a heartbeat.” He sighed in his heart and continued inside.
There he went to the shopping area and talked to the paymaster.
“I would like to buy a second Strengthening Serum and a first Mind Serum, please.” He altered his voice, deepening it as much as he could.
“Sure, let me see if you are eligible to buy them. Scan your AI, here.” The man behind the counter pointed at the device over the counter.
Miles reached out Coin while covering it with his sleeve to not show off its color. The device beeped twice and a green light lit.
“Alright, let me see.” the paymaster looked at the screen in front of him.
“Mr. Ezio Firenze. 23 years old, bla bla bla. Hmm, I can’t see any first Strengthening Serum on your chart.” He looked at Miles with questioning eyes.
“I took it illegally.” Miles said without sweating.
“That is honest of you. Even though it is not prohibited, you shouldn’t buy illegal knockoffs. They may cause permanent damages. Still, because I can’t see it on my chart, you have to go through a will test. It will take about an hour. Would you like to take it now? The payment is 10.000 UD." the paymaster paused before continuing. "Same for the mind test. We have to run some clinical tests to see if your mind is ready for the serum.”
“I will only take the strength test, and the mind serum will not be necessary.” Miles answered after some thought.
Even though his cover was foolproof, he wasn’t Ezio. With current technology, it would be as easy as pie to uncover his identity if he were to do any medical test. Blowing up his cover wasn’t the real issue. If he were to get caught with a fake id, the real problems would blow up.
“Alright, scan your AI for the payments. If you fail the test, the fee for the test will not be returned and only the fee you paid for the serum will be returned. Do you agree?” the paymaster asked in confirmation.