“Good practice, Miles!” Cale walked to Miles when the latter left the Gravity Lounge.
Miles stayed there more than an hour after Lucy left, and this time, worked out with the gravity increasing steadily. His tender muscles adapt to ever-increasing gravity under stress. Although Lucy showed the guidelines in human genes as bad, they were also core to human adaptation.
“It was not bad.” Miles smiled and dried his sweat with a towel.
“I am guessing you took a second serum?” Cale snickered knowingly.
“How can you tell?” Miles got startled.
He wasn’t any stronger. The hard half-day work out barely adjusted his new muscles. He was still weaker than before.
“The way you moved was unsteady. I recognized it when a buddy of mine used the second serum for the first time. He couldn’t control his strength. You were just like him, so I figured it out.” Cale patted Miles's shoulder and said, “You should take your time and get used to your new muscles. Don’t ride for a fall. Don’t even consider entering the Portal World, before you are in full control of your body.”
“Got it.” Miles said as something warm formed in his chest. “Thanks, Cale. Truly!”
“Don’t sweat it.” Cale laughed and threw his arm around Miles's shoulder.
“NOW!” He shouted and everyone inside the room looked at them. “Tell us what happened inside the lounge. Second Lut was mad when she came out.”
Miles sighed helplessly and narrated what had happened. Albeit censored. He wouldn’t admit he won by imagining their lieutenant naked and in strange postures. But he gave the soldiers in heat something to dream about and told them how she was heaving when she lost.
After that, he left the train station and went to Portal World. He entered as Ezio with the armor off and went to rent a new room. Rooms in the strongholds were free of charge in G-Circle, and everyone would have one. Miles was going to change his room with a better one thanks to his new affiliation with the hunting team, so he decided to take a new room with Ezio Firenze’s ID. However, to protect his identity, he didn’t wear the armor.
After all, the name of Marooner went beyond his estimations and was known by everyone, especially after he stole the Vampire Orb. Not only three Post Commanders, even the influential faction leaders like Tian Ling, Mihr Orril, Porseila Lemaze, and Olivier Holmes were also looking for him to purchase the orb.
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The other reason for him to rent another room was because he didn’t fully trust the military. The rooms in the stronghold were safe, and no one could enter. But the military liked to snoop on their soldiers’ privacy. Although it was slim, Miles didn’t want to risk it.
After he rented the second room using Coin’s alter ID, he collected things he didn’t want others to know and moved to his new room. There wasn't much, only the blood orb and the little rock he bought from the vendor.
Miles entered the new room and jumped on the bed. He then put the rock on top of the nightstand and took the Vampire Orb.
He laid on his back and lifted the orb above his head to look.
“I thought there were only three kinds of cores; orbs that can change into equipment, monster cores, and medical cores which can only be found in plants for serums.” Coin said and continued, “But this orb must be a fourth kind.”
“You think? “ Miles asked as he looked at the orb. It was blood red, and there was a pair of menacing eyes looking from the blood-red sky. “What if it is an Orb we cannot activate?”
“I doubt.” Coin said as his hologram body appeared beside him. He shook his head and said, “I don’t think an Orb higher than pinnacle-tier would drop from the Vampire. Below that I can activate any of them.”
“I see. It is certainly not a regular monster core. The size doesn’t match with medical orbs either.” Miles looked at the orb and could see the ceiling through it. The ceiling was red and had a pair of blood eyes projected when looking through the orb.
“Not only that. Regular monster cores are easy to differentiate because you cannot see any silhouette inside of them. Medical cores all have green hue around them and are smaller than all other cores. Only orbs are see-through, and there are silhouettes of their second form inside them.” Coin summarized his thoughts.
“I know, but you also heard what Prince Fool said. The monster artifact found on Vampire were eye lenses. It is normal for it to have equipment related to eyes as well.” Miles reasoned.
It has been more than two decades since Portal World has been opened to Earth. Many people walked on Portal World and killed lots of monsters. Even though humanoid monsters are super rare, especially in F and E circles, thousands of them have been killed to date.
“I have to admit though, it is my first time hearing a humanoid monster in G-Circle.” Miles thought and looked at them curiously. He twirled the orb, and the sky within shivered. It was a minute reaction but didn’t escape from Miles's attention, looking at it carefully.
“Oh?” Miles was surprised because this was the only reaction he got from the orb since he acquired it.
“What happened?” Coin asked, looking at the orb.
“When I twirled the orb now, the sky inside shivered.” Miles said.
“Do it again then.” Coin suggested, and Miles did.
From where he was lying, he twirled the orb faster and faster. At first, the sky was only shivering, but now it was quaking. Miles was holding it above his head to see the inside of the orb better.
“Use more force.” Coin said from the side. Miles used all of his muscle power, but it wasn’t enough. The sky was still quaking, but nothing else happened.
Miles’s arms got tired after some time, and he was about to give up. Yet, he gathered his strength to both of his arms. A warm feeling climbed up to his arms from his heart. He felt that his tiredness vanished with the warmness.
When a warm feeling arrived in his hands, he twirled it faster than ever, but all of a sudden, he felt his hands empty.