Miles sat on his bed and focused. He didn’t know what the energy was, but he read many pre-invasion articles about mysterious energies. Most of them had one thing in common— meditation.
“This is stupid!” Miles rose from his bed and looked at the postures Coin was projecting.
Coin looked through articles and images of helping people meditate and feel their inner energies. However, most of them were shams. How could someone get stronger by standing still? The body needed to move and be pushed to the limit for it to get stronger. These were the only ways Miles knew.
“Although it may sound ludicrous, it doesn’t mean it is not effective. All of them are suggesting the same idea after all.” Coin commented.
“But I have never seen father sitting still like this.” Miles said with frustration.
“You weren’t really spending time with them, were you now?” Coin said with a sigh.
Miles looked away in depression. When he failed to awaken his superpower, Mercer wanted to use an experimental drug on him. After quarreling for days, Mercer folded and said only if Miles stayed away from the public would he let him keep their last name.
Malcolm couldn’t do anything about it at the time, so with no other choice, he cautioned Miles to refrain from using his last name when he was out. Depressed by the situation, Miles kept his distance from Mercer and the rest of the family.
It didn’t only mean staying away from his grandfather, he also never ate with them, never sat with them. It sounded hyperbolic, but it was the truth. Ever since that day, he kept contact with his family at minimum. He would only spend time with his father and mother. Merlin and Marcela would bully him, and Mercer was despising him.
He was spending most of his time in his mother’s labs or sparring with servants. Only now he realized he missed lots of critical information just by staying away. And the family must have thought that his chance of entering the portal world was non-existent. As such, they refrained from informing him. If Malcolm didn’t teach him about energy he would still be in the dark and die while using without knowing it. Miles shook his head and left the room for the train station.
'I will work as hard as I can, and will figure out what that energy is. I will not sit on the ground for hours and hope to discover it,' he told himself.
Miles arrived at the stronghold and saw a crowd gathering near the gates. He gave a cursory look and noticed Tian Ling with his goons standing in front of a crowd. He ignored them and walked towards the stairs, but a hand grabbed him on the shoulder. Before the hand arrived, Miles seized it and twisted the person’s arm.
“Who told you that you can touch me?” Miles asked the person wiggling in pain on the ground. He hated these so self-important bastards.
“Boss—Boss Tian wants to see you.” The goon said in pain as he implored Miles to let him go. He was taller and buffer than Miles but was squirming in pain.
Miles was about to deny but gave up on the thought. He then looked at Tian Ling who was looking back. Thinking about his finances, Miles decided to take a look at what the latter was wanting. He approached the crowd and nodded towards Tian Ling.
“I found a monster not far from here, and planning to hunt it. I want you in my team.” Tian Ling said coolly.
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“What is in it for me?” Miles asked.
“If we retrieve the core, I will reward you with 5 million, if we don’t I will give 500k. Are you in?” Tian Ling asked.
“And the monster? What is its tier?” Miles asked without looking at anyone else. He knew Tian Ling’s powers, so if the monster was too strong for him to handle, he wouldn’t accept it.
“Stop bullshitting and speak if you agree or not, pebble!” One of the recruits spoke behind Tian Ling. He must have been absent when Miles fought with Porseila. He wouldn’t talk like that to curry favor with Tian Ling otherwise.
Miles ignored him and looked at Tian Ling. The new guy was fuming with anger and was about to attack Miles when a girl from the recruiting team approached him and whispered to his ears. After that, he swallowed his anger and looked at Miles with trepidation.
“It is a giant snake as big as a bus, but it is injured. It is only a high-tier. With all of us, we can kill it easily.” Tian Ling hinted to him.
After some thinking, Miles accepted.
‘If push comes to shove, I will escape. Not that I care about their lives,' he thought.
With Miles accepting with a nod, Tian Ling smiled brightly and gathered his men. With his goons and fifteen recruits, they left the stronghold.
Miles was walking behind and minding his own business when a girl approached him. It was the same girl who whispered to the other guy’s ear when he was about to attack him. She had long green hairs reaching all the way to her waist and green eyes to complete it. Fair face and straight brows. She was smiling beautifully.
“You were the one who fought against Princess Lemaze a few months back, right?” She asked as she walked side by side with Miles. “You know Tian Ling has interest in her, why would you accept his offer?”
“Money.” Miles answered, not bothering to say more.
“Is money worth risking your life for?” The girl asked again.
“It does.” Miles tersely answered and didn’t say anything else. His look was cold and answers were short.
The girl pouted and returned to the others. Miles didn’t want to get close to a person who might die in the fight. He knew emotions were deadly on the battlefield, and he had enough on his plate. So, when others tried to connect, he pushed them away. So when they died, he wouldn’t feel any guilt.
Miles followed the group from behind, and they walked more than five hours before they had given time to rest. Five hours of walking was nothing to Miles, even before he took the second serum. But others who were regular folk could hardly keep up. Even though Tian Ling and his goons didn’t take serums either, they were trained since childhood and went through many life and death situations. They could handle such a walk.
During their rest, Tian Ling’s goons spread through the forest. In half an hour, they brought back a dead monster. It looked like a trash panda and only a low-tier monster. Miles didn’t think Tian Ling would eat such a thing if he hadn't heard from his father. Tian Ling’s goons created a bonfire and roasted the monster, then they all shared it. Of course, the bigger piece went to the boss.
The recruits all had to hunt on their own or had to bring their food. Thankfully, Miles was prepared and ate canned foods. But he was looking at Tian Ling without blinking. He wondered what he would do after consuming the monster. To his surprise, Tian Ling sat on the ground with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.
‘Meditating is the only way?’ Miles wondered and watched Tian Ling. But no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t feel a string of energy in Tian Ling’s body. After a while, he gave up on spying on Tian Ling. After all, he was still a small fish. He didn’t think Tian Ling could use energy, but he sure knew of its existence. He wouldn’t eat a monster otherwise.
After eating, the group continued to walk, and in two short hours, they arrived at a river. There were people by the river with a dozen boats around.
“Embark on boats and sail to the river. We will meet across it.” Tian Ling ordered people to embark with them to get to the other side.
Miles realized none of Tian Ling’s goons were moving, so he also waited. And after 10 minutes, he realized why. The first boat on the river snapped in two all of a sudden. A giant maw devoured the three on the boat. The giant scaled sea monster ate the three with one bite and moved to the other boats trying to return to shore with all of their powers.
Tian Ling approached the shore and charged his power. A giant water dragon formed in the sky and hit the river between the monster and boats, pushing boats further from the shore. But, he had also opened a distance between them, separating as they scattered around.
Poor fellas thought Tian Ling did it to save them, but little did they know that Tian Ling wanted to lure monsters further and further away. After doing that, Tian Ling looked at the rest of the people on the shore and coldly said as he pointed in the opposite direction., “Embark to boats, and row in that direction.”