Chapter 23 Power Training (1)

Lee Seng sat in the drive-thru, ready to get his food. He milled about what Dr. Reaver told him and couldn't fully process everything that was said.

'There's two outliers. One of them mutated my appearance and my power while the other one was inhibiting me from producing any sort of Dark Matter. Who would go to such lengths to stop the Dark Matter in me? Why?'

A car honked and Lee Seng jerked back to reality. The car line had already gone in front of him and he quickly shifted his gear and pulled up to the drive-thru window.

"Hello, 25.67 please." The lady stuck her hand out. Lee Seng pulled out his wallet and quickly fumbled for his card. He handed it to her and she took it. In a moment, she handed it back with his receipt. "Thank you."

"Have a good day," Lee Seng said. He pulled forward in between the first and second window and sighed. "Keng would have to be the the first outlier, right?" He pondered.

'Even I can't tell you that.' Keng spoke. 'If you gathered more souls, maybe I'll tell you.'

"Souls? Oh, from killing monsters?"

'Mmhm. Souls are the way we can move forward. The further we move forward, more puzzle pieces to put together. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but that's what I feel.' Keng explained. Lee Seng scoffed as the car Infront of him pulled away. He pulled forward and a man greeted him. He was handed two drinks and a couple bags of food.

"Have a good day!" The man said.

"Thanks, you too." Lee Seng waved.

----

Lee Seng pulled into the laboratory gate and slowed to a stop. The gate opened and he pulled in. He rolled through and eventually made his way towards the back. He turned left and followed the building to the end and pulled into one of the many unfilled parking spots.

"I just pulled in. I'll see you in a bit." Lee Seng texted Akio. He slipped his phone in, opened the door and grabbed the drinks. He set the drinks on the top of his car and pulled the bags out and slipped one of the drinks into his arm and the other in his free hand. He quickly made his way to the door where Akio was waiting.

"You got fast food, again?" Akio asked. Lee Seng nodded.

"You didn't specify so I got what I wanted." Lee Seng grinned. Akio smiled, rolling his eyes and taking some of the load off of Lee Seng. The two started down the hall.

"So, you gonna tell me how the appointment went?" Akio asked.

"Eh, it went okay. He says I should retake the test to fully understand my capabilities."

"Ah, so you didn't get much from that then?" Akio and Lee Seng walked into the last door on the left and into a sitting area. The two put their food down and both sat down. The two began digging through their stuff and grabbing their food.

"He said that would be the case if I had a low power-rating which I don't if you didn't catch on." Lee Seng said. Akio laughed as settled on a burger and fries.

"I wasn't even thinking about that, stupid." Akio took a bite of his food. "So, what happened then?"

"He told me I'm a Specialist." Lee Seng bit a fry. Akio looked up in disbelief. He stared long enough that Lee Seng nodded to tell Akio he heard right.

"A-a-a Specialist off that bat? Incredible." Akio's Japanese-English slipped out and Lee Seng chuckled.

"Mmm, he couldn't figure out my classes for that though. We speculated since I was trained in martial arts and since my powers were mainly used like a Glass, I'm probably a Fighter and a Glass."

"You're speculating?" Akio said loudly. Lee Seng nodded, biting into his burger. Akio took a sip of his cola and sighed. "You really need to get that test done. Do you have the results? Can I look at what the power-rating is currently then?" Lee Seng slipped his phone out and opened his emails. He clicked on the unopened email from the clinic. He slid the phone towards Akio who grabbed it and started scrolling.

"Go for it." Lee Seng let out late. Lee Seng focused on finishing the large amount of food he bought. Akio looked up and pointed at the phone.

"Power-rating of 5198? No wonder the orb shattered. It can't register beyond 5000. It totally got stressed."

"Why did it fire the shards then?"

"From what Dr. Valentin and Zoe told me, the orb manifests your power in a way. It probably condensed so much of it, that when it almost hit 5200 PR (Power-Rating), it couldn't handle the stress of gravity so pshh!" Akio made mimicked the orb blowing up with his hands and Lee Seng rolled his eyes. Leng nodded and the two quickly finished eating.

----

Lee Seng stood in the middle of the gym. He wore a tank top, shorts and sneakers. He yawned as he rubbed his eyes. Akio jogged into the gym in shorts and a tank top. Lee Seng saw Akio's defined arms and always was in awe of how much muscle Akio had.

"Can we please practice using my powers today?" Lee Seng asked.

"That's what I planned on doing today. I thought you'd be impatient after a couple days of physical training." Akio grinned. He clapped his hands together, thinking for a moment. "How about this...? Room, ranged targets." The room shifted and the wall to Lee Seng's slid down and quickly replaced with targets on the wall. Akio pointed to the targets. "Since we're speculating you're a Fighter and Glass Specialist like me, you need to train some ranged tactics. Hit those targets like this."

Akio felt the familiar tug. His vision tightened quickly and released. Shadow tendrils swept around him. He quickly lashed his hands out in chopping motions. The shadow tendrils extended, hitting each and every target. The shadows pulled back instantly as Akio finished and he turned to Lee Seng.

"Just like that. This teaches you accuracy and strength. Use too much strength and you could end up destroying the whole wall. If you look closely, you'll see I only hit the targets." Akio explained. Lee Seng looked closely and noticed each of the targets were only hit. None of the walls had any damage to them. "Alright, it's your turn now. Room, reset the Ranged Targets."

The wall shifted in place again and new targets appeared on the wall. Lee Seng jumped up and down and took a deep breath.

'Envision what you want to happen. Feel the vibration and strike the targets.' Lee Seng lifted his hand and felt the vibration. A pulse wave shot out and four targets and the wall bent inwards. Lee Seng sighed. He shook his hand which didn't feel so heavy. He glanced at his hand.

"Huh, it isn't as heavy like last time." Lee Seng pointed out. He estimated his hand felt about 1/10 of the original negative. "Possibly ten shots?" He lifted his hand again and pointed it to the middle section. He took a deep breath and thought the same process again. Another gravity pulse shot out and pierced a single target and a small portion of the wall around. Lee Seng repeated this 8 more times before his hand became too heavy because of the negative.

"12 out of 20. Damage to the wall is great, but that's to be expected." Akio said. Lee Seng massaged his heavy hand and sighed. "How's your hand? It seems like you can handle more than one shot."

"It'll be fine. I just need some time. If only I can figure out how to properly negate the negative effect through my power." Lee Seng complained. "I think I can do about ten uses before the negative fully takes effect."

"Do you want to rest?"

"No, let's keep going." Lee Seng said. "Room, reset Ranged targets." The wall shifted and the targets appeared back. Lee Seng took a deep breath and stared at the targets.

'I should think thinner, smaller.' Lee Seng noted. He lifted his hand and imagined the area he hit with one target. 'I want about half of that area.' He steadied his breathing. The vibrating began and he held it for a moment.

One. Two. Three. Poosh!

The gravity pulse shot outwards and hit the full target. Lee Seng's brain lagged behind. Akio yelped in surprise and started to happily laugh as he came over and pat Lee Seng.

"You did it! You hit the target!" Akio exclaimed. Lee Seng lagging brain finally caught up and he smiled.

"I was trying to hit half of the original, but I guess hitting the full target works." Lee Seng beamed happily. Akio nodded and looked back at the targets.

"Alright, try to do it in succession." He folded his arms together and motioned with his head for Lee Seng to start. Lee Seng took in a couple of breaths and pointed his hand to the next target. He felt the vibration and held it.

'Nine strikes.' He thought. 'Nine strikes at once with the same output.' The vibrating feeling grew and Lee Seng quickly shot. He quickly moved his hand and shot another one, repeating the step eight more times. His hand grew heavy and fell to his side. He looked at the targets.

"7/10 hit perfectly. You seemed to falter towards the end." Akio observed. "You need to keep focus with all of your shots. If you just start repeating the same thing over and over again without focusing, you won't be precise. In battle, this is harder. If you're doing attacks after attacks, you won't be able to precisely hit every time. The goal here is to make sure you can be precise for as long as possible."

"So, how many can you do before you mess up?" Lee Seng asked. Akio thought for a moment and tapped his watch. He scrolled the information for a bit and then lifted his wrist towards Lee Seng. "Your best score was 584!?!" Lee Seng gasped, looking up at Akio. Akio nodded.

"Your power is like a muscle. If you don't train it, you can't use its full potential. Doing simple exercises like the power and accuracy range training allows us to flex that muscle in that certain way. If we don't practice it in this way, it'll backfire for us in the field. We could be in a situation where we need to save someone with that precision. Or we need to be precise before they're able to get away. There are a plethora of situations this can be used in, but we need to ready for it all." Akio explained.

Lee Seng nodded in agreement. If he was going to be on the field as an adventurer, anything could happen. He needs to be ready for anything. Lee Seng tried to flex his hands. He could feel the weight lifting off his left and but his right still seemed stiff and heavy.

"Alright, let's take a break." Akio said. "When your hands aren't so stiff and heavy, we can try our hand with some melee strategies."