Chapter 3: Elemental Superpowers!
Before they could deliver their attacks, two items came flying their way.
Miles had thrown the orb and the core to each of them.
The two men then had to cancel their attacks to catch each item. It was then that Miles made his move.
He looked at his two opponents and dashed towards the one on the left with a dagger on his hand. He was a lot faster than his adversaries because of the Strengthening Serum.
Since he was small, he trained his body day after day and got stronger with each passing time. But he was human after all and couldn't get stronger indefinitely. The only thing that could allow him to surpass his humanly body was serums produced by the monster cores of this mysterious world.
Superpower Serums were one of the greatest inventions created by the Mother AI to cater to the needs of humanity such as Body Strengthening and Mind Strengthening Serums. As their names suggested, they were for strengthening the body and mind.
There was only one drawback, and that they were extremely painful to use and couldnt be used before one's potential maxed. No human younger than 16 years old ever used Body Strengthening Serum because of the excruciating pain. But Miles took the risk and successfully used the serum to strengthen his body at the age of 14. He was able to obtain a serum at such a young age through shady means. After nights and days filled with bone-crushing pain, he woke up stronger, faster, and more energetic.
It has been almost two years since he took the First Serum, and he was ready to take the second one. But his finance was close to zero balance now, so he was waiting for an opportunity. Luckily, he acquired a Psychic Core and could purchase a higher grade serum.
Serums were not ranked, but every four serums indicated a major rank. The first four serums would allow humans to have strength and speed of monsters of Grunt-Rank. The first Serum gave Miles the strength of a Low-tier Grunt-Rank monster, making him as fast as a monster and much quicker than humans.
Thanks to the speed he acquired from the first serum, he was much faster than the two opponents he was facing. In two steps, Miles was within reach to land a hit at the wind user but before he could do so, slashes of wind appeared before him.
His opponent released a condensed ball of sharp air. It then scattered into blades towards his direction.
Amid his run, Miles dodged the blades of air and flipped away before circling to take another route for an attack. He was simply too fast and dodged before the wind blades landed a hit on him.
It was then that the earth began to shake. Massive walls of mud and dirt rose from the ground, forming an arc before it encloses into a dome.
Miles ran as fast as he could, not to be trapped. However, it was too late. The walls of mud and dirt were already high before he could even do anything.
As he predicted, the other guy would trap him. All three of them were trapped inside the dome.
He was left to face them head-on.
He just then realized that the first dagger was a decoy for the next.
It was already too late for him to dodge when the weapon had plunged itself into his left thigh.
Before he could even react, a sharp blow to the face knocked him sideways.
With both of his two opponents knocked down, the dome started to crumble on itself.
Miles had just won a battle against two Grace-Tier Elemental hunters, nearing their breakthroughs.
The first tier of awakening was Grace-Rank. After training or comprehending their powers, they could create more diverse attacks, or their range would expand. The next tier would be Form-Rank.
There were also five corresponding ranks in human ranking starting with Grace and followed by Form, Extol, Devote, Crown.
Human Ranks were also divided into four corresponding four tiers of Grunt-Rank monsters. Although the margins separating tiers werent clear, most of the time Low-tier Grace Hunter could hurt Low-tier Grunt-Rank monsters and couldnt damage a middle-tier as easily.
Miles was able to defeat two elemental users because he was at the peak of Grace-Rank low-tier.
People with elemental powers were hard to deal with. Elemental Powers, when first awakened, were straightforward. The wind user, for instance, could only create wind blades because it was his superpower. On the other hand, the earth user was more experienced as he had created a dome and a wall in short intervals. They were both troublesome elemental users who seemed to be proficient in mid-long-range attacks.
Superpowers mostly had singular forms. From the awakening to mastering, the forms could be transformed or improved, but when first acquired, the form was mostly routinised. This was caused by how superpowers were awakened. The Awakening Serum stimulated Ancient Genes in every human body, and could only activate a singular form.
Ancient Gene was the source of the superpowers every human possesed. The reason for its existence was a mystery and only discovered after Mother AI descended. Before Mother AI, there were no exterior stimuli that could awaken the superpowers. Superpower Awakening Serum was created for this purpose.
Think of Ancient Gene as a lake. It is assumed that there are 6 river beds flowing out of this lake. But these 6 river beds are blocked by barriers. The Awakening Serum caused one of the barriers to break down and potential water from the lake flows into a riverbed. The limited amount of potential destroys other river beds, causing Superpower to have a single form.
Most people potentially have an Elemental type of Superpower, but other varieties may rarely appear. The two opponents Miles had beaten also had elemental superpowers and were quite adept at it.
But Miles had beaten both of them. If it wasn't for the opportunities and tactics of getting in proximity within their range, he would have had a hard time and faced a dire situation.
Miles looked at the two men lying on the ground, "Trying to steal so openly. Tian Ling has sure grown" Then turned to grab his two items - the Psychic Core and the Armor orb.