Chapter 203 SS-Grade White Lion

A ferocious roar and a crackle of thunder could be heard as lightning flashed in the practice room. In an instant, the White Lion appeared, mighty as ever. There were a few changes to its appearance, nothing fancy, but it was significant enough that Satoshi noticed it.

First off, the fangs of the White Lion got bigger, like tusks protruding out of its mouth. Its mane, which was already long and fluffy, had gotten even thicker, tempting Satoshi even more to bury his face in it. As for the White Lion's eyes, they had a clear blue and white color. And from time to time, a bolt of blue lightning could be seen on its pupils. There was also blue lightning coursing through the White Lion's body, giving off the atmosphere of a strong lightning-user familiar.

"Whoa, you look nice, let's check your stats."

[White Lion: SS-Grade

Abilities:

Electro-Ball— Summons a ball of pure blue lightning energy and hurls it at the enemy, has a forty percent chance of paralyzing the enemy.

Blue Lightning— Summons blue lightning that descends from the sky, a powerful attack that uses up the maximum damage output of the White Lion

Thunderclouds— creates a thundercloud that covers an area with lightning, thunderstorms, and rain.

Thunder Ritual— White Lion's power will increase drastically on a rainy day,

Locked ???? (Unlocked— Raging Lion Armor— transforms into an armor that drastically increases the wearer's overall stats, able to shield a fatal hit as well as protect its wearer from the majority of debuffs and poison.

Locked ????

Locked ????]

"Even though it's already of the SS Grade, it still hasn't unlocked two of its powerful moves, huh," Satoshi scanned through the information, glancing towards the White Lion who had been licking its paws the entire time while staring at him back. To think that the White Lion was previously a stray cat before, Satoshi couldn't help but be amazed by his own superpower which in and of itself isn't that powerful.

"Now let's try your move sets," Imitating Robin Hood, Satoshi lifted his hand and pointed his index finger upwards. Fortunately, the system recognized the gesture and a couple of panels appeared from the floor releasing a couple of dummies conveniently for the White Lion's target practice.

Without further ado, Satoshi extended his hands with open palms while assuming the stance of a summoner with eighth-grade syndrome. He screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Electro-Ball!"

Roar~! The White Lion jumped in the air as a blue orb of pure lightning energy appeared on his mouth, it then did a front-flip in mid-air, hurling the blue orb towards one of the dummies. With a smooth landing, the White Lion let out a satisfied roar just when the lightning orb hit the dummy, incinerating it in an instant.

Bzzzt! The Blue Lightning then coursed out of the lightning orb, hitting the other dummies and burning them before.

[.62 seconds, a new record] The System announced. [Do you want to overwrite the previous record? Yes? No?]

Satoshi was surprised that such an attack was able to incinerate all the dummies in an instant. However, he didn't want to overwrite the old record since it was set by Robin Hood. He briefly heard it a moment ago, and he figured that he wouldn't want to ruin that moment for him since he didn't use any superpower in setting that record in the first place. Satoshi shook his head and responded to the system with a 'No'.

"Next, let's try your blue lightning," Satoshi said, patting the White Lion for a job well done, to which the White Lion purred happily.

Satoshi signaled once again and another set of dummies emerged from the floor. "Blue Lightning!" Satoshi commanded.

There was a brief darkening of the room's ceiling and then a flash of bright light. Satoshi was too near the scene that he was almost blinded by it— a white-blue light that once again incinerated the dummies in an instant.

[.09 seconds, a new record]

[Do you want to overwrite the previous record? Yes? No?]

Satoshi had to say no once again. Somehow, he felt that the White Lion not only underwent a transformation with its appearance but its power increased more than twofold as well. Its display of power was a sight to behold and Satoshi felt a little bit awed by it, thinking that other superheroes might not even stand a chance against the White Lion right now. His lips curved upward as he approached the White Lion and patted it on the head again. Before he knew it, he was already burying his face in its mane.

"Feels good~," Satoshi said to himself, totally enjoying himself while oblivious to the fact that there were other people who could see him from outside the training room.

When he opened his eyes, his gaze immediately landed on both Hiroshi and Midori, who had been suppressing their chuckles for almost a minute now. They were surprised to see that the first place finisher was this guy who'd been hugging his familiar for quite some time now.

"Let's go, Satoshi, they're going to announce who passed the exam," They called out as the doors to the training room opened.

"How'd you do?" Satoshi asked. He thought for sure that the two of them passed because of their calm demeanor. "What was your overall ranking?"

"Oh us? Mmm... about that." Midori's voice died down as he scratched his head, forcing himself to smile.

"We didn't make it." Hiroshi continued. "Just as you said, there were a lot of pretty good candidates this batch and we didn't stand a chance against them."

"We'll just try again next year, or maybe they'll accept us on the second batch so we can retry... I mean, we did pass the first round so...: Midori uttered to give himself a pat on the back despite the setback they experienced.

"Yeah, that happens. You can definitely try again on the next batches since you qualified on the first round." Satoshi assured them. There were many cases where that happened and it's not like the SAO would deny anyone who has the potential to be a superhero.

"In any case, congrats on passing. You're only a few days ahead of us but we're going to catch up soon." Hiroshi said, pointing his fist towards Satoshi.

Satoshi returned the first bump as the three of them returned to the waiting area.