Chapter 8: Visit to Carl

"Haaa...haaa...maybe....maybe this...wasn't a good idea after all...ha...ha."

After running at full speed for a while, Jay managed to reach a park that was close to the neighborhood where Carl lived, although it had cost him most of his energy, causing him to collapse on one of the park benches due to fatigue.

Fortunately, after resting for a while, Jay recovered a little, he was very grateful to the system for giving him a faster recovery, and he didn't even asked for it, the system truly was kind!

"I have definitely improved my physique a lot...in the past I definitely would have fainted of exhaustion on the way."

Thinking about how he had improved, Jay opened his statistics window.

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[Status]

(Current limit reached.)

Strength: (E+)

Agility: (E+)

Resistance: (E+)

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"So that was the reason, eh..."

Thanks to his intensive magic training, Jay had increased his Strength and Resistance statistics as planned.

However, in the process he had discovered that he could not improve the Agility statistic, no matter how much he exercised, the Agility statistic simply did not improve, not even a bit.

Seeing that, Jay thought that maybe there was a reason for this, and with the new sentence that appeared at the top of the window, his suspicions had been confirmed.

"Ugh, well, I'll worry about that later, one thing at a time!" Said Jay as he stood up from the bench. "First, I have to visit Carl."

After saying that, Jay started walking towards Carl's home, since it wasn't far from the park, he arrived quickly.

His house was similar to Sarah's, and although it was somewhat smaller, it was still a luxurious house.

*Ring*

After ringing the bell, luckily the person who answered was the one Jay was looking for...however, his appearance was...quite different from what Jay remembered.

His hair, once well-groomed and lustrous, was now very unkempt, he had dark circles under his eyes along with a pale complexion and a bad posture.

'Wow, he really does look fatigued...'

"...Jay? What are you doing here...?" asked Carl, surprised to see the unexpected guest at his door.

He was right to be surprised, after all, the relationship they both had was no more than that of classmates, in fact, counting the times that he had bothered him, Jay definitely had no reason to come visit him.

But before he could continue to think about it...

"Hey Carl~! Well, I was nearby and since I had some free time, I decided to pay you a visit." Jay replied with a bright smile on his face. "Maybe you have some time to talk?"

'Damn, I should have thought a better excuse...but it's hard when you're gasping for air!' Jay lamented in his head while seeing the confusion in Carl's face.

Carl couldn't help but think about how weird this situation was, and obviously he was going to turn him down...but for some reason...something inside him urged him to accept the invitation.

At that moment a small battle took place between his will and what was inside him...

"I..."

In the end...

"...Yeah...I have time."

Won what was inside him.

***

After Carl accepted Jay's invitation, he entered his house for a jacket and they went outside to sit on a park bench to talk.

The conversation between the two began with a question from Jay, who was surprised that everything was going well.

"Tell me, how have you been?"

"...I've...been better..." Said Carl with a tired voice.

"Oh my, but at least you've been training for the entrance exam, right?"

"Well...honestly, I've been trying to do it...but I've had some problems lately..."

"What kind of problems?"

"...I...uh...I haven't been able to sleep very well...my appetite has increased...and worst of all, every time I try to use my ability, I feel like there's something inside me obstructing it..." said Carl while grabbing his head with both hands, visibly affected.

'Why am I telling him this?' Thought Carl as he questioned the obvious, he really didn't want to tell him all this information...but for some reason he felt quite comfortable with Jay, he felt...as if they were really close.

"Maybe you're sick?"

"No, it's nothing like that...although it's not like I know what's happening to me either...haa, at this rate...I doubt I'll be able to pass the entrance exam."

One could feel the helplessness that Carl was feeling at this moment, and this view was something Jay wasn't used to, seeing Carl who was always arrogant, full of confidence and optimism in this state...it wasn't pleasant sight for him.

'Haa, I guess I'll help him, maybe his body will recover after I get back my little one...but his confidence...'

Although he was a complete dumbass towards Jay, he never really hurt him in some way, and while Jay was sure that there was reason as to why Carl acted that way, he didn't know what was the reason.

However, he did knew one thing...Carl wasn't a bad person.

Then, putting a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, Jay said some words of encouragement.

"Carl, I'm sure you've only had a few bad weeks, we all do, the important thing is that you don't lose the will to do what you set out to do!"

"I don't know..."

'Man, I'm really feeling a little bad...but don't worry Carl, my motivational skills had yet to fail me!' Jay thought as a small spark ignited in his eyes.

Getting up from the bench, Jay stood in front of Carl, grabbed him by the shoulders and looked into his eyes before he started his speech, "Remember who you are Carl! You are the strongest esper in the school, the one who is feared by all the espers in other schools!

"No...I..." Although he was confused as to why Jay seemed to want to encourage him, he couldn't deny that it felt good to be reminded of his reputation, but before he could answer him, Jay continued his dialogue.

"Remember the time you stood up to those 3 guys from the rival school?!"

Some time ago, there was a sports festival at their school, in which many other schools had been invited to participate, because most of the athletes were supers, it was a very close competition, however, in the end their school had managed to win most of the events that had been held.

That left several students from the other schools dissatisfied, and although most of them didn't cause any trouble, there was was a group of 3 supers students that participated but lost, who were made up of 2 pugilists and 1 magician who were upset because they had been disqualified "unfairly" according to them.

Although of course, they weren't disqualified for nothing, they had tried to injure some of their rival players while they were playing against another school so that their school would have one less opponent, but they were so obvious that a teacher inmediately discovered them, which lead to them being disqualified.

So, after they were disqualified, they decided to vent out their anger with the captain of the rival team, who was a normal person.

"Yes..."

"Tell me, what was the result of that fight?!" Yelled Jay, still looking Carl directly in the eye.

"I...beat them." Carl replied in a low voice.

Luckily, Carl had been nearby when that happened, and even though they tried to attack him too...all they got was a refreshing beating from Carl.

"Louder! What did you do to them?

"I beat them..."

"I can't hear you, damn it!"

"I..."

Seeing that Carl was hesitating a bit, Jay decided to give him a final push with a loud scream.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"I...!"

Suddenly, as if something had awakened inside Carl, his ability activated and a strong current of air started emanating from him before he stood up from the bench with his arms pointing up to the sky and shouted at the top of his lungs "I CRUSHED THEM!!".

*WOOSH*

The leaves of several nearby trees and bushes felt the brief but strong current of wind that Carl had released, making them move for a few seconds.

Just at that moment, Jay took the opportunity to slap Carl's neck in a congratulatory manner as he said, "That's right!"

"This..."

Suddenly, Carl felt as if the fatigue he had been suffering from for some time had completely disappeared, including the obstructions to his ability, in fact, he even felt as if his control of his ability had improved.

Having already removed his hand from Carl's neck, Jay asked him, "How are you? Are you feeling better?"

"I feel... better than ever!" Carl replied with a bright smile on his face, even his complexion seemed to have improved a bit.

He then made a swirl of wind in his hand, however, unlike what Jay remembered, this one was considerably larger, bigger than a basketball.

"Ohh, it looks like venting worked eh~" Jay said as he watched the swirl, feeling nice after seeing that his motivation skills didn't fail him.

'It looks like it got stronger...it definitely has something to do with my parasites...could it be a side effect...?'

Seeing that Jay was thinking about something, Carl began to remember that despite he had done nothing but harass Jay at school, Jay had come all the way home to visit him when he was feeling so bad.

And not only that, he even had helped him to recover and improve his mood, because of all that, Carl felt terrible, so he began to apologize.

"Jay, uh, I'm...really sorry that I bothered you at school, I...well, was jealous that you could hang out with Sarah and James even though you're not a super..."

"I know that's no excuse to treat you like I did, but still, I'm really sorry for being selfish and an idiot ...I hope you can forgive me..." Said Carl while bowing to Jay.

'So that was it uh, thank god, I thought some normal person had stolen his girlfriend or something.' Jay thought.

Confirming that Carl didn't have a personal grudge against him or the normal people of the world, Jay was somewhat relieved, it would be bad for someone strong like him to spend time bullying others who couldn't defend themselves.

After all, not everyone didn't care about this like Jay, and not everyone had friends like James and Sarah who could help them in this situation.

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean it, but I'm glad you're feeling better anyway."

Seeing Jay's carefree and sincere attitude, Carl felt a little better about himself.

"It's all thanks to you...um, maybe there's some way I can return the favor...?"

"Hm, let's see..."

Although Carl owing him a favor was a useful thing, Jay didn't know how he could use that favor now, so he decided to save it for later.

"How about paying me back later?" Jay said before remembering the message that had come up a few minutes ago and showing a sincere and happy smile, "Right now...I'm good."

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["Parasite: Wind Control (D)" has been acquired.]

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For some reason, seeing that smile, Carl got a little nervous.