CH 64

The sleeping boy's body might be resting, but his mind wasn't. Inside his body, right in the place of his heart, was a radiant indigo core. It didn't beat like that of a heart, but the blood still passed through it. Keeping it flowing through his entire body, gradually altering it. Changing him.

His consciousness was active, but it wasn't 'awake'. Right now, he finds himself locked inside a red walled room. The only thing here to keep him company was a tall reclining chair and a fuzzy carpet underneath it. On top of that, there's also the small hole in the wall directly facing the solitary chair.

(I see she's already found us. After all that talk about finding her too. Haha! ) 

All this time, the voice in his head hadn't been idling at all. It's just not being clear and direct. Causing no small amount of frustration on Zel's part. He couldn't tell where it was coming from, so he had no choice but to scream at the sky.

'Hello? Who found us?'  He went to the hole in the wall, trying to check if the person who was messing with him was on the other side. But the reply seems to have come from behind him.

(Don't worry about it, I'm just talking to myself. Wait, I really am talking to myself.) As the masculine voice kept on blabbering, Zel had checked out the chair, scrutinizing every part of it. Subsequently, he went on to raise the carpet, hoping to find a way out. There was nothing except for the same red floor underneath it.

'What are you talking about?' After giving up, he went back to the chair and merely asked in a weary voice. He even closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep. He could feel a soothing sensation on his scalp and enjoy a pleasant scent.

'Roses?'

( Sigh . This is hard, you know? It's not like there's a book for this kind of thing. I can't even use my foresight anymore to speed things up. But I guess this time energy is worth more than foresight.) 

"Sigh. You keep talking to yourself then. I'll just be sleeping here." Feeling totally ignored, the young boy sat back down. He didn't fathom why, but he felt relaxed, instead of the anxiousness he felt a while ago. Like he was finally back to normal, or what could be considered normal in his situation.

He stayed like this for a while, reveling in the pleasurable experience he was going through right now. But then he heard a disconcerting alarm coming from his front. " Ding. "

And that's when he finally opened his eyes. What he saw brought back every stress he thought had been taken away by that small rest he just took.

"What the hell is that?!" After swiftly jumping out of his chair, he ran to one corner of the room. The corner most far away from the man-sized beast that lay asleep on the carpet underneath his chair. It was almost the same size as a motorcycle, with its head being the most prominent part of it. The head of a lion and the body of an ant, though its skin looks like it is made of brown flesh instead of the shell-like body of an ant.

(Oh this? It's a Red-rank Antlion. Pretty big isn't it?) The voice finally spoke to him, but Zel wasn't the least bit happy at the moment as a giant sized ant was in front of him. The only difference between a regular ant and the one in front of him was its head being that of a lion's. 

"I mean, where the hell did it come from?"  The boy didn't dare make a loud noise, already having a bucket of sweat on his back when he thought about his initial reaction. Now he was standing with his back against the wall, choosing to face the beast. If it moves then he moves away. That's the plan at least.

(Oh, I made it myself. Based on my experiences, this is what I could project. Pretty neat eh? That's mana cores for you.) The voice in his head seemed to be going crazy again, does he think that Zel would know what he means? Mana cores? Project? What experiences?

"Why did you put a monster here? What the hell's a mana core? And what do you mean you projected it?" Zel couldn't help but tremble from fear that the beast would wake up. He genuinely doesn't grasp what to do when that happens. Those claws on its many limbs were sending chills up his spine.

(Slow down, Zel. I'll explain those later. Right now you need to do something, something only you can do.) The voice turned much more solemn at the end of his sentence, causing Zel to have a bad feeling about this.

"Wha- what is it?" Right as he asked, the beast moved just a little. So Zel almost instinctively ran towards the other side of the room. Thankfully it merely seemed to have moved in its sleep and wasn't actually waking up.

(I've already raised your body to a Red-rank status. Basically, your whole body is a weapon. You like Spiderhero right? You're now as strong as him. However, if you wake up in this state without proper training, you'd be wrecking havoc. Don't want that to happen now, do you?)

"So you're keeping me here to prevent me from hurting other people, but why would I hurt anyone?" Zel expressed his concern as he wasn't going to completely take all this in stride. He may be telling the truth but that doesn't mean he is accurate in his prediction about him hurting anyone. But he wasn't done asking.

"Also, what does Red-rank mean? What does my body being a weapon mean? Wake up? Does that mean I'm still asleep?" Mountains of questions were popping up in the boy's head as he was finally getting some answers. Answers he was desperate for.

(Red-rank is the initial step towards being a Ranker. That's what you are right now, a Ranker. Rankers are people who have access to mana and woke up their souls that are still left hanging in the bridge. Granting you the chance to develop abilities, we call those 'talents'. Eventually, those compatible with mana will rouse their souls up, though most of those who don't do it in the next couple of years probably won't have much chance of doing so.)

The voice calmly replied, pausing for a moment when he discovered the boy having a thoughtful expression. He seemed to only be intent on listening for now, which was better for the man behind the voice anyway. He'd try to show himself if he could, but all he was right now is a disembodied voice.

(As you're the only one of your kind, no one but you even gets to have a chance to know what being a Ranker is. Much less being able to know how to develop your abilities. Abilities like this for example.) The voice continued when he didn't hear the boy ask a question. When he finished, a small ball suddenly appeared in front of Zel. Similar to the one he found on his desk this morning.

"Ahh! That's the thing that almost killed me! What the hell is that?" Zel was tempted to slap the item that suddenly appeared in front of him. But decided against it when he considered the consequences of doing something to it.

(Relax, that's just a time marble. When your body's time energy exceeds your limit, you make those. I gave you one earlier and you used it all in one go. When you ran out, your ability sucked out what remains in your body. Drying you out in the process. That's why it hurt.) The voice explained.

"Time energy, is it? How do I use it then?" Picking up the marble still hovering in front of him, the boy was fascinated by the recent discovery. It was a neat find if he could manipulate it properly, even fun. Multiple scenarios where time could slow down were racing in his mind, but then the applications of speeding up time also got in his head after a while. He'd been doing this for a good ten minutes before the voice finally gave its reply.

(Find out yourself.) The voice answered back just as a shield made of lightweight steel appeared in front of Zel, one barely massive enough to shield his entire body when he crouches. It was floating in the air until Zel touched it, causing it to lose the force that kept it afloat.

"Eek!" The sound of it falling on the ground was so loud that the creature seemed to have started rousing from its sleep. The first sign of it doing so was that its forelegs were twitching, and its head also slightly twisted to the side. Pointing its ear to his direction.

'What did you do that for! Now it's going to wake up!' " Crunch. Crunch. Screech! " Zel picked up the shield, placed it in front of him and hid himself from the beast's sight. Hoping that it would be enough to allow him hold on to his life. Crunching sounds came from its direction, and his body couldn't help but tremble in fear.

(You should be able to protect yourself if you go all out. Just follow your heart, like what you did when you were fighting the monsters in your dreams.) The voice encouraged, even giving the boy another time marble as an expression of good will. The boy's thoughts couldn't be hidden from him.

"I never actually fought them! Those tentacles did most of the work! I only, like, punched a few as hard as I can!" The boy plucked it up from the air, holding one on each hand. He tried to focus his mind to activate the time slowing down ability that the voice told him about. Constantly stealing a glimpse of the beast through the side of the shield to see if it worked. It seems to be stretching its back or something like that. " Screech! "

(That's good! Now punch it before it really wakes up. Or things might get more problematic for you if you challenge it when it's in a healthy condition.) The voice incited the boy, trying to rouse some fighting spirit in him. Just as he had only woken up to the thrill when it was forcefully spurred against him. If he wanted them to succeed, he needed to have a will to fight back on his own.

"I can't just hit it and expect to beat it in one go! Look at it! Its even bigger than me!" The boy couldn't help but rebuke the voice in his head. Even if he could try punching it, it wasn't exactly in his favor if he did. If it worked, then he would have just harmed a creature that would attack him back. If it didn't, well, he'd most likely piss it off more. He can't possible defeat it in one punch. 

(Oh? Well, that's your choice.) Zel could imagine a grin coming from that voice, even someone raising his shoulders in jest. It was when he said so that the sound of footsteps came from behind Zel.

"Let me leave!" Without a desirable choice available to him, the young boy pleaded. But his wishes weren't fulfilled as nothing happened afterwards. Though the sounds were getting closer as time passed

(Oh, and you'll only wake up when you deal with it. Good Luck!) The end of the sentence sounded conclusive to Zel. And he was right in assuming that.

"Hey! What do you mean 'deal with it'?!" Zel tried to reason with the voice in his head, but it didn't reply to him. Just as it didn't reply to him before, it left him on his lonesome once more. Now he was all alone again, no, he wasn't alone. He took another peek at the beast, taking a small glance from the side of his shield.

" Roar! " But what greeted him were a pair of glowing red eyes, ones that were actually giving his shield its attention the whole time he was talking with the voice. Now it was heading towards his location. 

" Eek!" Looking at the Antlion running at him, Zel braced himself as he raised the shield to protect his head first. Preparing for what's to come.

"Bang!"