The Magic manual was sold at 700 en-codes to those who participated in the first campaign and 5,000 en-codes to those who didn’t. People didn’t understand how hard Magic was to learn until they tried to learn it alone with the Magic manual. Not a single person could succeed.

Before the manual was sold it was told to those who wanted to buy it that it was only going to be useful to people with High intelligence stats but no one listened, it was Magic, who wouldn’t try to learn it?

They soon realized the importance of the class and felt cheated for the sale of the Magic manual, but they couldn’t blame anyone as they had been warned.

During the week before the start of the Ranker Academy, Medara was to train with the teens who had named themselves Island Devils. Bola was beginning to feel out of place, grouping with a bunch of teenagers but she knew they still had something in common.

Bella had decided to watch the training before going on a search for those with talent for psychic energy control. Mira was to train some of the Rank 4s that worked for Jola on the High Mind technique.

The island devils had become the talk of the town for both youths and adults. Children who survived in the most dangerous place in Lagos by themselves, it was a very catching story.

Ife had met her father again and Funmi and Mira met with the members of Pentagon again who were now Rank 5s. Medara had become popular among her friends when she told them she knew the Island Devils, she became popularly known as a liar.

No one believed her at all, some other youths who didn’t know the Island Devils had claimed to know them and she was grouped with them as one of the liars. She came to her first lesson annoyed. Bella was holding back a laugh; anyone could surmise why Medara was angry.

Maduro asked “So, what other skill do you wish to learn apart from aura manipulation?” Medara answered “The Karma is a Bitch skill obviously and the High Mind skill, since it was said to be a very essential skill at level 2 and it doesn’t have many requirements”

Maduro nodded as he felt sad for her, she didn’t know what a horror that course was supposed to be; the administrators making 12 lessons the amount of lessons before one can quit and get his/her en-code back was too brutal.

He said “Then you are going to raid a horde for a week, you will raid the horde while wearing weights on your body to slow you down, we will secure your retreat when needed. But first you need to know how to control energy, so in between your raids we will have energy training sessions”

Medara nodded with a smile and thought ‘It’s finally starting’. Maduro shook his head sadly and thought ‘Unlike what people think the sanctuary is going to go through a very painful time’. He put the weights on Medara and her eyes almost bulged, the weight was a heavy suit with a lot of friction at its joints, oh and yes it was heavy as fuck, she could barely move.

Maduro said “All you have to do is never remove the armor throughout the duration of your training. That means you aren’t allowed to remove it even after your raid”. Medara said “I can’t even hunt Rank 1s in this and you expect me to live in this suit?”

Maduro replied “You can take it off if you want but it will greatly affect your progress and nullify the whole lesson if you do”. Medara proposed “Why don’t I take it off after a while and hunt Rank 2s to Rank up?” Maduro answered “No”. “What of when I have to bathe?” Medara asked “No” Maduro replied and said “We did tell you it would take a lot of determination”

Medara sighed and tried to get used to the armor by doing some light exercises, which became heavy exercises in the suit. Maduro said “Let’s go”

Mira’s training was easier on her as she just had to put the Rank 4s in a Rank 6 undead horde that had not been raided while she did her own aura training. She didn’t have the body type and mind set required for Karma is a Bitch so she had to settle for aura.

Karma is a Bitch required a very flexible and elastic body type which Mira didn’t have and she also didn’t have the care free and battle loving mindset required.

For her aura training she was to fight without her High Mind skill, her weapons and armor and most of her senses; sight, smell and hearing. She had to rely on her energy zone as a sense organ in the most part while fighting bare handed in the same horde as the Rank 4s but in a different location.

It was set up like this so that she could try to save them and so that if they relied on her they would end up losing. The Rank 4s didn’t know that they were being watched by 2 Rank 5s who were to save them only if they were all on deaths door, if one of them was still relatively fine they would leave them be.

Mira experienced a new world with her major senses shut and her power nerfed; it was hell. She couldn’t hear anything through the specially made ear plugs and she couldn’t see of smell anything, she just ran and fought when the undead approached her.

She was always thinking of using High Mind, it had become a part of her. 30 minutes into her aura training and she was thinking ‘Why did I choose such a stupid thing? I’m already stronger than the Island Devils without aura. I wish I was born with Funmi’s type of body, I wouldn’t have to go through this shit’

She could only imagine where the undead was, it was a simple job for her to beat a Rank 5 undead but that was with High Mind, without it she found that she wasn’t more than a Rank 5 and with her senses shut she was basically a Rank 4 in a Rank 6 horde.

Regardless of the negativities, the first 13 hours was quite good for Mira. Anything that came into her energy domain died, even though she didn’t know the Rank, she was glad. Then the Minds noticed that she was unable to sense anything outside a certain range.

They controlled their undead to stay out of her range and they found she could only run forward when they did so. The low Rank undead couldn’t do long range attacks and hitting her with the objects around would do next to no damage.

The Minds ordered the undead to throw themselves at her from just outside the range. The stronger undead would pick up the smaller undead and throw them toward Mira.

At first it worked and Mira was getting swarmed and she ran, then after 9 hours the undead began to die before they reached the ground. Mira was feeling good about herself.

1 day later, Mira thought ‘Why am I doing this?’ ‘Jade’ ‘Why did I bring myself to this kind of situation?’ ‘Jade’ ‘I threw away my own safety for what?’ ‘Jade’ ‘Just to learn aura. But what will learning aura do to me?’ ‘Jade’ ‘It will make me stronger? But what would being stronger do to me?’ ‘Jade’ ‘…’ ‘Why am I thinking about Jade?’

She had been defeated; something had made a hole on the left side of her abdomen and on the right side of her chest. Her limbs were weak and some of them like her left arm and her right leg were broken, ghastly wounds covered her body and blood ran from her mouth and nose. She was lying on the floor weakly struggling to get up. She could sense the undead entering her energy domain; they had been attacking from a distance.

‘Am I doing this just because Jade asked me to? No, I’m doing this because I want to be Jade. Strong, fast, cunning, skilled, knowledgeable, unbeatable,’ She weakly pushed herself up ‘unstoppable, needing no one’s help, needing no one’s sympathy,’ She got into a stance and calmed her worries ‘someone no one can threaten, someone that makes those he protects unable to worry, ever growing, never stopping,’ She roused her weak energy ‘A monster of monsters, a dread to the enemies, a nightmare, a force of nature,’ Her energy covered her, although she couldn’t see it and she shouted “FREEEEE!!!!”

She punched an undead that was close by, her punch moved way faster than she had expected but she went with it. Her punch hit the undead and it burst like a fruit. The same thing happened to all the undead as they tried to leave her energy domain.

She lounged at the undead that had not been hit by her that had just left her domain. For some reason every time she hit an undead it would but like a balloon. She wondered if she was hitting fakes.

The undead that survived her barrage spread out. Mira moved forward but none of them came close again. Mira waited for 3 hours but no matter where she went the undead didn’t attack. She removed her blind fold and the other sensory inhibitors and saw that the undead were just staying outside her energy zone.

There were Rank 5 undead mixed with Rank 4s but they didn’t approach, they had been watching her for 3 hours without attacking.

Mira activated High Mind and began overseeing the healing of her body; focusing the healing on the vitals after swiftly clothing the blood on all her wounds.

She weakly limped her way out of the horde’s territory. The rankers waiting at the no-man’s land quickly went to assist her. She was taken back to the sanctuary’s territory and treated.