...

A few minutes before Jade entered the Oni's territory he was scouting from a building close by. He looked at the patrolling monsters, none of them of the same race, he had heard about the peculiarity of the Oni's territory but seeing it was a completely different experience.

Jade thought 'It's like a society that shouldn't exist'. The patrols weren't the only interesting things there were groups of monsters leaving the territory and other groups returning with monster corpses. There were even monsters taking record of the leaving and returning monsters by scratching unknown symbols on concrete slabs as various groups left and returned to the territory.

Jade teleported into the territory to get a closer look. Some of the monsters that we're butchering corpses noticed Jade's presence and roared to alert the other monsters but Jade didn't pay them mind as he thought 'Now that I see it, it's so obvious; monster hordes with various monsters are clearly superior to those with only spawns of one race. Why is it so rare to see such then?'

The monsters jumped and threw attacks towards Jade but he had already teleported to another area of the Oni's territory. He thought silently for a some time while the first monsters started noticing him. After a while he realized 'Labels! The IPs give is labels that tell us what we are to do. Conquerors must conquer not save lives. The Labels aren't so bad since disobeying them would just make life hard... But the results can be worth it sometimes... That's something to think about'

Jade teleported to a room on the ground floor of a building and punched the ground. His hand pierced through the concrete without issue and took the head of a monster that was under the concrete, it was the Oni's Crown.

The IP of the Oni, that had left the room where Ayaka was and was searching for the intruder while giving the monsters around orders with mental commands, said 'Your Crown is in the possession of a Rank 11 (Superior) Primordial Human'.

The Oni immediately changed directions and dashed to where its Crown was. Jade had been monitoring the Oni with Hunter's Perception and Soul Map so he vanished the moment the Oni entered the room with its Crown and appeared around the room where Ayaka was.

The monsters guarding the room were expecting the intruder to come from outside the room so only one of them was in the room with its claw at Ayaka's throat. Jade didn't have to enter the energy zones of the monsters to teleport Ayaka away so the monster that had its claws on her throat was very surprised when she disappeared right before its many eyes.

Ayaka found herself before the already activated light gate. Before she could get her bearings she was drop kicked into the circle of rippling lights and appeared in the hall where Jade met the Daimyos.

On seeing the faces of her fellow Daimyos and Satoshi she knew she was safe but she was still confused about how it happened. She said "H-how?" But then she noticed the surprised gazes of the people in the hall and followed their gaze to the figure of a black man standing behind her fallen figure.

She recognized the man and said "Stealer of men". Jade ignored her comment and said "Why are you so surprised, did you think I would take long? I would like my pay please". Satoshi said "Give us a while we will prepare it".

Jade said "I'll be waiting then, if anyone of you is interested" Jade pulled out a monster's head and the people in the room where shocked when their IPs showed them what it was; [Crown: Authority Level 1] "You can holla at me" Jade finished and returned back to the house Yubi provided him.

Jade sat down on the bed in his room and wondered 'In what way am I sticking to the Labels the IP gave me?' Jade thought for a while before concluding 'En-code. It helps to accelerate stat growth but it should be possible to make steroids that can accelerate stat growth far better than en-code. Although there might be side effects they will be removed once I evolve, right? Even if they aren't removed it's better than letting the parasite eat my soul.

Stats. I've been made to believe that a certain amount of stat is needed to kill a creature of a certain Rank but getting Magic knowledge and advanced technology has proved different. I was able to kill a monster with a way higher kill en-code than me with spatial tech. With more Magic and technology stats become obsolete.

In short research is the best way to break out of the limits of what the IPs can offer'

Jade smiled when he came to the conclusion. He went back to his lab to continue his research in Blood Magic.

...

A ball of fuming acid flew under Mira as she backflipped toward the [Rank 6 Flesh Abomination] that tried to get her from behind. The monster resembled a Centaur with bear like liwer body instead of a horse's and tentacles instead of human arms. It had no head and hair and it had eyes all over its torso. The large mouth that went diagonally across its torso was the source of the acid.

The Abomination leaned its torso back and aimed again. It spewed another ball if acid at the flipping Mira who abnormally stopped in the air as an air explosion happened on her feet and shot toward the Abomination from another angle.

The Abomination moved back and kept shooting balls of acid at Mira who kept dodging them in the air. The Abomination was filled with fear as it moved back. It saw what Mira did to the other Abomination, one touch and it had exploded, no resistance, nothing.

Mira landed and sighed in resignation when she noticed the Abomination had no intention of fighting in close range even though it was their specialty. Her Energy Burst had gotten extremely powerful over the past month and her energy stat had increased by one minor rank again. No creature in Rank 6 and below could resist her energy anymore but Jake had told her she still wasn't ready for a Rank 7.

So she began to focus only on Rank 6 monsters during the monster exterminations Night City, Jake's territory, organized. She always faced more than one Rank 6 monster to up the difficulty of her fights but that wasn't enough anymore she had to hold back by using only the basic functions of the Bubble armor to get a challenge.

But that also quickly became too much for the monsters as was the case with the group of about 30 Rank 6 Abominations she just eliminated. She stretched her hand toward the Abomination that was still backing away even though she had stopped approaching. She stretched out her palm and bubbles shot out from her hand like bullets.

She was using the explosion of other bubbles to propel the other intact bubbles toward the Abomination like a gun. The bubbles swiftly reached the retreating Abomination and latched to its body as the energy in them seeped into it. The Abomination exploded from the different spots where the bubbles touched it and died.

A male vampire walked toward her from behind and said "You said you would only use the basic functions". He was a Rank 7 vampire, one of the only 2 Rank 7s under Jake. Mira said "It was being a pain Samuel" a frown on her face. Samuel shook his head and said "You have to stick to the training if you want results".

Mira said "I'll stop using the armor entirely" Samuel said "That's a good idea but I just have to say, the person that made your armor didn't make it so that you would rely on it. It was made so that you would learn from it. Keep that in mind".

Mira rolled her eyes and said "I know that already. I just can't maintain my skill when it is far away from my energy zone". Samuel sighed and lifted his index finger in the air. A ball of purple aura rose from his finger and levitated above his finger as he said "I know using aura is totally different from what you're doing but what helped me a lot was seeing aura as a part of myself or even a representation of myself rather than an energy or skill that I use".

Mira thought for a while and said "I'll try that"