Chapter 20: Mysterious Woman

A week later, inside the energy tower, Fang was practicing quietly inside a small room.

Light throughout Fang’s body grew brighter than ever, and like a cocoon, energy engulfed Fang. Excited, Fang concentrated harder. As large reserves of energy flew in, his body soon disappeared from the intense light. Then, with a bang, energy exploded inside the room as Fang looked around.

Intermediate level!

This layer of energy was at least at the 1st grade, thicker than before and able to output an incomparable amount of defense and offense than before. Fang’s eyes lit up in joy, as it had only taken a month to breakthrough that bottleneck into the intermediate level.

He took almost a month to go from an 8th grade novice to a 9th grade novice, which for most people, would be an amazing set speed. However, to go from the 9th grade novice into the intermediate stage wasn’t that simple, and should’ve taken at least four months or longer.

The energy tower could improve the practice speed to an extent, and he was in the tower only for an hour each time. So, there was only one reasonable explanation: it was due to the endless method that he was training in. In theory, because this method didn’t distinguish between the types of energy, there should be no such thing as a bottleneck, as every grade could transition smoothly. The results seemed to indicate that all that theory was correct.

Since he entered the intermediate levels, he would be able to drastically change his attacks; he couldn’t compare to his former self, as he witnessed firsthand during the fight against Garret how much of an advantage ranged attacks gave.

In the tower, he couldn’t practice any combat techniques, so he quietly meditated until the bell rang.

Out of habit, as he walked out, Fang looked to the room next to him but there wasn’t anyone there.

After that outburst, Blue hadn’t gone to class or anything at all for the last week, staying inside his room. He probably was still embarrassed by that incident and needed some time to calm down; Fang hoped Blue would recover soon, there wasn’t much time left for the intermediate school.

Usually after advancing into a new stage, most fighters would evaluate their skills afterwards to see how much they improved, and Fang was no exception.

He arrived at the empty practice field, and punched the air fiercely – a trace of energy flew in the air, flying over twelve meters before dissipating.

Without practicing any of the martial arts skills he had seen, his energy went a fair distance, and Fang was satisfied.

Although people were graded based on the level of energy they possessed, it didn’t account for the various skills, nor the quality and purity of their energy. As well, a person’s fitness accounted for how well they could control their energy. Among the lectures Fang had diligently studied, most people were known to be able to propel their energy from five to seven meters, and for those with pure energy, from eight to ten meters. The people who had a purer concentrate of power, could display a radically different grade of skill with martial art techniques; no wonder that the “Sonic Cut” actions that Fang mimicked led to a stronger Sonic Cut.

The first of the tests determined the purity of energy, and with it complete, Fang moved onto the second. Slowly breathing in, Fang sent out repetitive punches in succession, attempting to determine his speed. An average fighter could put out three to four infused punches on the crystallized dummy before the time ran out; five or six may be considered good, but Fang put out eight punches that was able to meet the energy threshold for each effort.

For the final test, Fang entered a chamber attached on wheels. It was a simple machine that moved when energy was put into it.

If the first two test results could be considered excellent, the third test was outstanding. The majority of people could only run around 60 meters before stopping, the talented perhaps 90 meters, but Fang maintained the journey for 180 meters. This endurance and his ability to efficiently use energy was ridiculous.

After seeing his results, Fang felt extremely elated. He knew that his energy would improve, but to think the power, acceleration, sustainability and strength were top class from that leap into the intermediate stage was beyond his expectations. He was confident that if he had some time to learn and practice some suitable skills, he would easily be a match for 4th, no, even 5th grade intermediates!

Moonlight shined on the thick trees around the field, a lone figure standing alone on the field. However, no one would have thought that within the darkness, a pair of eyes watched everything happen. A bright light lit up their eyes, and they seemed to be excited.

Yume did scout a really good candidate, at the time the entrance examination, Yume said that he was only a recent 9th grade novice. But now, just after a month of training, he had already broken through into the intermediate level!

And although his first test result wasn’t so impressive, the next two were insane.

To take his potential, his speed alone put him with excellent potential. If you considered his power and speed together, it would be one of the best, but to take endurance into that – he could be called a genius with unlimited potential!

Soon, he would display that brilliance to the world, and attract the attention of more people; they couldn’t wait any longer.

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Two days passed, and after dinner, Fang resumed his practice, experimenting with his energy. Nighttime he figured, was the best time to practice as there were rarely other people training at this time, and the environment relatively quiet.

Noticing his lamp had almost run out, Fang stopped and picked up the lamp.

It would be a holiday tomorrow; I hope that Durin doesn’t come and ask to go drinking again in Minuet City. Although Fang didn’t get hangovers, or experienced any troubles with alcohol, he felt that it was too much work to deal with drunk people. Moreover, memories of the last time he went came up… it ruined his friendship with Blue, as he couldn’t really comfortably look at Blue for the time being.

I’ll just head back to the dormitory and sleep, he reasoned, and continued walking. Moments later, the world instantly turned dark, with his lamp extinguished, as well as the sky. To control the darkness of the night – this person was at a level that no one in the training camp could reach.

Fang was initially shocked, but he quickly calmed down.

In order to protect the youths, experts regularly patrolled the camp, so naturally no one meaning harm would be allowed in.

Out of the shadows, a person shrouded in a dark cloud walked towards Fang, and stopped.

Her face was covered with a dark, gray mask with black accents. Captivating, her eyes stared intently at Fang, a dark robe flowing down her figure.

The woman slowly spoke, “Student Fang?”

He had never seen this woman before, but she had called out his name.

As if she knew what Fang was thinking, she continued, “Not surprisingly, you don’t know me. Let me introduce myself. My name is Valeria, head of the chamber of commerce in Minuet City.”

Although Fang was from a small city, he still knew the importance of such a position.

Amazingly, this young lady was already the head of a department!