As our walk continued, I noticed that Elisa was trying to catch up to us from behind — because of her short height she was having a little trouble keeping up with our steps. I waited for her and put my hand on her shoulder.
"Aren't you tired?" I asked.
"No, I'm fine," she said, but the tiredness in her voice was obvious. And indeed, that day at school, then dinner with us — she'd had quite a day. "Let's go home," I said, turning to Elena. "My sister is tired, and I have to get up early tomorrow."
Elena nodded understandingly. "Of course. Good night, Kai. And... I'm sorry again, about your nose."
"I've already forgotten it," I said, smiling, without rubbing the nose that in reality still ached a little.
While walking home with Elisa, my sister was silent — a silence that contrasted with her usual cheerful self. "What are you thinking about?" I asked.
"Nothing," she said, but the expression in her eyes didn't say "nothing." "It's just... our talking about the Master made me think a bit, that's all."
That night when I got home, before sleeping I opened my panel and looked at it for a long time. My stats, my potential, my ceiling — all of it there, in clear figures. But that touch of Master Ren's, that power even the System couldn't see, wasn't written anywhere. For the first time, maybe for the first time in my life, I seriously considered that there might be things those figures weren't telling me.
Before falling asleep, those old photographs I'd found yesterday in Master Ren's room came to mind. As I closed my panel and lay in the dark, I decided to myself that at the next opportunity I would ask the Master directly — not indirectly, but openly. What had happened in his past, what that three-line symbol meant, and why he could sometimes do things even the System couldn't see.
But since I had to go to school early the next morning, I couldn't put this decision into practice right away. At breakfast Master Ren was silent as always, looking at his holoprojection as if reading a newspaper. Gathering my courage, I said, "Master, I want to ask you something."
He raised his head with a curious expression. "Ask."
At that very moment Elisa came running into the kitchen shouting "I'm late, I'm late!", stuffed the toast in her hand into her mouth and ran for the door. This sudden noise made me forget the question I was about to ask for a moment, and I realized I had to go after Elisa — that day the two of us had to go to school at the same time.
"I'll ask later," I said to Master Ren, grabbing my bag and running after Elisa.
The Master said nothing behind me, only nodded silently — but in that briefest moment, I thought I saw a relief in his eyes, as if he were grateful I had postponed asking. Maybe it was only my imagination. But on the way to school, trying to work out the meaning of that look, those questions turned over in my mind once more — as I wondered whether I would ever learn their answers.
Exactly a week had passed since that incident. Even though the cartilage tissue in my nose had come out perfectly sound the next day thanks to Chi treatment, because of my sister's absurd joke I couldn't escape mocking looks from Class A for a few days. Luckily the agenda changed fast in the elite class; one day someone's stat increase was being discussed, the next day the new training simulations.
Master Ren had gone out again this weekend. On Friday evening he had taken that same light bag on his back and said, "I'll be back by Sunday evening." Since I stayed in the dorm that weekend I hadn't seen him leave; I had only read the short message Elisa sent to my phone: "The Master's gone again."
Today there was the week's routine class — always met with seriousness, and with the heaviest atmosphere of all: Advanced Combat and the Anomaly Field.
For the class we had gone down to the Anomaly Laboratory with its special protective plating, located on the -3rd floor right next to the school's underground arenas. This was one of Academy's most highly protected facilities; it was designed so students could examine creatures from the outer region without danger. In the enormous hall, special cages were lined up, each isolated behind reinforced bulletproof glass twenty centimeters thick. The air inside was cold, heavy, and full of a faint ozone smell that burned the nostrils. The red lights of the magnetic locks on the cages blinked rhythmically and grimly.
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"Line up, brats!"
An enormous tone of voice that shook the floor of the hall echoed off the walls. Mr. Rodolf had appeared.
Mr. Rodolf was the school's head instructor for defense and anomaly combat. He was a giant 2.20 meters tall, weighing 130 kilos, made of pure muscle without a single gram of fat on him. The thick veins in his neck swelled like ivy with every breath he took, and his dark face full of scars carried an extremely hard expression. The enormous double-headed axe on his back and the A-level Hunter badge on his chest were enough to sum up his experience in this field and how many hells he had come out of alive.
"Today we're in the routine anomaly examination class," said Mr. Rodolf, his voice coarse and loud. He walked in front of the line with enormous strides. "Inside the glass cages behind you are specimens brought from the outer region, ranging from H-level to G-level. Don't forget! The System cannot connect to Anomalies! They have no panel, no stat tables. The System only scans the Mana/Chi accumulation and mutation density in their bodies and gives you an estimated power level. The rest is entirely your own observation!"
The class was calm. In the end this laboratory was a familiar place at the school, no one expected any strange surprises — but however used to it they were, in this class, every time they saw the new creatures brought here, their hearts shuddered. The students routinely began gathering around the cages.
Mr. Rodolf suddenly stopped, turned his enormous frame to the class and ran his hard gaze over the students. "Let's refresh what you elite and precious children learned in your theory classes. Somebody tell me," said Mr. Rodolf. "How do the creatures inside these cages come to be?"
Not a sound came from the class. Mr. Rodolf extended his finger randomly toward the line. His finger pointed directly at Elena, the speed specialist standing next to Alex.
"Hey! You tell me."
Elena pulled herself together at the sudden mention of her name. She straightened her green eyes and spoke in a confident voice:
"All Anomalies below C- Level are actually the animals of this world as we know them, sir. If an animal eats grasses or plants that grow in regions where the anti-Chi density is high, if it consumes the carcass of another animal that has mutated, or if it lives for a long time right next to high anti-Chi focal points, it undergoes mutation. Just like a cancer cell... That anti-Chi, or contaminated Mana — contaminated energy — completely corrupts the animal's genetic structure and cellular tissue."
"Good," said Mr. Rodolf, nodding slightly. A snicker rose from the back rows; someone had laughed at the word "Mana." "What are you laughing at?" said Rodolf, without turning his head. "In the book it says Chi, in the field we say Mana; among the common people it has still other names. They're all the same thing." Then he stretched out his enormous hand and struck the first cage as he continued. *BOOM!* "And just as that cancer cell absorbs healthy tissue and spreads, an animal that undergoes mutation also enters, with the hunger it has fallen into, an eagerness to consume every kind of Chi source around it. Chi attracts Chi! Because of this savage desire inside them they attack living things. With every Chi they swallow and every creature they eat, the mutation deepens, the cellular corruption compounds, and the anomaly gains a level and grows even stronger!"
"Now split into groups of three, circle around the cages and examine these mutation symptoms with your own eyes!"
As the students split into groups of three, Elena sidled up directly beside me. "Kai, let's look together." Peter also silently attached himself behind us, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at me.
We came in front of the first cage. Inside stood an H-Level: Mutated Field Mouse. It was the size of a normal cat, with hard spear-like hairs on its back, and its eyes were pitch black.
"Just a field mouse," Peter muttered, turning up his nose. "It probably ate the grasses next to the mine waste in the outer region and mutated. I could burst this with a single punch."
Elena turned her head and looked at Peter. "This is exactly why you're falling behind, Peter — because of this carelessness. It may be just a mouse, but look at that cancerous mutation in its tissue. Because of the Chi hunger inside it, it's focusing directly on the Chi in your body. If the glass weren't there it would leap straight at your throat," she said. I looked over at Elena, then, while inwardly agreeing with her, I fixed my eyes on the hairless, purplish cellular corruptions on the creature. "Its cells are completely corrupted," I said. "The System can't show its speed because it has no fixed muscle structure. As it absorbs Chi, its cellular structure can expand momentarily and harden the muscle."
We passed the second and third cages. They were H-level too, rabbit and wildcat mutations. They had probably risen to Level H by eating smaller mutated insects or contaminated grasses. Their bodies had thickened, their bones had burst out through their skin and turned into a kind of armor. Their gazes had gone completely dark; they were no longer animals but machines of cellular destruction focused only on consuming.