"1 hour 45 minutes to heal a one inch cut... That’s impressive, but nothing special. I have seen much better healers, but of course, they lack your strength and extra talent, so I think this is God’s way of trying to nerf you," Bruce said in a dull voice while looking down at the stopwatch.
Lucius slowly rose to his feet, his attention dropping toward the small puddle of blood his wound had created beneath him. The front of his shirt was stained red, and the fabric clung uncomfortably to his skin around the wound. He glanced at the blood for a moment before looking back at Bruce.
"You believe in God?" Lucius asked.
"Why wouldn’t I?" Bruce raised a brow while putting away his stopwatch into his back pocket.
"Well, I thought smart people tended to be atheists," Lucius answered.
Bruce let out a loud laugh as he walked toward the corner of the room and picked up a steel table. He carried it over to Lucius and placed it in front of him before resting both hands against its surface. His expression changed slightly as he looked deeply into Lucius’s eyes.
"Atheism makes no sense when you look at the world around us. From the vastness of space and the galaxies to the intricate complexity of the human body, there is undeniable order. Everything is perfectly designed to support each other; none of this could exist by accident. It requires a creator. It seems the only reason people try to disprove God is out of a sense of entitlement. They expect an all loving father figure to constantly step in and protect them, even though they have already been given all the tools they need to succeed. Atheism is just a wall for dumb people to hide behind," Bruce explained.
Lucius’s lips parted slightly as he stared at Bruce with genuine surprise. He had expected some arrogant answer or perhaps a joke, but Bruce sounded completely serious. Lucius wanted to argue, yet the words refused to come. He could not immediately think of an argument that would not make him sound like he was simply trying to disagree for the sake of disagreeing.
Bruce picked up the metal, stone, wood, and Aether crystal he had brought earlier and placed them carefully on the table, finally returning his attention to Lucius.
"Enough daydreaming. Let’s test your Hand of God ability. Try using it on the steel ball," Bruce instructed.
Lucius nodded and picked up the steel ball. The moment it rested in his palm, he felt something strange. It was almost like a silent call from somewhere inside his body, an instinct that told him exactly what to do.
Hand of God!
Lucius felt the ball rapidly begin to shrink. The sensation spread from his palm through his arm as the steel seemed to dissolve into his body. Within seconds, the metal formed across his palm and spread upward, coating his hand and continuing along his forearm until it reached his elbow. Then the remaining portion of the ball vanished completely.
Lucius stared at his metallic arm with mild curiosity, flexing his fingers as the steel coating moved with him.
"Ooh, my... This is a very... interesting talent," Bruce said, a faint hint of surprise finally appearing on his usually indifferent face. "Does your hand feel any heavier?"
Lucius shook his head. "Not really... It doesn’t really feel any different, to be honest."
Bruce approached him and carefully inspected the steel coated arm for several seconds before pulling out his penknife again. This time, Lucius knew better than to make a fuss. He simply stood still and watched as Bruce carefully cut through the layer of steel and began peeling it away, revealing Lucius’s completely unharmed skin underneath.
"Now I regret only bringing over these small portions of material. I’m curious to know how much you can absorb and how much it affects you." Bruce rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he examined the discarded steel.
Bruce let out a tired sigh and began packing the rock, wood, and Aether crystal back into the bag. "I’ll postpone this until I have the proper amount of material. However, I’m quite curious about something."
Lucius blinked. "What is it?"
"In the mine, when the soldiers found you, they noticed you could absorb Aether, but I noticed something else. You didn’t seem affected by the thick Aether fumes in your immediate environment. Is that true, or am I overthinking it?"
Lucius’s eyes widened with surprise. "You are not wrong. Before I awakened my talents, I literally bled from my eyes, nose, and ears because of the Aether fog. However, as soon as I gained the talent, it felt like Aether was no longer a problem. It was no different from breathing air."
Bruce’s eyes flashed with a strange expression, but it vanished almost immediately. He simply nodded as though he had just confirmed something he had already suspected.
"We are postponing our training for further notice. For now, I recommend you focus on martial arts since you are bound to be a melee type fighter," Bruce said while zipping up his bag.
Buzz!
"Martial arts?" Lucius blurted out. "Are you serious?"
Bruce reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a black card with the name ’Ainsworth’ inscribed in blue. He held it between two fingers and extended it toward Lucius.
"Master Zhang heads the martial arts department in the academy. Show him that card and he will find the martial arts style best tailored to your inheritance. I’ll also send him a video of everything you can do to make things easier," Bruce said with a shrug before turning toward the elevator. "Let’s go."
Lucius needed a moment to process what he had just heard before hurrying after him.
"Hold on... Is martial arts a real thing?" Lucius asked as he entered the elevator behind Bruce.
"Of course. It’s very real and more powerful than people care to admit. For example, the Briggs family of the Big Four were state assassins who practiced the demonic martial arts. After the Blue Death incident, they did not evolve or develop a talent. They leaned deeper into their Demon kin martial art, which gave them the strength to rival Special Authority ranked talents," Bruce explained.
"Wait... What?!" Lucius felt like his brain was spinning.
The information was becoming increasingly difficult to process. He had spent his entire life believing martial arts were nothing more than entertainment and old stories. Now Bruce was casually telling him that people could use martial arts to rival the strongest Guardians in the world. It was absurd, but why would Bruce lie to him?
"I’m serious. After humans were mutated and evolved by Aether, we gained the ability to materialize Qi, and because of that, martial arts became more precious than ever before. Now every country is hoarding as many martial arts manuals as possible." Bruce pressed the button for the ground floor. "Currently, this is what makes China one of the strongest countries in the world. All its Guardians have access to the best martial arts in the world, so it’s always like fighting enemies wielding Dual Talents."
"And here, don’t we have enough martial arts manuals?"
Bruce scoffed. "Before the Blue Death incident, most Americans viewed martial arts as bullshit. Even after the incident, most Americans still view martial arts as bullshit. Most of our Guardians avoid martial arts because it’s a lot of hard work, and they are used to easy lives. That’s why American Guardians are actually considered average or weak beyond our country’s borders. We are way too soft."
Ding!
The elevator doors swung open, but Lucius remained there for a moment, still trying to digest everything Bruce had told him.
"You are joking, right?" Lucius speed walked after Bruce.
"I wish I was." Bruce shook his head. "In Asian countries, Guardians are trained in discipline, hard work, and honor. They literally keep training every single day until they can’t move a finger. In Africa, they have the most powerful and diverse races of mutant and evolved beasts out there. Their young, untrained Guardians are thrown into the front lines, and naturally, this leads to the high mortality rate amongst African Guardians. But the few that survive the brutal system end up becoming beasts. And then there is Russia..."
Bruce paused briefly, his expression becoming almost amused. "Those bastards are so hardcore they turn mutant and evolved beasts into pets."
Lucius’s jaw dropped at the Russian part. He stared at Bruce as though he had just announced that humans had learned to tame hurricanes.
"So America is not the world superpower anymore?" Lucius asked.
"Of course we are still the world superpower. We have the most advanced weapons. My Ainsworth family makes sure America has the most lethal weapons at least a decade before other countries hope to get their hands on them. As cute as talents are, guns still run the world." Bruce flashed a confident smile.
"Master Bruce, Young Master Lucius, have a nice day..." The receptionist bowed politely as they passed, but neither of them paid her much attention.
Bruce continued walking beside Lucius as they made their way through the reception area. "You need to work on your general knowledge of things and the world around you. I’ll have someone send over some books you can read in your free time at night. You should meet Master Zhang tomorrow and start your martial training. Then I’ll come thrice a week to evaluate your progress and teach you how to make the best out of your talents. It’s a very busy schedule, but I believe if you can follow it, you should have what it takes to take the top place in the end of year Academy exams, which is in eight months. Okay?"
Lucius nodded quickly, his expression noticeably brighter than it had been when they first entered the facility.
"Okay!" Lucius said energetically.
For the first time in a long while, Lucius felt genuinely eager to learn. Every conversation with Bruce seemed to tear down another wall surrounding his understanding of the world. He had spent most of his life knowing only the mines, the Dreg system, survival, and the narrow world immediately surrounding him. Now he was discovering that the world was far larger and far stranger than he had ever imagined, and there was an entire ocean of knowledge waiting for him beyond the life he had known.
It was impossible to hide his excitement.