Sudden Strength

Zhao Lin was at home after the day. It was full of ups and down. He was anxious though. He wished he could stay out the city more, but the curfew was strict and part of his deal with his parents. Right now he was going over his things.

Two E grade weapons. Several healing injectors. And some plated clothing. These were the only thing he had on him for tomorrow. He had yet to receive a mission from the Academy. So might as well go out and train. The training vials he got were best used while he was put fighting, allowing his growth to double.

He took one of the. Out to look at them. He had a total of 5 within the small case he was given. But strangely, as he saw one of them, he noticed it was practically empty.

"What? Weren't these full before? How did this get so less?" Zhao Lin was confused as to why this happened. He was sure that when he gotten his case of vials, he had open and saw 5 full vials. But one was nearly empty. Then, when he picked up one, he felt the same adrenaline feeling in his arm. But only fainter.

"What is that." He tried to inspect his arm, but saw and felt nothing else. When he reached back to his hand, he then saw the nearly empty vial, was now completely empty. Zhao Lin looked down and around to see if it leaked out, but nothing.

Zhao Lin paused for a minute, looked at the entire case, and grabbed one of the vials.

"Is it…" He soon felt the same adrenaline feeling. It was then he knew that it was him absorbing the energy within the vial. This vial was a liquid form of the energy. And he was told to consume it. But for some reason, he didn't need to. It was somehow being directly absorbed into him. It only took a few seconds for the vial to be completely empty. Strange thing was that Zhao Lin felt no difference from before, except for the well rested feeling.

He soon took the other 3 vials and held them all in his palm. The sensation grew stronger and the feeling gave him a bit of a rush. His arm was practically stiff from taking in the energy. Only when the vials were empty was he able to move again. This time, he felt excited.

"Wow! What a rush. That felt awesome, almost like a drug." Zhao Lin looked at the empty vials and felt somewhat regretful. In the pleasurable moment, and curiosity, he had used up all his vials. These were also pretty pricey for him too.

But what made Zhao Lin more concerned was his ability to absorb the energy within the vials. It was his first time ever touching items like those, so it was normal for him to not know about it. But what kind of power was this? He wanted to be a Pysch power. But it felt a bit weak to be called a Pysch power. Innate ability? Super talented genius?

He mused to himself at the idea and only laughed it off.

"Hmmm. Maybe I should go train real quick." He said looking out the window. The day had set but hadn't reached midnight yet. Zhao Lin had wanted to go out today to hunt and train. But the events today took out all the time left of the day. And the night was more dangerous to go out into the wilderness. The vials were meant to be used during training and his little experiment had sucked up all his vials. He was suppose to be a good son and stay home after, so maybe he should wait till tomorrow.

———————

A window of Zhao Lin's house opened at midnight. A figure soon jumped out and landed silently. It walked a bit before stopping because of a voice.

"Big Brother?" Said a sleepy voice. Zhao Lin who was sneaking turned to see his sister at her window and rubbing her eyes.

"Where are you going?" She asked. Zhao Lin did the hush sign before quietly speaking but audible for her.

"Don't worry. I'm going out to train. Tell mom and dad i got a mission." He said as he went off.

His sister only sighed at her the disappearing brother of hers.

"It's not my fault if you get caught." She said before going back to bed.

Zhao Lin ran towards the nearest city entrance. He found that if he went through a little passage where the guards often used, he could slip out unnoticed and unbarred.

What he was going for, was a den of F grade fox called the Stone Tailed Fox. They were a fox breed that evolved. The area they lived was were mainly of rubble and ruins. They soon evolved to the point where they were every aspect of stone. Even their tails coming in 3s could left and fling large rocks.

While it was a den of them, it wasn't too large for Zhao Lin to take of. And if things went south he could run, he was confident in his running. The location was only half an hour away. And Zhao Lin was able to travel at 40 km per hour, and would only exhaust himself after an hour. The test from the Academy was also around that measure.

However, when he ran that night, he felt that he didn't get tired at like before. It was much less this time. Zhao Lin suspected that the vials were giving him a boost in energy.

He was able to navigate the wilderness pretty well just by going off his the map in his head. He felt his sense was sharper today as well. He could see in the dark more easily. His jumps and landings were practically perfect. And he could hear a lot more than normally.

-The serum in the vials are real work of wonders.-

Once he reached the den, he watched from a tall tree. Scouting the area and making sure there weren't any other beast around. As he kept watched, he found that there were 4 in total living in the den. He took out binoculars and jumped from tree to tree scouting out a hundred meter radius. Seeing the close was clear, he stood and took out his gear. Zhao Lin took out his blade and tied his knife to his waist. Finally he took one deep breath, and jumped down.

Within the Den were 4 foxes. They were all similar sizes. Their entire had stone patches, and their skin was like a rocky hide. Their "fur" was practically soft dirt.

The foxes were able to hear the thud sound of his landing. The exited the den and started to surround him. Zhao Lin backed up so that he was facing the majority of them. The foxes and He both stood at a stalemate and merely circled him.

One of the foxes who was able to get behind him and went for his ankles. Zhao Lin reacted and lifted the leg that it went for. When it missed, he stomped down, and slammed on front part of his jaws. The 2 others immediately pounced at him. He couldn't block both as they were coming from two directions. The one on the right was the closest, he chose to block its incoming attack, and was able to block fox trying to gnaw his face. The blade was against the fox, but because of the stone like skin, it couldn't as it was.

The second fox was about to reach him, so he pushed the first off and onto the second. The foxes felt quite light so he was able to easily toss them. But before he could even think of his next action. Two large stoned landed his right shoulder and lower back. He collapsed onto all fours.

The last fox was holding a couple of large rocks wrapped by its tail. As Zhao Lin was down, the two that were thrown into each other got back up, while the very first fox had its jaw crushed.

Zhao Lin quickly took out his knife and aimed at the one throwing rocks. At the speed and with the amount of strength he used, the knife pierced the right side of the foxes head practically in the eye. Causing it to fall over and died. The other two foxes didn't waste time in attacking, while Zhao Lin was still on the ground. He couldn't get up entirely in time so he took his katana and pointed it forward while holding it tightly. The blade pierced one of the foxes but missed the other. The last surviving fox was able to reach Zhao Lin and bite down on his shoulder. While its claws started to tear his armor.

"Argh! Get off damn it." The claws had started to pierce into him. Have both weapons gone, he start punching the fox. As he did he could feel his fist break a bit of the stone plates like armor. He put more strength into a single punch that was able to knock the fox off. The fox rolled off and was in pain. Obviously Zhao Lin was able to do some damage. With the chance, he quickly went for his blade and pulled it out of the dead fox. And turned and faced the fox, with a quick swing, he sliced its head off clean.

The fight had ended. Zhao Lin panted from the lack of breath and pain. The fox had bitten him, though it wasn't deep. He took out one of his healing injectors and jabbed himself. The wounds had stopped bleeding and Zhao Lin could feel the pain fade.

"Damn. These guys are trickier than i thought. I need to be more careful." He had been caught off guard by the sudden range attack. He had forgotten in the rush of the fight of the fourth one. And that they could throw such large rocks. He needed to remember their abilities and strengths, otherwise one misstep and he could end up dead.

Feeling a bit better he went to collect his loot. 4 F grade corpses would make a decent pay. He separated the necessary piles from each corpse. As he was about to finish up, he decided to go for the most important thing next. The Beast Core. He soon had four dimly lit Beast Cores. These could be worth some silver credits per.

But he soon saw that the Beast Cores were now slowly disappearing and fading into his hand. He felt his arm energized and his body feeling better.

-So thats what happened to the other one.-

He has been wondering why his Beast Core from the Rooster Rex had disappeared. Turns out he had absorbed its energy. He now knew more about this ability of his. He was able to absorb the energy by touch if it was close enough. When he had the beast core, he remembered now he had placed it in his pocket, which was practically in contact with him.

Even though the information was useful, he couldn't help but feel bitter when he lost the Cores. There goes his quick credits.

Zhao Lin placed everything else back in his ring and had only filled a fifth of the ring. The night was also young. Absorbing the beast cores allowed his wounds to practically be completed healed. His also felt energized. He felt if he missed this moment his training would fall behind before the examination.

He looked down at his fist and remembered back to the moment he punched the fox. He had felt a large breaking of its plate. And those stone plating were quite durable. For him to break in at all would require a lot of strength. The energy he could absorb from hunting foxes or even other beast could help train and get better results.

He then continued on the night and hunted more of the beast.