Training for the Mainland

Maria Bachmann stood in front of the crowd.

"It is a good thing that so many of you managed to overcome the obstacle course." She straightened her glasses. "But the real test is going to start now. It is a test of your willpower and determination. In 1 1/2 month a ship will leave the harbor of New Asia and head directly for the mainland. It is a place, where normal humans can't survive even for a minute. The same way we changed and got our abilities the flora and fauna did as well."

The crowd started chattering. It was highly restricted information they just received and everyone was flabbergasted and wanted to know more.

"Harrumph, please be quiet." They turned silent again and waited for her to continue.

"On the mainland, we will build teams and support the frontier in their fight against the monsters that infested our homelands. For many years we in combination with other islands tried to secure a spot for us, humans, on the mainland. Right now the land we managed to conquer only has the size of a small village. Your job there will be to learn to control your abilities and support the frontier with all your might." Maria Bachmann looked around. She could see many people burning with desire for the mission. She was satisfied with herself.

"So now I guess you think that this is your test?!?" She said smilingly. "No, it isn't. This is just the training camp you are going to take part in if you manage to pass the test. Your job until the day of departure will be to rank up. Only if you reach Rank 2 will we take you with us."

Some people weren't happy with this and voiced their unwillingness.

"You can't be serious. It might take me 2 more years to rank up. This is simply utter bullshit," shouted someone from the crowd.

A cold glare came from Maria's eyes. "I might have to make myself clear."

She raised her fist and a frosty aura surrounded her hand. She held the position and said, "Prepare yourselves." Then her fist hit into empty air. A shockwave was created and half of all those present fell over. Only those, who neared the maximum of Rank 1 managed to steady themselves somehow using their special powers.

'Holy Moly,' thought Dave. 'What kind of rank is she that she can unleash such wind pressure with just her fist hitting the air?!?' Dave couldn't imagine what would have happened if she had hit his body with that attack.

"You see this power? Even I am not save on the mainland. If we tell you that you need to rank up then it is only in consideration of your lives."

She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.

"But of course we aren't unreasonable. To help you with your training each of you gets a bag with training materials. Nakamura Labs sponsored these for this year's participants. With these, even the weakest of you should have a chance to rank up if he puts his soul into his or her training."

Maria Bachmann signaled two females behind her to hand the training bags out to everyone. Dave and the other ones in the top 10 got separately their promised mushrooms.

'I am so lucky.' thought Dave happily. After listening to these people he noticed that in comparison to most of the other people here he had an extremely fast training speed. After collecting all the materials, he left the building and headed back to Nakamura Labs.

On his way there he checked his stats and ability levels.

'Status'

"Beep."

Name: Dave Davidson Age: 21

Title: Wannabe Hero

Class: Man, who plays with bubbles Rank: 1 Star

Class Evolution: 85%

Attributes

Strength: A -> A+

Agility: S -> S+

Stamina: A -> A+

Wisdom: A -> A+

Intelligence: A -> A+

Charisma: B+ -> B

Heroism: 1430

After he checked his stats and noticed that only 15% were missing for his evolution into the 2 Star Rank, he was pretty happy.

'With the new pills I got for training I will grow even faster. I guess I will need only around 3 weeks to reach SSS grade with all my stats.'

In his head, Dave started to create a list of things he wanted to do in the next 1 1/2 months.

'Of course, I have to rank up but first I need to consume this mushroom I got. I am interested to see what comes after SSS grade.

Furthermore, I need to increase my skill levels. If it is really as dangerous as Misses Bachmann said then I need to ready myself in all aspects that might help me survive. That leads me to the next thing I have to do... I have to increase my heroism as much as possible before I board the ship. Only if I have enough heroism at hand, can I use some of my strongest emergency abilities. On the mainland, I will be most of the time under supervision. And the people over there are mostly stronger than me... So I think it is safe to say that even if I find quests, they will most likely be too difficult to solve for me.'

Deep in thought, Dave arrived at the lab and entered the training room.

He didn't want to waste any of his time.

2 weeks went by in the blink of an eye. Dave put all his efforts right now in increasing his stats and made great improvements as all of them reached already the SS grade. He was only going to consume the mushroom after his stats reached the SSS grade. Only then would the mushroom allow him to transcend his limits.

He asked Ayano if there were any ways to gather more of these and to his surprise, she said that even she had no way of acquiring more of them in less than a month.

"Dave, did you ever ask yourself were these mushrooms come from? Do you think we found them on this island or created them inside our laboratories?"

Dave had asked himself this question many times already. After all, he dreamed about transcending the SSS grade in all of his stats. So of course, he was curious about their origination.

"These mushrooms can only be found on the mainland inside the lairs of strong monsters. Because of that, we can only get them from the ships that come back from there."

"If that is the case," said Dave with a contemplative look, "then that must mean that the ones from the last time the ship came are all already handed out or consumed."

"Yes, that is the point," confirmed Ayano his guess. "The last officially known mushrooms were handed out to you and the other participants during the exam. And believe me, no one, who gets his hands on those, is giving them freely to you. Most ability users would die for the chance to consume even only one of them. Sadly, I see no chance for you to acquire more of them..."

Dave jumped up. An idea came to his mind.

"That is no reason to give up. I think I have my own way that no one else has."

Ayano looked at him flabbergasted not understanding what he meant.

"You know that I got pills and all that stuff when I solved quests. If I rank my [Newbie Hero's Radar] up to SSS grade, then there should be a slim possibility that it might reward me with one or two mushrooms. Don't you think so too?"

Ayano widened her eyes.

"Dave if that were the truth and you could procure them through your quests without limit..." She was too shocked to continue speaking.

"We will see. Right now the only thing I know is that neither my ability level is high enough to get SSS rank quests nor are my stats high enough to solve them."

Ayano nodded.

"Dave I think you don't understand, what it would mean if you managed to pull that off and transcend in all your stats." Her eyes fixated his making sure that she had all of his concentration. "No one ever managed to do it in more than 4 stats... You would be the first person to take this path and do a perfect transcendence. God knows what happens after that..."