Awaking abilities (4/4)

"How so?" Sebastian turned his head with interest, expecting a bloody, heartbreaking, and tragic betray story.

Like for setting the mood, Lenard paused for a few seconds.

"You have to live it yourself."

"Pffffffff… Boring. And cliche." Sebastian looked at Lenard with bitterness. "You know what a religious person, a drug addict and you have in common?"

"What?"

"Saying things like 'I can't explain it with words, you have you experience it yourself."

"...….."

"And besides, what's wrong with adult Manifesters? I know a few: very nice people and always paying rent on time."

The boy gave his sincere opinion on the topic, without spotting any of the troubles that Lenard supposedly sees.

"That's because the percentage is still low and all of them can obtain some kind of monetary benefits. If we awake adults instead of teens, the number of people running into the portals hungry for money along with the number of deaths will just skyrocket. These nice people you know will probably become the ones that monopolize the resources, forcing the new Manifesters to pay expensive quotas in expeditions, and if not… remember that the other sides of the portals are out of the limits of the law."

"However, if it's the young people with few ties of society, things will be a bit different. We can guide them by the correct paths, and when they grow older, they can act as role models. Humans are social animals, we follow the majority. If the number of young Manifesters is higher, the intentions of corrupt adults won't break the system so easily."

"You and the MDW expect too much from some childish, selfish, and irresponsible teenagers like me." Sebastian had to speak before Lenard painted everything of pink color.

"No matter how rebellious you think your generation is, you guys do the things based on what is publicly acknowledged as right and wrong. 'What's unfair should be eradicated' is still common as thought and as ideology. Instead, the adults would witness the happening and say 'I know this is unfair, but does it make money?' If the answer is yes, they will join, in the best scenario ignore, but never go against."

Lenard sighed, his mind was full of examples.

"We are more innocent and obedient, basically." Ignoring the man that was submerged in his thoughts, the teenager uncovered the pretty words.

"Don't see it as negative, the decision was-"

"Okay, I got it, we are easier to manipulate, don't say more."

"Why do you always have to look things by that side?" Lenard sighed, looking defeated.

To that, Sebastian shrugged, then nodded his head to the sides.

"I'm a teenager that you praised so much for the last minutes, and I'm on that phase, the revel and 'f*ck the system' phase."

He directly looked at Lenard, like saying 'what are you gonna do?'.

In fact, adding to the hard-to-convince traits, Sebastian was never an optimistic person, he would always see more negatives than positives on things. And in his beliefs, if something has few or no negatives… worse even, because they're all hidden.

"Fine, just keep in your mind that our objective is to protect this minority until it transforms into the normality in society. Manifesters shouldn't become the rich people's bodyguards, workforce, or property. Money shouldn't behave as a priority, defending our people from the creatures on the other side should."

With that said, Lenard's eyes moved back to observe the students in the gym.

Sebastian followed, but his attention now was diverged to analyze the last thing said by the man, not sure if it was just a strategy of 'they are the real villains, we aren't that bad' or it represented MDW's real intentions.

…

The testing of abilities continued. From time to time, more students were brought from their classrooms, stabilizing the number both in group 1 and in group 2 even after the ones that were done left.

In this process, in group 2, both Alexandra and Miriam earned their turn.

Being an expert himself, Lenard showed off his knowledge after noticing Sebastian's curiosity.

Alexandra, the 'lucky girl' in Lenard's words, awoke the C-class ability [Bonus].

Almost able to guess by its name, this ability uses mana to give attributes such as strength, speed, stamina, etc. to the receiver/receivers.

But unlike videogames' support skills with predetermined numbers, real-life abilities worked differently— by knowledge.

In order for the Manifester to give bonus capacities to others, the user must know how the attribute itself works, and what type of help the bonus will give to accomplish the capacity bust.

Take strength for example: The strength in the arms works very differently from straight in the legs. Muscle sizes, bone structure, tendon flexibility, body balance, etc. are all things to be considered.

If the user only makes the muscles bigger without considering their relation with bones, nerves, arteries, skin, etc. Either the user or the receiver will end up hurt.

Now focusing on the methods, speaking only of speed increase, there are many ways: canceling the air resistance is one, increasing body capacities is another, and making the body lighter might work as well.

To successfully use [Bonus], the user needs to research relentlessly how to 'give', then, once fulfilled that, to 'maintain' that 'buff' is another challenge.

For now, as a beginner, Alexandra will only be able to increase one attribute to one single person. But with enough time and practice, the number of bonuses and people might increase.

Lastly, the main reason why this ability is considered C-class: is that combined with the existing abilities on the user's slot, the user can lean their abilities temporally to others.

…

Now in Miriam's case, hers was much simpler.

D-class, [Sword cemetery] is an ability that can summon swords out of the floor.

Despite Miriam's first attempt was barely a metal stick with a strange form. With enough amount of practice, not only the number but also the shape will change for good.

Each sword will cost certain mana. But canceling the ability will give some of that energy back.

However, that doesn't mean that the user can create swords in non-combat time to take advantage of them as batteries later. The swords disappear with time when the mana that shapes them runs off.

And if close combat is not the preferred choice of the user, another way to use this ability is to summon the swords upside-down, like creating spikes from the floor. This somehow makes [Sword cemetery] a two-in-one ability, the second use being perfect to sneak attack.

Now, the biggest flex recently discovered on this ability is that it is not only limited to swords. Any other cold weapon can be summoned if the user knows its shape and physics. But again, that requires an insane amount of proficiency to be able to 'break the mold', if not, it wouldn't be discovered until now.

…

"So, what was the point of that duck?" Sebastian asked nearly at the end of the testings to his class.

"I bet you noticed something already, maybe you can try to guess."

"Why should I do that when I got my answer right next to me? I thought you approved efficiency."

"Not really, my boss is the one that does."

"So?" Sebastian pointed his fingers to the big animal, reminding Lenard to answer the first question.

"It's no a big mystery, the duck has an ability named [Discontrol]. What it does is to force someone of a lower level to use one of their abilities randomly. With [Discontrol], their bodies automatically do all the prerequisites like yelling some words or making a gesture. This way, your peers that didn't even know what their initial was will expose to us that information."

Lenard explained to testing related parts of this ability, not bringing up either the class or the adverse consequences.

"Does the initial abilities count as part of the body? Or is it a property?" Suddenly, Sebastian asked.

"Why the question?"

"Cuz what you're doing sound extremely illegal. That's either sexual assault or trespassing: controlling other people's bodies. Did you ask for their consent first? Oh my lord! They're minors, they cannot consent. You're screwed. All the MDW is screwed!"

"....." Lenard didn't even know how to respond.

"Are you one of those social justice warriors by a chance?"

"How rude of you."

"...…"

"Anyway… again, why the duck though?" Sebastian repeated the question that was already answered.

"You mean why don't we just kill the duck and equip that ability to a soldier?"

"Huh? Of course not! What makes you think that I will come up with such a horrible thing? That duck is so cute, why would you propose to kill such an innocent animal!"

Lenard looked with his only eye at the guy that attempted to stab him with a scalpel a few months ago. Not sure why he finds entertaining to act sarcastic.

"We have our reasons. I can't tell you because it's classified information, but if you join the Army..."

"Never mind then, not interested." Sebastian immediately crossed with his hands an X.

"Can I leave now? My class finished testing."

Lenard nodded without saying anything else, then put on his sunglasses again.

Such a weird act being inside of a building.

"Remember that Russell's recruit offer is still open. You're wasting your talent here doing nothing. You could save a lot of people, avoid more tragedies like yours to happen again." Lenard said louder this time since Sebastian was almost at the last step of the stairs.

But he didn't hand back any response. The refutation expected accompanied with jokes did not sound.

Lenard knew that this was not a confirmation using silence, but more like an 'I do not listen, I do not care'.