One month

Since the mission Bruce and I completed was more difficult than they expected it to be, we got a couple of days off.

During the three-day vacation, I ate the Tier 3 crystal and the Tier 4. I made sure to only eat one a day. Which ended up being a great choice.

The tier 3 just boosted my physical abilities. My mana capacity also increase a little. But even then, I wouldn't be able to add a second to my time stop.

The real change happened when I ate the tier 4.

I expected it to help me a lot but it helped even more than I thought it would.

Not only did my physical abilities double, but my mana core also got lighter. Since I was already in the light red stage, I skipped the end stages and went right or dark orange. With this, my mana doubled. I could now stop time for ten seconds. Which was insane.

Even my time perception increased in how long I'd be able to use it. I was now able to use it for an hour if I used all my mana.

Also, with more mana came with being able to enhance your body with mana even further. Strengthening you.

After the three days were up, I was sure I was one of the, if not the strongest, awakened. Although people may have lighter core shades, which I doubted a little, I, however, had the ability to control time. Something I was sure that pushed me to the top.

My brief vacation ended. And when it did, I informed the sergeant of my core. After all, as long as they didn't know I had the ability to control time, I didn't care. Plus, the more I showed, the more special treatment they gave me.

After seeing the weapons they were working on, I was sure that if I showed enough, they'd reward me with one.

Once he found out I had an orange core, he told me that my team would only be Bruce and I.

I didn't really care since if they gave me useless teammates, it would be the same. Bruce and I would be forced to carry.

With just us two, we'd be able to escape if anything happened faster and would be able to fight without worrying about our weak teammates.

I informed Bruce, who had already regained his physical health and he was surprised.

"So it's just us two? Won't it be more dangerous?"

I then explained to him how it'd be safer since all the strong awakened already has teams and that if they gave us weak teammates, we'd go through the same experience all over again.

The two of us then got a call from the sergeant. We had a mission.

It was like last time but instead of clearing such a gigantic space; we were tasked with clearing out a supermarket.

Bruce and I stocked up on weapons and left for the area.

——-

A month went by.

Bruce and I, this whole entire month, kept on doing mission after mission. At first, Bruce had some trouble. He obviously still had some trauma from the accident. But, against all odds, he overcame it.

Which surprised me. Getting over trauma was never an easy thing.

Once he got over it the accident, his combat ability exploded. Enhancement was a lot simpler than time. So I guided him in creating new skills. With a clear mind, he soaked everything I said up like a sponge.

With my aid, he even crossed into the dark red mana stages.

He wasn't the only one who improved though. I managed to increase the shade of my mana core to the late- dark stage. I was close to breaking into the middle stages of the colour.

After a few missions, I also started to realize my offensive abilities were lacking. Time stop and time perception were great. Amazing even.

They helped me in every mission I got. However, I wanted something I could attack with. So, with that thought in mind, I spent days thinking of what I should create.

And, after the third week, I managed to start creating it.

I spent three whole weeks thinking about how to go about actually bringing the skill to life.

So far, I've been able to stop time and slow it down for myself. However, would I be able to do it to someone else?

That was the thought that made me think of creating the skill.

Although it was more of a debuff than an attack, it would help me in fights against stronger enemies. By the end of the month, I was able to successfully create it. But I made a mistake. The amount of concentration I needed to keep it activated was insane. It was to the point of getting mentally exhausted. Which made it highly impractical.

——flashback——

"Ash, throw that water bottle at me."

"Ok."

Ash grabbed the water bottle and whipped it as hard as he could. Which ended up being a lot faster than I thought. I forgot he had already ate two crystals.

However, I had my time perception activated.

I conjured my time mana into my palms. I didn't have to wait long for the mana to reach where I wanted. Shaping the time mana into a ball, I willed it to attack the object with the intent of stopping it where it was.

*swoosh

I had aim training when I was practicing with guns. So, aiming the ball of time mana at the water bottle wasn't hard.

The ball flowed through the air and stopped at the bottle. It sucked it inside itself.

"After days of messing around. It finally worked."

In front of me, the water bottle that was moving through the air, stopped in its tracks.

It cost less mana to use the skill than to stop time for everything. But that is only really for smaller things. When I tried it on Danny and Ivan, my mana started draining at an alarming rate. The reason for this was that they were a lot bigger, which made me use a lot more mana for the ball I would shoot at the object.

Stopping a smaller object lasted around 8 seconds. But the mana spent was equivalent to stopping time for 2 seconds. So it was a lot less.

If I stopped time for a person, depending on the size of the "Bubble" it would cost me around 3 seconds mana worth of time stop to trap them inside for around 5 seconds. Which wasn't bad, but the concentration I needed to keep it up was too much. Especially if I had to use it in a fight against multiple people.

I then canceled the skill, which I dubbed 'Time Bubble'.

"Stopping time works. Let's work on slowing it down inside the bubble this time. Throw it at me."

Ash grabbed another water bottle and threw it at me. Like before I used slowed down perception and conjured a bubble of time mana. Unlike before, the intent this time was to slow things inside of it down.

I launched the bubble at the bottle and it sucked inside of itself like last time. I canceled my time perception and watched at the bubble moved along with the bottle.

"Fuck yes!"I cheered.

The bottle was moving in slow motion.

Unlike for stopping time, slowing it down cost less mana. After all, like when stopping a car, the force required is a lot more compared to when slowing it down.

Time was something like that. Also, stopping something in motion requires more concentration than slowing it down. At least when it comes to my ability.

So, slowing smaller objects lasted 10 seconds which was equivalent to around 3 seconds worth of time stop.

Using this as an example I was able to calculate the amount I would use if I tried it on a person around my size.

I found that it would cost around 4 seconds worth of time stop to slow down time in the bubble for around 8 seconds.

Although the concentration I needed to use keep these bubbles activated needed more concentration than for stopping time for everything, it costed less than if I wanted to stop time in the bubble.

But still, I needed to try it out on something hostile. Only then would I know it worked.

——

*Ring

The phone ringing pulled me out of my thoughts. I stopped contemplating on my abilities and answered the call.