A better power

Erik woke up early; he had to go to school and justify why he had been absent the previous day.

Regardless of the consequences, he was happy since now his problem was no more, and he could concentrate on making neural links and training.

But he first went to the bathroom to wash and then prepared breakfast. After that, he checked his daily quests.

Erik accepted them but knew he could only do the second one after finishing his farm work, meaning late in the evening.

He then ate his breakfast, completing the first of the two quests. After that, he got ready to go to school, and while doing so, he opened the TV going, as usual, on the news channel.

"AUTHORITIES REPORT AN INCREASING NUMBER OF THAIDS ATTACKS ON THE CAPITAL, NEW ALEXANDRIA..."

According to the news, more and more incidents regarding the thaids were reported each month. First, it started with just some random attacks here or there, but now they seemed to be growing exponentially.

As soon as Erik heard this report, his mood changed. He couldn't say if for the best or the worst. On the one hand, he was happy that more troubles arose for the city, but at the same time, he was worried that the beasts could enter. For sure, something was going on around New Alexandria.

Erik left the house, heading toward the train station like every other morning. It took him some time to arrive there and head to school.

It wasn't too bad considering how fast the trains traveled, and he got there in a relatively short amount of time.

Once arriving at his destination, Erik decided to take the path behind the building instead of walking down the main entrance to avoid Logan and his friends.

They weren't the only ones that bullied him, but they were the most ferocious ones. Erik got angry every time they mocked him, but since he could do nothing about it, he figured out that the best thing to do would be to avoid people.

After reaching one of the corridors, Erik walked toward his class; people looked at him while he went as if he was a sort of circus freak.

A few times, someone bumped into him accidentally, which caused them to swear at him and go without apologizing.

And still, despite all these things happening around him, Erik didn't feel sad, all thanks to the biological supercomputer.

When entering his classroom, he sat next to the window and waited until the bell rang and the other students came in.

Professor Mc Allister came in shortly afterward. He was the teacher tasked with teaching the students how to use their brain crystal powers properly.

For this reason, he always brought the students to the gym, where they practiced with their powers under strict supervision.

He was a short man with a bald head. His eyes were blue and cold as ice. Despite being a professor, he never smiled during the lessons.

For a moment, Erik wondered why such a harsh person chose to teach as his profession.

"C'mon guys, your training won't start if you don't move your asses from that chairs."

Professor Mc Allister said. Then the whole class left the classroom and headed toward the gym.

As they walked, the teacher resumed speaking, "Today, we're going to do the last part of our program before graduation."

Once everyone had arrived at the gym, Erik stood near the wall, looking outside through a glass door. He saw the rest of the classmates getting ready to use their power there, but he stayed where he stood.

When the teacher noticed him, he turned back and said, "You need to get moving; otherwise, I'll leave you behind!"

At those words, Erik finally moved forward. On the way to the open field where they were going to train, he ran into Logan, who laughed at him loudly, causing him to turn away angrily.

He couldn't show his anger, or something worse than mocking could happen to him.

Erik arrived on the field and put himself on the edge of the row of students that went there to practice their powers.

The students then started their training. Some of them had incredible powers that allowed them to send Psionic blasts.

Some others could create water from nowhere, and others could create physical restraints to restrict or imprison others.

There was a variety of powers out there. Still, the most impressive one was Nathaniel McConnell's.

He was a brown-haired, handsome kid with a brain crystal power that allowed him to use concussive energy. He could use it to improve his speed, increase his attacks' destructive power, and deploy a shield.

His power was a Bσ3B which was impressive. Being B on the Ferebitz scale meant a lot already. Still, his power being ranked B on the Jorm one was even more astonishing since it told how good the power was.

Nathaniel's future was probably bound to be good, as the army was interested in such a promising young man.

Though, if things didn't go well with the military, he could always work with his father. No one knew what he did, but they had a lot of money.

There were even rumors about Nathaniel's father saying he was a criminal gang leader. These were baseless rumors, though, and no one had found proof of such claims.

Nathaniel targeted some mannequins a couple of meters ahead, showing his battle-oriented power to the class, who looked at him with envy.

The boy showed off by throwing empowered punches like he was fighting a real opponent. It was impressive indeed.

He tried hitting the dummy with a punch that would have broken any human bone and destroyed part of it after a flurry of punches.

Then he got closer to the dummy. He stopped punching and instead grabbed its neck and twisted it violently. In that instant, the mannequin fell apart to the ground.

Everyone watched him with amazement; even Erik felt impressed watching him. However, there was a collective thought everyone had as they observed him train: he was ruthless.

While everyone else trained, Erik kept staring at the ground, lost in thought.

He wished he, too, could develop his power in a battle-oriented sense, but he had no idea how.

For starters, he never had the chance to use his powers for extensive periods, as he didn't have enough mana, then he couldn't even channel that much due to the deformity.

Since all the students were doing their best, and his teacher was looking at him, he started using his power. Now that he had the chance to understand what he was really able to do, he didn't want to waste time.

Erik approached the flower beds on the side of the field and started gathering mana through his brain crystal.

The feeling was vastly different from the last time he used his power the previous day at the farm because of the amount of mana Erik could now control. Besides, the whole process felt different, like an obstruction had been removed.

Then the familiar feeling of electricity and pressure spread throughout his entire body, causing the hairs on his neck to stand up. The lightheaded feeling returned in full Force, and his power started to emerge.

When he couldn't hold it anymore, Erik pushed the Force he was feeling toward the flower bed, releasing the energy from his hands.

Then the usual heat wave hit him, and the air around him became hot and humid. The smell of freshly grown vegetation filled his nose, and the plants sprouted new leaves in seconds and started proliferating.

Erik was left flabbergasted. All it took was to allow his mana to flow freely, compared to before, and have just a slightly higher amount of mana to achieve such a result quickly. Previously, Erik had to use several days to achieve the same effect he now got.

The plants started from a couple of centimeters and ended up being meters high.

The students looked at Erik's power scornfully, unaware of the differences between then and now, mainly because Erik never used it in front of the others. Only Professor Mc Allister's keen eye could see the difference in his power.

The teacher's expression changed momentarily when he saw what Erik had done. After that moment, he returned to his regular face.

Then, when Erik stopped channeling mana, contrary to what happened every time he used his power, he didn't lose consciousness. It was different; he got a pleasant surprise.

After an hour of exercising, which Erik mostly spent resting due to his still low amount of mana, the students returned to their classroom and did the rest of their classes. When the bell rang, signaling lunch break, most people rushed out to grab something to eat while others stayed behind to train or talk to each other.

Nathaniel was among those who wanted to practice his skills. At the same time, Erik went to a vending machine to eat what he could and then left the school to go to the farm.