Chapter 111: The Grind Begins

Jade stopped making explosion constructs after the third one and looked at Mira in shock. Mira unaware of Jade's shock said "I need to condense energy in my body ahead of time or I'll be limited to 4 instant uses of my skill…" she then noticed Jade's expression and asked in confusion "What happened?"

Jade said "How do you know when I'm about to create an explosion?" Mira answered without thinking "I just monitor the energy changing, is it that hard?" Jade replied "Then how do you sense energy that is outside your energy zone? Could it be High Mind?"… Mira was shocked when she realized the anomaly, she said "I wasn't using High Mind; I was trying to train this skill alone".

Jade thought 'A way to sense energy outside one's energy zone. Could it be that I haven't gotten this because I was playing it safe instead of being a masochist?... Wait, wait, wait, I don't even know what exactly she was doing, in theory it should be impossible to sense energy outside of the energy zone'.

Jade opened two portals small enough for just his hands to pass through and brought out two identical palm sized cubes from the portal storage. He said to Mira, who was busy thinking to herself "Can you sense the difference between this two" Jade held the cubes toward her and said "Compress your energy zone, don't sense it with your energy sense".

Mira did as he asked and walked closer to the boxes but she wasn't getting any signals. She asked "What are they?" Jade replied "the one on the left is a bomb and the one on the right is also a bomb but it has a larger blast radius and a different energy circuit, which I am currently powering" Jade sighed in relief and said "It seems you don't have the capacity to sense energy without an energy zone".

Mira asked "But what did I sense. This isn't the first time I'm sensing these explosions I also sensed them when I first fought a Genius but the spell was cast in my energy zone" Jade said "The weird thing is that you are able to decide to avoid it. From what you just said you shouldn't have known what the Genius was doing, you shouldn't have had such a strong urge to dodge" Jade sighed and said "We can only do more tests".

He put his hands into two tiny portals again and said "Move back a bit". Mira took some distance. Jade calmed his mind and swiftly began to make 5 explosion constructs to surround Mira, this was his current limit, and he threw two small balls, as small as a chicken egg, to Mira's right and left.

He ensured that he hadn't moved too fast so that Mira could react. He completed only 3 of the constructs on the right and explosions rang out and the ball on the right radiated psychic energy.

When the smoke cleared, Mira had dodged to the left even though her energy zone had been constricted and she wasn't supposed to see the difference between the two balls. But for some reason she had dodged to the left and entered the range of explosion constructs that Jade didn't complete and she also entered the range of the psychic attack of the ball that Jade did not activate before throwing.

Mira said "Mad oh! It's hard to describe, I just knew that some of them was scary, dangerous and the others weren't" Jade nodded and said "It seems to be an advanced form of sensing danger. It even feels like you had a premonition. I would love to study it" Mira said "Ok, as long as I get a good training out of it".

Jade nodded and said "I can arrange for that". He open a portal to his lab which was now in his portal storage and gestured for Mira to walk in. After Mira walked in he said "You see, I'm a gentle man, every gentle man always holds the portal open for a lady he is inviting" Mira scoffed and took in the scene before her.

The lab was a huge as a stadium and the ceiling extremely high with bright lights on them. The walls and floors were made of white tiles and there were various equipment and devices whose function she didn't know in the room she was in.

Jade went through a door on the side into a room as Mira followed. The room was completely dark until a blue light gathered around Jade's hand and up to illuminate the room. All of a sudden blue light started forming various shapes all around him. Jade was drawing with his mind.

Jade said "I'm making the room you'll be training your explody energy skill and your danger sense skill" Mira chuckled and said "That's a terrible name for a skill" Jade replied as he drew "A terrible name is better than none". Mira couldn't counter.

Mira thought for a while and said "Lara said that the monsters would come out of their territory and attack us in a month's time do you know why?" Jade already had a few guesses. He had asked his IP about the second privilege of the Conqueror job since he killed a Rank 11 that 2 privileges and it was the Conqueror's Word.

The Privilege allowed the Conqueror to make contract that could actually bind both parties to the conditions. Of course it only worked if both sides agreed to the contract, he didn't know the full detail of how the skill worked, just what his IP told him but he could only assess the Conqueror's word as a very useful privilege but wondered why monsters would chose such a thing since they weren't the diplomatic type.

Jade said "There is a Conqueror privilege called Conqueror's Word that can make creatures obey a contract that they have agreed on. Maybe she just threatened the monsters and made them sign a contract that mandates them to attack you at a certain time?"

Mira shook her head and said "She could have just said that" Jade replied "She could have lied or held back information" Mira said "She doesn't seem to be the sort of person who would do that and what would be the benefit of doing that?" Jade shrugged and said "I don't know, people can be weird especially people who killed Rank 4 and above monsters when they were still human like me and her".

Mira chuckled at Jade's self depreciation and said "It still doesn't make sense to me. Have you ever wondered why the monsters just stay in their territory instead of attacking us or other monsters? From what I know monsters only send their spawn out to attack things outside of their territory if they want to be proactive. These are monsters that have intelligences stats that are higher than humans. Lara said that it was because they had something to benefit from doing this but she didn't know what it was".

Jade pondered over what Mira said and replied "I've thought about why monsters don't leave their territory before but I never really bothered to ask any of them. What confuses me is how does Lara know that the monsters will stop staying put a month from the time when you visited her? It's obvious from what she said that the monsters will get whatever 'benefit' they're waiting for in about month's time but how does she know the time frame?"

Jade was tired of the lack of answers and asked his IP 'What is going to happen to the monsters in about a month's time?' His IP didn't respond. Jade changed the question to 'What is going to happen to Conquerors who have stayed in their territory without leaving about month from now?' His IP responded 'Such information is only privy to Rank 15 and above creatures'.

Jade was shocked still as he stared into space and stopped drawing. He thought 'This damn IP! If getting to Rank 15 was a cake walk I would have done it already! But this means that something IS going to happen a month from now but the IP can't tell me what it is'

Mira noticing Jade's expression asked "Are you good?" and Jade responded "I'm fine. I just asked my IP about what was happening a month from now and it told me I have to be Rank 15 or above to know" Jade thought 'This could mean that Lara has a Rank 15 friend or she just asked a bunch of questions to her IP during her free time and deduced that the conquerors are going to lash out in a month's time or she is a Rank 15 or above Hunter that got the information directly from her IP… *sigh* there are too many possibilities. It's a good thing that I know to expect something ahead of time; Mira's information gathering is really a blessing'.

The reason why Lara knew what was happening a month from now was for none of the reasons Jade mentioned. She simply used the ability of one of her children that could see the future to predict the event.

Jade smiled and said "Anyways we can only do what we're already doing; train" Mira nodded in agreement.

Jade made a training room for Mira and led her to it. The room was spherical and the walls were made of white tiles. Jade said "While I was designing the room I decided to go a little over the top. In this training room you'll get everything you need; food, water, a bath, etc. But you'll have to judge the difference by sensing the danger in each object that is shot out. The tiles will open and shoot out something, it can beneficial or harmful you'll have to judge without seeing or sensing it with your energy zone so compress your energy zone.

When it gets too easy for you just call me, I'll up the craftiness of the room and make it shoot out things that are seemingly harmless but are harmful. You'll have to constantly use your explody energy skill to stay away from the tiles on the ground since as you would have noticed there is artificial gravity in this lab. If you get injured or want a break you just have to give the room a 'stop' mental command and it will stop firing at you. If you need my attention you can just call out to me, I'll hear it over the speakers"

Mira said "Thanks, I guess I owe you for this one" Jade said "No, I'm also interested in studying you skills since I can't dissect you this is the best I can do. It's a win-win". Mira shuddered when she heard Jade say 'dissect'.

Jade, seeing her response said "You really think I would dissect you? Come on Mira I'm not an animal" and he left Mira in the room. Mira condensed energy on her whole body. It took a while but she knew this was the best way to use her skill.

She entered the room and the room buzzed when the door closed. She used her explody energy skill to stay in the air by making air explosions on her feet repeatedly. A tile opened up and shot out a metal ball as big as a cannon ball toward Mira, Mira had compressed her energy zone and made it just outline her body. The ball came swiftly and she just moved away from its path. It was just a normal cannon ball, no explosion.

Another identical ball came flying toward her again and she dodged well this time creating a lot of space as the ball exploded with goo when it reached where she was. She smiled and thought 'I'm getting the hang of this'.