Rebound

"Was that awesome or what!" Xenos exclaimed, the excitement of the first stage still gushed through his body. He might not have been able to attain the abilities of the beasts he fought but he had gained a bit of experience.

"We got off easy this time around, it's not a cause for celebration." Vanessa ended his excitement, her mother always taught her that success isn't assured till the very end.

"Take it easy Vanessa, we did good didn't we?" Neo replied to her strict comment.

"That wasn't good enough, you both were overtaken by the same guy who tied with me in the rankings. Don't assume the second and final stage would be that easy." She said flatly.

Vanessa parted ways with both Xenos and Neo as they were headed back to his apartment. "Hey! Where are you going!? Aren't you going to chill with us till the second stage begins!?" Xenos exclaimed.

"Preparedness is a pre-exquisite for victory." She put plainly leaving the two boys dumbfounded.

"She does have a point." Xenos sighed softly as they watched her walk off to train. "Well I guess I'll see you later, I got somewhere I have to be now." He waved at Neo before running off in the opposite direction.

Realizing he was left alone he took the opportunity to check his stats after leveling up in the first stage.

———————Status———————

[Name: Neo Tempest]

[Age: 17]

[Affiliations: Tempest family]

[Role: Assassin]

[Magic: Electric manipulation]

[Experience: 2]

[Cognitive capacity: 4]

[Level: 4]

[Agility: 2]

[Endurance: 1.3]

[Stamina: 2]

[Strength: 3]

[Intelligence: 3.6]

[Stats points: 3]

[Mana: 800/800]

[Skills:

Silent Echo (Level 3)

Misdirection and Camouflage (Level MAX)

The Assassins Instincts (level 3)]

[Abilities:

Electric Burst (Level 4)]

———————————————————

"I see." Neo spoke softly to himself, he figured out that each time he levelled up he was rewarded with a stats point by the system which was necessary to upgrade his stats. The difficult question was which stats should he upgrade. Agility and stamina was the main focus of his assassination prowess, endurance was also required if he ever came across an extremely strong opponent. Intelligence was necessary in terms of strategic application and strength for making his attacks more precise.

Given he had only three unallocated stats points he made his decision, he used one stats point to upgrade his agility, one to upgrade stamina and the last stats point to upgrade intelligence. He chose to upgrade these three mainly because agility was the main requirements for all his skills and abilities, when utilizing the electric burst a lot of stamina is being consumed and given this lean nature it could have dire effects.

And intelligence for obvious reasons, his knowledge of gaming was what saved him during the first stage so he knew more thinking and strategic application was going to be needed more than ever in the last two stages.

Neo stared at his right palm, he knew the level the electric burst was at currently wouldn't be able to get him pass the second stage. When he fired off the electric burst at the large beast in the final moments of the first stage, it managed to penetrate the neck of the beast far enough to disintegrate it's windpipe and that was as far as it's damage was with the beasts hardened skin destroyed.

"If Vanessa and Xenos hadn't helped me back then who knows what would have happened, I have to get stronger if I am going to pass this exams and stop this war." His eyes revealed his determination, earlier he struggled to accept who he truly was because he hadn't let go of the memories of earth. But now he truly embraced who he was, an assassin of the Tempest family and it was time he lived up to the title.

He headed back to Xenos apartment to resume his training from earlier, during his previous training he developed an idea for a new ability but he knew how difficult it was going to be to master it.

"If I'm going to pass this next stage I'll have to master this ability right here, right now." He already arrived at the apartment and began encouraging himself as he took deep breaths before tightening his fist.

He took his stance and stretched out his right palm and electricity began coursing into it assuming the form of a blue energy ball which gradually generated sparks of electricity around it. His goal was to generate and maintain those sparks but with each attempt it blew up in his face and knocked him off his feet. This particular training was similar to the other one but it differed in purpose.

The training before the exams begun was to enable Neo build up the electric burst long enough to increase the damage rate of the projected beam. This training was to enable Neo to build up the electric burst and maintain the ball shape as long as his stamina could hold it up. This was crucial in order for him to fully develop the new ability he was working on.

His attempts were costly and his right hand paid the price as his burning flesh prevented him from generating even a spark of electricity due to the sharp piercing pain he felt in his palm.

"Tch..." He fell to his knees using his left hand to hold his right wrist as he groaned softly due to the piercing pain. He recalled the words of Xenos which argued that his ability was far safer than that of Neo's, at that point he saw wisdom in his words.

He ended the training session and quickly attended to his wounds knowing very well Vanessa would never let him hear the end of it if she found him like this, especially during the second stage of the Aenist exams. He placed his injured hand in cold water to reduce the burning and stinging sensation he felt from his palm.

He immediately bandaged it after it had cooled down to a certain extent.

"Tch, of all the times Xenos could actually be right." He complained, this injury was a setback but it wasn't something that could stop him. The second stage was to commence immediately at noon so he had to use this opportunity to rest.