Preparations in the room

Mark and Ruby followed Eros, who led them to their room. Mark kept examining Eros' aura and finding more similarities between it and the aura mist outside, but there were some significant differences too.

He bumped with him once to see if getting in touch with his aura was not that extensive. Mark wanted to check if it gave that 'warm feeling, 'which was there in the end but barely noticeable.

Eros didn't like someone like Mark falling on him like that, even if Mark barely pushed him. The former looked to have a more sturdy body than one could tell just by glancing at him.

It didn't take them long to reach their room, and Eros used the keycard to open the door. It was weird that the design of the building was wooden and looked from an older era, but it had a door that worked with a keycard. Checking the room, not that modern either, but it had the necessary comforts like an AC unit, a fridge, etc.

"Keep in mind not forgetting your card when you get in or out of the room. The cleaning lady comes every morning, but if you don't want to be disturbed, we have a sign in that drawer that you can hang outside, and she will come later. If you need anything else, you can find me in the lobby area," Eros said, bowed toward Ruby, and then walked away.

Mark noticed a grin appearing for a second on his face as he bowed at Ruby, but he hid it quickly. Mark, who kept examining his aura all this time, noticed a slight change for a moment as the black part of his aura got a bit larger, but it lasted only for a second.

'What could it represent? Dark thoughts? If so, it should be more common, shouldn't it? Or could it be related to Charisma? But if it is, Rubes should have more of it, but there was no black in his aura. So could my assumptions of their connection with the stats be wrong?'

Mark couldn't wait to find a chance to speak with Truck-kun. He had found out so many things by himself but had also had more questions to appear by doing so. But Mark still couldn't speak with him as Ruby was around.

"So, what should we do now? Started by putting together the detectors?" Ruby asked as she pointed at the luggages.

"Not yet. Didn't you find the owner a bit weird?"

"Hmm? Aren't you all a bit weird in the end?" she responded.

Mark said nothing but kept staring at Ruby with a look that gave the message that she should be more serious about the situation.

"Ok, ok… have it your way. But to answer your question, he didn't seem stranger than an average person. Don't tell me your senses are tingling or something?"

Ruby, like most people in the Organisation, didn't know that he was a Transcended, as it was a piece of information meant to stay in a close circle. Still, people knew that Mark wasn't your average person, and since his surname wasn't a secret, everyone thought he was an active member of the Ranac family. Mark didn't fix that wrong assumption, as it worked to his benefit this time.

But nonetheless, many people, especially in the Mechanic Department, had noticed that Mark noticed details that others couldn't see or did it much faster than others that could. That was when a rumor spread about his secret 6th sense, which wasn't that far from the truth as his skills allowed him to have a sense beyond the normal ones.

"Well, let's first look around the room. To be safe, at least."

Mark said it in a neutral tone to hide the fact that he knew there was something for them to find. He had made it a habit to scan every room he entered, which paid off, as he had found some secret cameras at different angles of the room.

He had already hacked into them and had them get a notification when they would be active, as it seemed like their particular function was turned on. Since they were machines meant to be hard to find, their security wasn't that intense. He easily found out that they had a record function, which was what Mark wanted to know when it would be active.

In the meantime, he left a command to gather enough frames and details of them moving around the place so that it could make some fake videos when he needed it so that it wouldn't show what really happened in the room. Fortunately, that was a command he had practiced so much that he only needed to keep feeding energy to the camera and decide when to activate or deactivate the fake feed.

As for why he told Ruby to look around, it was because he wanted to see how good she was at checking her surroundings. Mark had seen her working on some project of hers, and when it was something she was interested in, she focused intensely on what she worked on and her surroundings. That made her immediately pick up any materials or tools she needed and shout for people who came too close to get away or throw something in their faces.

But in this case, Ruby didn't seem that interested in helping Mark look around. So Mark just faked that he looked and found nothing as he helped Ruby unpack a few things from the luggages.

The Organisation gave a special machine that skimmed at spectra and tried to detect energies that reside there. But, of course, those types of energies were of the uncommon kind that shouldn't be around any regular places.

It was a new tech that needed quite some time to finish its analysis. Fortunately, it had a cloak function that made it look like a small chair. They could adjust its look and make it look like the other chairs in the room and hope that nobody noticed that there was an extra one. Also, as long as one didn't actually sit on it, they couldn't tell that it wasn't a chair, but Mark and Ruby didn't plan to let it out when they would leave the room for an extended period.

It wasn't that late, but Mark told Ruby that he would head to bed while Ruby said she wanted to check things around. Mark didn't have any problems letting her alone, as he had access to every camera in this place, either hidden or not, so he could keep track of her.

As Ruby left, Mark got out his phone, and at that point, it started ringing. He didn't even check the number on the screen as he answered it.

"You finally left that place. Damn, that woman is scary to be around," Mark heard the robotic voice of Truck-kun say through the speaker.

"It is good to see you too, my friend," Mark said as he finished it with a chuckle.

"Hmm? Why are you laughing? I was gone for a month, and you barely made any progress in strengthening yourself. You even got your ass handed to you."

Mark sighed, but he expected Truck-kun to say something like that. Even if he had made some progress that past month, it was really not that much, at least to the limits he could reach. He was much stronger than the average person, but given his abilities, this was the bare minimum he could reach.

"Still, I need to hand it to you that I didn't expect you to unlock the Party Mode anytime soon. Even if I am no fan of working together with others, I have to admit having a team at least early can be helpful. Also, you seem to have some interesting party members there."

A slight grin was on Mark's face as it was rare for Truck-kun to admit that he did something correctly. At least it was rare to say it without too much ridicule served with it.

"What about the puppet? Is there anything that I missed or another way to use it better?" Mark asked.

He knew that Truck-kun could read his thoughts if he wanted, meaning he could learn everything Mark knew at any time.

"More or less, you got the gist of it. The way you use it now, it is ok. Just try to raise its power much quicker and push yourself over your limits, and don't find it in a state you are comfortable with."

Mark understood his point.

"So then, can you tell me about the aura colors? Am I that far from understanding their meaning? Do they just represent someone's compatibility with the realms or something more?"

There was silence for a moment, and when Mark was ready to ask again, Truck-kun spoke.

"I can't let you know about that yet. It is still too early for you to know. But I will tell you that most will start getting revealed when we get to C-Tier. So work harder on it."

Mark sighed, but he knew that there was nothing he could do. After all, Truck-kun kept appearing and disappearing, making it clear that he didn't care much for Mark.

"So, do you want to try your new body?" Mark said as he turned his sight to his 'backbag.'

It was finally time to use it for its real purpose.