5.2

Qiao Chen quickly used his abilities to allow him to catch up to the flame lion. Then, he took one huge leap and finally neared the beast. The flame lion seemed to sense a danger approach. It stopped in the middle of a clearing and turned around to face Qiao Chen. It's body language showed that it was ready to attack at a moment's notice.

Qiao Chen walked, step by step, towards the flame lion that was several times larger than him. The flame lion spat out a fireball at Qiao Chen and started the battle. Qiao Chen, in turn, sent out an energy barrier to block the fireball. The moment the fireball collided with the barrier, it exploded. The sound of a small explosion echoed out through the air.

Judging by the speed and the energy of the fireball, Qiao Chen calculated that anyone below a B rank would fail to block the fireball attacks. If the fireball found its target, then he assumed that the victim would be seriously injured.

The flame lion spat out over a dozen fireballs in a row. Each one exploded as it collided against the barrier. Qiao Chen's ability to block its blows seemed to anger the beast and its whole body burst into bright red flames. It began preparing a different attack method for Qiao Chen.

A dozen people stood in the tree behind Qiao Chen and watched the battle. They were all very surprised that Qiao Chen was able to utilize such powerful abilities at will- without the use of a mechanical shield. When other people saw a flame lion, they would usually hide as quickly as possible. It was only this lone cadet who gave chase the moment he laid eyes on the flame lion. After witnessing this scene, it was no wonder he was brave enough to give chase. He had such a powerful abilities.

Qiao Chen used the system to help him calculate the energy needed to defeat the flame lion. Then, he stimulated the energy in his body and began to glow. The glow turned brighter until it shrouded the flame lion within its lights. Qiao Chen gathered these light energies and quickly turned it into a spiraling vortex.

Roughly a few minutes had passed before Qiao Chen retrieved his energy. A fist sized red energy crystal gem thumped to the floor once the light receded.

Qiao Chen plopped onto the ground with one hand supporting him up and the other clutching his chest. He spent too much energy during the battle, so his body couldn't bear the strain. His chest was throbbing with pain. His next steps should be to refrain from using any abilities right away. If he didn't do so, then his heart might just burst and then he'd die. It seemed that enhancing the abilities alone wasn't enough. He had to also strengthen his physical fitness to be able to withstand the use of these upgraded abilities.

After the pain eased a bit, Qiao Chen stood up, collected the flame lion's crystal core, and stored it in his storage device. As soon as he dropped in, Qiao Chen felt that something was amiss behind him.

Qiao Chen cautiously turned around and found a dozen people standing in a row. They weren't too far from him. Qiao Chen scanned the crowd, and his eyes landed on the one who stood in front of the group. His eyes widened in excitement and surprise, and his heart began to throb like it had been hit with an arrow.

A gust of wind blew through the night. It brushed through the man's hair and his windbreaker, while the moonlight cast it's rays on his face. Even in the dark of the night, the man's hair-raising-handsomeness couldn't be weakened or hidden. The powerful aura emanated from him helped a lot too.

Qiao Chen looked at the man while the man looked back at Qiao Chen. After they looked at each other for a while, the man slowly made his way to Qiao Chen.

It wasn't until the man had come face to face did Qiao Chen realize that the man was a head taller than himself. He unwillingly looked up at the man's face. Qiao Chen opened his mouth and almost said the man's name out loud again. Au Luo. This was his beloved. He had fallen in love with him for several lifetimes now.

Finally, they've met again in this life.

Au Luo looked at Qiao Chen's stupefied expression and his heart felt a little funny. He unknowingly smiled. It seemed as though Qiao Chen would get too tired if he kept looking up at him like this. His finger brushed under Qiao Chen's chin, pushed Qiao Chen's face up, and said, "You've killed our mascot. How are you planning on compensating me for this loss?"

"Mascot?" Qiao Chen didn't respond any further. When did I kill a mascot?

"General, we've received news of an urgent mission." A soldier who stood in the middle of the dozen people in line reported. He looked back up from his communicator and waited for further instructions.

Au Luo slid his hand up to Qiao Chen's cheek.  He rubbed Qiao Chen's face with the back of his hand before he spoke, "We will see each other again. I'll ask for the compensation then."

Au Luo took a few steps back after speaking. Immediately after, the dozen people disappeared into the sky simultaneously.

Qiao Chen's face showed that he was quite confused for some time. When he finally came to his senses, he realized that he lost himself because of his beloved. It was like he had fallen for him at first sight again. He'd been in love with this person for several lifetimes now, so Qiao Chen scolded himself for such foolishness. Pushing that aside, did that man just take advantage of him in that state and tease him?

Besides that, what was the mascot he was talking about? He killed the pack of bramble wolves and flame lion he personally hunted down, so when did I have the time or energy to kill their mascot?

However, the more he thought about Au Luo's identity, the more Qiao Chen felt that the mascot Au Luo was talking about was that flame lion he just killed.

Qiao Chen quickly used the system to get more information on Au Luo and his life. Qiao Chen thought that they had probably raised the flame lion as a mascot -the only people who would do such a thing would be them anyways… The flame lion escaped, so they ran out in the middle of the night to catch it. However he ended up killing it by mistake?

He did think something was a little strange as he chased after the flame lion. They were only taking a ranking test, but such a fierce and dangerous beast like a flame lion appeared. If they were the ones who let it out, then they would be worried that some students could get accidentally injured by it. This was especially so, since many people were running around the area for the test.

Qiao Chen thought to himself, 'I killed it anyway. I don't care if it even was your mascot. Who told you to let him out? There's no way I'm compensating you.'

However it wasn't a beast that the school released. If he turned it in to boost his score, then there would definitely be a problem. There was the possibility that he'd be falsely accused of cheating. It seems as though I could only keep this flame lion core as a memento.

Qiao Chen was going to take a break and rest up first before he'd go and find other beasts to gain points. He wanted to return early so he could take a bath and finally have a nice and long rest.

Day broke as Qiao Chen walked to the forest's entrance. The teachers and school staff were waiting outside for the cadets to complete the exam. They were surprised to see that Qiao Chen was the first one to exit the forest.

In previous exams, the first students to complete the objective were all Class A students. The end results were usually never a surprise. The exam would end in the evening and most students would begin trickling out by noon. However, it was barely the crack of dawn, yet Qiao Chen had actually walked out of the forest without sending out a distress or help signal.

"Why are you leaving the forest now? Did you come across any problems?" Wolfe, Qiao Chen's instructor, asked with concern.

"No. Everything went swimmingly. I gathered enough points, so I'm exiting the forest early." Qiao Chen replied. Then he placed his storage device on the school inspecting staff's table.

"You're already done?" Wolfe asked surprised. The other teachers and staff also looked over at Qiao Chen suspiciously.

"Yes." Qiao Chen nodded.

The inspectors registered Qiao Chen's finishing time. Then one of them took a look at Qiao Chen's storage device and saw that he really was done. He couldn't help but give Qiao Chen a few more glances as he put his storage device away. The school distributed the storage devices to the students right before the exam began. There was also a record of which and how many beasts there were in the school's forest. This meant that they would obviously be able to tell if a student cheated or now. After the exam was complete, all of the students' storage devices would be sent for testing. Once the tests were done, they would begin the process of ranking the cadets.

"Teacher, I'll return first to rest." Qiao Chen said to Wolfe.

"Oh, okay. Head back and rest up." Wolfe replied. He still didn't recover from the shock that one of his students finishing first.

Therese, the class A teacher, watched Qiao Chen as he left. She couldn't believe that a lowly class F student, the class who was known for their unstable abilities, could take first place. She went to the inspector's table, stuck her hand out, and commanded, "Show me his storage device."

The two inspectors glanced at each other. Qiao Chen's storage device was already registered and sealed. It couldn't be opened before it was sent for testing. However, Therese had an arrogant personality. She would definitely be severely offended if they didn't let her take a look. The inspectors didn't want to offend Therese, so they relented. One of them took Qiao Chen's storage device and handed it to her.

"Humph." Therese snorted. She slammed the storage device onto the table after seeing the point display. She narrowed he eyes at Wolfe and said, "Don't get too excited. We still don't know if these results are really as they seem."

Wolfe had barely came back to his senses from the shock, but before he was able to be excited about what happened, Therese dumped a bucket of cold water on him. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at arguing with a woman like her. Furthermore, without even mentioning her temper, Theresa had a strong background and shouldn't be trifled with. He had no choice but to take the provocation in stride.

Qiao Chen took a hover car and returned to the school's dorm. Their dorms were double room suites with a bathroom, kitchen, and living room included. His roommate hadn't returned yet, so Qiao Chen took a long bath. Then he retrieved the first aid kit and found a medicinal patch to stick to the back of his neck. Finally, he was able to lie on his own bed and fall asleep.

—–

Qiao Chen didn't know how long he had slept, but he heard movement from the dorm and woke up. Knowing it was just his roommate who returned, he just stretched his arms and back to wake up a bit. With his eyes still closed, he asked, "Is the exam over?"

"Just ended." Dick replied. He was startled that Qiao Chen suddenly spoke to him.

When Qiao Chen was still Qiao An, he developed a withdrawn nature and had a bad temper. He never really took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Dick. Dick, on the other hand, was pretty timid. He didn't want to have and problems, so he always worked to reduce his sense of existence because he knew about Qiao An's bad temper.

In Qiao An's life, it was Dick who happened to pass by as he was being mauled by the bramble wolves and called for an emergency assistance. Even though Qiao An was better off dead after being rescued, it was a fact that Dick was the one who extended a helping hand when Qiao An was in danger. Therefore, Qiao Chen wanted to repay his kindness in full.

Furthermore, they were roommates for four years. Even though Dick was timid and weak, he never acted untowardly to Qiao An. Truthfully, Dick was a very good person at heart.

Qiao Chen sat up, but still felt a sore and uncomfortable feeling radiating from his body. This pain was the result of over exerting his body's ability and tolerance when using abilities. This pain further cemented the resolve that Qiao Chen had to follow a strength training regimen. He needed to exercise well to improve his physical strength, so this wouldn't happen again. Luckily, with the system helping him, it shouldn't take him too long to improve.

Qiao Chen didn't want to move anymore, so he fell back onto the bed. He turned his head to look at Dick and asked, "Have you eaten yet?"

Dick heard Qiao Chen ask him something again. After hesitating for a bit, he shook his head and replied, "No. I'm going to the canteen after I wash up."

"When you go to the canteen, bring me some food, yeah? I'm not feeling well and don't want to move." Qiao Chen requested.

"Sure." Dick nodded quickly. Then he hesitated again before saying, "If you aren't feeling well, do you want me to help you find the school doctor to come take a look at you?"

"No need. I'm just tired. I'll be better after some rest." Qiao Chen said, "Go ahead and go. You don't have to worry about me."

"Uh, okay then. Rest well. I'll be back later." Dick replied. He quickly showered and left.