"It's another E-ranked power," Erik said while looking at his status screen. "Here it says that I can make poisonous mana spikes, I wonder what it exactly means." the young man added.
As the last time, Erik didn't know how to actively use his new power; he only had a vague feeling as if something was going on inside him. It was like he had a tingling sensation but couldn't quite understand where it was.
Erik tried to follow that feeling and started pumping mana through his brain crystal to the rest of his body; in particular, he did so toward his back. As he pumped mana, the tingling increased, and he started to understand where it was located.
"Yeah, it makes sense that thaid was a sort of hedgehog after all."
After a couple of seconds, from Erik's back, bluish and semi-transparent spikes started materializing. Erik couldn't see them, but he felt them. He approached a mirror, and once he did, he saw that his back was filled with short blue spikes with a tint of green on the edges. It was like a bush hedgehog back, but it was his.
"That's cool," the young man said to himself with satisfaction. Though he could feel that this power required much more mana compared to the sharpening one, he felt his mana draining by the second.
<I should resort to this only in case of emergency,> the young man thought. <Otherwise, it'll be too dangerous for me since it drains a lot of mana.>
Erik didn't lose more time; he still had training to do since he had to increase his neural links. Thanks to the new power he had a new one now, but the status didn't show any increase in stats, meaning that the first neural link that every power gave him didn't increase them, and only additional ones did.
He sat again on the couch and started focusing on the mana inside his brain crystal, and with that, he ended the day.
***
The following day began just as the previous day: Erik woke up because of the bright sunlight shining into his room and illuminating his face.
pαndα noνɐ1,сoМ After having checked his daily quests and having accepted them, he prepared breakfast and ate, completing the first of the daily quests.
Then he dressed and went out of the house with his backpack on his shoulder. He looked at the city; the sun's rays were hitting the buildings in such a way that they glowed softly red; it was very beautiful to behold. Too bad Frant citizens were assholes.
The trip to school was the same as always, boring. Multiple people walked down the streets minding their own business and not paying attention to him. Thefts occurred at every corner, and people sold drugs. It was like that in the eastern district.
Erik didn't care about Frant's citizens but was scared that he could get robbed one of these days.
Erik arrived at school as usual, and Amber, Floyd and Gwen were waiting for him at the main gate. On the one hand, it was good to have people getting interested in him, but on the other, he was a little bit uncomfortable.
"I don't get it, Amber; why are you going to these lengths for him?" Gwen asked. She was visibly confused by her friend's behavior. She got never been interested so much in other people, not even her, and they had known each other since the first year.
"I don't know, I just like him," Amber said.
"You know that people could misunderstand, right?" Floyd asked.
"I don't care; it's not like I have to listen to what other people says."
Gwen sighed.
"Erik!" Amber said while waving her hands and making people stare at him. "Damn..." Erik said. The young man approached the trio and put on a fake smile.
"Hello, guys."
"You took your time, uh?" Floyd said.
"Well, you know, I have to take the train to come here."
For Amber's sake, Gwen and Floyd engaged in conversation with Erik; it was mostly small talk; they talked about various subjects, including sports and current events.
"So, what did you do yesterday?" Floyd asked his friends.
"I spent my time with my brother," Amber said.
"I read a book," Gwen interjected.
"I trained," Erik said.
"You trained?" Floyd said.
"Yeah, i got nothing to do, so i trained."
"I didn't think you were such a diligent student," Gwen said.
"Well... you know... I'm a little bit behind compared to you all," Erik explained.
"If I can be honest with you, Erik," Gwen said. "You don't have to try to reach our level. It took many years for us to reach it, and it's impossible for you to do so in three months. If I were in your shoes, i would try to reach the average school level," she said while looking at the young man.
"Maybe you are right, Gwen, but if I don't train with the aim of becoming the best, things will get complicated for me once in the military school."
"Why so?" Floyd asked with a puzzled face.
"Because I am an awakener, people will expect me to be strong, especially the militaries. If I don't, they will only increase my training regime until I reach an adequate level, at least, this is what professor McAllister told me. Besides, you know how people are; they just wait for you to make a wrong step and then devour you whole."
Amber, Floyd, and Gwen had everything they wanted: a loving family, talent, money, and beauty. They couldn't comprehend what Erik had to go through his whole life since they were also part of the system that abused him.
"Do you think they will start bullying you again?" Amber asked.
"That's one of the reasons. You never had to face what I had to, but I assure you, being beaten every day is not the most pleasant thing in the world. If initially was because of my F-ranked brain crystal, this time will be because of my E-ranked brain crystal as an awakener."
"Bullshit," Floyd said. "Why should they harass you, Erik? There are many people with E-ranked crystals," he added.
"Yeah, but they aren't awakeners," Erik pointed out. It was the truth, albeit a sad one.
As Erik was heading to class with his new friends, three people were looking at him from afar. They were Conal, Orson, and Logan. Conal noticed Erik walking side by side with Amber, the school goddess. He started wondering if he imagined things, but the truth was that he wasn't.
"Am I seeing things?" Conal said.
"What?" Orson asked.
"Erik Romano and Amber Joyce..."
"That? It's the school's hot topic!" Orson stated.
"What?" Logan said. "That mother fucker." Like most males, Logan developed a crush on Amber, the most beautiful girl at school.
He confessed to her, but she rejected him, saying he wasn't good enough for her. That hurt him more than anything else.
Now that he saw Erik walking beside her, he felt betrayed, even though he had no reason to think so. Weird thoughts started spreading inside his mind as he looked at them.
"Logan!" Conal said.
"WHAT?!"
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"No, I'm not ok..." the young man said while looking at Erik with hatred and clenching his fists.
"You know what? That little shit made me lose my patience," Logan suddenly said while turning toward Conal.
"It doesn't mean anything, Logan!" Conal said, noticing that Logan was losing his temper. Much more than he usually did.
"Yeah, I bet she is using him as a servant and stuff like that," Orson added.
"I don't care... Not only did he humiliate us in front of the cafeteria, but now he also dared to approach Amber?"
"Don't you think you're exaggerating?" Conal said. "It's just a girl!" he added.
Logan then slapped him. His face showed unrelenting fury, "Don't you dare repeat it."
"Sorry, Logan..." Conal replied. He was so taken by surprise by the sudden slap that he wasn't able to react properly. He stood there, watching Logan with a look of disbelief.
Logan then turned to look at Amber, Erik, Gwen, and Floyd, while they entered the school's building. He then said, "I think it's time we pay Erik a visit..."
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