‘What is she doing here?’
Rex saw Hera running towards them, she wears the lecturer’s uniform of Ochyra University that is a white blazer with a roaring panther on its right chest.
She approaches Rex and the others, “Hello there”, she said with heavy breaths.
“What are you doing here?”, Rex said with a cold look.
Hearing this, Hera frowns for a second because of Rex’s cold tone.
She wanted to rebut Rex and teach him some manners, she looks at Rex but suddenly the words that are about to come out got stuck on her throat.
Rex is looking at her with cold eyes making her back sweats, ‘Why? Why did I feel threatened by his presence? I’m a peak rank four Awakened for god’s sake’, she thought.
Hera knows that she is of a higher rank but every time she looks at Rex, she felt an unconditional pressure as if Rex is of a higher rank than her.
Before Hera can answer, she suddenly remembers what the vice-principals said from one hour ago.
~
“Ms. Hera, you will be tasked to keep an eye on Rex to Faraday University”, a man said with a strict tone.
Hearing this, Hera frowns, “Why me? I’m sure there are others who can do better than me”
The man sighs, “Mr. Joseph decline due to personal matter and we know there are others but I think the other will only irritate Rex, on the other hand, you already make contact with him so it should be fine”
Hera bit her lips, it’s not that she didn’t want to but she just felt uneasy around Rex.
Seeing Hera hesitate, the man said, “You will not lose out on this, Rex is the most talented first-year and I got a feeling something will happen in Faraday University that’s why I need to give you this task. Of course, as a reward, the university will help you breakthrough rank five”
With the condition given. Hera can only shut her mouth and nodded her head.
Rex is undoubtedly the strongest first-year, she gets why Rex is important but what she didn’t understand is the pale expression of the vice-principals in front of her.
‘Why is he look so terrified?’, Hera thought.
“Oh, and one more thing, you must treat Rex better. It’s a hunch but I think the Faraday University will try and poach him”
~
“Hello? Am I talking to a wall here?”, Rex snaps his fingers in front of Hera who is in a daze.
Hera snapped out of her daze and got embarrassed.
She coughs to ease her nervousness before saying, “I’m tasked by the vice-principals to accompany you”
Rex laughs, “Just be honest, they sent you because they want you to monitor me right?”
Hearing this, Hera only smiles wryly.
“Well it’s your job and I will not make it hard for you, let’s go”, Rex shrugs her off before getting into the train that has just arrived.
The four of them walk inside the train, the students who also want to take the train stopped abruptly.
It’s not that the train leads to other destinations but the train clearly has a VIP sign carved above the doors.
The train Rex in is different from the train they use before, this one is more luxurious and bigger than the one they use before.
Because Rex announces he will go to Faraday University, Hera takes her time to book the best train for them to ride on because it will affect their reputation, and also the vice-principals warn her to treat Rex with the best services.
Each car can only accommodate eight people, it is very spacious and is filled with gold colors.
There are many things to accompany the passengers, there are a meditation room, spa room, TV’s to watch, and even a bar to hang out and have fun.
Usually, this train can only be used for Vice-principals, principals, and a handful of powerful second and third-year students but now Rex is using it too.
“Wow! What is this train? I have never seen something this luxurious before”, Rosie cried out in amazement.
Adhara on the side also make an O with her mouth, she looks at the surrounding with excited eyes.
Hera coughs to gather their attention, “It is the VIP train, Rex becomes one of the few students who can use this train by becoming the number one first-year student”, she explains with a proud look.
The train is one of the masterpieces of Ochyra University, not only it is spacious but the place is filled with treasure.
The spa can help one to relaxed and open up their pores, it will greatly increase the power of absorption of an Awakened. The meditation room also has treasures to change the surrounding mana, it is a very high-rank treasure and many more other treasures!
Because of these privileges the students race against each other to become the number one because of the privileges they got, it is simply astonishing!
Rex nodded his head in acknowledgment, this train is truly beautiful.
The four of them sits on their respective seats,
Rosie is complaining as usual because the seats are far apart and she can’t sit beside Rex, Rex needs to send a glare before she pouted and sit on her seats.
Not long after, the train started to move.
Rex looks at the passing students who laugh and play with each other, ‘How good will it be if every place will be like this’, he thought.
Ratmawati City is a safe place guarded by many powerful Awakened, that is why the people here are happy. Other smaller cities are not quite like this.
For example, Vouver City, Zrolis City and Strada City got wiped easily by the Supernatural.
The feeling of safety and peace makes the people from smaller cities dream to be inside of Ratmawati City, if given a chance they might even kill each other to live here.
Rex can saw the train leaving Ochyra University,
It’s about noon now, the sun is hanging high up in the sky shining on Ratmawati City.
‘It will be night when we got there, let’s just meditate’, Rex thought before he gets up from his seat.
But to his surprise, Adhara and Rosie also get up from their seats.
“Where are you two going?”, Rex asks.
Rosie rolled her eyes in annoyance and replied, “I want to go to the spa room, I certainly will use this opportunity”
Adhara on the side also answers, “Same here, it’s very beneficial for both of us”
Hearing this, Rex nodded his head before he excuses himself to the meditation room.
The meditation room is a box of glass with a mattress in the center to sit, it is empty with only a glowing red crystal on the top that emits fire mana.
Rex saw a tablet etched on the glass wall just beside the door, he taps on it, and immediately the room settings appeared.
There, Rex can adjust the surrounding environment to his preference and also the crystal.
He searches for the lightning crystal but to his surprise there is none, ‘It seems lightning is really a rare element, but there are many elements that are more expensive than the lightning element in the system’s shop’, Rex thought.
After sighing, he then decided to just adjust the environment into the night with the full moon shining brightly.
The glass flickers for a little bit before turning dark, the roof of the room turns into the night sky illuminating the room with moonlight.
Rex felt his body relaxed, he feel comfortable in this kind of place.
The meditation room enviroment adjustment felt real, he can feel the sound of insects and the cold night wind brushing his senses, it feels as if he’s bathing during a real night.
After taking a deep breath, he takes out the Dark Mooncress manual from his inventory,
Swiftly after, a black-purplish book appears on his hand.
The cover of the book is the Dark Mooncress flower, the book emits a dark aura that envelops the surrounding making the place darker.
Rex takes out the three petals of Dark Mooncress and put them in front of it,
He examines the petals for a while and notices the dark aura coming from the book got attracted to the Dark Mooncress, the dark aura intertwine with the Dark Mooncress before it got sucked into the Dark Mooncress.
Rex felt the Dark Mooncress aura becomes stronger for some reason, he picks up one petal of it and scans it with the system.
<enhanced dark=”” mooncress=”” petal=””></enhanced>
The petal that comes from a rank seven mutated plant Dark Mooncress, contains dark moonlight energy that gives it corruption properties. It is enhanced by the Dark Mooncress Manual increasing its effect by 25%.
Looking at the description, Rex felt good about the book!
Turns out by being in the presence of the Dark Mooncress manual enhances its effect by 25%!
After examining the petal, he finally opens the manual.
The system asks Rex if he wants to learn the book instantly but he decided to refrain from doing so, especially when it costs 500 gold.
The first, second, and third chapters are explaining about the origin of the Dark Mooncress, its properties, and how to enhance its effect.
He scans through the book until finally, he found the ‘how to use Dark Mooncress’ chapter,
Rex read through the chapter thoroughly to not miss any details, he didn’t want the ritual situation to happen to him again where he almost died because of carelessness.
After about an hour of reading, he finally gets the gist of it.
The Dark Mooncress can be used in many ways depending on the petals it bloom, normally its petals range from four to seven.
It can be used to give corruption properties to one’s body or equipment, enhance Dark Elementalist comprehension, Make an elixir to cure certain poisons, and even make a poison but Rex’s eyes fall to the last one.
Element Evolution…
The book stated that the Dark Mooncress can be merged with any element to give it a corruption properties, it will then evolve the elements into higher ranking element.
This caught Rex’s attention, his lightning element can be enhanced into a higher rank!
But based on the purpose of the Dark Mooncress, it also needs a different amount of petals to work with.
For example, to imbued corruption properties to the body will need a whopping seven petals while making potions will only need one petal each.
Rex on the other hand, for Element Evolution, will only need three petals.
He doesn’t know why it is much cheaper than the other but he is happy to see it, he then follows the manual to evolve his elements.
The manual said to drink holy elixir first before continuing, the elixir rank must match that of the user’s rank.
In this case, Rex is a rank two Lightning Elementalist so he needs to buy rank two holy elixirs from the shop.
He’s hesitating to buy the potion because of the Sakhmet tattoo but he finally buys it for 500 gold after convincing himself that it will be worth it.
Rex also buy elemental string elixir for the last part of the process, thankfully it only costs 200 gold for the rank two one.
Two vials of elixir appeared on his hand, the liquid inside the holy elixir is pure white while the liquid inside the elemental string elixir is blue in color.
Holy Energy can be felt from the elixirs, it creates a disturbance to the surrounding dark aura and the Dark Mooncress petals.
After buying the items needed, the manual said to eat two petals first before drinking the holy elixir.
Rex did just that, he takes two petals of the Dark Mooncress and put them into his mouth, his heartbeat rose because of it.
Immediately after, he felt his throat burning because of the dark aura.
He gulps hardly to put it down to his stomach with difficulty,
The petals drop to his stomach and swiftly after the petals invade Rex’s body with its Dark Energy, it went inside every nook and corner of his body corrupting them.
Rex felt his body burning, his eyes widened in shock.
His blood trembles, his throat heaved up and down when suddenly, “Huakh!!”, he spat a mouthful of blood.
Without waiting for another second, he grabbed the holy elixir.
Thanks to his regenerative ability he manages to hold on, he immediately opens the elixir and drinks it in one go.
Gulp!
The holy liquid went into his body and collided with the dark energy,
Blood seeped out of the corner of his lips, he’s hurting from all over his body because of the two energy collisions but not long after it started to calm down.
The next step is to activate his lightning mana, he tries to do that but suddenly, “Akhh!!”, He spat another mouthful of blood.
Every time he wanted to activate his lightning mana he felt a thousand needles stabbing his inside, his body jolted in pain everytime he tries to use his lightning element.
‘This is going to be harder than I thought’