Back in his room, Jay was lying on his bed, holding his head with both hands.
"Ouch... I wonder when it will stop hurting...?"
It had already been half an hour since he managed to fuse his wind control with the energy of his little ones successfully, and it was a time he had been spending testing the limits of the skill he had acquired.
However, just a couple of minutes ago, the pain he felt in the process returned, making him unable to concentrate on almost anything.
Jay had tried various things to fix this, such as trying to sleep, taking some medicine, among other things, but unfortunately, nothing was working for him.
So, with nothing else to do, he could only try to ignore the pain as he set about doing the review of the system notification that had come in before.
In total he had received 15 more original parasites, along with an ability fragment, plus an increase to his authority with the system, and most importantly, a new system ability he had forcibly unlocked.
As for what it was, although Jay already instinctively knew what it was and how to use it, the system interface explained it better.
Opening his status window but only wanting to see the skill section, Jay began to read the details of the ability.
_____________________
[Skills]
Wind Control (D-): (99%) (Ready To Advance)
Regeneration (Passive) (D-): (56%)
Core (Incomplete): +6% to the total energy of the [Carrier].
Overload (System Ability): The parasites inside the carrier's body temporarily become a part of the carrier's body, allowing him to double his statistics for 9 seconds in exchange for all the energy available in his body. (Only available if there are at least 10 parasites in the carrier's body.)
Mental Network (System Ability): Thanks to the [Carrier]'s persistence, he has managed to do something that while separating him even further from his [Human] race, brings him even closer to the system and its secrets. Now the [Carrier] is able to access the Mental Network shared by the parasites. (Only available if there are at least 10 parasites in the carrier's body.
Available Skills:
Currently there are no skills available to assimilate.
[Traits]
Immunity to Poison (Human Version): An artificial Trait product of the system trying to adapt the body of the [Carrier] to a specific type of poison. Although the final result was not what the system was looking for, it fulfills its function: (80% Immunity to poisons harmful to humans. 17% Chance to produce a random type of poison.)
_____________________
'Just as I expected, it was a mental network...' Jay thought.
Although he had had some slight suspicions about the way his little ones communicated, that they would connect through a mental network was something he hadn't really expected, at least not before he himself connected.
However, what had surprised Jay the most was the effectiveness in which he was able to communicate with his little ones when connecting to the network.
He already knew that humans, in order to communicate with each other, had to resort to different types of methods, such as language, sounds, movements, among so many other things.
But even with all that, there was always the risk that they would not be able to transmit the ideas they had in mind perfectly, plus they took some time to do so, the latter depending on the method used.
In contrast, with the mental network of the parasites, each of them was able to transmit information at a much more complex level and almost instantaneously.
And just half an hour ago, Jay had had access to it, so fascinated by this, he had been using it to the max, and would have continued to do so, were it not for the fact that he had reached his limit.
'Although... now that I get a good look at it, the description is a bit worrying...' Jay thought, focusing on the part of the description that talked about his humanity.
According to the system, with this ability, Jay had further distanced himself from his humanity, as to exactly how much, that remained to be seen, but already at a glance, this had already brought several changes to his status.
For example, the time he could use [Overload] had increased from 8 seconds to 9, the energy bonus granted by his incomplete Core had increased by 1% and finally, the percentages of his Trait had changed.
'Apparently losing my humanity has its pros and cons... going beyond the moral issue. I really need to think of a countermeasure soon, I don't know what effects that might have in the long run, I guess I can try asking my little ones tomorrow. Ah, I also have to see about my wind control... so many things to do...'
In that way, thinking about various things, Jay unconsciously grew tired, finally falling asleep.
***
The next day, classes began as normal as usual, and Jay, being the responsible person that he was, was already sitting inside the classroom, finishing up some notes that counted as part of his weekly homework.
While his concentration was on his notes, that didn't mean he was oblivious to his surroundings, or specifically, what was being talked about in the classroom.
"Hey, remember the chimeras? There are rumors that it really wasn't a coincidence and is actually part of the plan of a villain who wants to take down the academy!" Said one of the students in the back, conversing with his friend.
"Haa, that's why you shouldn't pay attention to everything they say, in this world, there is no villain who even wants to mess with the academy, let alone destroy it. The chimeras were just an unfortunate coincidence." His friend replied, reproachfully.
Hearing this, Jay couldn't help but pay a little more attention, as the topic was interesting.
As a person who had been present at the incident, Jay knew better than anyone that the chimera incident had been anything but a fluke.
After all, he still remembered clearly how a magical barrier appeared at the edges of the farm fields, holding him prisoner along with the chimera.
He had been thinking more about it these past few days, but he really couldn't understand the motive behind the machination of the culprit behind this event.
What was his plan? Exactly what was it that he wanted to achieve?
Because although several students had died due to the chimera attack, since this incident happened inside the academy, this fact was downplayed and handled in the best way, only becoming a hot topic for the students to talk about and not a threat to worry about.
Therefore, the damage the academy had suffered to its reputation was almost nil.
But even if one assumed that the culprit did not want to damage the reputation of the academy, but truly damage it, with only a few students deceased, it was nowhere near enough.
As a result, Jay had decided to stop thinking about it for the time being, but now, these students had reignited his interest.
"Well, yes, it already seemed a bit strange to me... although one thing that is certain is that the head teacher Marcus went to give his heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased students." Said the first student.
"Woah, having a super rank (B+) visit you... although it's sad news, it's still something amazing..."
While in the academy it was somewhat common to find rank (B) supers since these were all the teachers, even here it was hard to find a rank (B+) super.
As the supers closest to becoming global powers, only the most capable people in the academy, such as the head teachers, belonged to this category.
For the vast majority of students at the academy, who were rank (D) or (C) supers, it was only a dream to reach rank (A), however, rank (B) was the goal they all wanted to reach, something that although they knew would be difficult, they were still willing to risk everything to reach that goal.
Therefore, rank (B+) supers, to the students, were idols comparable to famous stars, and in many cases, even surpassing their fame.
While Jay had been finishing his notes while listening to the pair's conversation, the other students had been entering the classroom, filling the seats little by little.
Until finally, the Skill Control teacher, Zequiel Roldan, also arrived, "Good morning everyone, first of all, those who have finished the homework I left for you, leave your notes on my desk, and for those who haven't, minus 20 merit points and wait for me after class."
With those words, the students present, including Jay, left their finished homework on the teacher's desk.
Although the teacher was from the Skill Control area and most of the subject focused on physical practices, Zequiel liked to refresh the students' memory with a bit of theory every now and then, hence he left homework.
"Now that we're done with that, let's move on to today's topic, and it's one that I'm sure many of you will pay quite a bit of attention to... today we'll be talking about that fundamental technique for every esper who has to deal with other supers, energy disruption!" Said the professor as a blue spark shot out of his fingers.
Just as he had said, the interest of all the students increased almost immediately.
An understandable reaction considering that energy disruption was a high-level technique available to mages and espers that gave them the power to destabilize the energy of an enemy super!
Normally someone would only learn it on their own after years if they were talented and had improved their control over their own energy greatly, but right now, the professor was about to cut that process short by a lot.
"I know you're eager, but before you start scattering energy here and there, I need you to get together in pairs, you can't practice this on your own, after all." Said the teacher.
Because it had been a while since the classes had started, the students had enough time to get familiar with each other, and friendships had emerged, so most students found partners easily, only leaving four students who apparently hadn't moved at all.
"...Let's see, Miss Syvis and Miss Faith along with Sir Jay and Sir Allen, you should have moved before you were left alone, but luckily you're four so this will be easily resolved."
The aforementioned four, apparently having avoided the movement of all the other students who even switched seats to find partners, had been left completely alone in their separate seats, or at least that was the case for three of them.
'How... how is it possible that every single one of them turned me down?!' Jay thought as he kept an indifferent expression on the outside but was shaking inside.
Unlike the other three, who hadn't really moved and didn't get a partner due to the other students being intimidated by them, Jay, seeing that Vilda didn't come to classes, proceeded to try to find another student so he could get the job done.
With his social skills, he was sure it would be a piece of cake, but to his surprise, although at first the students he talked to seemed to be accepting, they suddenly changed their minds and moved away from him.
As a result, Jay's self-esteem had suffered slight damage, a fact which was going to lead him to further train his charisma in the future.
Although of course, he was unaware that the rejection was not his fault, but that of a certain black-haired student who would stare at the people Jay talked to, her goal being to pair up with Jay as it seemed like a waste of energy to introduce herself to yet another student.
With a satisfied smile on her face, Syvis thought, 'All that's left then is to suggest to the professor to pair us up and-'
At that moment, however, a student's melodious, and vibrant voice echoed through the room, even more audible than the noise of the other students conversing.
"Professor, I want to do the work with Jay, I feel like we'll do well together." Said Faith suddenly, who had raised her hand to ask that question.
A small silence then began in the room, with the students not expecting this reaction at all.
Until after a few seconds, another sound, also coming from another student, broke the silence.
"Hah?!"
