Erin was taken aback by the description that Leon read to her about the Hydro Bow she was currently holding in her hands.
She had learned a bit about how power weapons were crafted during her time training by the sponsors, but most of the information was still redacted as it was illegal to teach these methods to the general public.
The military had taken steps to prevent information like this to be released to the general public, because if unqualified people would start doing what they do, not only would they get hurt but the existing black market for power weapons and armor would rise exponentially.
Even though people could still get their hands on power weapons without a license through various means, it was still at a minute scale, and not just anyone could obtain them.
This made it so that the general population would be safe because if everyone started owning power weapons and armor on top of having up to level 3 abilities, these individuals could cause real damage and it will exhaust the military's resources trying to get them under control.
Since Humanity was a galactic race now, and had an influence on many different worlds and alliances, the military couldn't afford to spend their precious resources trying to solve problems in their own world, as they would rather spend it to spread their influence over the entire galaxy even more.
This was another reason why there were still gangs roaming around in almost every city. The military kept a watchful eye on their activities and as long as they didn't cross a certain threshold, they wouldn't interfere.
However, with those gangs in place, the crime was organized and controllable, plus those gangs would do the military's dirty work and round up any black markets that would appear in their city.
The gangs would make sure that city was safe from a high-level threat, and in return, the military would not interfere with them running part of or the whole city in whatever way that they deemed was right.
It was a sad reality but this arrangement had been able to maintain a certain level of peace so that the military can focus on expanding and solidifying its position as one of the superpowers of the milky way.
From the information Erin had learned, she only knew that power weapons could be crafted through only a single type of crystal at a time, so this was the first time she was encountering a power weapon that was crafted from multiple different crystals.
Every crystal was different, its size, shape, color, glow, and power were all determined by which beast it came from, what abilities could it use, how strong was it physically, and how big or small its size was.
Scientists had been trying to create an identification system that could identify the qualities of a crystal just by judging the beast, but it had always led to failure as no crystal had anything in common with another crystal that would allow them to group them into a class.
It didn't mean classes didn't exist. Scientists were able to class the different crystals by their shape, size, and glow and grade it accordingly, but just that they couldn't figure out that information until the crystal was extracted from the beast.
There was also a difference in when the crystal was extracted. If the beast had gone berserk before it was killed, the crystals were generally larger in size but lower in quality in power, because when the beast goes berserk, the crystal begins to expand as it delivers additional power to the beast and that expansion leads it to inevitably explode which is why beasts lose their ability to manipulate mana after going berserk.
This was the reason why the crystal that Bill had extracted from the Beetle King was bigger than his palm and dimmer in glow compared to the crystal that Erin extracted, which was small enough to easily fit inside her loose military pants and had a brighter glow.
It was still a mystery how the crystals they had extracted became all the different things such as skill books, ability books, power weapons, and power armor, but that information could only be obtained if a person was part of the military and lucky for Bill, Leon, and Erin as they were headed to do just that.
They would finally be able to satiate their curiosity and uncover the mysteries that had been hidden from them for so long.
****************
As Erin held onto the Hydro bow, the feeling of her aura getting stronger was almost intoxicating and she never wanted to let go of it; however, her senses had not been dulled completely and she set the bow down next to the chest armor.
As soon as she let go of the bow, her aura returned to its normal state and it felt like there was a hole in her body now. Her body had been given a taste of greater strength, and it wanted to remain in that state.
Her body urged her to pick up the Hydro bow again, but her will was stronger as she overcame her desire and stopped herself.
Even though the bow was practically useless in the hands of Bill or Leon, Erin knew that she wouldn't be the right match for it either despite her having the water ability.
She was never the person who could fight long rage battles and always preferred close combat. Even her ranged skill, Ice Gun was a nightmare to handle because even though she had power, she had no accuracy and this led her to almost always miss her mark.
Since Erin had the privilege of only using her skill on larger enemies, accuracy wasn't really a problem because even though the bullet didn't hit where she wanted it to hit, the bullet would still hit a part of the enemy's body do its job which was good enough for now, but Erin knew that she would have to improve her accuracy if she wanted to use the skill in a serious fight where mistakes could mean defeat.
If Erin kept the bow as her main power weapon, she would be limiting herself to being a ranged fighter when that wasn't really her forte. This was why she decided to let go of the bow. In her mind, she knew the perfect person to give this bow as her accuracy was many times better than hers and ranged combat suited her the best.
With that, the trio had taken everything that the golden crate had to offer, and now they just had to stay put until tomorrow afternoon, when they would be extracted from the island and would officially become students at the military school.
The trio spent the night savoring the delicious meals provided in the gourmet MREs and washing them down with the mineral water tablets as they were truly enjoying to some good food after a long time. They only wished in their hearts that all of their friends could be here to enjoy this great food, but it wouldn't be long until they would be reunited again.
**************
[At the military clinic]
[Slumber Timer: 00:00:05]
[00:00:03]
[00:00:02]
[00:00:01]
[User is no longer exhausted]
[User can now escape from Slumber]
These were the prompts being displayed by the system as Mako's eyes slowly began to twitch and open as laid on the hospital bed in one of the recovery rooms.
Dozens of prompts suddenly blasted on the holographic screen in front of Mako's eyes, worsening his already terrible headache as he couldn't even piece together what had happened or where he was at the moment.
'Silence Notifications,' Mako commanded the system, and just like that, the notifications became silent again and the display got quickly removed from the front of his eyes.
Now that the system display was gone, Mako could focus on his surroundings and figure out where he was.
He was in a clean white room with a simple modern design and was currently laying on a small bed with simple sheets and covers.
"A hospital... when did I... How did..." Mako said weakly as he tried to remember the events that had happened before he passed out.
After giving his brain a few minutes to come to its senses and start remembering, Mako now knew how he got here. He had activated his rage mode on the brink of death and was fighting the Beetle King, he had dealt a fatal blow, but it still wasn't enough to kill it. It was then that Mako remembered the system stating something about overusing Rage Mode, and the next thing he knew he was passed out.
Mako had no recollection of what the system had stated as he wasn't in his own usual self while under the effects of Rage Mode and so to try and piece the rest of the puzzle, Mako decided to open the system interface again to try and learn what those prompts were.
'Open System...' Mako said in his thoughts, but before he could complete his command, someone burst through the door and rushed toward him.
Mako was focused on his thoughts so he wasn't able to recognize the person who had just burst into his room at first, but then as the person reached closer to embrace him in a hug, Mako realized who this person was.
"Iris...?" Mako said in confusion.
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