"Huh, this is really strong…" Spencer was checking the tip of his index fingers with great curiosity. Looking up, he gazed forward, he couldn't help but smile with great pride at the sight of the destruction that appeared in front of him that his tiny energy bullet had caused.
A large portion of the other side of the training room was laid to waste. It was utterly, completely destroyed. Next to the rubble, Shaya was tending to the battered and unconscious body of Cassa. That small red ball proved too fast and too much for the girl to block. The immense power it blew her away as it destroyed almost half of the room. If not for her exerting every bit of his remaining Fasha to form a protective layer shielding most of the blast, she probably wouldn't even be in one piece right now, much less conscious.
Finally noticing the faint beating of her pulse, Shaya heaved a sigh of relief. Then, as if just remembering the culprit at the far side of the room, she turned around and yelled at Spencer angrily.
"Don't just stand there! Come and heal her up! Why did you go so overboard?! We agreed you will not use your powers!"
"That was only Fasha, I haven't used anything else" Spencer replied as he appeared next to Shaya with a flicker. He crouched down and placed his hands on the open wound just above Cassa's heart.
Hearing this, Shaya frowned in frustration.
"That's impossible! Not to mention that your meager 230 FE wouldn't make you capable of gathering and condensing your energy to that extent, the color was also quite weird. Red?! And what is this destructive power it carried? What did you do, tell me!"
For a while, Spencer didn't respond. His eyes were on the rapidly closing wound, while his thoughts were also trying to find an answer to this question. He can't really tell, but he didn't feel that he used that much… Was it something else?
Only after the wound was completely healed and the color of life seemingly returned to the girl did he speak up with a thoughtful expression.
"Hmm… Maybe my energy is more potent? Or maybe after the battle with that idiot, it increased?"
"I guess that could be the case. You are not a native after all, who knows what differences you may have… We probably should scan you again." Shaya sighed. "Still, the energy bullet is something you should only be able to do if you reach Stage 3. You couldn't jump that much, that's simply impossible."
"I don't think it's impossible, at least in his case." Milo's voice came from behind them. "His Fasha was different from ours. Not to mention the color, but even the speed that he could collect it was way too fast. Also…" He looked at Spencer with an inquiring expression. "Spencer, how did you learn to use the skill so fast? You only saw it once."
"We should take her to rest, then we could do another scan. I am actually rather interested as well." As answering the question would be troublesome, Spencer swiftly changed the topic instead, as he walked forward and picked up the still unconscious girl into his arms.
While the two were still dazed at all that happened, Spencer turned around. Stepping in front of Shaya, he put the unconscious girl in her arms. "You should put her to rest, then we could continue the training… There's still much I want to learn."
Shaya could only look at the man with a daze, but after a few brief moments, she shook her head and came back to her senses. She didn't say a word but turned towards the door and with a contemplating expression went to put Cassa in the infirmary. She was thinking what to do, as if this continues, soon, all the warriors will be put there by him.
With Shaya leaving them carrying her beaten best friend, Spencer looked at Milo with a radiant smile on his face.
"So, what shall it be big guy? Wanna fight? We still have some time!"
He knew this guy was different from the others. His posture, his physique, the marks on his arms… He felt that Milo was unique, different from the rest, and Spencer was eager to test it out, and maybe collect his sample as well. Besides, he felt that this guy just loved to fight, he was sure he would accept the challenge.
However, contrary to his expectations, Milo shook his head.
"No, not today. You spent too much already, it wouldn't be fair." Looking at the rubble, his face turned into an expectant smile. "We should also give time to have the rooms fixed up. We will have our fight… When you are at your top form!"
"Tomorrow it is then!" Spencer replied with the same expectant smile. "I really want to see what those big muscles can do!"
Erupting into boisterous laughter, Milo slapped the back of Spencer, causing him to take several steps forward.
"Ahaha! I am looking forward to it!"
---
It was already in the afternoon. The group that now lost one member, at least for the day, was standing over the stone table in the same dimly lit room that they were in during the first measurement.
Shaya was holding the small paddle-like device with the red semi-transparent crystalline gem that they used for checking the FE.
Placing the device once again, over Spencer's heart, she injected a sliver of his energy to activate the scanner. The faint buzzing sound and the red glimmer activated, and a tiny puff of the smoke like substance escaped the crystal, and quickly vanished, entering Spencer's body.
Despite doing his best to catch the alien substance, Spencer couldn't feel anything inside him, nor could he understand how the device actually worked. How did it communicate the data back to the crystal?
This time, there was no response for almost a minute, before the puff of smoke left through the pores of Spencer's body and flew back inside the crystal. Once again, contrary to how it was before, the swirling of the gaseous body inside the crystal actually sped up and became violent, crashing against the thin crystalline walls with great ferocity.
Puzzled by this development, Spencer was the first to speak out.
"Is this normal?"
"Uhm… No. I don't think so. Actually, I have no idea what is going on." Shaya muttered with an utterly shocked expression, lost in the violent storm that was happening inside the small gemstone.
"Huh, told you that he is different! Look at the thing being so agitated!" Milo spoke with his usual wide grinning expression.
Eventually, after a few minutes, the storm calmed down, as if the little cloud in the gemstone tired itself out. Another small puff of smoke escaped through the crystalline walls and went straight for Shaya.
As she received the information, she looked at Spencer with horror and shock in her eyes.
"Just... what are you?! How is this possible?!" She almost fell, as she took several steps backward.
"What is it Shaya, what did it tell you?" Milo asked with great interest.
"5293. His FE has jumped from 230 to over 5000 in two battles!"
"Huh." Milo looked at Spencer with eager eyes. It wouldn't take much effort to deduce the big giant's thoughts.
"But that's not even the most shocking information that the scanner revealed either…" Shaya continued, with a slightly better, but still shocked expression. She couldn't believe the information she received.
After a moment of silence, mostly to collect herself, she continued.
"The most shocking change in him is not even the jump in his FE… but the fact that the scanner measured an active affinity...but the scanner couldn't tell what type it is!"
"Huh? Could it fire? Although the color doesn't match… That's interesting…"
"Do you have any idea what your affinity is Spencer?" Looking at Spencer, Milo inquired.
Spencer didn't respond, just shook his head. He obviously knew that the answer was probably similar to the case with the Martians, but he couldn't tell that to them.
As he increased his genetic pool from the Fashacalli, his body has already started to create and move towards the apex of their species. He wasn't sure where this would end, but he knew that he needed more samples so his body could form that final, unique strand. He also needed to know more about their race, about their history. Where did they come from? What was their past? Are they the only tribe on the entire planet or is there more?
"Shaya." He suddenly looked at the still frozen girl. "Are there other tribes out there? Do you guys have any contact with them?"
"Yeah, there is. In fact, there are several of them out there." It was Milo who answered the question. "But most of them are similar to us, pretty closed up, there's not much interaction between the different tribes nowadays.
"What do you mean? Did something happen in the past that made them change?" Spencer asked with a confused expression. "Is there any way to contact the other types then?"
"Well…" Shaya had a troubled expression, not sure how to answer his questions.
Before she could find the words to express the complexity of the issue, Spencer spoke up once again.
"Do you have a library, or somewhere you keep your records? The Elder mentioned I have access to it, take me there!"
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