It's been about a day since Jinwoo's sacrifice. A couple of Hunters from the Hunter Association came to question me about the incident and it seems no one blabbed about my transformation.
I could feel my fist tightening in anger again, I need to get stronger! I closed my eyes and I was inside of the giant sewer again. I walked towards the cage and I don't know how I didn't notice the first time, but there was a giant piece of paper on the door, almost like a lock?
What if I pulled it off? I placed my hand on the paper and instead of a cage I was in front of a giant fox. But this fox was…different. It didn't mimic me like the one in my reflection, no this one felt alive.
"I'm guessing you're Kurama?" The giant fox growled, "No, I'm Yon Kyung-Soo, just like how you are Yon Kyung-Soo. The only difference between us is I'm the source of your powers."
"But that doesn't make any sense! I'm speaking to you now because I touched that paper on the cage! But within the cage itself is just a giant mirror and in my reflection is you!"
"For someone who is supposed to be our mind, you sure are an idiot. If I am your body, of course your reflection is going to be a giant fox! That piece of paper on the cage isn't an ordinary piece of paper, it's a seal. A seal I would advise you don't remove, unless you want to destroy everything around you."
Destroy everything around me? Do I really have that much power stored in me?
"Yes, if you were to pull of this seal right now, the amount of mana I hold will overwhelm your mind, transforming you into me. At that point I don't even think an S-Rank would be able to stop us." Wait did he just read my mind?! I guess I should be surprised…he is me after all.
"I see. So the only real way for me to get stronger is to learn how to control the vast amount of mana you have. But how am I supposed to do that if you're stuck in some piece of paper?!"
"Again, it's a seal, not a piece of paper. Right now your level of power is tied to your emotions. The more emotional you become, the more power you gain but that comes with the cost of losing control. You need to learn to control the power you have at hand before you can gain more. If I had to compare you to something it would be a super car, lots of speed, lots of power, but low gas mileage. You need to learn how to maintain that speed and power without running out of gas in this case, gas is your sanity and mana as well."
I see that makes sense…no wonder I subconsciously transformed when I was in the temple, the fear coursing through my veins sent my body into fight mode. I have to learn to control my mana and not let my mana control me.
"Thank you…me? You know we need to address each other differently. I know we're the same person but I can't call you Kyung-Soo either…"
"I agree. Both of us having the same name isn't desirable if I'm being honest. Yet using my previous name isn't desirable either. I'll let you know what name I think of."
"You can talk to me outside of here?"
"Your stupidity has no bounds. OF COURSE I CAN!!! I just haven't chose to because I don't see a reason why I should. Don't expect me to talk to you all the time either…I enjoy the silence this realm holds."
"Tch, I can tell…you're like a grumpy old man. Cya later fox!" I opened my eyes again and I was on my bed again. Learn how to maintain my speed and power without running out of gas, that's easier said than done…
But I won't give up! I'll push myself further and further, surpass my own limits and come out on top! I transformed due to my flames of passion before I turned back to normal.
I'm all fired up now! I need to kill some monsters, but how am I gonna be able to do that without drawing attention to myself? I could buy armor that covers my entire body, but that would slow me down and is wayyy out of my price range.
I could try sneaking into a gate, but once I beat the boss I'm going to have to bolt out of there and while I'm confident in my speed, I don't think I'm fast enough to hide from the various high speed cameras around the city.
Fuck it, I'm gonna have to give it a try! I looked up D-Rank gates in my area and found one that was recently evaluated which means no strike teams have found it yet. While I wish I could just buy the rights to the gate, also out of my price range. To help hide my identity a little bit, I found an old halloween mask of a zombie, I hope this shit doesn't break…
I strapped my trusty blade and took off. I ran at a moderate pace and after 10 minutes I arrived at the gate. I put my mask on a few minutes prior so I should be okay. There was one hunter from the association standing guard but I can feel his level of strength wouldn't even be able to perceive me running in my transformed state.
I blew past him and entered the gate. Inside was a jungle, fuck I hate jungles…
"SHAAAA!!" The monsters wasted no time and goblins holding spears came from above. They were moving too slow and I decapitated all three in one flowing movement. I dug the essence stones out of their heads and continued on my merry way.
After a couple of minutes slaying goblins, tigers, and bugs, I arrived at the center of the jungle. I could feel the boss waiting for me in there.
————-
[3rd person POV]
Kyung-Soo walked into the center of the jungle and a giant three headed serpent was waiting for him.
"I thought this gate was D-Rank! This boss has definitely crossed into the realms of C-Rank, let's hope I don't die!" Kyung-Soo transforme again and the heat of his mana singed the grass below. The serpent swung its huge tail at Kyung-Soo and he deflected it with his sword.
"Damn! This thing is strong!" Kyung-Soo was sent flying but recovered quick enough to dodge the huge maws of the serpent's left head. He dashed forward to counterattack.
*TING*
Kyung-Soo's blade created sparks when it collided with the serpents hard scales, "What the hell?!" In that brief moment he dropped his guard, the serpent slapped him away with its body. Kyung-Soo was sent flying through multiple trees.
"My trusty blade…" His blade that has been through thick and thin was broken in half. Kyung-Soo tossed it to the side and clenched his fists.
"Fine then…if a blade won't work, I'll just beat you down!!!" Kyung-Soo dashed forward with all his strength and tackled the serpent. Once the serpent was down Kyung-Soo immediately stood over its middle head and began to punch.
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
Each successive blow from Kyung-Soo was more powerful than the last and with one final hit the serpents middle head was reduced to a pile of mush.
"Haaaah…haaaah…haaaah, maybe I overdid it a bit?" Kyung-Soo laughed as he retrieved the essence stone from the snake and put it in his pouch.
"With my level of strength should I even use a weapon?" Kyung-Soo looked at his claws and got an idea. He walked over to a nearby tree and swiped his claws. Immediately the tree was cut into three large pieces.
"A weapon is still useful to me, until I can learn how to transform individual parts of my body." Kyung-Soo began walking out of the gate and once he neared the exit he got into a running stance.
*BOOM*
Kyung-Soo was a red blur as he ran out of the gate and past the hunter association worker, who was now in big big trouble.
"Uhh boss…I think someone cleared the gate…" The worker said over the phone. He was cooked…