Damon's eyes adjusted to the dim light filtering through cracks in the ceiling. He scanned the ground ahead, noting the scattered debris and disturbed stones.
Then he saw them.
Bones.
Dozens of them, scattered across the tunnel floor like forgotten trophies. A boar's tusk, cracked and yellowed with age. A deer's skull, its antlers shattered. Parts of a large rib cage, too massive to belong to anything ordinary yet none of it could be called treasure.
"There's nothing really here.." Elizabeth muttered, her voice flat with disappointment. She kicked at a small bone, sending it skittering across the stone. "Just more remains."
"Well we had assumed those wolves made the den here for something special but it could have been something they chanced upon." Gerald consoled.
Damon said nothing as he stood studying the large bones. He didn't really care what they found as he wasn't looking for collectables to begin with.
Finally, Elizabeth sighed and turned. "Let's go. No point staying here."
Following behind, they retraced their steps with damped moods. The tunnel slowly brightening as they neared the entrance and the cool air gave way to the warmth of the forest beginning their route to the next destination.
...
Cling!
Shing! Clink!
The echoing of blades clashing could be heard through the bushes as the two young boys exchanged blows.
"Roughly three hours, huh?" Damon muttered to himself. He stared at Rudy, breathing heavily before him, and quietly reflected on the past hour and a half.
Eager to start, Rudy had suggested they begin training before they got to the base. However, along the way Elizabeth decided to split off from the team, having detected a beast with the head of a lion and a humanoid body.
Of course he had been skeptical of this considering he hadn't sensed anything himself but he chose not to call her out under the pretense that her spiritual perception could be superior to his.
They hadn't seen her since but Gerald remained dismissive whenever Damon brought the subject up.
This left him quite perplexed and confused, allowing Rudy to successfully land a hit against him within the last hour following a constant back and forth of losses.
"Hehe seems mother was right I am the greatest in the world." The blond muttered, gripping his sword with one hand.
"Most mothers say embarrassing stuff like that doesn't mean it's true!" Damon scoffed in response. "Also I have at least three brothers better than you are."
'Idiocy aside he's improved a lot.. I should probably end things here.'
As that thought ran through his mind, Damon charged at Rudy at an increased speed before he had the chance to react.
The boy saw Damon's form appear from the right side of his view.
Without hesitation, he swung his blade in a horizontal slash yet the form fractured, bursting into a gust of vapour. At that moment he felt a firm grip take hold of his other wrist.
Left completely stunned, Rudy had no time to breathe. He felt his world view flip and his legs were swept off the ground.
Bang!
He landed on the ground with a pained groan then turned his eyes upwards with blurry vision.
Damon now leisurely stood over him, his lips forming a subtle smirk. "Still the greatest in the world?"
"That's cheating! I thought you said you wouldn't use body amplification!?" Rudy argued.
"He actually said he wouldn't use reinforcement on his weapon; he didn't say anything about not using it on his body." said Gerald as he watched the entire sequence. His rough hand slowly moved in a circular rhythm as he sat on freshly felled lumber, stirring away with a wooden spoon.
He had sparked together a low flame with cooking supplies and sticks from the surroundings. The orange broth stewing in the medium-sized metal pot smelt appetising but it wasn't quite ready.
Damon and Rudy turned their gazes in his direction as he continued, "And I'm certain he just used an advanced Combat art but I've never seen it before."
"Oh that's something I was taught recently but that was my first time actually pulling it off." Damon replied as he helped Rudy up. Just then his other hand stretched out. He caught a stray fist headed towards his cheek and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Look who's cheating now brat?"
"You started it first!" Naturally Rudy had thrown the punch but he wasn't the least bit ashamed about it.
"I demand a rematch! This time I'll use my terra spells to blow you away." He barked vehemently.
Hearing this even the stoic Gerald began to laugh. He lowered the saucer-shaped lid onto the pot while slightly covering his mouth then stood up. "You might want to give him an appraisal before doing anything hasty kid."
Rudy was confused at first but he quickly nodded. "Right I forgot the Riod can give me his weakness!"
The next moment, he started ruffling through his brown trench coat and pulled out a rectangular device with a metal shell and a black screen on one side. The smaller sides were layered with a thin mesh and an array of buttons and dials sat adjacent to the display bordered by thin contour lines flowing from the top.
'That looks familiar...' Damon recalled seeing Vincent with a similar item tinted chrome.
Immediately he noticed six lights had begun to blink beside the screen. The sound of a record rotating reached his ears and then a second later, he felt a wave of green spiritual energy flash past him and the blackened display lit up with words.
"Name : Subject not registered.
"Biological Record : Human.
"Rank : Subject not registered.
"Energy Quality : Special Grade??
"Energy Proficiency : Grade three.
"Stability : Low.
"Contingency Protocol : Avoid contact and avoid any and all provocation as subject will quickly become hostile and will risk harm to injure the user. If a confrontation is unavoidable attempt to de-escalate."
Damon cupped his chin as he read the report out loud. He found the last section amusing but his attention was mostly centred on the energy sections.
'Was it because I absorbed that weird spiritual energy..?'
If the results were accurate that meant his spiritual energy had risen to a level that far surpassed what he was currently capable of properly wielding.
At this moment Gerald walked over, heavy boots treading on the ground. He rested his hand on the blond boy's head and said deeply, "Why don't you cool off for a bit. I'll take this one on in your stead."
Rudy's face flushed red when he heard this. He wanted to say something but couldn't say a word after seeing the results.
The gadget in his hand, while initially designed for communication, served as a mobile frequency recorder and analyser, operating at the highest possible sensitivity. It had the same function as the towers and service lines that ran all over the continent, converting different forms of energies into transmittable data and connecting every outpost, town and cities.
It was nearly impossible for this data to be falsified.
"You better win." Rudy's shoulders lightly shook as he spoke. He lowered his head disheartened and then walked off with his hands clenched tightly.
Damon shook his head watching as the boy entered the cave. He then looked at the man before him, seemingly lost in deliberation.
"Is there something wrong?" He pressed.
Gerald remained silent until half a minute later his lips parted. "As you already passed the first stage of awakening let's start with Specter Affinities. There are six in total but current studies show that humans can only be divided into five of them with grade two or higher beasts mainly falling into the sixth."
"Now despite this, starting with a specific affinity doesn't mean a Specter can't learn another over time. However it does determine how hard that process will be and what level of proficiency they'll be able to achieve."
"The first is Amplifier and this governs the process of using spiritual energy to amplify the physical properties of objects or the body. These are often your close quarter combat specialists and sharp shooters."
"Interesting.. So the wolves and the tiger had this affinity?" Damon murmured.
"Yes since this affinity is the most common, a large portion of the beasts recorded throughout human history have also been from this affinity." Gerald didn't pause and continued, "The second is Resonator and this governs the use of spiritual energy to connect with the mental frequency of others for altering their perception and direct manipulation. As they are adept at mental warfare this type lacks the physicality for direct combat unless manipulating a soul-infused object."
"Wait but I thought Liz had this affinity? She's a close quarters specialist.." Damon asked with raised brows.
Gerald laughed bitterly, "She didn't always fight like that but she's been taking more risks lately to increase her proficiency with the Amplifier affinity and keep our little Elementalist safe."
"Speaking of which the third is also his affinity and it governs altering your spiritual energy to mimic or manipulate elemental properties. This demands creativity and intense training to withstand the effects of the element being recreated. This was also the affinity I was born with but by the age of nineteen I had studied enough martial arts to increase my proficiency with the Amplifier affinity, making me a Dual Affinity user."
"And if Liz is successful she'll become one too.." Damon added as he quickly drew the obvious conclusion.
Gerald nodded slightly, "In these cases the Specter's affinity is recorded with the secondary being used as adjective. Her record would identify her as an Amplified Resonator and mine would be an Amplified Elementalist. Together these three are also called the light triad as even Forte users who haven't achieved the first awakening can still be sorted based on them with a large portion being Elementalists."
Damon's eyes shone as he listened, and spoke after a long while, "Does that mean the military academies use this system as well?"
"No the church of the True Sun keeps a tight lid on this information so it doesn't get out to the public and every Specter registered with a church or guild is taught a resonator spell to wipe the minds of civilians in dire situations. The less people know about any of this the better."
"But why?" Damon pressed. "I understand that there would be dolts who'd turn on humanity but this power might also be the only way to rid the world of all beasts."
"While I agree with you there, the existence of the dark triad affinities complicates things." Gerald nodded. "Usually when a Specter is killed, all their energy disperses in the world and nothing happens, but with these last three if we ignore all the energy and let it disperse, a couple of new beasts will appear with similar strength as the original but lowered stability."
"No matter what we do, killing these Specters will always result in the creation of more dangerous Specters and they're already a pain in the ass to deal with."
"And to make matters worse the first in the triad are Spiritualists and these chaps are always spouting world ending prophecies about stronger beasts coming from god knows where. It's also the weakest of the dark triad, being labelled the worst and best affinity for beginners as it gives an advantage over the light triad but overclocks one's spiritual perception often leading to madness."
'T-this..' Unconsciously Damon drew a gasp as his eyes widened.
That was troublesome—no, that word couldn't even begin to describe how screwed they were. Damned if they fought yet still damned if they didn't. This meant that they couldn't possibly get rid of all beasts.
Gerald noticed Damon's crestfallen expression. "But it's not as hopeless as you think. Humanity never planned to fight every single malicious Specter in the world or beyond. Instead the goal is to gather our resources together to study a concealment spell meant to hide the entire planet and all of our souls from the outer beasts."
"If we can do that, all the Specters here in our world would essentially become irrelevant since they would slowly be regulated."