Daiki pulled out the key and opened the gate, and we got out of the place.
"So... where are we going to train, just right here in this deserted place?" I questioned.
"It's too hot for us to train here," he said and turned towards the trees. "We're going to train there," he said.
I didn't understand what he meant, because training in the woods wouldn't make a difference—unless there's something else.
I just followed him as he walked toward the trees.
After thirty seconds of just walking through the trees, I heard the sound of clashing. Just then, Daiki teleported ahead.
"What the heck?"
I ran straight at a normal human speed. After a few seconds, I saw a giant ice-made wall.
"What?"
The wall went on, so I decided to jump the 6-meter wall. I jumped on the wall and saw a large empty space where I saw Hayato and Yuki fighting.
They were clashing with daggers at a speed I was nowhere near. Hayato had a lightning-made sword while Yuki had an ice sword, which probably meant that's the type of magic they had.
I jumped down and saw Daiki on the middle left of the giant circular area of walls, under one of the two trees in the circle.
I walked toward him while avoiding Hayato and Yuki by sticking right beside the ice walls, far away from them.
"What's happening?" I questioned.
"These ice walls are made by Yuki herself. She made these walls to not practice while sweating like crazy in this heat. Do you notice it? It's not hot at all inside these walls," Daiki answered.
"Oh... that makes sense," I said, still not having processed what that actually meant.
Watching their fight at insane speeds that I couldn't hope to achieve right now with this measly strength of mine.
Hayato was winning personally—although stating this without even seeing what's going on at their speed—still, Hayato seemed to be winning.
The two were just clashing their two daggers, one made out of lightning and one out of ice.
After a few hits, Yuki's daggers seemed to break before she could successfully patch the daggers every single time, while Hayato's cool blue sheer lightning-looking dagger didn't scratch—probably because of how lightning works.
I suddenly turned around and saw Ryota at the other tree, having his back leaned against it.
"Where the heck did Ryota come from?" I murmured to myself.
"I was here before you two came," he said.
"Wait, what—you heard that? And you were here before us?" I said, confused by both things.
"Did you talk to me?" Daiki questioned.
"No, I was talking to Ryota right there," I said as I pointed my fingers at him.
"Wait—what? Where the hell did he pop from?" Daiki said, suddenly surprised.
"Apparently he's been here before the two of us. By the way, Ryota, when did you join the Crimson Order?"
"I actually joined two days ago. Daiki disagreed on teaming with me, so I had to wait for Misora," he replied.
My expression changed. I didn't know he was the latest guy after me and Misora.
Daiki, still surprised he was here before us, stood quiet as I asked Ryota a question.
"How's Misora getting along with you?"
"It's been good actually. She has a unique power which she calls Clarity. It allows her to cut through lies, illusions, or anything that messes with the brain.
She's able to essentially reverse the effect by making people think something happened when it really didn't happen. Although it doesn't last long, she can make people think they're winning—or psychologically manipulate them into holding back.
We tested it with Toshiro, and his own great power to manipulate anyone's mind didn't work on her. Instead, she could read his thoughts to a little extent. Although unable to do anything to Toshiro, essentially, her power was cancelled by his power," he told me about Misora's powers.
That was actually insane—so she can perceive things such as lies and illusions and render them useless while manipulating the other herself.
"For now, that's about it to her ability," he said, as if he knew I didn't know about her abilities and was directly letting me know.
Daiki also looked surprised by Misora's abilities.
In this world, I had figured something out.
The powers and abilities one possesses aren't essentially different—it's just that they possess an ability of its kind and don't usually get another ability that's completely different. Although it does happen, I now knew it was rare.
Getting stronger and better abilities is essentially having a better version of the power you had before, making it both stronger and giving unique ways to use it.
If two people possess the same type of powers, it might still be entirely different in the way and strength they use it in.
Just as my gaze landed back on the fight, Hayato finally noticed me.
From air clashing to exchanging hits on the ground, he turned toward me the instant he realized I was here.
"Oh, hey Kuroto," he said as he turned toward me, ignoring Yuki.
She didn't stop, even though Hayato made his daggers disappear. She threw her dagger at his face—he swiftly and easily dodged it without even trying. Through sheer reflex, he dodged one by backing his face, one by getting down, and then the next instant he was right in front of me.
"Damn this Hayato," Yuki murmured to herself in annoyance.
"Hi," he greeted.
I replied to him with, "Hi," as well.
"Do you want to genuinely train with me? I'll obviously hold back to make it seem like training," he said, much more straightforward than I'd ever seen him.
"Uh..." I said, confused.
"Don't mind him. When it's about training, he's always this straightforward with everyone," said Yuki as she slowly approached us.
"That's false," Hayato replied, trying to prove the truth wrong.
Daiki and Ryota just stood there without speaking.
"Just don't interrupt. What do you say—do you wanna train?" he asked again.
"But for your benefit, when he says he'll hold back, he really means it, as you saw in our fight," Yuki said to me.
"Well, okay, although I planned to," I said while looking at Daiki, "train with Daiki."
"I'm good for now. We can train later, Kuroto," Daiki said.
"Okay," I said.
"How about you two train with me in a 1 vs 2 against me? You're teammates anyway so you could learn teamwork," Hayato asked, giving an idea.
"That can work," I said, agreeing with him.
Daiki thought about it for a second and nodded along.
The three of us headed toward the center while Yuki leaned back on the tree to watch us.
Hayato stood in front of us by a few meters, while Daiki and I were side by side to each other.
Daiki made two daggers instantly in his hands, and he tossed them to me.
I thoroughly checked the daggers out; they were extremely well made, unlike last time in the dungeon.
While gripping the two daggers in my hands and Daiki making himself a sword, I saw Hayato effortlessly create the same blue lightning daggers—although this time, the intensity of his daggers was much less than when fighting with Yuki.
Normally, even a little amount of lightning to a normal human is life-threatening, but if you flow mana through your body, the electricity is unable to course through the entire human body, making the lightning not so invincible.
"Begin," Hayato said.
Daiki and I were on guard. Hayato instantly appeared in front of my face, although nothing I couldn't react to.
He swung his lightning dagger at me. I instantly countered with my own dagger by clashing it against the dagger that was coming to my face.
When the daggers collided, my dagger instantly snapped in half upon impact. Just when it did, I backed down.
"What the hell, it snapped just like that?" I said, surprised and frustrated.
Hayato instantly went for Daiki, appearing in front of his face. Daiki countered with his sword, and the same thing happened with Daiki—his half sword fell on the ground.
I knew attacking Hayato wouldn't be a smart move since he can react to any move I pull out, and catching him off guard would be no less than impossible, so the only option remaining is using Fear.
"VoidMind, enable Thought Acceleration," I said to VoidMind.
VoidMind: "Understood, enabled Thought Acceleration."
As VoidMind mentioned before on how Fear Manifestation worked, it works by using the Fear particles I release and control.
Manifesting such a thing at this stage where I've barely used this power would be utterly useless, so I got an idea.
First I'll disable Thought Acceleration and try to use Fear as much—not as weaponizing it, but for another purpose.
VoidMind: "Disable Thought Acceleration."
Hayato appeared in front of me again right the second after I disabled Thought Acceleration.
I released Fear into the air.
This time I used it consciously, unlike the confrontation with Hayato when it was just something that happened.
When I did release Fear, Hayato was intimidated just enough that I had enough time to dodge by backing down.
Now that I realized it, I can see the black particles around the air, which is most likely Fear.
When I dodged, Hayato instantly fell to his knees.
He gestured with his hand to stop. "Stop."
"What?"
"I didn't make the mana flow through my brain, so that ability of yours affected me badly," he said, indicating he had messed up by not using the mana flow through his brain.
VoidMind: "Fear works by putting fear itself into one's brain. The less the enemy's brain is enhanced with mana, the worse it gets for them. As he said, he had forgotten to enhance his brain with mana, so it led to a lot more pressure than it should have been."
Oh, so that's how Fear works. That means the less developed the mana or the less the mana flows through one's mind, the worse it affects.
VoidMind: "That's most certainly how it works, but there's more to it. Fear itself is a force of nature which exceeds in not only mental damage, but can be just as deadly physically. Naturally, it's the overall strength and not only mental fortitude you need to counter Fear. In simple words, Fear is extremely—I mean very extremely—powerful and has dozens of ways it can be used when completely mastered."
I didn't think God of Absolute would be generous enough to get me such a powerful ability such as VoidMind and Fear.
Suddenly, while Hayato held his head, he passed out. I rushed toward him, leaned down, and checked his vitals.
He was fine, and Yuki suddenly appeared.
"This careless guy—he always forgets to make his mana flow through his brain to protect himself from psychological based attacks. Don't worry. I'll take care of him," said Yuki.
I nodded when she said that, and then she snapped her fingers.
From below Hayato, a panther slowly formed.
It was a panther made of nothing but ice—it was purely made of ice.
When it fully formed, it was carrying Hayato.
And then suddenly, it started moving left and right.
"It moves?" I said, shocked.
"Yeah, I can control this very easily," she said. "Well, see you later, Kuroto," she said as she waved me goodbye and slowly went along with her panther.
When she reached the wall, the ice wall started evaporating to make a door. And then she left.
"What in the world did I just watch?" I said, completely stunned.
"Amazing, isn't it," Daiki said as he approached me from behind.
"What do you mean? It was obviously amazing, but she was able to make a real working panther with ice?" I said, still confused.
"The full members are way more powerful than that. You haven't seen even a glimpse of their true power—although I did," Daiki said.
"What, you did?" I asked, wondering.
"Yeah, it was the time when you saved me. When Toshiro came to meet me in the hospital, I was staring out the window when a dangerous-looking gate spawned. Just as Toshiro left after meeting me and went down, he entered the gate. And you won't believe it—by the time I blinked, he was out and the gate was closed. That meant he had just defeated the dungeon boss in a blink of an eye. Even if it wasn't anywhere near as strong as a Cloaked Manipulator's gate would be, he still did all that in an instant," Daiki told me.
I just stood there, wondering about the Crimson Order's full members' true strength. I knew they were leagues ahead, but their strength was just... too unrealistic.
"It seems the full members do have and hide several things from us. But no one ever questions them, not only because Toshiro warned us not to, but also because we think there's a reason why they're hiding so many things from us," Daiki said.
I was still wondering about what their true strength might be, and why they're so casual with us.
But the more I thought, the more complicated it got. Different ideas of why they might be hiding it passed through my mind, but none of them seemed reasonable.
So after a couple of minutes of Daiki just staring at me while I did absolutely nothing but stand there, I stopped thinking about it—because I wasn't getting anywhere with that anyway.
I looked around and saw Ryota, more mysterious than ever, the dude was truly the definition of mystery, and I don't get that guy at all.