Chapter 30: Gate Breaks, Angry Bunnies, A Busy Day…
" Although I'm excited, I should prioritize these tickets first."
With a thought, Adam extended his right hand, willing his inventory to release four items.
As he did so, three Upgrade Tickets and a Power Booster Ticket appeared.
" Their uses are essentially different, yet they share a common purpose. To make my powers stronger."
In the last few days, Adam went under Irene's magic training. Although his progress was "slow" for his standards, he could say with certainty now that he was a decent mage far more capable than your average magic user.
Not only did his Elemental Affinity passive power helped a lot, but based on what Irene told him, Adam had a genuine talent in the subject.
Blood doesn't lie, they say.
Adam's father was a great mage. Even Irene had to admit that her talents paled in comparison to the guy.
Why bring magic into the equation you ask?
Well, Adam realized something as he was training magic.
Its potential was insane.
Not only was it versatile, as Adam already knew.
The factor that Adam had ignored was its natural evolution.
Supernatural powers had a specified rank. You could increase their mastery the more familiar you became with them, but at the end of the day, an S-Ranked power would remain as such no matter how much you trained.
It was the hunter's own efforts and personal growth that would shape their powers into more powerful versions of themselves.
Now, this was also true for mages, but, unlike power users and their never-changing powers (rank wise), there were different ranks in which magical spells evolved the stronger the magician became and the more they studied to perfect their craft.
(The currently known ranks are:
Beginner Rank, Apprentice Rank, Low Rank, Intermediate Rank, Advanced Rank, High Rank and Superior Rank.)
Surely, this still didn't make mages all that superior to power users. Increasing your magic rank as a magician took time, effort, and above all talent and affinity.
But for Adam, this was an advantage unlike any other.
A second source of unlimited possibilities.
Nonetheless, this realization bothered him.
He could evolve his spells, even make new ones since it was possible for great mages to do so. But what about his powers?
They would forever remain the same.
Precisely for this reason, Adam prioritized these tickets.
The Power Booster did not increase the rank of the power, instead it would increase its proficiency, in other words, the user's mastery with that power, as well as fixing certain limitations if there were any.
On the other hand, the Upgrade tickets increase the rank of the power itself.
Without a doubt, the latter was more useful for the current Adam, though the booster wasn't bad at all.
' I need to get my hands on more of these…'
Adam's system had an achievement based reward system. ( pardon the redundancy)
What the "achievements" were wasn't clear, but if Adam had to take a guess, then any out of the ordinary accomplishment would do the trick.
"Now… how the heck do I use this thing?"
....
*Ring*
" Brandish? What's the matter."
Irene Balserion, the president of the Hunter Association, was going through the usual paperwork when her office's phone rang.
On the other side of the line, an unusually agitated Brandish responded.
" Mrs. Balserion this is an emergency!"
Irene, realizing the magnitude of the problem from Brandish's attitude, put aside what she was doing.
" Three Dungeons Radars went off, a huge Gate Break is imminent!"
As soon as those words were uttered, the enchantress stood up from her desk.
" Estimated rank…"
No more words were needed.
" Two are SS-Ranked and the remaining one…"
" Brandish."
The tension was so thick, Irene could feel her secretary's fear through the call.
" SSS… "
In less than a second, Irene's office uniform was replaced by her mage clothing, her characteristic hat resting on her head.
She didn't need to ask where the break was taking place, with a quick mana scan she figured it out herself.
" I'm on my way, you know what to do next."
" Yes!!!"
Star City was in grave danger, once again, but this time their heroes were absent.
' Rose…'
...…
"Mmh~ So this is how it works."
After ripping the tickets off and thinking about the powers he wanted to improve, the magic was done.
Yet, before he could get to enjoy the results, a shadow figure materialized in front of him.
" Mary?"
The kneeling figure, Marylin Lee, raised her head after her Lord pronounced her nickname.
" My lord, we have a problem."
Marylin Lee, the magician Adam had killed a few days ago was the newly appointed sub leader of Anansi's battalion.
Dexter Connell and Max Roger were also sub leaders in Stheno's and Ragnar's battalions respectively.
They were called "captains" by the shadow soldiers, who day by day became more and more humane in their behavior. Some of them, could even pass as human hybrids at this point, which was further possible now that Adam could erase their shadow presence at will.
" Feel free to speak, but before that…"
Marylin visibly blushed when she saw her Lord patting his thigh as he sat on his bed.
The invitation was clear, and she wasn't in a position to decline.
Without hesitation, she sat in her Lord's lap.
" Umu! Now tell me my love, what's the issue?"
Mary had to endure the pleasure of getting her head patted by Adam with all her might.
She had a job to do!!!
" R-right! My Lord, Lady Anansi's espionage team detected a disturbance in three different dungeons, two of which are SS ranked!"
" And the third one ?"
" SSS Ranked. But, based on the information we received, this dungeon was not registered in the data bases of the Hunter Association."
Adam's eyebrow was raised at that moment.
" So, a spontaneous gate break? That hasn't happened in more than a decade."
Unlike what he expected, recalling what happened that day didn't bring sadness to his heart.
He needed a cool head to deal with this.
Spontaneous gate breaks are as rare as they come.
Less than ten have been reported in humanity's history.
His parent perished in one.
In a nutshell, a Spontaneous gate break, or SGB for short, is a phenomenon that occurs when a dungeon comes into existence as a gate break.
Usually gate breaks happen over time.
The problem with SGBs, is that unlike normal dungeons, they are unexplored territories.
The monsters it possesses, their boss, the abilities they have, their weaknesses.
None of this vital information is available, so no plans can be made to counter them.
The worst part?
Well, as their name suggest, they are spontaneous, so there's no time to prepare or call for assistance from other nations.
Let alone Atlas, Star City had to deal with this by itself.
Even getting help from neighboring cities would be difficult.
This was without a doubt a national emergency, and yet…
" Ah~ Master, if you touch me there ~."
It wasn't Adam's fault, Mary was too cute for her own good.
" Oh~? You entered kinky mode already? You calling me master just makes me want to fondle you more you know~?"
But then…
*Booom!*
" And there goes my door."
A furious Rumi "walked" into Adam's room, her leg ready to Luna Arc the shit out of him.
" Why haven't you answered your phone !?"
*Booom!!!*
Upon impact, the room tremble for a few seconds.
Adam's index finger had to stop his perverted endeavors to block the kick.
" You went out with Louis and a bunch of other people but didn't take me!"
Marylin, still sitting in Adam's lap could only hold her breath at Rumi's ferocity.
She was way stronger than the bunny hunter, yet was scared of her somehow.
' That's master's first wife for you…'
" Eh? But you were busy … actually forget about that… Did Louis spill the beans !?"
Rumi, now slightly more frustrated with how easily her "attack" was stopped, sighed exasperatedly.
" That Fubuki bitch told me! She said you two had a sweet time together!"
" Eh?"
Now it was Adam's turn to be scared.
" I told you building a Harem is fine. Especially with your shadows, I don't mind if you take some of them as your lovers as long as I know of them and I like them."
" B-but?"
Adam was sweating buckets at this point, not expecting Rumi to be this mad about Fubuki.
'I-i thought they were friends!'
" But that Fubuki is too annoying! I don't like her! She's a bully!"
" Eh?" X2
Marylin and Adam just looked at each other, and they reached the same conclusion.
' Rivalry!' X2
Rumi wasn't against the idea of sharing Adam with Fubuki because she hated her. If that was the case, Adam would not even try to win her over.
That's what scared him the most, after all, he really liked the esper girl.
But this ?
This was just an old rivalry between the two that's been going around since middle school.
' Geez, she's overreacting again.'
" And that made you mad enough to kick my door down?"
'!'
Rumi had the decency to feel embarrassed and put her leg down.
" S-sorry about that…"
*Sigh*
" It's alright."
As he said this, multiple shadow tendrils held Rumi in place before they pulled her towards Adam.
Soon, she found herself sitting on his lap next to Marylin.
" Let's call it even then."
Rumi's glare was hurtful but he couldn't care less.
If she didn't hate her, she was good to get.
' Crazy how down I am for this harem thingy now…'
" Hm, my lord."
Rumi and Adam looked at Marylin who was anxious for a different reason.
" Oh! Right, the Gate break."
He then explained the situation to Rumi, whose worry shifted immediately.
" I have to tell dad." She said.
" You do that, the association might do so later but the quicker he knows the better.
I'll go over to see how I can help.
Stay away from there and just focus on helping the citizens, I won't take no as an answer."
Even as a battle junky she knew she wasn't supposed to participate. On the contrary, she was worried about Adam and his history with a similar event that took place in the past.
" Are you going to be ok?"
Adam had a hard time holding himself back when he saw the worried look on Rumi's face.
' Why is it that every expression she makes turns me on so badly…?'
(A/N: Bonk!)
He delivered a tendered kiss to her lips, a pure one with no sexual desire behind it, as impossible as that sounded.
This is why he loved her so much.
She was strong, independent, had an unbreakable will, yet when it came to his well-being couldn't help but be sensible.
" I'll be fine, love. Call father, I'll take you to the association since they might call the mid rankers for help."
She agreed. Under these circumstances every help they could get would be necessary.
S rankers and higher were the only ones capable of assisting in the subjugation part of the operation, but low and mid rankers were also needed to provided support and decrease casualties.
Shortly after, Marylin excused herself and went back into Adam's shadow realm. She needed to prepare for the imminent battle that would take place soon.
.....
*Zenith Guild*
" Are you sure !? Yes, I'll get moving too. No, the association hasn't called me yet. They should be overseeing the area where the radars went off as we're talking. Adam is? Then I'll wait, he can take us there faster. Rumi, be careful, don't go anywhere near the gate break. Yes, you too, stay safe."
Kenji Usagiyama was having a tough day.
If having to take care of such a prestigious guild on the daily basis wasn't hard enough already, now he had to deal with an event that brought more than a few pains from the past.
" That boy, will he really be fine?"
He knew about Adam's strength.
The moment RED's picture was published he could tell it was him.
What kind of doting father wouldn't recognize their son even if on disguise!?
His worry stemmed from a similar place as Rumi's.
His parent's death.
Such a traumatic event resurfacing so suddenly would do a number on anyone.
*Tap*
A sudden movement brought Kenji's attention out of his inner monologue.
" Hey pops."
Adam stood before him.
As he told Rumi, he took her to the association where, as he expected, they were starting to contact low and mid rankers to help the city after the fight broke.
" Hey-"
*Ring.Ring!* X2
Both father and son looked at each other knowingly before picking up their phones.
" Yes, I'm on my way." X2
Kenji placed his phone away and took his coat off.
He then proceeded to move towards a wardrobe where his battle gear was.
As he dressed, Adam asked.
" Pops, is there anyone else we need to carry? It would be faster if I take everyone to the site."
Kenji took a moment to think before nodding.
" That ability of yours is handy, son."
....
I'll upload another chapter after this one.
It's been busy… Sowy 🥲
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