บท 28: Another chapter

[Roman's Hideout – 11:00 a.m.]

Roman enters one of his many hideouts, searching for Neopolitan. His henchmen informed him that the last time they saw her, she had entered here and ordered them to leave, leaving the hideout completely to herself.

Impatient, he kicks the door as he enters, a gesture that gives him a slight déjà vu. Quickly, he ties a scarf over his mouth and nose, expecting to find some unpleasant odor. But to his surprise, the air is remarkably clean.

His eyes scan the place in silence. As he does, he wonders if it's empty. However, a faint yet familiar sound catches his attention.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

Roman recognizes the sound instantly: the unmistakable crack of someone being tortured. He doesn't flinch and maintains a calm pace, as if nothing is out of the ordinary. He follows the echo of the noise, which grows clearer with every step.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

"It must be Neo," Roman thinks without surprise, but with curiosity. "Who's the unfortunate one?"

His henchmen mentioned she might be with "that bitch" she's been spending so much time with lately. Still, he doesn't understand why the situation would have escalated to this point. But, honestly, he doesn't care much about the reason. The only thing that matters to him is reminding Neo that they have unfinished business: robbing some Dust stores.

Snap! AH! Snap! AH!! Snap! AH!!

The victim's screams become sharper and more agonizing. Roman approaches the source of the sounds. He reaches a door and opens it, expecting to find a torture scene, like so many times before. But what he sees is far worse. He freezes in the doorway, unable to move for a moment.

The room is dark, almost completely sealed by the closed windows, with only a few candles scattered around the space, casting soft, flickering shadows. Neo, completely focused, is so absorbed in what she's doing that she doesn't even notice Roman's arrival.

In the center of the room, the guy that his henchmen mentioned is doing squats with a bar loaded with at least 400 kg. The feat is impressive, a display of strength that any normal person would admire in another context. However, Roman's amazement quickly fades when he sees what's happening around him: Neo is whipping him with a lash, striking his bare back with force.

Snap! Ah!

"How I hate you!" the guy yells between gasps, but he doesn't stop his training for a second.

Hearing his words, Neo bites her lower lip harder, her fingers tighten the whip, and she strikes again, this time with renewed strength.

Snap!

"Make it harder! It doesn't count if you're not doing it with intent!" Daniel exclaims, challenging her with his gaze, despite the pain.

A look of irritation crosses Neo's face, clearly annoyed by the request. However, she doesn't hesitate. She responds with a series of even harder lashes.

SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

Roman, unable to bear the scene any longer and feeling a growing sense of disgust, closes the door behind him. His face reflects pure revulsion as he quickly turns and walks away, hurrying toward the exit of the hideout. "I don't want to know anything about this," he thinks to himself, picking up the pace.

[Meanwhile, in the room...]

Snap! Snap! Snap!

Daniel's "training" continues, unstoppable. Neo smiles with satisfaction, enjoying every moment. Meanwhile, Daniel, though humiliated, doesn't dare ask her to stop. He knows these sessions have had surprising effects on his body; his stats have improved significantly in the last few days, and that's the only reward that matters to him.

Name: Daniel Hawk

Age: 16

Race: Human

HP: 850 (+578.5) → 1428.5

MP: 0

AP: 12000 (+12947.5) → 24947.5

STR: 95 (+83.58) → 178.58

VIT: 78 (+60.5) → 138.5

DEX: 85 (+92.58) → 177.6

INT: 77 → 77

"Hit harder!" Daniel yells, his voice full of demand, while Neo watches him with an intensifying gaze. She responds, tightening the whip, and strikes him with more force.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

Unfortunately for Daniel, the whip doesn't work unless it's used by someone else. He's tried it himself, but it didn't work, no matter how hard he hit. Plus, the effects don't show unless some damage is inflicted on the recipient. In short, they're extremely strong lashes because regular ones have no effect on his superhuman body.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

The sound continues filling the room as Daniel pushes through his training.

"Neo, can I ask you a question?" Daniel says without stopping his exercise.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

Neo doesn't stop, but a slight nod of her head indicates that she's listening.

"I appreciate your help with this," Daniel says, receiving several more lashes on his back.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

"But... was it necessary for you to wear leather?" Daniel asks, his gaze traveling over Neo's tight outfit. The black leather glows in the dim light of the candles, perfectly complemented by the whip in her hands.

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Neo tightens the whip in her hands as she nods enthusiastically.

"It's very necessary," she responds, affirming with her head.

"I see..." Daniel murmurs, before screaming in pain. He feels as if something is burning his back, causing him to arch.

"AHHH!"

His body tenses, and with effort, he turns his head, only to find Neo letting a candle drip wax onto his back.

"DAMN IT, NEO! THAT WASN'T PART OF THE DEAL!" Daniel yells, annoyed. They had clearly set the boundaries before starting.

Neo shrugs as she continues. Several minutes pass until the training session stops. The sound of a scroll's alarm rings out, signaling that the time is up.

Daniel drops the barbell, and Neo stops whipping, making a face of annoyance.

"Well, that's it for this session," Daniel says, stretching. His back stings, and he can feel some blood oozing out.

Daniel walks calmly to his bag, searching for his berry juice bottle. He finds it next to Aegis, who is busy with the scroll. As he's said before: he won't go anywhere without Aegis.

He picks up the bottle and starts drinking, while Neo watches him—or rather, watches Daniel's back. Her gaze is fixed on how it heals quickly, how the wounds close slowly, leaving only some scars that didn't quite heal completely.

Though she's seen this several times in the past few days, it still impresses her.

Daniel no longer bothers to hide what he revealed to Neo during the "grass accident." Although he's not sure how much she believes him.

"Well, at least she's kept my secrets," he thinks to himself, remembering how Neo, in exchange for magical berry ice cream and some other liberties, made a deal: she would stay silent about everything he revealed. Daniel didn't refuse, but he had to learn how to make berry ice cream.

When he finishes changing, he says goodbye to Neo. She points at a calendar with her finger, as a reminder not to forget the next training session. Daniel ignores her, leaving the hideout without saying a word. He has too much to do, and frankly, he doesn't have time to feel indignant.

[Daniel's Apartment – 10:00 AM]

Daniel is in his apartment, in the plant section, focused on his daily task: growing berries. With meticulous movements, he separates the berries and begins experimenting with them, extracting the seeds and classifying them into different batches. He takes a few detailed notes as he evaluates each type, recording how many points they recover.

As he groups the berries according to their ability to restore more points from his health, he plants the highest-performing ones and uses the others to make juice. He repeats the process, a routine he's been maintaining for the past few days.

All of this for a good reason. After a significant increase in his stats, Daniel notices a problem that has been slowly forming without him realizing it. The amount of berry juice he needs to fully recover keeps growing. At first, he didn't notice since the change was very gradual.

He fears he might be developing a resistance to the berry juice. However, he remembers that the berries heal a fixed amount of HP, and there lies the problem. Daniel's HP has doubled since he started using them.

It's not an issue in itself, as he can take more damage, train longer, and increase his strength and agility—but the problem is that the amount of juice he will need to consume will keep growing over time. And that, in the future, could become a problem.

So, in a moment of brilliance, Daniel comes up with an idea: artificial selection. With his 'Green Thumb' ability, Daniel can grow 18 generations of plants in a single day, which is working excellently. The berries are healing a much higher amount of HP. He's eager to see what kind of nature monster he can create with this advancement.

Once he can no longer use his ability, he moves on to the next task on his list: searching for information about Beacon Academy, or more specifically, about how to get into their facilities. The first thing he finds is information about the academy and its campus. Daniel reads about Beacon Academy, located in a mountainous area north of the city. On one side, there is a large body of water and a cliff; on the other, a forest filled with Grimms that, according to the official website, are kept there for student training.

Additionally, the site mentions the heavy surveillance in place to prevent intruders who might attempt to harm the facilities or students. And of course, there is a clear warning: Beacon Academy does not take responsibility for deaths or injuries caused to those who enter the premises without proper authorization.

Daniel analyzes his options. He can't reach it by water and would prefer not to risk his life facing Grimms. He dismisses the idea of sneaking in and starts looking for more legal ways to get in. After some time and many searches, he finally finds something that could be useful: "Fundraisers for Beacon Academy."

Daniel reads, thinking to himself that he didn't know Beacon needed donations. As far as he knew, Beacon had a budget allocated by Vale to train its Huntsmen.

He pushes those thoughts aside and continues reading. He realizes that this event is aimed at the rich: investors, large companies, and magnates. Essentially, a tour of Beacon's facilities while making a commitment to Vale's future and a few other things. Daniel thinks it over and is certain that it's just a way to avoid taxes, like abstract art or gourmet meals with tiny portions costing as much as a basic salary. The most obvious money laundering in the world.

He keeps reading. Just the entry fee is worth 200k liens.

"AJAJAJ," Daniel laughs at the amount. "This damn world is driving me to ruin. No wonder it's for magnates; that's like half my savings." He places his hands over his face.

He considers his options. On one hand, it's an optional mission, and nothing bad happens if he misses it. But on the other, he wants the reward it offers, and he doesn't like missing out on opportunities.

Daniel pulls his hands away from his face and starts looking for other options. But this one seemed like the most reliable. While he's at it, Daniel decides to search for any crimes related to Beacon's facilities, and to his surprise, after a few attempts, he finds out that he's not the first crazy person trying to scale Beacon's tower. There have been several students and one civilian who had no idea how they even got there. Since Beacon Tower's creation, several students had attempted to climb it. The most well-known and recent was Qrow Branwen, a former Beacon student and now an active Huntsman. He's recognized as the student who got the highest before being shot down by Peter Port.

Qrow Branwen seems familiar to Daniel, but he can't remember where from. He ended up injured and hospitalized for days. Since then, climbing the tower has been prohibited, with the punishment being expulsion for students and a fine for civilians, as well as a ban from the facilities and any events held there.

After reading all this and thinking it over, Daniel finally decides to pay for the entry.

"Ah…" Daniel sighs, watching his money slip away. He falls silent for a while. "I'm going to need a suit..." he says, resigned, recalling a good place where he could get one.

-/-

Author's note: Honestly, I didn't like how it turned out, but I wanted to post something ... Some people still think I'm going to give them good stuff in the gacha.

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