章節 35: Silence

As Jason moved closer to the group at the distance the noise around gradually lessened. The chatter and noise from the group seemed to fade.

The moment they had first met their nose was akin to bees buzzing.

Everyone from the branch families wanted to curry favor from the main clan members or from people with higher authority than them, as a result all the children of the main family were surrounded by boot-lickers of both genders who kept showering them with praise.

While they pretended to be indifferent outwards they liked the attention they were getting.

But everything stopped when he came.

All eyes were on him because he was quite the anomaly.

Everyone could see that he was dark-skinned – someone with no aptitude for magic, mana didn't even reinforce his body in his growing stages – so how was he here?

Did he come to die in the dungeon?

"Who's that coming over?" One of a branch family member asked.

"I don't know either." One close to him replied.

"Is this some kind of joke? Have one of the branch families really taken the Hachiman clan for granted that they decided to give life to someone who doesn't have mana coursing through his blood!" Another voice spoke, his words were dripping with scorn.

His words were meant to make him seem like a patriot; someone who saw the Hachiman clan as the light and as such a boy with no magic aptitude was a stain to the clan's name.

"Didn't you hear?" This time it was a girl, after she heard all eyes in the vicinity were on her. "He's part of the Hachiman clan."

All eyes were glued on her as they pressed for her to continue.

The girl was clearly relishing the attention she was getting.

"My mom told me about it, she said that there was a boy born in the Hachiman clan who couldn't use magic. Even though he has the blood running through his veins he is still as weak as any ordinary one."

Her words made everyone turn back to Jason – main clan member and branch family members - to return their gaze to him.

None of them were aware of such a person existing.

But Jason wasn't focused on them.

[Name: Alaric Hachiman

Age: 16

Physical – Mid Stage 1

Mental – Early Stage 1

Mana – Mid Stage 1

Skills:]

[Name: Aldous Hachiman

Age: 15

Physical – Early Stage 1

Mental – Early Stage 1

Mana – Mid Stage 1

Skills:]

Jason checked the stats of everyone in the group, his near-perfect memory keeping their standings.

Not one of them had any stat in the late category, he made a mental note that the exceptional ones were the ones with mental or magic in mid.

That meant that if they tried to attack him their mana would dissipate as easy as air. When he and Zane fought Zane had to move back to use magic, and even at that the most he could do was shoot small lightning bolts at him.

And Zane had mana of Mid stage 2.

After he finished checking the stats he made an average.

'The average stats of everyone here is early stage 1. All the members of the branch family have early stage 1 stats.' Jason made a mental note.

'But this is confusing.' Jason couldn't help but scratch his head at the thought

Even if the person wasn't an awakened the system would show their stats as 'Early Stage 1'.

Aldous Hachiman had Early Stage 1 strength and mental, Emily too had Early Stage 1 strength and mental but that didn't mean their strength was equal.

'If I have to guess, I think the system would refer to a certain stage of strength. In that case normal humans and newly awakened humans have the same category of strength, but that gap would get bigger and bigger until an awakened human entered 'Mid stage 1'.

After that the strength disparity grew even more once you crossed the 'late stage' or entered Stage 2.

Jason shook his head, that wasn't his business, he wasn't the one that made them this weak

So he decided to check his stats again to see the difference between he and them.

[Name: Jason Hachiman

Age: 13

Physical – Late Stage 4

Mental – Early Stage 3

Mana - Stage 000 Early

Skills: Advanced War Tactics, Advanced Cooking, Null eyes, Spirit Steps, War God's Embrace, Blade Strike]

Jason checked his own stats and smiled.

"As expected. My stats are way above theirs." Jason muttered to himself.

He finally entered the crowd.

All the noise stopped as he arrived, all eyes were on him.

An uncanny silence enveloped the space.

But Jason was too caught up in his own thoughts to register what they were even saying, he was thinking about something very important.

"I've never used War God's Embrace and Spirit Steps!" Jason's eyes widened at the revelation.

He had coped War God's Embrace from the clan head when he got into trouble, back then he was happy that he was able to receive 1000 points for copying a skill with such power.

With the points he was able get the 1x candies.

If he didn't buy it his boost in strength wouldn't be as explosive as it was now.

For that he was grateful.

But he never really used War God's Embrace; there was always something about using a move that had a name very similar to the Japanese War God's name itself.

Jason was afraid of the damage it would cause once he used the skill in full effect.

In the novel, Zane had used it.

He always used it whenever he was backed into a tough spot or was going to lose.

And the result was always incredible, being able to destroy towns even though he wasn't at full power!

Even if this factored to Zane's strength in the novel – He still had quite some time before he caught up to Zane's strength in the novel - Jason didn't want to test it out, his home could be destroyed if he didn't play it safe.

Spirit steps didn't have much importance when he had his velcro, but he still used it once in a while.

Perhaps in the dungeon he would have a lot more time to use his skills.

Jason looked up.

The hostility that he had expected to be aimed at him from all angles didn't come, he didn't even hear hushed murmurs.

No whispered insults or murmurs of judgement.

Did they already know about his existence?

'That seems unlikely.' Jason shook his head.

Neither boy or girl tried to do anything to stop his advance and Jason couldn't tell what was causing it, if he ever found out in the future he would make sure to carry it everywhere he went so he could always enjoy this kind of silence.

Little did Jason know it was what was strapped to his side.

The Katana!

And his right arm!

They were all shocked at how he was able to move with such a weapon without looking even strained from the weight.

And they were also shocked to discover that he had no right arm.

Jason, still in thought walked past everyone as they made way from him.

"Hey, you don't belong here." An arm came forward to block his further movements.

Jason looked up at the person who was obstructing his movement.

He was expecting it, but now that it came it was annoying.

It took most of his willpower to stop himself from ripping the boy's arm off his body.

"Isn't this guy a Hachiman?" He had the unmistakable blue hair and red eyes of members of the clan. 'Funny, doesn't he have early stage 1 stats.'

"And you expect me to believe that someone as weak as you does?"