The skills that Kyte had unlocked upon reaching the Champion stage didn't bring him too much joy. As he already has several other skills, obtaining more skills seems kind of redundant. Nevertheless, Kyte didn't moan and groan about it. In fact, one of the skills was to his liking.

The first one he unlocked is called Bloody Acceleration. By using Bloody Acceleration, Kyte is able to take the life force directly out of blood and infuse that life force with his Internal energy. The energy from the life force boosts the quality of his Internal energy for a certain amount of time, roughly a minute or so. He can also use his own blood for this skill as well.

The second skill is Invisible Slash. It's basically using Internal energy to make Kyte's weapon lighter so he can move it faster.

The third skill is Meteor Descent. By infusing his Internal energy with the ground, Kyte can rip chunks of earth up and form them into whatever his wants. Controlling the Internal energy in and around the chunks of earth, Kyte can move them around however he wants.

The only skill that Kyte actually wanted to practice is Bloody Acceleration. The other two, well, he could really care less. Except, Kyte felt that Meteor Descent's way of manipulating Internal energy to control the surroundings is some-what beneficial. Invisible Slash could benefit Kyte, but he just doesn't have the time to practice several skills at once. He still needs one last leap to perfectly master Raging Palms and Windwalker as well, although he really just needs a sudden enlightenment to perfect those.

For Fire Touch, well, he could also care less for that one. It sounds cool, but in practicality, he doesn't need it. Energy Manipulation is already quite powerful, and the energy passively grows along with Kyte. He doesn't really feel like learning a whole new skill just to be able to create flames. Kyte also felt that more could be done with Fire Touch, however, he hasn't even begun practicing it so he can't test out his idea.

Regardless of all this, Kyte is still satisfied with what he has. Heavy Air, Shadow Twins, Energy Manipulation, Bloody Acceleration, Spirit energy...in total, he has five ways to increase his power.

Of course, the black light comes into play as well. He's only used it once as he unintentionally released black light outside his body. When it hit the ground it tunneled straight down into the Earth. It didn't go too far because Kyte was able to absorb it back. He felt like he was figuring something out, but after trying to release the black light again, he couldn't do it.

After everyone was back at the apartment, Akina said to everyone:

"Now that we're back, we have one new mission that was sent to us by the main branch."

"The main branch?"

"Why would they send a mission out to us?..."

"Just listen. This mission requires five people. We're in charge of raiding a small factory situated in the southern section of the city. I'll go over the details later, but apparently the main branch was meaning to take care of this sooner. But, seeing how we weren't strong enough, they held it off. Now that Kyte has joined us, the main branch thinks we can go through with it."

"Right. So this is one of the reasons why you wanted me to join you guys?"

"Well, yea. But you would've gotten involved sooner or later. I'm just glad you joined when you did."

"Heh, keep the compliments to yourself. I know I'm awesome."

"...Right. Anyway, I want Rose, Kyte, and Shadow to come with me into the living room to discuss this. Dan should be here within five minutes."

"Understood."

___________________________________________________________________

"Welcome back, Dan."

"Hahaha, Kyte, didn't expect to you see again after saying goodbyes."

"You knew about this meeting though."

"I just push things to the back of my mind sometimes, don't worry about it!"

Dan and Shadow sat across from one another while Akina sat between them. Kyte was sitting on the couch, with Rose next to him. Kyte has gotten use to her presence and it doesn't really bother him anymore.

"I'm going to brief you guys on the information regarding our mission. It's a silver A group mission, meaning that all of us need to be extra careful. The factory is located within the southern section, as you guys know, and it's disguised as a Toys R Us. We raid it during the night, but who knows who will be present at that time."

"Well, it doesn't really matter who's there, right? They can't talk if they're dead."

"Kyte, unlike you, we have morals."

"Wha-! Damn, you got me there."

"Anyway, the factory is located underneath the store and there are hidden elevators within the employee zone. B rank Guardians are standing guard all over the place, and there are also two A rank Guardians at the opposite end of the elevators. They assist the B rank Guardians if too many of them get destroyed. However....this is a raid. We destroy everything inside to the point where there's nothing salvageable."

"Oooh, sounds fun. I really want to go now-"

"Hold on. You remember what happened two months ago? An S rank Guardian appeared. S rank Guardians appear after two A rank Guardians are destroyed."

"How do the Guardians know if another is destroyed?"

"They send out an energy pulse to notify-"

"No, that's what I'm talking about. What creates that energy pulse?"

"...."

"Ah, so you guys don't even know. Do these lower branches really have no help at all? Geeze, what is the main branch doing."

"Even if we did figure out what causes it, how would we stop it?"

"Simple. Destroy the Guardians before they send out the pulse."

"If it was really that simple then that S rank wouldn't have shown up."

"Hahaha, that's where I come into play. You see, my power is a bit unique. I can send out some of my own energy and poke inside the Guardians' bodies. They won't feel a thing, even if they did have nerves."

"....Well, seeing as how you really are quite weird, I won't doubt your words. However, I'll have Dan defending you while you try to stop them from sending out their signal."

"No problem, just leave it to me."

"Now then, Shadow, I brought you here because your ability to errode objects is quite powerful. You'll be our support during this process, as well as being our main destroyer of evidence and destroying all the electrical equipment in the factory."

"Understood."

"Rose, you'll be helping Dan defend Kyte when the A rank Guardians attack. Since your power is purely offensive, you'll be dealing the most damage against the other Guardians as well."

"Ok!"

"Kyte, you'll try to disarm whatever causes the energy pulses."

"Alright, now, what'll you do?"

"I'm going to guard the outside to make sure no Guardians appear. If some do appear, I'll destroy them. Does everyone understand what their roles are?"

"Yep!"

"Yes."

"Piece of cake."

"Not like I have a choice..."

"Kyte can you stop with the negativeness? Thanks."

"I can't help it when there's a pig hugging my arm-"

-SMACK-

"Ow! The Hell did you smack me for?!"

"Calling a beautiful woman like me a pig...I should ask you what the Hell you're doing!"

"I'm saying the truth-"

-THUD-

"-! Now you're headbutting me?! You're crazy!"

"Hmmm? I~'ll show you crazy."

Rose tackled Kyte while still on the couch, and while Kyte was struggling to get free, Rose quickly closed the distance between their faces.

"You two do realize we're still here right?"

Dan was currently standing in-front of them with a gaze that could kill.

They both froze after seeing Dan's glare, so Rose slowly crawled off of Kyte.

"You always have to ruin the fun."

Rose crossed her arms in-front of her chest with a disappointed expression covering her face.

"You're not supposed to be doing that in the first place!"

"Hmph, you don't even live here, so what's the problem?"

"The problem is that you're breaking the rule!"

"Yea, YOUR rule. Not mine."

Dan started to release a chilling pressure that surrounded Rose, and she instantly froze up.

"Huh? What happened? Done talking?"

"Y...yes..."

"You guys, just stop it. I'm going to bed. The mission will begin in two days. Make sure you're well rested and ready to go when the time comes."

Akina got up and walked out. Shadow did the same as he gave a soft sigh before he left the room.

Dan angrily left the room, and before Kyte could leave as well...

"Hey, where are you going?"

"...To sleep? Where else am I going to go?"

"Then, do you want to sleep with me-"

"No."

Kyte speed-walked out of the room and into his own. Although he left one distraction, after entering his room, he found another distraction. Akina was already undressing, with her top gone from her body. Her bra was still covering the important parts, but her beautiful figure was displayed nonetheless.

"Ah..."

"...Do you want to sleep with me-"

"No!"

Kyte wanted to face-desk instead of face-palm this time but he refrained from doing so. He only calmly went to his bed and instantly changed into some pj's that were in his storage necklace. Taking one last peek at Akina's lovely body, which was now fully unclothed except for her under garments, Kyte went to sleep.

______________________________________________________________________

After waking up and shoving Akina out his bed for at least the fifteenth time, Kyte set out for Lakewood Forest again. Since there's only one day before the mission starts, Kyte wanted to test Fire Touch. It described a way to 'sense' the fire element within the world energy, and if Kyte is able to comprehend that, then he'll be able to create fire out of thin air. Possibly.

After he reached his area he sat down in the middle and began to just sense the world energy around him. Compared to when the vortex appeared, the amount of world energy was almost non-existent. Kyte could faintly feel it moving around like flowing water.

Strange...all I feel is the world energy, nothing else. What does it mean by fire element?....This skill is from a different universe so maybe elemental energies were present there.

After another ten minutes of trying to sense the fire element, frustration began to build up inside Kyte. He began to think of different ways to sense the fire element. Then, he got an idea...

He brought over a dry branch and used Internal energy to drill into it. He spun the Internal energy very quickly, and smoke started to emit from the branch. Kyte hurriedly tried to sense the world energy around the branch, and to his astonishment, world energy was actually being released from the small sparks of flames. A small fire sprang to life but it quickly died out because nothing was there to support it.

However, Kyte got what he needed.

Ha! I never really thought about this possibility! There is no fire elemental energy! That's because everything is world energy! World energy is generated from the sparks and the flame. Even a tiny bit of it is released when the smoke appeared! Hahahaha! This is amazing! Instead of everything being organized into different categories.... everything is put into one type of energy!

Everything clicked within Kyte's mind. Of course, that's only with fire. He still needed to make sure of his hypothesis before fully understanding. He would need to test it with water and earth, and there is plenty of it around him.

Kyte gathered some water from the nearest lake, which took about five minutes, and traveled back to the area. He tried to sense world energy within the water, however, he felt that it was the same just as it was outside of water. He began to think about this while sensing the world energy. He felt it freely flow through everything--the ground, the water, the water bottle, the trees...

The farther down he spread his Spirit energy, the more world energy he could feel. It seemed like world energy became denser the closer the Spirit energy moved toward the core of the planet. And that was only a few miles down. The crust to the core of the planet was a few thousand miles. Of course, there's no way for Kyte to get down that far anyway. The pressure of gravity and the high temperatures would instantly destroy him.

Regardless, Kyte felt like he was on to something. He felt his thinking was a little crazy, but his whole situation is crazy to begin with. He no longer doubted it; world energy comprises everything. It's inside and moves around everything, it's released when fire is created, it's naturally formed from water and earth.

However, what does this mean? And what does that black light have to do with any of it?

Kyte only heavily sighed while thinking about. It was just too complicated for him at the moment. He knew that world energy is possibly the thing that's responsible for the creating of everything, however, it could also be left-over power from whatever created the universe. Then again, there's matter and anti-matter. It's definitely possible that a negative version of world energy exists somewhere out there.

Ugh, why am I thinking so far? I should just keep my thoughts down to earth right now. Thinking about whatever is out in space is not what I should be thinking of. Although it sounds pretty solid...Ahhhh, forget it.

Kyte shook his head and decided to practice with world energy. Although the quantity of world energy was low, it was still there.

Kyte began to try to move the world energy into his palm. At first nothing happened so Kyte tried to barely activate the breathing technique to draw it in. The world energy slowly began to move toward him. However, instead of his palm, it moved toward his whole body.

Gosh damn it, move to where I want you to!

The world energy refused to move toward his palm. It acted as if it was being pulled inside his body.

Haaaa, it won't move to my palm, just inside my body.....hm? Wait...inside my body?

A small spark flashed inside his mind as he thought about it.

That's right! I absorb world energy itself! I don't need to control it outside of body when it's inside my body!

Kyte focused on the inside of his body with his Spirit energy and found that the black light devoured all the world energy that Kyte had absorbed. Although the amount that he absorbed was completely insignificant, Kyte felt that this discovery was enormous. If he was able to freely control the black light inside his body, then....who knows about the possibilities!

Kyte solely focused on the black light within his body. Now, it seemed to slightly react from Kyte's influence. Before it wouldn't acknowledge Kyte at all. But now, after he gained some knowledge on world energy, it began to move to his will.

He slowly moved it toward his palm, little by little. Eventually enough gathered in his palm, and it was about the size of a small cookie. Kyte began to manipulate it into different shapes just to get some more experience with handling the stuff, just like he did when he first learned about Spirit energy.

However, this black light was hundreds of times more difficult to manipulate. It took Kyte ten full minutes just to make a simple cube, and then another ten minutes to change it into a pyramid.

Even after doing all of that, Kyte felt like his power with manipulation the black light raised only slightly. Maybe it would take him nine minutes and fifty seconds instead of ten minutes next time. However, despite the difficulty, Kyte was increasingly happy and excited. Just knowing that he can move the black light is a huge improvement from not being able to move it at all.

After that, Kyte wanted to test out another idea. He filled his thoughts with images of fire and sparks that created fire. The next thing he saw was a giant inferno that spread out from his hand and completely destroyed everything within a fifty meter radius. The trees and vegetation just outside the inferno burst into flames that started to quickly spread outward.

For some reason, Kyte wasn't injured in the slightest. However, he quickly went into action. He spread his Spirit energy outside of the fire and laced Internal energy with it. After that he pulled his energy back toward him, which surprisingly brought all the fire toward him. The fire left the vegetation like it wasn't even there...except for all the burn marks.

With a raging fire all around his body, that didn't hurt him at all, Kyte began to think. If he created the fire using world energy, then wouldn't it be possible to do the opposite?

Kyte felt like he achieved an even higher knowledge compared to before. Instead of just creating elements from world energy, why couldn't he do the opposite? Everything is world energy, so Kyte began to try to transform the fire back into world energy.

The fire slowly shrunk, and energy began to go back into Kyte's body. The black light inside his body quickly devoured all the world energy that Kyte was absorbing again. After a few minutes the fire was gone. Kyte looked around and found that the entire area was burnt black.

What does this all mean? How is this all connected?...what am I missing?

Kyte hurriedly spread out his Spirit energy and found that multiple figures were quickly heading toward his direction. Sensing that, Kyte immediately used a Concealing Mask and left using Windwalker.