-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Flying!!!!-

The masked man was none other than Kenshin who was on a high due to his unique experience while running. It just happened that when he was running at the top of his capability, he suddenly felt like jumping. And jump he did, it was only then he realized that he had actually jumped way too high and was unable to control himself, causing him to free fall down. Coincidentally, Eichi’s car was just about to pass through, and he landed right on top of his car. It's really his bad luck, but it was also Kenshin’s fault for being too absorbed in his running spree.

“Okay man! Calm down…it was my fault for landing on your car so, I will do something about it.” With that, before Eichi could say anything, Kenshin put his palm on the car and pushed it back. 500+ strength exploded as he pushed the car like it didn’t weight anything, surprising Eichi even more who started to fear after seeing Kenshin’s strength. Kenshin’s forceful punches could even cause the ground to be cave in, what a mere tin car in front of him? In fact, when he landed on the car just before, he thought it was something cushiony, but it's only after a second he realized it to be a car.

“No! It's okay. I have its insurance, so you don’t have to worry at all!” after seeing him pushing the car like it weighs nothing, how can he be forceful in front of this strange man? Is he tired of living already? With just a punch from this man, there was a high probability that he would die, he couldn’t take this risk.

“You don’t worry. It's my fault that I fell on your car and broke it so I will fix it.” Saying so, he extended his right hand. A transparent bubble that only he could see enveloped around the car up to 6 meters and then the car started to change and turn into how it was before the accident happened. It was so mysterious to Eichi, like rewinding a videotape, everything was so magical. Before long, his car changed from its dilapidated form to a new one, even the scratches on it were gone now.

“Okay, I am going” with that Kenshin took off like a rocket, unwilling to waste any more time. Watching the retreating back of the masked man, Eichi felt cold sweat pouring out of his brows, this man was unexpectedly a magic skill user. Luckily he was sensible and didn’t say any offensive words, or else he would have been screwed all the way to Monday by this man.

The episode with that man was just one of the many events in tonight, Kenshin didn’t take it to heart. His attention was now concentrated on a magical thing he just realized. He looked pretty excited just by thinking of it. So running ta his fastest speed, he appeared on a park that ought to be closed as it was already night time. Like a blurring ghost, he appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the park. After stopping, he did a perimeter check, finding no one, he released a breath, and suddenly his eyes started to shine.

“I hope this works!” Kenshin prayed to whatever deity listening to him and started on his experimentation.

[You have used skill Opposites]

A transparent bubble enveloped him that extended up to six meters. After the bubble formed, it stayed in place while Kenshin closed his eyes and started to concentrate on something. Slowly, very slowly, the wind around him began to thicken and flowed in an upward motion. Kenshin’s leg which was firmly planted on the ground also started to raise little by little. Soon enough, he was already 6 meters above the ground.

8 meters…9 meters…10 meters…20…50…100 meters.

Finally, when he hit the hundred-meter mark, he stopped accending anymore. A look of astonishment, as well as happiness, could be seen on his face. Its as if he was freed from all the worldly shackles and now soaring to the sky. Gravity no longer had any effect on him. Like a free bird, he was soaring on the sky, unfettered of everything.

“Yuhu!! This is the best!!” he shouted at the top of his lungs as if to announce to the whole world that he was now free from the very shackles they all are bound in. The flight was really an impossible thing for humans, even in this fantasy world. There were quite a few people who had a skill that allowed them to fly like wind manipulation, gravity manipulation but it was temporary. At most they could propel themselves up and then glide. In case of gravity manipulators, it was somewhat like floating, not flying.

A hundred meters above, Kenshin flailed around his arms as he got used to the feeling of being free of everything. Gulping saliva loudly, he took his first step forward and found that instead of sinking, his legs firmly planted on the air like it was a solid thing. One step, two steps, before long he was running on the sky like how one does on the ground. Soon enough, he also got used to the feeling and started to run around even faster than before.

What Kenshin was doing was also not flying, but walking or more like air walking. It was an ingenious use of his [Opposites] skill on his part. It’s a two-fold application. First was to oppose the pull of gravity, by doing this he would be pushed off the ground instead of being pulled. It wouldn’t have been possible without perfect knowledge on how gravity works, thankfully he had listened to what the teacher told when he was in school. The second was reversing the property of air just below his foot. Instead of completely…like air…he made it solid enough to be like that of the ground. Of course, all this was limited to the 6-meter bubble created by him, but it was enough for him.

But although it sounded easy, it was actually not. Kenshin had to precisely control at least three different things while using the technique. First was the flow of gravity, which was actually the hardest part, then the property of air…and finally the magic flow from his reserves. Although the consumption didn’t change according to the manipulation, his magic was still limited, and he had the battle to fight after this.

“YES!! Now I can even fly!! Hoho!!” he was thrilled after succeeding on his first try. Well, with the amount of INT and WIS he had, it was bound to succeed. Kenshin was also happy because he achieved what very few of the humans achieved before.

Actually, it wasn’t true…the flight wasn’t that rare for those who have surpassed the boundary of level 200. After level 50, the mortal body of hunters evolves once. It then evolves again when the hunter reaches level 100…after that every hundred levels cause a hunter’s body to evolve. The higher the level, the more changes the evolution brings. It was unknown to the public, even hunters who didn’t touch upon level 150, but when a hunter reaches level 199, a fundamental change occurs in their magic energy or bodily energy depending upon the hunter. For magic skill users, their magic energy changes to ‘Aether’ a higher form of energy, while for non-magic skill user, their body evolves to a higher version, giving them access to a form of energy which originates from their cells. It was called Rage.

By property, both magic power and Rage were similar, but comparing it to Aether wouldn’t do the former justice. Aether was actually many times superior to magic, making it equally superior to Rage. It was due to that, the status of magic skill user was higher than normal skill users. But it was also equally harder for a magic skill user to transform their magic power to Aether…making them struck on level 199 for very long. Unless they convert their magic power into Ather, there was no chance for them to level up any higher.

With the usage of this Ather or Rage, the user would be able to fly. With unique usage, some Ather users could even fly faster than jets or rockets. It's just that to prevent public confusion, there was an unspoken law of not flying in public places which were obeyed by all the hunters of that level. After all, who wouldn’t be afraid of having a cult on your name?

Of course, Kenshin knew none of these facts, he only felt that he was doing better than those air manipulators or gravity manipulators. In a way, his way could also be called true flying, but unlike them, he wasn’t too limited to the area. As long as he had enough magic, he could even walk on air for the whole day.