Mira told him she could give him details of High Mind and her new skill as she was capable of using them. Jade agreed to get the details later. Mira then told him about the Nemesis race, this news intrigued Jade and he thought ‘So if I pester a horde and kill them slowly they might reward me with knowledge? IP, why didn’t you tell me about this?’

Jade’s IP replied ‘Because your inflexion is wrong. Titled monsters are a rare occurrence that are determined by many factors, the group that encountered them are lucky they did it and even more lucky the titled monster didn’t have more time to grow’ Jade gulped and the IP’s information was reinforced by Mira who told him about how the sanctuary had tried to recreate another Nemesis race and failed time and time again.

Jade said to his IP ‘How do I get a Title?’ the IP replied ‘Getting a Title is a secret quest; you can only be given information about the quest once you’ve completed the quest or reached Rank 15’ Jade mentally sighed and Mira told him about how Lara had cleared the aerial monsters and how she had left the 12 Rank 7s and 2 Rank 8s for the settlements to defeat.

Jade thought ‘She is certainly a Conqueror alright, if not she is something related to it. Only Conquerors don’t fight monster that are far lower in Rank than them’ Mira concluded and said “That’s all, so what do you have for me?”

Jade said “The information you provided is worth quite a bit. If the Magic you talked about is truly as impressive a technology as what I think it is, then spatial tech isn’t out of the question. But before that you should tell me about your experiences I’m also interested in the fun stuff too”

Mira smiled and told Jade about the adventures she had, how she had met Funmi, how she had shortened her name to Mira, how the sanctuary seemed to fully trust Jola… Jade’s was surprised when she said she met Gbenga’s group, she told him all the things she knew about them.

Jade was surprised at their talent and thought ‘It must be because of the little training and encouragement I gave them. I’m such a great master!’ as Mira recounted the stories about the group Jade’s head swelled with pride and his face became even smugger.

Mira said “Why are you so proud?” Jade said “Obviously the little encounter those poor children had with me made them the great rankers they are; I am truly a great master” Mira said “You’re not a great master, the reason they endured so much to get stronger was so that they could kill you or people like you if they ever encounter such”

Jade was shocked, and angry, he said “What?! Shouldn’t they be happy I gave them weapons? I literally gave them a way to live and they want to kill me for it? This is baseless prejudice! I did nothing wrong, we made a deal I fulfilled my part and they fulfilled their part. Why are they so salty about a good exchange?”

Mira said “Maybe it’s because you made them bait while you fought 2 monsters?” Jade retorted, saying “We survived, right? I didn’t tell them my plan because they were so intent on killing me. Who goes and tells people, who want to kill him, to do a dangerous job that helps him and provides them weapons that can kill him? If they didn’t want to work with me they could have just said so”

Mira retorted “How was that possible? You scared them shitless! They were kids who had never had guns pointed at their faces before, what did you expect?” The two of them argued about who was right and who was wrong and eventually could not come to a conclusion.

Mira later told him about the other happenings after they agreed to disagree. After their discussion Mira showed Jade her capabilities as he analyzed her skills.

Jade gave his opinion on Mira’s abilities, saying “For someone of your strength and Rank you are just right. The abilities you showed are similar to the other Rank 6 monsters I’ve seen in Rank 7 hordes. The ability to make stuff explode from the inside out is marvelous. I would love to learn them the same way you did but the monsters that are a challenge to me are smarter than the ones you face. They will kill me if I don’t give them my all” Jade sighed and said “I guess I missed my chance”.

Mira said “Don’t feel so sad, I’m sure there is a way to learn these skills without risking you life but we currently don’t know any other way. At least there’s Magic which I’m sure you’ll be able to learn pretty quickly”.

Jade said “Ok, now we’re talking, show me the Magic manual you said they had”. Mira said “The original owners of the Magic spells, the Overcomers, asked me to give you the details of their spells in exchange for armor and technological information. Can you make armor and weapons that can let a Rank 6 beat a Rank 7?” and she took out the spell books, she was given before she left the sanctuary, from her bag.

Jade said as he browsed through the books “Yes, I can make weapons that can in theory let a Rank 6 beat a Rank 7 but the Rank 6 would probably not be able to use them” Mira asked in surprise “Why is that?”

Jade replied “When I sent you to the sanctuary I gave you armor made from Rank 5 monsters but that was only possible because of the power difference between a Rank 4 and 5”. Jade opened a portal to his portal storage and brought out a Gungnir spear and handed it to Mira.

Mira held it and immediately after Jade let go it fell out of her hand onto the floor and even made a large crater on the ground where it landed; it was too heavy. Jade picked it up and said “As you can see this Rank 7 weapon is too heavy for you even though you’re a Rank 6. This is because there is a wide, deep and hopeless chasm between the power of a Rank 6 and a Rank 7 that can’t be bridged with Rank 6 weapons”.

Jade energized the spear and it lit up with a blood red aura. He said “Of course there are lighter weapons but those require a lot of energy to operate, this can be bridged with energy batteries but the user will not be able to flexibly control the output of the weapon, especially in battle where anything can happen”.

Mira asked as she looked at the crater the spear had made when it fell “If the Rank 7 body parts are so heavy how are the Rank 7 monsters able to walk on the ground without sinking into it?”

Jade said “That is because of aura. Every living creature has aura and even though it exists in minuscule amounts in the cells of creatures that don’t really use it. The aura exerts against gravity and keeps the creature from falling into the ground. That is why Rank 7 and above creatures don’t just sink to the depths of the earth. Natural aura doesn’t just exert against gravity, it exerts against any external force that seeks to influence the creature that is also why the heavier a monster is the sturdier it is as it will have more aura that protects it against gravity and attacks. That’s why I said I would like your skill that allows you to make things blow up from the inside; it gives you a natural advantage against tough opponents if you can get your energy to successfully seep into the creature”

Mira said “Wow, I guess it’s more powerful than I thought. What kind of weapons can you make now?” Jade smiled and said “I can make spectrum aura weapons now. They’re very powerful if you play your cards right”

Mira said “Really? I was hoping for weapons that don’t use aura. Now that I think about it, why do you mostly have aura weapons are the higher ranked monsters all aura users?”

Jade smiled and said “It’s because of the potential of aura. Of course I’ve killed monsters with special non aura abilities and have made weapons out of some of them but aura is a better technology to research in the long term since it is prevalent among many monsters and because the monsters with special abilities don’t have a common factor. It is better for me to have a very powerful aura weapon than for me to have moderately powerful weapons with diverse abilities only and besides aura is quite diverse the more you research it. Think about it, would it be smart for me to spend time researching the ability of a monster that can spew acid or researching an versatile energy bias that many monsters favor?”.

Mira nodded, Jade took one of the spell books, the one from Funmi and began to read it. Mira said “Are you up for a spar?” Jade said without looking away from the book “Sure no problem”.