It has been a few days since Miles returned to the Cross Mansion. In the time he was back, he didn’t enter the Portal World, even though the mansion had its own Dimensional Device. He only entered the Virtual World to spar against others from time to time and kept on winning. As of now, he had 15 wins, which was better than most of the new accounts.

He already had people watching him thanks to “The Real Marooner” and now people were paying him more attention because of his successive wins. But not all matches were as easy as the first one. As his win tally got higher, the opponents he had to face also got stronger and stronger.

Other than that, he spent the rest of his time with the people in the mansion. He grew up there and had close relations with all the workers. He didn’t want to eat with others on regular days, thus he sneaked into the kitchen before or after meal times to eat Reynold’s delicious foods, and the head cook/Santa was more than happy to feed him.

There was also Master Kenway, sparred with Miles and taught him new sword moves. Miles learned the basics of the sword against the wasps in the Lonely Cave and was better now. Master Kenway praised his posture and sword art and taught him a few tricks.

Miles also sat and talked with his mother and father. He asked many questions about superpowers, orbs, and energy, and learned quite a few new things from them. Miles learned that energy wasn’t new to Earth, and had been mentioned since ancient times.

Like how Malcolm said when Miles asked first. It could be called Ki, Mana, Stamina, Chakra… All of which were interpretations of how humans see energy. But since energy density was low on Earth before portals opened, humans could only keep on living and not use it. But it was strange that records were mentioning this energy.

Portals never opened to Earth before, this was something Mother AI confirmed. Mother AI was thousands of years old, and ever since she came to be, portals never opened to Earth. Thus mentioning energy was strange because humans couldn’t use it before. But lores about those aforementioned monikers, although not %100, were matching with the use of energy. Which was weird.

In the lores, mana was used to cast spells similar to how energy was used to shape the natural elements. Or Ki to strengthen weapons, how energy was infused into weapons to make them stronger, or stamina making the body stronger just as how energy fills every part of the body to overcome its limits, or how chakra was able to make the user change form of the weapons, energy could form weapons.

Malcolm hasn’t given too many details, but mentioning some small details, gave Miles a lot of ideas. He could now imagine how energy worked and could understand what he experienced. When warm current left his heart to activate the orb, energy filled his body, and his mind was faster all of a sudden. His tiredness also vanished. It was just like how Malcolm described it.

Evelyn also visited him a few times. The idea he gave made some breakthroughs and Evelyn discovered that monster artifacts, just like orbs, were part of monsters. Artifacts were like a limb for them and organic in a sense. Since monsters had a connection to them, humans with some intermediary could connect with the artifacts. But the research was still young, and it would take countless tests and experiments to prove it.

But while brainstorming with Miles, Evelyn also had to give some confidential information. The blood orb he had used before, discovered by humans at the E-Circle, and used by low-tier soldiers first to test. It was another humanoid monster, and the orb melted to merge with the soldier's heart. After merging, the soldier's heart became more like a pump and was able to accelerate his blood flow up to 20 times. By doing it, the soldier was able to move faster and think faster.

It was a proven theory even before the monster invasion. Cheetahs were using similar mechanisms to get a sudden burst of speed to catch their prey. Of course, cheetahs had the innate talent to use their limbs to move faster, and the soldier had to work hard to get proficient at it, but even as he was, he was as fast as a cheetah.

Later, there were more blood orbs discovered, but Evelyn hasn’t given more details, Miles also didn’t ask. But all in all, there were less than 40 known blood orbs discovered. Their rareness could be seen from the number.

Blood orbs never dropped from non-humanoid monsters, thus in evidence, only humanoid monsters would drop blood orbs. Until it was disproven, at least. Miles already mentioned he had used one, although he was afraid his cover would blow, his family didn’t force him to reveal his ability, Miles didn’t explain either. Even though Evelyn was his mother, he didn’t want anyone to know his secrets.

When the time for new year dinner finally arrived, Miles wore something not so formal but not so slack either and went down to the dining room. The table was filled with various foods already, and maids were running around to perfect everything. When Miles arrived, Marcela was at the table reading something from her wristwatch.

Miles didn’t bother to greet Marcela and sat in the seat next to her. There were 6 seats at the table. One at the head, which was the seat Mercer would sit. A pair on each side where Marcela and Miles, Evelyn and Malcolm would seat, and one at the other end where probably Adam would sit. Since they were placed like this, he couldn’t sit anywhere else.

When Miles sat, Marcela lifted her head for a short second to glance at him then turned back to read whatever she was reading. Miles ignored her presence and waited while thinking. It was the first time he would see Mercer, ever since he left the house and Miles was—anxious. They weren’t on good terms and never been ever since Miles failed to awaken his superpowers.

Not long after Miles sat, Malcolm and Evelyn walked hand to hand. Malcolm helped Evelyn to sit, and sat across Marcela. Miles was sitting across Evelyn.

When Miles thought next would be Adam, Mercer entered through the door with his semi-formal clothes. He looked as noble as ever. His still abyss black hairs were combed back, and his piercing blue eyes looked over the table. His eyes lingered on Miles for a few seconds but moved again. He walked not slowly or fast. When he arrived at his seat, he looked at everyone and said, “Let’s celebrate the new year as a family.” and sat on his seat.