In the hell realm of the demons, the nearly one month period of the internship was almost up and the 5000 demons under Lola’s control were very different from before. In fact, even Lola herself was very different from before.

Starting out on Imps to slowly enhance her natural capacity, slowly Lola and her lesser demons were forced to push their quantity to the minimum of lesser demon standards. They knew when it was achieved when they got a strange feeling and the egg seemed to light up a little along certain points.

To say nothing else of this, Lola’s Constitution was forcefully expanded and just reaching the low standards of lesser demons in life force standards made her constitution grow to nearly 900. This was the most forceful she had ever been with absorbing life force and during this time her skill at channeling it within her body advanced extremely as her veins were forced to expand and were constantly bombarded. Now, her body naturally maintained secondary vein flow as naturally as she breathed and this caused her to avoid leaking life force she absorbed.

Demons were born with an innate ability to retain life force, this was biological. In a world with so little life force, they could not spare any little bit.

After all, the lesser demons reached proper standards, along with the 49 generals, she and the generals, they began the transition to greater demon weeks prior while those already at greater demon went with Lola to hunt greater demons.

To say nothing else, a weak greater demon contained sufficient life essence and power to match a braveman and a powerful one was at least a hero.

The four greater demons and Mephesto were there to hunt for her and she had to extract everything.

The hunting was already done and all the life essence of hundreds of greater demons were drawn out and Lola was forced to sit within the bubble of demon life essence and convert it.

“It is a test as well as a sort of training. The pressure inside and outside of your body will help it constantly transform and should you reach the extreme limit, your body itself could transform into life essence which is a very rare and valuable experience, much like the digital spawner and his brother.” Mephesto said.

She was sitting in a bubble of life essence that contained the life essence of 10 hero level greater demons and hundreds of braveman level ones for almost two weeks and to say nothing else, her body was already overloaded.

“She is already at her limit.” Yez said as she floated around it.

Looking a short distance away, the other generals were already on their final stretch and their life force was already contained but their channels were glowing.

“Her body seems unable to break down. This amount, even if she processed at least 70% of it as impurities for the human body, is still almost 3 times more than the full amount of her primary demon.” Mephesto said.

Lola felt suffocated as she constantly channeled her power. Every cell in her body was stuffed and almost felt bloated with life essence. Any life force still present in her cells were long gone and during these weeks in this thing, she had keenly felt her many parts of her body get damaged and heal with this amount of vibrant power.

There was literally no place to put it anymore. The only thing that seemed to keep her from blowing up was the contract with Mania but it almost felt like it was a chain at this moment.

They continued to watch until they finally felt a burst and looked as the first of the generals began their true transformation. Their bodies broke down and were absorbed into the core of their life essence before sin and their particular element came rushing in and their giant bodies began to form.

One by one they went and the points pertaining to each demon lit up on the egg until each sin fully lit up.

What was surprising was that once it did, one of seven lights formed over Lola’s lower belly.

“Huh?” Mephesto noticed that and frowned.

When another group completed, a new light formed on her and glowed on the egg.

“That’s it!” he finally exclaimed in shock. “The process of devils! She can’t advance without the presence of demon power created by her primary demon!” he exclaimed.

He watched the demons this time and after they all formed and stabilized their form between full demon and humanoid, they released their life essence and power to return to the egg.

Each time, the egg would grow like a pulse as the entire structure’s power gathered in the generals that had become greater demons and fed into the egg.

When the last demon finally released its power. The egg completely lit up and seven glowing lights were on Lola. They shined brightly before gathering at the center and entering within her body.

At the moment before the egg hatched, they suddenly felt a powerful wave undulate from the egg and the intense heat of hell suddenly and rapidly dulled. The wave expanded and covered roughly an area of about four mountains of distance around their current home and no more. There was potential for more, undoubtedly, but it was intentionally stopped by Mania. The lines on the egg slowly sank into the dark shell before the amazing power of sin began to gather to the egg and slowly it took shape. It didn’t break, it just molded.

Within the dark cloud of sin, Mania took the form of an almost pure human. Even the bright red skin had turned pure white. The only traces of the demon on her were a pair of black horns, the black sclera and red iris, a pair of wings and the long black tail behind her.

Mephesto actually felt his heart beating heavily because of a fear he had. In fact, he doubted no hero didn’t have this fear, it was a feeling similar to ‘him’. The bloody red eyes through the dark mist, it was just like him and Mephesto had to hold himself back to not attack on instinct or to run.

She kept gathering power for about a minute before this mist broke down into seven groups and then split among the demon generals.

It entered their lower belly and they all screamed in pain before it covered them all.

“W-what…” He forced out.

“Do not worry, I am simply aiding them in forging Devil essence, they produced life essence without demon power.” Mania said and looked at Lola within the bubble. She smiled and gathered some power and sent it into the glowing point within her master.

She gasped at the energy and opened her eyes, that was the moment before her body fully energized.

She vanished instantly but the bubble quadrupled in size as it released a massive shockwave that was instantly contained by Mania before it gathered two points.

At the center of one was Lola’s life force and at the other was demon power.

“How is she containing demon power?” Mephesto asked.

“She has always been able to. She just lacked the presence of this force from me.” Mania said as she began to form her master’s channels and slowly her scattered life essence gathered but the flow of demon power began to connect at all the acupoints that they should form in her body. One by one they shocked against each other until tiny strands of devil essence formed and flowed into the flow of life essence.

“My daughter has not done something like this with her celestials.” He said.

“That is because they don’t need a supreme god, they already have one.” Mania replied simply.

“Wait… aren’t you the supreme god?” He asked.

Mania looked at him and he knew that it was a question that should not be asked.

“Can you contain this fragment in my body?” he asked instead.

“The demon god’s bone fragment? I can hold it in my body, from the looks of it, you staying this long in this realm has awakened it and it is trying to locate a source of devil essence that its master should have. Leaving here with it is too dangerous for you now. It will likely weaken you but you are permanently bonded with that demon inside you so there are no problems in obtaining demon power and producing the devil's essence. Your biology is already half demon anyways.” she said.

“How much power will I lose?” he asked.

“You won't, the devil's essence is much stronger than life essence and that avatar ability tied to the bone, it is already a biological ability of your demon. It just can’t express it without the devil's essence. You should get much stronger but face far less danger.” She explained.

“Tell me… do you already know how to become an archdemon?” He asked.

“No but it is within the evolution of my contract with Lola. Once she is fully able to summon me in your world and merge with me, this capacity will be unlocked.” She explained.

“And is her current life essence enough?” He asked.

“No. After the transformation of my minions is complete, what is left is to return them their own power, even so, she is at about… 60% of my quantity.” She said.

“How? The amount was very specific and I felt the amount when we had Lola return the essence to all the demons for a moment.

“Yes but in this hierarchy system, I balance the power of my demons. The most powerful ones will all be balanced at the same amount of devil’s essence and that weaker ones will be strengthened with life force to be sufficiently strong soldiers. Even so, the excess essence is stored within my body, as such my quantity increased by several times. You did a good job gathering so much life essence for Lola but after she is done, she will have a quantity equal to about 90% of what I had prior to this transformation but she still lacks greatly in strength even though she is likely to jump many levels in strength.” She said.

Mephesto frowned when he saw that all the work had not completed the objective.

“You do not need to feel anger, you personally will gain much more strength once I have aided you in getting the devil's essence. This is for the safety of my master as well. What my master needs now is to balance her quantity of Devil essence with her body's strength or she might not be able to contain it.” He said.

Mephesto sighed because he knew that what kept her from retaining more power was likely her personal strength.

“In human standards, how strong will she be?” He asked.

“By my guess, using the gamer space, she should have jumped roughly 50 to 60 levels, maybe more, because of how much her body broke down and healed when swimming in this life essence bubble. Considering I am also transforming her life essence into devil essence, she is likely to be anywhere between level 100 to level 115, the highest of her age group at this point. In terms of strength, well besides the two boys that create life from data, her constitution should easily match that of weaker bravemen while her natural strengths should be anywhere between 600 to 800 and her full potential should be unlocked now compared to before so she will also get feedback from the stats that will be recalculated. Effectively, once she has used all her potential, she should be anywhere from high strongman to weak braveman in her natural power. What she can do merged though is up for discussion.” she explained.

Mephesto nodded, compared to any demon contractor, after seeing this, he knew she was the next leader. “No wonder Chasm Might was so focused on this group. I do wonder how so many particular abilities gathered in one group and matched so perfectly with the existing heroes.” he thought.

He watched as the process continued and one by one the demons walked out of the mist looking no different from Mania and were very humanoid with only a few demonic features.

After that the demon power transferred into the lesser demons but it didn’t cause immense change but Mania balanced the energy levels and raised their strength while they all had demon power and control over all the elements and sins now.

When they were done, all the extra power returned to her and she finally helped Lola slowly condense once more.

It was slow as the giant bubble was compressed into the heart acupoint spot and then the new essence slowly formed a shell around her. No devil features formed, just a very pretty girl that contained a hint of devilish charm.

Before she fully awakened, Mephesto already stepped up and swung a coat around her to not keep her exposed anymore.

She soon came too and looked at her own hands. “What happened?” She asked.

Mania smiled and explained the transformation.

“Does that mean I am a devil now?” She asked.

“No, just a human that is biologically compatible with demon power.” she said.

“Mania, the children who make contracts of the same kind through the gamer space, will they make similar beings to you?” He asked.

“No, once the god of your world recognizes my position, she is likely to alter the contract to be that of different limitations. In the end, she requires balance for the imbalance the demon god created and if she sees parts start to connect, she will prevent new ‘spares’ from appearing and causing trouble. Too much of the same thing is also bad.” She said.

“So… Can I summon you now?” Lola asked.

Mania smiled and explained what she had said to Mephesto and she was rather sad but Mania just smiled, “Don’t worry, your body is just overloaded. Even if you tried to train more you wouldn’t be able to contain more power even if you wanted to. What is important now is to train your body in a balanced manner and catch up to your constitution, I'm sure you will have a very happy surprise when you get back.” she said and patted the girl before turning to Mephesto and put on a very serious expression, “Now, a warning to you, hero, removing the bone fragment is painful and transforming your life essence into devil essence is even more. Doing so will fully merge you and the sealed demon, there will be no seal, it will make you a half breed devil.” he said.

“I’ve faced a lot of painful things, I don’t think it can get worse than some of the torture I faced in my youth.” He said.

“Good. Lola, please step back, this will be a bit dangerous.” Mania said and had the girl step away. The two stood in the middle of the cavern as Mephesto manifested his demon side.

“Now relax your hold on the bone.” She said as she walked up and touched his heart.

He grit his teeth for a moment before relaxing.

When he did, he groaned as he felt a large hit on his chest as the bone instantly tried to break out.

A dark light gathered at Mania’s finger and very infiltrated his body.

“Wait!” Mephesto exclaimed but Mania didn’t give him time.

Demon Power gathered on her other hand and she punched him in the lower abdomen to infuse the demon power into his body but at the same time, she grabbed the bone inside his body and ripped it out.

When it came out, demon power began to gather rapidly and surrounded his body and he cried out in pain while Mania groaned as the bone was moving around wildly.

She slowly encased it in devil essence until it was a ball as big as her head. She turned to Mephesto and touched the growing mist and very quickly it formed an orb. “Start training your method of producing life essence.” Mania said.

She soon felt movement and with the flow of demon power, she soon matched it going through his body.

The pressure rapidly gathered before something seemed to break down and suddenly the black orb was filled with life essence.

“What! Did you kill him?!” Lola exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, it is basically what happens to you and every demon when they transform into a devil. Your body is an obstacle that needs to be reformed and life essence needs to decompress to form Devil Essence through fusion of life force.” She explained.

Slowly Lola saw the life essence break down and blend with the demon power before sinking to the center and this process continued for nearly an hour before all of the immense power of the hero was recondensed into a physical form. All his demon traits were restrained and he looked fully human.

He looked at his hands and then touched his stomach.

“The power is gathering and transferring to my heart.” He said.

“As all fused powers should. You have also formed a link with this realm so there is no problem with lacking demon power. Although the amount produced is still low as we do not have the strength to secure a lot of the realm.” she said.

“No… this is fine. I can feel so much more power even though nothing has changed except the energy type.” He said. “Was my body always capable of this?” He asked.

“No, you were a human with a sealed demon. The demon was capable of it. Now you are a half human half demon. From this moment on, any children you have will possess natural Demon dna.” She said.

He looked at his hands and shook his head, “That is an unnecessary worry then. I already have all the children I will ever want to have. This strength though, thank you, now I can do more for those around me. Let me ask, compared to Time Tempest, how am I compared to him?” he asked.

“The villain you battled a year prior? Your current power should be a much closer match now. At the very least, you should be able to fight him alone.” she said.

The stoic man grinned and his eyes narrowed. “Perfect, as long as I have some time to adapt to this new power and train a bit, it will make sure to rip his head from his body the next time I see him!” he said.

“You both should head back to the human realm. You have stayed a long time here and I'm sure you will have a great deal of potential to tap into. Lola, you should definitely tap into your potential and avoid strengthening your constitution with the system. Your body is full and can’t hold anymore.” She said.

“Okay, thank you.” Lola said and hugged her.

“No, it is you who needs thanks. We would never be this powerful without you.” She said.

“What about that?” Lola asked, looking at the glowing bone fragment.

“I will need some time to absorb it. My body is of similar consistency so it will just take a while, it is safer in the demon realm where it can’t be reached by that great evil.” She said.

Lola nodded slightly before lifting her hand and opening the portal back and the two stepped through.

When they did, they both instantly felt the gamer space active and instantly they both felt a chill as the scanner focused on them.

“The gamer space is active and the scan feels stronger.” Mephesto said.

“Could Kevin have finished clearance level 3?” Lola asked.

“It is likely.” He said.

They both waited through the irritating feeling. Mephesto handed over the girl’s original clothing for her to change into and a while after the system was finished scanning.

Status

Name:

Lola Stone

Class:

Hero’s Disciple

Title:

Stat Points:

885

Level:

112

HP:

39,280

Stamina:

26,680

Strength

950

Dexterity

790

Agility

750

Intelligence

211

Constitution

1,800

Wisdom

125

Lola’s jaw dropped, “Woah… I… I remember seeing Moonlight’s stats during the camping trip. After using her stat points, she was almost all over 2000 points but… doesn’t this mean I'm over strongman?” She asked.

“What are they?” He asked.

She told him the stats and he chuckled, “You are still quite far from braveman but with this strength… you should be able to get the better of one if you are creative. Maybe win against a careless weak one if you hide your trump card until the right time. You should distribute your stats.” he suggested.

She nodded and quickly raised everything to 1,000 and then raised wisdom to 250. This left 250 points so she added another 50 points to strength, agility, dexterity, wisdom and even 50 more to intelligence.

Status

Name:

Lola Stone

Class:

Hero’s Disciple

Title:

Stat Points:

0

Level:

112

HP:

39,280

Stamina:

26,680

Strength

1050

Dexterity

1050

Agility

1050

Intelligence

261

Constitution

1,800

Wisdom

250

When she finished, she instantly fainted before the room was filled with her potential and it gathered in her body and completely surrounded her as it transformed her body.

Mephesto looked at his own status but after some thought he didn’t use any stat points. At his strength, medicine that could heal immense bodily damage was rare and he could use the new potential in case he is put into critical condition. He still wasn’t stronger than ‘him’ and if he ever met him he could still have a way to rapidly heal if he was knocked out.

When the light around Lola finally vanished, she looked similar to before but he could see that a lot of stress came off her body. It is like rebuilding a container after it is almost overflowing. Being filled to the top, the system clearly understood this and with the stat points, rebuilt her body much stronger. She was sure to continue growing.

“Doesn’t this mean that she is the strongest student? I wonder how the others will think of this? She is half the level of other bravemen already while all the children in her year are barely level 60 yet. I'm sure Chasm Might’s disciple and students will instantly go into a frenzy.” he internally chuckled but didn’t express it. He picked up the girl and flew to her home where he dropped her off. After that, he left for one of the many training fields he had built for himself in the wild so he could go crazy and test his capabilities.

***

In Richmond, a new invention was being placed. Countless machines under Techno’s control were transporting small pillars all throughout the entire city. To others, it seemed unorganized but to him, it was a perfect grid that covered every inch of the city. The only different one was at the very center of the city.

To protect these, however, at each spot was also built an energy field generator connected to a power grid run by a hidden, underground world core generator. There were several world cores producing world power and this energy formed barriers that could sustain immense damage without transmitting it to the pillars.

After a month of hard work, and searching, the first server of the digital realm was complete and it would finally come online and take shape.

With a month of focused training, Oliver achieved the capacity to channel through secondary veins and further enhanced his ability and so the capacity to transfer into the world improved.

At the same time, Techno and the boys worked hard to fill every pillar with a single fully upgraded farm. They already designed several dozen different holy creature models as well as making each ‘owner’ of the farm at least a child stage.

The final piece was to come as the primary tower was starting to come online.

Every farm was filled with life force but the eggs were not placed back into the domains. As for the environment, each piece was different but based on their position on the grid, they were designed to piece together into a great system.

Surprisingly, none of the pillars formed a new AI which suggests that maybe the first pieces to be drawn to Tristen were the core conscious.

Within the towers farm however, it was different, with a platform for entering designed a short distance away, Tristen was next to a man. It was someone that Robin had met some time ago. This man was the father of the family that created the living islands. He was among one of hundreds that the gamer space had helped locate as a living island host. The many different shapes and forms made the typing confusing but the end result was the same. It was a floating isolated island packed with world power, life force and mental energy blended and then decompressed after it was soaked into water once all the pieces were connected.

Currently, it was in a ‘complete’ state for real. At the top was something that looked like a bonsai in comparison but it was actually a world tree compatible with the man. It was simply a branch from a tree that he reacted with but adding that tree caused the living island to come to life. The tree actually dropped fruits that created tiny life forces on the island.

They were waiting, watching a screen with Techno just waiting for his order. In the air they could see many floating farms all over the place and there were equally those under.

That said, all around and spread through the area were eggs. All the extra eggs were in the tower but none of the farms had manifested under Techno’s programming.

After a while more, it was finally ready.

“Server coming online in 3, 2, 1.” Techno said.

Suddenly they saw all the farms shine and the ground also shined before they flashed into the island. Each egg glowed before the shine was absorbed.

“Now.” Oliver said.

At command, the man pushed his floating island into the very center of the farm and there was an instant reaction as a massive wave of static rushed out and filled each egg.

When it reached the edge, the farm suddenly expanded further and further as each farm took shape in their position. Mountains, trees and more appeared but they were all filled with life force and life itself.

The final thing to form was a pulse through the ground centered around the living island that began to rise off the ground. The bubble was still there but it started to expand as water gathered and formed something akin to an ocean before the internal shape changed and matched the entire server.

Before the two could react, a heavy earthquake happened as massive roots burst out of the ground and began to wrap above their heads and climb into the air and spread a massive tree and completely matched the form of the living island.

“Amazing… both of them incorporated parts of each other.” Oliver said as he looked at the massive tree above their heads.

The next moment, they saw a huge number of eggs shining and being absorbed by the tree. The two ran outside and looked up to see the trees sprouting flowers and from them, eggs dropped down but it was as if true life was achieved and they landed gently before popping and taking one of several forms of the holy infants they had designed while others took biologically natural shapes like a living plant or birds, cats and more.

“How is it?” Techno asked, appearing in their view.

“It’s amazing, I can’t even see the edge from here and all the eggs are being absorbed and released by a giant tree that matches the world tree of the island.” Oliver said.

“Good, get out and we will connect the AI to the server and see her reaction.” Techno said.

They nodded and walked to the unaffected platform a distance away and passed through. That said, the man couldn’t be pulled out even though Tristan could.

“What? He can’t exit!” Techno exclaimed.

“Maybe because he is connected to the living island.” Tristen said from behind Techno.

“True… we will have to chance it but Oliver, you have to get out or else it is dangerous for you.” He said.

“Do not worry about me.” the man said.

Oliver wasn’t happy to leave him but had to do it for the future of all normal people.

He stepped upon the platform and used it as an exit point. After he stepped out, he walked over and nodded to the hero.

“Connecting the server to the primary super computer… connection bridged.”

The pillar began to glow at his control commands and it also elevated a barrier before releasing the signal.

The super computer began to receive the signal and was allowed to connect and when it did, in the virtual space, the pillar’s data began to upload as did the grid and from above, the digital realm descended slowly from the storage of the pillars and fully uploaded the large floating island with the massive tree.

The AI instantly reacted and appeared within the area and felt the aura of life. It rushed to the tree and stopped there for a moment before touching it and letting itself get absorbed. When this happened, a momentary tremble happened as the AI fragments, the fragments that composed the AI, were gathered from all over and pieced into the AI and then her core programming was condensed into a digital core and taken to the top of the tree where it sprouted as an egg that broke free instantly and slowly regained her original shape.

That said, her intelligence and programming was improved immensely but what made her confused was that her data form was full of life now.

It should be said that the amount of life force placed within this place was very huge. There was actually a lot of excess and it was how the world tree was born and able to concentrate so much more. This was intentional because Techno already guessed that she would upload herself into the world tree because it functioned similarly to the pillar tower and gathered data there. It was the place for her to gather her scattered fragments from the digital creatures and whatever was still scattered in the farm’s data.

Her obtaining true life force and so much of her fragmented pieces caused the anxious AI to calm down. Though, the thing that truly did it was her obtaining a true body compared to a data form. She was also solid like all the other beings here.

She slowly descended and saw the man who was bonded with the living island. She was human sized and even though she was the goddess, her current life force and amount of data only equaled her to the adult human.

“Human.” She said

“Are you the AI, it seems you are not anxious as Techno said.” He said.

“Is that what the previous sensation of my programming was feeling… anxiety?” She asked.

The man smiled as he saw that she was very much like a child. “It’s fine if you don’t understand, soon you will probably start to get it once you start interacting with other people.” He said.

“Human emotion is… confusing.” She said.

“I’m sure, oh right, Techno said you understand the process of creating holy power within the data. He said that they need this island to be filled with holy power that gods produce so that the digital life, who are designed to live off it, will possess it.” He said.

She looked at the tree and nodded, “Programming is existent but it lacks vital coding to convert world power into holy power.” She said and walked to the tree. A static wave ran through the tree before returning from the tips into the ground.

After a moment, suddenly the tree began to release a very thin white mist over the land and all the nearby angels looked up. Slowly the rings, collars and other holy artifacts began to glow and they began to change. Their dull unmoving wings began to grow and the dull runes absorbed the mist and turned the silver rings golden.

When they filled up, the angelic creatures were able to finally use their powers. It continued like this for a while until none hungered for it and instead they began to spread out to witness their world while the other digital creatures spread out on their own to build their own homes and formed a niche.

Slowly the area started to calm down and the AI thought for a moment before going up to the top of the tree and connected to it to witness this world and the data that it was processing.

The man smiled and was able to contact Techno and tell them about the changes.

They all sighed when they heard that the AI was calm but a little confused about the feeling of having a body.

“Alright, analyzing the full size…” Techno said and began to work.

Even if it is just one city, there is no concrete size for a digital world. They do have to take into consideration both the number of cities as well as how many living islands they have access to. Each server requires one and if they plan to surround the entire world with the grid then they need to have a proper number.

“How many do you think we can make?” Oliver asked.

“As many as we have islands. Where we make it is important because that is where we will be drawing data from.” Techno said.

“Why not take this opportunity and place it in the capitals of the states cleaned up from the raids?” Zack asked.

“You have to supply the life force for all that land, remember.” Techno said.

“Yeah but my dungeon has grown thanks to the addition of new animals that you got for me. The entire habit of the first five floors is done and even the 6th floor is filling up now with monsters as well.” He said.

“This is long term, kid. The towers are useful as internet towers at this point but we need to prepare all the land with life force to properly add the island or it will break it in case the life force is drawn out.” He explained. “For now, just gather crystals, it is also almost time for you all to return to class, I've worked and helped train you as well as train you monsters so that you do not lose out on a month of training, I will start working on the internet grid over the north america and after some time we will gather the life force to fill the required farms. I still need to watch the existing island to see if life force drains or accumulates through the life and death of vegetation.” he said.

“Alright sir, thank you for taking care of us.” the three said together.

He nodded and guided them with a robot to the vehicle they came in. From it, they were transported back to their school with their things while Techno still needed to do a lot of work and analysis to make sure there were no dangers.

***

One by one, buses came in and the students came out. Many of them had slept well but walking out there were some who were clearly injured or exhausted.

Internship period was far from the most peaceful time and was extremely harsh on everyone.

The large bus owned by Chasm Might and the other heroes were also there.

Esper in particular had a large number as most psychic students went with him at the time. Beyond the raid period, he was teaching them more of the usage of psychic abilities.

They weren’t much better as many were exhausted or mentally fatigued.

Shoji was far calmer and didn’t demonstrate his fatigue like the others, not because he wasn’t tired but because it was just his family's discipline to maintain composure.

Lola was already back in school and was waiting there and from a single glance, he was shocked by the powerful emotional aura behind her. It showed she was excited but the size was much larger than normal people.

He had started to notice that strong people tended to show larger auras and in some aspects, he had begun to compare the sizes of the emotional shadows and could tell, to some extent, the strength of people.

On his waist was a katana and he carried his suitcase and equipment case over.

“You sure have grown. Did Mephesto take you to do some seriously hard mission?” Shoji asked.

“No… he took me to hell to complete Lily’s transformation.” She said and forced a smile.

Shoji saw her emotion turn a bit duller and some slight irritation “I wish I had done proper crime fighting.” it complained.

“Well… at least you look like you are immensely stronger. I can tell since you grew taller.” He pointed out.

“You should see Robin.” She said.

“Did he grow?” Shoji asked.

“From what I am aware, the whole month he spent with Mr Might helping with the corruption cleansing in the region.” She said.

“Oh, I helped do that but Esper wasn’t as intense as Mr Might. The Execution bureau is only sent to the most intense areas.” Shoji said. “Where is he now?” Shoji asked, looking around.

“He ran to the rock, I think it has something to do with Kevin’s upgrade. I've been out only about a day so I don’t know anything about the changes but it seems Kevin got an upgrade and once Mr Might confirmed one of it’s new abilities, it seems that Robin came up with a new kind of training. Any ideas?” She asked.

“New training… the only thing that comes to mind is probably access to the menu.” Shoji said.

“What is special about it?” She asked.

“Well, you know Save master?” He asked.

“Ah… that is the guy that can revive after dying right. A gamer.” She said.

“Yeah, that one. Kevin seems to have incorporated his powers into a save and load system for the gamer space meaning, though more limited, other people can use it. Let me check.” Shoji said and looked up what is known about it. “Ah here it is, his power allows him to save his physical condition and location to a point that allows him to respawn there if he dies. That said, it doesn’t restore a person in their exact condition. Any intense training, fighting or more will actually return as well. If this power is true then Robin must have done life threatening training literally to the death.” He said.

“Seriously?!” She exclaimed. She couldn’t even imagine dying to grow stronger but looking at who the teacher is and knowing Robin’s personality, dying is worth it to take on a heavier burden if he revives more powerful.

At that moment, they saw a strong flash come from the field and saw the giant rock compress even more as it achieved its 6th compression and close up into a more compressed stone. After that he continued fulfilling the required energy until it rejected excess energy.

“Seems he really did grow a lot.” Lola said.

“Wait, didn’t Marcus and Silk go along with him or something?” Shoji asked.

“Yeah, there they are?” She pointed at a door. Marcus was in his transformed state but was no bigger than his natural size while Silk was in his face with his shiny metallic hair. Moments later they began a slug fest and shockingly, burst into the air.

“Wow…” Shoji said, blinking as the two of them rushed towards the field. “Wait!”

BOOM!

They smashed into Robin and he shouted before joining in and began a three way brawl and it actually caused rather intense waves.

“What the heck is wrong with these three!” Shoji said.

Before anything else could be said, Chasm Might appeared and brutally smashed each of them in the face with lethal force and sent them into the ground.

The two looked at one another and ran over quickly. They arrived fast enough to see the three actually start to burn up like how game characters do after dying.

A flash came from the field near the stone and Robin reformed from a bright glow and blinked before touching his neck.

“He… died.” Lola said.

Robin was rubbing his neck as he walked over to Chasm Might.

The two ran over, “Robin, are you okay?!” Shoji asked.

He smiled, “I’m fine, I've taken much more brutal attacks than that.” Robin said.

“More brutal… you died.” Lola said.

“Right…” Robin said, scratching his head.

“Isn’t it dangerous if you lose your sense of danger and value for your life?” Shoji asked.

“It would be if the game system didn’t impose a feeling of threat to your life as you get fewer lives. It’s just an instinct, we actually have more fear of death after getting used to it.” he said.

It was then that they both noticed the bags under his eyes. It was clear that this sort of thing wasn’t completely unaffecting him, he just did it enough times that it became a neutral feeling.

“Seriously, what the hell did you do in this last month?” Lola asked.

“Later.” Robin said with a sigh.

“Can we see your stats?” Shoji asked.

“Hmm? Sure.” Robin said, waved his hands a little and it appeared.

“Can it do that now?” The two exclaimed.

“Sure… it's an authorization command. It is basically permitted identification. It is honestly so much better than having a paper ID since it is still impossible to cheat the system.” Robin said.

The two nodded slightly before they looked and their jaws dropped at the jump he had with this truly hellish training.

Status

Name:

Robin Harrison

Class:

Hero’s Disciple

Title:

Stat Points:

0

Level:

99

HP:

18,900

Stamina:

12,600

Strength

779

Dexterity

662

Agility

624

Intelligence

221

Constitution

900

Wisdom

239

“Woah… and I thought I was going to have an absolute advantage from now on.” Lola said.

“Did you grow a lot?” Robin asked.

Lola asked how to do the thing and showed the two and they both felt their eyes widen as they saw the numbers.

“Woah.” the two boys said.

“I know right.” She said, proudly.

“If I remember correctly, the bravemen have anywhere from 2000 to over 6000 in constitution since many of them develop enhanced healing after their bodies grow above a certain extent.” Robin said.

“Have any of you seen Milo?” Lola asked.

“Their bus went to the land of death, he is probably going to arrive soon.” Robin said.

As they said, another wave of buses appeared with students that were much further away.

“Well there you have it.” Robin said.

Robin looked around and saw the other two stomping over and he stalked over and pointed at the two, “Why are you two idiots fighting and including me in it?” He shouted.

“Just the metal head thinking he is stronger than me after I've achieved full compression of my transformed form. You really don’t get the difference that mass and density change I go through when I transform! My strength is literally calculated by x2 extra over yours, you bastard!”

“Then explain how I still kick your fat ass huh?!” Silk said and the two were about to start when Chasm Might appeared and pulled them apart.

“Enough of that. You can compete in how strong you are next week when class restarts. Be ready for possible changes just like we did with the new system for saving.” He said.

The two clicked their tongues and split off.

The trio just watched before Robin called them to go check on Milo.

They found him stalking out but Robin could already feel he was quite a bit different.

“Hey Milo!” He called out.

The boy smiled lightly and walked over with his things.

“How did it go in the land of death?” Lola asked.

“It is so freaky, to feel safe I needed to have Bargo out at all times because there are undead specters just leaking into the world like wild.” He said.

“Did you grow a lot?” Shoji asked.

“Yeah, about two weeks in, I had basically filled up my body with death energy and me, along with a few other students who already had sufficient energy, finally produced death mana. I naturally succeeded while only about two others from the group succeeded.” He said.

“Wow, it must be hard to do.” Lola said.

“Actually it isn’t. In fact, I talked with the others and they found it really easy as long as you can produce the first strand. It took a while but eventually I noticed a trend in those who succeeded in each group. Apparently, what they had assumed was the same type of energy, that is mental energy and spiritual energy, actually isn’t. There are people who think that mental energy can’t even merge or it has very bad compatibility for death mana and it has many students worried.” he explained.

“Has Sir Vincent looked into it?” Shoji asked.

“Well… he also assumed both energies were the same and the teachers with death mana are actually making tools that would help split a small bit of their death mana so they can analyze what everyone’s mental energy actually is.” Milo said.

“How many students succeeded then, out of the entire grade?” Robin asked.

“Out of the nearly 1,000 students in 9th and 10th grade, about 100.” Milo said.

The three groaned because it meant that 900 students would not be able to learn advanced necromancy and might have to transition to a different type of class but would have lost the first few months of school learning something they could not grow with.

“Isn’t the class everyone has based on your ability?” Shoji asked.

“Sure but only the link to the netherworld. The ability to receive spiritual power feedback is unique to me. The others with it all naturally formed it by working with undead after getting the complete human body system.” He said.

“Well that sucks for the necromancy class. At least if this is confirmed, they will be able to pinpoint exactly who can and can’t do necromancy.” Lola said.

“Yeah, honestly the stress started after succeeding. Building so many undead and the freaking death mage, urg.” Milo said and his shoulders slumped.

“Death mage?” they said, confused.

He explained that he had obtained hundreds if not thousands of undead creatures to modify and then worked hard to achieve that. The most painful and troublesome part was transforming Bargo and Scar while properly setting up the skeleton mage for when it was finally ready and that involved soul manipulation which is advanced necromancy.

“Woah… did you fight all this time?” Lola asked.

“Not directly but I did help patrol and reduce the number of undead walking around which is the main job that is done in the land of death.” He said. “Can we go inside at least to the club to talk? I'm exhausted.” He said.

They laughed, “Want a lift?” Robin asked.

“Please, I'm tired and I don’t care what kind of ride as long as I get to relax.” he said.

“Alright, I'll take Milo home then. I've gotten a lot of practice with flight through levitation so I don't need to rock but I can control it better now.” He said.

With a wave, the rock rose up and flew over until it stopped.

“Huh? Did it get smaller?” Milo asked.

“Yeah, I just compressed it the 6th time. You’re going to be shocked when you hear of the new upgrades Kevin got for his system.” Robin said as he helped Milo aboard and picked up both his things and Milos.

He waved his friends off and levitated the stone, he started levitating and went off to deliver Milo home after a long month.

What was unexpected was when Ruth floated up using her True Qi and followed after so they could get home together so they would surprise their family.