Jon’s figure was little more than blur as he rushed through the northern streets of inner city Melbourne. [Bestial Intuition] and [Eyes Through The Looking Glass] searching for clear traces of lingering mana in the atmosphere, darting between side streets and alleyways.

  It was barely six-thirty; bright, and during the height of summer.

  The streets were busier than usual, perhaps a combination of the good weather and time of year. Jon rushing past groups of families and youthful-looking couples, teeth gritted while his Knowledge Mana Core continued to flow spiritual energy into his two abilities.

  ‘Time natured spiritual energy! What an annoying pain in the arse!’

  Several pedestrians turning their heads in clear surprise, watching as he rushed down the streets of North Melbourne. His figure, height and hair colour all eye-catching, alongside the discolouration between his left and right hands.

  The speed at which he sprinted down the concrete streets was quite impressive as well. His stride exceeding some of the slower cars that drove through the streets, turning corners and bursting forward with an incredible amount of momentum and kinetic energy.

  Jon even heard one guy whistle in appreciation, watching him run alongside one particularly slow vehicle. The passive enhancements granted to him by his Seir-Perpetual Heart and Murmur-Arhat Marrow pushed his physical capabilities beyond anything uninitiated humans were capable of, reminding him to dial back his physicality when out in the open.

  His Knight-level physique was more than enough to turn heads.

  Adding ability effects into the mix was an easy way to catch the kind of attention that he had intended on avoiding. All of his other abilities, other than his Fragment Of Instinct and Fragment Of Eyes were pulled back from the forefront of his mind as he turned another corner, eyes twitching as though something was warning him.

  [Bestial Intuition].

  Golden-green eyes locked with a pair of sky-blue irises. The latter widening, both in shock and surprise as a six-feet-tall man threatened to crash into her, unconsciously clutching at the purse hanging from her shoulder.

  Eyes shut so as to avoid watching the inevitable collision-.

  The woman braced herself, wincing in preparation for the impact. Her expression, brows furrowed and eyes closed, slowly twisted into one of confusion and befuddlement as the near-certain collision between herself and this man never came.

  The sound of her best friend’s voice echoing out behind her.

  “Hey! Watch where you’re going man!” Audrey shouted, Elizabeth lifting her head and glancing towards her taller, blonde-haired friend. Eyes darting toward the man sprinting down the street; moving further and further away from them by the second.

  “Sorry!” He shouted, only to disappear around another corner.

  Infinitesimally minute wisps of ice natured spiritual energy seeping out from his Ice Mana Core, enhancing his physical capabilities for a fraction of a second so as to avoid crashing into that young woman. The snowflake-shaped wisps, imperceptible to the uninitiated mortal, each dissolved the moment their transient existence contacted their flesh and spirit. Ice natured spiritual energy, unravelling, or perhaps melting, against their mortal warmth

  Causing shivers to creep down the length of their spines.

  Elizabeth, the one that Jon had almost knocked over, softly rubbing the goosebumps that crept down the length of her arm. Her clothing, which was originally thin and somewhat exposing, now seemed woefully insufficient, as though someone had poured a bucket of ice over her mind and spirit.

  Audrey, her friend, also felt something similar. Although was more worried about how her friend was feeling than her own well-being.

  “Are you alright, Liz?” Audrey asked.

  Her friend nodding her head slightly, barely visible even up close.

  “… Yeah. I think so. Just feeling cold all of a sudden.” Elizabeth muttered, continuing to rub her arms, feeling a growing chill stretch towards her arms and legs.

  Jon did not realize what had happened to the two women that he had just ran passed. His control over his various Mana Cores and the spiritual energy each produced was near-perfect, at least while said spiritual energy was internalized within the confines of his flesh, mind, and spirit.

  The momentary burst of ice natured spiritual energy that had seeped out after activating [Ours Is The Blood That Births Winter And Ice] caused miniscule wisps of mana to flow outwards from his body, seeping into the air around him; the earth and plants that laid beneath his feet.

  And into those closest to him at the time-.

  ‘Where the hell did this guy go!?’

  ‘Time. Space. Shadow and even Wind Mana Cores?!’

  ‘He is leaving traces of spiritual energy all over the place, but his abilities are too focused on movement and spatial displacement, preventing me from getting a lock on him.’

  ‘Why is he even using so many of his abilities in quick succession in the first place!? Is someone chasing him? Did he encounter some of the local authorities and is attempting to make a swift getaway? Did he expose himself to a group of uninitiated humans by accident?’

  Jon clenched his jaw, detecting another faint ripple of time natured spiritual energy. His gait and stride coming to a complete and utter halt as he turned around, sprinting off in the direction where he came from.

  Wind natured spiritual energy emanating from his three o’clock, prompting him to shift his attention in said direction. Followed by another burst of water natured spiritual energy towards his nine o’clock, forcing him to change directions once again.

  Jon more than tempted to slightly overload his Fragment Of Heart and Fragment Of Marrow. The increase to his physical capabilities would grant him more than enough strength and speed to keep up with multiple teleportation-type abilities, given his grasp over the surrounding areas.

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  [Violet Doors Of Janus Quirinus] was another potential option, but one that he wanted to leave as a last resort considering how visually striking the spell effect could be.

  “Just use your Seir-Perpetual Heart Jon. One mutation in conjunction with your Title should be more than enough to let you catch a glimpse of this person. You accidentally released a small burst of ice natured spiritual energy at that intersection a few hundred metres back.”

  “No point in trying to constrain yourself now.” Rana said.

  Jon often found himself agreeing with the Earth Reincarnation Womb.

  This time was no different.

  Spiritual energy flowing from his Ice Mana Core into his Fragment Of Heart, causing the rhythmic beating of his heart to slow even further, ice natured spiritual energy saturating his heart, surrounding muscles and the blood that flowed within.

  Jon turned his attention towards another burst of space natured spiritual energy, placing all of his weight on his back foot, whipping his head around and focusing on that singular direction. Calves tensing, building up kinetic energy for half-a-second before bursting forth, the concrete beneath him cracking, giving the impression that someone had struck the sidewalk with a brick or sledgehammer.

  His figure fast enough to match the speeds of cars on the road, albeit within a suburban residential area.

  Hades-Draconian Shadow shooting forward in front of him, slithering across the reinforced-bitumen, flowing underneath parked cars and through the shadows of the trees that lined either side of the road. His senses merging with the Fragment Of Draconian-Shadow, peering through its innumerable eyes as it searched for the source of these bursts of spiritual energy.

  Street after street did his two-dimension shadow pass, looking for traces of this figure.

  Time after time was Jon forced to change directions, feeling another burst of spiritual energy emanate several hundred metres down the road.

  Again and again did Jon clench his teeth and bite down on his lower lip, pushing himself in order to catch this annoying little-.

  ‘There! At my eight o’clock!’

  A two-metre-tall figure manifesting several dozen feet away. Cloaked in a Mortal Ranked spiritual item, Jon observed the particles of wistful-wind natured spiritual energy accompany the appearance of this hooded figure.

  The sound of their dual-heartbeats pounding within their chest caused the corners of Jon’s mouth curl upwards. Activating his Fragment Of Battle-Deception without hesitation, Jon allowed himself to be cloaked in a thin-veil of war natured spiritual energy.

  [Inverted Fool, Advancing Against Life And Death].

  ‘There’s no way I’m letting this guy go without answering a few of my questions first!’

  It was still daylight, and the flickering haze of war natured spiritual energy stuck out like a sore thumb. Motes of spiritual energy crumbling off Jon’s greater whole, saturating the earth and trees with traces of war-related concepts.

  His Fragment Of Ward activated seconds after. Weave natured spiritual energy flowing from his Mana Core down into his fingers, swiftly woven into the shape of a six-petalled rosette.

  A false faerie ward manifesting itself around him, imbued into the earth and air as though a painter flicking his brush against a blank canvas. The structure and intent behind his ward formation was simple, albeit significantly limited.

  Prevent anyone without spiritual energy from noticing this location.

  [Spiritual Weave Art; False Faerie Ward].

  An expansive wave of weave natured spiritual energy rippled outwards, enveloping both Jon and this two-metre-tall figure within his concealment ward. His sudden burst of mana caused the cloaked figure to immediately turn around, yellowish-brown eyes widening in response to Jon’s appearance.

  Time natured spiritual energy unconsciously surging within him, inching closer and closer towards his Fragment Of Cessation. Although its effects would be limited, considering his dwindling reserves of time natured spiritual energy, hopefully it would be able to buy him at least a handful of seconds so that he could-.

  “Va’toosh, dohaeres (Calm yourself, friend,)” Jon shouted, watching as the hooded man paused, lifting his head ever-so-slightly. The words that Jon had just spoken was a language that he had not heard in quite some time, at least, not from another living, sapient lifeform.

  The hooded figure watched as Jon lifted his hands, gesturing for peace and indicating his lack of aggression. Although vermiton culture was often regarded as brutish and somewhat barbaric by the other races within Springtown, Jon found them the easiest to get along with, given how simple some aspects of their culture could be.

  Biting the tip of his thumb, Jon bit down hard enough to draw blood, allowing it to pool in the palm of his Tabitha-Cedarspear Arm. After five drops had gathered, Jon extended his hand forward, remembering the rules of vermiton society that Amadeus had taught him.

  Every word that he uttered, was done in Raa’vash, so as to soothe this man’s worries.

  “In accordance with the Vavina and her house of peace, I offer you my blood, willingly spilt, so that no battle nor bloodshed shall occur this day. What say you-.”

  Minerva-Infiltration Eyes observing the name that the System had identified him as.

  “Jugen Alhaiven?”

  Break.

  Jugen Alhaiven; Wordsmith Of Time And Wind sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him. The voices of those ‘humans’ trailing quickly behind him, accompanied by four-legged canines whose bite was much worse than their bark.

  His scales slick with blood and sweat, eyes darting around from side to side, trying to figure out the best way to escape this facility the humans had brought him to. Abzu-Dichotomous Hearts pounding in unison, filling his flesh with a powerful surge of water natured spiritual energy.

  Although he had not expected to obtain a heart-mutation from a Fragment Of Duality, he was more than pleased with the effects that it granted him. It filled his form with a strength that exceeded that of any strange creature or mutated beast within the System Introduction, giving him a level of freedom that allowed him to wander freely through vast forests and overgrown jungles.

  He had been in one said jungle before the System Introduction came to a swift and sudden halt. The intervention of “Raindream Evergarden,” “Thoros Ulrik-Cheltigar,” and “Phoebus Cressida” had caused small realm designation “732-GFS” to fragment and shatter, sending him several million light years away from his home world and onto some strange foreign land.

  One filled with concrete towers and with mechanical demon beasts that uninitiated mortals could control and manipulate. A world filled with wonders; a technological paradise that Jugen had not even begun to scratch the surface of.

  At least-.

  “Target sighted! Heading north along the 81!”

  “Have we managed to obtain helicopter assistance yet?”

  “Let the dogs loose! Hopefully they’ll be able to chase after the beast!”

  These ‘humans’ responded negatively to his presence. Although Jugen was not capable of understanding their words or meaning, he was more than capable of understanding their actions and intent.

  These humans… wanted to hurt him.

  And vermitons… never shied away from a fight.

  The Wordsmith Of Time And Wind manifested Aggronia; Schwarzschild Light-Behemoth allowing her to wreak havoc throughout the groups of uninitiated humans. Although he felt it was somewhat unfair, using abilities against mortals without access to spiritual energy, the ‘humans’ outnumbered him one-thousand-to-one.

  Aggronia was more than capable of fending them off, biding time for him to escape.

  His eyes gazing towards a passing train, watching as it carried hundreds of humans towards a location that he could only imagine.

  “There will be others…” Aggronia said, returning back to her Fragment Of Behemoth.

  “Others from the System Introduction.”

  “Perhaps one of them might know why the Angel Of Green and Angel Of Desire sought to circumvent the System’s authority, breaching your System Introduction and forcing its participants to every corner of your newly integrated universe?”

  Jugen nodded his head, knowing that Aggronia had never once led him astray.

  The corners of his mouth curling upwards.

  “Who knows?”

  “Perhaps I’ll even earn myself a Memento Source Fragment along the way?”

  Aggronia snorted.

  “I would much prefer you to just settle for a friend at this point.”

  Jugen paused his stride, walking alongside the train tracks that led towards his unknown destination. His Mana Cores left mostly empty after his encounter with those armoured humans, wind brushing against his scales.

  His yellowish-brown eyes gazing towards the settle sun in the distance, smiling as he journeyed towards it.

  “… A friend wouldn’t be so bad either, I guess.”