Second Genesis

Grey laughed, pulling his sword back and reaching a hand down to help Chogh up. The big man looked some perfect mix of absolutely pissed and embarrassed.

He knocked Grey’s hand away and pushed himself up with his sword, grumbling.

He half wanted to challenge Grey again immediately, but there was something weird about what just happened that he couldn’t shake off. There had been three chances for him to regain control, and every time he just felt like he couldn’t.

Then to make matters worse, he kept slipping like a rookie even though he had focused everything he could on not doing exactly that.

It was like Grey had been constantly targeting the points he was the weakest in and exploiting them again and again.

"Ah, suit yourself." Grey said with a shrug. He had met plenty of sore losers on the mat, this wasn’t new to him at all.

"How did you do that?" Blain asked, looking at Grey seriously.

In fact, he wasn’t the only one. Skinny was also doing the same, and there was one other as well. He wore glasses that were giving off elite "sleep build" vibes. The sort of guy who sat quietly at the back of a classroom, but then could suddenly roll up his sleeves to show off his veiny forearms of destruction.

Looking at the guy, Grey could only pray on behalf of the former’s dick for better days.

’Puberty will pass. You might see a woman yet.’

"Do what?" Grey asked knowingly.

"You know what. Don’t hold back on us." Blain said.

"I just got lucky. I advanced an Ability to Active Link."

Blain’s eyes widened. "Holy shit. No wonder that old codger wanted you. I did feel the shift in the field, but I half thought it was Chogh. That guy’s always trying to oppress people with his Resonant Neural Frame."

Reaching Active Link before gaining their Holy Abilities was almost unheard of. Maybe only one or two people per cycle might succeed in doing that.

Right now, the only two people who had managed it in this block were Blain himself and Mr. Forearms of Destruction. Chogh was close and only had a few days left to see if he could manage it. But other than that, no one else could even remotely get there.

But Grey was at the very beginning of his cycle and still had a whole three months left to grow and progress.

On top of that, Goblin Warlord Spirit was thousands of times more complex than the Abilities the two of them had managed to progress to Active Link.

"Do people talk about the old bastard a lot?" Grey asked out of curiosity.

Blain laughed. For a moment, he had been worried because he let that comment slip on accident. But it seemed Grey didn’t really care what they called his master.

"Well, the city doesn’t have that many in the Vanguard Class. As far as I know, there’s just Bishop Calixan, Baroness Auma, Sir Ovaal, and Sir Trolley. So you can say you’re under the tutelage of one of the four strongest people in the city. Though, he is past his prime and the oldest of them.

"As far as I know, he’s never taken in a disciple before, so this is pretty unprecedented territory. We were all interested to meet you."

’There’s a fifth for sure. Baron Giyoto must be hiding his true strength.’

Grey hadn’t exactly scanned Baron Giyoto, but he was certain the man was powerful beyond the Vector Class. He was definitely on the same level as Edmun.

But it also made Grey curious. It sounded like a lot of people had tried to get Edmun to teach them, but he had always said no. The old man also didn’t have a wife or children.

Yet, he made it sound like the reason he took Grey in was because he was bored. If he was so bored, why wouldn’t he have taken in disciples before?

"So, we’ve all been curious. How many Free Stats did becoming Sir Trolley’s disciple give you?" Blain asked in a whisper as though everyone wasn’t already listening in.

"Is it variable?" Grey asked.

"Of course it is!" a squire who couldn’t have been more than 14 years old poked his head out from between Blain and Skinny, looking at Grey intently. "My master only gave me 20..."

The boy’s voice trailed off like he was about to go and cry.

Blain elbowed the boy in the gut and pushed him back.

"Squirt is right. Anything over 50 is already excellent, but it’s also been a while since Sir Ovaal took in a disciple. Last I heard his most recent disciple received over 100."

Grey could see their eyes lighting up as though they would rip him to pieces if he didn’t tell them. Clearly, they had been speculating for a while.

He smiled. It almost felt like he was in school again.

"Does it even matter? He didn’t let me use them."

Blain waved a hand. "They’re all like that. It’s easier to focus on training abilities when you’re not also focused on adapting to new stats. Once you have the Abilities, the stats come more naturally after the fact."

"Tell us!"

"Yeah, tell us!"

"Tell us!" Squirt chipped in again, rubbing his aching chest.

Grey shook his head and laughed. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell or not, but at this point, there seemed to be only two options.

Either he lied or he told the truth.

It wasn’t as simple a decision as he thought.

On the one hand, hiding his cards was probably better. But the ones he really needed to hide from—the Producers—probably already knew everything. So what was the point?

Plus, as much as he wanted to be a recluse and hate everyone, Grey had always been a social animal. He liked talking, he loved bantering, he had more friends than he could count back on Earth. He just didn’t like the feeling of isolation these Games had continuously forced him into.

Even if he was backstabbed by Amunet, he still just wanted to believe in the good in people, to trust them for as long as they didn’t give him a reason not to.

So, in the end, he chuckled one more time and held up two fingers.

At first, Blain was confused and then his eyes went wide.

"Holy fucking shit..."

The realization hit the others in waves and then the commotion boiled over into a frenzy. Grey had no idea how he managed to get out of there, but he was pretty sure Squirt kept trying to climb onto his back in all the chaos.

The good thing about making friends was that there was a lot you could learn without having to be too overt.

Like how upon becoming an official Holy Knight, they would all be issued their own spatial items.

And how all of those spatial items were stored in the very same location in the Church Palace.

Or how a certain tool belt had been added to a pile of them just a day ago.