LONE: The Journey Beyond

Awakened abilities!

In simple terms, they were the talents, skills or capacities to bring out a supernatural phenomenon.

The Ardor was the agent which activated such abilities in certain individuals.

These abilities were of many different kinds, but they could mostly be classified into one of the two broad categories.

The long ranged abilities, which had immense fire-power but didn't enhance the physicality of an individual, namely Conjure-type abilities.

Or, the short ranged abilities, which didn't carry much fire-power but heavily enhanced the physicality of an individual, namely Augment-type abilites.

A person was either called a Conjurer or an Augmentor based on what kind of abilities he/she Awakened.

Of course, there were certain abilities which could do both, like Reven's [Transmutation].

These type of abilites fell into a special category, namely the Versatile-type abilities.

The individuals who Awakened such type of abilities were called Adaptors.

-----

December, 2130.

A week passed since Reven's awakening.

During this week, Reven hired many employees for his company.

The employees mainly consisted of the workers for the industrial productions with a team of five people managing them.

Reven also talked to Aimee regarding the Guild. He discussed how they can use the company to support the Guild by sponsoring it, while at the same time, the Guild can provide safety to the company.

Aimee agreed to the proposal and decided to become the temporary CEO of the company.

Finally, with everything set here, it was time to leave for Africa.

The MHS left using the sea route boarding their ship at Elpis, the port city.

"Geena, do you have any prior data of the mission?" Felix asked Geena.

"Not much. But, from the data gathered and the satellite images it is clear that their base is formed at a place which acts as a natural fortress." Geena replied with a sharp glint in her eyes.

"This clarifies that these monsters can think." Aleena interjected.

Indeed!

These monsters had the capability to think on par with the humans.

"They also have an advantage as the area is mostly covered with forests." Jun joined in the conversation.

Meanwhile on the ship deck, Reven was engaging in a practice fight with Talos.

They were fighting using Ardor. This was mainly done so that they can get habituated with Ardor.

Although all of them had extremely high levels of training but with Ardor in the equation it was a totally new experience.

Reven was using a spear while Talos used a broadsword.

Huuup-!

Tang! Tang! Tang!

Shing! Shing!

Reven was repeatedly clashing his spear against Talos's broadsword.

Talos came running towards Reven, covering his sword with Ardor as he swung his sword at break-neck speed towards Reven's waist.

Reven coated his spear with Ardor and blocked the sword.

Talos used this opportunity and punched at Reven's stomach with his left hand.

Reven blocked the punch by simultaneously spinning his spear like a wheel which made Talos lose the grip on the sword.

Then, he pushed Talos back and ran towards him as he used the spear to pierce his shoulder.

Talos jumped and dodged it and swiftly performed a flying kick at Reven's back which ended up hitting him.

Talos used his ability, [Weapon Control], to remove the spear from Reven's hands. He called the spear towards himself as it floated towards him. He grabbed it and took a stance to attack.

Reven noticed this and used [Transmutation] on the surface of the deck which caused the floor to form spikes and come out from below Talos.

Reven used this chance as he reached towards the broadsword that Talos dropped and picked it up.

Reven also took his stance as he looked at Talos.

Zzup!

Tut... Tut... Tut... Tut... Tut...

Tang! Tang!

They both started to exchange blows again. This time their pace was much faster.

They were exchanging hundreds of moves per second. This inhumane speed was enabled due to Ardor.

Talos thrust the spear towards Reven's thigh. Seeing this, Reven increased the distance between them to dodge the spear. Then, he came forward and slashed the sword vertically from below. This dwindled Talos's movements.

Chance!

Reven used this opportunity to finish things off.

He threw the sword away as he clenched his fists and punched at Talos. This made Talos lose the spear. Reven then used a karate chop at Talos's chest.

"I concede." Talos finally said.

"That was a good one." Reven said as he wiped out the sweat on his forehead.

"Damn it, how the hell do you have that much Ardor?! I was so close to beating you but my Ardor Pool nearly dried which made my attacks much less powerful.

Plus, your efficiency, how the hell did you gain that much efficiency?" Talos whined.

"That's a secret."

"Oh c'mon, you can tell me right." Talos asked with eagerness.

The reason for Reven's efficiency and huge Ardor Pool was of course the [Harmonic Ardor Regulation Art]. But, Reven couldn't tell him about that.

He still decided to help the MHS with the original version of GEP 2.0. This will help them to grow stronger.

"Dr. Giovanni has created a new potion called the GEP 2.0 and that is the secret behind my strength and efficiency."

"Woah!"

Talos was astonished to hear that.

"Give me too." He said in excitement.

"Alright… Alright. Let's meet with the others first, then I will give all of you the potion together."

With that they stopped their training and went to meet with the others.

After reuniting with the others, Reven gave the potion to everyone and explained to them how to use it.

Reven finally said "Don't reveal this to anyone else for now. I have a few plans for it."

Everyone tacitly agreed with this request.

After that, they went to their respective rooms to try the potion.

-----

The ship reached the African coast by the evening.

After dropping Reven and his group there, the ship returned to Elpis.

The MHS decided to find a place near a riverside to set up a camp. The camp was set by the night. Then, they took out some meat jerky and had their dinner.

After the dinner, Reven decided to establish contact with mainland ISC and give the mission report.

Finally, the MHS started planning for the mission.

"So what's going to be the approach here?" Aleena asked as she projected a map of the region they were in.

"Our target is about 128km away. It is a natural fortress with thousands of monsters residing.

At the same time, the path to reach there is also going to be filled with monsters as not a single monster here is killed.

It should take us about 3 to 5 days to reach the target depending on which type of monsters we will be facing." Geena said, looking at the projection.

"Now, for the plan of action. I think the captain will be telling us that." Aleena said as she eyed Reven.

"Alright everyone. Here's what we are going to do.

First of all, we have to avoid any direct conflict with the monsters until we are sure about their power levels.

If we continuously engage the monster hoards in close combat then it will become disadvantageous to us as we will get tired soon.

So what we will use is guerrilla tactics!

It may take us a bit longer to reach the target but with this we can make sure that we clean up as many monsters as possible!

Now then, any suggestions."

"Nope."

"Nah."

"No."

"Alright then, we will initiate the mission tomorrow.

For now take rest and make sure to hide your presence after the fire is out.

Monsters will be more active after the fire goes down."

"Yes captain." Everybody replied.

They all went to sleep to take some necessary rest as the next day was going to be very hectic.

.....