The eye stared at us, around its pitch-black pupil, were thousands of tiny holes, constantly wriggling and contracting. Despite the waiting, it wasn’t doing anything.

  I glanced at Steel. “Is it supposed to attack us? Why is it just looking?”

  She shrugged, putting a hand on her throat. “Dunno, but I’ll burn this thing right up.”

  As those words left her mouth, the eyeball started shaking, looking around everywhere. From the holes, thousands of tiny flesh tendrils erupted into the sky, covered with nearly invisible hooks.

  Like missiles, the tendrils flew towards us. I quickly used the force form to hold them still, but I didn’t have enough strength to stop those flying at Steel. Luckily, I wasn’t needed.

  Loudly coughing, Steel spat out napalm right at the tendrils and set them on fire. I slammed my tendrils on the ground, jumping away and accelerating my mind.

  “Thash all you goth?” Steel taunted, the burning tendrils constantly twitched, and the eye frantically looked between us.

  I started weaving an ice bomb, hoping to end this fight in one shot. “Steel, get away from its effective range! I’ll just destroy it with a bomb.”

  “A? Okay!” She smiled, jumping away from the eye, getting far enough that none of its tendrils could reach us.

  The eye remained struggling, wiggling the tendrils over the grass and trying to get rid of the fire. Despite that, it couldn’t reach us. I already created a ball of plasma; all that was left was to infuse it with as much cold as possible.

  “What’s it doing?” Steel pointed her finger.

  The eye’s pupil stared directly at the sky, pulsing strangely. Then, with a squelch, the pupil started extending up, growing like a plant in fast-forward.

  “Not today.” The ice bomb was ready, so before it could do any chicanery, I launched the projectile.

  The bomb smashed right into the flesh growth, sprouting into a block of ice, covering the entirety of the eye. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again, already I started weaving another ice bomb.

  “That’s not fun,” Steel said, staring at the frozen eye disappointedly.

  “It’s supposed to be easy, not fun.” The eye couldn’t even break that ice, but without hesitation, I threw another bomb, this time putting more starpower into the force.

  The bomb exploded again, cracking the ice and adding another layer above. Once the cold mist descended, the eye was gone, replaced by a huge gem.

  Actualized Potential (21 SE)

  Affinity: Emerald

  Source: Sired Flesh

  Description: Contains a few interesting traits as well as some curious flesh-themed items. Opening it could be fun. You can absorb it to gain 2 SE, but that will only slow down our growth.

  “That should be how every fight goes. I throw ice bombs and the enemies die.” I sighed, looking at the pile of ice. “Can you break the ice open?”

  “Sure!” She grinned, running towards the ice block and smashing her fist into it, making the ice loudly crack. And she did it again and again, until she could pry the core from its icy grave.

  “Hey, I think there is light in the distance.” The more I stared at the edge of the forest, the more it seemed like I could see sunlight.

  Steel narrowed her eyes. “There is light!” Then, without hesitation, Steel dashed off.

  I clenched my fists, flooding my body with starpower and going after her. “Don’t run without me!”

  She didn’t even hear me. Soon, the possibility became a certainty. The forest ended there. Steel came to a stop, staring at something with an open mouth.

  When I reached her, I understood the reason. Beyond the alien jungle, there was a mountain made from bones. As if someone stacked elephant-white ribs, grafting them into the shape of a mountain. Even the ground was made from bones. From the mountain’s sides grew massive flesh tendrils which opened into flowers that stared at the sun… Right above us, there was a tiny ball, glowing with bright light.

  “Cool, a star!” Steel’s surprise probably wasn’t connected with mine, but I appreciated her enthusiasm.

  “There are holes in the mountain! That’s where we have to go.” Indeed, it wasn’t truly a mountain, but more of a giant hive.

  “Sure.” She grinned and, with a growl, took off.

  “I told you not to run off without me.” Making detection forms, I could sense that something wasn’t quite right. The bones were completely devoid of starpower; it was downright disturbing. There were giant holes in the ground, littering the place. At first, I thought it might be just a feature of the bone terrain, but with each step, that impression was voided.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  A spark of starpower burned in my field of perception, but with each second I was certain it was growing larger… Something was in the ground. “Steel, there’s a monster in the ground!”

  The dragon-girl turned her head to me, and in that moment, in front of her, the bones erupted. A gargantuan centipede, the size of a truck, flew into the air, going down at Steel, its bonelike body glimmering under the artificial star.

  “Watch out!”

  With uncanny reflexes, Steel turned towards the monster, grabbing its mandibles right before they could snap her in half. Her feet dug into the ground as she was propelled backwards, holding the kaiju singlehandedly.

  Already, I activated mind acceleration and started weaving an ice bomb.

  Sired Bone

  Species: Geist

  Standing Emissions: 38

  Affinity: Emerald

  Note: With pure brute force, this geist can contend with even the strongest. Underneath the exoskeleton, it’s incredibly vulnerable. It’s slow on turns and doesn’t have any tricks.

  I managed to restrain the shaking of my hands and started to make a bomb as quickly as possible. Steel came to a sudden stop, the sired bone wriggled its legs, but was unable to push her further. The size difference looked comical.

  Steel roared, and her body started growing even larger than before. Her wings expanded, and a thick tail sprouted from her back. She reached the size of a full woman, but that wasn’t all. She pushed the centipede back ever so slowly.

  “Bomb incoming!” I shouted, throwing the ice bomb at the geist’s side. The sphere exploded into ice, covering a sizable chunk of the centipede. It squealed deafeningly, but Steel ignored the sound, continuing to push back. I started weaving another bomb.

  Then the unthinkable happened. Steel let out a death-metal scream, her hands tightening around the mandibles so hard they cracked. Shifting her center of balance, she started lifting the massive monster above her shoulder, utilizing a stance I showed her.

  Like an ant lifting a… Well, a centipede, Steel twisted the monster and slammed its disgusting face into the ground. Roaring without stopping, she beat the vulnerable underside while the monster painfully twitched.

  “Another bomb!” The dragon gave me an opportunity, and I wasn’t going to waste it. I aimed right at its head, which was trying to pathetically dig into the ground. The blue ball collided with its forehead, and the beast wheezed, unable to even wriggle, all the while Steel dug her fists into the soft insides.

  I quickly manifested a starpower spear, running towards the monster. Putting all my body into a thrust, I speared the beast through the ice. It went through, but with the sired bone’s size, it looked like a toothpick.

  Steel screamed with rage, beating the monster, ripping out its legs. I summoned another spear and pierced the ice again. The monster stopped struggling, stopped wiggling its legs. Slowly, its body became bright emerald light, gathering together into a gem the size of my head.

  I breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Steel. She was almost fine, with only a few huge gashes around her shoulders and back. “Take a pill, Steel. You did it!” I smiled, trying to hide my unease. I couldn’t stop thinking about the question – what was wrong with this school?

  “Uh-huh! Now see, that was fun.” She smiled as I approached her, holding a pill. Steel stared down at me and leaned down to grab the pill.

  “I’d much rather go back to reading…” My nerves weren’t made for constant life and death situations.

  “Whatever.” She shrugged, staring at the mountain, and gulped the pill. “You’re so tiny, Magnus.”

  “How did you get bigger? Is that your technique?”

  “Oh yeah, it reached adept when I understood that unleashing potential also meant growing!”

  That was it? That’s how her technique reached adept? I won’t question it. Emeralds were just built different.

  With green steam coming from her body, Steel slowly shrank to normal size. It was really weird.

  “Why are you deactivating the technique? Another one could be right around the corner!”

  Steel shook her head. “No, there won’t be. Someone’s fighting in the mountain. I heard it when I was big.”

  Someone got to the Fleshsire first? I didn’t need to think much to guess who it was. “No more wasting time! We have to go!”

  The girl nodded, running off without saying a word. We approached the massive mountain, running towards one of the holes. Even from here, the sounds of fighting were apparent. Clashing of bone and metal, sounds of something burning, and the disgusting smell of burnt flesh combined with sulfuric acid.

  We exchanged glances and went inside. The mountain was entirely hollow, and inside the arena opened up. Stretching across was a towering field of bone spires, each sprouting several disc-like platforms at regular heights.

  Between spires, the ground yawned with pits, and from those swollen sired flesh grew. The massive eyes stared at the light show happening in the middle of the arena. Ivaldie held a massive glowing sword, covered with golden thunder. She jumped from one platform to another, swinging her sword at the Fleshsire and cutting off tentacles.

  Flying in the air with wings of fire, Louize shot lasers from her eyes, burning any sired flesh’s tendrils that even dared to attack them and occasionally even frying the Fleshsire.

  The monster looked underwhelming… It was a humanoid figure with six wings buzzing around like a mosquito; it had a massive balloon-like belly, which wriggled constantly. And from the skin of that belly, emerged massive insects. They swarmed Ivaldie.

  “We have to help them! Steel, prepare a flame cough! I’ll ice bomb the Sire.”

  Steel smirked, her body started growing larger, as she got ready to fight. But before I could even condense starpower, Ivaldie’s sword started crackling with thunder.

  Her eyes lit up like two beacons as she jumped. The world turned to white, and when the light ceased, the Fleshsire was cut in half. Its body turned to light…

  Like a chain reaction going off, all the sired flesh below too turned to light. The energy flew upwards, gathering in the middle and turning into an absolutely massive gem.

  Actualized Potential (74 SE)

  Rank: Adept

  Affinity: Emerald

  Source: Essence of the First Floor

  Description: A combination of the Fleshsire’s potential and the potential of its creations. Contains all the possibilities of flesh, as well as many incredible regeneration traits. There is even something like VITA there.

  I never realized how much Ivaldie held back... It was deeply frustrating. I wasn’t even worth her full power.

  The arena slowly became dark as the raging flames illuminating it disappeared along with the geists. I made a light form, trying to see the space in front of me. So did Louize, showing their presence in the middle. Somehow her flame wings didn’t shine…

  “Hello there!” I waved, nudging stumped Steel. It didn’t matter if Ivaldie was that much stronger than me; I would overcome her eventually.

  “You…” Louize rolled her eyes. “Your not-advice was helpful, human.” She dismissed her non-fire wings, dropping onto one of the disks.

  Ivaldie jumped across the platforms, standing next to her. “Greetings, Magnus. It is commendable that you reached here so fast.” A small smile appeared in the corner of her mouth.

  I gulped and flooded my body with power, jumping towards the platform, grabbing on its side. Then on another and on another, reaching the same place they were standing on. Steel followed me closely behind, whispering words of admiration.

  “Sooo… Ivaldie, remember when you said you wanted to rise without using actualized potential? Do you mind giving the core to us?”

  Louize’s mouth opened wide in shock as her eyes jumped between me and Ivaldie.