Chapter 276 : Aura

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Sora was sitting in a tavern in the inner area of New York, accompanied by Tian Long and Minny. His gaze was vacant as he thought about the request made by the woman sitting across from him.

‘With each fight against a stronger World Boss, she loses a bit more of her value, while Minny keeps getting stronger. She said she needs to help her kids grow to grow, and refuses to send her children to fight. So she needs help to grow stronger unlike the others, who are more or less self-sufficient. ’

‘But a dragon rider and someone with the [Dragon Taming] skill? Where am I supposed to find people like that?’

Thinking about the countless powers that existed in the world, and all the people who preferred to keep them hidden, he sighed. ‘This is going to be a nightmare.’

Just as he was sinking into pessimism, a voice echoed in his mind.

"This shouldn't be as complicated as you're making it." Newtons contacted him privately.

Curious, Sora invited him to continue. “Why do you think that?”

Newtons replied, “You’re still thinking like a single person and forget how many skills you have at your disposal. It’s irritating to see you think linearly when you could be using your abilities to run hundreds— even thousands—of thought processes at the same time. You could even simulate thousands of clones to help you think using my power, but you never do. There are so many ways to solve your problem. If you're going to waste my power like this, you might as well resurrect me, no?"

As Newtons explained, Sora did indeed have multiple skills to accelerate thought, multiply his cognitive abilities, and optimize his reasoning but he only used them in battle.

Sora replied, “Whenever I do that, I switch to something like a turbo mode. Activating all my skills to solve problems feels terrible. I feel like I’m losing my humanity. I become less human, more like a machine… or something else. My sense of time warps, and my thoughts take milliseconds when they should take minutes. Every minute becomes endless. Every day feels like an eternity. I refuse to squeeze every second for efficiency, even if I’d gain more, because I like existing at the same pace as everyone else.”

Newtons was silent for a few seconds, then replied, “I guess I can respect that… even if I don’t agree. In that case, I’ll just tell you directly how to help Tian. The kid with the innate ability she’s looking for is in England. As for the one with the Supreme Skill [Dragon Taming], he’s Indian and was in Lagos the last time I checked. And lastly, to my knowledge, no one has the Mythic class Dragon Rider yet.”

Sora didn’t need to activate any cognitive-enhancing skills to figure out where Newtons had gotten his intel. “They were in your virtual world, weren’t they?”

Newtons confirmed right away, “Yep. Anyone who enters the virtual world I created has to agree to my terms and be fully scanned. It may not be foolproof… but ever since I got my Supreme Skill, it’s pretty close. I guess only players with extremely special abilities can dodge my analysis.”

Sora felt torn between fear and admiration for his brother, but eventually gave him a compliment. “Brilliant…”

“To find them, just open the virtual world’s control panel and search…”

Following his brother’s instructions, he quickly located the two individuals Newtons had mentioned.

After confirming the information, he thanked Newtons and looked up. “Tian, I might’ve found people who can help you.”

Tian, sipping a hot coffee with a straw, looked at him in surprise. “Already? How’d you manage that?”

Sora told her the truth, though cryptically. “I just found a list of nearly every skill in the Kingdom… and came across two interesting profiles who have these skills. Want to go check them out with me?”

Tian immediately stood up, threw a glance at Minny who followed suit and grabbed Sora’s forearm. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Sora smiled and followed the duo out of the tavern.

------------------------------------

Less than an hour later, the three of them were in Iceland, joined by a man in his twenties and a woman in her thirties.

[Sandeep – Level 150]
[Ciara – Level 186]

Sandeep was short and carried himself proudly. His hair was perfectly styled, and his armor shone as if it had been meticulously polished earlier that day. The young man, level 150, walked with his head held high and back straight, visibly proud of being within the group, however, if one paid attention to his legs, they would see they were trembling non-stop.

Ciara, although higher level, didn’t exude any arrogance or pride. She was a redhead with braided hair, and her body language revealed a certain shyness. Her leather armor covered every inch of her body, and a bow rested on her back, indicating a preference for long-range combat.

“Sandeep, Ciara, these are my children… exactly one hundred of them. Come, I’ll introduce you.” Tian Long addressed the two newcomers warmly.

Sora stayed in place as Tian explained the mission to the duo. He watched them silently as they started relaxing as they distanced themselves from him.

'Sandeep has the Supreme Skill Tian Long desperately needed… From what I saw in the virtual world, it allows him to tame certain species of dragons, including [Heavenly Dragons] like Tian Long. It turns out her real goal was to help her children grow... She’ll receive feedback from every gain they make while training with Sandeep and Ciara, if I understood correctly.'

Since he hadn’t shielded his thoughts, his [Alter Egos] were able to hear him if they wanted—and some didn’t hesitate to comment.

“She’s playing mother hen with her little ones, but really, it seems like she just wants to feed off their growth! Guess she’s a leech...” Thirteen remarked cynically.

Sora winced at the comment. “If we’re being honest, I’m the bigger leech here.”

The silence that followed felt like confirmation. Sora continued, “I don’t really agree about Tian. She told me she doesn’t get to choose how she regains her powers in this world. It’s they who decide for her. They could’ve just as easily told her to open a traveling circus to recover her power bit by bit. Forcing her to train her children to grow stronger feels more like cruelty to me.”

Newtons seemed to agree. “She could’ve gone for other methods, like making them commit massacres to level up faster. But instead, she chose a gentler way to reach the same goal.”

Sora nodded and looked at Ciara, the Irish woman standing next to Sandeep.

“Sandeep has the [Dragon Taming] Supreme skill and Ciara has a [Dragon Heart] inside her chest... Do you guys think those two can help this little herd grow quickly?” he asked his brothers.

“If you want to speed things up, stay with them, analyze their skills using mine, and simulate their training process. The more energy you put into it, the more simulations you can run. All of that can be used later.” Newtons offered a suggestion instead of answering directly.

Sora checked the time and nodded. “That’s true, I guess... We’ve got all night before the fight against the Uruk Sovereigns. Might as well grind [Virtual World] mastery while helping Tian.”

He pushed all his skills related to mental strength, intellectual sharpness, and analytical ability to their limits, and activated [Virtual World]. Watching Sandeep use an active skill on a young Heavenly Dragon and stack up a multitude of passive skill effects, he let [Database] analyze the young man's techniques.

Having learned to "force" his passive skills to work faster, he pushed [Database] into overdrive and quickly understood how Sandeep’s abilities worked.

‘He’s too slow and lacks control,’ he thought, observing Sandeep’s clumsy use of [Dragon Taming].

‘His mana control is terrible, his understanding of his Supreme Skill is nonexistent, and his energy reserves are almost empty…’ Estimating how much effort the young man would need to help a young dragon reach adulthood, he sighed.

‘Weeks… It’ll take weeks for a single dragon.’ He realized, disappointed by the answer to his question.

Turning his attention to Tian Long, he saw the same disappointment. She seemed to have noticed the same problem. When he saw the hope fade from her eyes, Sora sent her a telepathic message.

“I’ll take care of training those two. You may not be ready for tomorrow’s battle… but you’ll be ready before we face our real enemies.” He promised.

When he saw her nod and her face regain some colors, he waved his hand and made the two new recruits float toward him.

Seeing Sandeep’s surprise, he raised his hand to stop the young man from speaking.

“I don’t have time for pleasantries. We had enough time to get to know each other earlier, in London and Lagos.”

Noting Sora’s serious tone, the two remained silent.

“Sandeep, your body and energy control are seriously lacking, and they completely undermine your chances of mastering [Dragon Taming] or any of your other skills at high level. That said, it can be fixed. If you let me help you and give it your all, you’ll be able to catch up quickly.”

The young man looked hurt by Sora’s words. He swallowed hard, wiped his red eyes, and nodded several times.

“I’ll do whatever you ask, Mr. Hashino!” he managed to say with difficulty, overwhelmed by emotion.

Sora, who had realized a few hours ago that the young man idolized him ever since his [Alter Egos] saved Lagos, remained expressionless and simply nodded. He turned to Ciara, who was shaking from head to toe, and sighed.

‘Every time I talk to them, they fall apart… Am I that terrifying?’ he thought.

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