Pain Tolerance has reached Lv. 7
+10 CE | +14 VIT | +1 STR | +1 AGI
I reviewed the notification one last time before guards dragged me out of my room.
It was progress—yet not enough. Not in the grand scheme of things. I wondered how much I should hold back. How much I could.
Class: Sorcerer – Level 28 (1st Grade)
Titles: Touched by the Sparks of Black, Julius the Immortal
Techniques: Inverse Lv. 7, Curse Inventory Lv. 7, Copy Lv. 1
Health: 2400 / 2400
Cursed Energy: 3650 / 3650
Stamina: 1830 / 1930
"Five!" a booming Nigerian voice roared as I was escorted into the church's main floor. Harsh fluorescent lights made me squint, though only for a moment.
The central sparring area was packed with sorcerers of all ages. The weakest among them started with more cursed energy than me. Only a handful matched me, and a scarce few eclipsed me altogether.
Gina, by my estimate, had well over 15,000 CE. Her brother had about the same. Yet even here, I counted at least two others stronger than both.
One was a young brown-skinned girl, Lily's age, her bright eyes fixed on me. The other, an older man in his early twenties with a hungry smile, calculating green eyes, and the body of a predator. Both wore standard black sparring fatigues.
"Five years, I trained that girl," Ade plowed on, seemingly oblivious to me—or pretending to be. The longer I observed him, the more certain I became: he had no cursed energy. Not a flicker. None that I could sense. Was he truly that good? Or was he something else entirely?
"I taught her every dirty trick, every maneuver, every martial art I picked up in nearly two decades as a mercenary," he continued. "And somehow, that gutter rat over there beat her."
He jerked his jaw toward me.
"Why?" he demanded. The lack of response told me this was a familiar exercise.
"He cheated," the girl said immediately. Her eyes never left me. "Lily told me he relied on human weapons like a coward."
"And Lily had an army of cursed spirits that made that irrelevant," Ade replied without hesitation. "Next."
"She underestimated him," another woman said, folding her arms. She wore her hair in a ponytail, baggy trousers, combat boots, and carried a knife at her hip. She looked ex-military. "Like you said, gutter trash. She didn't count on him being so talented."
"She would've never agreed to the Blockbuster Venom Serum if she underestimated him—"
Blockbuster Venom?
Everything else faded. They were pumping these roid-fueled sorcerers full of Venom too? Standard Blockbuster was already dangerous. Combined with sorcery? No wonder Lily had dominated after her transformation. She'd been weak physically before, but enhanced, she'd been a nightmare. A properly trained sorcerer with lethal techniques on Blockbuster Venom? That was beyond terrifying.
Thankfully, Blockbuster Venom leaned heavily into strength than speed. That much worked in my favor.
"She was weak," the green-eyed special grade finally said. "Lily might've had the reserves and techniques of a Special Grade, but she wasn't strong here." He tapped his temple. "She was proud, petulant, obsessed with honor. If it were me, I'd have ambushed him in his sleep, drugged him, and been done with it." He shrugged.
"Jackass!" the young girl snapped, and the room's temperature plummeted. Ice crackled across the arena floor.
"I'm ready whenever you are, short stack," Green Eyes grinned, blood globes forming on his skin.
"You were jealous of her. Everybody knew it," she spat. "You're still the same loser stuck in fifth place for two years."
"Only because I was the first Special Grade the boss made," he growled. "If—"
He cut himself short, exhaled, then continued, calmer. "You may not like what I said, but Ade hasn't told me I'm wrong either."
All eyes turned to the towering Nigerian. Ade gave a single, deliberate nod.
"Adrian is right. Lily got sloppy. Overconfident. She could've ended the fight at any moment with her maximum technique, with chimerazation, transformation, even Domain Amplification. But she wanted to beat him fair and square—forgetting who he is. What he is."
Finally, Ade turned his gaze on me, jabbing a finger in my direction.
"Our sources say he awakened cursed energy at the same time as his meta-gene. He was born with two powerful techniques no one else in this organization possesses. He survived Lily's hardest blows without flinching. He carries enough bombs and guns to level a building on a whim. He's seven months into using cursed energy and already controls it at a level rivaling First Grades and new Special Grades. His body only evolves further with each battle."
The speech earned me more hostile stares, especially from Green Eyes.
"He was born to be Special Grade," Ade declared, "perhaps even to rise above it, as Artisan has. You were engineered to be lesser versions of him. Lily should have learned that in her first round. I hope you do not make the same mistake."
His words hung in the silence, heavy, final. Then Ade nodded once more.
"Now—who wants first crack at him?"
Ah shit.
Artisan POV
I chuckled softly as I listened to Ade's dramatic sermon from my office above, waiting for Luthor's call to patch through.
They were going to eat the boy alive. Still, I was confident he'd catch up. Already, Priya's work was bearing fruit. He was more robust than yesterday by quite a bit. I wondered if he'd be able to maintain that rate of improvement without proper nutrition. Maybe he'll show me his second technique.
"Artisan," Luthor's smug face appeared on my screen. "I was pleased to hear your retrieval was successful—though not without complications."
"You know how disappointing children can be," I said smoothly. "They didn't intercept the signal in time."
"The UN debrief says you had to step in?" Luthor pressed.
I hummed. "The League was… less than I expected. Powerful, yes, but defenseless against my brand of magic."
"The Light is not pleased," he warned. "You're drawing too much attention—to our operation, and to me."
"I'm drawing attention to the Blockbuster Venom serum," I countered. "The Justice League already knows it's widespread and outside your control. Sportsmaster carried the first batch, and the Shadows use it freely. It won't take much to convince Cobra to redress his role. It ties the Santa Prisca incident neatly into your Injustice League gambit."
Cobra doesn't have the clout to hold the group together," Luthor said with a squint.
"Not if we replace Ivy with him. She's too valuable to waste on a distraction anyway. It spares you the fallout if she refuses. Besides, Brain is developing advanced control devices that attach to the Brain stem. We can recruit thousands of despots and animals all over the world," I offered.
"I can also guarantee they remain quiet even if the implants are removed with a few Binding Vows. The League will find it much harder to locate the Injustice League. They might actually extort twelve billion from the UN," I finished with a chuckle.
Luthor stroked his chin. "Not bad. But afterward? The League would have the formula. They'll find an antidote to one of the Light's most effective assets."
"A minor tweak from Brain and I can render whatever treatment they come up with ineffective," I said.
"You've thought this through," he mused.
"Of course."
"You should take a more active role in the Light's schemes."
"And let Vandal notice me?" I chuckled. "Not yet."
"You play a dangerous game."
"We both do," I admitted.
"Very well. Now—what about the boy?"