[When Noah and Liam confronted him about it, he said he had copied another gladiator and it happened. They thought he was just spouting nonsense because he didn't want to share it. But they didn't press him further, as they were accustomed to him saying strange things.]
[I, however, decided to listen. Ethan explained that the stronger and higher-ranked a gladiator was, the more they stored this power inside themselves. He no longer called it a parasite but some sort of ability. He observed that when higher-ranked gladiators fought, they used this power to reinforce parts of their body, weapons, and even armor. He concluded that this must be the secret behind how some people in this world could be so strong without having any Esper ability. They were all either infected or knowingly using the power of this "thing."]
[This was huge information for me. A power that wasn't an Esper ability, yet strong enough to overpower our teacher, a level 3 Esper and a massive powerhouse back in our world, with only a few dozen people.]
[Later that day, Ethan returned from somewhere and confronted me. He explained that the gladiator king had summoned him and given him some explanation. The thing he had been using was called aura, and it existed in different levels.]
[He told me everything he had learned. In this world, when an ordinary person breaks through their body's limits, they become able to sense aura, the first step to becoming a knight apprentice or a 3rd-class knight. If they can use aura to enhance parts of their body, they can become a 2nd-class knight.]
[Some people are born with aura, so when they can use it, they automatically become 2nd-class knights. For those born without aura, it can take decades just to become a 3rd-class knight, and some never reach it in their lifetime. Even then, they must learn a special technique, rare and secret for some reason, to actually utilize the aura.]
[Ethan, born without aura, managed to sense, store, and use it all within a month without learning any of these techniques. That made him monstrously gifted, perhaps due to being a control-type Esper. The gladiator king personally appointed someone to teach him about aura.]
[Ethan said he saw how much aura the gladiator king possessed. Curious, he asked how old the king was and learned he was in his eighties. By Ethan's estimation, he could reach that level in just two years.]
[I advised him not to reveal such information if he actually wanted to overthrow the gladiator king. Ethan said he was aware of that. He also kept hidden the fact that he could see aura visibly with his eyes, a feat apparently impossible for others.]
[When I asked why he was revealing all this to me, he didn't answer and just shrugged. For an Esper to be that reckless was extremely unexpected. I could only wonder if the aura, after healing his nerves, had some effect on his mind.]
[It took me three months to heal completely. Meanwhile, Ethan said he had become something like a 1st-class knight, a feat that seemed astonishing in this world. He decided not to reveal it to anyone else and deliberately slowed his progression to the next level. Apparently, his growth was slightly faster than he had estimated, and if he reached the level called "Master", just one major rank below the "Grandmaster" level of the gladiator king, it might even unsettle him.]
[On the other hand, Liam and Noah became intensely interested in aura after witnessing Ethan's increase in strength. They used to spend all day practicing their Esper abilities, but now they devoted every day to decoding these aura techniques.]
[Once I had fully recovered, I was sent back into the arena. My opponent was a novice gladiator, but I won easily. I had already memorized all of his battle techniques. Not just his; over the past three months, I had memorized the techniques, tricks, and habits of all novice and veteran gladiators.]
[My next battles followed the same pattern. Meanwhile, Ethan fought in a completely different category, where every opponent was a 2nd-class aura user, because he was far too strong for anything below that. Noah and Liam competed in the veteran gladiator category, one level above mine and two levels below Ethan's.]
[Nine months had passed since our arrival in this world. Liam and Noah were finally making progress with aura. Liam could now sense the aura inside his own body, though he still couldn't control it. Noah, on the other hand, could sense aura but struggled to store any in his body. He was, however, beginning to slightly manipulate aura outside of himself, perhaps because he was a manifestation-type Esper, used to applying his ability externally.]
[And me? I still couldn't sense this thing called aura. I needed at least the ability to sense it before I could practice any aura techniques. Ethan tried to help. He told me he was very close to reaching the Master-class level, and if he did now, the gladiator king would be wary of him. He had already been exposed as a 1st-class aura user, and people were calling him a monster.]
[From what I could see, he poured so much of his own aura into my body, the same person who had previously lost sleep because he couldn't let this aura enter him. He explained that by doing this, he could prevent his own aura from growing uncontrollably while helping me become accustomed to it. He said that each time he did it, the aura got dispersed, which meant it was entering my body. Yet I felt nothing. All of it seemed wasted. Ethan appeared baffled because he said that once he sent his aura to me, he could no longer sense it himself.]
[Meanwhile, Ethan had moved to the 1st-class arena after being exposed. Now he was fighting people decades older than him without being pushed back. Noah and Liam became 3rd-class aura users and advanced to the apprentice-knight arena. And I? Because no novice gladiators could defeat me, I advanced to the veteran arena, fighting older gladiators without aura. Novice gladiators who can sense aura usually go straight to the apprentice-knight arena. But in terms of raw strength, I wasn't above the novice gladiators.]
[Only Ethan told me that the gladiator king was disappointed with my rate of growth. Ethan said that skill-wise my progress was better than most, but the gladiator king had grown greedy. His expectations had widened after Noah and Liam recently became 3rd-class knights. People who become knight apprentices with just a few years of effort are considered geniuses here. And they did it within a year, a speed that marks someone destined to become a grandmaster one day. So he now believes that talent must run in the blood of otherworlders. From his perspective, I am the only one left who has yet to achieve anything remarkable.]
[By saying this to Ethan, it was his way of telling him to make sure I achieved something impressive as well. But what could Ethan do? It's not like I could suddenly reveal an Esper ability and surprise everyone.]