Ability Wielders

After buying his food, Hayden ate. While eating, he heard two people entangled in a heated argument.

"Seriously? It"s the first day of school." Hayden"s face twitched as he mumbled. Why would there be people fighting each other the very first day of school?

Friends haven"t seen the school for three months. Even if they did get into a fight during summer, it was nonsensical to get into a conflict during the first day of the entire school year! He just couldn"t grasp what"s with the fighting and all…

Sighing, he proceeded to go to the elevators. While waiting, out of curiosity, he wanted to see what the two were talking about, thus, he activated Divine Perception and focused on the two.

"No! Shadowbane is the better superhuman because of his skillset! Your Primordial is trash! Utter trash, I tell you!" The one on the right said woefully.

"Primordial has a good mobility skill, has an execution skill, and a pa.s.sive that outrights destroy the defenses of superhumans!" The one on the left retorted. "Plus, his lore is more interesting than your Shadowbane. Shadowbane is only a ninja that uses shadows and all that, while Primordial is a literal G.o.d of destruction."

"Perhaps Primordial"s lore is more interesting, but Shadowbane"s skillset in the game is better! One skill allows him to pull superhumans towards him and stuns them, while his ultimate traps superhumans inside a world of darkness, stealing their vison, makes them susceptible to more damage, and slows their movement by 75%!" The other one retorted.

"Primordial has a dash that can stun superhumans, a skill that throw them backwards, and an ultimate that can execute them by slamming them into the ground. Your Shadowbane is merely a basic-level superhuman with a low skill cap, while Primordial"s skillset demands higher micromanagement skills." Another argument was thrown with a matter-of-fact tone.

Hayden, who was listening in to their opinions, was stunned. "Any superhuman is good in the hands of a good player, so why are they quarreling about which superhuman is better? I once encountered a Primordial who literally carried his entire team through a match. Even Noah and his ark couldn"t carry those animals. Meanwhile, I once had a good Shadowbane teammate that had an unconventional gla.s.s cannon build, mostly carrying us through team fights, and soloed five people at once, such a legend..."

He knew that what the two were fighting about was War of Honor, the currently most popular MOBA pc game in the entire world. War of Honor captured the hearts of players with its fantastic graphical design, and uncanny balance in superhumans, which were the characters played in the game.

"Ahh, such good times." Hayden reminisced his countless hours poured into the game. Ultimately, he dropped it as he always got bad teammates. He was a good player, but not good enough so as to carry heavyweights with his skill level. "Such bad luck."

Being bitter about his past experiences in having pig-like teammates, he stepped out of the cafeteria. Because of this event, he was reminded of his past and was put into a sour mood. He proceeded to wait for the elevator and went to the 7th floor.

…..

Hayden spent the rest of the day using Divine Perception to remember every single one of the beginning lesson. Thankfully, there were no further introduce yourselves, an activity that he loathed to the core.

Finishing packing up his bag, Hayden wanted to go home as soon as possible. He still had so many things to test, and he also wanted to see if the Origin Crystal will actually give him more information.

As a result, he hurriedly went to the elevators once more to go down. When he arrived at the ground floor, he walked towards the exit without delaying.

…..

After walking for thirty minutes, he finally arrived at his house. In a hurried manner, he changed his clothes into comfortable ones and sat on his bed.

"Now, let me see if there"s more information given to me." Hayden talked to himself, making the Origin Crystal resurface in his chest.

Looking at it for a few seconds, he touched it. Information rushed through his mind again, this time, different from the ones he gained from the previous enlightenment.

Apparently, the Origin Crystal is connected to the heart, infusing essence energy into the heart. When the Origin Crystal infuses essence energy into the heart, it then pa.s.ses it onto the blood cells going through the heart. Afterwards, the blood cells go through different parts of the body, activating the latent potential of the cells it pa.s.ses through, creating the effect that is the Ability.

In the case of Hayden"s Divine Perception, it works by stimulating the cells on his entire nervous system and sensory organs, giving him the power of superhuman senses, and computer-like information processing speeds.

On the other hand, when Hayden wills Indestructible Devil to activate, his genes are stimulated, awakening a dormant gene from his genetic history. This gives him the effect gotten from various animal species, ancient, extinct… and mythical?

"Wait, mythical creatures exist? What the…" Hayden was astounded of the information given to him by the Origin Crystal. "Oh, so that"s why it"s called Origin Crystal… It awakens the hidden potential of the human body ever since the beginning of time. If so, wouldn"t it be evidence that a superior civilization or race existed before humans?"

The more Hayden thought about it, the more he thought that there was more to this Origin Crystal. Just then, another wave of information was ingrained into his brain.

"Wait, Divine Perception gives me what?" Examining the data given to him by the Origin Crystal, he was stunned. Seemingly, Divine Perception doesn"t only enhance his own senses and information processing, it also enhanced the speed of the travel between the neurons, giving him faster reflexes.

"So, because of the awakening of the Divine Perception, and the potential of my genes were unlocked using essence energy, now even when I don"t use Divine Perception, I still possess peak-human senses, reflexes… and coordination?" Hayden was suspicious of this information.

He got a piece of paper along with two ballpoint pens. After, he tried to draw a circle and a square separately. To his surprise, he succeeded! What more, the circle and square were of perfect proportional dimensions. This implied that he possessed perfect dexterity because of his brain functioning much better prior to awakening.

"Goodness, this is indeed something. I had these genes in me all along?" He uttered to himself. "The Origin Crystal only awakens dormant potential and stimulates the sleeping genes hidden within human bodies. If that"s true, then wouldn"t that mean I descended from a demon. No, perhaps a race that was akin to that of a demon."

From the details given to him by the Origin Crystal, it seemed that he was a descendant of a creature that has similarities with a demon. He wouldn"t dare to think that he actually descended from the devil, the king of h.e.l.l. Even if he didn"t believe in religion all that much, he was still a little horrified of having thought of such a thing.

Next, he glossed over the knowledge in his mind once again. Now, he knew that Divine Perception, whenever it was activated, would give him enhanced senses, information processing, reflexes, learning capability, eidetic memory, superior neural transmission speeds, absolute bodily awareness, intense focus and concentration, and a tranquil mind that wouldn"t be boggled by anything.

"I can do so many things with this power, and on top of that, I was given Indestructible Devil? Is that normal?" Hayden"s face turned peculiar. This was definitely not normal, giving him a power like this, and another power like Indestructible Devil was too unfair. In fact, possessing one of these powers was already unfair! "What did I do to gain such a fortune?"

Hayden deeply sighed. He went ahead and touched the Origin Crystal again so as to gain information on indestructible Devil next. Much to his shock, Indestructible Devil was another G.o.dly power that would literally turn him into a superhuman in terms of physical abilities.

"In summary, in my genes is contained two genes coming from two races called "Phantom Demon" and "Indestructible t.i.tan." Also originating from this Origin Crystal, my mother had, within her, the "Phantom Demon," and my father has this "Indestructible t.i.tan." They have these unknown mythical genes inside of them. In a one in a billion chance, they met each other and created me, giving me this Ability called Indestructible Devil." Hayden smiled wryly. What the h.e.l.l was this? Phantom Demon? Indestructible t.i.tan? English names even though they were ancient races? Like h.e.l.l it was! "But, so far, everything coming from the Origin Crystal is true. It sounds crazy, yet, this is the only explanation for me having that kind of power. Despite that, what about Divine Perception?"

He was confused as of this moment. If Indestructible Devil came from the amalgamation of two ancient and quiescent DNA, then what about Divine Perception? He touched the Origin Crystal in hopes of finding out its origin to no avail. "My curiosity is itching right now. Alas, I think I wouldn"t be able to actually know the origin of this Divine Perception. I can only speculate that this is a power unique to me, born because of an absolute stroke of luck."

Breathing out heavily, he touched the Origin Crystal to gain what powers Indestructible Devil had in store for him.

When Indestructible Devil is inactive, it gave him what was called Devil"s Persistence, giving him increased healing factor, weak spiritual and mental defenses.

While active, it gave him enhanced strength, speed, toughness, and regeneration. The reddish skin was a side-effect of the hardening of his skin, bones, tendons, and organs. It also gave him the power to change his nails into claws, his teeth into fangs, and was granted retractable horns and a tail that he has total control over. With this power, comes the side effect of growing in size, at least 1.5 times his own size, if he fully activates Indestructible Devil. The weak spiritual and mental defenses were also enhanced in this state.

"What a convenient power…" Hayden couldn"t accept this. Even he felt these two Abilities were imbalanced, what if other wielders came to know of it? "Additionally, these two Abilities can evolve once enough essence energy acc.u.mulates inside of my body, awakening another portion of the suppressed genes."

Hayden breathed heavily. Together with its powers, it can still evolve, becoming more formidable. "I seriously will not use this Indestructible Devil unless it"s necessary. It"s too flashy and too big of an advantage. Moreover, I think possessing two Abilities at once is abnormal. Let"s see…"

Wanting to know if it was likely to possess two Abilities, he put his finger on the Origin Crystal again. According to it, Hayden was truly a special case. His suspicions were correct that gaining two Abilities was atypical and incredibly rare. In truth, many wielders who have the potential to awaken will only possess a single Ability.

This was because their genes do not have the capacity to acc.u.mulate such a pure bloodline of two Abilities at once, nor can their bodies handle such power.

"Okay then, it"s settled that I would not reveal Indestructible Devil, except for special occasions, wielder or not." Hayden nodded with decisiveness. If he stumbles across a problem, the very last resort is Indestructible Devil, only to be used during extreme situations, or, in the least, no one should see.

"That"s enough for now." Hayden stopped touching the Origin Crystal and hid it. "There"ll be more experimentations on the way. First, is my learning capability. If I have eidetic memory, wouldn"t I be able to learn much more things? Plus, the Origin Crystal explicitly stated that Divine Perception gave me enhanced learning capabilities!"

Hayden immediately activated Divine Perception and watched a piano cover video on his phone. Prior to that, he tried to research about the notes in an 88-key piano, which was what he owned as a gift from his parents.

He said he wanted to learn it, yet, didn"t actually bothered to do it. Hence, the piano was only acc.u.mulating dust in his closet. It was a waste, which led Hayden to make a decision of at least experimenting on it to see if he can learn at least one song in such a short amount of time.

Needless to say, it would take a long time to actually learn the piano. Regardless, Hayden could still memorize a song or two, right? And if it comes down to it, perhaps playing the piano by studying a cover of a song once.

It didn"t take long for him to "take a picture" of the notes of a piano. It did take a few minutes to try to ingrain it in his mind though, integrating it into his "instinct." When one is learning something, they will form a connection with what they"re learning, allowing them to recall one thing instantly. When one has truly learned something, one would instinctively do movements without even thinking about it. Like in a combat situation, if a soldier learned hand-to-hand combat and has truly mastered it, he would be able to take down his opponent without thinking, with his body moving on its own.

This was called muscle memory, a procedural memory that a person attains when they rinse and repeat a particular action. In a soldier"s case, that will be the repeated combat training, and, in a skilled sharpshooter"s case, it was the repet.i.tive shooting and practice.

"Let"s see." Hayden watched a video of a complex piano. Using his Divine Perception, he unknowingly entered into a state of intense concentration, allowing him to fully grasp the timing, keys, and needed movement in the video using his sense of hearing and vision.

Because of his intense concentration, he subconsciously locked the sense of smell, touch, and the pretty useless sense of taste, further boosting his vision and hearing to greater levels. When the video finished, for some reason, Hayden felt as if he can literally play what he watched right now, which was the Third Movement of the Moonlight Sonata by Beet Hoven.

This piece was considered not hard to play for an expert in piano, much less a keyboard, which was less complicated than a true piano. Hayden was a greenhorn though, and supposedly, this piece was hard and demanding for absolute beginners.

Hayden set up the keyboard in the middle of his room. Sitting down and cracking his knuckles, he put his hands on the starting position, just like in the video. He concentrated on the piano. Consequently, he was thoroughly able to remember every single movement from the video, his hands going in "automatic mode."

The exact movements, the timing of each movement, what notes were pressed, everything. Pressing the first key, Hayden went into a state of utter focus, pressing the precise keys in his mind. Without thinking about it, his hands moved flawlessly.

If an expert were in the room with Hayden and they didn"t know that Hayden was a complete newbie in playing the piano, they would think he was an experienced pianist.

About 18 minutes later, Hayden finished the piece, breaking his state of mind. He deactivated Divine Perception and tried to play the Moonlight Sonata again.

He knew what keys he would press, and when he would press them. Wearing a surprised expression, his hands moved like flowing water, extremely smooth with 100% accurate timing and astonishing technique.

Hayden broke his gaze towards the piano, and startlingly, he was still playing. It was like his body knew where to move! No, wait, it was not "like," it was exactly the situation!

"Learning capabilities are heightened to terrifying levels…" Hayden mumbled as he was still playing the Moonlight Sonata. Continuing on playing the piano by going on automatic mode, he was thinking to himself.

"It"s true. I wonder what I should learn?" Contemplating on what he should study, he still kept on playing the piano without his focus. It was like his body was robotic, moving on its own. "Martial arts? No, it"s too soon for that. The piano? It"s not that practical for me to be honest. That would be my hobby, playing the piano. Then, a language?"

Deliberating his choices, Hayden found the path. "The Korean language!"