Chapter 122: The Start of The Grind

It's already noon now,

Rex is currently looking through the news while he waits for Adhara to finish evolving her fire element into Purple Fire.

The news is filled with the victory of Hendrick in the Rombust Sea.

Hendrickson won the war in the Rombust Sea against the Supernatural and successfully taken a strategic territory in their territory, the news blew up because of his endeavor.

He even manages to kill a rank seven Seadra, one of the beasts under the Siren's race.

Humanity almost has no sea territory, many of these mutated beasts and Supernatural filled the sea so it is so hard to even go overseas through water without the help of a high-rank Awakened.

Almost every time humans went by ship, they will certainly take casualties.

The news about Rex's win in Faraday University soon dimmed, the spotlight was taken over by Hendrickson from the Assault Guild.

Rex scrolls through his phone and found another interesting piece of news, 

'Black Hand?', Rex thought as he taps the news.

The news said that there are many riots in level four cities, many of the people in level four cities found it unbearable for them to be abandoned by Ratmawati City.

Many of them started to band together, they become one single group called AbL in short for Abandoned by Light.

It is not clear where their confidence for rioting against Ratmawati City but from an interview, a man said that they're blessed to be helped by the Black Hand and said that the Awakened are not heroes of Humanity.

'Black Hand is the members of SCO right? If I remember correctly, I saw one in Zrolis City before', Rex thought.

This is shocking news because the level four cities that banded together are not few.

There are 51 reported level four cities in the north that banded together to create this AoL, their numbers reach 300,000 people.

Many organizations such as UWO and FAA started to make a deal with them, it will not be good if rebels started to appear amidst the war.

It will definitely bring Humanity to the grave if that were to happen, the situation becomes critical.

Reading this, Rex is in thought, 'What is their objective? I'm still left in the dark here'

Because of this news, Rex becomes curious about what the SCO's objectives are.

Right now, he only knows that the SCO also wanted to eradicate the Supernaturals although they don't exactly like the Awakened themselves.

But for now, their main objective should be fighting Supernatural.

Rex also manages to find news about a group of four people wearing military outfits who were seen massacring the battlefield on the border against the Dragonman race.

This group of people killed rank five Supernaturals like chickens.

The clip showed a silhouette wearing a military outfit ripped the wings of a Dragonman, he/she then tear the Dragonman's body with their bare hands.

It is dark in the clip and it is shaky, Rex can't see the person's unit emblem.

Usually, any military men or women have a unit emblem on their right shoulder just under their military ranks.

Although not many knew about the different kinds of emblems, Rex knew most of them.

As a part of Unit of Special Reconnaissance, It is one of a requirement for him to know these unit emblems to identify the dead body of a fallen soldier.

It will help in knowing which unit sends them on this mission and knowing the mission's regularity.

'Too bad the clip is too dark, they're definitely Gifted people', Rex thought.

Just as he wants to read more, his phone suddenly rang and his mom's photo appears on the screen.

His mom called,

"Rex my son, I'm sorry for not calling you sooner", His mom said with an apologizing tone.

Hearing this, Rex felt bad as he said, "It's okay mom, How are you mom? What are you up to these days?"

"Oh, I'm fine don't worry. I'm in the spa right now, you should come here sometime later", His mom replied with a cheerful tone, she sounds happy.

She then continues, "I saw that you become an Awakened! I brag that to all of my friends!"

Rex chuckles lightly, his mother just knew that he became an Awakened because of the tournament before, "Yeah, I'm lucky to become an Awakened"

"What are you saying, I'm so proud of you", his mother praises.

Knowing that his mom is enjoying life and she feels proud of him, Rex felt happy, "That sounds good, you should take care of yourself more"

"Yeah about that", Rex's mom said, her tone changes suddenly.

Hearing this, Rex frowns, "What's wrong mom? Did you need anything?"

His mom's tone makes Rex worried, he never likes seeing his mom sad and he will do anything for his mom.

"It's just that I'm running out of money, we won't be able to pay the Property Tax for this year. Robert is having a difficulty in his work so it's going to be tough", His mom said with a sad tone.

Rex immediately replied, "How much do you need mom? Is $2 million enough?"

Hearing what Rex said, his mom gasp in surprise, "It's more than enough! Where did you get this much money from? Is being an Awakened brings that much money?"

"You don't have to worry about money anymore, I'll send it to you right away", Rex said lightly.

For him, his mother is his everything.

When his real parents died, Mrs. Greene is the one who took after him despite being in a bad condition herself.

She and her late husband is not that well off, and even so she still takes care of Rex.

Nothing in this world can be compared to how important Mrs. Greene is to Rex, he will even fight the whole world if something bad happened to her.

For him, Mrs. Greene is his light.

Rex then ended the call, he then immediately transfers the money.

He doesn't felt any kind of remorse by giving half of his money to his mom, there's no hesitation in his eyes even though he knows that he can buy many things in the system's shop with it.

Just after he did that, the door opened abruptly.

Adhara is already back in the room with burning scars all over her body, but despite all of that her face is brimming with happiness.

From just a glance Rex already knows why.

She then raises her hands as a purple fire hovers around her hand, it looks gorgeous and Rex even felt that his Black Lightning feel threatened by it.

"With this, the fire orb earlier, and the fire stones, I can reach rank four easily", she said with a confident look.

Rex nodded his head, "Great, then you need to reach rank four before we get to Wedron City"

~

Somewhere in Ratmawati City,

"Baby, What took you so long? I've been waiting for you", a woman said while she wraps her arms around the guy's neck.

The guy looks at the woman weirdly, he then enters the house.

Seeing this, the woman pouted cutely, "Why are you ignoring me? That's so unlike you"

Without even answering the woman's pout, the guy went to the kitchen before he started to open all of the cabinets to find food.

CLANG!

Plates, glasses, everything around the guy falls to the ground as he ransacked the kitchen.

It becomes messy in a flash with broken glasses around the floor, it greatly shocks the woman who follows the guy to the kitchen.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING! STOP!", the woman shouted.

CLANG!

The woman jumped in shock when a plate falls near her feet, it makes her look at the guy in disbelief, "Malik! What happened to you?!"

She then held the guy's arm but then she got flung to the side.

It was just a flick of the guy's arm making the woman hit the wall beside them, "Akhh!", the woman shouted.

The guy then started to open the fridge, his eyes shone when he saw the food.

He takes the food inside the fridge roughly, his mouth then suddenly opens wide before he put all the food in his mouth.

Looking at this, the woman widened her eyes in surprise.

She's surprised not because of the weird behavior of the guy but because of how wide the guy opens his mouth.

It opened so wide that it is humanly impossible to do.

Razor-sharp teeth decorate Malik's mouth making the woman slowly backs off from him, she finally understands that the person in front of her is not a human anymore.

"King Oddity, he's not just another Werewolf"

"Yes, he has the mark of Kings. I can't even scratch him, he's too strong"

"It's the blood moon mark"

The woman heard the guy talking to himself, she takes her phone on the table wanting to call for help.

Just as the woman takes her phone, the person suddenly appears on her side and grabbed her phone, and crushed it alongside her hand.

"AAAAKKKHH!!", the woman screamed in pain.

Her hand got crushed just like that, her phone's debris stabbed through her hand turning it bloodied.

The guy appears out of nowhere, he is like a ghost that can emerge from the darkness.

The woman backed herself away, "What...What are you?"

A very wide creepy smile appeared on the guy's face, it looks unnatural because of how far his mouth stretches.

Seeing this, the woman wanted to scream.

But in a flash, she suddenly can't speak anymore even though she tried so hard.

The woman opened her mouth trying to shout but no voice came out, it makes her become even more desperate about the situation.

She looks down to the ground and saw her tongue got cut off without her realizing it, it makes her face drain from all colors.

The woman looks at the guy and saw the same creepy smile on his face.

~

Inside the Black Tiger guild,

Duncan is sitting on his desk with a frown, his clothes are tattered and he looks untidied for some reason.

A woman enters the room, she is his wife.

"Dear, Our cash deposit in Sector 3C has been raided by the Sullivan's again", the woman said with a tired look, she sits on the sofa with a sigh.

Hearing this, Duncan becomes even more agitated.

His mana is leaking everywhere before he suddenly slams the desk in anger.

BAM!!

"FUCK!! If they don't want to peace talk this, we'll launch an attack ourselves", He said with anger plastered on his face.

The woman nodded her head, she seems to already expect this.

She then said, "What about the kid? Our agent told me he's heading to Wedron City for a mission"

Duncan glances at the woman with bulged eyes, he then shouted, "LEON!!"

Just after he said that a man enters the room before he bowed slightly in respect, "You call me, President?"

"Send a team to Rex! I don't care anymore, bring his head to me no matter the cost!", Duncan commanded in anger, he seems fed up with all of this.

Leon nodded his head before he said, "Consider it done president"

~

Three hours later,

Rex and Adhara are already in the VIP train heading towards Wedron City.

Rex already assign a place for the kid to be delivered in Sector 3C, it is not too far from Ochyra University and also it is rather cheap.

Normal people are a majority there, so Rex felt that putting the kid there will be okay.

The Fire Band Market will ship them to the place themselves, Rex also already paid some people from the Fire Band Market to guard the place until he came back from the mission.

Back to the mission, Wedron City will not last long.

Another team is already there helping them, they already reported back that the situation becomes worst for each passing day and they need reinforcement.

Orcs army flank them from all sides during the night, 

The only break they got is during the day where all of the orcs recess, it becomes even more serious the longer the siege goes.

It is all stated in the report they got before Rex left Ochyra University, he also got the contact number of the team that is already in Wedron City.

While on the train, Rex and Adhara spent meditating.

With the High Elemental Stones, they both got from the tournament rewards. They both started using the stones because it will amplify their meditation by many times.

Adhara is also determined to reach Early Rank Four before reaching Wedron City.

Unknown to both of them, a huge storm is approaching them in Wedron City that will test their limits and trust.