It was finally the day, they were about to head out and officially start their assignment.
However, Michael was currently busy writing a test that he hadn’t even studied for.
‘How was I supposed to know they revise what they learned every year.. and why exactly did I not get excluded’ Michael grumbled and kept marking down the answers.
While it was certainly difficult, it wasn’t exactly something he couldn’t solve.
The way his brain worked was, he referenced the question to other similar questions he had inside of his brain and out came some kind of an answer.
Whether that works or not, he would find out after the test was finally graded.
‘She really doesn’t like me huh..’ During the test, he noticed Elizabeth glancing at him from time to time with a frown.
He didn’t understand what caused such animosity between them.. maybe it’s because of the way he made them practice their teamwork?
‘It couldn’t have been that bad though right..?’ He made them switch positions and only act if one of them was in danger.
It did not work.
Chloe was the only one who followed through most of the time, however, even then, her solo battle style could not be hidden at all.
As for the other 2.. Michael lost all hope.
No matter what kind of a strategy he tried employing with them, it always failed.
Their thirst for kills was too strong, they kept competing with one another.
‘I guess that explains why Elizabeth was so close in level to them.. She goes around straining herself to get kills’ He concluded.
Kevin was obviously stronger than her, however, she tried her best to keep up with him.
And Chloe.. Was just Chloe.. Nothing out of the ordinary was wrong with her, she could work in a team.
Or so he hoped.
The test finally ended and Michael gave his paper first, trying to avoid eye contact with Lena as much as possible while heading for the classroom exit.
He successfully made it out and headed outside, he told the others to meet up outside after the test was finished.
Frankly, he was one of the last people to leave, those who finished earlier could go do whatever they wanted.
And that just so happened to be all 3 of his party members.
“You are late..” Elizabeth was the first one to talk as always.
“I am not late, you are just early..” He ignored her as a vehicle began approaching them.
They were supposed to be picked up right after the test ended, Elizabeth was just being pissy about it as per usual.
They all got in the car and were driven to some remote area, in front of them was a massive armored van.
The strangest part was that Michael could feel a very faint trace of mana from the people inside of it.
All of them definitely had mana cores, but just like him, they didn’t seem that far advanced.
There were only 4 of them, if Michael caught them off guard, he could possibly kill them all, that’s how confident he was in his current abilities.
His mana core seemed to have become more stable over the course of the week, he felt like he could finally output 100% of his total strength.
However, he hoped he didn’t need to, it was supposed to be a simple escorting assignment anyways.
A burly man came up to them and began explaining their task.
“The 4 of you will be inside of the van, you need to ensure that they don’t pull anything funny, if they do, tap this button twice” He pointed at a watch on his hand that had a single button in the very middle.
He then proceeded to give each one of Michael’s party a watch, it felt weightless.
‘Hopefully, this one isn’t a dud like the one back in the bank.’
That one was a tracking device, this one is a device that would notify the other side according to the combination, which in this case are the 2 taps he was talking about.
‘That one was a tracking device? Fucking Gareth..’ Michael was speechless, he hadn’t talked to him in ages, but even when he had, nothing about a tracking device was mentioned.
For all he knew, the button was just malfunctioning.
Everyone put on and adjusted the watches given, then proceeded to follow the burly man inside of the van.
‘I don’t understand why we have to guard them from the inside, if they got out my party members would be in danger.’ Michael thought about it and questioned the man leading them.
“Don’t worry about that, there will be an extra 2 people on board with you, they are pretty strong themselves” He finished off with a smirk and opened the back doors of the van.
And just like he felt earlier, 4 people were seated in some kind of thick cuffs, it seemed to be restricting all of their movement as they didn’t even move their heads to meet Michael’s eyes.
‘The 2 others that man talked about aren’t here yet..’ He noticed and sat down right in the middle of the 2 strongest inmates.
Michael did that so he could feel the mana better, if they began circulating it, he could immediately immobilize them.
As for the 2 weaker ones? He believed his party could at the very least handle one.
Even if their suppression wears off, they would momentarily be weakened.
At least that’s what he hoped, even up close, he could feel very faint mana flowing from the 4 inmates, must have meant it was sealed somehow.
You are right, the cuffs do act as a suppressant, they restrict both their physical abilities as well as most of their mana.
‘Neat little item.. would not want something like that on my hands ever.’
All of them finally sat down, the complete and total silence was a bit unnerving, however, it was better than the chaos that could potentially ensue.
One of the inmates began staring at Michael, his eyes were completely blank, it reminded him of something.
Michael channeled some mana into his eyes, enhancing the effect of Eyes of The Healer.
‘I was right.. he is mind controlled’ He observed and turned to look at the other ones, they too seemed to have some sort of mind control placed on them.
What troubled him was that he didn’t know whether this was placed by friend or foe.
“Can you speak?” Michael asked the one who was still directly staring at him.
However, he was completely ignored, instead, the other inmate right next to him began staring at Michael as well with the same blank eyes.
‘What a freak show.. System, can I dispel it somehow?’
You would have to refine purify a little more to be able to do that, if you tried recklessly weaving the mana, you would most likely free them instead with their mind control still intact.
‘Pity.. well let’s just hope there won’t be any incidents..’
After a couple more minutes of waiting, the 2 people the burly man talked about finally arrived.
However, Michael’s expression was serious as he looked at one of them in particular.
‘He is mind controlled as well..’
Seems whoever did this, can play around with emotions pretty well, if you didn’t have experience dealing with mind-controlled individuals and you did not have that skill, even you would have not noticed a difference.
Michael had to admit it was right, they bypassed the stronger individuals he had seen earlier, slipping into the crowd as if they were not literally mind-controlled.
‘At least the other one is fine.. if a battle were to ensue, our odds of winning would be much higher.’
The armored van buckled a little bit and began finally moving, their escort assignment had finally begun.
