Chapter 375

Spending a night in the cave wasn't as bad as Jack initially thought. He realised he had spent a lot of his time in dark places and caves ever since being with Ray. It never seemed to bother him as much as the others, but now when he thought about it, it made sense. The town where he grew up was underground after all, so it was a no brainer that he never felt fear or anxiety when going underground. Furthermore, the children tried to make Jack's stay as comfortable as possible. The kids shared a bed while allowing Jack to have a whole bed to himself. He felt a little awkward, but due to his size, there was really no other choice. It didn't take long though for Jack to fall into a deep sleep. He didn't even know when it had happened, it just did. He was far too worn out about the events that had gone on today. Waking up to a warmly smell coming from the kitchen area, it reminded Jack of old times when his mother used to cook him dishes and meals. An image of her smile appeared in his mind. Looking around and noticing Jack was still in the cave, he quickly realised that the events that had happened yesterday were not a dream. "What's wrong?" the middle-aged woman said as she handed Jack over a bowl of soup. "Nothing, all of these just reminds me of home," Jack replied. He really was troubled though, not knowing what to believe. Was everything that happened when he was younger fake? If so, why did they send him off, when they tried to sell his brother off? A system message suddenly appeared, and it turned out it was from Ray. [Messenger Ray: I will be heading off to the auction house again today. If you need anything let me know, or you can meet me there.] It was short and sweet, and it didn't seem like Ray was in a rush to leave the town just yet which was good news for Jack. Although this whole trip was for Jack to see his parents in the first place the whole thing had taken a strange turn. After everyone had finished eating, it seemed like the two teenagers including the three kids started to head off to the open area of the cave, where there was no furniture or equipment. The same place Jack had seen several scratches and craters. As they went over, they grabbed their weapons and equipment and started to line up. "Care to join us for some training?" Steve asked as handed over what looked like a basic beast weapon. Jack took the weapon and followed Steve over to the training area. The two teenagers and four kids were lined up straight and disciplined. It was indeed a strange sight— seeing people so young already starting such training. Even Jack, never did intense training at the academy until later on, and only learn in theory beforehand. "As you know, there are still many of our kind trapped in this town." Steve started to explain. "I know some of you wish to stay to help save the others, but this training is not for you to join in the fight, but to protect yourselves when you leave this place, or if I ever disappear." "Is Steve leaving us…?" One of the kids said. "No, he's not leaving us," Rachel replied. "He just saying sometimes he might have jobs that go on for a few days, or maybe one day he has to go back to his family." Rachel winked towards Steve direction as she said these words. Even though she was only 6 and the same age as the others. She seemed to understand the situation better and often looked after the other kids. "Good I'm glad you understand," Steve replied. "Today, I will leave Zink and Claire in charge of your training, I must personally see the skills of Jack here." The two teenagers walked forward and started to mentor the two kids, while Jack and Steve walked off to the side, not too far from where the others were training. Although Zink and Claire had taken over, they weren't really doing much in terms of training and the same could be said for the kids as well. This was because they were far more interested in the strength of Jack, their newest family member. Zinc and Claire had set it up so they could see both Jack and Steve from their side. "How's the weapon?" Steve asked. Jack gripped the weapon hard and swung it up hard, and at the same time placed his forearm outward, slamming it into his other hand. The blade completely snapped in half and there wasn't a single scratch on Jack. "Hey, hey... Those weapons aren't easy to get you, you know? when you're hiding in the Cave. You could have just said something." Steve complained. "But I have to say, I didn't realise you were already this strong. Even while in human form basic weapons don't hurt you anymore."

The kids seeing this were stunned, they had never seen a human shatter a beast weapon just with their skin before. Even if his skin was hard enough, the power needed to break the weapon on contact as well needed to be sufficient as well. They had expected Jack to be quite impressive, especially since he was there leader's brother, but not as impressive as this. "Well, the weapons are useless, let's try something else then," Steve said. Steve then took a fighting stance, he was in a slightly crouched position and had both of his arms wide open. Slowly, his arms started to turn. Fur could be seen growing on top of them, he was transforming. But there was something different about his transformation compared to Jack's... it was the fact that only his arms and transformed and nothing else. "Go on then, it's not going to be a fair fight if only I transform," Steve said. Jack looked slightly embarrassed as he replied. "I only know how to completely transform though." "Seriously?" Steve said with a concerned look on his face. He was wondering how Jack had managed to make it so far. A complete transformation took an enormous amount of energy. Surely after fighting in a state of complete transformation state one would be drained out of their energy and would no longer be capable of any further fighting. In a way, it was a double-edged sword or a last stand type of thing. Only transforming part of a body would give the extra strength and defensive without taking up a huge amount of stamina. "Looks like you have a lot to learn little brother." Steve then went over to Jack's side and explained the process and feeling. Stating that if Jack knew how to control Ki, then he should have a better understanding of how to control his werewolf powers as well. The problem was, Jack had only just started to learn how to utilize his Ki better, so it was taking him a while to get a grasp on the whole concept. Steve had explained that inside Jack, he should be able to sense two types of different energy, his Ki energy and then even deeper down, a red firey type of energy. Just like Ki, he needed to grasp the feeling of that energy and move it around his body. At first, just transforming and recognising the feeling of energy moving around the body should be enough. Jack continued to transform in and out, from being a full werewolf to being human. Once again, the others including Steve were quite shocked at this. Jack didn't look like them when he was a werewolf, his whole body structure was slightly larger and even more muscular as well. Rather, then saying anything to Jack about this Steve decided to keep quiet. Eventually, Jack had run out of energy after constantly going in and out of his transformed state. Needless to say, going in and out of his transformation several times was tiring. As the two of them sat down and rest, Jack wanted to ask a few questions of his own about being a werewolf, hoping that Steve would be able to shed some light. He was already learning a lot from his brother and it had only been a few hours. "I wanted to ask you about consuming other beasts," Jack said. "Do we get stronger from eating other beasts?" Jack asked. Once again. Steve looked at Jack in a strange way. "There were rumours when I was with the other werewolves who tried to consume beasts to grow stronger, but they quickly stopped releasing it did nothing to them. Even I tried it and it seemed to have no effect. Although, there was one person who continued to do it... " "It was the leader back then. None of us knew why but he also consumed the beasts he killed. I guess it just became some type of ritual." While explaining this to Jack, Steve was questioning why Jack was even asking this in the first place. At the same time, Jack was equally confused. He could feel that he had gotten stronger after eating the king tier beast. While on their journey and Ray not looking at him, Jack had consumed other lower-level beasts, but it seemed to have no effect. Was the harpy just that special or did he need to consume stronger beasts? There was also another option, that Jack was different from the others, but he himself didn't want to believe that. He had already lost one family and he didn't want to lose another, he didn't want to be different.