Chapter 65: Proper Conversation
Proper Conversation
The following day proceeded more or less the same as yesterday.
Mike continued to improve his abilities in close combat against the hologram, and he continued to study the material his Martial Arts instructor had given him.
His control over his Aura improved by the day, and he was slowly getting closer and closer to carving the stone into his desired shape.
The same came with his remaining classes. His improvements weren’t as drastic as on his first day, but they were visible.
His reputation among his classmates was still pretty bad, but it should be clear by now that Mike hardly cared, so he was just doing his own thing.
By the end of the day, Mike and Theresa headed to their dorm, just chatting about mundane things and their classes.
Eventually, though, the two of them parted ways and went to their respective dorm rooms.
As soon as Mike entered the dorm, though, he froze.
In the kitchen near the fridge, a figure stood there with a piece of bread between his lips and a can of soda.
He looked up just as Mike entered, and both of them locked eyes for a moment.
"Oh. Mike, right? Nice to see you." Johnathan said with a friendly wave, and Mike forced a smile.
’Crap, I forgot to listen before entering.’ Mike thought as he unintentionally interacted with his strange roommate again.
Admittedly, Mike somewhat knew that his treatment of the guy wasn’t entirely fair. He hadn’t done or said anything to him to warrant being avoided so thoroughly, and the only thing he’d done that threw Mike off was use his ability.
He hesitated for a few seconds before sighing.
"Yeah. I see you finally came out of your room." Mike tried to joke as he slowly shuffled towards the kitchen where Jonathan was. When he got closer, he finally saw what the guy was doing, and his eyes widened with some surprise.
On the counter, a large number of ingredients had been set out and seemed to be in the middle of being used.
"Haha. Yeah. Just thought I’d take a small break." He said cheerfully and noticed Mike’s gaze.
"Oh, I was just making some dinner. Since you’re her, would you want any?" He asked, and Mike blinked. Surprised.
"You... don’t mind cooking for me?" He asked tentatively, and from what his instincts picked up, it seemed like the guy truly didn’t mind.
"Nah. I barely talk to people anyway, so it’s a nice change of pace. Besides, you’re my roommate, it’s only natural that we get to know each other a bit better." Jonathan said with a smile as he fiddled with the ingredients, and Mike felt a bit guilty.
’Huh. Maybe he isn’t a bad guy.’ He thought and sat on one of the stools near the counter.
Looking at Jonathan, he saw that the guy looked a bit more put together than the last time he saw him. His uniform was hardly rumpled, and his hair didn’t look so messy. The bags under his eyes persisted, though.
"Also, what made you not immediately enter your room?" Jonathan suddenly asked, snapping Mike out of his stupor.
"What?" He blinked.
"Like, you always stay in your room. I’m guessing our first interaction didn’t exactly make you keen on getting to know me more, and the few times I do leave my room, you’re always out or in yours. So I’m assuming you were avoiding me. Why the sudden change?" Jonathan explained, and Mike winced.
’So he knew...’ He thought, feeling even more guilty. He hesitated for a few seconds before he explained quietly.
"I... Sorry. When I first saw you and all that blood in your room... I was pretty weirded out, so I kinda..." He trailed off, and Jonathan sighed.
"I guess that’s fair. My room does tend to look like a very violent crime scene half the time, so I don’t blame ya." Jonathan shrugged, and Mike blinked.
"You aren’t mad?" He asked, surprised.
"Nah. I may be a shut-in, but I also have some self-awareness, and I can sort of tell that something like that would be off-putting for most," He smiled at Mike. "You especially, seeing as you don’t come from any family, so sights like that are probably strange to you." His words caught Mike off guard.
"You know??" He blurted out, and Jonathan nodded.
"Yeah. I check the forums sometimes, and I saw that you don’t hail from any powerful family. Which surprised me since it’s insanely difficult to enter this school without any connections." Jonathan answered as he started cooking again.
’Huh... I guess I kinda underestimated him.’ Mike thought, feeling pretty sheepish.
He then hesitated before asking.
"By the way... When we first met, what exactly were you doing?" Jonathan perked up but didn’t stop what he was doing.
"In my room? Oh, well, I’m a bit of an Artisan. My Pathway is Research & Innovation. So as you can guess, I make stuff." As he said this, Mike’s nose twitched as some of his attention shifted to what Jonathan was making, and his stomach growled a bit.
’It smells good...’ He thought as he salivated.
"My ability helps with that. To summarize, I can use the blood of people to help them make personalized equipment." He said, and Mike’s attention was shifted again as he stared at Jonathan with surprise.
"Wait really? Is the stuff you make decent?" He asked curiously.
Equipment was something that was pretty important to ability users, especially those who excelled in combat.
Through equipment, one could brush up on certain weaknesses that weren’t very easy to get rid of.
Take Theresa for example. Her ability allows her to summon a bow, so she’s fine on the weapon front. But as Mike had learned, her body isn’t super durable. Hence, equipment such as armor is something that would suit her greatly.
As for Mike, while his durability wasn’t half bad, things like using his fists to block attacks from sharp or blunt weapons wasn’t the wisest.
Granted, while he was in Fighter’s.Inc, he realized that the fur that grew on his arms was incredibly durable, to the point where not a lot of things he encountered could bypass it.
However, that was only in situations where he could make use of his Partial Transformation, which weren’t a lot.
Hence, the alternative was him using his aura to protect his fists and other parts of his body, and while that worked in most cases, Mike lacked the control to do it consistently and effectively, moreover, if he ever encountered a situation where he was low on energy, using his aura to block would be out of the question.
To summarize, Mike needed proper equipment, but he didn’t have any, and lacked the means to acquire any.
However, if Jonathan could help solve this issue...
"Meh, the stuff I make is okay." The guy gave a noncommittal shrug, but Mike’s instincts instantly zeroed in on his feelings.
’He wants me to ask more so he can subtly brag.’ Mike realized with faint amusement as he felt his roommate’s anticipation.
Well, no need to disappoint.
"Really? How okay is okay?" Mike pressed, both out of curiosity and amusement.
"Huh. Well, if you really wanna know." Jonathan spoke like it wasn’t that big of a deal, but Mike could feel his pride welling up.
"Most of the time, it’s pretty difficult for people at low levels like us to find proper equipment as we are at the stage where we improve rapidly. Hence, anything we use tends to break pretty quickly. However, due to how my ability and crafting method work, I can sort of circumvent that issue." As he said this, he started plating the food, and Mike was seconds away from drooling at the sight.
"This looks and smells amazing." He said with awe.
"Thanks," Jonathan gave a closed-eye smile before continuing. "Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details, but I can sort of make ’living’ equipment with the blood of whoever wants said equipment, and said equipment can kind of grow with whoever uses it since it sort of acts like an extension of your body due to your blood being an important part of the crafting process." The way he spoke made it clear that he was trying not to brag too hard, but he was sort of failing.
Which wasn’t bad, as Mike was truly enraptured.
"So, the equipment you make can grow with the user? How does that work?" He asked, and he felt Jonathan’s excitement spike.
"Ah, since you asked. When I use my ability on someone’s blood, it keeps its vitality and connection to the person. This is because the combat application of my ability requires the blood to still be connected to the person it came from for it to work. However, if I go further than that, I can do a few things to make a sort of artificial framework within a piece of equipment and put the blood of the person in there. Then, I can make it so that the blood lies dormant within the piece, and through refinement and the like, I can gradually make the equipment take on the properties of the blood to match the user more and more..." Jonathan broke into a pretty long explanation, and Mike listened with both surprise and amusement.
’He’s pretty passionate.’ He thought, finding the situation funny.