Chapter 164: The Underground Training Facility

Stanley stayed in his bed, curious about his new power. He understood what his new power was... but it still felt weird as the power didn’t feel like it was something very useful to him.

He wondered if it could even be called a power in the first place.

The power he had received was simple. He could always understand the passage of time.

It was a little better than just being able to tell time as he could tell how much time had passed even when time itself didn’t pass at a normal rate.

If he stopped or slowed down time, or if there was something else affecting time around him, he could tell by how much rate it was doing so.

It was a useful power that only worked for him at the moment and he would have to see how he could make use of it.

After thinking about it for a while, he left the bed and went to the bathroom where he freshened up. He needed to learn a bit more about this section too, but for now, just this much would be enough.

He went back to his room and was wondering what exactly he was supposed to do next when someone arrived at his door. An image popped up as a hologram, showing Reena standing outside of his door with some things in her hands.

He opened the door and let her come in.

"You slept?" she asked.

Stanley nodded. "Woke up about half an hour ago," he said.

"Good, your registration has been fully approved and all your items have been delivered," Reena said, giving him some things.

"This is your outfit that you will be wearing at all times. There are 3 pair, so take care of them how you can," she said.

Stanley took the black clothes and looked at them. There was a flexible pant, a flexible shirt, and a jacket, as well as a belt that had many available places to hold stuff.

"I’m gonna get a gun?" he asked curiously after seeing the holster where Sheila used to keep her gun.

"If you get approved for the field, which you most likely will," Reena answered. "Go to the closet and wear them. You’ll have to be in those clothes at all times when on official time."

"Okay, wait a minute," he said and went into the dressing room before coming out a minute later.

He had his black shirt that gripped his pecs going into the black pants that fit him snugly. The jacked laid on him openly, while the belt hung loose.

"How do I use this?" he asked, showing the zipper. There was no such thing in the town, so he was curious.

"Oh, you look nice," Reena said with a bit of a grin. "Lemme show you."

She helped him get the zipper in the jacket and then taught him how to wear the belt correctly. Once he was done, she stepped back and looked at him before nodding.

"You look good," she said. "Like a proper agent of the AAA."

"Thanks," Stanley said while smiling a little. He had already seen what he looked like in the mirror in the closet, but having someone else give confirmation made it more real.

"Here’s your second thing," Reena said and handed over a golden badge with an engraving on it. It was some sort of bird, ready to fly on top of a pointy cliff.

"What is this picture?" Stanley asked.

"It’s the insignia of the AAA. The person who created the AAA could turn into a bird, so they decided to use a bird for a picture," she said. "They chose an Owl since it represented peace."

"I see," Stanley said.

"Take it and never lose it," she said, handing it over. "it has many importances that you will learn with due time. For now, we need to leave or else Gray will start getting annoyed that we’re late."

"Ah, let’s leave then," Stanley said walking with Reena. He placed the badge in its holder inside his belt, where it magnetically stuck and wouldn’t fall off until he pulled on it himself.

They walked through the glass bridge, arriving at the central hub tower where the elevators ran through. They went into an empty elevator and went down.

Stanley expected them to stop when they reached the ground, but the elevator continued going even below that. "There is more under here?" he asked Reena.

She nodded. "Inventory rooms and Training Facility. Everything important happens above ground," she said.

The elevator went down for a while before the door finally opened and Stanley arrived at a room that was massive and entirely white. It was so white that he couldn’t even see the edges of the room and had to wonder if this blank space went on for eternity.

2 people were in the room, the only contrasting element in the view that Stanley saw in front of him.

One was the young man with a tech-based mask on his face with an orange visor, and another was the middle-aged director with a buff body and half an arm missing, which was replaced with a mechanical arm.

"You’re finally here!" Gray shouted when they came. "I was about to think you weren’t going to come at all."

"Good morning," Staley said quickly. "I’m sorry if I’m late."

"You’re not terribly late," Gray said and looked at Reena. "Thanks, Reena. You can leave now, but can you tell Amy to keep an eye on this training area?"

"Sure," Reena said and walked back into the elevator before leaving.

Stanley was now alone with the two men, one who protected him last night and another who wanted to kill him.

The director looked at Stanley and asked, "Do you know why you’re here?" he asked.

"Um... it is to be tested, right?" he asked. "To see if I’m fit for... what was it..."

"To see if you’re fit for a scout or a fighter," the director said. "What do you think you’re fit as."

"I’ve only ever learned to fight, so I would say I’m a fighter," Stanley said.

"How do you fight?" the director asked. "Are your powers strong?"

"Well... when I learned how to fight, my powers hadn’t awakened fully, so I just fight like a normal person," Stanley said.

"A normal person doesn’t know how to fight," the director said. "But... I heard about your situation through Sheila. You use weapons?"

"Yes," Stanley said.

"Not your powers?" the director asked.

"My powers aren’t that helpful by themselves in a fight," Stanley said. "I need weapons to be of use."

"What sort of weapons?" the director asked.

Gray stayed out of the conversation, letting the director talk through things before it was his turn.

"Umm... Swords, spears, staffs, bows and arrows, axe," Stanley listed the weapons he was good at. As a Defender, he was made to train with all weapons, even if he only got to use one in the end.

"Sheila said you used swords though," the director said.

"We were forced to use swords because any other weapons were not very practical against the monsters we fought. We needed as much as we could get out of every strike, so a sword with a double edge was the best," Stanley said.

"Okay," the director said. "For today, you will be using a sword though."

He tossed something at him that Stanley quickly caught. He looked all around and saw that while it looked like a sword hilt with a cross guard, the blade wasn’t there. Instead, it was a thin, cylindrical white tube that couldn’t possibly be a sword.

He instinctively pressed it hard, as he was taught to do with the short sword back when Sheila had given it to him, and to his surprise, a bright red sword blade formed from the rod that was equally as wonderful to him as it was alarming.

It was way larger than the small sword and he could feel the heat from the sword too.

"You know how to use it? Try not to cut yourself," the director said.

Stanley released the pressure and the sword switch back to just being a rod.

"It’s similar to a small sword that Sheila had with her in the town," Stanley answered.

"I see," the director said. "Now that you know how to use the sword, we will begin the training."

The director turned and walked away to the edge of the room where he leaned against the wall, letting the two Novas fight on their own.

"Alright, let’s begin your test then," Gray spoke from where he was. "To start, tell me which type of Nova you are."

Stanley gave a confused look. "Type?" he asked.

Gray nodded before giving a curious look. "Do you not know that there are two types of Nova?" he asked.

Stanley shook his head. "What types?" he couldn’t help but ask.

"Huh? I thought you would’ve learned something since you are a Nova," he said. "Well, listen up. There are two types of Nova."

"First is the one that always has a single type of power. If they gain souls, their powers evolve to just be stronger versions of their previous power while maybe getting a few added benefits. The other type of Nova has this too, but not to the extreme level that the first one has."

"The second is the type that gains different powers every time they absorb a lot of souls. There is likely no limit to the powers they can gain, but those powers can evolve to become stronger too."

"So, which one are you?"