A few hours later, the red aura around his skin turned blue, and he finally opened his eyes with a smile on his face. "The number of mana particles has reached more than 50,000. I didn't expect that it would take this quickly to achieve it. It looks like I can alter my fate, after all. I don't lack in strength, compared to those S-rankers, but the only thing that is separating us is the number of Mana particles. I have a long way to go, but it is fine. I'm still young."
After finishing his brushing and bathing, Sungjun left for the reception counter to call for Colonel Hamid to get into the training room. As for Sun Xiao, she had long gone by the time he opened his eyes. He doesn't know where she went, and neither does he care. After all, this lodging is only temporary.
But then again, he still didn't find out the reason for the dorm's existence. Because of Sun Xiao's personality, he couldn't ask for the details and kept quiet. Now that he was curious, he asked the receptionist directly. As she would know his details, he thought she would be patient in explaining them to him.
Fortunately, luck is on his side, and she informed him that, rather than a home, this dorm is more like a detention facility for the hunters, working for the government, who messed up during the mission more than once and indirectly caused casualties. All the people in the dorm were under observation. As for the staff members, they live in another dorm located somewhere else.
"So, that girl was kicked out of Team SKY?" Sungjun remembered his conversation with his roommate. He proceeded to enquire more about her.
The receptionist was quite cooperative. She went through the database and informed him of the basic details about her. Sungjun realized that his assumption was right.
He then asked, "Was she on a mission right now?"
"No, as I told you before, the people here are under observation. No one is allowed to take a mission until they receive a pass from a colonel or higher officer. She must be in a training room or must have been summoned by a superior. I don't know…"
Maybe Sarah was also interested in Sungjun. She tried to flirt with him a little bit and even was successful in getting his number, but unfortunately for her, the whereabouts of his smartphone are unknown, probably at the bottom of the sea when it slipped during the last mission, and Sungjun wouldn't bother to recover his phone number either way. He wasn't interested in contacting any of Han Sungjun's acquaintances or family, yet.
After a while, Colonel Hamid made a visit to the dorm and escorted him to a special training chamber.
"Thank you." Sungjun gave a salute before clicking on the button, which opened the metallic door.
A dark red barrier appeared before him. Seeing the surprised look on the young man's face, Colonel Hamid suddenly started explaining the history of the chamber, "You must have learned of the first hunters in the academy. These chambers were created with the help of our legendary Hunter Codenamed 'Graviton,' the only Hunter in the history of our Alsacian Federation who is categorized as SSS rank to date. Back in the 50s and 60s, we didn't have the necessary technology to create this. So, three decades were spent only studying his body. It wasn't until a few years ago that we finally managed to get a breakthrough and built an enclosed room where gravity can be controlled manually. At the current stage, we have 12 of these gravity chambers in this facility, and only qualified cadets can enter this place. If you are given access, that itself states your potential."
Sungjun only smiled in silence, giving a nod of understanding.
As the colonel left the place, leaving Sungjun to his own devices, the latter continued to stare at the barrier. A look of surprise was spotted on his face as his gaze penetrated through the barrier to watch what was going on inside.
There was a fight going on between a middle-aged fellow and a teenage-looking girl. The latter was none other than Sun Xiao, who was in the midst of a spar against an opponent whose fists transformed into stone, an Earth element Body transformation skill. As for Sun Xiao, she was wearing some purple glows and had a whip made of flames in her hand.
"Let's see what this chamber does…"
Sungjun then stepped inside the barrier, and in an instant, he felt an enormous amount of pressure, almost forcing him to kneel.
Realization dawned upon him. "So, this is the modified gravitational pressure, huh. Judging by the pressure, I guess around 7 times?"
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and focused on his meridians. He pushed a substantial amount of mana particles away from his body, forming a bubble around him. "Mana Bubble Technique." All of a sudden, the pressure decreased a lot, and he could freely stand just like he was outside.
This was called a Mana bubble technique that every elite cadet in the special division has to learn before graduating from the Hunter Academy. Its effect is to reduce the pressure on the body faced by an outside source like gravity, aura, the weight of an object, wind, etc.
However, the problem is that the consumption of the Mana particles appeared to be huge for Sungjun. "It looks like I can resist for ten and a half minutes at most…" Intending to act as a rookie with little experience but filled with potential, he canceled the technique in the next second and just sat on the floor in the lotus position and became a spectator.
He doesn't know whether both of them are ignoring his presence on purpose or they are engrossed in the sparring and didn't realize that he was there. Whatever the case, the sparring session between the two of them went on without any pause.
Meanwhile, Sungjun, who was feeling the gravitational pressure, stuck to the floor and faced a struggle to straighten his back. He observed that both of them, with his aquamarine eyes, started to glow. "In times like these, mystic eyes are the best."
Suddenly, everything became slow. Sungjun could clearly see how each fist was going to hit or how each foot was moving.
The man with rock fists threw a punch towards her for the nth time. The girl dodged the attack and raised the flame whip. The whip captured his fist before a drop kick was planted in his stomach. He staggered back for a few steps.
"Now, take this…" Sun Xiao grabbed the flame whip's handle tightly, which was wrapped around the fist of her opponent, preventing him from getting away from her. She then increased the intensity of the flames.
Feeling the hotness, the stone-fisted guy used his other hand to forcefully get free from the whip. He grabbed it and used his brute strength.
Sun Xiao let out a smile and raised her left hand. An identical flame whip appeared in her hand, which she used to capture his other arm. As he was worried about the hot temperature that would melt his arms, Sun Xiao turned around and swung the whips with all her strength.
"Whoa, that's something," mumbled Sungjun. He was definitely impressed.