In the end, Takashi did not ask to meet Saya and Shizuka. He knew he had long been pushing Eishi's 'tolerance' of him. The fact Eishi was willing to meet Takashi caught him off guard. There was, however, a matter he asked for Eishi's permission.
"Joining her in Tokyo? That's fine."
After receiving his approval, Takashi no longer lingered and left.
'Who would reject additional firepower?'
Although Eishi didn't have any appraisal function for men, he could roughly gouge out their levels. Takashi is on the threshold of second-order espers. His identity as an ACG protagonist suggested his possession of SSS-rated superpowers.
If he could influence or even make use of Takashi, Eishi would be more than willing to do so. He would rather put others in danger rather than the people close to him. He is that selfish. This trait never changed. Only the people he loves truly have a place in his heart—the confidantes who sacrificed themselves to varying degrees for his sake.
They are the only ones deserving of his warmth.
'Fourth-order… I need to reach it today.'
*****
Espers came to being due to one thing: the mysterious evolutionary energy exposed to the entire world. A week prior to the apocalypse, it quietly altered the composition of normal fruits, turning them into evolution fruits. Eating them could trigger a living organism's evolutionary process. The dormant superpowers would then awaken, turning them into an esper.
Unfortunately, study in this regard was lacking. The apocalypse collapsed social order within three days. Now that they are thirty days into the apocalypse, the best they did was to re-establish order. The reshuffle was inevitable due to the appearance of espers and superpowers. Everyone was caught up with internal scruffles and survival. Nobody bothered to ask many things about the apocalypse.
Where did it come from?
What was the special energy that triggered espers' awakening?
Where did the zerg ships come from?
Will the calamities keep coming?
Was someone controlling everything behind the scenes?
…
Saya might not have been an omniscient god, but she had received the answer to the first question… just now.
"Life essence…"
She received Eishi's resources which she used to conduct several studies. That includes test samples, copies of the 'techniques' he obtained, and the futuristic 'quantum computer' he hid from who-knows-where.
When Saya discovered it, she didn't know how to react. She could only feel relieved that she chose that decision—to become his woman. He might be an arrogant, self-righteous prick whose affection towards his women are slightly twisted, but he is still a good person compared to most people. It was undeniable that his food, water, and other supplies granted Saya a level of comfort and luxury even she hadn't experienced prior to the apocalypse.
Hence, instead of aimlessly building affection, she preferred to build up her worth instead. Her high spirit attribute, coupled with her [Genetic Analysis] superpower, gave her a perfect fit with studying biology. It was the somewhat 'pointless' [Partial Beastification] fruit at first, but Eishi surprisingly 'woke' up to it. He asked her to focus more on other productive things. As for what they were, it was all up to Saya.
From it came the [Evolution Serum] formed out of higher-level fruits. Once diluted with distilled water and other ingestible chemical compounds, it could grant someone the effect of dozens, if not thousands of first-rank evolution fruits. One second-rank fruit could create [Evolution Serums] capable of turning hundreds of thousands of mortals into a first-order esper. Such was the value brought by her creation.
Now, she was studying the reasons why second-rank evolution fruits could be consumed at third-order; while first-order fruits have zero effect for the second-order. Saya accidentally stumbled upon one of the 'cores' of the special energy, the genetic energy.
"First to third is mortal transformation; fourth to sixth is the martial transformation… This classification… something's missing on it. But what is it..?"
She read a passage coming from the 'Origin Swallowing Method'. It is one of the two techniques Eishi distributed to everyone else. It was the one responsible for the trend of squeezing evolution fruits for faster absorption. Its limit was at the fourth-order, unfortunately. As for the other technique he brought, the Seven Stars Severing Art, it was at the fifth-order.
Without fail, these techniques described a form of "bottleneck" once their stated 'limits' were reached. Saya wondered why they couldn't just use the same process for the fourth-order when leveling up to the fifth-order, or even the sixth order.
From there, her thoughts went to the concept of 'life levels'. It is merely an indicator of genetic energy accumulation, or so she thought.
She was completely wrong!
There was a good reason why SSS-rated talents required more evolution fruits than other rated talents. The act of evolution lay on "compression". Inside that genetic energy, there is a very small amount of "life essence". Once taken in by a biological body, it would remain deeply within their cells.
Due to the small amount and concentration, first-order espers only have them on their skin. Second-order espers, on the other hand, have it on their muscles; third-order espers on their bones; and fourth-order espers on their bone marrow. Naturally, the increase of physical and spiritual attributes come. Their recovery speeds become ungodly, too. The magnetic fields they emit change, becoming far stronger.
In short, "life essence" is the core substance of biological evolution. One doesn't need to consciously direct it into their body. The body itself craves it. All they have to do is to eat the fruits that contain life essence.
First-order fruits could not take effect for second-order espers as they lack the concentration required to penetrate beyond the skin. It is the toughest layer that needs to be bypassed. It is similar to the concept of having difficulty starting things, only for it to become easier later on.
"If I could mesh them together…"
Saya knew the difficulties of growing up evolution fruits. Even Eishi only produced a bunch of second-rank fruits. He knew it would be difficult to produce third-rank fruits in a short span of time. Hence, she came up with a new research direction.
Could she fuse second-rank evolution fruits to create something comparable to third-rank fruits?
It was the original process of Kaguya and Miko—soon to be, Rei too. Unfortunately, highly-rated plant espers are rare to find. If Saya could produce them en masse—with nothing but lab equipment—it would be faster than them.
Instead of focusing on the intricacies of the techniques, Saya decided it was better to have tangible research results. Once everyone could level up properly, it would resolve the imminent crisis.
Saya placed her notes to the side. She looked around her large room filled with all sorts of laboratory equipment. It was supposed to be an entire floor filled with gym equipment. They were thrown aside to make way for Saya's laboratory.
Just as she was about to enact the first practical experiment, the ground shook.
Rumble-!
Even with the villa's enhancements and incredible toughness, the intensity of the shaking was extremely noticeable.
'This… It's not coming from the ground.'
Her keen spirit recalled her past experiences with earthquakes. It told her something was off. The shockwaves did not originate from the ground… but from midair.
It was coming from a certain room!
'This can't be…'
There are already fourth-order espers within this villa. The fruits were easier to absorb compared to the minutes-long zombie crystals. They experienced tremors whenever someone leveled up to it, but not to this extent.
As Saya had expected, Eishi reached the fourth-order tonight. He experienced the sensation of thousands of ants crawling inside his body. His temperature soared higher, causing sparks to appear in his carpeted floor. Waves of impact originated from his body, causing the windows to shatter and the entire villa to shake.
Fortunately, Eishi's attributes were high enough. His consciousness remained clear throughout the breakthrough process. It wasn't long before his physiological changes came to a halt. Patches of dried-up dark red blood could be seen all over his skin. There were also patches of pitch-black fluids. One sniff was all it took to smell the extremely nauseating odor. It smelled worse than shit and vomit combined.
'Was this the so-called marrow-cleansing?'
He didn't know what to say in this regard. Eishi wasn't practicing martial arts nor was he cultivating immortality. With growing curiosity, he opened up his attribute panel.
[Eishi Hiraoka]
Innate Talent: Time Dominator (SSS, Fourth-order)
Non-exclusive Talent: Spatial Backpack (3,210,000 Cubic Meters), Constitution Boost (SS, Third-order), Weak Electricity (A, Third-order), Spirit Boost (B, Third-order), Metal Sharpening (A, Third-order), Clairvoyance (A, Third-order), Regeneration (A, Third-order), Law Penetration (S, Third-order), Qi Burst (S, Third-order), Cosmic Barrier (S, Third-order), Sun's Essence (SS, Third-order), Dragon Blood (S, Third-order)
Life Level: Fourth-order, One-star
Strength: 1,369 > 1,529 (1,988)
Agility: 1,366 > 1,526 (5,036)
Constitution: 3,066 > 3,226 (10,646)
Spirit: 2,335 > 3,295 (4,284)
Aside from the increase of the physical attributes, there was also the 800-point increase from his innate talent's upgrade.
'Abilities…'
Back then, Eishi could only use his electromagnetic field to perform telekinetic attacks. He couldn't pull off something similar to Yui's exquisite control. Shockwave blasts and jumping bursts were the best he could do.
Now…
'...Oh shit.'
Eishi watched himself float off the ground. The sensation was extremely similar to swimming. Everything was done with his mind, however. It was somewhat peculiar. His physical body didn't have to. What he needed was to have a mental image of 'swimming' across the air. By doing that, he achieved flight.
Eishi undid his crossed legs. He floated across the room, noting the consumption of his spirit and genetic energy. The [Sun's Essence] and [Dragon Blood] provided him with high recovery rates. There are also the Buffs that gave him a 900% increase over his recovery speed. He is more of a war machine than a real war machine.
Simply put, flying wasn't a burden to the current Eishi.
"What a mess…"
His attention went straight to his milky inner core. It remained deeply embedded inside his brain, much like the mutated zombie crystal cores. Several new pieces of information came out of nowhere. It explained the new function of his superpower.
Click-!
Zoom-!
Like a tape being rewound, the messy surroundings were reversed. Broken glass shards flew right back to their previous positions. The cracks that appeared on the wall healed by themselves. The burnt carpets regained their pristine condition.
Before long, the room was reverted back to how it was.
"It didn't consume much…"
Eishi felt his consumption. It was a slight heaviness to his head, slight physical fatigue, and the 'depletion' of his genetic energy. He could pull off such feats ten times at best.
"...Huh."
In a few seconds, the majority of the consumption he sustained were recovered. It only took ten seconds for Eishi to recover what he had spent.
'One and a half minutes…'
That was the time he needed to spend to recover from the ground up. If he maintains a certain degree of consumption, he wouldn't need to wait for much longer at all!
'Fourth-order… What if it's the fifth? The sixth?'
Eishi reveled in the changes of his superpower. He didn't gain any superpower, but the other aspects of [Time Dominator] had increased drastically. Time stop's consumption was reduced to three times its usual cost; time reversal for two times its usual cost.
Meaning, he could stop time for a minute and a half. Four and a half minutes if his total reserves are considered.
'Megumi's superpower could affect up to three levels beyond.'
Barring the appearance of eighth-order lifeforms and above, Eishi's [Time Dominator] could never be broken.
"Hm..?"
He noticed someone's existence at his front door. To his shock, his spirit crawled towards that life signature. His eyesight ignored walls and saw Chizuru who was lying prone on the ground. The lower half of her shirt was flipped upwards, revealing her milky and flat abdomen.
"Ow…"
After a while, Eishi's 'spirit' returned back to him. He felt the warmth coursing through his body. The evolution of his bone marrow affected his physical constitution greatly. It upped his recovery speed to inhuman levels. Similarly, his already strong virility was affected further. It took one thought to suppress the lust that was about to break free.
Coincidentally, he noticed his shredded clothing. He stood naked inside his room. Like a dragon sensing a treasure, it pointed upwards.
'I thought this was fixed already…'