Chapter 40 - Assessing Progress

Mark had currently gone to a check from a nearby vending machine for something for him and Rubes to eat. However, it was apparent that Rubes didn't plan to leave, and Mark felt weird about letting him here alone. As for the personnel, they didn't seem to mind, as Mark had noticed some other people staying with other patients outside their rooms.

Of course, Mark used his Skill to get his snacks for free while ensuring no cameras recorded his minor crime. He also kept monitoring this Sarah's Energy Aura, just in case. He also used his to ensure that no suspicious person was around.

His Skill was typical, as the name suggested, meant to be used to find people he wanted to follow, but Mark used it the other way most of the time. This had helped him develop his Skill but made Mark feel a little off by doing so.

Still, in the end, all that mattered was the results, which helped him better understand his surroundings and the people in them.

Before getting back to Rubes, Mark also wanted to take care of something else—- to assign his . He better understood most of them, except maybe and . He still didn't know how much his one point in really affected everything, while he had never gotten hit for the latter.

Even in the , he never lost a single HP since he was faster than his enemies and was always playing it safe and keeping his distance. He had felt like maybe his skin was a bit tougher than before, but it could just be a trick of his mind. He had, in the end, increased his only by two currently.

In the end, he used 2 points in and one at . Most of his Skills needed some form of concentration, which was much simple the higher his . His would affect the damage of his fists and kicks with his techniques, as they were based on a combination of speed and his Trucki to strengthen them. was also crucial as it would increase his SP and his SP Regeneration while resting, but he had already raised that stat much more than the rest.

His current [Status] looked as follows.

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Mark - Lvl 11

Tier: D

Race: Human

HP: 150/150

SP: 90/90

STATS

Power: 14

Agility: 17

Mind: 18

Defense: 12

Endurance: 20

Luck: 1

Unused Stats Points: 0

SKILLS

D-Rank: Appraisal (Lvl 27), Minor Energy Manipulation (Lvl 65), Martial Art (Lv 48), Novice Alchemist (Lv 34), Minor Sword Mastery (Lv 63), Beginner Hacker (Lv 75), Beginner Tracker (Lv 42)

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Mark had made quite some progress since the beginning of all that, but he knew his level was relatively low. Even the weaker of those people he defeated just this afternoon were clearly of a higher level than him, which was why each gave a sizeable amount of EXPS. Also, since he didn't kill them but finished the battle by making them lose their consciousness, the rewards EXP was reduced by half according to what Truck-kun told him. He could have easily gained at least one more level if he didn't spare them.

Mark couldn't see how much he needed for the next level, but if he focused on himself, he could feel how close or far he was, same as when he focused on his Skills level. He found it weird that they didn't show him the exact amount, as it was clear that one existed, and Truck-kun didn't seem to want to tell him the reason, either.

Mark returned to where Rubes was to find the latter covered with a blanket that wasn't there before.

"Where did that come from?" Mark asked.

"Natalie brought it over. She looks like a brilliant girl, although not up to my speed. Maybe you should ask her out if things with Lylah don't work out in the end," Rubes exclaimed with a bit of a teasing tone in the end.

"I..me and Lylah…. Just shut up."

Mark wasn't used to having a friend to argue with like that, as even the friend he had before never had this kind of teasing each other. In the end, every friend in the past was a rich person who was beneath them to act like that, and just befriended him for having a close relationship with his family, or they were people that tried to use him in other ways. It was a long time since he had an actual friend; although he was on friendly terms with a few people, that wasn't the same.

Mark noticed that there was only a single blanket, but it was clearly a large one to cover two people easily. Of course, it didn't take long for Mark to understand Rubes' plan, leading him to sigh. He sat next to Rubes and grabbed the blanket to cover himself as he made himself comfortable to take a nap.

Or at least taking a nap would be what it looked like he was doing.

In reality, he would train his Skills, as he did before since he could do so in the real world. He had a few adjustments on his move set he wanted to practice now that he had used some of his moves in real action.

He hadn't entered the Darkroom those past days, as he took some actual sleep and didn't want to overdrive himself from mentally or physically overworking. However, even though he didn't feel any tired no matter what he did inside the Darkroom, he could feel that his mind was a bit hazy for a few moments and seemed to vary each time. Maybe it depended on what he did in there or how long he stayed there, but he didn't have time to waste on testing it out.

For now, he went through more of the Trucko move sets that he needed to master, other than the simple formation of using the Trucki as a shell of his punches and kicks. There were the and the techniques, which he could use in the future.

The allowed its user to force an opponent to admit defeat by applying pressure to a joint or nerve. That would cause pain or disable an opponent's ability to fight, allowing Mark to end the battle fast as they would either pass out from the pain or give up to end the pain. But, opponents could escape if they were experienced or strong enough.

The technique would allow him to expect and deflect an opponent's attack and then counter with his own attack. He could use this technique to turn an opponent's aggression against them and gain the upper hand in a fight.

Those two were part of the Skill, so they weren't leveling up, but he could feel that he was getting better with them the more he practiced, even if it didn't affect his overall Skill level. Of course, his Skill level was higher than those techniques, and he should probably know how to use them perfectly at that level, but since he had focused on his training with the , he gained a few levels from that even if he hadn't mastered it yet.

Mark found out that he could use his in the Darkroom to control one camera within a specific range and see that it saw through a monitor that he created in front of him. He had tested what range of things he could access these past days with his Skill that way, and it seemed to be around ten meters. But if he had left a piece of his energy with part of a 'command,' he could access it no matter the range, but doing so cost more of the energy used in that machine.

He quickly checked the situation over Sarah's car, which he could only currently tell if it was in the same position he had left it, and if someone tried to do something against the commands he had left in it. Unfortunately, there were no cameras near that place where he could leave some of his energy to keep checking on it, so that was the only way he could check on it.

According to the car's GPS, it was still at the exact coordinates, and even if there were some instances when somebody tried to open the car doors, they had failed. So the difference between the standard locking of the car and the command that Mark gave was that the latter had the vehicle actually trying to prevent people from entering it.

As with most actions, the vehicle rarely did something to prevent its users or others, but Mark and Truck-kun had the power to persuade others to do things that would typically be impossible. So making the door impossible to open even if someone used the most advanced pick-locking techniques was within their reach. In the end, locking the door usually would be like putting a typical locker in it, but asking the conscious to help to keep it shut, was like bringing the standard lock into an eye scanner level of security.

Of course, there was a catch in doing so, as the reason that vehicle consciousness didn't act like that usually wasn't only that they were lazy. In reality, the world rejected them, fighting them and causing them to have low energy, so they needed to 'sleep' a lot, letting their users fully control their bodies.

But of course, Mark could share some of his energy to keep them active when needed, which was part of his command, which was why it had used a lot of SP, but he had easily regenerated on the way to the hospital.

As he finished checking the surroundings of where he was and was ready to return to his training, he noticed some movement. It didn't come from near them or the hallway they were in.

It came from Sarah's room.