Enlightened Violence 61

Chapter 61: Growth

I smiled in satisfaction at a job well done as I stood over the twitching body of a raider in the wastelands near Fallout town, looking at the couple dozen other corpses littering the ground.

"Time to head back to Fallout town, I guess," I said while cracking my sore neck. "But before that..." I added as I opened my status screen, looking at my parameters. 

"System, put all of my EXP into agility," I concluded, smiling at the satisfying ding from the notification, indicating my agility just went up in rank as I flew into the air.

It has been two weeks and a couple of days since the battle at the compound, and things have been surprisingly quiet in Fallout town, aside from one new faction or the other emerging to replace the defeated gangs on the northern side, of course.

These factions were better equipped and organized than they had the right to be as new gangs, as they were subgroups and branches from already established, powerful groups. And they had solid backing, unlike the previous occupants of the northern territories, but that is neither here nor there. 

What really surprised me, however, was how quiet the world was outside of Fallout town and the wasteland, as no news of the Deterrent's death came to light in the last couple of weeks.

I was expecting shit to hit the fan no later than a week after Clay's death, with every powerful faction taking out their dicks in preparation to start the dick-waving competition known as war as the only thing stopping from doing it is gone. But it looks like OWR did a great job covering the Deterrent's death.

However, I was anything but upset about the fact Clay's death not being public knowledge, as that would give me more time to grow in strength and build my own faction; I had a pretty big dick myself, and it would be a shame not to join the dick-waving competition when it started just because I wasn't ready.

However, if OWR is determined to keep Clay's death under wraps, then I already have a plan to benefit myself from it, but that's for the future.

And speaking of growing my personal strength and that of my faction, both have been going smoothly in the past two weeks; my intelligence, endurance, and strength parameters have been steadily increasing on their own to accommodate my new energy reserves.

However, although my agility was growing on its own due to my natural increase in strength, it was lagging behind my other parameters, so I had to take things into my own hand. 

I started going out into the wasteland on hunting missions to kill raider bands, mutated monsters, and the like to accumulate EXP to upgrade my agility to a moderately satisfactory level. 

In the end, this is what my status screen looked like:

Name: Kaden Solomon 

Age: 19

Race: Human 

Bloodline: None

Parameters:

Strength: B-

Agility: B-                                                              

Endurance: B-

Intelligence:  B

Energy: A

Overall evaluation: B+

Perks: 

[Waste lander: You know your way around a desert, a snowy area, or any other harsh environment.]

[Undetermined Fate: Despite what most people want to believe, everyone has a fate that they can't avoid, but you are the exception and, as such, you have the power to decide your destiny and change the inevitabilities of those around you.]

[Intuitive Aptitude: You can learn and understand the complexity and exactness of any organism or object with no need for long-term or special education.]

[????????]

[Aura master: the ability to transform pure energy into aura, the subtle, luminous radiation that surrounds a person or an object]

[Demonic (Yin) energy manipulation: the ability to transform pure energy into demonic (Yin) energy, the violent, destructive force which demons wield]

I couldn't help the smile creeping on my lips as I looked at my parameters as I compared them to what I started with; I'm slowly but surely growing in strength, but it's still not enough. 

My insatiable lust for power aside, however, demonic energy was a great addition to my arsenal as it offered me more firepower and utility at the same time. 

Demonic energy wasn't much different from aura other than the fact it was more destructive but less malleable than the latter. It gave me the ability to release demonic blasts, demonic beams, and other related powers much more efficiently than aura. 

Though I could already do the same with aura, it required a lot more focus and energy to produce half of the results demonic power was capable of in terms of pure firepower.

The utility that demonic energy offered wasn't anything to scoff at either, despite lacking when compared to aura, as it focused on creating powerful, tangible tools and weapons which would not dissipate after running out of energy, unlike aura constructs. However, they require much more work and recourses (souls) to create. 

Demonic energy also gave me the ability to summon demons. But I wasn't touching that with a ten-foot pole anytime soon as it was too complicated a process with an enormous risk of backfiring.

That said, however, my Phoenix Wings were growing in strength at an equal pace to my own personal growth, as the past couple of days witnessed a massive influx of recruits coming to us, asking to join. 

Although I was extremely picky, setting the requirement as high as possible for our new recruits, we still ended up with roughly 100 new phoenix wings, making them outnumber the original members by two to one.

So I split them all into groups of three with two new recruits and one original member to oversee them and put them to work immediately, sending them on various missions, inside and outside of Fallout town.

However, the influx of recruits gave rise to a new problem, as the compound was nearly packed. And it seems that I will need to look for a new base of operations if I want to expand more, but that's for the future since I need to properly indoctrinate the current batch before I think about recruiting more.

On a positive note, however, the missions I sent my phoenix wings on went remarkably smoothly as smaller gangs were already shitting their pants after our display of power two weeks ago, and anyone strong enough to consider taking us on was too busy preparing for the hell Charmaine would spread upon Fallout town, but I digress. 

I smiled, nodding at the guards patrolling Fallout town's walls, earning a polite nod from them as I flew overhead. It's actually prohibited to enter Fallout town in any way other than the four entrances on its walls, but credits were another way to enter the township.

However, a sizable gift of credits finding its way to the captain of Fallout town's guards under the phoenix wings' group seemed more than enough to buy us the privilege of entering through other means, for a while at least.

I quickly made my way towards the compound and landed in the courtyard, frowning as Vilhelm rushed towards me with an urgent expression.

"There's something wrong with little Billy," Vilhelm said with a frown, not bothering to elaborate as he turned around and started walking away after gesturing for me to follow. 

I just sighed with a frown of my own as I followed behind, and we quickly reached Billy's room. "What's going on?" I asked as I looked at Vilhelm, who was standing in front of Billy's room, reaching for the door.

"I have no idea," Vilhelm said with a grunt as he unlocked the door. "See for yourself," he added as he opened the door, covering his eyes as blinding yellow light emerged from within the room. 

I squinted my eyes as I made my way inside, seeing nothing but bright yellow as the light almost blinded my eyes. However, my eyes quickly adapted, causing me to sigh. 

I could see Billy curled up in a fetal position as he lay on the ground, groaning in pain with a pale expression, his body shining in bright, yellow light, and his eyes closed.

"Billy, what's wrong?" I said as I squatted next to little Billy with a frown. "What are you feeling?" I asked, putting my hand on his shoulder as I activated my aura-reading ability, hoping to figure out what was happening.

"Big... Big brother Kaden, is that you?" Billy said with a smile squeezed through a pained expression. "Did you come to see little Billy?" he added, clutching his chest. 

"Little Billy is happy-" he remarked, halting as he began screaming in pain loudly. 

"Yes, I'm here just for you, big guy," I said as I patted his back. "Can you tell me what you're feeling so I can help you?" I asked, my eyes shifting as I looked at Billy's aura. 

"I don't... I don't know," Billy said between gasps as he stopped screaming. "But it hurts and burns inside me..." he added as he opened his eyes, revealing the yellow, fiery glint inside them.