Chapter 8: Berserk
After an annoying session of the chase, Magnus managed to gather all of the thugs around him onto one coach.
"Listen up, useless trash. Even though I could kill all of you one by one, that's beneficial for neither of us, so here's what's going to happen. All of you, every single one of you, attack me all at once, obviously, I've already broken your guns and weapons, this is going to be an all-out brawl, except it's all of you versus me.
Of course, if you guys win, feel free to kill me and continue with your hijacking I guess."
Magnus knew that he had to be ruthless to himself, much more than he was to his enemies. He couldn't leave any room for him to falter, or hold back, this was going to be life and death- the best way for growth.
His eyes flashed with determination and practically glowed with his resolve, and he stood there, waiting for the people he counted to be numbered over 80, and let them make the first move, to give them a bigger advantage.
Meanwhile, the thugs were conversing with each other on a strategy, at the beginning, they were unsure and anxious, but, after conversing for a while, the thugs started to feel a sense of security in their numbers.
They believed that even if Magnus was able to one-shot their boss, that was due to surprise attacking, having momentum, luckily hitting a weak spot, and charging up his ability for a good time, after all, if he was so strong, why didn't he just step up in the beginning.
However, they were all avoiding reality, even though sometimes having higher morale is important, it's useless if you run to your death with open hands, so to speak.
While the Thugs were hyping themselves up, Magnus just scoffed lightly inside his head, as he messed around with his Status. He wasn't sure what the 'Mental Rebirth' actually changed, since so far he had been the same.
But he could feel something inside of him, it was his intuition, which had always been spot-on so far, was telling him to be careful.
After making sure they couldn't sneak attack any of the civilians or Remus and Estelle and hold them as hostages, the train had finally stopped, Magnus had asked the conductor to stop near an open clearing so that they would be able to fight a bit.
The train stopped in an open area, on the entrance to a mountain, and a literal swarm of large, buff, people, all dressed in black were staring daggers into Magnus as they exited the train.
The civilians were watching through the windows as well, not quite understanding why Magnus would do this to himself, as he could easily beat them all one by one.
Meanwhile, Magnus was trying his best to suppress his inner instincts that were screaming out once again, it had been trying to escape his suppression for the past couple of minutes when he had been faced with the killing intent exhibited by the dozens of men.
It was the same feeling he was barely able to suppress when he saw Estelle on the verge of death. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to suppress it this time, he realized that this was what his intuition was warning him off.
Although he wasn't too worried about what was happening right now, he was worried about the mental rebirth thing from earlier, that had corrupted the system for a short time. But nothing like that seemed to be happening, as it just seemed like an instinct to fight, more than anything else. He wanted to pound the near 100 men in front of him, to pummel them to the point of them begging for dear life.
"Haaaaaaah. Alright, let's start."
The thugs finally broke off their discussions after hearing Magnus's words.
After seeing Magnus's defensive stance, every single one of them rushed towards him.
This reminded Magnus, this wasn't a game or a movie, this was reality, they wouldn't wait for him to take them out one-by-one, all of them were rushing towards him and attacked at the same time.
After seeing the attacks of all the people around him, he was no longer able to contain it, the urge dominating him had finally taken over, he was able to think of one last thing though,
'ACTIVATE COMBAT FUNCTION'
In truth, he didn't need to shout this out loud, in fact, he didn't need to say it at all, the system would automatically activate it when he was in battle.
Magnus's eyes and hair turned to a color reminiscent of a galaxy once again. The world flashed all sorts of vibrant colors, and those were all the rational thoughts he could muster until he fully lost control.
The reason Magnus willingly let himself lose control like this, was to see what would actually happen and whether it would actually harm him and the system or was just a result of his traits, and was beneficial to him. This was more of an experiment than training. After all, he had long since told the system to knock him out to be unconscious if it was safe to do so, and if things started to turn for the worse.
[Activating Skill: Wrath of the Berserker]
[Host's Innate Trait: 'Berserker's Drive' is resonating.]
['Combat Function' is resonating.]
[Host's combat ability is vastly boosted.]
***
3 Minutes.
That's how long it took for the crazed Magnus to beat down all 80+ people charging towards him.
Most of the civilians in the halted train were watching Magnus right now, and every single one of them only had one word on their mind, 'Scary…'.
The Magnus fought could only be described as scary. The way he fought, reminded all the spectators of a wild beast, except it was incredibly talented in combat and had some seriously next-level awareness and intuition.
One punch from Magnus was enough to break the ribs of any of the thugs there, but he didn't stop at one, each person had been punched at least 5 times, and felt like dying, not to mention the people who were luckily able to scrape a weak punch at Magnus when dozens had attacked at the same time.
They were unfortunate enough to actually have done some damage to him, however minimal, and were struck at least 20 times.
It was due to this animalistic way of fighting, that Magnus had so many injuries on his body, however, at the same time, if he had fought rationally, there was a pretty high chance he wouldn't have been able to handle the attacks of dozens upon dozens of big, burly men.
The only way to survive that brawl and come out on top was to be as vicious as possible, and vicious was the best description for how he had fought.
"Haaaaaaaaaah, that was fun."
Magnus felt weirdly refreshed after beating up so many people to the point of many of them being paralyzed.
'Oh no, am I becoming a Sadist now?'
(Author Note: Don't search that one up either, kids!)
Plus he was glad he was able to transform into a state where he fought much better than normal, unfortunately though, he was unable to control it for the present.
Magnus decided to take one more look at his status after the battle.
STATUS:
{Magnus}
Occupation: N/A
Titles:
-Master of the Philosopher's Stone [Fully Absorbed]
-Blessed by Mana
-Sorcerer of Energy
-Creator of the Quintessence title reserved only for the creator of the æther.
-Seer of the Origin
Traits:
-Aether Physique
-Psychotic Will
-Irrational Mind
-Energy Circuit
-Berserker's Drive
Stats:
-Strength: 41
-Agility: 34
-Vitality: 84
-Energy: 69
-Spirit: 36
Skills:
-Mana Mastery {passive}
-Aether Authority {passive}
-Energy Manipulation {passive}
-Wrath of the Berserker {active}
-Psychosis {Active}
Magnus took a small shower inside the train's washroom, and borrowed some clothes from one of the civilians, and was back to looking fresh, although his outfit and hair now left much to be desired.
However, he couldn't be bothered with that, he was still thinking about how much he had improved, 'Damn, the system really is way too overpowered, especially the Growth Function.'
Although most of the 80+ people he beat up were weaker than him, there were quite a few of them who had a few stats that were a little higher than his, especially considering that the way he had fought was literally a fight to the death, where he had given himself multiple disadvantages, along with his instinctual fighting style, allowed his stats to increase by a small amount, but he could easily feel the difference, and he felt himself to be much stronger now.
After cleaning himself up, Magnus approached the duo of Estelle and Remus. At some point of him cleaning himself up, Estelle seemed to have woken up and cleaned herself as well.
Estelle noticed Magnus approaching, but wasn't sure of what to say, and was a little too shy to start the conversation. After a bit of awkward silence, she finally mustered up the courage to say, "T-Thanks... For saving Remus...and me."
"Oh, that was nothing, those people were a bother to me anyway, I'm glad you're safe."
"..." Estelle slightly blushed on hearing that but remained silent.
After seeing her nervous expression, he asked again "So...How come you two were on this train anyway? You seem to be related to some bigshot.
Seeing Magnus talk so normally and informally made Estelle a little calmer, she believed he was intentionally talking like this to make her feel more comfortable, and she felt overflowing gratitude for everything he had done in the past couple of hours.
She answered, slightly smiling now, "Well, we were running an errand for our father, and were returning from a different side of town. Now that we've completed that, we're going to enroll in the Academy downtown. How about you? Where are you going?"
Magnus's eyes got a bit bigger, "Oh, no way, I'm going to the Academy to enroll too. What are the odds!"
Estelle's pupils enlarged, and she somewhat nervously asked, "Umm, hey. Since we're going to the same place... Do you... Wanna travel there together?"
Magnus thought over her proposition for a bit. They probably had better knowledge of the city and were probably rich as well. There was no reason to decline. Besides, they owed him now, especially considering that they were going to the Academy, there was no reason why he couldn't put them to good use.
"Alright, sure, I don't mind. We can travel together.
Estelle let out a happy smile. She wasn't sure why she was so happy to be traveling with him, but she was. But, there was something to do before that.
"Well, before that, we're going to have to clean this mess up," said Estelle, looking at the bodies, that Magnus had taken and stacked up in a couple of empty compartments.
Seeing Magnus's expression that suddenly became anxious, she let out a giggle thinking about how he must not have even thought about the consequences of killing and beating up so many people.
"Don't worry though, I come from a big family, you should be alright." Said Estelle, she would convince her father to keep this matter private to make sure this 'incident' didn't slip out to the public. If it did, it would probably make headlines, after all, it wasn't every day that so many people came to hijack a train.
"Oh really? Thanks a lot then," said Magnus, immediately accepting the kind gesture.
His actions made Estelle giggle even more, while he just awkwardly smiled. "So, since you two are enrolling in the Academy right now, I'm assuming you're 15?"
Before Estelle got to answer his question, Magnus got the answer from behind him.
"Yep."
It was the blond-haired, prince-looking boy, Remus, who seemed to have woken up at some point in their conversation.
"Estelle and I are twins, you see? So we're enrolling together. We've been preparing for this for a while, so we're easily going to graduate at the top of our class, you just watch."
"Uh... yeah alright. But you might wanna wash up first buddy."
Remus stunk quite a bit. It was because was covered with scratches on his clothes as well as his skin, and was colored red in many places, since had fallen unconscious without being able to clean himself, he looked and smelt disgusting.
Remus's eyes widened, it seemed like he didn't even notice the condition he was in. His face slightly reddened in embarrassment and he went off to wash in the washrooms on the other end of the coach.
"Excuse my brother, he might be a little childish, but he has a good heart. Speaking of which, although you probably know my name by now, allow me to formally introduce myself.
My name is Estelle Irene Aurellia, but feel free to call me Estelle. And my brother's name is Remus Finn Aurelia, but you can call him Remus or Finn, although the name Finn seems to irritate him quite a bit."
"Well then, my name is Magnus, if I'm being completely honest with you, I have no idea what the rest of my name is, so feel free to just call me Magnus."
"Oh... I'm sorry," Estelle genuinely felt bad, and she wondered how much this young boy, who was the same age as her, had trained, and how much pain he went through in order to get so much stronger than her, considering he probably didn't have much to help him along the way."
"Don't worry about it, I'm pretty happy the way I am."
"Heyyy, I'm back. What are you guys talking about?"
The moment Remus had returned from washing himself, they felt a slight jerk in the train, they had finally reached the final station,
City: Zion.
***
After getting off the train, Estelle has immediately contacted her family to clean up the situation, after informing them of the gist of the situation, and promising to explain later, she came back to Magnus and Remus, who had gotten pretty friendly with each other in the meantime.
Magnus had never had a proper conversation with a person his age, especially someone with such a good heart like Remus, as he wasn't the most approachable person, especially considering he got bullied a lot, therefore no one felt like conversing with him.
And so, talking with someone like Remus, who was genuinely a good person, had made him pretty happy, but he wasn't sure how to explain that feeling.
After getting Remus a new change of clothes, and after going shopping for some basic utilities for Magnus (He didn't decline their offer to pay since they were much richer anyway,) they went around the city, and Remus gave Magnus a basic overview of every important place in the city, while Estelle gave him some basic information he might need in the future, after noticing that he was practically clueless about everything.
Magnus, of course, was glad to have some real people to talk to for once in his life, and, for the first time in a while, enjoyed the evening he spent.
After getting the basics of the city down, Magnus and the twins went out to have some fun, for the first time in his life, Magnus went to an Arcade and spent about 2 hours having the time of his life.
By the time it was almost midnight, the trio was finally getting pretty tired. They decided to call it a night, and Estelle paid for 3 rooms in a 5-star hotel to sleep in. Magnus was more than astonished at how comfortable and luxurious everything was, and immediately fell asleep the second he went to bed.
He dreamt about him enrolling in the Academy tomorrow. He was actually really excited about it, he had never actually gone to a proper education facility, he had educated himself by finding old books here and there, and from the local library.
However, that obviously wasn't enough, as he could tell by his conversations with Estelle and Remus, who seemed much smarter than him.
He was eager to learn more in the Academy, especially learning more about fighting. He wanted to be able to fight with the skill that Estelle did.
***
Next morning,
Magnus, Estelle, and Remus were standing outside of the Academy building.
"Well, are you ready?"
"Let's go."
"Yeah, we're ready."
Both Estelle and Remus answered in sync.
The reason Magnus asked if they were prepared was that enrolling in the Academy was not exactly as simple as just registering their name. In order to enroll, they had to take an exam that tested their skill and worth.
But Magnus wasn't too worried about it, since he was going to be taking the battle affiliated courses, he didn't need to worry about it too much.
However, the Aurelia twins were going to be participating in many of the other branches as well as the main ones. For example, Remus would also be studying 'Military Tactics and Strategies', 'Leadership and Management', 'Psychology and Mindgames', and 'Economics and Production', along with the 'Combat' course.
Magnus was flabbergasted enough after seeing Remus who aimed for 5 pretty unrelated courses, but he could understand that it was probably for the reason that he was going to be succeeding in the position of his parents and grandparents. And yet, he couldn't help but be even more astounded after finding out that Estelle was planning on taking even more.
She was planning on tackling 7 whole courses. Magnus wondered if she was even human. She was taking 'Mana Comprehension', 'Spell Configuration and Theory', 'Quick Thought, Action, and Reaction', 'Mystical Herbology', and 'Alchemy Synthesis', as well as the 'Combat' course that was pretty much compulsory for anyone aiming to go to the tower or to defend the gates, or other fighting related professions.
"Siiiigh."
After letting out a deep sigh, he said, "Let's go then."
He opened the gate and went inside, with the twin duo following behind him. It wasn't long after entering that they managed to find the entry for the enrollment site. It was a large, open area, that, even though it was gigantic, was fully crowded with children, all of them Magnus's age.
It made sense, the Academy was the first ranked institute for high school education on the entire planet. And despite being so popular, the Academy had no qualms or requirements about accepting anyone. Even the Education fee was minimal, if you were talented, you would get accepted without any bias whatsoever.
There was only one requirement, and that was that graduates of the Academy had to sell their materials to the Academy for around 10% less payment than usual, for the collection of materials from the Gates and Towers if they were planning to become Fighters.
And there were other such small future payments required. Obviously, this didn't cause much of a problem for everyone as it was just 10%, while they were ensuring a good education. It was a really good deal for both sides, as 10% of the income of most of the prominent Rankers and Hunters on Earth was still an incredibly large sum of money.
Especially considering the Academy was founded and promoted by an alliance of most of the powerful countries on Earth, there was practically no disadvantage.
Therefore, the number of children enrolling for the Academy every year only got bigger. And this year, Magnus got to experience that first-hand.
There were people of all shapes, colors, races, and other diverse classifications everywhere he looked. There were so many people here, he wondered how he thought he ever had a chance of getting accepted before he had acquired the system.
He even saw some non-human races among them. Ever since they had come from worlds across the towers and gates, they started to become more popular on Earth. Especially now, years later, it wasn't that rare to see non-human races, most of, but not all of, who were humanoid.
"Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up huh?"
But Magnus's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of another trio. It was a group of 3, and they stuck out really clearly due to the unique color of their hair, it was bright purple.
"Aww, what's wrong, didja miss us?"
Remus, from behind him, immediately came forward from behind him and fired back.
"Oh shut up 'Little Finny'"
"Dammit, I told you, bastards, not to call me that."
Magnus was a little surprised by Remus's irritated and angry expression, either he really disliked the name Finn, or he disliked the trio in front of him. But it didn't take long for him to come to the conclusion that it was both options.
"Siiiigh, come on Remus, you know we don't have the time to bicker with them, let's go. C'mon Magnus, we have to register for the enrollment first."
"Oh right," Said Magnus, following Estelle who had ignored the 3 purple-haired, obnoxious boys.
"So... Who were they?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. They're just old... 'friends', y'know?"
"Riiight."
"So, have you decided what courses you're going to be taking? It's a pretty important decision, so I wouldn't advise you to make it at the last minute. Oh, I know, would you like an introduction to the main courses?"
"Uh, I've already made my decision for the courses I'll be taking, thanks a lot for the offer though."
Magnus was planning on taking all the combat-oriented courses, he had come to this decision the second he watched Estelle fighting on the train earlier.
The courses he was going to be taking were:
'Combat', 'Footwork and Momentum', 'Mana Training and Utilization', 'Magic Spell Comprehension', 'Physical and Mental Training', and lastly, 'Fighting Technique and Dominance'.
He was going to get as strong as possible.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Arm7
Arm7 Sorry for the long chapter, think of it as 2 chapters XD
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