Chapter 2: Understanding The Ability
After doing all his tasks, Edwin was now returning back to home. On his way, he was thinking to himself.
'…The condition for activation of my ability is touching women who possess mana compatibility. The longer I maintain contact with them, the more energy I can absorb from them. However, what is this energy that I absorb? It doesn't feel like mana.'
This wasn't his only worry. He was worried about one more thing.
'Miss Rena didn't seem to discover that I had absorbed energy from her. But this might have been due to the short duration of the contact. Maybe she would have discovered if I had maintained the contact for a bit longer. Well, I will know soon enough when I meet up with Miss Clara.'
Well, he put these worries in the back of his head before entering his house.
"I am home," he spoke aloud.
"You are finally home, Edwin. How did your day go? You didn't get injured, right?" came a gentle voice from the living room.
Upon hearing that voice, Edwin had a faint smile on his face as he spoke, "...It was a bit dangerous for Alden and others, but they managed to defeat those monsters. Well, if they had lost, I probably wouldn't be standing over here."
He then went over to the living room.
A young girl, in her high-school uniform, was seated on a sofa in the living room. She was currently eating snacks. This was Edwin's little sister Mira. She was currently 16 years old and a high school student in Miami's Top Schools.
Edwin spoke with a twitching brow, "You are eating those things again? Didn't I tell you to stop eating junk food?"
Mira responded with a shrug, "I like it."
"…Whatever," Edwin let out a sigh before speaking up, "So, how did your day go? Was your club selected for the Annual Day performance?"
"Hehe. Who do you think you are talking to? Obviously they did!" Mira responded with a somewhat smug look on her face.
She went on to add, "The function will be next week on 11th July. Will you be free that day?"
Edwin had to think for a bit as he pulled out his phone.
Mira stopped eating her snacks and stood up as she peeked at Edwin's phone.
Edwin opened up the calendar app. When the screen opened, each of the date was highlighted by one of the three colors: white, blue, and red.
Red meant the days that Edwin had to go into a wormhole as a Porter; Blue meant the days that Edwin had to go into the wormhole as a Miner; and White meant the days that Edwin could be free.
Unfortunately for Mira, the 11th July Date was highlighted with blue. Which meant that Edwin would have to turn up to a wormhole as a Miner.
Edwin quickly turned towards his sister and proceeded to speak out, "Sorry, Mira-"
However, Mira suddenly hugged him before whispering, "I am not mad or even remotely angry, brother. I understand and really respect just how hard you work. For both of us."
"But brother, I want you to promise me that you will give up these jobs once I become famous enough and can earn for us," Mira muttered ahead.
Edwin couldn't help but smile weakly upon hearing his sister's words as he rubbed her head gently before nodding, "Alright."
Their embrace ended soon enough as Edwin asked his sister, "So, I am sure you need some new clothes for the big day. Let's go and get you some clothes fitting for a celebrity."
"Hmm. Aren't you tired? You just returned right now," Mira asked a bit worriedly.
Edwin shook his head while responding, "Nah."
The brother-sister duo soon headed towards a shopping district near their place. Well, although shopping could be considered very tiring, Edwin was more or less used to it now.
Besides, his sister didn't like to cause trouble for her brother, so she chose her dresses rather quickly and made sure that they were in their budget.
Also, now that they were here, she made sure to buy a shirt and pants for her brother. She knew that he would never buy it for himself.
While they were shopping, Edwin was activating his ability which allowed him to see the emotions of other people. Actually, ever since he had awakened this ability, he had cursed it and wondered why he couldn't just awaken some decent ability that would have helped him change his lifestyle for the better.
But now, he realized that he had perhaps been too hasty with the judgement about his ability.
This was because right now, Edwin noticed that he could observe more than before. Although still, this ability only worked on women. He could now see Mana Circuits along with Mana Pool within each women's body.
Moreover, he could see which circuits of a woman had been activated and which remained dormant. The number of circuits of each woman was different and they formed a specific shape or symbol. In fact, Edwin noticed that he could also see the color of the mana within those circuits.
For his younger sister Mira, her Mana Circuits were all dormant at this moment, but he could see the specific shape of her circuits along with her Mana Pool, which indicated that she did have a dormant supernatural ability.
However, Edwin didn't really understand what that shape meant.
Mira's Mana Pool was very large, probably around that of peak B-Tier, which was quite impressive since this was the size during its dormant stage.
Despite knowing this information, Edwin couldn't bring himself to tell his younger sister that she might have the talent to become a Hunter.
It wasn't due to something as petty as jealousy over her talent. No…As an elder brother, he was delighted. If anything, he wanted her to awaken it quickly and start training.
However, he was aware that to awaken her supernatural ability and the activate her mana circuits, he would require the equipment present in the guilds. And if the guilds were to learn of Mira's talent, they would most definitely coerce her into becoming a Hunter.
Edwin was completely against letting Mira do something as dangerous as becoming a Hunter. It was because he entered the wormholes along with a party as a porter that he knew just how dangerous the monsters of that other world were.
Just a single lapse in concentration and it could lead to devastating consequences.
Anyway, during this shopping spree, Edwin had checked out other women in the shopping district. Most women in the shopping district seemed normal without having awakened their mana circuits or supernatural ability.
Well, this wasn't shocking considering.
Edwin did find a couple of women who possessed powerful Mana Circuits and had awakened supernatural ability.
However, the aura from those couple of women felt dangerous enough that Edwin knew if he were to touch them, they would probably kill him first without asking any questions.
Right now, Edwin was feeling really confused as he thought to himself, 'Now that I know of one path to grow stronger, I must do something. I have to create an opportunity and take advantage of it. But how? How can I maintain physical contact for a long time with a woman who has activated her Mana Circuits? Do I date her?'
Unfortunately, that thought was thrown out of his mind quickly enough because he was aware of his charm.
Edwin was confident that he would be able to date a normal woman if he tried his best. However, dating a woman who has activated her Mana Circuits was much different. This was because all the individuals who had activated their mana circuits would rise through the ranks of society to a significant degree.
In today's society, a typical girl who had activated her Mana Circuit would wish to form a relationship with a man who had activated his Mana Circuits.
Thus, it was very much difficult for someone like Edwin to be able to use the dating trick to maintain physical contact with a woman who has activated her Mana Circuits for a long time.
'What else can I do?' Edwin couldn't help but wonder this to himself. Unfortunately, he could think of no idea.
The rest of the day passed by rather quickly as Edwin ate his dinner before going to sleep.
The next day, Edwin went to report to the guild for his mining duty. Due to his increased physical ability, he was able to greatly increase the quantity of ore that he could mine today.
In fact, even after such a strenuous day, Edwin wasn't really tired right now. Thus, he decided to go to the gym and exercise before returning home.
The next day, it was his shift as a Porter.
When he reached the guild, he was a bit surprised to see that hunting party led by Clara had completely recovered from their injuries. It seemed as though Clara's luck had been good enough as Doctor Kaisen, who possessed a unique healing ability which helped him heal Clara's grave injuries quickly.
Considering that Clara earned quite well as the leader of her hunting party, she could easily afford that expensive and special treatment.
Upon seeing her, Edwin clenched his fists tightly as he thought to himself, '…I will grow stronger. No matter what I have to do.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone