Healing System

'I guess I didn't miss much if the free-for-all tournament is still happening,' Michael thought to himself as he looked around. It was pretty unusual for there to be such a tournament before the actual event

After all, you were technically revealing your abilities to your opponents early on. It might seem a little counterintuitive, but nonetheless, at least he wasn't that late.

However, fighting Chloe was definitely not on his bucket list. Even if she was a vampire, she was also his friend, kind of.

Even though he was acquainted with all three of them, he did not know much about any of them, with the exception of Kevin, of course.

He had at least shared the fact that he was a regressor, one who was a friend of his apparently—the friend of the previous owner of this body, the one he was supposed to be had things turned out a bit differently.

Michael decided to wait patiently until his name got called up; meanwhile, Kevin and Elizabeth were chatting amongst themselves, completely ignoring him.

With how close the two were, he assumed that Elizabeth was Kevin's girlfriend in the future. Otherwise, it would be a bit strange for the two of them to be this close.

After a bit of waiting, he could see the announcer stepping on stage, or what he assumed to be the announcer anyway. It was a man in a tuxedo holding a microphone in his hand.

His strength was also not the greatest—level 60 by his previous standards. There were not that many people with mana cores either. Kevin was nearly there, and he had a core forming in his heart, it seemed like.

It added up, considering his main style of fighting was using the shadows to do peculiar things such as taking over another's body or blending in with them as well, providing ease of movement.

'He would probably benefit from the Flow core, though, no?' He asked the system.

Remember what I told you about mana affinities and their rankings; his is like a lesser shadow affinity instead of the whole thing, making it around Advanced rank. As for when he awakens to his full affinity, at most, it would be Superior. It is not that special since Darkness, which starts off at Elite and even goes up to Supreme, is the one right above it, to which I doubt he qualifies for.

'That seems unfortunate, but looking at it from another angle, isn't he special if he managed to come back from the future?'

Yes, though I don't know much about time travel. I used to be able to stop time and even reverse it, though there was a limit. As for traveling back months and even years, I can't see myself ever being capable of that. It is more likely that something else was at play.

'Hmm...' Michael thought of that possibility, but due to his limited knowledge of how the world worked, he could not figure much out.

The only theory he could come up with was if he was sent back in time naturally, without any other power being in play. But that seemed extremely unlikely.

As he was lost in thought, his name was suddenly called by the announcer from earlier, and immediately, he began walking up onto the platform.

It would be a pretty meaningless fight if he used his full strength, so he would attempt to limit it to Chloe's.

The cheers all around resounded around him. It seemed like he left quite an impression on them after his earlier entrance; they didn't even cheer much when Chloe walked up.

Out of all the students present, or at least the ones he could feel, there were two in total that had mana cores; obviously, both of them were merely Tier 1. Their rate of progress was not as fast as his.

Nonetheless, he still had a small smile on his face, as one of the two students who had a mana core was Chloe, surprisingly. What was even more surprising, however, was the fact that she had a Flow core, just like his own, meaning her affinity was especially high ranked.

He remembered seeing her just slightly behind Kevin before they left for this city, yet here she was, already past him.

Michael couldn't help but pity Elizabeth; she was still roughly Level 170 in strength, her rivals passing by her. It was likely that by the time they got halfway toward Tier 2 was when she would awaken.

She will blossom once she reaches Tier 1. She is a bit of a strange one, to think their bloodline was this diluted.

'Whose bloodline?'

It's a secret. But you'll probably find out once she reaches Tier 1, well, if you don't leave the world before then, of course.

'...' Michael sighed at the system's remark and glanced at Chloe. For some reason, she seemed a bit distant lately.

While he did understand that they were not exactly the best of friends, they were not even talking at all.

It also seemed like she was pretty eager to fight him, considering he could already feel the space distorting slightly around her.

At first glance, it seemed like her affinity for space was much better than his mere Supreme ranked Light affinity, though for some, he couldn't even understand why it was Supreme ranked in the first place.

It's because you have the affinity of the first light, just like I used to. The stronger you get, the more the effects will be seen. After all, do you seriously think that you can absorb energy from the surroundings without the help of such an affinity?

The system paused for a moment before continuing.

Light exists everywhere, and you can extract the essence of it from everything in the surroundings. Even things such as the cold are changed to light because the concept of First Light is extremely broad. It is cold, it is hot, and everything in between. In the future, you will awaken an ability with that concept. Mine was Time; you will either get the same or something completely different.

Michael listened on in confusion. Most of what the system said did not make any sense to him; however, it still raised his spirits. It seemed like the Light affinity he had was much more special than he initially thought.

"Are the two of you ready?" The announcer asked through his microphone. It was incredibly loud since it was no normal microphone—more like a megaphone instead.

"I am."

"Yes."

Both Michael and Chloe answered, and immediately, the announcer backed away until finally, he was far enough from the two of them to not get caught in the crossfire.

Right after, he took the microphone up to his mouth and enthusiastically announced, "Begin!"

The moment he did, Michael saw Chloe vanish right before his eyes, and suddenly, he could feel a presence from right behind him. It was an attack that he could not even see, but nonetheless, he dashed backward, dodging it.

But he was left a bit surprised after finding out that his shield had been shattered. After all, even though he was trying his best to limit his strength, the power of his skills remained the same.

Even though Aegis of Light did not scale that well with his mana purity, like, for example, Sword of Light, his shields should have still been enhanced a fair deal.

That meant that whatever attack she had just cast was incredibly strong—much stronger than he initially anticipated.

Michael smirked to himself and readied several Swords of Light all around him.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

'I guess this will be a little interesting after all?'