Walking towards his next class, down the hallways that were quickly swarmed by students coming out of classrooms to head to their next classes, Alan was deeply in thought, it was something that he did unconsciously a lot more these days, it wasn't just the system at this point that he was thinking about, and neither was it the supernatural events.
Somehow in the span of barely a few days, Alice had managed to get much closer to him, at first it had been an irrational fear, a fear that he just recognised that he had held, and now after acknowledging that fact, he had somehow slowly started to trust her more, or rather it wasn't trust, it was more like he was opening up to her.
The human mind was a rather fascinating creation, it feared what it did not know and yet it longed to know the unknown at the same time. It was contradictory and yet it was one of the greatest engines in all of creation, it was what had led humanity to thrive in a world where they should have gone extinct long ago by other predators with much greater natural weapons and strengths than them.
And now, Alan had slowly started to become curious, curious about the Cullens, curious about Alice, about why they acted like they did, about what they were and most importantly about the reason as to why Alice seemed to want to befriend him so badly that it clearly showed to anyone watching.
The idea that she was romantically into him, didn't even cross his mind, to him, it was an impossibility and so he didn't even think of it. At most he thought it was some kind of plan for them to blend into society better or maybe just maybe to make a human friend.
'Though… I'm not even really human anymore am I?' Alan thought to himself as he stopped for a moment and turned, looking far down the hallway, Alices back could be seen as she walked away.
'Mana perception.' Alan thought to himself as the skill instantly activated at once.
[ Mana Perception has been activated! ]
As soon as it did, the world which was as bland as ever instantly gained mesermising supernatural colours.
Looking at her back, he instantly saw something that had previously been hidden out of sight for him, the colour of mana that he had previously seen on things like the three bullies, his friends, and then on the baseball bat and the items created by the system. It was surrounding Alice, and yet it wasn't the blue colour from the system and neither was it the sickly yellow of John, Jeannie and Adrian. It was a colour he had never seen before.
A very dark, almost bloody crimson aura that surrounded her, the movement of it was slower than the blue mana and much less erratic than the movements of the sickly yellow mana that came from those possessed. It looked as if a film of blood was surrounding her entire body and moving around slowly almost protectively around her body. And the other major difference that he could see clearly as day was the density and saturation of it. It was thicker, and much much denser than any other mana coating that he had seen before.
It looked so thick and clear that he was sure he could have noticed it even from hundreds of meters away.
'What is that? Why… is it that thick? Is it because of her strength or mana quantity or maybe the quality of it is just much higher? Does mana have quality ratings? And why is it that bloody dark crimson… its most definitely not… human thats for sure, or maybe it is? Maybe every person has a different colour to their mana?' Alan thought to himself before he turned away once more and continued walking down the hallway.
The next few classes passed by swiftly with Alan mostly dozing through them, his mind on a completely different plane. The more he figured out, the stronger he grew by using the system, the more questions he got. It seemed like the mysteries would never end, that he would never get all the answers to the questions he had.
'Stronger… the stronger I get, the more information I can gain. If i was strong enough, I could fight and protect myself, I could go and find the drug supplier and the thing that's possesing the three of them without having to worry, but alas, as my current self, the best I can do is hand the job over to Alice and the Cullens and hope that they deal with it themselves.' Alan thought as the bell signaling the end of the class rang out, students quickly getting up from their seats and heading out of the classroom towards the cafeteria hall for their lunch break.
Getting up from his seat and taking his books in hand, Alan walked out of the classroom and towards his locker.
As he walked, he saw something he hadn't expected, students were glancing at him not so subtly, as they talked with themselves. Straining himself whilst pretending to be occupied, he tried to listen in on the conversation.
"Isn't that the Alan kid that was hanging around with those guys? They were just bullies but now their druggies, you think he sold it to them?"
"Maybe? I mean, he always kept to himself and never talked, he's pretty weird."
"No, I actually think he didn't do it, Alan's never really bothered anyone, and the guy said that Alan rejected them when they asked him to come with them."
"Really?"
"Yeah"
A soft expression of surprise appeared on Alan's face as he tried to keep his gaze only on his locker as he shoved the books inside and closed the locker door softly.
'I obviously stayed with them a lot, and even skipped with them, I expected them to instantly put me on the same level as them… is it charisma?' Alan thought to himself curiously.
----
Here's the second chapter of the day.
If you wanna read 15 chapters ahead then check out my Patreon at:
Patreon.com/WhiteAuthor
Lots of love
WhiteAuthor