1 Unlocking the Special Ability

4th July 2035.

Edwin was heading into the wormhole with a full party consisting of hunters. Now…Hunters were individuals who were given the license or the authority to head into the wormholes and fight against monsters of the other world.

Their task was to whittle the forces of the other world.

They possessed a variety of weapons. Some had guns, some were carrying bow and arrow, and some were carrying sword, axe, and so on. They also kept bombs with them.

Most of these weapons would typically be useless against the monsters they were heading over to fight. However, it was by infusing magic within these weapons that they could harm or injure the monsters.

It was due to these wormholes opening up across the entire world that people began to awaken supernatural abilities along with developing Magic Pool within their body.

Each individual awakened a unique supernatural ability. However, this wasn't a set rule as there were many cases where it was discovered that more than one individual possessed the same supernatural ability.

The most common was the Physique Enhancer Ability.

Even in this Physique Enhancer Ability, there were many variations. It wasn't as such enhancing the entire physique, but specific parts of the physique like arms, legs, torso, and so on.

Right now as Edwin was heading into the other world as a porter with a party that consisted of seven hunters.

Among these Hunters, six of the would be focused on combat while one would use his support ability.

The leader of this party was known as Clara, and she possessed the ability to give a Mental Shock to her opponents. This consumed a lot of her mental focus but allowed her to rattle her opponents and strike them. She carried a magic assault rifle with her along with a magic handgun.

The other members of the Hunting party carried weapons that suited their abilities and skills.

Right now, Edwin was moving along this party in the other world. The world on the other side of the wormhole was rather small. It was usually in the form of a cavern.

It was the members of this Hunting party that continued to fight and kill the monsters of this world.

They utilized magic guns and magic swords to fight against the monster known as Ogre.

Fighting against Ogres was something that the members of this Hunting party was used to. However, something was different today.

As they continued to head deeper into the cavern, they came across a large number of Ogres seemingly waiting for them. Moreover, these Ogres seemed much different compared to the ones that this Hunting Party fought against usually. They were known as Great Ogres and was one of the strongest clans amongst the Ogre Race.

Anyway, Edwin continued to observe the comrades of his Hunting party fight against the Great Ogres from afar. It would be stupid of him to go ahead with almost zero power that he possessed.

Soon enough, Edwin's Hunting party managed to completely slaughter this group of Great Ogres. The one who did the most work was Clara. She had overexerted her mental prowess and repeatedly sent mental shocks to the minds of the Great Ogres. Moreover, a few Great Ogres managed to reach her and strike her body.

Although Clara had enhanced her endurance and resilience by coating her body with Magic Energy, she was still gravely injured right now.

Well, she wasn't the only one. Actually, each member of the Hunting party was gravely injured, but Clara was the one who was injured enough to the point that she fell unconscious.

At this moment, Alden called out, "Edwin! Come and carry leader. We are returning!"

Edwin emerged from his hiding place and soon carried Clara. He was somewhat powerful because from a young age he had spent a lot of his time physically training and conditioning his body.

Right now, Edwin couldn't help but think to himself, 'It's a good thing that leader's fighting style focuses on agile movements, and she wears a light armor or else, she would be too heavy for me to carry her back along with the loot.'

"…Damn. Those bastards at the association didn't take the reading properly. This was most definitely not an E-Tier Cave. This feels more like a D-Tier Cave," Rena spoke out with an annoyed tone.

Kaisen supported her words by adding, "The Boss of this cave might have been a commander of the Great Ogre Clan. It would probably have been beyond the capabilities of our weapons and abilities."

The hunting party continued to talk amongst themselves.

During this time, Edwin, who was carrying Clara, felt a strange bit of energy welling up within his body.

It was a strange bit of energy and when he concentrated, he discovered that this energy was actually flowing from Clara's body to his own.

It made him raise his brow in confusion.

Suddenly, he felt a stream of energy flow and guide him through three different structural branches within his own body.

One seemed to be connected to his physical body, the second was connected to the magical circle of his body, while the third was connected to his mind.

At of this moment, the energy was seemingly gathering in Edwin's head.

However, despite not knowing anything about this energy or feeling it for the first time, Edwin could instinctively sense what he should do with it. He had to allocate this energy to one of these three structural branches. And he had to do it quickly because if he delayed it, then the energy from Clara's body would continue to accumulate and detonate Edwin's head.

This caused Edwin's thoughts to race, '…Okay. From what my instincts are telling me, the first set of structural branches will enhance my physical ability. The second should enhance my mana pool. As for the third one, I can't think of an idea what it will do. I shouldn't mess around with something that deals with mind.'

'Let's take the safest bet for now and split it between the physical power and that of mana pool.'

As soon as he had this thought, Edwin instinctively guided that energy gathering up in his head to flow through the set of branches intertwined with his physique and his mana pool.

For some reason, he felt as though it was similar to allocating stat points in a game. Although, he didn't have a precise numerical value of it and Edwin had to do it based on guesses.

It made him wonder why this entire phenomenon was occurring.

'Is it the work of my ability? How is it activating? Why did it never work like this before?'

These questions filled up Edwin's head.

Soon enough, they returned back to their world and Edwin could now place Clara's body in an ambulance.

It was only at this moment that he felt the flow of energy stopping.

'As I guessed, I was stealing it from Miss Clara. And it lasted until I maintained physical contact with her. So, it's suffice to say that my ability works with physical contact. But still, why did it never work before? It's not like Clara is the first woman I have touched since the activation of this ability.'

Just as he was thinking about this issue, he looked at the nearby nurse and suddenly thought of something.

Edwin quickly went forward and grabbed her hand while speaking up with a really worried tone, "Will Miss Clara be alright?! Even though we tried to return back at our quickest speed, she has still lost a lot of her blood! Please…Please help her recover quickly!"

The nurse was a bit startled as she felt Edwin hold her hand, but when she heard his words, she smiled while giving a reassuring aura, "Don't worry. We have a doctor who has the ability to recover her blood loss. So, you can rest assured about her."

With that, the nurse entered the ambulance before the ambulance drove off.

As she was gone, the worried look on Edwin's face vanished as he thought to himself seriously, '…It didn't activate this time. This means that my ability doesn't activate on all women. So why Miss Clara? Was it due to the extended physical contact with her body?'

Actually, there was another possibility. And this prompted Edwin to look around at the medical tent where the rest of the party members were getting treated and patched up with bandages and getting some healing medicines that would help stimulate the mana within their bodies and heal them quickly.

Edwin soon headed to that tent and gazed at the only other woman belonging to this party. Her name is Rena, and she was the sharpshooter of this party.

'If my guess is right, then she should fit the criteria for my ability as well…' Edwin thought seriously.

"Everyone, I was thinking of heading back home early, so I am returning all your stuff to you now. As for our loot from the other world, I will head to the guild and submit it in our account and then head back home. Is that alright?" Edwin spoke.

His party naturally didn't have an issue upon hearing those words and they agreed readily.

"Sure. We won't need you after this. Ouch…" Alden spoke before wincing in pain as he felt the medicine sting over his wounds.

"Hmm," Edwin nodded. He then began to distribute the items to each one of them. After he was finished giving away their items to each one, Edwin would hug them and thank them for their efforts. If not for them, he would be dead.

Although he was mostly acting right now, it was true, so no one really objected to his words or that hug. They felt that he was just happy to return alive from the other world.

Soon, it was Rena's turn.

Just as he had done with everyone else, Edwin made sure to hug her and thank her while acting as earnest as possible.

During that moment, he felt it. The energy flowing inside of him again!

Edwin couldn't hold himself back from smiling because he now understood the activation condition of his ability. He had to maintain physical contact with a woman possessing Mana compatibility! This meant a woman that had unlocked a supernatural ability!