Evolving Infinitely From An E-Class Hero-Chapter 37: Serenity
Three days had passed since the Gravehowl incident.
My mom came home early from the Lab seeing that it was a Saturday. As soon as she entered the apartment, I heard a sound of amusement coming from the door.
She hurriedly rushed into the kitchen without taking off her shoes.
"Lamb?! Is that Lamb I smell? Please tell me it’s Lamb!"
I knew her favorite food had always been roasted lamb and mashed potatoes since I began to read.
"Yes ma’am, I ordered some food from the restaurant up the street on 14th. I’m glad it got here just in time for you". I said turning around to meet the gleaming, big eyes of my mother.
She had dark circles under her eyes from a lack of sleep, rumpled clothes and a shaggy appearance. How could you blame her, she has been working overtime since the Gravehowl incident as new patients and laboratory tests kept pouring in.
She held the entire financial burden of the household and that alone was enough to cause sleepless nights, let alone watching out for her son who was constantly putting himself in danger for the sake of being a hero.
"Wow, really?!"
I drew a chiar backwards as a sign for her to come seat. Her eyes grew wider as she tossed her things aside and ran towards the kitchen table.
"Hey! Blondie what’s going on here? Are you some kind of big boy now? Where did you get the money for this?"
"Hey now, seat and eat ma’am you look so tired... "
"Seriously, where did you get it from... Don’t tell me you’re stealing...!"
"..."
"Seriously..."
"Yes seriously!"
I scoffed as I stared blankly at the plates of goodies littered all over the table.
"Well ma’am, as you know I am a registered Hero... So this is from my ISA payment fund..." I said and then released the world’s fakest smile there is. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
"Huh!" My Mom gasped, looking at me inquisitively.
"Did you join any guild? That would be hard to believe, when did guilds start hiring E-Class heroes?" She said with a whim.
"No I didn’t join a guild ma’am..."
So, here’s how it works. The ISA is the body that governs and sets order in the superhero society. People who experienced enlightenment events don’t always end up being heroes, some become villains.
It’s the worlds governing body for metas and heroes, its responsible for licensing, monitoring of heroes and metas under the Heroic Law.
Guilds however, are privately owned bodies that hire heroes as ambassadors and merchandises.
The ISA pays the Guilds to use their heroes for combating crime and villains and in turn the heroes get payed by the guilds based on what they agreed with the guilds in their contracts.
For us lower ranked heroes, E, D and sometimes C class we don’t have lots of Guilds knocking at our door for our signatures.
So, we get payed directly from the ISA depending on how much effort we put into doing smaller heroic task. It doesn’t pay much, but it’s enough for some of us to get by.
So, she’s asking me where I got the money to afford all the food.
Well, the ISA had successfully identified my hero license and recognized my contribution in stopping Gravehowl. Although my existence wasn’t broadcasted to the public and both Thunderlash and Ice Blast took the recognition for stopping the villain, I still got a chunk size payment for my heroic efforts.
It would have been a lot bigger if not for my E-Class status.
Boomerang Man— Jake Todd— also received the same amount of royalties as I did.
The family’s bank balance had swelled up from 800 thousand Units all the way to about 960 thousand Units.
Excluding household expenses like rent, groceries, water bill, electricity bill and the rest.
Finally, I was feeling like I was making an impact in my personal life as regards to house hold expenses. Helping my mom with the house hold expenses was also one of the reasons I decided to be a hero.
Just one recognized heroic intervention and I was able to get up to 160 thousand Units.
I found it rather minimal for the amount of impact I put in stopping Gravehowl, but what can I say— I’m just an E-class hero.
"I hope you didn’t get hurt that day... My gosh that was a really bad day for Sector D" my Mom said with a worried expression as she munched on fat piece of lamb thighs.
"It’s a Ma, I wore a mask immediately I saw the fog and I helped in transporting people to the hospital and the Lab and all other things I could get my hands on..." I let out another fake smile.
"That’s good Blondie. I don’t know why you persist on being a hero, you can come join me at the lab, their are things you could do... Thank God Thunderlash and Ice Blast showed up, the real heroes".
Kpimmm!
I felt my heart shatter, at least what was supposed to be there. Even my own Mom!.
I felt the urge to show her the Forever Core in my chest and initiate right in front of her. But, what good would that do me.
It would make her ask more questions and she would be even more scared for my safety.
"Thank you for the meal."
My Mom tried reaching towards the can of beer, but then I immediately slapped her hands away.
"Ouch!"
"That’s not supposed to be for you!"
"Who’s it for? Are you drinking alcohol now?"
I slammed a can of soft drink in front of her.
"The beer is for our next door neighbor Mr. Dre, he saw me going out and asked me to get some."
I snatched the beer from the table and made my way out of the kitchen and into the living room.
Swish.
The lid of the beer popped open and I took a huge, gassy gulp down my throat.
It was my first time taking something like that, I felt like I was mature enough so I thought maybe its time I start taking alcoholic substances.
The taste wasn’t anything to celebrate about and immediately I swallowed it, I instantly regretted my decision.
"Argghhh!" I spat out
Just then.
Tti-ring.
[Poison Detected In Vessels System]
[Initiate to Detox]
"What?"
"Poison? Alcohol is a poisonous substance?"
"Tch! I’ll have to disobey for now Forever Core... " I said looking at the notification.
"But I don’t think I’ll be taking any more of this, it tastes like piss... "
I strode to the front door, opened it, waited a couple seconds and closed it and walked back into the living room.
It was in my fight against Gravehowl that I realized how strong I had gotten in such a short amount of time.
I glanced at my arm, it was looking so powerful and sturdy. I really was becoming stronger.
"System, Pull out my physical stats..." I ordered.
Tti-ring.
[Stats]
[Strength: 155
Endurance: 114
Agility: 144
Intelligence: 144
Perception: 116
Strength: 155]
"My physical stats have increased by five points... That’s the reward I got from defeating Gravehowl yeah?"
[ Yes, 5 Points Upgrade were awarded for defeating the entity with the greatest killing intent at that moment: Gravehowl]
"Reno! Blondie!!"
My Mom called out from the kitchen.
"Yes ma’am!" I called back.
"There’s someone on the phone for you. He said his name is Dr. Holtz from the ISA Head of the Hero Evaluation Division!"
"Huh... I knew this was bound to happen..." I murmured.
