Talentless Extra Of The Legendary Hero Academy-Chapter 176: The Crane II

"But it’s still the same thing..." His voice trailed off.

It wasn’t, in fact, the same.

What about the battlefield? Where things changed in an instant? What about when situations aren’t going as planned?

Without his powers, he was nothing but an average human. A smart one.

Julius Crane sat in one of the chairs quietly and looked away from the blank blackboard. He remembered when Severin came to him, that night he asked him to join his team.

"What exactly do you see, Severin? Do you only see a connection to my family or what?"

But even he didn’t believe that.

Julius was getting a bit better at reading Severin. Not him as a person, but the waves and ripples he left behind when he did things. "If it was for my family’s connection, then he would have found another way. I’m too far from the center of power in the family to give him what he might want from the Crane family."

"Then... what do you see?" Julius muttered.

It had been the first time people who knew about his ’condition’ didn’t look at him with pity or fake smiles.

Severin stared at him like a damaged tool he was trying to fix.

And now that he understood the man better, he knew Severin must have seen something that could be fixed. "Am I hoping again?"

But he didn’t have time to speculate more because at the front, directly in front of the board, a presence was making itself known.

Silver light formed into a formless form.

Julius frowned. "The training is finally starting."

The light began to flash, changing into different figures.

As Julius watched, he realized that the different figures were known to him. They were the instructors that had taught him at one point or another through the years.

Their faces flickered in the light as if it couldn’t settle on which one to take.

"Is this reading my memories to see which form it will take?" Julius narrowed his eyes and then he concentrated, putting a form in his mind.

The light stabilized and then it turned into a human.

Severin looked at Julius. "Right. Let’s begin with your training."

Julius sat up, even though he knew it wasn’t the real Severin Reignhart. "What are you going to train me on?"

"Your power. Tell me the history of your Talent Ability. How has your family utilized it?"

Julius frowned at the strange request. But he started speaking. "For a time, my family were called leeches because we lacked raw power and always looked for people that would catch the trend of time to work with.

"There is even a saying—go to where the Crane turns, because they have seen mountains of opportunities. Even now, people pay enormous amounts of money to join our VIP slots for gambling and investments.

"Our members take on logistics and strategy commands in the army, and our family Head is an advisor to the Emperor."

The fake Severin nodded. "Strategy. That’s the power of your family. But there’s one thing, a strand that you guys haven’t explored. Prediction."

"Prediction?" Julius asked with surprise.

"Yes. It’s a power that wasn’t explored in your family. Probably because your family already carved a safe place for themselves. They needed strategy instead of prediction. That strand of talent wasn’t explored.

"It was left waiting."

Julius’s eyes widened. He couldn’t help it. "How can prediction help me?"

The fake Severin smiled. "We are going to evolve your talent. It won’t focus on strategy anymore. It’ll now focus only on prediction.

"Do you know how talents are evolved?"

Julius nodded. "Through repetition."

The fake Severin nodded again. "Through brutal repetition. We’ll focus on prediction and brutally repeat it."

Then he added casually, "Also, talents evolve when lives are in danger. When the soul is closer to leaving the body.

"We will combine everything."

Julius felt a chill run down his body. He swallowed. "Combine everything?"

"Yes. Prepare yourself!"

Just as he said that, the classroom began to peel away, turning into a flat white surface without an end.

Fake Severin stood in front of him and around him appeared countless daggers, their glare sharp as he looked at them.

Julius took a step back. "Wait. What do you mean by this? You’re going to shoot me with daggers...!!"

The fake Severin’s eyes were calm. "It’s simple. You should try to predict which one will come at you, and then you can point it out. If it’s the one, the dagger won’t shoot at you.

"But if it’s not, you’re only left to dodge by yourself."

"Wait! Wait, that means even if it’s the right one that I point to, you can still change your mind!"

"I won’t. I have already set the hundred daggers and they will shoot on countdown. Now, choose. Predict the first dagger."

Julius trembled and then he took a step back.

His eyes scanned the daggers, but they all looked the same to him. None of them leaned forward or tilted slightly in some kind of way. Everything was the same.

The same perfect daggers.

Julius realized he was in trouble then.

Deep trouble.

"Eh... there’s no way to tell which is going to attack. This is not something that can be done!"

"You are trying to use strategy. Don’t do that. Focus on your mental energy. It’s not your cursed strategy power. It’s a new strand we are trying to evolve."

Julius stood there and thought about it deeply, his eyes narrowed, but still, he couldn’t find a pattern.

Just as he was thinking about it, he heard a screeching of metal and a dagger shot toward him so fast that he didn’t have time to react.

The only thing he could react to was the pain that slammed into his right shoulder with such force that he was violently thrown to the back.

He lay on the ground in shock, the pain clouding his brain.

A shudder ran down his body.

Fake Severin’s voice carried a smile. "I forgot to mention. You can’t avoid the dagger."

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