Code Collector

Cooking in the kitchen, cleaning in the living room, and washing clothes in the washroom. Allen was doing everything at once while he was enjoying a meal in the living room with Jeremy.

It took him three days to master controlling the Bodies, and now that he could, all his burdens of doing the chores were finished. He was now doing his chores all at once without even moving a single muscle.

On the first day was the hardest. He had to alter his focus between the Body and himself, passing the consciousness while simultaneously doing something as the Body and as himself.

After he mastered controlling basic movements for Oliver on the first day, he started controlling Stacey on the second day. It was harder, that was for sure, but Allen had gotten used to the theory of how the Code works, that all he had to do was relay messages from his mind and into the Bodies.

Third day was the easiest. He started controlling Vince this time. The man was huge, and Allen thought that he would have a hard time, but he was wrong. He had the easiest time controlling the leader since his movements required rather slower movements than Oliver and Stacey, meaning he can keep up with it.

It was now the fourth day and Allen was chilling on his living room while controlling the Bodies so they would do the chores instead of him. He knew that this was a lazy way of doing things, and it required large amounts of energy, but he looked into the bright side of things.

He was thinking of how much he'd grow as a person and a Hunter if he can both master the controlling of the Bodies and how he could expand the limits of his energy. The more he uses energy, the more his stamina would increase, this was a trick he learned from Jeremy.

"This egg needs salt," Jeremy said. He was about to stand and go to the kitchen when Allen raised his hand to stop him. "What?"

Allen sighed and then Stacey entered the room. She was the one cooking in the kitchen. She brought the salt over and smiled, making Jeremy uncomfortable.

"She looks creepy," Jeremy said. "And can she speak?"

"Of course–" Allen chuckled awkwardly. "Not. Of course, not. I can't make them talk full sentences at the moment. I'm still trying to figure out how their voice boxes work."

"But you made Oliver talk a few days ago," Jeremy pointed out. "It just seems to creepy if they stand and just smile like that."

"That smile intentional," Allen snorted. "You look like you needed that creepy smile. But anyway, I'm working on it. This is my fourth day and I mastered their movements while I could still have my locomotive functions. Their speech functions will be mastered later on."

"Later on?" Jeremy asked. "But you said we were gonna go to the field tomorrow?"

"Yeah, later on," Allen said. "That means tonight. I'll make sure that they can talk by tomorrow morning. We can't have them just wandering around the camp and exit it without answering."

Jeremy opened his mouth. He was about to say something when a black hole appeared on Allen's living room wall. He stood and immediately conjured his spear, raising it defensively, "What the hell is this?!"

"Wait," Allen raised his hand and stood in front of Jeremy. "That's our ticket to victory."

Winston walked out of the hole, making Jeremy slowly lower his spear. The man bowed his head and placed his hand on his chest. "Master Jake is currently doing business in Canada. Please, let me give you the ID cards of the puppets."

Winston stood right and walked in front of Jeremy and smiled. "Here you go, sir Dante. You can keep the IDs."

Allen nodded and took the small envelope that Winston handed him. The man bowed again before leaving the two alone in the apartment unit, the black hole in the wall slolwy vanishing after he left.

"Who was that?" Jeremy asked, eyes wide and lips parted in shock. "And what was that? Was that a Code? Something like that must've been at least Sacred."

"I don't know," Allen simply shrugged. He walked to the side and opened the envelope, checking all the IDs and the small information that was provided by Jake. Allen also requested for the background stories of all the puppets one by one.

Stacey Graham, a 23-year old Hunter that was from Ireland. She moved to Lancaster when she was sixteen because her father became a Hunter but lost his life due to an accident. His highest ascension was Paradise. She followed her father's footsteps and now she's a Hunter just like him.

Oliver Waltz. 19 years old and a composer before his mother's company went bankrupt and he was forced to live his life as a Hunter. He recently joined hunting and was sixteen when he went to his first hunt. He's a support that has an excellent heal input and a high heal over time effect.

Lastly, Vince Vaughn. A man from Morocco that was a refugee in Lancaster. He's twenty-nine when he joined his first hunt, and now at thirty-three, he's a candidate to ascension. He's the captain of the group with the role of mage and assassin.

"Hybrid?" Allen asked. "I don't think I've ever seen a role like this before."

"That basically meant that he uses skill Codes to attack rather than give himself a buff," Jeremy replied. "Basically, when an assassin is pure assassin, they are someone who's capable of using weapon Codes to attack their enemies.

"But for assassin/mages, they primarily rely on skill Codes to attack," Jeremy said. "I'm not sure if that makes sense, but you'll know if you'd read the book about modern roles. It's all in there about hybridization of roles and their effectiveness."

"Aren't pure roles more effective?" Allen asked. "They just focus on their roles and can effectively create opportunities for attack and battle. If the role is mixed, then it would be hard to do."

"Not really," Jeremy shrugged. "Think about it, if a Hunter is flexible in their roles, like a someone that is heavy duty like a tank, but can deal an effective amount of damage like an assassin, that would be hard to deal with.

"Or when a ranger can switch their weapons with a warrior. Both can fight with a right amount of power, that Hunter would be overskilled," Jeremy continued. "You think higher world Hunters fight with just one role? One role is too obsolete."

Allen was learning new things from Jeremy. This was the main reason why he decided to keep the man near him and not dispose of him after Jeremy found out about his secret. Allen has still have a lot to learn, and through Jeremy, he can learn from those.

"You don't know a lot, don't you?" Jeremy chuckled. "You still need a lot of information to digest. But don't worry. I'm here every step of the way to help."

"Thank you," Allen smiled. "And I admit. The knowledge I have now was from the ones that I read on the books that were available to me. I didn't got the chance to study more these days."

"You're a wuss," Jeremy chuckled. "We should study a lot more if you want to be strong. I'll give you books, and you'll give me progress, okay?"

Allen smiled, "Okay."

–

"Sabbath Days!" Lin growled, raising her weapon that was a golden three-clawed glove. She slashed her hand forward, creating gigantic slashes to the enemies in front of her.

What she was fighting was a beast that would only appear on other Hunters' nightmares. A combination of a snake and a tiger, along with a pair of wings from a falcon that provided it swift and flight. Even Lin was having a hard time fighting this beast.

Roar. Roar.

The beast growled and a face made from aura was launched from his own face. It clashed with Lin's attack, cancelling the attack and creating a large orb of force that pushed a lot of trees out of the way.

"You're a bothersome beast," Lin growled. "I am not in the mood, so don't even try to anger me!"

Just when Lin was about to slash her claw again, the beast vanished from in front of her. This made her eyes widen as she looked around to see where it was. Just when she was about to look behind her, a large shade covered her.

The woman looked up to see the giant beast lunging towards her. "What the…"

The beast was a moment away from landing on Lin when two figures dashed past it. Lin froze as her face was covered with blood, the giant beast was now turned to shreds.

"This is so unlike you, Miss Lin," Kenneth sighed. He walked over to Lin and kept his weapon, which was a small scythe that had a bunny ear on the handle. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not okay, Kenneth," Lin replied honestly. "I'm not okay."