Since he had discovered their location, Jay tried to control one of them, the first thing he could think of was to make it go towards his hand, and fortunately, this time worked.

He felt a little tingling sensation in his arm when it moved to his hand, but it wasn’t uncomfortable or anything like that, instead, it felt like it was just a natural process, as if… that’s how it was supossed to be.

When the parasite finally arrived, Jay ordered him to get out.

Then, a small worm came out of the palm of his hand.

Seeing this, Jay had a couple of doubts about it.

First, it looked nothing like the worm in his dream, this one was thinner, smaller and had no eyes, just a few small sharp teeth, his size was about 2 centimeters long, so where did it come from?

Second, how come this doesn’t hurt at all…?

Of course, at that moment he decided to leave those questions for later, since he was more interested in the little friend he had on his palm and what could he do with him.

His motto was “One problem at a time” after all.

Another thing Jay noticed is that even though the command he gave to the parasite was “get out”, it didn’t completely left his palm, his lower body was still in his hand.

He wanted to know the reason why so he started trying different things with it.

What he found out was that the parasite didn’t like being outside his body at all because he seemed to get weaker the longer he was out.

Jay also discovered that the parasite could enter his body from anywhere other than his head or some intimate part, not because he didn’t try, but because he didn’t want the parasite in those areas.

And no matter what part of his body the parasite entered from, Jay felt nothing but a little itch.

Then, he decided to test another parasite, it’s appearance was exactly the same as the first one and it behaved in the same way.

The next thing that occurred to Jay was to test their piercing power, after all, those sharp teeth definitely had to be able to cause a considerable damage, so he bought some meat to see how long it would take them to enter it._.

Incredibly, it didn’t take them even 1 second to get in, and despite not being inside his body, their mobility wasn’t affected at all, it was as if they were fishes swimming in water.

As for their capacity of damaging the meat… it seems that they weren’t able to do it even if they wanted. After entering, they didn’t leave any wounds on the meat, nor could they eat it or damage it in any way.

It seemed like their main function was to enter inside the body of someone, not damage it, but Jay was fine with that too.

The system obviously didn’t recognize the meat as a host either, so he decided to left that kind of test until he got a real host.

What he tried next was to move them differently, the test site had been his right arm, he ordered the first parasite to move towards his palm and the second one to climb up towards his elbow.

It turned out well and they both reached their destinations without trouble, proving that Jay was able to control them to do different things at the same time.

Then he also did the same with the other 8 parasites he had in his arm.

In this process Jay also discovered something new, the parasites have a “rest mode”.

When he stopped controlling them, they slowly returned to his right arm no matter the part of his body they were in.

Once in his arm, all they did was stand still, as if they were resting, so he decided to call it rest mode, quite simple.

Unfortunately, because of school consuming a lot of his time, he only could improve his statistics and do some test with the system functions.

***

Back to the present.

“But today…I finally managed to get my longed-for host!” Jay said while raising his fist.

The problem of the host was something that had troubled him from the beginning as there wasn’t a suitable test subject.

As for Carl, he had a good debate with himself as to whether he deserved to be infected or not.

He was an idiot, yes, but he was far from being a real criminal.

Plus, Jay had heard that he sometimes defended some classmates from other bullies and even acted as an intermediary when there was a fight, it seemed that the only person he had trouble with was him… although Jay couldn’t think of a reason.

Because of that he was in a bit of a conflict, but in the end he came to a pretty simple conclusion.

He would infect him but wouldn’t do anything to harm him, just to investigate what his parasites could do with a host.

So, determined, he spent his days improving the control he had over his parasites and exercicing.

In the process he couldn’t help but get attached to the parasites, he even called them his little ones because they really were his little ones, he wasn’t really lying or anything.

That was pretty much his routine until the last day of school finally arrived, the day where he decided to carry out his quite simple plan:

-Seek an excuse to touch Carl and infect him with all the parasites he had.

“Everything worked out well!” Jay said as he rolled around in his bed…what can I say,

Even if his reputation at school had taken a turn for the worse, Jay couldn’t care less.

“Now then…let’s see what’s new in the system, open.”

Finishing his sentence, the interface appeared.

_____________________

[Parasyte System]

Carrier: Jay Sacrest

[Status]

[Hosts] (New)

_____________________

He quickly chose “Hosts” to see what had changed.

_____________________

[Hosts]

Parasites Available: 0

A type of host has now been identified:

[Espers]

_____________________

“…This …is incredible!” He said as he hurriedly got out of bed, the tiredness he felt before had already vanished. “If the system classifies the hosts by class… that means I can also infect pugilists and magicians! …Oh, well, there’s no point thinking about that now, the classes are over and I don’t know anyone else to infect…”

As quickly as he got excited, he also calmed down.

He then selected the “Espers” option.

_____________________

Espers Infected:

[Carl Davis]

_____________________

Looking at the new window that opened, he quickly selected the only option that was available.

_____________________

[Carl Davis]

Skill: Wind Control (D) (Assimilating)

Status: Healthy

Parasites: 10

Assimilation Status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)

_____________________

“…Oh my god…”

‘If this is the way I think it is…then it’s too good…!’ He thought before jumping towards his bed to roll on it again.

He calmed himself after 10 seconds.

‘For now I just have to wait 10 days to be able to pick up my little ones, as far as how I will do it…I don’t think it will be much of a problem…I already know where he lives after all. Since I don’t seem to be able to do anything else with the system at the moment, I will keep repeating my previous routine.

Jay then took his smart watch from his desk and saw what time it was…

4:04 pm

It was still early, enough for an exercise session.

“Hmm, well, I’d better start now~.” He said as he stretched and changed the school uniform he was wearing for more comfortable clothes.

***

In the central part of a big city, a continent apart from where Jay lived, where the view of tall buildings was normal, there was a skyscraper that overshadowed any other building as far as height was concerned, and on the highest floor of this building, several people were gathered around a table.

“Alright, as everyone knows, the admission exams are coming up and we have some really exceptional candidates worthy of special attention…” said one of the people sitting at the table, his voice was deep and clear, even though his face was not visible, the silhouette this person had was quite big, over eight feet tall and a thick build.

“This year there are many promising newcomers coming…but if I had to choose one it would be… Asher Grey… ‘Heaven’s Son’. Incredibly good looking, intelligent and a genius when it comes to controlling his various powers…totally worthy of his title.” Said a slim silhouette with a female voice whose face was also not visible.

“Hahaha, so it’s one of those three, it was obvious he was going to get your attention, but you’ll have to fight hard if you want him to be your apprentice, you’re not the only one who wants him after all!” Added a small silhouette with a childish voice that was sitting in front of the silhouette with a female voice.

“Hmph, do you really think anyone can compete with me?” replied the silhouette with the female voice.

“I’m just telling the truth,” said the little silhouette leaning back in her chair and putting her hands behind her head.

“To me… Jenny Green… ‘Little Gaia’.” Said an average height silhouette with a female voice that was slow and heavy, as if the person was about to fall asleep.

“Ohhh, the name of another of those three came out~!” Yelled the small silhouette after she heard what her partner said.

“Well, it’s inevitable to mention her, when you can handle elementary magic from the age of 4 when the normal is 14 and the exceptional 10, it’s decided that she will be an incredible character.” Replied the eight feet tall silhouette.

“To be honest, I would like to compete with you for her, Zena, but elemental magic is not my strong point, too bad,” said the small and now visibly depressed silhouette.

“Finally, does anyone else have any other suggestions?” said again the six foot tall man.

“Oh, oh! I know~! Since you already mentioned two out of the three big names, how about ‘her’?” shouted the small silhouette without any sign of the depression she suffered a few moments ago.

“Hm, the most promising of all the newcomers, Valerie Adler… ‘Athena’.” Replied the eight feet silhouette while stroking his chin.

Right after he said that, none of the silhouettes in the room could help but feel something at the mention of this name….respect.