Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 1981: Jun’tal’s Showcase

Minhya had made her decision. Although the seriousness of the situation hadn’t fully settled on her just yet, she understood what she had to do well enough. She was no longer thinking only about how to escape Faedria, but about what it would mean to return there by choice and stand against the people who had spent years hunting women like her.

Ning was about to say something else when the air nearby shifted.

Emma returned to the island with Jun’Tal beside her, the two appearing near the edge of the base before walking toward them. Jun’Tal was saying something about his training when he noticed Minhya sitting with Ning and abruptly stopped talking.

His eyes widened slightly.

Minhya looked young, especially by High-Elf standards, but there was still something striking about her appearance that immediately caught his attention. Jun’Tal stared for a second longer than he meant to before realizing what he was doing and quickly looking somewhere else.

Minhya watched the new arrivals with some confusion. When the two finally reached them, Ning gestured toward Jun’Tal.

”This is Jun’Tal.”

Jun’Tal gave Minhya a slightly awkward nod. ”Hello.”

”Minhya,” she replied. ”It’s nice to meet you.”

Ning leaned back slightly before adding, ”He is also definitively the strongest person on this planet besides me and Emma.”

Jun’Tal immediately looked toward Ning.

”Why would you introduce me like that?”

Minhya had a much stronger reaction.

She turned toward Jun’Tal with open disbelief, looking over the sixteen-year-old from head to toe as though Ning had just made a joke she was supposed to understand. There was nothing particularly imposing about him, and aside from the ring on his finger, he looked like an ordinary boy.

Jun’Tal wasn’t sure what to say to all of that. So, he turned toward Emma. ”Are we training or not?”

”We are,” Emma said. ”You still haven’t figured out sound properly.”

The four of them moved toward the training area, where Jun’Tal had already spent several days practicing different forms of energy. Minhya followed out of curiosity, having little else to do while she remained on the island, and stood near Ning as Emma began directing Jun’Tal through the same exercise as before.

For the next several minutes, Jun’Tal focused on converting his energy into sound.

A faint pop came from the air in front of his palm.

Then another.

The next attempt was slightly louder, though still little more than the sound of someone snapping a thick twig.

Minhya watched in silence.

After a while, she leaned slightly toward Ning.

”This is the strongest person on the planet?”

Ning looked at her.

”You said he was stronger than almost everyone.”

”He is.”

Minhya glanced toward Jun’Tal again just as another small popping noise came from his hand. ”How is that strong?”

”He’s not training the aspects of himself that make him the strongest,” Ning said. ”For now, he’s learning to control.”

That explanation made sense, but it did little to make Jun’Tal look any more impressive.

Emma apparently noticed the same thing.

She turned toward Minhya and then toward Jun’Tal. ”Show her a little more.”

Jun’Tal stopped.

”How much more?”

”The most you can without causing much of a mess,” Emma said.

Jun’Tal’s expression immediately became cautious. ”If I use sound at that level, I might destroy everyone’s eardrums.”

Emma shook her head. ”Don’t use sound. Use your regular conversion.”

Jun’Tal understood almost immediately.

”Oh.”

He looked toward the open stretch of coastline farther away, making sure there was nothing nearby that he could accidentally destroy. Even after all his training, he still disliked deliberately releasing large amounts of energy, especially after learning exactly how little water was required to produce catastrophic results.

”Just watch now,” Ning told Minhya.

The woman nodded and waited curiously. She couldn’t imagine what she would be seeing here anyway.

Jun’Tal stepped forward and raised one hand toward the empty beach in the distance.

He concentrated for several seconds, making sure he didn’t overexert his power. That would be the most dangerous. Once he calibrated how much energy he was going to create, he let it form.

There was no gathering of that energy. There was no slow diffusion. The moment it formed, it emerged into the world as pure energy, immediately converting into whatever form it could remain stable as.

That became kinetic energy, which produced intense heat, enough that the air expanded at a rate fast enough to tear flesh.

A massive explosion shook the island and sea.

A violent flash appeared first, followed by an enormous blast that tore through the beach and sent sand, stone, and fragments of earth high into the air. The shockwave raced back toward them hard enough to bend nearby trees and scatter leaves across the entire training area.

Jun’Tal was caught by the force as well.

His body flew backward through several trees, breaking branches and trunks before finally disappearing into the forest.

Ning lifted his palm at the last moment, using his power to dampen all the energy within the blast that came their way. Nothing touched Minhya.

Nothing physical, anyway.

The stunning effect that came from seeing the explosion was not small in any way at all. She was left staring for a long time.

For several seconds, the only sound was the distant rumbling of disturbed earth.

Then Jun’Tal came walking back through the broken trees.

He brushed pieces of bark and leaves from his clothes as though he had merely tripped.

Minhya’s eyes widened even further.

”You’re not hurt?”

Jun’Tal shook his head, then paused for a moment and pressed one hand against the side of his head. ”Not really. My head feels a little strange.”

Emma walked over and looked him over briefly. ”Disoriented?”

”A little. It feels like my brain got shaken around inside my skull.”

He otherwise looked completely fine. There were no cuts, broken bones, burns, or bruises despite having been thrown through several trees by his own explosion.

”So, what do you think?” Ning asked her.

Minhya gulped, unable to think of anything to say.

In just two days, she had been left more speechless than ever before in her entire life.