Being careful had always been in the mind of Max. This had never changed and never will.
That was because he would lose so much with just one mistake, and he could not afford for that to happen.
With all the advantages he has compared to other Awakeneds, it was unacceptable for him to waste even a tiny bit of it.
He also still hasn't forgotten what he desired by going through this path. He wanted to have every beautiful woman in the world!
This was the only wish he hoped to achieve from having the Lust System.
However, from it and some other special occurrences, a new goal arose from the depths of his consciousness.
Max wanted to be the strongest Awakened of them all.
Other people might not dare to say it, but he can, simply because he had something that other Awakeneds don't.
With it, he could make this desire a reality, just like him having a lot of women that seemed impossible in the beginning.
Imagining himself on the top of everyone with no one that could threaten him, Max thought that it was just right.
However, he was also aware that even with his Lust System, it wouldn't be that easy. Even now, he couldn't afford much of the skills and items that would assist him greatly.
Those items were simply too expensive. He could only take things one step at a time and slowly dominate everyone that would go against him.
This was why he created this formidable lightning ball. The bright purple ball that formed on his hands was one of his answers to the threats of others.
Mainly, it could fix his problem about battling against a smart enemy that devised a plan on outnumbering and cornering him into a dire situation.
Max always tried to solve every problem that he could think of. It's just that it wasn't easy to think about the possible problems that could occur. And thinking of a solution would then be several folds harder.
But he was working on it.
Max knew that as long as he could prevent most problems from occurring, his life would surely be more enjoyable for him and his women.
Now, after the busy days and weeks of contemplation, training, and testing, Max had finally found an answer to one of the safety concerns he had for his life.
There were only a number of ways he could think of to get away from being outnumbered and being stuck in a difficult spot.
It could be from using an Invisibility Potion to shapeshifting to an object or a small creature.
However, even Max could see the flaws in those plans.
What if there were a lot of people watching their fight? Would he want to use the Invisibility Potion and seek trouble for himself?
What if his surroundings did not have many places to hide? Would he expose his shapeshifting ability to an insignificant enemy and suffer the consequences of it being exposed for his entire life?
Max already knew the answer to that. Why would he expose his skill collection to a dying opponent? If it did happen, he would be the one who would lose in the end.
For this reason, Max had to solve having to deal with an overwhelming number of enemies while not losing anything.
This ball of lightning was his solution since it has a special effect that even he did not expect.
Sending out streaks of lightning is easy. Max could do it effortlessly; it was just as if he was throwing out an object.
However, controlling the purple lightning to form a shape was incredibly difficult. Not because it was hard to control, but because he did not have enough energy to maintain it.
In the beginning, Max failed multiple attempts of forming his lightning into a ball since it always dissipates, and simultaneously leaving him drained out of energy.
After a series of experiments, the lightning that he willed to form into a ball slowly turned smaller and smaller. As its size reduced, the energy needed to maintain it significantly became lesser.
Ultimately, what he ended up with was a tiny ball of lightning, which was smaller than a lightbulb and looked quite useless.
But when he tested it out, the outcome gave him a massive surprise. When he shot the tiny ball out, it exploded instantly after coming in contact with a tree.
The explosion was like a lightning bomb that shot out a quick burst of purple lightning to the surrounding areas.
When Max saw this, his eyes suddenly lit up as an idea formed in his mind.
Shooting out lightning on multiple targets is challenging, especially if Max wanted all of his lightning attacks to hit.
The concentration required to hit all targets would be too much since all of them would surely move to dodge away or hide to shield themselves from it.
But what if he is the living bomb? What if he willed the ball of lightning to explode while it was still with him?
Since he won't be affected by his own Purple Lightning, the blast of the lightning ball would only damage his surroundings. Whoever was surrounding him would be forced to accept it all.
And now, Max didn't need to concentrate on shooting out streaks of lightning to several targets that may or may not hit or inflict enough damage to defeat them.
It wasn't only that. Each time the lightning ball explodes, the bright purple lightning would fill the entire area and could temporarily deny the vision of his enemies.
Once that happens, shapeshifting to escape would now be possible, and no one would surely be able to see it.
Max could also make a bigger ball using most of his energy for a bigger lightning explosion, which might be enough to shock everyone around him to death.
However, the energy he had to use up might be too much.
Max always made sure not to leave himself completely drained out of energy so that he would have enough to fight if he was forced to.
Since Max could feel how much longer he could go for with how exhausted he felt, there wasn't a moment when he was completely out of energy. This was excluding when he was experimenting with his skills.
There was also the small opening when the bright light would blind everyone around him that he could fight back.
Max had always been thinking about defending himself, but that didn't mean he was hesitant and afraid to fight back.
If given a few seconds to put out every damage he could, ten Awakened enemies? As long as they were Rank 1 and didn't have a way to negate his attacks, Max could destroy them all, and it was not his first time doing it.