"Now, I just need to get out of here."
Zeno decides to leave the Academy Library and Academy to leave for home. There was nothing left for him to do here and he wasn't planning to wait for the whole two hours here.
"Where are you going?"
Adam, who was standing near the entrance, asks Zeno who was leaving. Time has just struck 3:30 pm and there is still 1 and a half hour remaining till the doors close.
Moreover it was just minutes ago he had left Zeno after questioning about his Soul Gift and now he is leaving this early. That doesn't seem right, thought Adam.
"I am not feeling well. I will come back another day."
Zeno lies to get out of here. All the other students were engrossed in their work to notice their conversation.
"What if, next time you come I won't open it for you, boy?"
Old man Fleming appears in the door side teasing Zeno.
It was the first time he had seen such an arrogant kid such as Zeno. There are both children and youth who would beg for a chance to get into the library, to read secret manuals, to get a chance to become strong, to secure a good future for themselves and maybe even reach great heights and break through their mortal state. That is when this young brat is wasting his opportunity by leaving after 10 minutes on entering, without having spent any effort.
"And why is that?" Zeno asks back. He just wanted to get out of here after his work was done.
"You see, young boy, there are rules everyone has to follow here, okay.
At first, you are given 2 hours of time on the 1st floor of the library for free. If you want to enter the library after that, you would have to complete certain tasks or missions posted on the Task Board which are issued by the Task Master and Academy Librarian, both of which would be me."
Old man Fleming explains pointing towards a notice board placed on the outside wall and to himself. The board was literally littered with coloured papers pinned on all of its surface.
Zeno proceeds to go to the Notice board and notices posts requesting herbs, beast loots and assistance in exchange for time in the library. None of them were hard for an Advancer above 5th Cosmic Grade, however it would be difficult for people below that level unless they banded and formed a team.
"Okay, whatever you say. I will be on my way if you guys don't mind."
Zeno doesn't give any damn to what Fleming says and leaves the building without thinking much.
Seeing that Zeno has made his mind, Adam leaves and goes back to do his thing, looking after the kids who were still copying their notes.
'You better pray that I won't teach you a lesson when you come back, kid.'
After making a mental note to himself, Fleming returns to his sleep.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the Academy grounds, two young boys seemingly of the same age as Zeno are dueling each other.
One is a fair skinned kid of a short stature and the other is a brown skinned kid with a medium stature with both of them having black hair.
Both of them are standing within a ring of 5 metres and fighting each other with a Wooden Club in their hands. The Clubs looked both virtual and real at the same time. It seems both of them have a Wooden Club as their Soul Gift.
"Noel, you don't seriously think you can defeat me, do you?" The brown skinned boy asks.
"I won't know unless I try, Bezaj" The other kid answers.
Both of them come to a standstill and waits for an opportunity to strike. Bezaj looks prepared, smiling while Noel gets irritated by the smirk on Bezaj's face.
That is when, Noel notices Zeno passing through the other side of the Academy grounds farther from them. He continues to look at Zeno forgetting the fact that he was in a duel.
Bezaj doesn't forget to take advantage of this opportunity. The Wooden Club in his hand shines white for a moment and smashes at the right side of Noel's stomach leaving a trail of white light in the air. The force of impact sends Noel straight out of the ring.
Truth be told, all physical oriented inbuilt skills have the ability to recreate their attacks with the highest power anytime even when user is not at his peak performance.
"Aaaah.."
Noel who was struck gives out a low cry while getting thrown out of the ring smashing into the hard ground. He gets up immediately rubbing his stomach as Bezaj had applied only sufficient amount of force to throw Noel out.
"That one doesn't count. I could have won if I wasn't distracted."
Noel shouts in denial.
"That's your mistake. Isn't it?"
Bezaj teases him as a response.
Noel falls silent for a moment as if he was thinking whether to say it or not. Looking at Noel's expression, Bezaj also turns serious and asks,
"What happened?"
"Sigh..., I just saw Zeno leaving the Academy."
Noel heaves a low sigh and tells the matter.
"You mean, that Giftless trash Zeno?"
Bezaj's face turns grim in mentioning his name. That was how Bezaj used to call him when they were classmates.
"Yeah, him." Noel confirms.
Bezaj de-summons his Wooden Club and walks towards the Academy entrance with a determined face. He had wanted to beat Zeno up the moment he saw him in the Assembly yesterday. He even waited for him yesterday at the entrance till most of the other students left the Academy, but to no avail as Zeno had gone to Infirmary that time.
"You do realise that it wasn't his fault that we got beaten up, right?
We got beaten up by Syra's brother, Jeff. He said it was because of us she cried that day and left the Academy never to return again."
Noel tries to reason with Bezaj trying to keep up with him.
"It wasn't because of us she cried and left the Academy. It was because of that TRASH, as I had said to you, a HUNDRED TIMES..."
Bezaj roars back at Noel with a distorted expression in his face scaring Noel a bit.
Noel understood that Bezaj isn't going to stop what he has planned to do. It would be better if he went along and pulled him back, if things went south.
Both Noel and Bezaj leave the Academy grounds and the Academy to see Zeno walking closer to the market. They decide to continue following him till no one else is nearby.
That is when they notice a young man accompanied by a girl shopping around the market from afar. The young man looked about 20 to 24 years old while the girl looked 8 years old and both of them were familiar to Bezaj and Noel.
"Bezaj, we have to give it up for now. We can't face that guy alone. At least not without Dom."
Noel advises Bezaj seeing that they were only 8 feet behind them and the young man could notice them any moment. Bezaj doesn't stop, not heeding hs friend's advice until Noel drags him back by the stomach hiding them both from the young man's view.
"Damn it!!"
Bezaj curses in a low voice stomping the ground hard. Both of them decides to return back to the Academy and let the matter rest for now.
Meanwhile, Zeno turns backward looking at the alley from which Noel and Bezaj had disappeared from. He had noticed them tailing him the moment he reached closer to the market.
"I thought it was some sort of pickpocket guys. Didn't think that they were former Zeno's young 'friends'."
Zeno comments to Profile.
[They disappeared when the young man and girl, right side of the User, appeared in our proximity. The kids were looking at them before leaving.]
Zeno turns around looking for the duo of a young man and girl, and notices them.
The young man has navy short blue hair which is undercut and a black beard. His fair skin combined with his blue hair style and black beard makes him the most beautiful and stylish man he had seen around this village. Moreover Zeno could sense a strong aura from the man.
Zeno then, turns his attention towards the girl who is accompanying the guy. Long black hair reaching down her hips and eyes deep as the black abyss with a smile as genuine as a puppy. He feels some sort of attachment to her which he can't explain.
From his predecessor's memories, he identifies her to be Syra, the only friend of former Zeno who was also the latter's first and only crush before he passed away. But beyond that, there is something present that Zeno couldn't comprehend.
"I have seen her, somewhere else."
Zeno says out in a soft whisper monotonously.
[That would be in User's predecessor's memories. Or she could have a similar face to any of User's acquaintances in previous life.]
"I ..., nevermind."
He replies back only to notice the girl approaching him. It seems she recognized him from the distance.
[User is advised to take caution as both the girl and the young man are above the User's level.]
Profile prompts a warning noticing the duo approaching.
"Aren't you Zeno?"
She asks with a sweet childlike voice expressing surprise and happiness. The young man with her came after her shortly.
"Yes, Syra. It's me. This is ..?"
Zeno agrees and asks pointing at the young man trying to impersonate his predecessor's impression as closely as possible.
"Name's Jeff, kid. I am her brother."
The young man Jeff comes in like a hawk grasping his arm and shakes it. Zeno could only continue to shake his hand as he couldn't free it from his grasp.
"Mine's Zeno. Nice to meet you."
Zeno responds back. He manages to wrest his arm out of Jeff's grasp luckily. Either he is trying to intimidate me or he just doesn't control his strength, thought Zeno.
"I didn't see you anywhere in the Academy when I went there. What happened?"
Zeno asks turning towards Syra. She was the only one he hadn't met after the classes yesterday. He knew something was up but he didn't bother to check before.
"I quit the Academy after a few days of your dismissal.
I didn't think I could do much with a waste Soul Gift. To save myself an embarrassment, I decided to quit before getting dismissed."
She replies with a cheerful smile on his face. Zeno didn't knew what her Gift was and never did she mention it. He decides to take a look at her status to know what is the problem.
'View'
🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲
Name: Syra
Age: 8
Cosmic Grade: 5 {310/3200}
Energy Points: 1300
Gift:
1. Construct Gift: White Dandelion Spore
Inbuilt skills:
1. Construct Spore
Techniques:
...
🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲
A blue holographic screen invisible to both Jeff and Syra appears in front of Zeno's eyes. Looking at it, Zeno feels both jealous and pity towards Syra.
He feels jealous for the fact that she has a Cosmic Grade of 5 at a young age of 8. There wouldn't be a more talented person than her in this village except for maybe Adam.
The reason as to why he feels pity is because her Soul Gift is a Dandelion Spore which is not good for anything. This Gift could be considered one of the most trashiest Gifts in the whole of the continent.
These type of spores can be seen commonly throughout this continent and it doesn't even have any notable properties other than maybe for its aesthetic looks.
"I am so sorry I didn't know."
Zeno offers his apologies not knowing what else to do. Even if she has this much World Energy, it won't matter since she has no decent skill to use. Either she would have to reach 10th level and find an appropriate Skill for her or try to evolve her Gift using any means available.
"It's alright. I am fine with it, now."
Syra responds back in kind.
"I haven't seen you ever here before. Not even in the church."
Noticing that the conversation was taking a depressing turn, Jeff asks trying to divert the topic. Moreover, he had heard about this kid many times from Syra during last year. But he didn't get an opportunity to meet him till now. Since the younger generation doesn't believe in the existence of Gods, there was no chance for him to have visited the church.
"I was not that comfortable with crowds until recently. Moreover I was sick too."
Zeno makes up lies to get away. Truth be told, his predecessor was suffering from extreme case of depression and hence became an introvert.
"Can you tell me where both of you live, so that I can meet you when I am in some need?
Right now, I am kind of busy."
Zeno informs them as politely as he could, not wanting to piss off the young guy.
"If you need us for some help, you can look for us in the Village Church."
Jeff replies, noticing that Zeno has some sort of urgency. He and Syra excuses themselves from there.
"Take care."
Syra waves a goodbye before leaving to which Zeno waves back. He watches as they go out of his sight before going to the market to buy the Aurelius Ginseng. Right now his mind is only focused on the making of Muscle Strengthening Potion.
He has 6 copper coins with him which Paul had given. With that he buys about half a kilogram of the herb spending 1 copper coin.
He departs for his home now that he has obtained all ingredients for making the potion. On arriving, he prepares all the equipment he would need for the process and arranges it outside in the compound.
"We wouldn't want to risk a fire in the house. Do we?" Zeno asks himself in a monologue.
A small clay pot, a few logs of wood, some tinder to catch on fire and a litre of water. These were his preparations and all he thought he would need.
First he boils a litre of water in a pot. Then he adds 2 grams of Rasayan Musli into the pot when the water boils as written. He has to stir it for about two minutes continuously which he does.
Then he adds 10 grams of Aurelius Ginseng when an earthy smell wafts outside. He goes onto add the 3.5 grams of chamomile flowers, which is about 7 petals.
Now it's time for the last and the main ingredient- Half of a Horned Moon Rabbit's horn in powdered form. He goes on to add it when the petals get dissolved in the broth. Now he just has to extinguish the fire underneath and it will be ready within a minute. That is when he notices that he hadn't made an arrangement for that. He tries to add sand to the fire trying to limit the burning but to no avail.
"This is bad.., This is definitely bad."
He closes the lid of the pot and runs to fetch a bucket of water to dump on the fire. He draws the water from the well as quickly as possible.
When he comes back within half a minute, he sees the broth bubbling from the pot. Apparently he should have been prepared for extinguishing the fire before he started experimenting.
[User is advised to take shelter.]
Profile sends out a warning.
"Yeah, I can see that."
Zeno runs away from the spot taking shelter in his house.
"BOOOOOOM!!!!"
Within three seconds after Zeno close the main door, a small explosion takes place in the location shattering the clay pot and ejecting its parts all around the vicinity. Even though nobody noticed the explosion as it could only be heard within the compounds, the marks it left on the ground was clearly visible.
"Well, I never expected it to work in the first try."
Zeno comments coming out of the house, after noticing the impact of the explosion.