Zeno cleans up all the mess created by the explosion collecting the fragmented parts from the grass and covering the burnt ground with soil.
"That should be enough, right?"
Zeno asks himself monotonously. Even though he wasn't able to remove all the stains on the outside wall, it was sufficient enough to not look suspicious.
"I screwed up the first try and I still haven't recovered my expended energy by this time.
Energy recovery rate is still the same as before. Will it only increase with the increase in Cosmic Grade?"
Before the Awakening, he could have gone on living without it. But after the Awakening, it is as if the World Energy acts as high stimulus.
His Energy Point regeneration rate is 1 point per minute which is sufficient for his level. But he can't be satisfied with that rate as accidents can occur anytime in this world and he would have to be prepared for it.
"Is there any chance of increasing that rate, Profile?"
Zeno asks after finishing all the cleaning up.
[Advancement techniques also help in recovering energy before accumulating excess energy points required for Level up.]
[User is advised to practice the
Being an AI with sentience, Profile can remember a large number of things that Zeno forgets and help him find a solution when he is stuck.
"Very well."
Zeno heeds Profile's advice and leaves the matter of potion making for later.
He sits down in lotus position, under the shade of a large tree in the compound while taking in the fresh air. He limits his senses to be undisturbed by the external distractions while trying to imitate a zen state.
He activates his self acquired trait
Zeno recalls the technique from memory and enacts its as written. He takes in huge amounts of air holding his stomach and breathes out relaxing his stomach. He does this in a specific pattern of frequency and rhythm while sensing the energy around him.
Even though this is the first time he is practicing it by himself, he is quite good at it thanks to Profile's processing capability.
At first, he doesn't feel any difference in the flow of energy around him. But then he notices some of the energy mist gets absorbed by the breath of air he takes in which in turn gets collected into the Mindspace. Even then it is only of a minuscule amount to make any difference.
He increases the pace of the breathing technique and notices the increase in amount of energy getting drawn into the Mindspace by this manner.
He continues to increase the pace to the maximum he could and a constant flux of energy starts to flow into his Mindspace uncontrolled until it fills up. Within a time period of 10 minutes, his Energy points gets refilled back to 100 points.
"That didn't take long." Zeno comments to himself.
However, continuing to practice the technique, he notices the excess energy absorbed to be taken in by the blue-brain like construct of Profile to expand the limit of Mindspace. However this rate of absorption was much slower than before.
"This, however, is taking too long. I should stop it for now."
Since Zeno knew it would take an hour to take in an excess point, he decides to stop for now. He has something more important to do for now.
"Profile, take out all the 5 books we scanned today."
Zeno orders to which Profile obeys.
5 exact virtual replicas of the books with the cover facing towards him appeared floating vertically in front of him.
"Process"
"Process"
"Process"
"Process"
"Process"
Zeno invokes the command code for his skill
The blue holographic brain like structure of Profile in his Mindspace starts to pulse intermittently making noises similar to how a CPU running a large amount of programs would make. Blue-white light pulsing through its structure makes it look like a real brain transmitting electric signals across the neurons.
After some time, Profile stops its intermittent pulsing and a large torrent of information is directly sent to the Memory zone of Zeno's real brain. However what Zeno doesn't expect is the fact that the incoming information is too large for his brain to handle.
"Shiiit!!"
Zeno experiences such a severe headache that he feels like his head is being split open. He starts to lose all his senses before falling unconscious suddenly under the tree.
~Time: 6 pm~
"Brrrp!!!"
Zeno jerks awake from his stupor to notice the sun setting in the red sky. He runs straight to the house to look for time only to notice that about 1 and a half hour passed while he was unconscious.
"Profile, what really happened?"
He asks Profile since his head was still dizzy after the ordeal. He really couldn't recall what happened.
[User tried to process many manuals at once which was too much information for User's brain to handle.]
"Then, why didn't you stop it?"
Zeno recalls what happened when Profile explained it. Last time he had used this skill on the two books from Larry's room, but there was no side effect like this during that time. That was the reason, he proceeded to do what he did. On the other note, he expected Profile to warn him if anything undesirable occurred.
[User was the one who invoked the command and Profile being User's Gift has to run it unquestioningly.]
[If Profile is the one using the skills, Profile could inform what all consequences would occur because of it.]
Hearing Profile' logic, Zeno didn't know what to reply with. He decides to leave all the future Processing matter to Profile's discretion for now. He wouldn't want to end up unconscious in public while activating a skill.
"Alright. Tell me one thing. Are there enough ingredients left for another try at potion making?"
[Only a half of the Horn of Horned Moon Rabbit is available which would be sufficient for one more try.]
"Then let's try one more time."
Since Adam always comes home late, he has plenty of time to try one more time. No one would come looking for Zeno either as he doesn't have any close acquaintances.
Once again, he prepares all the ingredients and items he would need just like before. He doesn't find a small pot this time, so he has to settle for an tea kettle which is approved by Profile for the job. This time he keeps a bath of cold water for the last step unlike the previous case.
He mimics all the steps just like in the previous case. However this time, after he added the powdered horn to the boiling mixture, he takes the scalding kettle by the handle and douses it in the bath of cold water.
"I think its working."
Zeno comments looking at the powder dispersing into the mixture and turning into a luminescent white colour liquid.
"Profile, scan this for me and tell me its current status."
Zeno holds his hand over the bright white solution in the open kettle while Profile activates the
[⚫High amount of unknown radiation detected along with electroluminescence.
⚫Safe for human consumption
⚫The target will lose its efficacy within an hour unless stored properly.]
"View"
Zeno tries the skill by himself to check out the content and whether he obtained the desired result.
[ITEM: Muscle Strengthening Potion
EFFECTS:
➕
➕ Permanant effects
✖ Loses efficacy within 1 hour unless stored
CHARACTERISTICS:
⚫ White luminescent colour
⚫Tastes like spoiled milk
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Beginner]
Looking at the status menu of the item, Zeno is satisfied by his talent and luck. Now either he has to find a way to store this or drink it all by himself.
"Well, here goes nothing."
Zeno pours the cooled liquid from the kettle to exactly fill one cup. Even though he wants to throw up due to the bad taste, he drinks it all not willing to leave a single drop of it.
"That wasn't as bad as I expected."
[The substance is getting absorbed slowly into User's body. It may take upto half an hour for the effects to fully appear.]
Profile provides its estimate while Zeno notices the minuscule effects that is already taking place.
His muscles are starting to expand and contract alternatingly with the expanding taking shorter and contracting taking place longer. His fats are getting burned up at a slow rate without him doing anything except for exhaling hot air.
"Even though I feel heated up, strangely I don't feel any sort of pain."
Zeno comments looking at his skin which is turning to a red colour. He decides to ignore the symptoms for now hoping it would pass away.
He cleans up the site once again removing all traces of anything that could have happened there within a few minutes. He then enters the house and proceeds to make food for dinner in the kitchen.
While reheating the leftover rabbit curry from yesterday, he remembers the fur he had forgotten to sell. He stops his work and quickly runs to check his bag. Luckily the fur was still intact and showed no signs of decay.
"I guess, I have to sell this tonight.
Profile, what time was that loot shop opening?"
[The signboard mentioned opening at 6 pm.]
"Let's go, then."
Zeno goes on to wear warm and long dresses as it was cold outside even though he was heating up from inside. Who knows when the heat disappears and he may end up experiencing the night cold like yesterday.
Time is 6:45 pm and the night sky is already here. Zeno gets out of his house wrapped up in an old black jacket kids size, found in a cupboard. He is carrying a small cover in his hands along with a pouch wound on his neck tucked inside. The fur is stored in the cover while the money he got from Paul is stored in the pouch.
Even though it is night time, the streets aren't devoid of people. In fact, it is packed with people showing up here and there. Men hanging out in the pub, lanterns hanging outside every home near the streets, street sellers displaying their items for sale, couples hanging around the trees and many more views like that could be seen on the way.
However no children near Zeno's age could be seen roaming around. Even though there are youngsters above the age of 16 or more in the market, they too were leaving the streets soon.
'Is it because night time in the market is too dangerous for the kids?
That can't be it.
There were children from Outer village hanging around the forest outskirts looking for a beast. Surely what could be more dangerous than that.'
Zeno thinks to himself while walking into the busy marketplace. There are more things in the stalls for display than he saw during morning. Equipment of funny shapes, poisons of various attributes, hides of buffalo like beasts, Beast horns taller than himself etc.. Zeno doesn't stop to check any of them and reaches his destination he had planned in his mind.
Zeno stops in front of the shop noticing the people going in and out of it. This place is LIT. Not just metaphorically, but literally too, as many light equipments are hung in front of the shop and people are getting in and out in torrents.
He enters the shop to see it arranged like a shopping mall with many counters and many products on display. Even though the shop doesn't look that big from outside, there is a HELLA lot of space inside.
Swords, shields, bow and arrows, large hammers, maces, armors and many other equipment of various size and quality could be seen put up on display.
However all these items put up for display are guarded by two humongous bald men dressed in black and white. If any one with intentions to steal an item appears near it, the bald men would release their energy to intimidate them, scaring them away.
Judging from the energy outburst they released earlier, Zeno could guess that they must have atleast a Cosmic Grade of 10 or above.
There are 3 counters for buying and 3 for selling setup within the shop. Each of them are for goods in the price range of copper, bronze and silver coins respectively. Since Zeno has to sell an item in the range of copper coins, he joins the queue in front of the counter for that specific purpose.
Since the evening was just starting up and most of them are here for selling items in the range of bronze coins and above, Zeno soon gets his turn at the counter.
"Hello, how can I help you?"
A young lady wearing a red dress is at the counter and she greets him.
"I have a whole uncut fur of a Horned Moon Rabbit with me. How much can you give me for that?"
"Can you show me the item?"
Zeno takes out the fur from the cover and gives it to the woman. After making sure it wasn't damaged or spoilt, she places it on the counter.
"Due to the current unavailability of the material, I can offer a maximum of 20 copper coins."
"Agreed."
Zeno thinks for a few minutes before answering. Since his
The woman paid him 20 coins from the counter which he stored in his pouch hanging from his neck. He had thought about keeping the pouch in one of his pockets, but rejected the notion when he thought of the possibility of getting robbed by pickpockets.
He tucks in the pouch inside the shirt under the jacket and leaves for outside. Night is still young and there are many places he could visit tonight.
"Well, I can afford to spend some time here, can't I?"
Thinking that to himself, he wanders here and there aimlessly around the market looking for unique items. Just when he is about to look for more shops, he gets a sudden notification from Profile.
[Caution!!! Two hostiles approaching User.]
Just as Zeno recieves the warning, he is shoved forcefully into a corner in the dark alley away from the public. There, a middle aged burly man with a beer belly is standing in the way blocking Zeno from the other side.
Two scrawny youngsters of around 24 years old appear at the other side covering the exit. Apparently they were the ones who had pushed him here.
"Did you think you can just hit us and leave, huh? Who the hell do you think you are, you bastard!!"
"You trying to scare the kid, man? I will talk to him. He looks like a smart kid so he will understand if I explain.
Listen kid, I am gonna make it fast and simple for you. You give that jacket and the pouch around your neck to us, we let you go back unharmed. Alright?"
One of the scrawny guy tries to threaten Zeno harshly while the other one tries to ease the mood and "borrow" from him openly.
These two could have opted for a job as professional actors as they were able to give out their lines with impeccable timing, thought Zeno.
Even though backed into a corner by 3 thieves, Zeno doesn't feel even a little bit of fear within him.
On the contrary, his mind starts to get impervious to emotions when threatened. This is the first time this is happening to his mind as this is the first time a person tries to threaten him with his life.
"Of all the people you could have chosen, you chose an 8 year old kid to rob. Really, how pathetic are you guys to stoop to that level?"
Zeno asks in a frosty voice as his mind was getting colder, bereft of fear and compassion. In his previous world, he had killed many people and wasn't afraid to do so in this world especially, where the strong prey upon the weak.
'This kid is trouble..."
Both the youngsters think to themselves in their mind. Somehow, the youngsters take a step back involuntarily faced with the sudden surge of bloodthirst from Zeno.
"We don't care what you think, kid. Give us all you got or forget leaving this place alive."
The burly man joins the conversation summoning the replica of his Construct Gift - Dagger.
[The potion is completely absorbed.]
[User has gained the <
[User has re awakened the <
Profile doesn't forget to deliver the timely notifications grabbing Zeno's attention for a moment.
"The only one who will be leaving here intact will be me."
Zeno answers the man facing him, swiping away all the notifications. He doesn't pay attention to what anyone says any longer. He concentrates his mind to think of ways he could dispose of these men in his current physical capability as a child.
He was never a person who took an insult to his face and would forgive them. He knew when to back off and when to payback. Even if he is still stuck in the body of an 8 year old, there are plenty of ways he could think of to finish them off.