~Reedling Basic Academy, Primary Classes C section~
Sherlyn, the Language Studies teacher, is taking her class as usual. Most of the kids are copying the notes from the board while some like Wayne and Sunny try to pass their time by playing some sort of catch and throw game between them.
'Most of these kids are good. Some of them are even exceptional. But there are still few who aren't even making an effort.'
Sherlyn makes a mental note as she tries to evaluate each of her students' performance in the class.
' Either way, it doesn't matter as long as they have Cosmic Grade 1 or above. Talking about grades, where's that kid, Zeno?'
Sherlyn runs her eyes across the class and sees Zeno sitting at the backmost seat. Books of each subjects could be seen stacked around him like a fortress on his table
'What is he doing there with all those books? Is he planning to read through them all? Even if he becomes more studious, nothing's going to change if he can't at least reach Grade 1.'
'If it isn't for the coming inter academy competitions, I doubt the Principal would agree to that brat Adam's demand. If this boy can't prove his worth within this time, I don't think he will be studying here any longer.'
Sherlyn doesn't dwell on her thoughts for much long and goes back to her work. As long as no one's causing trouble, she can go on teaching her subject and leave.
Even though Zeno notices Sherlyn's gaze upon her, he doesn't give thought to look at her since he was getting quite busy at the moment.
'I should have processed that text ages ago. I can't believe I wasted that much time trying to learn how to read and write Lingua for myself when I could have done it with a simple skill.'
'All the other texts don't seem that complex if you know the language. Even though these are basic junior level stuff, the contents are pretty detailed. But still, a bit too simple for me.'
Zeno ponders while going through the texts on his table. Even though he knew to read at a basic level before, he couldn't understand most of it. But that's not the case now. He could now speedrun through each page thanks to his high comprehension and Lingua Proficiency.
From the time he entered the class to this moment, he hasn't stopped himself from trying to read through these books one by one. He was going through them one by one at such concentration that he forgot to greet when Sherlyn left and Mr. Lee entered for his Maths class.
Fortunately, Lee doesn't take it to heart since he was used to trouble causing kids from higher sections and this is seldom any trouble. Hours pass in this manner without Zeno noticing. He gets too engrossed in reading that he doesn't notice the passage of time.
It is now Old Frodo's Basic Science class time and Zeno continues to flip through the pages even though the texts left to go through are diminishing at an alarming rate.
"Does anyone have any doubts to clarify? Anyone?" Old guy Frodo asks in between his class out of habit.
Zeno who happens to hear it raises his hand drawing attention from everyone.
"Tell me Zeno, what's your query?" Asks Frodo, a bit surprised.
"I don't know if this is related to your subject, Sir. But why is it mentioned in our texts that a person is capable of possessing only one Gift." Zeno asks curiously.
For all he knows, he possesses two Gifts even though one is unawakened. Then why is it written here that a person can have only one.
"An excellent question indeed, Zeno. But before I answer your question, can you tell me what you understand a Soul Gift to be?" Old Frodo asks trying to spark others interest in the matter.
At this juncture, Zeno doesn't know what to answer. All his knowledge about Soul Gifts came from Profile and the texts in front of him.
From what he knew, Soul Gifts are some sort of power awarded to each person to enhance its growth and awaken new skills from it, which allows him or her to perform feats beyond her ability. But that's not all.
They cannot be just considered some cluster of powers. Profile possesses a sentient mind that is very much similar to his own and who knows how many Gifts possess a mind of its own or not. Based on his current knowledge, he could only answer metaphorically.
"They are like seeds. Seeds of the past souls trying to reach their peak and beyond."
Zeno finally answers after a few minutes of silence. It is the only plausible answer he could arrive for now.
Frodo who heard it is not just surprised at it. He gets shocked to his core that he goes mute for a moment.
"Uh, huh. I don't know how you arrived at that answer, but nonetheless it is an excellent answer. To my knowledge, only one person in the history of the Dominus continent mentioned Soul Gifts in that manner."
Frodo answers surprised with happy wrinkles shown all over his face.
"Who?" Zeno asks, curious at Old Frodo's sudden change in expression.
"Nova Dominus Lockhart, the first and the only Sovereign of the Dominus Continent. In one of the texts he authored, he mentions Soul Gifts to be what you just said. 'Seeds of Past Souls."
"Coming to the point, if a Gift can be considered a Soul or Power fragment, a person possessing one gift can bond with it as his own without much trouble.
But if he somehow gets to bonds with two, there are few scenarios that can occur.
One, the gifts will try to compete with each other resulting in disappearance of one or the other.
Two, the gifts can fuse together to form a new stronger variant one or a defective one based on their compatibility. Most of the time, it results in a defective one, since no one gift is similar to another except in rare cases.
Third, even if two gifts themselves decide to co-exist with one another, the laws of the world makes it unable for one person to possess two Gifts unless and until some sort of divine blessing or beyond descends upon the person as a Gift.
But if one such gift of divine origin was to descend, it is sure to consume the less powerful one unless the other one is of similarly powerful one. So theoretically, yes, there is a chance of two Gifts co-existing, but the power required to maintain and power up both of them will be huge, slowing his or her Advancement.
We can ascertain the validity of each scenarios by comparing the history of the Dominus continent.
The first scenario was commonly seen in early ages. People would experiment with their Gifts ultimately making a mistake somewhere. If they are lucky, they get stuck in lower grade with their own Gift and in the worst case scenario, they explode to death due to the volatile power within them.
The second scenario can be seen in many familias of the Bloodstar Empire. One such familia is the Dragon's familia. Their ancestor's original gift
For the third scenario, the Sovereign Nova can be considered an apt example. He was the only person in recorded history to have ever managed to reach the highest cosmic grade of 99 as an Advancer.
But his days were short lived as he too attempted the endeavour and was never to be seen again.
Same thing happened to Rosario Dominus, the Battle Commander of the Dominus Continent popularly known as Rosario, the Conqueror. At Least he survived to tell the tale but he too disappeared after the continent split itself into many nations. Whether he ascended or died, nobody knows.
That is why it is considered that a person can have only one Gift at best. Anything else?"
Frodo asks once again after his long explanation. Even though Zeno has some more doubts, he decides not to trouble the old man further.
He goes back to reading his books while Frodo went back to teaching. Time passes and bells ring once again for lunchtime. Still Zeno hasn't stopped reading.
Most of the kids leave the class for break whereas Paul, Wayne and Sunny wait for Zeno.
"Is he ever going to move from that spot?"
Sunny asks seeing Zeno with his eyes glued to the pages.
"I don't think so. Let's not bother, Big bro." Paul answers.
The three of them also goes out leaving Zeno alone in the class. With the exception of noise from the outside, no other voices could be heard within the room. This continues on till half an hour before a long yawn could be heard.
"Ahhhh-haaaa!!! That took a while.
Ummm… Where did everyone go?"
After half an hour or so, Zeno manages to read through all the texts in his possession. It isn't that those texts were easier to understand. It is just that Zeno's comprehension ability is out of the norm.
In his previous life, he managed to obtain a degree before the age of sixteen and had become a doctorate by the age of 22. He even published a couple of groundbreaking papers in his career before he went down the path of a wanted fugitive to a criminal.
Nowadays, the only books that take an awful lot of time for him to understand are the Advancement manuals and the technique pamphlets he happened to come across in this world.
"Whatever, I should take a break. Spending too much time on one thing isn't really my style."
Saying so, Zeno takes up his bag and leaves for the outside. Looking around he could see his now classmates bickering to themselves along the corridor about their life. Paul, Sunny and Wayne however were not present anywhere there.
'I guess, I will wander alone for the time being. Somehow, I am starting to miss that robotic Profile.'
Zeno ponders while walking along the pathway. He could see kids here and there left and right of him most of which are Primary class students.
'I don't see any of my predecessor's acquaintances anywhere here. Maybe upperclassmen are having their classes on otherside of the building which is good for me, I guess.' Zeno thinks.
As he continues his walk, somehow he has reached the Academy grounds unknowingly, maybe because it is only one of the two places he knows in this Academy.
Surprisingly something eventful is also happening on the ground. A large crowd could be seen surrounding something in the centre. Sounds of clickety clacking resounds in his ears and dust clouds could be seen swirling above the crowd suggesting some sort of commotion.
"Is it my eyes or is there some sort of fight going on? Good lord! Why does no one tell me about the good stuff?"
Zeno complains while running to join the crowd. He attempts to squeeze in through the cracks to get a nice view of what is going on.
As he reaches the front, he sees one of the strangest battles he has ever seen. A brown skinned kid with a hair of military cut is attacking a group of about 7-8 kids while holding a pair of identical constructed cutlasses in his hands. He is joined by Noel and Bezaj, both of whom had followed Zeno yesterday.
Zeno recognizes the kid to be Dom, another person who was his predecessor's acquaintance and also used to bully the latter. If Bezaj bullied his predecessor out of hate, then Dom did it for fun.
But this doesn't matter to Zeno now. Strong, show off kids bully mentally weak kids. This happens everywhere. To antagonise a kid for such a small offence doesn't seem mature to him.
What really caught Zeno's attention was the glowing abstract looking Cutlass in Dom's hand which looked like it was both imaginary and real. Looking at it, Zeno got the feeling that this Cutlass isn't like other normal construct gifts.
'That thing looks sharp. Got some sort of eerie vibe to it. Moreover, he can make 2 of them at the same time too. But that's not the real question here.'
'The real question is why these brats are fighting each other when one of the guy is holding a fric*ing sword? Why is no one trying to stop them?'
Zeno complains in his head as he turns around to see whether anybody is interfering. But contrary to expectations, all of them are rooting for one party or another even though there is a possibility of someone getting his limbs cut off.
'Seriously, the people living here really don't have concern for others. But these kinds of things also gives me an opportunity to test my skills too. So who am I to complain?'
Zeno comments to himself looking at the fight.
'View >> Basic Mode'
Zeno invokes another variation of his view skill upon Dom, Bezaj and Noel at the same time.
[Name: Dom
Cosmic Grade: 2 {3/400}
Class Construct Gift: Pirate's Cutlass]
[Name: Bezaj
Cosmic Grade: 1 {150/200}
Gift: Wooden Club]
[Name: Noel
Cosmic Grade: 1 {120/200}
Gift: Wooden Club]
'Dom's Gift is a Class Construct Gift? What sort of Gift is that? A combination of class gift and construct gift or some kind of Construct Gift related to a Class Gift? No wonder he looks strong.' Zeno evaluates based on the Gifts he had seen till now.
The cutlasses in Dom's hand, even though looking sharp appears as an abstract form. Still it looks pretty much intimidating for a fight between juveniles.
'View >> Gift'
Zeno invokes the skill targeting the rest of the students fighting against the trio.
[Gift: Copper Rod]
[Gift: Wood Stick]
[Gift: Bronze Drum]
[Gift: Brass Plate]
.
.
.
'The guys fighting the trio mostly don't even have a weapon as their Gift. Then why are they trying to pick up a fight with the trio?' Zeno couldn't make a sense of what's going on in their head that they would try to endanger their health without even a proper weapon.
He along with the cheering crowd witnesses Dom thrashing the kids around violently with the back of his cutlasses. The latter manages to fight most of his opponents without even breaking a sweat. Noel and Bezaj are also doing a better job at winning their fights by swinging around their constructed wooden clubs at their opponents.
"Won't it be a problem if they cause a ruckus here?" Zeno asks, turning to a random person near him.
'Is this little twerp asking me?' That guy checks out little Zeno who suddenly spoke to him before answering. "The Academy encourages fights among students to gain experience. As long as no one dies or gets maimed, you can fight to your heart's content."
"Betting on the fighters is also allowed as long as certain limits are not crossed. Anyone can challenge another to a duel except for the lowest class students, i.e. the Primary class." Answers the guy.
"Why can't the Primary class students be challenged?"
Zeno enquiries, a bit glad. He doesn't want to participate in any sort of duelling challenge unless it is to his profit.
"Because primary classmen are either too young or too weak to engage in a fight. Sir Klaus himself would give out the punishment if anyone tries to fight with the Primary classmen." Answers the guy.
Even though that answer sounded quite reasonable, he was also bit disappointed to see himself categorized as weak.
The guy continues, "This, what you are seeing is a usual scenario that has been going on around this Academy for half a year. Those three of them would go around picking up fights with every group from intermediate classes and defeat them. Some of them come back for revenge. This what you are seeing now is an instance of that. But Dom's a tough guy to defeat so he hasn't lost a fight till now."
Another guy who was listening to their conversation can't help but join in the conversation. "Good thing he doesn't start a fight with the higher secondary classmen or senior classmen. If it was against any of them, he wouldn't be able to walk straight for a month."
"Not the kind of information I wanted to know. Anyway thanks, both of you" Zeno decides to leave the place now that he isn't interested any longer.
'This must be what they say country life to be.'
Zeno ponders to himself. He continues to walk for some more time ignoring the after lunch break bell. He sets the Academy Library as his destination to try to get more books to
'According to Profile, the Abyss fragment is currently dormant and it would remain in that state if I never awaken the Shortsword Gift. But I can't compromise my safety on just the word from Profile. If what old guy Frodo said is true, both the Abyss fragment and the sword gift are potential dangers.'
'Even though Profile told me it's no danger for the moment, I need to find a way to get rid of this Abyss fragment.'
'At this point, I can only hope there is some sort of information regarding the Abyss in the Library. But that old man Fleming did tell me he wouldn't open the library again unless one of the tasks in the board is completed.'
Zeno starts to fall into a heavy thought not paying attention to his surroundings.
[●❌Task failed❌●]
"WOAH!! Just when I thought I would be having a whole day to myself. What happened?"
Zeno asks after freaking out a bit seeing the familiar blue screen appear suddenly.
[Anomaly detected within the scanned records]
"What anomaly?"
[Higher level required in View skill to identify the anomaly]
"Never mind." Zeno replies.
Soon, he finds himself in front of the Academy Library. Old man Fleming can be seen resting in a shelter built near the building. His eyes are open, seemingly enjoying the calmness of the scenery. Paul, Sunny, Wayne, Mini and Merin can also be seen in front of the Task Board arguing over something.
"You guys planning to take up a task?" Zeno comments approaching the group.
Paul and others notice Zeno approaching them and stop their argument.
"Yeah, Big bro. We didn't get to completely copy a technique for ourselves yesterday. So we have to take up a task to at least copy one of them completely." Paul answers.
"Why don't you all try to complete a task by themselves?" Zeno asks.
"That old man Fleming only allows groups to take up quests. So here we are." Mini answers pointing at the Old man Fleming.
'So if I have to take up a task, I have to join a group? That is a bit troublesome. With the exception of these guys, I don't think anyone's going to team up with me.'
Zeno ponders while looking at the list of tasks. He needs to find some reason to make them form a team with him.
"I have an Uncommon rank manual completely memorised within my head. If you guys are willing to take up a task with me, I don't mind sharing it with you all."
Zeno offers his suggestion in a lower voice which he knew they would take up. Compared to an incomplete Basic rank manual, an Uncommon rank manual is better.
"What do you guys think?"
Paul asks the 4 of them, bringing them away for a few moments.
"I see no reason to not agree."
Sunny provides his opinion to which both Wayne and Paul nod in agreement.
"What if he is lying?"
Mini asks, being a bit concerned while observing Zeno secretly. She has no trust in him whatsoever. Merin doesn't have an opinion of hers and just looks at each other.
"Even though that guy looks big and all, he is a bookworm, trust me. If he says, he has an Uncommon rank technique. Then he must have one."
Wayne retorts at Mini recalling Zeno's behaviour today and his conversation with Mr. Frodo.
After a few minutes of hesitation, Mini too agrees to team up.
By the time they are taking to come up with a decision, Zeno decides to go through the notices posted.
From mundane cleaning chores to various deadly beast hunting quests could be seen littered across the board. There is even a 2nd layer Dungeon clearance task attached here with rewards paid in Energy stones.
But Zeno isn't interested in any of them. He doesn't want to take any hunting related tasks even though his strength got upgraded recently. Nor does he want to do cumbersome and time consuming tasks.
After a minute of searching, he finds a high reward task which looked seemingly too good.
Description: A burglary has taken place in the House of Simon, the Leone Bungalow last night. No signs of break in is visible but valuables were found missing from the locker and storage even though the locks were found intact. Anyone willing to help can contact the below mentioned address for more details Contact: Simon, Owner of Beastloot Enterprise, Leone Bangalow, West of Marketplace, Reedling Village Rewards: 20 gold coins + 100 task points> Zeno reads the task again and notices the date issued for the quest to be two days ago. 'No one took up this task even though it offers 20 golds as reward? Sounds fishy but looks fine. Profile, what do you think?' Zeno asks in his mind. [Limited information unables Profile to provide an opinion] "That's it. We are doing this." Zeno comments as he tears the notice off the Task Board. 10 task points are enough to borrow one book for a day. But since he needs to also seek advice from Fleming regarding the Abyss, it wouldn't hurt to have more. Paul and the others come back and informs their decision to team up with him. "Good, I just selected a task for ourselves. Let's go." Zeno replies giving the notice to Paul which they all try to read taking turns. After reading they also find it to be too good of a task. The 6 of them then take the task notice to Mr. Fleming who is resting in his shelter. After sweeping a look at the six of them, he gives his consent for them to do the task. Just as they proceed to leave the Academy, Zeno notices a glee on the old man Fleming's face. 'Why does the old man seem happy? That's not a good sign. Is it?' Zeno panics internally not showing it outwards.