After being awarded 25 points for the display, I left the class with Zakira and told her of my plans to spend most of my free time training before we parted ways. She to the cafeteria for some blood and me to the courtyard for my fix.
Once done, I made a pit stop to my room to freshen up and wound up being distracted by a new change within the space- a doorway. Sitting off to the side of my kitchen, giving way to a pentagonal office splayed in warm light. Inside was a well-sized desk, overlooked by a three-sectioned corkboard on the wall behind it.
Wasting no time, I gathered my character sheets and took the time to properly arrange them and fill out what little data I had before I brainstormed on how to get more.
My initial thought was to simply observe and take notes until graduation, but the prospects of a group activity of some sort coupled with the position I now found myself in made such an option unfeasible. In part, that was why I delegated the task to the team leaders. But even then, I couldn't blindly rely on them to meet my standards. Which equated to me having to dedicate time to talk to each member of the party. Either individually, or in their cliques.
An annoyance either way. But complaining or brooding about it wouldn't have got me what I needed, so I strode from the dorms and made my way to the cafeteria to intrude upon the first group I saw.
"May I sit?"
Samson stopped mid-conversation and turned away from a pair of girls with a curled lip before straightening his face at once.
"Amun!" He patted the seat next to him, chuckling nervously. "Of course."
"I hear you like to win." A raspy voice giggled from his side.
Looking over I saw an auburn-haired girl resting her head on her shoulder while she stared at me lazily. Her cobalt-blue eyes darting between mine as she awaited my reply. From memory, I remembered she was on the taller side. With a slim build that'd been packed on with a fair bit of muscle, like that of a softball player.
"It's not about winning." I shook my head, smiling. "It's about learning as much as I can while I'm here and being afforded the best opportunities as possible after graduating."
"Isn't that the same thing?" The other one, a shorter, more petite girl wondered aloud before extending her hand to me with a smile spread across her face. "I'm Scarlett Bombyx." She had a gaunt face, cradled with brunette bangs accented with flowers and white streaks of hair that cradled her off-white eyes like a frame. "Nice to meet you, Class Leader." She held out her hand.
I hesitated before shaking, if only for a second and only because it was one of the few instances I'd seen such a gesture used in this world. "Amun." I smiled, retracting my hand and moving it towards the console with a deep breath to prepare myself for the arduous small talk ahead of me.
"I'm Rebecca, by the way." She palmed her chest with her free hand. "Rebecca Plassein."
"Uh. I'm Samson Framer. Leader of team three!"
"Yeah." I sighed. "So, you three are from Nonus?"
***
Out talk wound up lasting over an hour, yet wound up being far more lucrative than I anticipated.
As I assumed, Samson was a country bumpkin from the outlands of Sirius- the kingdom that resides on the planetary island near Betrarth and the Steam Line. Naturally, he grew up hunting and farming, giving him a robust build and an above-average constitution, even at the tender age of 16.
As far as affinities, he was born with Rain Magic and was given Aluminum Magic at the ceremony. And as things went, he claimed to be competent with the former but didn't know much about aluminum besides the fact it was a metal.
He planned to use that attributes in the most basic way possible. Join a guild or military and seek glory on the battlefield. Things that I could give him in excess.
The Scarlett and Rebecca were from Sirius proper- a capital city-state where they were raised as privileged nobles. Not that my upbringing was any different. Nor was it surprising, considering the way they carried themselves.
Rebecca's family was renowned in those lands for their Plasma Magic, and she was given Black Powder Magic. Due to the way she spoke of her upbringing, however, it was clear that she felt some particular way about authority. Whether in a general sense or of a particular type was up for debate. But it was a noteworthy observation all the same.
Scarlett, on the other hand, was born from a family of Druids and Witches. Which was what she aspired to be. Their kingdom was on the outskirts of Sirius proper. In the wilds, among arthropods and worms. It was there that she went through her core awakening, giving her Poison Magic in addition to her Silk Magic.
As things went, Scarlett had a small repertoire of developed spells but neither she nor Rebecca had any fighting experience. Samson had some from hunting, but he'd never used his magic for anything other than agriculture.
That was essentially all I could glean before the conversation shifted in my direction, prompting me to give a vague summary of my somewhat sheltered, but free upbringing in Deapou before we finished our meals and we departed to get some sleep.
At about three in the morning, I awoke and updated the board with what I'd just learned. Then parsed through my memories of Kao and Urshure to fill out the rest of team three. With my squad already filled out, there were only five students left to interview. Four, if I didn't include Duke, but he was one of my biggest priorities.
Right behind Winston.
I decided to put that on the agenda for the day and emerged from my room to see… nothing.
Well, Twig was there. But Zakira was missing entirely.
I made my way to the courtyard for my nightly fix and failed to see her there as well.
And neither was she in the cafeteria.
Deciding against looking for her, I meandered to the gym and, as I expected, it was virtually empty. Only a couple of nocturnals were found in the stands, either reading or staring absent-mindedly at an ambiguous point in the room.
Surprisingly, however, there were three down on the gym floor in almost constant motion. And as I grew closer, I saw a triage of familiar faces that I never expected to see.
Elijah, standing off the side. Watching Zakira and Opal sparring in the center.
Though it hardly could've been called that.
They were going at each other full force. Even without mana veils, I'm sure their impacts would've banged against the environment like the symphonic percussion I was hearing.
They relentlessly attacked, countered, and threw combos at each other without pause. Flinging blood and teeth every which way that was replaced or healed within seconds.
It took me a few seconds to realize I was standing at the last few steps leading into the floor, watching slack-jawed at the spectacle unfold. And after catching myself my thoughts immediately revolved around a single question.
'How much strength could I steal from them?'
The Guild Association's assessment and the stories of the Hells made it clear to me that anti-magic was all too common across the realms. In its presence, I maintained the strength and life I've Usurped, but the amount stolen so far was negligible. The strength of two men and a half-elven boy was still weaker than any non-human in our year. And many of the proclaimed humans as well.
If I were to go to the Hells one day and survive, I needed to Usurp a lot more strength. And it just so happened that demons and vampires had tons to spare. The only problem was, vampires were undead. Zakira's behavior in the face of my magic implied that gaining strength wouldn't be as easy as I first thought.
Which called for an experiment.
Luckily, it didn't take long for the pair to take notice of my presence and bring their duel to a halt to walk up to me calmly. Causing a pang of jealousy to arise from within me.
Even though Zakira had said it, I couldn't help but be surprised at the fact that they could move about and speak as freely as if they'd just stood up off the couch.
That said, I didn't want to become undead like my great-grandfather.
I aimed for something better.
"I didn't mean to interrupt." I smiled.
"No worries." Opal waved my comment aside and finished with a gesture towards Zakira. "It was Zed's idea."
"Oh?" I turned to Zakira, who has awkwardly turned away from us. "What'd she say?"
"Things we already knew." Opal giggled. "That you're ambitious and she wants to watch you see them through. So she told us about your… method to grow stronger. We'd love to help." She stepped forward, then suddenly turned her gaze away. "Well, Elijah would."
"I insist!" The rather large man stepped in toward me.
"Well, we have to see if it works first. So." I held out my hand and looked at him expectantly.
He seemed confused for a bit but eventually took my hand in his. 'Here goes nothing.' I sighed. Then covered my skin in death mana to activate my spell. Causing an intense gasp of shock to escape the lungs of the two onlookers while Elijah dropped to his knees.
"Wow!" He jumped back up with bulging eyes. "That feels amazing!"
"Goddammit!" I threw his arm away and stormed off.
Only to feel a cold pair of arms wrap around me in the next moment.
"I'm sorry it didn't work." She hugged me tighter- almost too tight.
"It's not your fault, you don't need to apologize." I hugged her back. "It's the thought that counts. So, thank you. And besides." I pulled her away to look at the other two with a smile. "I don't like stealing from my friends.
"And it's not all bad." I grinned at Elijah in particular. "We can still spar."
"Oh, I don't know." Elijah shrugged trepidatiously.
"Oh, I'm not as fragile as you think. And you'll be lucky to even touch me. So how's a game of tag?" I lunged forth to give his shoulder a playful shove before bouncing back on the balls of my feet. "You're it."
"Alright." He half-assedly jogged up to reach towards me.
Not even trying, I stepped in. Evading his arm to whisper in his ear before I shifted behind him. "You gotta be quicker than that!"
With that, Elijah let out a soft chuckle and spun around on his heels before diving forward. Following his motions, I sprinted forth and slid to pass beneath him with a devious smirk.
Again and again, I dodge his advances at the last possible moment. Causing the lesser vampire to grow increasingly frustrated with each passing moment. Increasing his speed further and further until I was forced to bolster my speed with mana.
Eventually, he was made to use all of his vampiric speed. So I decided to take things seriously as well and infused my body with electricity.
And then his frustrated scowl grew into an excited grin. But still, he was a step too slow. He tried and tried and tried, bouncing off the walls and ceilings in an attempt to intercept me in the air.
With his frustration and my boredom at an all-time high, I decided to up the ante and ceased the flow of EM mana in favor of forming the Chrono Dial around my wrist.
Seeing his opening, Elijah launched himself off the wall with tremendous force. Cracking the stone baseboards and sending his body rocketing in my direction.
Without moving, I tuned the Dial down to its lowest setting and watched Elijah's palm slow to a near-halt before my nose. Then calmly pulled myself away with an Artificial Well to take a look around the frozen world.
Elijah's fierceness aside, Opal and Zakira were by the sidelines. The former's face was frozen in a proud smirk. Her eyes focused midway between where Elijah had crushed the wall and his current position. The latter; on the other hand, was standing much like a cheerleader missing pompoms. Feet and knees together, hands clasped before her chest with an awed expression locked on her face.
Beyond that, I saw only three individuals watching from the stands. The two lizardfolk were sitting in the first row closest to the door. Far enough away to where they'd hardly been seen as they watched any potential newcomer with close eyes.
For now, though, they were watching me with gazes that were hard to read. As expected from faces covered with scales and frills like something out of a Cretaceous movie. Unlike the half-orc male, sitting wide-eyed and alone as far as he could from the entrance like an outcast.
With that data point set aside in the bank, I had the Artificial Well pull me to the ground and did some calculations while I walked to stand between Zakira and Opal.
When used in this way, the Chrono Dial was undoubtedly my most taxing spell. It was effectively the same as traveling at lightspeed without having a change in velocity. From my perspective, time was brought to a standstill. While any outside observer would see me disappear and reappear in another place in the same instance.
With this method, I assume the spell would hold for an hour at most. A ridiculous length of time to venture through a frozen world to be sure. But that timespan was extended by the other application of the spell, as was the case with Hill Base's schools and production lines during our stay there.
"Fascinating." I grinned. Half at the implications of the other side of the coin, and half from the sound of my voice echoing through this timeless domain.
However, those implications were set aside for later. Instead, I canceled the spell and watched Elijah plummet into the far wall like an artillery shell led astray. Sending a line of cracked craters along the wall and ground from him skipping to a grinding halt.
"Alright! That's enough for now." I clapped. Causing the girls beside me to leap away shouting. "I'm hungry."
And then came the obligatory well-natured chides and overbearing compliments.
They lasted for a full five minutes and came to an abrupt halt from Opal stepping between me and Zakira with pleading eyes. "Zed? You mind if I talk to Amun for a bit?" She didn't even try to hide it -the melancholia quivering her voice. Instead, she rode it like a wave. Even as she turned to Elijah and ordered him to accompany her to breakfast ahead of us.
And after watching them go with almost longing eyes, she turned back to me. "Amun. It's not my place to explain Zakira's past. But…" She stepped forward with a deep breath. "All I'll say is that she's like a sister to me. She's been through a lot. I left home to help her, but I'm not what she needs. You are. You're a perfect match for her.
"Not in a romantic sense." She stepped forward again. "You're what she needs to be able to grow into who she wants to be. And that's all I want for her. She's happy around you. So don't treat her any differently than you are now. Can you promise me that? And." She stepped closer. "Can you tell me what your intentions are with my dear sister?"
"My intentions, huh?" I sighed. "Well, I'm a young devil and Zakira is a young vampire that I genuinely like as a person. She's my closest friend, and eventually, I'd like to see her become my wife and the mother of my child. But that's in the far future." I turned to look Opal deep in the eyes. "That's after my dreams have been realized. When that day comes, I'll settle down with Zakira and live in peace.
"So, yeah. I'll keep your promise."