The sun was shining through the horizon as the morning breeze invigorated the people of Nagazora city.
Some people went to their jobs, some went to school, and some others chose to sleep in and be lazy.
Amongst the last category, Adam was included.
He opened his eyes as he went through the knowledge that was in his head. It felt like this knowledge was with him since birth
He also had all the data [Great Sage] got on the ability of the Herrscher of Corruption, so now he didn't have to train manually and get proficient in that ability.
Adam got out of bed and stretched as he yawned. This was the most relaxing sleep he had in his second life.
Well, maybe his days at the orphanage were comparable. Because the orphanage he spent his early years wasn't in Nagazora, so he didn't have to worry about a honkai eruption
He later left that place as he could live by his lonesome because he wasn't a normal child. After his leave, he moved to Nagazora city so he could insert himself into the plot.
... Even if he had a high probability of dying, he didn't care. After all, if he couldn't get close to the protagonists and change some things, then what was the point of his reincarnation?
He did meet one of the protagonists in the orphanage he was staying in, and he obviously befriended her.
And despite that, he still chose to leave as he didn't want to get under the radar of the big leagues without any power to protect himself.
[Monika has sent you a gift.]
He stopped reminiscing as he heard the Chat Room notification.
He raised an eyebrow at the notification, but he was indeed curious at what someone like Monika could give him.
[Monika: You allowed us to change our Nicknames, so this is my reward for you~]
After seeing her message, he decided to stop thinking too much about it. So he accepted the gift.
A blinding light overwhelmed him as he instinctively reached out to catch something.
When the light subsided, a small crystal was in his hand.
Adam's eyes widened and his mouth went agape as he looked at the name of the crystal.
[Crystallized Alpha Stigma(Modified)]
....
[Asterios: Monika, you...?!]
[Monika: Shush~ I still have my Tear Stigma. I tried replicating it but all I got was this downgraded version.]
[Asterios: I see... Thank you, Monika. I truly appreciate it.]
[Monika: Hehe~ don't worry about it Adam~ You need it more than me.]
Adam looked at the crystal in his hands in a daze.
Even though it wasn't the Tear Stigma that could analyze everything and delete someone's existence, the Alpha Stigma was still overpowered as it could analyze all magic.
'I owe Monika a lot for this, I have to thank her in a more meaningful way.' he thought as he was truly grateful for her gift.
A cyclone of purplish abyss color emerged from his hand as it sucked the crystal into it.
Adam's eyes shifted to golden, only this time, a violet five pointed star revolved around an emerald symbol that was previously his pupil.
'Now I have to test whether this thing works on Herrscher powers.' he mused in his thoughts as he went to testing straight away.
...
..
.
Adam has one thing to say...
The Alpha Stigma is overpowered.
It can analyze a Herrscher's power. While this doesn't mean anything in itself as even if he had knowledge about how every Herrscher's power worked, he still wouldn't be able to use them.
But if he had Welt's Herrscher core of reason...
He shook his head to clear away these thoughts, he should focus on what was currently available in front of him.
'Great Sage, proceed as instructed.' Adam gave permission to his skill.
[Affirmative!]
[Great Sage] would do the same as he instructed yesterday. The only difference is now she would mostly focus on using his own Alpha Stigma to analyze the power of Corruption and improve it as much as possible.
Why did Adam do this? Well, it was better to improve his own ability first as that would allow him to easily access the database of Schicksal, Anti- Entropy and World Serpent and allow him to acquire the knowledge of these organizations.
He didn't need to go to school this week, so he could put his whole focus on improving his current powers and expanding his knowledge.
"Adam-senpai!"
... Or he could if a certain white haired tuna didn't disturb him.
Kiana appeared in front of him as she looked up at him with expectation shining in her ocean blue eyes.
'I should have expected this...' Adam inwardly sighed as he chastised himself for giving Kiana access to his living quarters.
He gave it to her because they often ate together, so it was a lot more convenient if she could come into his house whenever she was hungry.
"Can you please cook for me?" Kiana said in a coquettish voice as she used her puppy dog eyes to convince Adam with her cuteness.
He flinched when he looked at her eyes and heard her tone of voice.
"No, the ingredients have run out." He said.
It was no surprise really, with how much Kiana eats, add to that his own eating habits that have increased because he missed the taste of normal food as opposed to the monsters he ate with [Gluttony] in the Tensura world.
When she heard his answer, Kiana deflated as her mood was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere.
"Don't worry, I will go buy ingredients. For now, we should go out to eat at a restaurant" He said, seeing her depressed mood.
Kiana visibly perked up at his statement
"Thank you, Adam-senpai!" She said as a joyous smile spread across her face.
"..."
… Sure enough, Kiana was too dangerous.
Or maybe it was him who couldn't resist cute girls...
...
..
.
They were now in a restaurant Adam often frequented when he was too lazy to cook. The restaurant wasn't expensive, but it had good food and the service was adequate.
"Hey Adam-senpai?"
Adam continued eating his food, "Yes Kiana?" he replied between bites.
"Why did your appearance change?" She asked suddenly.
He stopped eating his food as he shifted his focus to her.
"This is my original hair color. I ran out of dye because I often color my hair golden as it's more normal." He replied with a serious expression on his face.
"Oh" Her mouth took the shape of an O, "So that's what you were doing all day yesterday!" She continued with an enlightened expression.
"Indeed" Adam replied shamelessly without any change in his face.
"I see! I see!" Kiana said as she nodded and went back to her food.
"..."
'What a stupid tuna.... Or maybe it's my [Chosen one] skill?' He wondered inwardly. He did remember that the guy that had the skill was made into an accidental hero.
Kiana suddenly stood up from her seat "I have to go to the bathroom!" She said as she bolted, not giving him any time to reply.
"Huh...?" That's all he could get out, confused by her sudden change.
"Oh well…" He said as he closed his eyes and focused his mental faculties on absorbing the knowledge from the internet.
"Hey kid"
Or not...
Adam cracked his eyes open as he saw a middle aged white haired blue eyed man in the seat that Kiana was occupying previously.
"Who are you?" He asked with vigilance.
... Of course he knew exactly who this guy was, he was just pretending as he sensed his presence a long time ago.
In fact, with his [Magic(honkai) sense], he could see that this guy followed him and Kiana ever since they left the dorm together.
"It doesn't matter who I am, what matters is what I'm here for." He said in a gruff voice as he leaned forward and grabbed something from his cloak.
Adam could see that one of his arms was weird, he guesses that this arm was currently a prosthetic as it was the one that Sirin chopped off.
"If you hurt Kiana..." The edge in his voice was obvious, and he could feel a cold aura pressing down on him as a high blazing honkai reaction was radiating of whatever he was hiding in his coat.
Adam narrowed his eyes "... So, you are that scumbag that abandoned her." He stated in an accusing voice.
The man flinched at his accusation, "Ahem, it's not that simple, kid." He defended with a complicated face.
"So you ran away and now want to leave the responsibility to someone half your age?"
"Listen kid, I've been protecting her from the shadows." The 2nd strongest Kaslana tried justifying himself, but there was obvious guilt in his eyes.
"..." Adam's lips twitched as his eyes were conveying the obvious message of 'I don't believe your bullshit.'
"We don't have much time kid-"
"Asterios." He rudely interrupted the warrior.
"What?" The single parent got confused.
"Haah…" Adam sighed as he put his hand forward for a hand shake. "Calling me kid is annoying, so you should refer to me as Asterios from now on." He continued.
"Sure..." The guy who battled a Herscher with 2 cores and 4 gems yet lived to tell the tale did as asked and shook hands with Adam with the hand that wasn't a prosthetic
"You should go, old man. Kiana is coming soon." He informed the middle aged guy who could be his uncle.
"... Very well. Just remember that if you do anything to Kiana..." He trailed off with a threat in his voice as he squeezed his hand with more force, but he otherwise didn't comment further on how Adam called him.
"Yeah yeah, stop being an overprotective dad and go." Adam said with an exasperated voice as he waved the creepy uncle off.
(E/D: All he needs now a white van selling sweets.)
"..." The middle aged man didn't verbally respond to him, he just let his hand go, stood up and left.
Adam watched Siegfred disappear from his view as he contemplated on the conversation they had previously.
'He wasn't wary of me taking advantage of his daughter...' He supposed that was because of a combination of [Chosen one] and his bishounen appearance.
After all, no one expects a Bishounen to harass someone else sexually.
"Adam-senpai! I'm done!" An excited voice echoed through the whole restaurant as Kiana finished her business and went towards him.
... All the people in the restaurant that were previously eating peacefully and minding their own business were now staring at the one who shouted.
Adam face palmed himself, "Damn it, Kiana..." He muttered in a tired voice.