When Dante and Zac walked back to their apartment after having completed their contract, the redhead kept looking at his body as if he was expecting something to happen.
"Strange. I don't feel any different…" the redhead muttered.
"That's a good sign. I once absorbed the soul of a demon that paralyzed me for a week—it was quite painful, too," said Dante with a casual tone.
"So, you are just telling me about this risk now!?" Zac nervously asked.
"Don't worry. I only applied a little power to it to make sure it was safe…" the warlock replied.
As he elaborated, he went into detail about the process of making the orb and how he used a small piece of a demon's soul in the mix, which would improve Zac's physical abilities.
However, hearing that he had eaten a piece of a demon's soul left the redhead in shock, wondering if it was truly safe for him.
"I processed the soul with my magic. There is almost no malice in it, so you won't have the nightmare side effects…" Dante continued, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk momentarily.
"By the way, do you see anything different?" the warlock asked his friend.
"Hmm, everything does look a little blurry—Wait, don't tell me I'll have a side effect that makes me blind!" Zac exclaimed, nervously taking off his glasses.
"Huh? Everything looks clear…" the redhead muttered, realizing that his vision had improved.
Dante nodded in approval, saying that his vision also counted as physical abilities, so Zac wouldn't need to wear glasses anymore.
____________________
The following morning, the pair woke up in their living room a few minutes before Sophia arrived with breakfast for them.
As the redhead helped Sophie set up the table, she inquired why he wasn't wearing his glasses, and Zac wasn't sure how to respond.
"We made a contract yesterday. His vision will probably be slightly better than the average person's…" Dante interjected, answering the question for him.
"Umm, what?" Sophia asked, wholly confused.
The warlock explained to her everything they were doing the previous night, and she looked somewhat concerned, but Dante kept reassuring her that it was safe.
Even when the blonde wasn't aware of all the different risks that came from absorbing a demon's soul or ingesting their blood, she knew that it wasn't something that ordinary people could do.
Zac chimed in to say that he felt perfectly fine, alleviating Sophia's worries before they made their way to the campus.
After Dante waited in the courtyard with his BeamDeck for his friends to finish their lessons, he met up with Victoria and Sophia to go to the cafeteria.
"Have you guys noticed that Turner hasn't shown up on campus for days? It feels so peaceful…" Victoria commented, sounding relieved.
"Why did he keep bothering you?" Dante asked, saying that he knew that Turner liked to go after pretty girls, but he seemed especially attached to Victoria.
"We went on a date in high school. Once…" she replied.
"Honestly, I only said yes because I was scared of him back then," Victoria continued.
She told the warlock that, during her time in high school, the bully was even more aggressive toward people and would lash out whenever things didn't go his way.
Any time that another man approached Victoria, Turner would end up beating them up, and it happened so many times that Victoria ended up isolated from the rest of her classmates out of fear.
"He got a bit more tame when we started attending college, but he kept threatening people around me…" Victoria explained.
'Yeah, I remember that…' The warlock thought.
At that moment, they were interrupted by Zac, who arrived full of vigor and instantly noticed Victoria's apprehensive demeanor.
"What happened?" The redhead asked, seemingly worried for the girl.
When Victoria turned to see Zac, she chuckled, saying that everything was fine and extruding a vast amount of positive energy.
'Hmmm, it seems she likes Zac even more now…' The warlock thought.
"Did you change your glasses to contacts?" Victoria innocently asked the redhead.
"Uhh, yeah!" he replied, hiding the truth from her since she wasn't aware of Dante's true identity.
"Looks good…" Victoria muttered, turning her gaze away while blushing.
"Th-thanks!" said the redhead, his face showing the same color as his hair.
After an awkward silence ensued, Victoria broke the ice by talking about her job and how they were having another event on the weekend, inviting them to attend.
The warlock seemed interested since the only time he went to a nightclub in the modern world was to kill a shadow demon, and he wanted to know what the authentic experience of a nightclub was like.
Camille hadn't planned anything for Dante on Saturday, so he saw no problem in accepting her invitation, to which Zac and Sophia joined.
Later that day, after Dante and Zac returned to their apartment, Megan knocked on their door, wearing her cropped tank top and leggings, asking Dante if he wanted to go to the gym.
"Yes. I was actually going to ask you," Dante replied, turning his gaze at the redhead.
"You are coming too, Zac," the warlock continued, but Megan's beauty had briefly hypnotized the redhead.
"Oh, you are talking to me?" he asked, slightly shaking his head.
"Yup. Come on, we've gotta test your skills," Dante replied, beckoning him with his hand.
Megan, who wasn't aware of the contract between the two friends, inquired about Dante's insistence for Zac to accompany them, so the warlock explained everything to her.
However, the brunette didn't seem shocked or worried about the redhead—she was more interested in what he could do now.
"It should only increase his physical abilities. It was my first time doing it, but I think I did a pretty good job," Dante explained.
"Oh, I thought you would make him capable of casting spells…" Megan said, somewhat indifferent.
"Well, not exactly. Zac has no umbra control, so if I gave him an ability that needed it to activate, it would be pretty useless…"