Zen stepped into the room and looked around. He noticed two bunk beds at different sides of the room and could guess the number of students this dorm room was for.
"Well would you look at this. Didn't think we'd be meeting again so soon"
Zen looked at where the voice was coming from and saw Maximilian on the bottom bunk on one of the beds.
"Hmmm,who would've guessed that the two of you would be here"
Zen at first didn't understand what Maximilian meant, but he did when he pointed up to the top bunk.
Zen looked up and was surprised to see someone else. It was Neo, the only other person without an ability.
"Looks like you're the third" Maximilian said, pointing to the other bunk bed.
"Let me introduce you guys. Zen, meet Neo. Neo, Zen. From now on,were roomies."
Neo waved nervously at Zen who didn't reply and just stared blankly.
"Don't worry about him, he's like that all the time. He's not mute or anything, and he's definitely not a jerk, he just... doesn't like talking" Maximilian said when he noticed that Neo was getting a bit nervous. He had already noticed that Neo was quite reserved and shy, probably because he had been bullied a lot. It had taken a while for Maximilian to get the poor guy to open up to him even a little bit, and he wasn't about to let Zen ruin it.
The door behind Zen suddenly opened and another student suddenly dashed into the room. He was fairly tall with spiky black hair and dark eyes. He seemed a bit tired as he walked into the room, panting and sweating.
"Fuck! I'm last? Well that's just great. That damn map is impossible to use,i feel like I ran around the whole fucking school"
The new guy sighed exaggeratedly
"Anyway,hi guys, guess I'm your new roommate, nice to meet y'all "
Freya laughed at the guys silly entrance.
He suddenly looked at the bunk beds and noticed that one of them was completely empty. His eyes brightened and he made a dash for the bed. He completely Ignored the stairs and simply jumped the whole way, tilting in mid-air as he landed on his back.
"Yes! Top bunk!"
Zen made his way to the bunk below the new comer and sat down. Unlike the others, he didn't have anything to pack. His ring was still with Jade who had been separated from him earlier, meaning that all he currently had was what he was wearing, and of course, Maximilian's dagger.
"Alright then, since we're all here, how about we introduce ourselves, I'll start. It's nice to meet you guys, my name's Maximilian hunter" Maximilian introduced himself
"H-hello, my name's Neo King " Neo timidly complied
"The name's ..... Xavier Void " he answered, taking a break in between to catch his breath.
Everyone in the room, even Zen and Maximilian, turned to look at him when he mentioned his name.
Did he just say his last name is Void? As in the Void family which is one of the most feared in the world.
Xavier seemed to have realized something and looked at Maximilian
"Wait,did you say your name was hunter?"
Maximilian nodded affirmingly
"Whoa, that's crazy. I mean what are the odds?" Xavier said, smiling. This whole thing seemed very interesting for him
"Well it looks like things are gonna get interesting pretty quickly in this place".
Zen nodded, agreeing with Freya.
"So what's your name bro?" Xavier asked Zen who was in the bunk below him
"Zen" was his brief reply
They all waited a few seconds for him to continue but he never did.
Xavier, unsatisfied, decided to ask
"Is that it?"
Maximilian was about to answer, expecting Zen to stay quiet, but surprisingly,he replied first.
"Yes... and no"
"Hmmm? What does that mean?"
"..."
Xavier wanted to ask again when he remembered something.
"Wait a minute. A guy named King, and another without a last name.... You two are the guys without abilities, aren't you " Xavier declared, looking amused.
Neo sighed,disappointed, and expected the usual treatment and bullying to begin. He knew it was too good to be true. He was already preparing himself to get beat up as he lamented his fate and cursed his luck. It just haaad to be a pioneer class, didn't it. At this rate, he might as well just move out and sleep on floor near the door.
"Ha ha ha! Well this is even weirder. Two duds and two pioneers. Ah well,i guess it works. Nice to meet you guys. You guys are with me now, so if you ever need help, just come to me " Xavier said smiling before adding
"....Just make sure it doesn't have anything to do with actual school work, the pervert over there can help you with that "
Xavier chuckled as he rubbed the hunter family's sore spot.
Maximilian's eye twitched for a second but he kept a calm expression.
"Yeah he's right,i wouldn't place too much confidence in the ability theif "
Xavier immediately stopped his laughing as his face turned sour at being called ability theif. It was well known that every pioneer class had their sore spot, and these two were poking each other's
"Hey, I'm no thief. You can't just go around throwing labels like that"
"Oh so you can call someone else a pervert because of their ability and i can't do the same?"
Xavier was unable to think of a comeback and just resorted to a classic
"Fuck you"
"Fuck you"...
Zen and Neo briefly glanced at each other for a second and looked back at the two who were casually throwing around middle fingers without a hint of offence. It wouldn't be surprising if the image of pioneer class ability users had fallen greatly for them both.
Zen was still looking at the two who were "arguing" when Freya suddenly called his attention to something.
"Aren't you forgetting something,Mr system host?"
Zen thought for a while before he suddenly remembered. Checking the time, he realized that there was still a little time left so he had to move quickly.
He immediately got up and started walking towards the door.
"Hmm? Where're you going, Zen?" This time it was Neo asking.
Zen thought for a few seconds before answering honestly
"Not sure" was all he said before leaving the room.
The three boys looked at the door for a few seconds before the silence was broken by Xavier
"Well i don't know about you guys but I'm gonna go find the cafeteria in this place. Anyone want in?"
Neo had nothing else to do so he agreed. Maximilian on the other hand, said that he still had some stuff to take care of,so he had to stay behind.
Outside the room, Zen was wandering around the hallway while looking through the holographic map.
Freya had been bothering him to complete his daily quests for a while now, and Zen didn't particularly have any reason not to,so he was looking for a sort of gym or training room, but so far,he had nothing.
"I can help" Freya decided to pitch in
"How?"
"Turn on the locator function and tell it where you want to go, its voice activated so just speak into it.
He followed her instructions and the same eagle appeared over his watch, pointing in a direction.
He was about to start moving when she stopped him
"Wait! There's a more fun way, and you can work on your running quest too".
She told him to say into the watch"locator settings" .
Zen did as she asked and a holographic screen appeared in front of him with multiple open. Freya then told him to scroll down until he saw the chase option and select it. She seemed particularly excited as she assured him it would be more fun, and her and her sister even used to use it.
Zen scrolled down a few times before finding the chase option and changing it to that..
The tiny golden eagle on his watch suddenly took flight and started flying away towards the direction it was pointing before.
"Catch it, Zen,catch it!" Freya said
Zen tilted his head curiously before sprinting after the runaway bird
He kept running for a while but could never catch it. The little thing moved almost like it was alive, making difficult twists and turns and even cawing at him a few times to either motivate him or taunt him.
Zen chased the bird feeling a little nostalgic. He felt like he'd done something similar to this before, but not with a bird or as a locator. He already knew he'd never catch it, after all it was a hologram being projected out of his watch which was constantly moving.
A few minutes later the bird suddenly stopped, hovering in front of a door and waited for Zen to reach it.
"Guess this is it" Zen said, looking at the bird which was flying in one spot
"Locator off" he said and the eagle flew back into his watch
Zen looked at the daily quest to see what he had to complete.
100 sit-ups [0/100]
100 pushups [0/100]
Run for 10 kilometers[0.6/10]
Eat 1kg worth of food] [0/1]
Drink a gallon of water [0/1]
[0/1]Practice swing [37/100]
Practice thrust/stab [34/100]
Reward:5 exp, 1 stat point
Zen was a little surprised that just to get to the training area from his dorm was a half a kilometer run,. That wasn't all that surprised him however,. When had he done thirty-seven swings and thirty-four stabs.
Zen thought for a second before remembering his fight with Crowley. The system must have been counting his attacks from then, although Zen felt like there was some wrong, he was very sure he had both thrusted and slashed more than a hundred times .
Zen walked in to see a pure white room with a door at the other end. Zen looked around. The room had no windows or ventilation, but it was cool,a little cold even.
"This'll work" Zen said
Seeing as the swinging quest was closer to completion, he decided to do that.
Zen, wanting to keep things private, locked the door to the outside so no one could disturb him.
He took off his black gloves and hoodie , leaving only a long sleeve black shirt and his pants on. Usually he wouldn't have taken off his gloves, but that was the main reason he had locked the door.
His goal for now was to take out Clyde, and it seemed this system would be able to help him. He internally decided he had to clean up Raven's mess, and clean it fast.
********
"Achoo!"
"Hmm? Are you getting a cold? I told you to wear a sweater or something "
"A cold? Me? No way! You know who is probably just thinking of me "
"Oh yeah, you're setting him up to fight that Clyde idiot"
"Set up? No. A set up implies that i intend for him to get knocked down. I want him to win,to crush that loser under his feet,spill his blood and kill him in the most painful way possible.... and i think he does as well "
Crowley rolled his eyes and grabbed a handful of chips out of the bag in his hand and threw them in his mouth. Although he didn't give a shit whether Clyde lived or died, he couldn't exactly say the same about Zen.
"Whatever. By now Zen's already designated him as his target, he's as good as a dead man. Zen never lets his prey go"
"Yeah" Raven said twiddling her fingers. Her gaze suddenly fell on the pile of stuff she had found before
"Hey you think we should give him back his stuff?"
Crowley threw another handful of chips in his mouth before replying
"Eventually.... hey, can you still not find the star?"
Raven shook her head
"It's not with Zen either,i wonder what happened to it. He won't be too happy once he finds out it's lost"
Crowley waved it off saying
"Zen's never happy, it's kind of his thing. The others, maybe, but not Zen"
************
This place was filled with a strange darkness that covered everything, however two voices could be heard, one male, one female. Both voices seemed to echo with a strangeness and power that couldn't be explained as they somehow resonated with the darkness surrounding them
"Seer!" The male voice spoke
"Why are you here?" The female voice questioned
"You know why i have come!"
The female voice suddenly began to gag and struggle, almost as if in some discomfort
The male voice spoke angrily. His fury seemed to send ripples through the darkness itself as he demanded
"Where is the boy?! Where is my apprentice?! Answer me this instant"
Despite the apparent struggle and the immense anger in the male voice's tone, the other voice didn't waver and kept the same monotone and emotionless tone
"You can not threaten me with my life, you yourself know this. Why else would you have placed him in my care for so long.
The male voice suddenly went quiet
After a few seconds, the female voice spoke with much more ease this time
"The course of his destiny has been shifted by something so great that even i can't see his path clearly"
"What? but you said the same thing when he was just a child and but you could still-"
"-what? Track him? With great difficulty,yes, but something has changed. I can hardly see anything but..."
"But what? Speak!"
"You shouldn't worry about the boy , he himself will come to you "
The male voice after hearing this, suddenly disappeared, seemingly satisfied.
A few minutes later the female who had been speaking, eventually came out of the darkness.
Out of the shadows came a figure completely covered in a black cloak which covered her face. Her long black hair was the only feature on her body that could be seen as even her hands and feet were covered black gloves and boots. She was enshrouded in an air of mystery as the darkness seemed to cling to her body, masking her.
The only other thing that could be seen in this strange dark place was a framed photo. Looking at it, she picked it up
The picture was of a small boy who looked like he was ten years old or younger. He was brightly smiling as he hugged the arm of the cloaked woman with fondness in his eyes. The woman was exactly the same as now with all her bodily features hidden but this time her mouth was visible and on her rosy lips hung a soft gentle smile as she looked at the boy who was hugging her
The cloaked woman looked at the picture for a few seconds before speaking with a hint of melancholy
"Dear boy, how could I have failed you so?"