Aurora looked around the class with a deadpan expression.
She opened the holographic interface on her watch and did something the students couldn't see.
Suddenly,in front of the students,small particles of light began to coalesce, creating a bright light.
Once the light was gone, the students could see a short haired girl with a bright smile at the front of the class. She was dressed sharply,and in the same academy uniforms the students had on.
Aurora thrust her arm through the girl's body, revealing she was nothing but a hologram.
"This is the class artificial intelligence. Her name is Gemma. Gemma, introduce yourself".
The girl who Aurora had revealed to be an AI waved at the students and introduced herself.
Throughout the years, highly advanced AI with almost complete semblance to humans had been developed to be used for different reasons in various aspects of life.
What could they do? Anything!
The whole purpose of an AI in a school was basically to be the teacher's assistant as well as partially taking on the role of the class monitor. It was a way to reduce the workload of a teacher, because If a student needed some advice or help with something at an inappropriate time for the teacher or when the teacher wasn't around, the AI could help. It also served as the teacher's personal secretary, helping to keep everything organized, and keeping tabs on the students 24/7.
That wasn't all the uses of an AI though. Developed by the government or private organizations, AI is something that most people purchase to make their lives easier ,as these things had literally no downsides and could be used for anything .The only problem was in their cost.
After introducing Gemma, Aurora told her she could leave and the next second, she burst into multiple fragments and particles of light.
"Alright, let's begin" Aurora said as they began the class.
Five minutes into it, Zen was already bored. He suddenly realized that the teacher had nothing to teach as Freya had already taught him all he'd need to know till graduation at the age of twelve.
Some might say it was unwise for Freya to have hammered so much knowledge into him as a child, but luckily it worked and didn't give him brain damage.
Zen completely tuned out Aurora's voice and opened the system screen, remembering he had some things to check out.
He went to the messages tab and read it.
Greetings system host. Usually you wouldn't send you a notification for something so insignificant, but this is to warn you about the soul contract skill.
Zen looked intrigued as he got more focused in what he was reading.
Let me tell you that soul contract literally means contracts between and using souls, yours included. Have you ever heard the expression "dealing with the devil" or "sell/lose my soul" all this is quite literal in your case. You have a soul, and if you're not careful with this skill, you can lose it in a bad deal. You'll get the skill description once to help you at some point, but until then, don't lose your soul.
That was where it ended.
"Interesting"
Appearantly,a soul contract could be anything,as long as it was a deal between two souls.
The message also said that it was a contract using souls. Did that mean he could sell Freya in a contract?
Zen didn't realize that Freya had heard him thinking, and next second, she made him pay by screaming and ranting in his mind, giving him a major headache.
Zen quickly appeased her by apologizing, and saying that it was just a thought..
Next, Zen wanted to look at the perks he had. Currently he had two: Freya's library, and Bestiary.
Selecting Freya's library, Zen saw a virtual library with multiple books for different purposes. Zen had already expected this and scrolled through the library, realizing that there were only a little over a hundred books, pitiful compared to Freya's actual library.
Zen selected a book at random and realized it was one of Freya's fantasy books.
He read the first chapter, before leaving the library.
"Alright, let's try the bestiary"
A screen appeared, giving him an option of A to Z
Selecting A, Zen was brought to a page filled with names starting with A, and arranged alphabetically.
[Aardonyx]
Type: Terrestrial beast, Reptilian
Lifeform level: High
Species potential: High
Bloodline: Ancient beast bloodline
Attributes: Earth, nature
Strengths: Tail,jaws, claws
Weakness: soft underbelly
Difficulty: Fatal
Exp worth: 100,000
Underneath all that was a detailed description of the beast .
Zen didn't take the time to properly read it, but he definitely knew how useful this was. Unlike the library, this could actually help him in battle.
Zen suddenly got the idea to look for Black in the bestiary, but realized he didn't know the name of Black's species.
Deep in thought, he looked at the watch, considering just guessing, but a few seconds later, the screen in front of him suddenly changed.
[Synth-morph]
Type: Parasitic/Symbiotic
Lifeform level: Ultimate
Species potential: Ultimate
Bloodline: none
Attributes: none
Strengths: ???
Weakness: Heat
Difficulty: unknown
Exp worth: none
These creatures, despite their usually harmless and slimy appearance,are one of the most dangerous races in the galaxy. A sentient pile of cells with the ability to shift,morph and mutate as they please to mimic any material. They possess the ability to devour any and all things, regardless of its nature, and to add its strength to their own. They're main forms of confrontation are directly consuming their prey, and directly parasitizing a creature and controlling it as its puppet by accessing its brain and nervous system. They are the ultimate predators, preying on any and all creatures, with even dragons not daring to designate this entity as prey.
Freya chuckled as she read the description
"Am i the only one who thinks this is all very familiar?"
Zen didn't reply. His eyes were glued to one sentence of the description as he remembered how the system told him that Black had accessed his brain while looking through his memories.
It was really that simple.
He looked around at everyone in the class and realized that if for some reason, the Synth-morph on their wrists were to awaken ,all it would take to parasitize them was physical contact. It didn't even need to be the brain,as long as they were making contact with nerves, it was over.
He suddenly felt a tug at his soul.
It was Black .
Zen brought his arm under the desk as he felt Black wanted to communicate.
Zen light whispered
"Not worry. Caution"
"I'll explain later"
Zen was about to look away from Black when he suddenly started writing on his hand.
"We are one!"
Zen
Zen suddenly realized that he had actually heard that last part and not just read it. He suddenly noticed that Black's body had completely seeped into his skin, disappearing from his palm and into his body.
"Black, return" Zen said telepathically with concentrated bloodlust .
Black's body slowly wriggled out.
"Why did you do that?"
Black hesitated for a few seconds before writing
Zen suddenly remembered that Black had no memories and didn't know what it was, it probably didn't even notice what it was doing.
Zen replied that he simply didn't understand it. After that, Black gently slithered back around his wrist and turned into his watch.
Zen looked at the screen and noticed there were still a few lines he hadn't read.
Just like other sentient intelligent creatures,symbiotes are very different in their nature. Although some may adopt a parasitic approach to finding a host body, some others may prefer a more symbiotic relationship.
Zen felt like he understood what it meant. The main difference between a parasite and a symbiote was that the former exploited its host, while the latter was more of a partner. The basis of parasitism was exploition and for symbiosis ,it was equal benefits.
This made Zen wonder. Exactly which one was Black.
Once done with all this, Zen decided to take a nap. He had felt strangely tired since he woke up, and a part of him also wanted to see if he'd have those strange dreams.
*************
The class was over and students were walking out while casting strange glances towards the back of the class.
"Looks like our dorm has a little genius" Xavier said as he wrapped his arm around Zen's shoulder.
"That's enough Xavier" Maximilian said looking tired. He had finally realized how exhausting Xavier could be.
"What do you mean? Did you see the look on the teacher's face? It was frickin' hilarious"
When Aurora had noticed Zen not paying attention, she had, like any other good teacher, called him up to repeat what she had said, not knowing that she was making a mistake.
Zen got up and went ahead to repeat the last ten minutes of the lecture word for word while having a deadpan expression on his face, surprising the teacher and shocking his classmates who were already mocking him.
Neo simply shook his head as he remembered the whole thing and even asked Zen how he did it.
Zen simply shrugged. He really had nothing to tell them.
Reconnaissance, information gathering, advanced spying, scouting and much more. All these had been drilled into him as a child by the organization. By now it was all instinct.
Zen suddenly freed himself from Xavier's grip and started walking towards the door. When they asked him where he was going, Zen turned to them and replied.
"Cafeteria. We missed breakfast, remember?"
It seemed that they had only now remembered that they were hungry as at the mention of the cafeteria,all of their eyes lit up as they followed behind Zen.
A girl suddenly entered the class, and spotting Zen she ran towards him yelling.
"Z! How are you"
Jade came to a halt in front of Zen as she chuckled.
"Sorry I couldn't greet you sooner. Didn't want to upset the teacher"
Her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper
"Oh, and don't worry about this,i haven't taken it off since yesterday." she flashed the ring with the green gemstone.
Zen noticed that she was still wearing the gloves he had given her yesterday.
He was about to ask for the ring when he suddenly noticed Jade shrink back in fear as she looked behind him.
"Hi there. Nice to meet you" Xavier's spoke from behind Zen, however her focus wasn't on his face but on the watch on his and Maximilian's wrists.
"What's your name?" Xavier asked but didn't get a reply from Jade who still looked scared.
He didn't seem to notice and was about to ask again when they suddenly heard a voice behind jade.
"Jade, come on, let's go"
They all looked behind her to see a girl with black and white hair and sliver eyes.
Smiling towards the still petrified Jade, the girl took her by the hand and pulled her towards the door, before sending an unfriendly look towards Zen and his roommates, warning them not to mess with,or bully her timid new roommate.
Once they left, Maximilian suddenly said
"Why do I feel like we're the bad guys?"
Neo quickly replied "well it was Xavier who terrorized that girl and scared her off"
Xavier was flabbergasted
"What did I do? I don't even know why she wouldn't talk to me"
Maximilian and Neo suddenly looked at him seriously and asked if he seriously didn't know why she was scared.
They both simply told him to forget about it when they saw him shake his head, confusion etched on his face.
Maximilian suddenly turned to Zen who seemed to be in thought.
"Don't think I didn't notice"
Zen looked at him, and although his expression didn't change, it was clear he didn't know what he was talking about.
"We all saw you dude" Neo said
"Yeah, you were either napping or staring at that girl in class. It was so weird " Xavier said.
Zen suddenly realized what they were talking about and didn't deny it, simply saying he was interested in her.
"Well good luck man, you're gonna need it " Maximilian said, clearly misunderstanding what Zen meant by 'interested'.
"Why? Who is she?" Zen asked, having forgotten to use read.
"Oh, you didn't know?... Her name is Zaria Draconyx".