Zen's eyes slowly opened as he woke up, feeling stronger than before as Freya and the system both greeted him.
"Morning sleepy head"
[Good morning host]
[Strength: 12](+1.0)
[Agility: 14](+0.5)
[Endurance: 13](+0.6)
[Intelligence: 14](+1.0)
Zen checked the watch and realized it was a few minutes before five o'clock. He had had the same dreams as the previous day and wanted to make sure he didn't wake up late again. It seemed like he really was just tired the previous night. However he still felt like there was something weird about those dreams.
Zen returned Freya's greeting before focusing on the system screen.
Fortunately, Zen had made sure to complete his daily quest last night, and just like he suspected, the debuff on him was gone and he now he had five exp and one stat point .
Zen didn't think much and added it to strength.
Zen closed his eyes as he felt a strange warmth coursing through his body. Unlike the daily stat increase, this time he could actually feel as new power entered his body.
Sensing that the coast was clear, Black shifted back to his regular state before jumping on Zen's bed.
Zen nodded, but suddenly realized that Black didn't have eyes and probably had another way of sensing his surroundings,so just in case he couldn't see him, Zen whispered
"Yes"
Zen got up from the bed and stretched his hand to Black
"Come on, let's go"
Black was confused but obliged and slimed his way up Zen's arm onto his shoulder.
Zen quietly left the room and started running towards the Gym in the dorms.
After a few minutes of jogging, they arrived at the Gym. Zen was hoping to complete most of his daily quests as soon as possible. Usually he wouldn't have been in such a rush, but the last couple of days had taught him that this academy wasn't as predictable as he had thought, so it was best to get the little things out of the way first.
Zen checked all the rooms first this time, just in case someone was in here. Luckily he was really alone this time, so he locked the doors and started his workout.
************
[98/100]
[99/100]
[100/100]
Zen dropped the dagger and sat down to rest for a few minutes.
Zen sat there for about a minute before getting up. He had been counting and felt like he had spent about an hour and forty minutes there but he still decided to check
<6:45>
Zen had gotten here at five o'clock soe he had been off the mark by about five minutes.
Zen quickly decided to leave. It was almost seven, and Zen wasn't particularly interested in being late again, especially since he had a quest to complete.
He had already showered and gotten into his uniform so he simply headed to the school cafeteria for breakfast.
On his way there, Zen noticed that he was getting lots of stares from all around, and it wasn't due to his appearance.
Well... actually, looking closer, Zen could notice that some of those stares were due to his appearance
Those fifty points in charm weren't just for show.
Looking at the numerous fawning and jealous stares Zen felt the urge to sigh. He didn't care about other peoples opinions of him, but he generally didn't like attention.
Zen suddenly thought that if he reached level 10 maybe he'd be able to reduce or even transfer those points in charm. It wasn't that he hated his appearance, he felt the same way towards it as he did his right eye. It was definitely a good thing, but the problem was that it attracted too much attention, something he didn't like.
Even the system had classified him as an assassin. He had done his own research, and even gone through an assassin phase as a kid, so he was completely sure that attracting attention was generally the opposite of what an assassin was supposed to do.
That was besides the point. Despite the large number of fawning looks, Zen was sure that a good number of them were filled with contempt , and he already knew what the reason was; His fight with Zaria.
Simply the fact that a low level student without an ability was challenging not just any high level student but a member of a pioneer family was something that was seen as ridiculous and foolish by the students, and honestly, Zen agreed with them.
Zen quickly arrived at the cafeteria and quickly went to pick a table to have lunch. He expected the other low levels to join him since he was alone today but no such thing happened and feeling the presence that walked in front of him Zen quickly found out why.
"Hello" Zen greeted the person without bothering to look up.
He didn't need to look up to know who it was, he could already recognize them by their smell. Zen wasn't some kind of hound with an exceptionally good sense of smell, he couldn't recognize people by their scent, but for some reason this person was different.
"Are you feeling okay?" They asked.
"You care?"
Zaria scoffed before replying
"I just need to make sure my win won't be too easy, and when I do win, you can't use last night as an excuse "
Zen didn't reply and kept eating.
Zaria seemed to have nothing else to say to him and left.
On her way back to her seat, she suddenly noticed Jade who had grabbed her lunch and was about to leave.
Zaria quickly hurried to her and was trying to call her back but was ignored.
Zaria knew she was being ignored by Jade because she didn't want to put both of them in trouble with the school's hierarchy but she just couldn't accept it .
"Stop right there!" She yelled in a rather harsh tone, attracting the attention of everyone in the cafeteria.
"Hmm?" Zen finally looked up seeing that something interesting was happening .
Zaria took a somewhat demanding tone as she yelled at Jade, making sure everyone could hear her.
"Don't you turn your back on me. I command you to return!"
Jade looked confused
"Zari, what are you..."
"Shut up and obey me you low level trash! From now on you do only whatever i say. You're MY slave"
At Zen's table he was still eating while watching with a blank look like it all was some sort of sitcom when he heard Maximilian's voice behind him.
"Well I didn't see that coming"
"I did" Zen replied.
Jade's eyes widened as she suddenly realized what was happening. Was her friend really going to do this to her? Was she about to be made a slave by.... Wait a minute.... did she just wink?!
Xavier was clueless as usual and was about to get involved when Zen of all people stopped him.
"What?" Xavier asked
Zen still looked like none of this concerned him as he took another bite.
"She's bullshiting" he said.
Except for Jade, the only other two people who noticed Zaria winking were Zen and Maximilian, and when Maximilian saw it he almost burst out laughing hysterically as he realized what Zaria was doing but managed to restrain himself just in time.
The look of hurt and disappointment on Jade's face froze. She had no idea what was going on and just watched with her mouth gaping as Zaria continued.
Zaria suddenly grabbed Jade's hand and started pulling her along with her
"As my slave, you have to do whatever I say. Now come with me and don't resist or there will be consequences.....or whatever "
Zaria whispered the last part, letting the mask slip for a second.
Jade just allowed Zaria to pull her with her as she was too confused to make heads or tails of the situation. She looked forward at the back of the head of her "cruel captor " and noticed that her ears had turned red from embarrassment.
"Looks like that sweet little girl has found someone to protect her. I'm glad, aren't you?"
Zen thought for a bit and nodded, and with his usual expression
"She still has all my stuff"
Although Zen said this, it wasn't the reason he had nodded. If being happy was something he actually....did, he'd be very happy for her.
"Okay, can someone explain to me what the fuck is going on?" Xavier asked impatiently, and although he didn't say it,Neo actually wanted to know as well.
Zen focused back on his food and said nothing. Maximilian who already expected this,answered
"Let's have breakfast first, I'll explain later "
While they were having breakfast, Maximilian explained that Zaria had done something similar to what was going on with them, except more permanent. The main reason why other students avoided their table was because they were afraid of Maximilian and Xavier due to their relatively higher levels, due to what Zaria did, students would view Jade as her "property" and would be too afraid to touch her due to their fear of incurring Zaria's wrath.
Neo looked enlightened while Xavier just sat there with a blank look on his face.
Zen had finally stopped eating as he completed another daily quest. He took a bottle of water and drank it all in one go.
He had already done the math. One bottle of water was about half a liter, and four liters equaled a gallon, meaning he'd have to drink around eight bottles of water.
He considered continuing until he finished the last one but he eventually decided not to. The only requirement for these quests was that they had to be completed before the next day and Zen felt like he had time.
He briefly considered doing it just for the stat point so he could increase his strength before the fight with Zaria, but he honestly felt that either way his chances of winning were lower than ten percent, so he didn't bother.
After listening, Xavier suddenly said
"Maybe we should do that with Zen end Neo"
"Not necessary"
"It would be pointless "
Zen and Neo replied respectively without bothering to explain.
Before any more could be said, the bell was rang for classes to start.
Zen and his roommates quickly got to their classes.
Zen took a seat at the back and the others were going to join him when Neo stopped them
"Maybe..... you guys should sit somewhere else"
"What? Why?!" Xavier asked
Neo didn't have to explain as Maximilian took Xavier and began leading him somewhere else.
"We understand. See you when class is over"
Xavier suddenly took back his arm.
"There's no reason for us to go"
"Xavier, you don't understand"
"What? That we have to split up because of some high level assholes? Fuck that!" Said Xavier angrily as he took a seat next to Zen who hadn't reacted at all and was just blankly staring forward.
Neo and Maximilian could only sigh. There was no longer any point if Xavier refused to leave.
A few minutes later,class started, and just like yesterday they were attracting all sorts of strange glances and murmurs from the students because they were sitting together.
Xavier and Zen didn't seem to care as they ignored all the murmurs,Neo looked extremely nervous, and it was honestly worse for Maximilian who could hear every single one of them in the class clearly.
A few minutes into the class, they were suddenly joined by another student, someone who everyone in the class knew.
"Hmmm? Looks like the system really doesn't lie"
As soon as Zen saw who it was, he quickly activated his soul link skill.
A minute later, Zen felt the familiar yet strange feeling of being tied to someone else on a mental level.
Zen immediately began to direct thoughts into the person's mind as soon as he noticed that they had spotted him.
«There he is. There's the son of a bitch who put me in this condition. It's all his fault . I'm going to kill him the minute I get the chance »
Clyde's expression suddenly turned hostile as he looked at Zen, not knowing that those weren't even his thoughts.
Zen directly met Clyde's angry stare with his indifferent one as he looked at the system prompt he had gotten this morning.
[Quest updated: Eliminate the threat]
Your assassination target believes he has reached the limit in terms of humiliation and suffering both physically and mentally. Prove him wrong then complete the assassination
[Time limit: 12 days]
[Quest reward: Depends on performance]
When he had gotten this prompt this morning, Zen had already suspected that something had changed about Clyde's situation, and it seemed he was right.
Zen knew that in order to complete this quest and keep it secret would require sufficient planning. The system wasn't exaggerating when it called it an assassination. Zen was trying to kill someone in a military base! The kill itself might be easy but the process not so much.
Luckily Zen had already devised a plausible plan, and it would require him to rely heavily on his soul link skill.
A skill which allowed him to input thoughts into people's minds, the ultimate tool of manipulation, with it,he was the puppeteer, the gamemaster, right now HE was the one with all the strings,on a bunch of puppets who didn't even know they had any.