Classes started as usual, except this time Zen and his roommates were split up. He was still sitting next to Neo, but they didn't exactly talk much, so the class was extra quiet today.
Seeing as he had nothing else to do, Zen opened the the system screen and tapped on the skill points.
As expected, he could use them to level up his skills.
Zen immediately added a skill point to his soul link and he instantly got a notification.
[Skill (Soul link) has reached level 2]
The description changed. Zen read it and realized that the previous time of one minute was now 45 seconds, of course he could cut that in half by looking into his target's eyes.
Without hesitation, Zen added another skill point to soul link.
[Soul link lv2] (50/100%)
Zen looked at the completion bar and realized that it took more skill points to level up a skill the higher its level is.
Zen added another and the skill became level three.
The loading time had reduced to thirty seconds but nothing else had changed.
Zen added another
[Soul link lv3] (25/100)
Zen decided that instead of wasting his last point,it would be better to see if he could level up another skill.
[Skill(Read) has reached level 2]
And just like that all his skill points were gone.
Zen once again focused on his assassination target and activated his new skill.
For the rest of the class, Zen just did what he usually did, which was sleeping, exploring the system, talking to Freya and just ignoring the class in general. The only new things he had to do were to talk to,plan with, and share information with Black, and slowly manipulating the entire class against Clyde,as well as increasing his hostility towards himself.
Of course, Zen got called up for this behavior multiple times by Aurora and Gemma but each time he answered Aurora's questions perfectly, thoroughly impressing her.
Zen himself didn't really know what was wrong with him he had just been feeling extra sleepy lately.
At the end of the class, the four split up to go to different classes. This wasn't because of Keith's threat, they had actually decided on this earlier.
Zen had decided to take the beast weapons class for a spin, and if he didn't see any merit in it,he would leave immediately.
On his path their, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Clyde getting mocked by some students for..... obvious reasons.
Zen quickly decided on what to do and immediately activated his soul link, looking directly into his eyes for a few seconds before leaving without saying a word.
Clyde looked to be in thought for a few seconds before immediately following behind Zen.
"Everything is going perfectly according to plan" Black remarked to which Zen grunted.
"Can't we just start the next phase now?" Black asked
"No. He has to be completely absorbed. He may be relatively weak, but he's still an ability user"
Black didn't reply but Zen could tell,it was in agreement.
Ever since Zen had woken up, he felt like a strange tacit understanding between him and Black. The two no longer needed to speak before an agreement could be made. Perhaps this was a result of their neural link,or perhaps the fact that every single bit of information, knowledge, and wisdom possessed by the two of them was slowly but surely melding, mixing,and being exchanged,perhaps it was even both. All Zen actually knew was that it felt like Black had been with him for years,so much so that he even forgot about its presence once every few minutes.
Zen got to the Beast/Aether gear class and could immediately feel an interesting presence.
Zen looked at the malnourished looking instructor and felt the urge to back away from him.
"He would have been perfect" Zen thought absentmindedly as he looked at the instructor.
He was clad mostly in black,had dark messy hair that masked the upper half of his face while leaving room for his eyes,bags under his eyes and a maniacal, but also a bit dead look in his eyes.
He looked so weird and out of place that if his clothes were just a bit more ragged, he would be mistaken for a homeless pauper.
Zen could already hear the murmurs of the students who were seeing him for the first time.
"Is that the instructor?"
"He looks like a homeless person"
"There's no way the academy brought someone like this to teach us, right?"
"Ha! He looks like even the low level trash can beat his sorry ass"
The instructor either couldn't hear them,or couldn't bring himself to care as he moved to the center of the room and spoke with such exhaustion in his tone that you'd believe he was being forced to be here.
"Alright, let's get this over with. For those of you would who don't know, my name is Virgil Deimos, and I'm your instructor or whatever. Pick up a weapon from the wall if you don't already have one and don't bother me".
Zen looked around the room unimpressed.
Weapons were something that came naturally to him, and just looking around, he could tell that Virgil's personality extended to these weapons as well.
He went to a random wall and picked up a standard katana without thinking too much and found a random empty corner to stand until Virgil decided to do something.
[New quest received]
[Sword dance]
[Objective: You've discovered a group that piques your interest. You are clearly the greatest weapons master here, showcase your talent and potential]
[Reward: New Skill]
Zen looked at the quest and felt it was doable. Honestly speaking,he felt like he'd have to get to the second year before regular students could match him.
A few minutes later, Virgil lazily walked back to the center of the room. It was clear in his eyes that he didn't think much of his students.
"Alright,some of you should already know what to do. We're doing mock battles,so raise your hand if you want to volunteer,if not, keep quiet".
Zen raised his hand.
"You want to fight?"
Zen shook his head and walked up to the stage
"No. Who are you?"
Virgil however didn't seem interested in his question and once again asked if he wanted to volunteer.
"I would, but my potential opponents aren't exactly impressive".
Looks full of disgust and anger immediately darted towards Zen who simply shrugged off the looks and focused on Virgil.
Virgil looked slightly amused.
"Oh? You wouldn't mind backing up your words, would you?"
Zen shrugged.
"Very good. Alright then everyone, anyone who wants to prove him wrong , get up there with him. Oh, and i almost forgot, the only rules are that abilities are banned and no killing blows"
About half of the class rose their hands at this and,eager to cause pain to the weakling that had insulted them.
"So. Who are you going to pick" Virgil asked.
Before Zen could answer,Clyde suddenly spoke up.
"You said the only rules were no abilities and no killing, and you never specified it would be 1v1 battles, right?"
Virgil's silence was all the answer needed as all the people that had raised their hands started walking towards Zen with menacing looks on their faces.
Zen simply watched as they came towards him, still not caring enough to take a fighting stance.
Unknown to anyone,a small, almost invisible spider crawled down from Zen and started moving towards a specific person.
This was when Zen finally changed his stance although not much. He simply adjusted his feet and held the blade at a vertical slope in front of his chest.
Virgil's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the seemingly useless stance
"This might prove interesting"
[Quest updated]
[Reward: fifty exp per enemy defeated]
Looking at his enemies,they were a little over ten. It seemed he'd be able to level up today.
The first one to reach him charged recklessly at him with a sledgehammer. He soon paid for this as Zen quickly switched to a backhanded grip before dodging the downward strike, grabbing his hand and spinning, adding the inertia to his strength and slamming the bottom of the hilt against his head, causing him to go crashing into the ground.
The rest of Zen's opponents momentarily stopped as they noticed that the guy wasn't getting up even after being released for a few seconds.
[Gained 50 exp]
"Your numbers advantage won't mean much if you don't all attack together"
They were all stunned for a second before once again becoming angry at being taunted while they held the advantage.
Zen scanned the battlefield, and in a relaxed manner placed placed the flat edge on his shoulder like a baseball bat. He suddenly twitched a bit before placing it back at his side.
Virgil noticed this and frowned.
At this point, the rest of the attacking team were already charging towards Zen.
Zen once again twitched as he realized he had made a big mistake.
The first person arrived and struck at Zen with a large axe. Zen responded by ducking downwards before tripping him up with the flat edge. Before he could knock him out, Zen was besieged and forced to retreat.
"Not good" Zen thought out loud as he once again twitched.
Whenever Zen planned on attacking, his arm would automatically adapt to the position that was best suited to kill his enemy. The only issue was that Zen couldn't kill these people. When he ducked earlier before, he had instinctively tried to drive the blade through his attackers heart but had stopped himself and tripped him instead.
Zen suddenly sheathed the katana and held it like a sword. This was the only way he could think of at the moment.
Unfortunately, his opponents saw this as blatantly insulting them and once again started attacking.
Zen's eyes glowed slightly as he decided to charge to meet the attack this time, instantly slamming the sheathed katana against the head of a random student, knocking him out cold.
[Gained 50 exp]
Zen quickly grabbed the unconscious body and threw it towards his attackers to buy him some time and disrupt their coordination, that was if this pack of wild animals could even be called coordinated.
Zen once again attacked. His eyes suddenly flashed as he briefly saw the illusion of his opponents arm flying off his body. He once again twitched as he stopped himself and instead attacked his knees with as much force as he could,as a bloodcurdling scream of pain rang out, accompanied by the sound of broken bones.
Zen once again retreated but was sure he wouldn't have to deal with that specific one again.
Zen waited while dodging for a few seconds but didn't get any more exp. It seemed the system would only award him when his enemy had lost all ability to fight
"Well in that case"
Zen gripped the steel baton he had snatched from his previous victim and decided to get serious.
[Gained 50 exp]
[Gained 50 exp]
[Gained 50 exp]
[Gained 50 exp]
[Gained 50 exp]...
The notifications kept coming until there was only one left of the original fourteen.
Zen had already levelled up once from all the combat, and he wasn't sure whether it was just his opponents being too weak, but he felt refreshed.
Zen looked directly into Clyde's eyes while slowly manipulating his thoughts.
"What the fuck is this? He doesn't even look tired"
Clyde didn't notice but his thoughts were slowly being morphed.
Clyde's previously worried expression turned malicious as he started walking towards Zen confidently.
"Fuck all of this!!! Fuck that crazy instructor and his stupid rules. Who cares if he can use weapons? He still doesn't have an ability. As long as i can kill him here,i don't care what happens. I'll just lie that it was an accident and go to another class"
Seeing Clyde once again get manipulated, reminded Black to be alert. At some point in the battle he had switched the baton for a short double edge spear which he hadn't used much.
Zen started running towards Clyde with the short spear in his hand and the katana still sheathed.
Zen quickly created the image of a burst of fire striking upward and hitting him in the face in his mind as he planned to recreate what happened with Neo.
Clyde's smile turned more horrendous as he aimed his hand upward and a burst of fire flew out.
Zen quickly ducked, sliding between Clyde's legs and tripping him after stabbing the double-edged spear into the ground such that Clyde would fall and impale his own chest on it.
Clyde felt like he was seeing things in slow motion as he fell towards the pointed tip of the spear ,horror filling his eyes.
Clyde closed his eyes as he started whimpering, but after a few seconds he suddenly realized that he had stopped falling.
"Virgil, what in the world is going on here?"
Clyde opened his eyes and saw Aurora holding him up just an inch from being impaled.
"Not need to worry, they're just having some fun" Virgil said as nonchalantly as usual, although with a new fire in his eyes.
"Well fun's over, both of you come with me now"
Zen completely ignored his homeroom teacher and asked Virgil
"Was that satisfactory?"
"Oh,yes, very much so"
"So can you now tell me who you are?" Zen asked
"What's it to you?" Virgil asked curiously
"You look weak.... but not"
Zen suddenly kicked the ground and launched himself backwards, narrowly avoiding am getting his neck cut off by a similar katana to his.
After creating a bit of distance, Zen looked at his attacker and saw a girl with beautiful pale skin,silver hair tied in a ponytail,clear blue eyes, and full pink lips. Her appearance wasn't what mattered to him however, what did matter to him was the katana in her hand that he could see his reflection in.
Zen touched the side of his face and noticed a scratch.
He didn't know what that weapon was, but he knew he didn't want to get hit by it.
"I'm sick and tired of your attitude"
[New quest received]
[Born in blood]