[New quest received]
[Born in blood]
[Objective: Defeat the strong opponent]
[Reward: instant level up]
Zen looked at the quest and got a bit more serious. The system had only given him quests when there was a degree of difficulty involved.
[Read lv2]
Zen activated the skill but instead of looking at her, he looked at her weapon.
[Second tier katana]
[Strength: +15]
[Agility: +25]
[Stamina: +20]
[Intelligence: +30]
[Durability:100]
Zen suddenly began to hear murmurs in the class
"He's done for. Serves him right"
"Doesn't he know who she is? He should just kneel and beg for his life"
"Wait a minute,who is she?"
"Moron. She comes from that family of Vampire ability users"
Zen was immediately triggered by that last statement. Had he really angered yet another powerful family's progeny .
"Read"
[Name: Sable Vladimir]
[Gift: Vampirism]
Zen didn't have any time to think or even finish reading as he quickly barely dodged another strike, escaping with a minor scratch.
Zen quickly unsheathed the katana and prepared himself to summon his star. Now wasn't the time to hold back.
Zen shifted his hair to the side so both his eyes were visible and looked at Sable while charging at her.
Surprisingly,all she did was stagger for a second before completely ignored his mutation
"That's new"
Zen held the blade in front of him to block and got pushed back a few meters.
"Another pioneer..... This is getting old" Zen simply said before charging again, this time with the intention to finish this.
Sable once again slashed in Zen's direction, expecting the same results but was surprised when he stopped her sword dead in its tracks.
"What?"
Before she could catch her breath, Sable was attacked again by a barrage of swift slashes which she only barely managed to defend.
Sable was shocked. With every attack, Zen was getting faster and faster. Fortunately, she was as well, and after a few seconds they were on the same footing, striking and slashing multiple times in the span of seconds.
"Hehe"
Zen suddenly heard something and looked at Sable's face. He suddenly noticed that she was actually smiling. All her anger from before seemed to have disappeared as she was clearly very focused on the battle.
Aurora and Virgil had considered stopping this but had both ended up stopping to watch the students display.
Sable let out another sound of enjoyment and in a sudden burst of speed, knocked Zen back to create some distance, and suddenly twirled, adding the momentum to her next attack before slashing downwards.
She wasn't yet able to fully wield the sword, but that didn't stop her from getting creative.
"Checkmate" Freya said from within Zen's consciousness.
"Counter"
Sable's eyes widened as her strongest attack yet was stopped before she could even release it.
"He's got it" The two teachers suddenly said.
Sable began to panic. Zen had broken her flow when he attacked her in the middle of her strike. She was vulnerable now.
She clumsily thrust her sword forward and her eyes drooped as she realized he would be able to sidestep and dodge before attacking her vulnerable form.
She was preparing to brace for impact before retaliating. She was already three steps ahead, planning exactly what would come after she took the hit. She suddenly frowned as she noticed him hesitate.
Zen was about to dodge the clumsy thrust when his symbol started glowing under his gloves. His mind was suddenly assaulted with an unfathomable pressure and pain.
Zen suddenly staggered as his mind went blank from the pain.
"Ggggrrrhh"
Sable's eyes widened as her sword pierced Zen's abdomen, sending him tumbling to the ground, but Zen himself couldn't even feel it as he grabbed his head due to the unbearable pain.
"Ah,there you are" a voice appeared in Zen's head
Zen's eyes widened. He recognized that voice and the mode of communication.
"Q?" Zen asked.
"I'm GOING to find you,child. Soon enough at least. Until then, here's a gift"
Zen's mark began to burn and glow even more.
The pain Zen was feeling suddenly multiplied at least ten fold.
Zen wanted to shout but bit his tongue, staggering to his feet. He looked at his right arm and noticed it was shivering.
"Oh my goodness. Are you okay?"
Zen looked at Sable, not sure what she was talking about until he looked down and saw her sword.
"This is really getting old"
Zen held it by the hilt and started pulling it out. He was halfway through when Sable suddenly put her hand on his.
He looked at her and saw her shaking her head.
"Are you okay?.....why....why did you do that?"
Virgil and Aurora suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"What happened?" Virgil asked, looking at Zen with a look that implied that he wasn't talking about the injury.
"It doesn't matter. I'll take you to the infirmary" Aurora offered.
"You can't stay in this group anyway" she continued.
"Awww what? No way" Virgil complained.
"He broke the rules, he has to pay"
"Come on,Aura,i said i was cool with it, besides, they're MY rules. He's one of the best here. If he leaves,who am i supposed to play with?"
"Not my problem,besides, you have an entire class "
"Yeah, but before I'll be able to play with those weaklings ,I'll need to train them till their second year, and by then they'll have a new teacher " Virgil replied mercilessly without caring for his students' feelings.
"Not my problem. Zen,come with me
Zen suddenly placed his hand in front of him to decline her help.
"I'm fine. I know my way " Zen said, though his shivering arm didn't give any of them confidence.
Zen suddenly pulled out the sword in one motion and tossed it to Sable before putting his hand on it.
Sable caught it and was about to berate Zen when she noticed he wasn't bleeding out.
Zen hadn't put his hand on it to put pressure,he had done so so they wouldn't see Black.
He turned around with steady steps and left the class.
[Quest failed]
Zen expected as much. He didn't bother with it and asked.
"Report?"
"Success" was Black's reply
"Good" Zen said,still feeling a bit of pain.
Zen walked for a few minutes before reaching the infirmary that was completely empty.
"Oh? What are you doing here, cookie?" Elaine asked
"I'm taking you up on your offer " Zen replied, plopping down on a bed.
"Really? Because I just heard you got stabbed"
Zen wasn't surprised she knew. There was no way the teachers would have allowed him to get stabbed under their watch and leave him alone. He even suspected that they were watching him secretly on his way here.
Elaine could only sigh as she started examining his injuries, leading to some intimate moments, though Zen's facial expression didn't change throughout the whole ordeal.
"There,done. Whoo, you must work out a lot,kid" Elaine said,her face slightly flushed.
Zen simply grunted and accepted the lollipop from Elaine, watching her back as she walked back to her seat.
"Pervert"
He suddenly turned around and saw Sable looking at him strangely.
"What are you doing here" He asked.
"I came to apologize.... and also to ask. Why?"
Zen raised a brow.
Seeing his confused expression, Sable felt her anger rising.
"Why did you stop? Why did you take that hit. There was no need for you to be worried,i could have taken that hit,we could have kept going.....we didn't have to end it....we shouldn't have ended it".
Towards the end, Zen noticed that Sable started sounding a little bitter.
"Will you fight me again, Zen?" She suddenly asked.
"I don't have an ability" Zen replied
"Then neither do I"
Zen was about to speak when he realized what she was saying.
"Fine"
Sable's blue eyes brightened as she suddenly grabbed his arm.
"Thank you!"
"Hey, careful over there. I just fixed him" Elaine said while laughing
Sable nodded before asking Zen which class he would end up going to permanently. When Zen asked why she wanted to know, she simply replied
"So we can go together "
Zen thought for a while and said he would be going to the close combat class taught by Aurora.
It was the only other thing he could think of other than weapons that he wouldn't sleep through.
"Awesome! See you there?"
Sable happily skipped away. Now that she was sure Zen was okay and he would fight her again, she was happy.
Zen didn't feel like doing anything else and just opened Freya's library in the system, pulled up a random book and stayed in the empty infirmary with Elaine until evening.
***********
"Thanks for the company,sugar" Elaine said as she hugged Zen, pressing his face into her chest.
Zen stood still for a few seconds and waited for her to finish before leaving.
"I'm not sure if I have this right, but aren't you supposed to hug back?" Black asked.
Zen stayed quiet for a few seconds
"I'm not used to things like that" was all he could say.
Hearing this, Freya felt a bit uncomfortable but didn't say anything.
Zen eventually arrived at his dorm without any problem and was surprised when his roommates all rushed to him.
"You're back. What happened?"
"What happened? We heard you got in trouble"
Zen was about to reply when he noticed Xavier was wounded.
Noticing Zen's look, Maximilian sighed and said.
"This moron thought that the second years and that Keith guy had gotten to you. Appearantly he thought it was a good idea to get into a huge fight with them and now we're in an even worse situation"
Xavier chuckled nervously and quickly changed the subject back to Zen, asking about what happened.
"I got stabbed-" Zen wasn't even able to finish his sentence when
"What?!"
"Smack!!!"
"Let him finish,dumbass" Maximilian yelled and smacked Xavier on the head when he noticed him about to go off the handle again.
Xavier looked aggrieved as he rubbed his head but didn't retaliate.
"It was an accident during a sparring much, nothing serious. I already went to the infirmary"
Xavier looked calmer at hearing this.
There wasn't much to do in the academy after classes so they just stayed in their dorms and went to bed after that.
*************
Deep in the dead of the night a tiny black spider crawled into the room and onto Zen's bed.
Zen suddenly opened his eyes, revealing he had never slept. He quietly looked around to make sure his roommates were asleep and even used his read skill, making sure asleep was in their status, and without making a single sound with practiced ease, he quickly left with the spider.
"So this is how you used to sneak out as a kid" Freya remarked.
Zen followed the spider for a few minutes before it stopped at a certain door before turning into a pile of black sludge and entering through the space under the door.
"This is the place" Black reported as the small piece of his body once again turned into a spider and crawled onto a sleeping Clyde and re-entering his body.
Zen had told black to attach himself to Clyde while he was distracted today, luckily they had succeeded flawlessly.
Zen looked around quickly, making sure no one was around before sitting in a lotus position and closing his eyes. If he had a choice, he wouldn't be taking the risk of sitting right in front of the door, but he didn't see any other way to advance his plan otherwise.
After a minute, Zen once again opened his eyes, only this time he wasn't in his body