Zen immediately thought about getting up and leaving once he heard dungeon, but at the sound of something new,he stopped.
Luckily, the system didn't keep him hanging this time
[Dungeon corpses are failed dungeons, either unsuccessful at birth or destroyed in battle. Although a useless pile of rubble for most, to some, they may be quite useful for their abundant resources,relative safety and residual spiritual energy or soul points]
Zen felt like the short explanation only gave him more questions than answers.
First of all, dungeons couldn't be destroyed, only temporarily disabled. This was one of humanity's largest crises as many planets had even been permanently abandoned due to there being too many dungeons.
Secondly, how could a dungeon fail at "birth"?
Zen felt like there was some huge mystery that was right in front of him that he couldn't solve. He even consulted Freya but she was just as clueless.
The only thing Zen felt was explained was why there were so many rare plants here.
Freya suddenly drew Zen's attention to something he missed.
Sp could possibly stand for soul points.
Zen felt like it was plausible, but what could that information do for him?
Freya, hearing this, seemed disappointed.
"Out of all my years teaching you, have you learned nothing?" Freya said in a tone that told Zen that she was now talking as her seasoned otaku self.
He kept quiet, waiting for her to say something silly.
"How do cultivators increase their spiritual energy?"
"Meditating?" Black and Zen replied at the same time.
"Yes! And also by expending their spiritual power and refilling it until the dantian expands, and occasionally absorbing excess energy till their bodies learn to accommodate it"
Zen was about to burst her bubble when...
[Congratulations to host for obtaining a new way to increase his strength! For a sage, knowledge is power, never stop learning]
[Exp: +10]
Zen just stood there blankly for a second, and although Freya didn't have a body, from her silence,he could tell she currently had a smug grin.
Zen attempted to make sense of this new mode of getting power, and after a few seconds,he felt like he got it. If soul points really did stand for SP then all he had to do was continuously expend it and let it refill, before repeating.
Zen decided to test this with the only skill he had that could be used under the current circumstances.
He closed his eyes and sat in a lotus position, attempting to use phantom form.
After a few seconds, his spirit separated from his body successfully, but the moment he opened his eyes, Zen suddenly felt an overwhelming pressure from all around him that felt like he was at the bottom of the ocean while in the middle of a tsunami.
Although he wasn't hurt, Zen hurried back into his body. He was somehow able to know that if he stayed out too long, there would be consequences.
Zen woke up with heavy breaths, and a strange feeling in his chest.
[SP: 0/15]
Black noticed Zen's erratic heartbeat and asked what was wrong, only a beat quicker than Freya.
"Nothing"
Black quickly left and returned with two flowers in its grasp
"Eat"
Zen used read on them. One of them was the moon flower which had a detox effect, and the other was a Dreaming Daffodil
[Dreaming Daffodil]
[It has a very potent pharmaceutical, almost poisonous effect. It can help calm down heart rate considerably and deal with stress while helping with circulation of blood. Its only drawback is that its effect is often too strong and can forcefully put people to sleep. It may also have strange effects on the dreams of people who consume them before sleeping.]
Zen immediately ate the two flowers, understaning that the Dreaming Daffodil was to calm him down, and the moon flower was to make sure he wasn't put to sleep, although Zen was fairly sure his body could take it. He had momentarily forgotten that Black was connected to his brain, meaning that it also possessed all the knowledge he had on these plants.
Zen could very clearly feel a refreshing cold sensation traveling through his body as he swallowed them.
"Thank you"
"My pleasure" Black replied.
Zen checked the time and realized that he still had some time till he had to meet with Zaria,so he decided to try something else.
He had obtained a skill after his little fiasco at the Aether gear class, and what better time than now to check what it was.
[Reward received]
[Skill: Soul brand]
[Place an traceable brand or mark on anything as long as it possesses a soul or soul points]
[Soul brands: 0/3]
[Warning! Warning! Warning! Detected that host has been branded!]
Zen didn't seem fazed by this information as he took off his gloves and looked at his mark.
"So that's what this is"
Zen suddenly realized that yet another link had appeared between the Arcade and his system.
Although it was strange, Zen really couldn't bring himself to care, however he felt like whatever he did, he would end up involved in some conspiracy.
Zen spent a little more time in the cave before eventually leaving. He still had a meeting with Zaria that he hadn't forgotten about.
***************
"Oh look who it is. Finally decided to grace me with your presence?"
Zen didn't answer and just took a seat next to Zaria.
"You don't have a book?"
"Don't worry. I have a good memory, you won't have to say anything more than once..... maybe twice, and as for drawing the symbols, here" Zaria said as she handed him a notepad.
Zen shrugged and took it. He didn't understand why they couldn't why they couldn't do this in an empty classroom instead of her garden, but he didn't bother asking.
Somehow knowing what was on his mind, Zaria said
"I prefer the silence to being around people. I've.... actually been here all day. I don't exactly have a lot of friends"
Zen shrugged. He didn't have a single person he could use the word "friend" for.
Zen spent the next few hours teaching Zaria and other than realizing that her memory really was incredible, he also realized that her attitude towards learning was similar to his. It wasn't that she was exactly arrogant, but as long as it didn't pose a significant challenge to her, she would just do it half-heartedly. Half of the "class" was her finding new ways to play with Black.
Other than that, his thoughts kept getting overriden by Black searching for information on food. Perhaps he should consider feeding it more.
Zen and Zaria finished a bit late, deciding to meet up again tomorrow.
They both left and went their different ways, but halfway to his dorm, Zen realized he was being followed. Intrigued, he walked deeper into the woods, trying to convince his followers to show themselves, and show themselves they did.
"I don't know if you're purely idiotic or suicidal"
Gary said as he walked out,flanked by some other students.
"Nowhere to run now, dumbass"
Zen looked confused as he looked around. He was expecting something else entirely,or could he just have been imagining that feeling.
"What do you want?" He finally said
Gary looked amused.
"You can still act so arrogant when you're very clearly about to die? Huh! What do you think i want?"
"To satisfy your vanity?" Zen asked like he was in a normal conversation.
A vein bulged on Gary's head as he angrily looked at Zen. Over and over again, this thorn in his side had been messing with him and getting away due to pure luck. He wasn't going to let it slide today.
"I'll put you where a low level like you belongs. The fucking ground!"
Zen watched as Gary and his goons attacked him, but still didn't move a muscle. He actually didn't plan on attacking at all. When it came to the matter of all the others, Zen could probably knock them out with a well placed punch, but Gary, although brash,had something they didn't. Experience. The end result would probably be the same or even worse if he decided to beat them up,as he was very sure Gary, their leader,wouldn't go down as easily. Also he just..... couldn't be bothered.
Zen stood his ground and took every attack they threw at him. In his eyes, this wasn't important enough for him to fight back. These kids wouldn't kill him and just stroke their egos by hitting him, plus, although their attacks damaged him,he was numb to the pain and just watched and waited till they got bored.
******************
Gary was kicking and stomping on Zen when he suddenly looked at Zen's cold dead eyes and felt something was wrong. They had been doing this for well over thirty minutes and although they broke a few bones and made him bleed, he didn't let out a sound or even change his expression. It felt like they were attacking a corpse as an eerie feeling of dread entered each of them , making them all uncomfortable.
Eventually, they all decided to leave, and as Gary left, Zen suddenly spoke up as he looked at the moon in the sky.
"You should go to bed early tonight. Something's coming"
Gary looked at him for a few seconds and spat on his feet before leaving.
Immediately they were out of sight, Zen sat up, and in a horrifying display, started resetting and fixing all of his dislocated fingers which they had broken, without so much as a grunt. His open wounds had all closed and stopped bleeding already since they only made small cuts and scratches on him.
"Good thing its my uniform" he said as he only had one spare change of clothes.
Without much thought he started heading back to his dorm. Something was definitely going down tonight, and he had no interest in being involved.
"I could have done something" Black said, seemingly dissatisfied.
Although Zen couldn't hear her, he could tell Freya was also pissed.
"Not necessary. To be honest,this doesn't even count as bullying anymore"
Zen said
"Besides,i still have an agenda. Now isn't the time"
The two voices in Zen's head kept quiet for now, but it was clear that they weren't satisfied.
*****************
"Hey Zen, you're back. What took you so long? If you're looking for the others,Max is in the bathroom and Neo went out to take a call"
Xavier was the first to greet him as usual.
Zen looked around and noticed that the boys had made a few changes to the room , and gotten some decorations.
"What do you think? You won't believe what happened to us today"
Zen raised a brow
"Us? I thought you were splitting up?" Zen said as he walked shoulder to shoulder with Xavier to the new sofa in the center of the room.
Xavier seemed displeased that he had brought it up and was about to complain when he noticed Zen's condition.
"What happened to you?"
Zen shrugged
"I ran into some high level students and the expected happened.
Xavier immediately turned livid and looked like he was about to ask something before suddenly stopping.
Zen noticed his rage but didn't exactly feel anything or even bother calming him down.
Zen left him on the sofa and went to go lie on his bed
Before going to bed, Zen suddenly turned to look at Xavier, his eyes glowing an ominous white.
"By the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes"
"What?"
Xavier asked, confused, but Zen simply ignored him and went to bed.
Xavier sat quiet for a few seconds before deciding to go bring back Neo.