Zen looked to his side and saw Zaria sitting at his side with Black on her shoulder.
"Welcome back.... I guess?" Zaria said as she offered him a hand.
Zen accepted it and stood up, stretching a bit to loosen his stiffened muscles.
"How did you find this place?"
Zen asked to which she frowned
"Well that's an interesting way to say thank you. Black brought me. He said it was important , and before I knew it,i was babysitting".
Zen nodded and didn't think much at first but suddenly realized something.
"How did he find you?"
"Oh, yeah. Show him"
Black suddenly began to separate into multiple tiny bits, each turning into a tiny spider, eventually resulting in ten miniature spiders.
Zaria didn't seem to mind the spiders being on her arm and picked one up in her palm before showing it to Zen.
"This little guy decided to split himself and search the entire school. Luckily one of them found my room before they were discovered.
All the spiders suddenly started to move towards Zen, converging at his wrist before melding together and reforming his watch.
Zaria chuckled.
"Looks like he missed you. I still can't believe you found this place,it looks like something out of a fairytale"
"Actually, he found it"
Zen said, pointing to Black.
"Well you can tell me about it later, let's go. We don't want to get into trouble for being late.
Zen wanted to ask what for, but he got his answer once they stepped out of the cave and he saw the moon high in the sky.
Zen checked the time and realized it was almost ten o'clock.
The only thing he could do was shrug and accept it. He didn't exactly have much to do today anyway.
"Let's get going"
Zaria encouraged as they started their descent down the mountain .
"So what happened?"
Zaria asked.
"Not.... sure" Zen answered partially honestly.
He had actually received the quest reward immediately he woke up, and it turned out it was showing him his own memories of what happened for the days he had been unconscious. Similar to the dreams he'd been having, except this one wasn't blurry and foggy.
The memories he had unlocked were only a few moments with nothing of value, but he was definitely sure that something would happen as he continued to unlock those memories.
After a while, they got to the ground and into the forest.
Zaria's eyes suddenly moved and looked at a seemingly empty area.
"You're slow" Zen commented on Zaria , looking unperturbed
"No need to hide. You've been here for less than a minute and she's already discovered you "
*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*
"Congratulations, but I wasn't hiding "
Keith said as he walked out with two second years by his side.
Zaria took a fighting stance while Zen just looked at Keith.
"What do you want?"
Keith walked up to them both and looked at Zaria.
"You're getting in over your head. He may seem harmless, but you don't want to know the truth about him"
"I already kno-"
That's not what he's talking about?" Zen interrupted
Zen looked towards Keith's minions and sniffed the air before turning to face him.
"Looks like I'm not the only one who slipped up"
Keith suddenly grabbed Zen by his shirt, suddenly getting angry.
"Don't talk to me like that, demon "
Zaria looked cautiously at Zen, but he didn't have any visible reaction.
Keith turned to face Zaria.
"You want to know why I hate him? It's because he's everything they could ever want in a soldier, because whenever I look at him, I'm always reminded that THEY broke the laws of nature. He's not a person, it's a thing. It doesn't feel, it CAN'T feel, it doesn't get the concept of emotion. It's simply unnatural"
Keith released Zen and looked him in the eye.
"You shouldn't exist. Your very presence is a violation of the rules of nature, and the natural order. I'll be the one to remedy that"
Zen payed no attention to Keith and instead looked towards his minions behind him.
"You sealed your own fate"
Keith didn't react at all this time and simply turned to leave, followed by his minions.
Zaria carefully watched as they left and let out a sigh of relief.
"What was that about?"
"Nothing important" Zen answered and continued on his way to the dorm with Zaria.
"What did he mean?"
"Hmm?"
"He said that they.... did something to you. That you're....unnatural"
Zen simply shrugged and didn't answer, though Zaria felt like he just didn't want to speak.
The rest of the walk to the dorms was completely silent as neither of them were in the mood to talk.
They both split up at the gate, going to their respective dorms to get some sleep.
Strangely, Zen was still very tired, like he hadn't just spent hours on end sleeping.
He walked into his dorm and was immediately swarmed by his dorm mates who had been worried.
"Dude,where were you? We thought the second years might have gotten you again?"
As always, Xavier was the most impatient and asked first.
"I was busy" Zen replied but wasn't allowed through by his roommates who were looking at him like they didn't believe him.
Zen sighed and decided to just be honest.
"I walked around for a while,sat by a pool, and fell asleep"
This time they seemed to believe him, and honestly, Zen felt that if the quest hadn't arrived, he'd probably have done just that.
"Well you could have told us. The entire school is on high alert. Turns out the damage we saw this morning was only the surface , the academy had been hiding the true extent of the losses but had been exposed, funny thing is that it was by a single student-"
Maximilian quickly interrupted Xavier before he could start ranting.
"What he means is it isn't safe out, especially with them out there, and no offense but it's especially so for someone without an ability "
The mention of abilities suddenly reminded them of what they had witnessed Zen do to an aether circuit this morning.
"Speaking of abilities, when were you going to tell us you had a second mutation? That shit is terrifying. The whole school's talking about you and your "Touch of death"." Xavier said before laughing
A million thoughts were passing through their minds right now. They had spent most of their afternoon discussing about it and its possible implications.
Neo looked at Zen with an understanding look
"So that's why you don't have an ability"
He had originally been confused when Zen said his parents were members of a powerful organization. If that was true,it would be unreasonable for him to not have an ability if there weren't any complications.
"So I'm guessing that's the reason for the gloves.... wait a minute. Does it affect people or other things too?"
Zen didn't want to drag this on for longer than necessary, so he answered their questions as quickly as possible and quickly went to sleep.
Though, for some reason,he couldn't help but feeling like he forgot something important, Zen shrugged it off and drifted to sleep.
***************
[Good morning Host]
[Stats increased]
[Failed to complete daily quests]
[Exp has been reduced to zero as punishment]
[4960/5000] »»»[0/5000]
"So that's what I forgot"
Zen could only blame himself for forgetting. He had taken so long completing yesterday's quest that he had no time left for the daily ones.
With nothing else to do about it, Zen quickly went about his normal morning routine, getting ready for school and completing some of his daily quests and going to the cafeteria for breakfast.
On his way to the cafeteria, he noticed he was attracting many more stares than last time. It seemed what Xavier had said was true , his unique mutation was causing a stir.
Without paying it any mind, Zen sat down for breakfast completely unbothered by anyone.
After an uneventful breakfast, Zen went for an equally uneventful class which he mostly slept through.
After class, he went for the hand to hand combat class, having made sure to remember the building. Coincidentally, it was being taught by Aurora,his class teacher.
Zen looked at the building that reminded him of old era eastern style infrastructure before walking inside. It seemed Aurora had a style,as when Zen entered,he realized it was the same inside.
The entire room was mostly empty, aside from the small platforms for fighting where some students were already fighting one on one.
The moment he stepped in, he was immediately approached by Sable who was now without her sword .
She immediately grabbed his hand and started walking towards a platform.
"Took you long enough. Come on, I saved us a platform. This time we can go all out. Everyone else here is soooo weak that it's just boring"
Zen looked around and asked.
"What exactly is going on here?"
"Oh right. The teacher wants us to build up some experience so we're going to be doing one on one for the next few weeks, maybe even months. If you ask me,you and I would probably get more experience sleeping than dealing with these guys"
Zen suddenly heard a familiar voice calling him and turned around to see a doe eyed green haired girl running towards him.
Similar to Sable,Jade had come without her weapon and the only accessories she had were the gloves Zen had given her which she was still wearing.
"Hi,Z. I thought I'd see you here. What's up?"
"Erm...hello" Sable interrupted
"H-hi... nice to meet you. I'm Jade " Jade answered and stretched her hand for a handshake somewhat awkwardly, still not used to talking to people.
"Sable" Sable replied, accepting the gesture.
Before this could go any further, Aurora suddenly appeared behind them out of nowhere and pointed to Zen.
"Sorry girls, but I've got something to settle with your friend here. You're in luck kid, I'll be your first match"
*************
Zen got into position, standing face to face with Aurora and waiting for her to start the match.
"Aaaaandd...begin!"
Almost immediately Zen appeared in front of Aurora, taking the initiative to attack first as he immediately started with a sweeping kick which she easily dodged by jumping before realizing she fell into a trap and had given Zen a solid three seconds where she couldn't dodge and was in the air.
Twisting his body in an unusual way, Zen took full advantage of this window of opportunity, landing a solid kick on her stomach and knocking her to the edge of the platform and only less than an inch away from being disqualified from the match.
Aurora looked behind her with an amused look and cautiously took a few steps from the edge.
"Interesting. You wanted to eliminate me at the very beginning. Every single move, precise and calculated, though not lacking in fluidity. I can see why Damion wanted to keep you now .
Without saying another word, Aurora suddenly bolted to Zen, greeting him with a kick to the head which Zen blocked with some effort. Before he could grab her leg to try to inflict some damage, she jumped forward with her other leg, grabbed his shirt and was about to hit him with an elbow to the face when he struck at the weak point of her elbow, releasing himself and creating some distance
"Excellent reflexes, above average muscle coordination. Always takes advantage of an opportunity in battle. Very good, but i think it's time you stopped playing around and got serious, I know I'M about to"
Aurora still didn't seem to take this seriously and was talking like a teacher and not a fighter.
Zen didn't wait for her to finish speaking and quickly attacked again, this time even faster than before , leaving Aurora on the offensive.
Watching the whole thing, Sable seemed a bit upset.
"Stop playing around"
"What's wrong?" Jade asked.
The problem was that Zen was slowly bringing up his fighting level to match Aurora's technique, matching her level perfectly every time. He was only using as much effort as necessary to keep the fight balanced and didn't seem even the slightest bit interested in ending the fight.
It would be plain ridiculous to see something like this happening between a teacher and student, but here it was. The only thing that made it less ridiculous was that Aurora seemed to be doing the same thing.
As time passed their fists and feet got faster and stronger creating blurs as they bought sought to defeat the other.
"Let's see how you handle this!"
Aurora suddenly kicked forward at Zen's chest. He quickly crossed his arms over his chest but something was different this time. He felt his legs involuntarily move back as the excess energy pushed him back.
Seeing that he wouldn't stop in time to avoid disqualification, Zen quickly tensed his thighs, and redirecting the kinetic energy,did a quick flip forward, saving himself just in time as he stopped right at the edge.
Zen quickly prepared himself and was about to charge towards Aurora when she stopped him.
"That's enough for now. Good work kid, I'm impressed "
She slowly left the platform and looking towards the students who were still gawking at the fight, she said
"What are you looking at? Back to sparring,now!"
The students quickly scattered and went back to their own fights.
"Not bad kid.... come meet me in my office after class, I might have something for you"
Aurora said to Zen before leaving.
Almost immediately, Jade and Sable ran towards him and started asking talking to him about the fight.
"Can you spar with me next?"
Jade suddenly asked, and seeing no reason to refuse, Zen agreed.
*****************
After a few hours of non stop fighting which barely made a dent in his exp, Zen could finally go to see why Aurora wanted to see him.
Using the locator on the watch, Zen quickly found her office and knocked a few times on the door.
"The door's open,come in" She said from inside
Zen opened the door and walked in only to find the place empty.
"Go to the book shelf on the third wall,pull the sixteenth book on the third row and twist the handle on the shelf counterclockwise twice,clockwise three times, and counterclockwise once,pull on the handle, and then push"
Zen followed all the instructions perfectly, already predicting what would happen. As soon as he pushed, Zen felt the shelf move slightly. Pushing a bit harder, Zen completely opened the door that was disguised as a shelf, and found himself in a place that looked like a mix between a library,a storage room,and an arena , with dozens and dozens of weapons gracing the walls in a neat and organized fashion.
Zen looked at Aurora who was on a sofa and asked.
"Is it okay for me to be here?"
"Relax. This place isn't even a secret. I just asked the school for my very own private space to relax and do what i want, and they agreed.
Aurora explained.
"Come. Sit" She said and pointed to another chair to which he obliged.
"See anything you like?" She said, gesturing to the myriad of weapons decorating the room
Zen looked around, and although he took a few second glances, nothing seemed to impress him here.
Aurora looked like she expected this and simply nodded.
"You can come here whenever you want. I hardly use it for anything other than naps anyway. Consider it all yours to use"
Zen was suprised but didn't speak, waiting to see if there was a catch.
"Can you take off your gloves for me?"
Zen raised a brow at the unusual request but did it anyway.
Aurora suddenly pulled out an aether circuit from her pocket.
"Can you hold this?"
Zen nodded and took it in his hand.
After a few seconds, the aether circuit started to decay like the previous one.
After a couple seconds, Zen received the same notification as last time, only this time it was earth element.
Aurora looked curiously at Zen and suddenly shifted his hair from covering his eyes, revealing his mutated eye.
Looking at Zen's pale face looking innocently and plainly at her, Aurora felt there was something inexplicably pure about the air around him. Like there wasn't a single thought in his mind and he would do anything she asked of him, similar to a child.
"A duel mutation. Rare, but not unheard of"
Aurora took another look at him and was overtaken by a strange feeling.
"I want to know where you come from".
"Good luck, even i don't know that"
Aurora shook her head.
"No,i meant,who trained you?"
"There are multiple answers to that question"
"Well send them my apologies cus now you're MY student, and I'm your master....or....mistress?.....whatever, you know what I mean"
Zen didn't voice any complaints and honestly had none. Compared to every other person who had considered themselves his teacher, this was pretty tame.
"Good, now as your first act as my student,go clean and organize my office"
Zen raised a brow at the order. He had just come in through the office and knew it was beyond disorganized .
He didn't have anything to do today other than meet with Zaria to continue their classes, so he didn't really have any complaints.
Zen stood up and gave a respectful ninety degree bow, surprising Aurora, before leaving to get to work.