[Good morning host]
"Good morning Zen"
"Good morning Zen"
Black impatiently crawled off Zen's wrist and started tapping his face.
"Get up, quickly you narcoleptic. We need to complete our morning routine so we have enough time to assassinate Clyde later"
Zen honestly wanted to just sleep for the next few hours, but he eventually relented, ignoring Black's comment.
Over the last few days, Black had started to develop an attitude after absorbing a great percentage of Zen's human knowledge and integrating it into its consciousness. Black's narcoleptic joke was a result of that. However, despite this,it was still the same creature as it always was been, just with more knowledge, and more ways to use it.
Zen got up and took a quick shower. He had quite a bit to do today... relatively speaking.
"Whoa, what's this? Zen's getting up early on a Saturday? Damn, who's dying?"
Xavier joked casually, looking like he didn't plan on getting up for a while .
Zen mentioned he was leaving before dashing out the room. He first had breakfast, before going to the training area, completing all his daily quests immediately before heading to Zaria's garden to teach her more.
Like every other time, it could barely be called a class and was mostly Black and Zaria's shenanigans.
"I still don't know why you can't wake mine
Zen sighed and once again explained how he couldn't guarantee control over them,or if they were as friendly as Black. He also pointed out that he technically didn't even control Black,it was more like they had a common understanding,a deal more or less.
It all went in one ear and out the other for Zaria who was petting Black in the form of a cat.
"Anyway, got any plans today?"
"One plan .....more or less" Zen said as he extended his hand for Black to reattach himself to him.
"See you tomorrow then" Zaria waved as Zen left the garden.
Zen immediately made his way to Aurora's office, and without knocking or asking for permission, made his way into the messy office.
"Sometimes, I think she just does this on purpose"
Zen immediately started to clean and arrange the messy office of his teacher.
Aurora was an extremely focused person who hardly,if ever,showed any emotion. It was hard to believe that someone with such a calculative mind and freezing indifference could be so messy with an office she barely even used. However, Zen did remember hearing that it was the most talented people who made the biggest messed,buuuuut...the person he had heard that from was his little sister who used that as an excuse whenever she begged him to clean her room,so perhaps it wouldn't be immensely wise to believe in such.
Zen quickly finished up with the office before entering the secret room in the library door, making sure to lock it behind him.
Black immediately slid off his wrist and turned into a bat mid-air before flying off to explore. This had happened a few times, so Zen didn't react much to it.
"How about this one?" Black said in his mind as its bat like form threw a book down at him from the top shelf.
Zen easily caught the book and sat down on a comfortable chair before looking at the book as Black landed on his shoulder.
It had an ice blue cover, with a few strange symbols on it that Zen couldn't understand.
This was an ability book.
According to Aurora, this was how people obtained abilities before Aether circuits were a thing, and according to Freya, he could trust that information.
Unlike now when all you had to do was inject your Aether into the circuit to obtain the code, before imprinting it in yourself, back then, they would have to actually read the books, understand the concept, and meditate on it before gaining the ability. Both methods took time, the difference was that one provided the necessary information automatically, while the other required you to learn it manual.
Aurora had suggested he try these to see if he could gain an ability, unsure if his mutation could affect the books.
Zen opened the book, his gloves still on as he started to read the words in the book which looked strangely majestic and mysterious.
According to both Freya and Aurora, anyone could make an ability book, it was essentially the recollection of an ability users experiences with an ability, meaning that it could also be taught, however, very few original copies of abilities were still around,if any at all, and according to these books, there was only one person recorded to have directly taught his ability to his subordinates without making an ability book, unfortunately, there weren't any records of this person the books in the library briefly introduced as the night demon.
Zen had searched the entire place for any information he could find on the night demon, but ended up only finding strange dead ends, almost like someone was hiding information from him. He had asked Aurora about this but she couldn't help him. After hours of searching, the only useful information he came across was that the night demon was the descendant of a dragon. Perhaps Zaria would be able to help him here.
After reading a few pages, Zen put down the book and slowly took off his gloves, setting them aside. Slowly, he picked up the book and started reading, but after a few seconds, he suddenly felt like something was different about the words in the book, like all the limitless power they held before had disappeared. Almost immediately, the book in his hand turned to ash.
[Ice magic affinity: +1]
[SP: +10]
[Max SP: +1]
[No soul found]
Zen dusted the ash off his hands unceremoniously. This had been the result for the past few days. After a bit of experimentation, Zen realized that it wasn't just his touch, but his gaze as well. Something about his left eye seemed to accelerate the effect.
Zen considered taking another book to see if there would be a different effect. Aurora had given him full freedom to whatever he wanted with the ability books, after all,no one used them anymore,so if he pleased, he could destroy the hundreds of ability books that she had in one day and she wouldn't care.
After a while, Zen decided against it and picked a broom and dustpan to get rid of the ashes on the ground.
Once he was done, he put his gloves back on and walked towards the secret door. Zen took one last look before leaving with Black on his wrist.
"Where to now?"
Zen looked at the strange glowing trail in the air which was invisible to everyone else.
"Now,we find Clyde" Zen said as he followed the trail left by the soul brand.
Zen had decided to brand Clyde a few days ago when he realized that it would allow him to keep track of his whereabouts.
Zen followed the trail that resembled cartoon like aroma waves while making sure to be aware of his surroundings.
A few minutes later, Zen found him in the city.
In accordance with the plan,a small bit of Black seperated from the main body and started trailing him as Zen left to find someone.
Zen immediately headed to the front of Clyde's dorm, and after making sure no one was looking, he left his body and went through the wall before using soul link on a specific person in the dorm.
★hmmm i wonder how my little pet is doing★
Zen immediately began to flood his mind with certain thoughts,as well as Clyde's precise location.
This boy was Brandon,the highest level in this dorm, and Zen's primary puppet.
Once done, Zen quickly re-entered his body before fleeing to a certain distance and watching the door.
A few seconds later, Clyde's three classmates left the room, the expressions on their faces betraying that they weren't just going out for some fresh air.
Zen slowly tailed the three as they left towards the city, taking the opportunity to add a few more thoughts to their heads. Usually, Zen wouldn't have found it this easy but after the past week, Zen's thoughts had taken root in their minds, making them believe they were their own.
When they were sufficiently close, Zen broke off and moved closer to Clyde,slowing him down while slow prompting him to go to a more secluded location.
★I need to lay down, and no way I'm going back to the dorms where those monsters are ★
Zen cleverly caused all the previous memories of torment at the hands of his dorm mates to resurface, further reinforcing those thoughts.
With the gears in motion, Zen collected the small spider that had been spying on Clyde and fled to a location where he could see everything unfold.
This game of chess was almost over.
"Hey there" Brandon called out to Clyde.
Clyde immediately stood up in the dark alleyway like he'd seen his worst nightmare.
"How'd you find me" He asked terrified.
"Don't ask stupid questions!" Brandon said before kicking Clyde to the ground, however deep inside, he asked himself the same question.
"Enough talk! Where are my credits"
Clyde's face immediately paled as he started stuttering.
A loud sound suddenly reverberated as Clyde held his face which Brandon just slapped.
"Enough mumbling. I asked for the points i told you to get"
Seeing that Clyde seemingly had nothing to say, Brandon smiled sadistically and grabbed him by his hair and started dragging him to the darkest corner of the alley.
Clyde suddenly exploded and started begging, not wanting to go through this again.
"NO! PLEASE,I SWEAR I'LL NEVER DISOBEY YOU AGAIN! I had the credits, I swear. Some people robbed me before I could get them to you. I promise I would never lie!"
"Too late!" Brandon said as he tossed Clyde onto the cold floor.
Zen was currently watching on from the top of a building when a small black crow landed next to him with something in its talons.
"What's this?" Zen asked.
"Popcorn. I heard humans like to eat this while receiving entertainment " Black replied before pushing the small bucket of popcorn towards him.
Zen wanted to ask where he got this from, but felt it didn't really matter and simply grabbed a handful before focusing on the show.
Although what exactly was going on couldn't be seen, one could make an accurate educated guess from the shadows that showed Brandon pinning and choking someone on the ground while mercilessly kicking and punching.
Occasionally, Zen could even hear bones breaking.
"Aaaahhh! PLEASE I SWEAR,I WAS ROBBED"
*SLAP!*
"shut up and take your punishment you son of a bitch!"
The other two who were guarding the entrance burst out laughing uncontrollably.
"When do you think that asshole will realize that we're the ones who keep stealing the credits"
"Probably AFTER boss has completely ruined him"
"Him? Fat chance! Like you can call THAT a he"
The actual truth was that Zen had given them the idea to steal credits that Clyde gathered for them,so that way, they got credits, and an excuse to "punish" Clyde.
The one that had talked first suddenly leaned back to take a peek, biting his lips a bit.
Seeing this, Zen suddenly raised a brow.
"That's not right"