Monday morning.(The next day)
Zen woke up extra early today, though not on his own accord.
"Zen! Wake up. Today's one of the most important days of the month, you're not sleeping through it"
Xavier said as he shook him.
In regards to his relationship with his roommates, Zen could only say it was complicated.
They had promised to keep his secret for now, however only on the condition that at least one of them have to be with him at all times.
Xavier still treated him like a person, although it was obvious that he still held resentment, though not towards him.
Maximilian also seemed somewhat accepting, probably because they had both saved each other in the dungeon, however Maximilian made sure Zen knew he was keeping an eye on him.
Neo on the other hand completely distanced himself from Zen. Appearing apprehensive, hostile and even a bit fearful. He hardly spoke to him anymore, which Zen didn't necessarily mind.
Zen could guess how they all felt about him. Neo was an orphan who had to take care of his sister. After a bit of observation and deduction, Zen could guess that it was probably someone or some group bearing his mark that killed his parents. The same went for the others. Although it wasn't exactly the same, they definitely had bad memories of his mark. The only reason they even trusted him enough to leave him was because the government believed the arcade was gone forever, and the information the government had on the arcade suggested that they didn't involve children in their army. Of course, the latter couldn't be anymore wrong but Zen wouldn't be the one to tell them.
Zen woke up groggily, nodded to Xavier and walked into the shower..under the running water, Zen looked at his wrist once more and even fiddled with it a little, but got no reaction.
"I wonder when or even if it'll wake up"
Zen shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
Every morning he woke up without Black, something felt wrong. Although Zen knew this wasn't natural,he didn't see it harming him in any way.
"I wonder why we're going for the portal expedition today and not next week at the end of the month. Freya,is this common?"
"Oh yes. Every first portal expedition of the year is done a week early, although I'll let you see why for yourself" Freya said in a teasing voice
Zen quickly freshened up and got dressed before dashing towards the gym.
He had to finish his daily quests extra quick today because he might not have a chance later.
Zen quickly got in and finished his daily quests as soon as possible, even the food and water quests.
Once he was done, Zen sat on the ground and opened the message all students got last night.
[Good evening students. This message is to inform you that tomorrow morning at precisely 6:00 am we shall depart for the very first planetary beast hunting expedition. Make sure to prepare adequately]
[Galaxy: Large Magellanic cloud]
[Galaxy class: Satellite galaxy]
[Solar system: TRAPPIST-1 solar system]
[Planet: TRAPPIST-1e]
[Beast tier range: 1-3]
[Dungeon spawn rate: low]
[Threat level: low]
[TRAPPIST-1e: A rocky planet with an orbit of about 32 days]
Zen looked at the surprisingly detailed summary and turned it off. It seemed the school was starting the new students out with a low threat planet.
Threat levels were the most important things to look for when going for exploration or hunting.
Threat levels were, insignificant, which meant it was void of beasts and dungeons. These planets were one of the most rare of all. Low, which meant slight difficulty, mid, which was difficult but not absurdly so,High which signified a high level of difficulty, and Apocalypse, being the planets that had gotten overrun by so many beasts and dungeons that they had been abandoned completely by humanity.
Of course the threat level wasn't always accurate. It was made by humans after all. Not to mention that planets dungeons and beasts were getting stronger and stronger, meaning that the ranking was always being updated Zen was about to get up when the door to another section of the gym opened and Zaria came out with boxing gloves on her hands.
"Zen? I didn't expect to see you. Pretty weird how we keep running into each other,huh?"
Zen shrugged "We're in the same class"
Zaria ignored him and suddenly looked like she remembered something. She quickly sat down in front of Zen.
"Turn on your watch"
Zen didn't ask questions and extended his arm to her before opening the interface.
Zaria quickly used the hard light holographic projection to open his contacts. It was basically the same as a phone so it was pretty easy.
Looking at Zen's contacts, Zaria was suprised. For someone who was meant to be a ghost, Zen sure knew a lot of people.
Crowley
Raven
Cyrus
Mordecai
Giovanni
Wise
Chelsea
Valerie
Jenny
Zaria stopped there but she felt like there was still a lot.
She didn't ask any stupid questions and added her contact to his watch and his to hers.
"Great. Now I can contact you"
Zen nodded and looked at Zaria's contact.
"He still isn't responding,is he?" Zaria asked with obvious concern in her voice.
"Not that I can see"
Zen decided to look at Blacks status and it was the same as usual
Name: Black .
[Species: Synth-morph ]
[HP: N/A]
[Str: N/A]
[Agi: N/A ]
[End: N/A]
[State: Contraced. Unknown]
[Attention students. Expedition will begin in exactly thirty minutes. Please gather your gear and head to the portal room for briefing and transport]
"Guess that's our cue. Let's go" Zaria said,her eyes lingering on Zen's watch.
Zen quickly left the gym with Zaria and headed for the portal room immediately as he had no special gear to use.
Zen sighed as he noticed unfriendly gazes on him as soon as he entered the portal room.
A low level like him coming in with a pioneer class had obviously caused a stir, not to mention she was one of the most beautiful girls in the school. Of course Zen was equally good looking, but in a world like this, power mattered the most.
Zen immediately spotted Maximilian beckoning to him and left Zaria to find her friends.
His roommates had had eyes on him since they found him out. In fact, the only reason he was alone this morning was because they were all busy. For now Zen had to comply with them, not that he was unwilling to in the first place.
Zen saw a familiar looking metal Bo staff in Neos hands. If he remembered correctly, that staff causes electrical damage. Zen quickly checked, and just as he remembered,it had an electric sting active skill.
Zen looked at Maximilian and Xavier, realized he recognized both of their weapons. The spear that had been used by Clyde, and Xavier's gauntlets. Unfortunately neither of their weapons had active skills. Even stranger was how few people used gauntlets like Xavier.
He certainly is unique.
*****************
Zaria waved Zen off as he left to meet his roommates.
She quickly turned around and started looking around for her friends.
"Tsk" Zaria internally complained about the number of people shamelessly staring at her, especially the absurd number of degenerates among them .
"You'd think they'd be able to back up their confidence" Zaria internally facepalmed while ignoring them to the best of her ability while looking for Jade, Diane, and maybe even Celia.
She suddenly noticed Diane forcing Jade into the room while Jade cutely squirmed like a kid on their first school day ever.
"It's fine,geez. You always do this" Diane laughed while pushing Jade.
Zaria waved and ran towards her friends.
"What's up?"
"Jade's getting nervous over nothing. Again!"
Zaria chuckled slightly and put her hand on Jade's shoulder.
"Relax. We'll both be right by your side to help you"
"Promise?"
"Promise"
Diane rolled her eyes.
"Yeah yeah, let's just get this over with. It's been far too long since I've clawed a beast"
Diane said, slamming her fists together and unwittingly growing sharp claws for a few seconds before turning it off.
"Hehe, sorry about that. So are we just going to go with the three of us or are we teaming up with some others".
"What about Celia?" Zaria asked
"We tried, she's going with her boyfriend and his goons" Diane said referring to Gary.
"Then let's team up with Zen and the others" Jade suggested
Diane suddenly grabbed her hand.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Zaria suddenly pitched in.
"It'll be fine. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"
Diane just stood there frozen with her mouth ajar. They lived in a world with literally real monsters and myths, why in the world would her friend (who she hoped was sane) ask what was the worst that could happen?
"Don't be like that. Come on let's go" Zaria said, following behind Jade who was already going.
Diane eventually relented, following the other two. She still didn't know how she felt about Zen considering who he was. He didn't seem to be a threat for now, but if he ever tried something, she wouldn't hesitate to rip him open.
"So,how are things going with you know who?" She asked Maximilian,who in her opinion was the most responsible of the four.
Maximilian took a quick glance at Zen before replying.
"Pretty normal, nothing out of the ordinary"
After a few days of actively watching Zen, Maximilian understood him a bit more. He was calm,too calm. He had such little intent that the impact of his actions on his surroundings was as negligable as an ants. This especially got Maximilian on edge because it felt like someone was actively trying to sneak around, when actually, that was just Zens natural state. It was almost like Zen seemed like he was literally built for stealth. Every aspect of his mannerisms, even the way he breathes seems like it was tailored to perfection to be as untraceable as possible.
While Diane and Maximilian were still talking,Jade suddenly handed something to Zen.
It was a deck of cards
"Beatrix said these were yours. Sorry I held on to it for so long"
Zen accepted the deck without saying anything.
"Oh yeah. You left everything back home when you ran away. Most of the important stuff should have been recovered, but I didn't expect this to still be around" Freya said.
"I know it's dumb to return it a time like this but..."
"Thank you " Zen interrupted before focusing back on the strangely designed cards.
A few unfamiliar teachers suddenly entered the portal room
"Alright kids, time to go. Please line up in front of the portal
"Hey" Sable suddenly appeared behind Zen.
"Is it cool if I join you guys?" She asked being as straightforward as she could.
No one had any reason to refuse so they accepted her.
The students immediately got into a single file, jumping into the portal one by one.
A few minutes passed and it was Zen's turn to go In.
Zens eyes suddenly started glowing as he got closer to the portal . He suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice.
"This will do nicely "
Zen suddenly felt his body freeze. His hand suddenly moved against his will and stopped barely a centimeter from the portal.
[Warning! The system is being accessed by an unknown entity]
[SP is being rapidly drained]
Unlike what was expected,the portal color suddenly changed to a pitch black.
Zen suddenly felt a strange force pulling him towards the portal. He immediately crouched down, realizing he had regained full control of his body.
Zen looked around and realized it wasn't just him. Like a black hole the portal seemed to be trying to suck in everything in the room.
The entire portal room was plunged into chaos as students ran as fast as they could to escape.
"Heeeelllp"
Zen suddenly heard someone scream as they fell into the portal, realizing it was Jade.
Unfortunately that wasn't the end. Unfortunately for Zens roommates as well as Jade's, they had been the closest to the portal which was growing stronger and stronger.
One by one,each of them got pulled in. Maximilian, Xavier,Neo, and even Sable. The only three left were Zen, Diane and Zaria.
"What are you doing? You're ruining everything" The voice Zen heard before spoke up.
Zen suddenly felt like he was loosing control of his body as his hands that were clinging to the closest thing he could suddenly started to loosen. Feeling like an invisible hand was lifting his fingers one by one, Zen could only watch as he lost his grip and got pulled into the portal.
"Fu-"
He was gone
"Nooo" Zaria yelled as he fell in.
Zaria and Diane suddenly looked into each others eyes,a spark of understanding between them.
At the same time, they both let go of whatever they were holding on to, instantly getting caught in the portals pull.
They held each others hands and braced themselves for whatever was on the other side.
They were only a few seconds from getting teleported when the portal suddenly disappeared as the portal generator was shut off directly
The two of them passed through the circular device but nothing happened.
Zaria quickly got up and saw one of the teachers panting with their hands on the control station for the portals.
"What are you doing? Turn it back on"
Zaria said, accidentally raising her voice against the teacher.
The teacher was about to scold both of them when he suddenly recognized them as the second daughter of the Draconyx family and the and the third of the Leonel family.
His expression immediately became friendly as he explained submissively to the angry girls while not daring to look at their unfriendly expressions.
"I'm sorry miss, but I can't. That was a black portal,those portals lead to..."
Diane suddenly interrupted him
"Apocalypse tier planets. That's exactly why you need to open it so we can help them"
"I understand your impatience worry for your friends but i assure you,as long as we have the portal, the academy can easily find them"
Almost as if on cue.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!*
The teachers hope fell apart faster than the remains portal generator that had just blown up in front of him.
How in the world was he going to explain to the Void and Hunter families that their children had been sent to an apocalypse tier planet on his watch.
"I'm so dead"