Dirt Diamond

"What?! Do you remember anything about them? We managed to save you by surprise, but they had plenty masters of hypnosis, they could've taken away any memory without you knowing."

When he came back, all he wanted was to talk to her more. He learned more of his past and more of his nature. And he thought getting his memory back would also return his lost personality. Yet he didn't. He was who he was ever since coming to Xorbia. He spent far too long as an empty shell, absorbing everything around him as he did as a child. Now that he was here, he was rather thankful that he lost his memories. It gave him the chance to lose what he was before, distrusting, greedy, and violent. These factors do play into his thinking a little, but not nearly as much as before.

Now, his initial thoughts at facing a new person were to first figure out who they were and what they wanted, as he did before, but his initial reaction would be to adopt them as a friend rather than kill anyone he thinks could be a tiny threat. Had he thought as he did before, Page would likely not be a friend, Afir might've killed him and he might've never adopted the slimes.

His old personality added to his new one, built upon an empty mind and friendly people, like a drop of ink in a vat of water. It made a tiny difference, but nothing like the vat of ink he was before.

Losing that battle wasn't such a bad thing. It led to the recovery of more of his past and his realization of who he was.

He stared at the box and the three demons flying away. "I lost this battle. But I'm fine with it."

Linda looked at him curiously but when the bomb exploded, she lurched back a little. He saw the box rattling yet it stayed strong.

"What do you mean you lost? The demons ran away." Elton asked. In his mind, he was thinking, 'I gotta make myself seem closer to Zeeth. She's interested in him, maybe if I show her that we're good friends, she'll be into me as well. Oh, I hope.'

But he genuinely did care about what Zeeth said.

"They got away. I may have cut them in half but I have no clue how demons work anatomically, they could've been fine. But I was close to collapsing. And this bomb, it would've killed me had you guys not been here. A bunch of water doesn't help that much."

Linda listened to him speak with passive face and pose, but when she released the box, she fell down. Zeeth reached over to hold her up but Elton was already there, running and catching like the wind. "Linda? Can you hear me? Zeeth, check what's under the hole. If it's still blowing up, we need to block it."

Zeeth looked over the chasm along with Eddie and Page and saw a thick black fog at the bottom. [Demon Miasma. Any living being entering this area will take constant, growing damage (25 hp/second +5hp/s/s).

-Poison damage (-15 hp/second).

-Demon curse (slowness, drowsiness, suffocation) 15 seconds.

Time remaining on Miasma: 1000 years.]

The miasma wasn't rising but it was going to stay there for a long time. Anything thrown in the chasm had practically no chance of living.

Zeeth threw a rock into the chasm, unsure of what to expect. It simply sunk into the darkness without any sound or disturbance to it. Linda put the orb down and said to Zeeth, "from what I have personally seen, I can almost guarantee your acceptance to the terms."

"Actually," said Page, "I'm going to need to see what you recorded on that orb. There are a few things from the fight that I wouldn't want the world to know about. I hope you understand."

"I'm afraid not. The recordings on this orb should be shown to my superiors."

"If you are going to hire us we must develop a mutual trust. Going behind our backs and recording that, who's to say we won't do the same after being betrayed like that. We might not take the job. I'm sure you wouldn't like to reveal all your skills and talents either. This is a matter of safety and privacy."

"You make a good point I suppose. But we must both agree on what to cut."

"Agreed. And just to clarify, I would like to request that you keep the information in the cut parts to yourself. If you would like, we could share some of our salary with you."

"Are you trying to bribe me?"

"No, of course not. We wouldn't need to bribe someone as rich as yourself, you've already got anything we could offer. We just want to extend our warmth through what we have."

"Oh, don't worry. I don't need much, just try to see the bright side of this job offer, alright? It'll help me out if you accept, too."

She sat back in her car and drove away. Parking not too far away, she began writing on a piece of paper instructions on where she was and what just happened. She put the paper on a magic circle along with the orb, clicked a small button on her car, channeling some mana in, and opened a small round portal from the circle that enveloped the two and sent them away.

In a brightly lit room with fancy chairs and a large round table, two old people sat around it. A portal almost the same as the one in Linda's car began glowing blue and purple. When the veil withdrew, a single orb on a piece of paper appeared.

Clarif, an old man, took the paper and read out loud, "this is a new recording of Zeeth fighting another pair of demons that I doubt even I could fight."

"Are you sure this kid is good enough? We've only seen one battle," a woman asked.

"Oh, give it a rest Jithin. You've argued the last five contestants, your daughter isn't going to be chosen."

"But how can we trust an outsider? My daughter knows how important this is-"

"And you also know that she isn't good enough to take this. Maybe in a few years but this will have to be given to someone more skilled with water."

A few minutes later, the recordings on the orb finished playing on the wall ending with the massive crater on the floor.

"He's good."

"Almost… unnatural."

Linda returned to Zeeth, who was checking out the missing arrow in the middle of the village. The kids returned to the adults, holding their hands. For some strange reason, he could hear Luik speaking even above the room. She repeated, "eewoo, eewoo, eewoo..."

'Page,' he called, 'do you hear Luik?'

'What do you- oh, yeah.'

'What's going on? Could you connect me to her?'

'Yeah. Luik, what's wrong?'

She stopped making the noise, startled, and replied, 'hello, children. You're in my head.'

'We made some changes.'

'I'm sorry I couldn't help in the fight but my abilities are still limited. I can't move from my pivot point.'

'Why were you making that noise?'

'What noise?'

'You know. Ee-whoo, ee-whoo.'

'What? I wasn't making a noise. Maybe it was from someone near me?'

You couldn't hear it?'

Linda tapped Zeeth's shoulder. "My bosses responded. They agreed to your request and have sent a list of possible artifacts. Please select those you want to consider and we will talk it through. They also said to make it reasonable, keep it within the original value."

A distance away, Nrubenchal landed at the entrance of Grinkhald and sat down, panting. "That was a failure. Why did you call me to such a dangerous situation?"

"That wasn't intentional. I thought I could kill him after a year of working."

"You mean tormenting the weak? That's not going to help you. You need to fight the strong. Anyway, let me do one last thing." Nru extended one hand towards Zeeth, braced by the other, and opened his palm to him like he was going to fire something at him. His hand throbbed and all the way back at Fahlhala, Zeeth felt a twinge in his thigh. He scratched the area and felt a large bump. It was a green spud, a single seed like all the others that Nru had thrown around. But this one hasn't been activated yet, but it is growing at an alarming rate now.

A text told him, [Natural Assistance (Passive) Your unnaturally high luck stat and affinity with water has connected your soul to the world deeper than ever. Your body bonds with nature and this bond allow it to help you.

Occasionally, on small matters, things in the world can move and change to go your way as your mind sees fit.]

As the seed kept growing, it also pushed against his skin but something, like an invisible hand, was also pulling it out. After a burst of energy, the seed popped out and became a full demon. His thigh stretched a little but hardly any damage was done as it was pulled out by Natural Assistance just in time.

Zeeth killed it and threw its remains into the coffin-like the rest of his materials.

Page came back with a few items on the list circled and some questions written on the side. "Don't worry, I know what all these items are and where they're at. I just need to ask a few questions but if all goes according to plan, we should be able to take all these artifacts like that time you mentioned at the black market. Really good job on that by the way, becoming friends with both sides at once."

He threw the paper to Linda who caught it midair and got in her car. A minute later, she returned with a stack of papers.

"My bosses are discussing. Now, if this is all, we should talk about the details of the job."

Far away, in a large fancy room, two people watched a video. It was a video of Zeeth smashing a drill into Rah's head, using the clouds to shoot him down.

When he landed on the ground, flowers bloomed near him and the ground shifted to move people out of his way. The floor evened itself out where he stepped to give him the greatest boost. The world seemed to twist itself for him, unnatural things just happened.

One woman said to the other, "So this is Zeeth, the Unnatural?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And the floor. Do you have an explanation?"

"No ma'am. That is why everyone is calling him Zeeth the Unnatural. The things that happen to and around him, the blooming flowers and the shifting floors, no one can explain them. Experts have reviewed the clips and have no solid reason as to why he would deliberately grow flowers. And in such a difficult battle, there is almost no chance he moved the floor on his own. We don't know how or why those things happen."

"And this man currently has no known affiliations?"

"No. He was trained by the Iron Monks but he left shortly after killing Rah and went his own way."

"I wonder… get this man in contact ASAP. I want to know everything about him, height, blood type, likes, dislikes, as much as you can. He will be a member of the Devka Guild."

"Yes, guild master Devka."

All around the world, people watched and rewatched the recording on their own orbs and hundreds of guilds wished to have him on their side.

Linda kept explaining the job to them, "there is a mole hiding in the school. His name is Dirty Diamond. Dirt for short."

"Zeeth perplexedly asked, "Dirt? What kind of parents…"

"That's his codename. He used to be employed by us. That was his nickname because he was the head of the intel team. He dug up dirt from our opponents. But he has recently gone rogue and hid in the school, his last mission area. And we are employing you because he already knows everyone in Serkle and has information on all of us that could render anyone useless. Everyone here is too scared to take him on. So we reached out to someone none of us know yet is still strong. Which ended up in you."

"He is still pretty famous. That whole Rah thing has gone crazy and the dragon defense we did surely didn't go unnoticed." Page said.

"Yes, we know. That's the other reason why we wanted someone superior in water magic. We are working on a new suit, a prototype that someone can wear to cover their entire body and change their appearance at will. Those with high water affinities can adapt and use it better.

No one on our team seems to have as high of a water affinity as you."

"Is there anything else I should know?"

"Yes. Dirt is smart, he can often tell the difference in people by the way they talk, fight, move and react. His eyes watch everything like a hawk and he can detect lies fairly easily. He blends into crowds as a completely new person extremely well, which is why he was our spy and has likely already adopted a whole new personality. He entered the school with one of our Liquid suits, the same kind of prototype we will give you to change your body, and he used the name Gorn Wilbur when he entered but that student went missing months ago. We think he kidnapped and re-entered as another student, taking their place. Use that information as you will."

"What do I do when I find him?"

"Well, if you find him then we would like for you to tell us who it is and where and then wait for us to take care of it. But the job could take months, possibly years. It could change with time and there is a chance we might have to. End him. Are you willing to kill a human?"

"Yes." He thought back to the girl he killed back on Earth. How easily his knife slid through her neck. How easily he ended someone so nice to him. He thought he could do it again but when he thought about it, his actions were haunting and he despised himself for it but when she asked, he replied with a solid yes without a second thought. That confused him even more.

"If he finds out who you are," she continued, "just try to defend yourself and run. Detain him if you can but your abilities, from what I've seen, are mostly aimed at larger, more obvious opponents. He fights like a snake, hard to hit and strikes hard, even if it's not frequently. His Talent has never been revealed to us but we know it has to do with hiding and covering his tracks. There's not much else we know. He's always been a very secretive person.