Secrets Out

'What?' She thought, 'what is he?'

Dan pulled Ed off the chair and shook him. Only his back was struck with a single bolt and it still nearly killed him.

"Doctress, this kid needs help too."

She took her hand off Zeeth but still stared at him, perplexed, and tended to Ed. She wasn't confused by him, she was simply shocked at the damage he took.

"This boy needs more care than the last. He's almost dead. I need Safe Space."

Dan placed a hand on her back, allowing her to create a bubble from her hand that expanded to wrap around Ed's body. Zeeth was still unconscious but Pinky saw the bubble and got excited. It slithered out of his sleeve and touched the bubble, trying to absorb its power.

The Doctress felt her powers weaken a little but she thought nothing of it. Pinky had gained intelligence from Zeeth and had gotten to the point where it could read the situation and act accordingly.

It suddenly let out a gurgle of happiness and startled the teachers.

"Must've been a slime," Westiga said, not knowing it wasn't one of the slimes he registered.

In some situations.

The fifth teacher, Zafrakos Slader, was a little more suspicious. He kneeled to lift his shirt, which would've revealed his many slimes condensed into balls and a few wrapped around him, but the headmistress stopped him.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking that noise."

"It was his slimes. They're probably hurt too. Don't move anything unnecessarily, you might hurt him more."

Zafrakos didn't say anything yet he continued glaring.

Sinistra said in pitch black, "when should we kill them?"

"Not yet," Iustus replied, "their fear and fresh bodies could help."

"How about just one?"

"Fine but bring their blood. We need more power."

The next morning, Zeeth woke up in an infirmary, slightly dazed and confused. Zafrakos loomed over him and asked, "are you awake?"

"Huh?"

"Good. Then you can answer my questions."

"Zafrakos!" The Doctress growled, "not here, not now."

Almost habitually, Zeeth used God's Eye and saw [Zafrakos Slader. Professor at Bardstrem.

Condition: Disdain, hate.]

Dan walked in just as Zafrakos walked out, bumping into each other and giving the stink eye as they passed.

"Who was that?"

"A pretentious prick. You should hate him too, he was one of the two teachers that voted against you. Luckily, three voted for you and since they were adamant, the decision came to me. I said I had an opening after the last kid left and they let you in."

"Who?"

"That's not important. You should be more worried for your friend, Ed."

Zeeth saw Ed in a bed next to his, still unconscious.

Page and the rest were welcomed into the village after trading a few of Zeeth's glowing gems, something they had plenty of, for some of their common food, delighting the people. Page set up a circle in the village where he could protect himself from outside dangers and stabilize the inside. With this configuration, he could expand his powers by multitudes, given that he doesn't move. So it was only good for training and seeing more. But with the circle, he noticed a dozen people headed their way on foot. They were all clad in armor or weapons and walked in a group.

Page said to the rest, 'there's a dozen hunters headed our way. Find out what they want.'

But the hunters opened a large device, fanned it out to reveal a compass, and stepped on it. All twelve barely got in but when they did, the arrow pointed at North suddenly twisted and shot at the village. The compass began twirling and a large black, sparkly blanket wrapped them from underneath, teleporting them directly to the village.

"I told you it was enough," one girl said.

Someone retorted, "I wanted to get to the center of the village, not outside."

"That would be stupid. What if they saw us as a threat?"

"Guys!" One man shouted, "that's them!"

"Great gnat, it is! His comrades!"

Eddie and Elton looked at each other, then back at the hunters.

"You're Eddie, right? And you're Elton, and Nadaho, and Page. It's so nice to meet you! Where's Zeeth?"

"Who are you?" Asked Eddie.

"Just some fans. Do you think we could join you guys?"

"Join us?"

"Yeah, to hunt monsters and stuff."

"We don't need more people."

"But I can't leave." A woman stated, "he returned my grandfather. I swore to my god my everlasting loyalty to whoever would bring him back. I would die if I broke it now."

"The rest of us are just really impressed with what he did and want to work with a man of his caliber."

"He's the greatest! The way he used the clouds to propel and the surprise rock, AND he saved all those people. I swear my loyalty too."

"Nadaho, let's hear them out," said Page, who stepped out of his circle to talk, "how do you know us? I'm sure the videos didn't show us. We made sure not to get involved."

"Still think dumb," Eddie grumbled, mad that he couldn't get to fight.

"We heard about all of you from the monks. They shared everything they knew with the reporters after the fight. Why weren't you in it?"

"YEAH!!" Eddie roared.

Elton tried consoling him, "It was to test Zeeth's limits. Besides, you still got to fight the monks who used the metal."

Elton said on the channel, 'we shouldn't let them in. We are already a large group, allowing a dozen more would be too confusing.

Page said, 'we can't turn them away. They're free labor.'

'You want to grow this party by twelve people all at once?'

'No. I have another plan.'

Page yelled, "All of you, tell me your hunter status and name!"

"C rank! Amara!"

"B rank! Reggie!"

"B rank!…"

There were three A ranks, six B ranks, and three C ranks. Among the twelve was Cina, the orange-haired girl from Earth that Zeeth met in the tournament. He recognized her instantly, she was exactly as Zeeth described her, from her hair shape and color to her eyes and nose. He had written about her in extreme detail since he was training his animo at the time.

"And do you all know each other?"

"Some of us have been childhood friends, some we met two weeks ago on this journey to find Zeeth."

"Do you all get along?"

"Those two bicker," one woman pointed at the girl and boy who were talking about the teleport, "but it seems more like love. The rest get along fine."

"It's not love!"

They both yelled at once, blushing.

"Good. So long as no infighting occurs and isn't dealt with immediately, everyone can join."

'Seriously?' Elton asked as the group rejoiced.

"But!" Page yelled, "not with us, not this exact group. You will be forming a second team of experienced hunters."

"What?! But we wanted to fight WITH Zeeth!"

"That would cause too many issues. If we let all of you join at once, hundreds of others will see this as an opportunity and try to join. If we were to gain so many avid followers so soon, before the entire world knows Zeeth, there will be a group of people who know nothing of his acts and simply hate him for his fame. That might be small now but it will be the seed to a revolution built from nothing but jealousy and misinformation. For now, we must build his image without seeming like he's already famous. And to do that, we are going to have him do good things for the people.

For now, you guys will join in secret and build your strength with our help but when he becomes famous, we reveal that you've been with us this whole time with powerful helpers and grant you promotions. How is that?"

"So long as I serve him, I will not break the promise."

"That makes sense. But can we see him?"

"He's not with us right now. He's currently taking on another task and won't be back for a while."

Zeeth was lying in bed, feeling strange. He hadn't noticed before since he was preoccupied with being electrocuted but Draconis Enferme activated all over his body, hardened scales and organ protection covered him. But the suit he wore covered it all up and no one noticed a change in his body. He had grown a little but it was hardly noticeable.

Accompanying Dan was one of the girls in his class, Sieda.

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For ruining a dog's day."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"No. There, my thanks have been given." A white wisp left her finger and into his body.

"Um…?"

Black suddenly yelled, 'SHE'S HERE!'

'Who?'

'My greatest nemesis. WW, White World.'

'Hello, Black,' a woman's voice said to his head as Sieda began walking away, 'I thought that was you. I can't believe how weak you've grown, I kept overlooking you.'

'Hello, White, you old wrinkle bag.'

'Save the childish jokes for when you can properly fight me. Look at how small you are.'

'And I could still beat you to Higan and back.'

'Give it a rest. I'm not even taking you seriously right now. You aren't even in control of the body.'

'You're in control of the body yet you still came to the same place I am. And I still didn't detect you until you came to me, knocking on my door.'

'First of all, I'm here by choice, not misfortune as it seems you are. Second, my power was hidden by the visor, you're just bad at detecting.'

'By choice? Why would a dirty sack like you mingle with young people? You hate them.'

'That's for me to know. Have a nice day, Black. And I suggest you not be here next week.'

'What? What are you going to do?'

But she already left the room. Dan pulled out and handed him a test in the seconds that the conversation happened and said, "congrats. Your score is the highest we've seen in years. Honestly, I'm surprised at the attention to detail. You say you were homeschooled?"

"Yes, by my father in the mountains. He liked to buy books and I had nothing better to do most days."

The demon popped onto his shoulder and yelled, "Congratulations, you just lied to benefit yourself! You've done it so many times that it impresses me. Here are some points."

[For doing a series of misdeeds, you have been granted some of the Devil's Body.]

Seeing the demon reminded him, just before he fainted, Zeeth saw the angel that sat on his shoulder whisper to him, "thank you for choosing me this time. Even if you didn't notice us. You were granted my full power. I hope it helped you survive."

She vanished into a swarm of white particles that wrapped his body. [after choosing to side entirely with the angel for the first time despite using the skill multiple times, she is extremely grateful and grants you 200% of the original gifts. Only made possible by your strange use of the skill and their resulting growing individuality.]

"Good." Dan said, "Then we can continue class where we left off."

Doctress walked to Ed, poured some green liquid, and faced Zeeth.

She chirpily said, "how are you feeling? Any pain?"

"No, not really."

The moment Dan left the room, she created a white ball around them, [Silent Ball. Blocks all sound inside the bubble from escaping by having the waves collide and cancel with the ball. A skill she developed in wanting to help others by blocking the numerous tortuous screams her patients have suffered.]

She, after a moment of hesitation, said, "why?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you here?"

"Wh- 'cause I was electrocuted?"

"You know what I mean."

'What does she know?' He thought.

But what he said was, "But I don't."

"If it's to take the headmistress's life, that won't help. It's her God that's freezing the Aboriginal humans."

"What??"

In the talent room, Wistiga plugged in the talent machine and saw the number fade back, reading, "0%"

Unknown to him, Zafrakos stood behind him, peeking over his shoulder and reading it. He then burst into laughter, alerting Wistiga, and yelled, "ZERO PERCENT!! HAHAHAAA, and on the highest setting too! We were told that was almost impossible, yet he did it?!"

But Wistiga didn't share his humor. His face was that of pure terror. When he turned around, his wide eyes scared Zafrakos. "You misunderstand, professor. The machine doesn't just guess. I understand this isn't common knowledge yet but haven't you read my papers? Recent studies have found that Talents aren't random. They happen during moments of extreme dread or danger. It's an evolutionary advantage, when faced with insurmountable danger, some humans suddenly gained a boost of adrenaline and mana, carving their bodies with a permanent, new skill that's stronger than most. And there were those who didn't. They didn't survive long.

Talents are a product of extreme terror from a creature trapped in a corner. This machine tests that. It gives them a sense of danger and measures how well their body or minds take it. If you take it horribly, as in feeling extreme fear or severe damage, the machine shows a higher percentage since that level of danger has a high chance of awakening your talent. This also means that you are weaker or more susceptible to attacks. The higher the percent, the more danger the subject feels.

But to have 0% means that to him, this level of electricity wasn't dangerous to him. At all. This child's a beast."

Zafrakos tried to process it for a minute, looking around while he was thinking, and croaked, "ha, haha. Good joke. Ed's barely a royal, he can't have any controlled experiences like that. It costs money to be in dangerous fights."

"First off, it wasn't Ed this is why the machine is still a prototype, we hoped the chair could read and calculate but we don't have that kind of technology yet. This orb here," Wistiga pointed to a small orb on top of the door pointed at the chair, "is the measuring device. It measured Weld. And I don't think they were the controlled fights that you are familiar with. It's most likely real fights. You've felt a portion of the power of the machine, you understand the pain it delivers."

"But how could he be alive if it was so dangerous?! He's even poorer than Ed!"

"Money and status aren't the only indicators of strength."

Wistiga shut the door on him, staring at the orb over the door. He unlocked the door holding the orb in and pulled it out, holding an orb with a long, cylindrical attachment on it. On the side, it read Dream Catcher.

He looked into the cylinder, turned a dial, and began watching. Slowly, he put the orb back into the wall and locked it. Then he dashed out the door, flying past Zafrakos and rushing into the nursing ward where Zeeth was kept.