Oculus Spy

Sinistram and Iustus loomed over them with locks. The hunters kept breaking the hands apart or slithering away, but the entire room was a teleportation ball. Entering one side simply led them back in from another. Sinistram and Iustus snapped a stick, breaking the silence for the first time in a long time. "Can you hear now?"

The moment they heard them talk, all of the hunters felt relieved beyond belief. Despite being trapped, the sweet sound of a voice was too incredible.

"Who are you?" the Empress asked.

"We're just trying to do work for the world. Unfortunately, you are in our way. I ask that you stay here quietly, we will feed you until we leave."

"Anyone staying in a dungeon is crazy."

"We're just trying to awaken our God."

"You're trying to reawaken a dead god? That'll kill us all."

"Not all. We'll survive. He'll recognize us as his helpers and let us live."

"That's just not true."

"Our god understands all that happens in the world. Do not-"

"Iustus, look."

They both looked directly at the Dark Empress. Specifically, her hand.

"Look at what?" a hunter asked, "it's pitch black in here."

"Silence. She's another one. They always cause trouble for us. We should remove her."

"Agreed."

"Wait. maybe she can be the sacrifice. Her blood will surely be strong. It will be useful to him."

"It will. Make him even stronger."

They created a portal in front of them, teleporting themselves out, keeping the hunters inside.

One yelled, "Hey! Let us out!" but their voices simply echoed back to them.

The next morning, all of the students were gathered outside as Dande stood in front. Zeeth was Weld again, standing next to Edmund, who had healed enough to get up. He fidgeted in the suit, tugging at it under his clothes. The skin he wore wasn't the suit, that was utterly destroyed after all its contents leaked.

It was the skin that made Krem. While they were discussing, the skin began to shrink and move towards the shards, like it was alive. Dande tried freezing it to death but the skin stuck itself against the wall, trying to survive. Doctress took the shards and threw them in a bag, keeping them away from the skin.

"What the hell is that?"

'It's immortal. Keep it,' Black said.

'You're telling me this now?'

'I didn't feel it before. The mana of the shards was too intense. It's not like I'm always looking for immortal traces, you should be glad I noticed just now.'

'Is it dangerous?'

'No, it just wants to live. Take it.'

Zeeth grabbed the skin and said, "guys, I'll keep it safe."

As he held it, the skin moved up his arm like dough, coating and changing as it moved. He almost tore it off before realizing that it was creating what he looked like as Weld.

'Krem saw you as Weld and saw you turn to Zeeth, it must've connected you two and is trying to seem useful. It just wants to live by mimicking others.'

"What kinda plot armor is this?"

'It's not plot armor if you weren't going to die. It's just convenient. Otherwise, you would have to go around as Zeeth, which wouldn't be so bad.'

Black read all his memories when he was on Earth and knew about all the stories he read, all of the manga and anime he watched as a child. Plot armor and lucky chances were annoying, but his luck is literally beyond anything else around, getting lucky was part of who he was and he couldn't change that.

Dande said, "tomorrow, the annual festival begins. Where every student fights each other for glory and riches. Anyone who wants to join is free to sign up. Except for one change this year. In the end, all students get to fight a teacher of their choice. Losing to a teacher will do nothing to your score, but beating a teacher, and you earn 500 more points."

Students murmured to each other excitedly but she yelled, "And one final point. Will anyone volunteer to be our One Fighter this year?

No one? Again? Remember, the rewards you reap are immense."

Ed whispered, "no one gonna wants to be that guy. They always get pummeled half to death."

"Yeah." but Zeeth knew what was going to happen. The One Fighter was a game they had every year but it's usually skipped because it was one student fighting every other student who signed up. The more people they beat, the more they earned, except they wouldn't be let out until they either passed out or beat everyone, although the latter almost never happened because the people who signed up were awarded something if they beat them so nearly everyone signed up, overwhelming the one student. The people who chose to fight were strong but were always left crippled and almost fatally wounded by the excited students. The riches they earned often didn't seem worth it.

But this year, they made it a special event. Dande continued, "this year, the One Fighter will be whoever wins the tournament. And the students they fight will come in waves of increasing numbers. All other teachers will be watching, and if the winner beats all the students, they will fight any teacher who volunteers, myself included."

"What?!"

"We understand that the student may be tired, so we will have Doctress heal him or her before every wave. The rewards for completing each wave will be posted on the billboard. This year, it will be much easier for the One Fighter, but they must fight their way up."

"This tournament is going to be so ugly." Ed remarked, "this is where all the nasty students release all their pent-up frustration, which they have a lot of, and release on other students more than they need to. Sometimes, they bribe or get to know the teachers watching so they won't intervene and the referees even cheer them on when they beat others. And now she gives them even more incentives. I think I'm going to step out this year."

But Zeeth knew this was to drag out Dirt. During the tournaments, he would be tired out and the teachers would be busy watching. The principal was usually alone in her office and they made sure everyone knew that. She slipped in "other teachers" to exclude herself from watching, something they knew Dirt was going to pick up and try to target her then. He had the suit so he could sneak in as someone else.

That day, everyone headed off to prepare for the tournament. Zeeth led Ed to Wistiga's office to continue with their blueprints. Ed marveled at all the pictures and complex designs.

"What are all these?"

"Blueprints for our new ideas."

Wistiga popped out from a table, "I think they could revolutionize the world. The ideas are phenomenal. The only issue now is actually making and testing them."

"Make sure to keep this a secret. We don't want anyone else knowing about it."

"Yes! This is so cool! Is it just you two?"

Zeeth waved, "And Hetio."

"Oh, the silent librarian?"

"Silent?"

"Yeah, I never see him talking."

"Maybe you just never see him at all. He only stays in the library."

"Oh, yeah. That makes sense, I never go there."

"Speaking of Hetio," Wistiga stacked paper and pens on a table, "we need to meet him at the library. He said he had another book to recommend."

'Speaking of books,' black pulled up the memories that White wiped, 'she wiped this from your head too. Sorry, I couldn't detect her from so far away, she had so much more control and power.'

'That's fine.'

It was the book on the Beauties of Circles, Ancient Arts. he had read about the ancient creator of circles, Thuilug. He used his knowledge of circles to destroy five ancient kingdoms, pitting them against each other and escaping like the wind, only to reveal all of his secrets in a scroll after his death. The first circle he made was an explosive one, which was later revealed as a messed-up version of a circle. The explosion was an accident he discovered by crossing the wrong mana paths, that sort of stuff has a million variations and only uses friction to invite rapidly moving particles.

But in his scroll, after he brought down all the nations that banned him for trying to sell his knowledge, he spent the rest of his time creating more circles, teaching the world about it, and occasionally mentioning the Giants. Many think he learned about the circles from Giants and was kept alive because he could draw circles smaller than they could but there isn't enough from his ancient language to really know.

Hetio slammed four thick books onto the table, yelling, "these help! They talk about space stuff, how to theoretically make things to withstand space, how to get things there safely, how to store mana and keep it compact in the cold. With magic, we could bang this stuff out in a few weeks."

"Really? A few weeks? That's so fast." Wistiga held the satellite blueprint, sparkled in his eyes.

"Yeah, this stuff is important. Hey, Ed, we met once in your first year, remember? You were looking for the bathroom and ended up in front of the library."

"Oh, yeah."

Wistiga slapped the blueprint in the center of the desk and yelled, "Let's work!"

For the entire day, the four of them spoke, learned, contemplated, and argued, all while the sun went up and down, without realizing how fast the day went by. Zeeth pointed at a ball configuration for the center of the windmill and said, "this doesn't need to be so large. If we apply another metal rod in the center, all the power can be directly transferred to the battery."

"If we tried that, the entire thing could shatter. The probability and risk are too high for this to be profitable."

"Not if we carve using circles. Dwarven techniques can easily remove the center of the core without damaging the crystal."

"Do you know dwarves that are readily available?"

"Yes, and I can do it on my own."

Wistiga and Ed leaned in, "you do?! You can!?"

"Of course. That bat-" he began to explain the battle of the tree demon but he remembered Ed and Hetio didn't know. Although he was suspecting Hetio knew more than he let on. He didn't seem surprised by any of his strange abilities, like when he revealed that he knew most basic dwarven blacksmith and circle techniques.

"Who the hell are you?" Ed asked, "you know so many things."

"Heh, I had an adventurous life."

"Too bad I can't do all that. Sorry for not being much help, guys. But I can convince my parents to fund the project, you won't have to worry about the money once they know how promising it is."

In an attempt to lift his spirits, Wistiga pointed out, "And the heat you can apply to our machines will help tremendously, we won't have to search for some active volcano to melt these metals now."

"Look at that," Hetio remarked. "The sun's gone."

The four walked to the large window, watching the sky turn darker blue.

Up in Karkov's mansion, giant eyeballs floated about, patrolling the area like soldiers. The stems on their back were black instead of red and purple like someone cut them off and replaced them. Beyond a burnt, castle door, Karkov sat lazily on a chair, leaning his head on one fist. He muttered, "which kingdom have we not sold the information to yet?"

A demon standing at the bottom of the steps, far below him, shouted, "Melanis. We're still negotiating the prices. I recommend giving into their prices."

"Ah, my homeland. Keep negotiating. Try to get as much as you can."

"They're resilient. If we want them to know this as soon as possible, we should ask for less."

"Why do you talk back so much, new guy?"

He didn't say anything.

Karkov sighed, "we need to make sure they don't question the validity. This is important information, if we sell it for a low price, they will question it. And in time, we will force all the kingdoms to self-destruct.

He smirked at the thought of burning, useless land covering the planet.

"And is the other thing in place?"

"Yes, the merchant is arriving now."

In the small city of Lyphen, a merchant pushed his cart through the busy streets. Two children playing around ran into his cart, pushing open the flaps and revealing stacks and stacks of papers, nearly toppling them. The kids fell down but the merchant angrily ran over and screamed, "what the hell are you damn kids doing, huh?! Trying to steal my stuff?! There's nothing here for you to steal! SCRAM!!"

The girls ran away, nearly crying from the interaction. People on the streets stopped to stare but quickly looked away when he glared at them. He continued pushing as if nothing happened all the way to the sizable, round building that stood in the center of the city. He showed the soldiers his identification and was let in, towing the cart with him after their inspection. Giant eyes watched him from around the corner as well, attached with the same black things around Karkov.

A white-haired, black person in float clothes greeted the merchant with a cheerful smile, "welcome, Merchant Ruel."

"Oh, that's my mother's name. Just call me Cyn."

"Gladly, Cyn. Welcome to the town hall of Lyphen. I'm Evren. I'll be your negotiator today."

"Great, let's get started. If you really offer what you said you did, I'll be set for a year!"

"Haha, we didn't lie. We can certainly pay that much, we just have to confirm your validity."

"I can assure you, I enforce the utmost caution and professionalism when performing my tasks."

"That is good." He put his hands together and smiled, "Could you please come to my office first?"

"Yeah, let's go," he pushed his cart along with Evren.

Karkov asked, "you made sure to get the most determined merchant you could?"

"Yes, sir."

The merchant sat down in front of Evren's messy desk, strewn with papers and writing. "Terribly sorry for the mess, we had quite the ordeal yesterday and it was just resolved.

Could I offer you a drink?"

"Oh, yeah, thanks. Anything you have."

"Good," Evren tilted his head, "please wait here while I get something."

He swept past him and left the room almost like he was gliding, shutting the door behind him. His office had no windows and was decorated beautifully, except for the desk. As his eyes wandered around, Cyn got bored and tried reading some of the papers. There were some city taxes and payments but none of it affected him.

As he kept reading, however, a few things caught his eye, like their charges per merchant or information selling. One page, in particular, attracted him enough to actually grab it and read the entire thing. It was about how much they charged neighboring nations for something called, "Oculus Spy."