"What..?"
"Yes, I know something about the *humanoid* that killed your wife."
God finally…
We can avenge her death by tracking this person down.
"Pit, I'll tell you more about it. First, I've to test those two kids right?"
>>
I wake up to the loud snoring of Heet.
Cute.
Oh fuck, we only have 5 minutes left.
"Heet, wake up."
She finally wakes up and I can stand.
Legs, I'm so sorry for the mistreatment…
"Get ready, by now, the headmaster should be at my house."
"Yeah I got it."
We fully sprint and reach with a minute to spare.
"Hey Uncle, I'm home!!"
The door opens to reveal the headmaster of Zahl University.
Wow.
He just has this atmosphere around him that makes him look friendly but very dangerous. The image I had in mind of a headmaster is very different from reality. He looks to be in his 20's, slightly lean, but I can see the abs and the muscles through his robe. His beard is also incredibly well kept.
From what I've heard, the headmaster position hasn't been changed since the past 20 years.
The math isn't mathing.
"You must be December, and you must be Heet."
I think I should bow.
"It's an honour to meet you, Headmaster."
Heet just stays there.
"Oh we don't bow. Let's shake hands. Besides I've heard a lot about you December, and especially you Heet."
She tenses up slightly.
He's referring to her brother.
"Yes, it's been a while Headmaster."
She looks very stressed out. What's the story behind her brother…?
We sit at the dining table. Uncle Oris serves everyone lunch.
"Pit, you've outdone yourself. This jerky is amazing."
"Ah thank you, I learnt from the best!"
Just eat the food in peace..
I place my hand on Heet's leg to calm her down. This "brother" situation is such a mystery to me. I really don't know why she didn't tell me anything about her.
I look up at her and see her completely pink.
Ah, this looks so bad.
She smiles and goes back eating.
At least she didn't misunderstand.
>>
"December, I'm genuinely shocked you know?"
"May I ask why, Headmaster?"
After lunch, we were called to the backyard of my house. Apparently this is where he'll be testing us.
"You aren't from any Defined family, but you've still somehow awakened. You're truly someone who intrigues me!"
"I'm glad you feel that way."
He didn't mention anything about memories. Either Uncle Oris didn't tell him, or he knows something about it too and wants to talk about it in private. Too early to jump to conclusions.
The headmaster sits on the ground.
"Show me your function."
I was expecting something else, like trying to snatch some bells away from him. This is fine and actually very beneficial.
The runes in my arm begin to glow, as the folds of my right arm sleeve begin to tear off. I decided to only imbue a tenth of my Domain, so I can mask the exponential nature. From what Atlas told me, people with Transcendentals get a whole lot more homework and after school meetings with the faculty.
Besides, isn't the Savant an ex-student? I'll jog up his memory with this.
I aim to the open fields Infront of me.
I take a deep breath, cock my arm back.
﹝Singularity﹞
The sound is much more bassier than before, because the pressure waves are actually colliding with the environment. The trees in the distant rock back and forth as some of the plants get uprooted.
I controlled it!!
No side effects of Set Theory.
It really seems as if this is a permanent change.
Even though it still hurts like crap, I take it as a win in my book.
I turn back, and look at Heet, her eyes forming hearts, but not for why some would think. Headmaster looks at me in shock.
"Hahahahah! You, my good friend, are incredible. That's singularity. I'd know, since Kela used that against me several times during training. She used to be my direct disciple, you see?"
Aunt Oris really was a unit.
I think he is sufficiently satisfied.
"What actually is your function?"
I don't know how to answer this. I really wanted to hide the fact that I'm an exponential, and it'll be suspicious if I tell him addition and multiplication. It wouldn't make sense at all, seeing as how I'm not her son biologically.
"Multiplication."
This should be enough.
"I see… So you've learnt the trick with singularity and even though you couldn't have the same output as the Savant, it's really good.
Hmm..
Hmmmmm…"
What is he on?
"Yes, you seem to be a 3rd degree. That's impressive as the starting point…
Outright using your function itself to boost your attack stat sounds easy but only Kela could achieve it, through her methods…
You seem to be less battle thirsty than her, which suggests a high level of innate learning curve…"
This must be why he's the Headmaster. Also, I'm a third degree??
Most Defined start off as linear, i.e they are first degree. This helps in letting them explore their function and lock in their style. The same can be said about second degree, but very rare. Third degree is basically prodigy levels, who can sometimes even use advance techniques.
"December, answer me this.
When you face something impossible. How will you make it possible?"
This guy is missing the entire toolbox. What kind of-
Oh..
"Nothing is impossible. We just assume it's improbable to achieve it."
"Even if we know that, what should we do next?"
"I don't know about what others would do.
But,
I would relentlessly search and search for the answer even if it meant I'd die. Everything in this universe has rules, and we know the rules. If we can't find the answer with everything laid out, we are simply blind."
The headmaster smiles. I can feel the rush again, I feel buzzing inside my head. His heart begins to beat harder and harder, his mind boggled by my answer. I can read his emotions again.
"Excellent. Not everyone has that determination and curiosity. You pass with flying colors."
YES!
I did it!
But it feels too easy. I think he already found out the true essence of my Function. He could tell my degree, so finding out that I used 10% of my Domain is easy. I think I'm going to be in a world of pain soon. Almost as if to answer my question, the headmaster winks at me, gesturing with his finger going up in the air, tracing the exp graph.
Shit.
"Heet, it's now your turn. Showcase what you can do."
"Yes."
She turns invisible. Thanks to her practice, she can hide her footprints as well as the sound of them, which can help immensely im espionage.
My head is still in that flow state. I can see the icy domain Heet has. It seems that the headmaster can somehow sense it too.
His eyes are right at her feet, as she is within arms reach of him. She tries to leap at her, but the Headmaster sidesteps away. She went at it again and again, but he kept on dodging.
"You sure you want to duel?
If you touch my back even once, you win."
As he said that, the headmaster pulls out a pocket watch.
"10 seconds should be good enough for you,
right?"
The domain slowly seeps into Heet's feet. She explosively accelerates towards the headmaster, his eyes now madly searching for her.
Suddenly, footsteps appear, supposedly making a bee-line towards the headmaster.
"You're too confident with your Capacity, Heet. Don't tell me you ran out already, using your Function and Domain Boosting."
"My humble apologies."
I could hear her, behind the headmaster with her hand on his back.
That was amazing..
How did she do that?
Maybe, in the beginning, she went straight for him, and she didn't hide her footsteps at that moment, but then she hid them again during him dodging.
As she was approaching him from the side, she appropriately made the footsteps visible, to bait the headmaster into thinking she was exhausted or her capacity was too low.
It gave her the best optimal path. She took advantage of her incredible speed and her using her Function externally for me did appear as if she was walking Infront of him.
Wait, could the headmaster see what I see?
I need to talk with him about this. He might have answers to a shit ton of questions I have.
"Heet, you were excellent. Calling your bluff, especially with a skill set like yours, certainly threw me off. Not to mention, the efficiency of Domain Boost is off the charts. You have passed with flying colors!!!"
Heet jumps with excitement, and turns to me.
"See? I wasn't just laying around at home!"
"Good job, both of you!"
Uncle Oris hugs the both of us and practically lifts us up.
"Thanks Uncle! But it hurts."
"My bad, kids."
Heet and I brush ourselves off, while the headmaster laughs.
"You two will shake up Zahl Academy for all I know. You' ve already learnt what the first years are taught and applied them purely through experience. I hope you'll enjoy Zahl as much as Kela or Uvi."
Is Uvi Heet's brother?
Judging from how she's reacting, yes.
We both simply nod.
"Pit, I had a great time here. Thank you for inviting me here. Ill send letters on how your guys are doing."
"Glad you came here today Headmaster."
>
After Headmaster left, I dropped Heet off to her house, and her mom was there. We all drank some concoctions that all three whipped up, wasn't tasty but was damn fun.
I look at my right arm.
I want to try it again, using set theory to modify my body. This could easily be a cheat code in Zahl. There are so many red flags though.
1. The pain after using Set Theory is unbearable.
2. I don't know about any of the limitations, and any penalties if I do cross the limits.
3. It's not fun to learn with everything granted.
In this world, we need to be intuitive with what we do. In a simple test, formulas and calculations is something anyone can do, they just need to memorise and memorise, super tedious. Functions don't straight up become powerful, it's all determined by its range. No one can be strong if they don't explore and become curious with their own Function.
I can do the multiplication addition combo only because of Aunt Oris. Her explanations made it so easy to understand how her function works. That and me directly observing what she does. That is not the true essence of my Function. It's something much greater, much scarier.
I need to be in some sort of isolated training, to figure out what I can really do with this new Function.
>>>
[Atlas's POV]
I'm completely devoid of contact with anyone but Master Crey and his butler, Steve. These past few days, all I've been doing is trying to land a hit on him, lord knows how hard that is. I was instructed to not use my Function and only Domain Manipulation, making things even harder. His Function isn't even related to movement, or as he told me. He actually didn't talk about his Function.
Sketchy...
>>
Day-19
I've failed again. All he's been doing is dodging and occasionally boosting his movements with DM. What am I missing?
Generally speaking, thanks to my wonderful vacation to the world of Snairs, I have gained a lot of experience regarding Domain Boosting. For some reason they all tend to zero when facing Crey. Whenever I throw a punch, he just dodges and throws a punch back, knocking me out clean.
It's maddening.
It's time to enter his wonderful backyard. The entire grass has been practically trimmed, thanks to the two of us. The hills roll high into the landscape, revealing huge clouds which never bear rain.
In the middle of the naturally well-kept lawn, is the owner himself, waving to me.
Remember what you're training for Atlas.
It's all for her.
"Atlas, I take it you've no intentions to let me win with a clean slate, right?"
"Yes sir."
I take my stance as he does too.
"I hope you're ready *master*."
"You've said that 18 times already..."