Chapter 642 {Absorption}
[Eon's POV: ]
"Vice captain..."
"Just close your eyes and start. Or else Captain Zoe will have to stand here instead of me."
"N-no! It is alright!"
He liked Zoe, or at least, it was more proper to say he admired her a lot. Which wasn't only because of the fact that she had saved him during our entrance exam, but, also because of who she was and what she became despite all that.
'The society saw Zoe as nothing more than a waypoint they could exploit to form a connection with our family. They looked down on her because of her unknown origin. The high society didn't even consider a legitimate part of our household and she had not received any opportunity to prove her talents.'
She was, for now, nothing more than a puppet that they could 'easily' exploit and this whole notion will remain the same until the midterms ends and her 'full' name is revealed to the world.
'The whole world will be shaken at that time since her official name is quite literally one of the longest ones ever in the known history of this world. And, just having this name makes her successor to not only what belonged to mom, but also everything that belonged to mom, my both aunts, my both uncles, my dad, grandpa and grandma, and of course, everything that belonged to me in this world.'
It was an empire on its own, I would say. And, she, my dear sister, was a legitimate successor of all that... not that she needed any of that. She was a divine being. And, she alredy had far more than what any kingdom or the empire of this world will ever possess.
'But that's not what we are talking about right now...'
Ball Marvin was a commoner, one that was physically not good looking, didn't belive he possessed anything special even though he had a unique skill that he was born with, he was perhaps abused and beaten up because of his looks in the past, and he had a very low self esteem.
He had seen and experances how it felt when someone talked bad about you openly. He knew just how difficult it was to deal with people, words, rumours, abuse, and all those things.
He had seen how even in this school despite her sunny nature, some people talked negative things about her and questioned her origins and existence itself.
She was adopted but she looked nothing less than a royal of the greatest empire, she was smarter than most of them, she was talented like no other when it came to her subjects, she was better than them, and, it gave birth to jealousy filled negative questions about her that he knew she alredy knew about, however, she just slimed at all the people who spoke bad of her, and said hello to them every time they met.
'She was called the 'hello girl' by the students and teachers of this academy, and, thanks to her efforts, her continuous efforts, the bad rumors and nagative attitude of people was vanishing'
They were becoming more open to her, and he had seen that happen with his own eyes.
He knew Zoe, and her attitude towards the world, and, he admired it.
"Huuuuuu."
-Ooooooooooooong!
She had helped him, and now, he considered her his royal model. Someone he would do anything to help.
That's why he was participating in this competition even though he knew practically nothing about the alchemy subject.
"AGHHHHHHH! C-CAPTAIN!"
'That's why he was ready to face this trial even though the pain and suffering of the process was going to be excruciating.'
"Keep going. Endure it. Try activating the skill."
"No! I can't!!"
"You can."
"You can do it, Ball~!"
Zoe cheered for him, and, when he opened his eyes and looked at her determined expression, as if a new surge of energy had made way into his being, he firmed up his stance, tightened his arm that was above the magic tome, and, grabbed it with his other hand.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Words of gold had burst forth the same way they had at the start when Miss MIa did it, a phenomenon that they had not witnessed after her turn. However, those words were all just hovering above him instead of going inside him like they had when she did it.
-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!
The words were just hovering above him, and, slowly, they were taking the shape of a sphere.
The Mana that had gathered around him was far denser than it had been previously, the pressure was perceivable to the people standing a few meters away from us as well. The room itself was strangely becoming hotter with each passing moment, however, the way there were vines popping up all over his head, his hands, his arms and his neck, concirrned the onlookers.
They knew something was happening, they could tell something extraordinary was going on with him.
Some believed he was in trouble however, after seeing my normal expression, they got confused and just continued focusing on him.
-ZAHHHHHHHHH...
The words had been turned into a sphere, the vains that had appeared all around his body were turning green to blue to red to purple.
They were starting to glow as well after reaching a certain shade of dark, murky purple, and, at this point, they had grasped that something was certainly up with this guy.
'Some of them thought he was in some kind of trouble, some even started feeling worried, some thought he was using some kind of dark arts, some even thought he was some kind of demonic follower or something, and some of them were just blank... but many were worried about him and themselves, and had thoughts like he would explode anytime soon now.'
Their worries were quite something, but, they did not have to have these worries.
He was alright, in fact, he was more than alright.
'[Absorption], his only innate skill and, one that was as unique as my energy circulating skill or Rein's eyes. Something that had diverse uses, some conditional and some just plain out simple as it could understood.'
It was an amazing skill according to my own eyes, something that could be used and expoited to great lengths.
'However, aside from the basic use of this skill, which lets him absorb nearly all the special properties of things that he eats, he had yet to know about the actual uses that this skill could be used for.'
Right now was the first time ever he was using this special skill in a different way, to absorb not some food's properties, however, to absorb the information that was alredy being injected into his mind.
'He was using this skill, thus the purple vains. Which I know looks unattractive for now, they were something that will change with his body and after he reaches a certain level of physical state, this skill will become a weapon that other houses will have to worry about as much as my presence.'
Ball Marvin. n))OVelb1n
Zoe found him and kept him.
He belonged to her now, even though she did not own him.
She was the only one he would loyally serve for time immortal, even if his conscious minds ever finds to do otherwise.
'He is an asset, and, I will have fun with him.'
[[ Masterrrrrr~. Don't smile like a creep! It will scare someone who sees it! ]]
[[ "I can't help it Celes." ]]
The purple wines first absorbed all the Mana around him, then the ball of golden words that were hovering in the air, came down and were covered in a strange purple murky light, and, as if a giant mew had came out of that purple light, the words were devoured completely by whatever the illusion was.
-Ooooooooooooong!
"AGHHHHHHHHHHH!"
And, as soon as the words and the golden light had vanished and the book was back to normal, a strange red light burst out from his body, and, Ball fell down to his knees, holding his head tightly, screaming so loud that all the students in the entire room stopped their training's and looked our way instead.
They were shocked, they were confused, they were spaced out after witnessing this absurd moment, however, this scream was something that made them all focus on him.
"It's alright. The pain is just the product of your imagination so stop thinking about it. You are perfectly fine Ball."
The red light surrounding him was hot, but, I had experances hotter things, so it did not bother me much when I placed my hand on his head, and my thumb on his forehead.
"Open your eyes."
I channelled some Solnova and calmed the screaming body down with a small burst of energy directly into his mind, which was small enough to only forcefully bring him back to his senses.
'This was a special eastern technique which, after a certain mastery, could also pull out the soul of a person. But I'm not at that level yet.'
We are talking about forcefully separating the physical and metal body artificially. So, of course this was a big thing which, only a few people in the current world could do.
"Good work, Ball. You managed to completely absorb ninety pages of the Book of Alchemy."
He endured pretty well, I would say.
He possessed a skill that lets him absorb any kind of thing, however, it did not mean this skill was absolute and there was no aftereffect of using it, and it also did not mean that the existing negative effects of the process were canceled.
'The skill only lets him absorb things, the shock on his mind and body were all something he will have to deal with on his own. And that's why he needed to train in both physical and mental aspect.
"However, you are not allowed to attempt this process again for a week. Focus on understanding what you have gained."
Absorption was only one part of the process of learning.
'If he was going to be the centre of operations starting this competition, he needed to know the processes, the meanings, he had to absorb the entire Alchemy subject if he wanted to be sufficiently helpful to Miss Mia. And, he could not do it with just some information that he doesn't understand at all.'
He needed to learn.
Others did as well but, others will take longer time learning everything that he could do in a span of a few weeks. So, we will focus on their individual training and enhance their individual aspects instead of just making them all a good enough alchemist.
"Listen here everyone."
Knowledge will help them go past the first two parts of the competition. But after that, they will have to be together and create things that will be compared to the masters of this field, people who had devoted decades, perhaps centuries in the art of alchemy.
"Here's what we will do starting tomorrow."
This much was enough for today since they will need a long sleep to grasp what was just encoded into their minds.
But, from tomorrow, we will start working on their individual talents, set the basic structure and rules that they will have to follow as strictly as possible, and since tomorrow is also the day the teachers will show us their familiars, we will have a basic topic to execute the first group potion brewing as well.
'Tomorrow will be a fun day and all... but, what is happening with Rein? Why do I feel like, she is genuinely angry or something?'
This was weird, but I certain had this strange feeling... I wonder why though?
