Zero Potential: Chapter 5

<<<<Author's Note: Happy Juneteenth, also here is the proposed cover for this work. Let me know what you think. Also, know that I will gladly accept any/all fan art for these works.>>>

Chapter 5

All night Terra tried to rest but couldn’t. As far as she was concerned, she was off to a terrible start, a type of start that the being of ultimate evil would count on in order to make it, so it succeeded once more. She had been forced to use Time magic on a store clerk, then she had completely disabled Master Chan.

Unable to rest, she instead let her mind drift to Meditation, allowing her mind to rest while she became one with the world. In her lifetimes she had spent hundreds of years in this state. In some lifetimes her time spent Meditating was greater than the time she would spend sleeping. This lifetime she made sure to do the same. Focusing her mind, she sat down and let her body slowly fill with motes of energy.

While her magical core was the largest size one could have, she always started off each lifetime with the same amount of energy she first began with. This was part of her necessity to get Meditation first thing, as it helped her to recover her natural reserves of energy. While she had gotten used to her initial state of energy from previous restarts, having a full core of energy would be essential to her future goals and growth.

Normally by now the masters would have given her dozens of essence stones to fill her core to capacity. In fact, from all her times through this lifetime she knew full well where each of the stones were. Many of the essence stones that were supplied to Terra over her lifetimes came directly from Master Chan’s private stock.

Flicker.

Terra opened her eyes, letting a blue light shine brightly throughout the room. Then just as quickly as she had the treacherous thought, one to steal the essence stones from Master Chan, Terra paused and forced her rational mind to take back over. Yes, by traditional dueling regulations all that Master Chan was and owned should belong to Terra, but that was only for officially sanctioned duels that were recognized by the school. What had happened last night was anything but a sanctioned duel. In fact, Terra was somewhat relieved that it was not considered a sanctioned duel as Master Chan had clearly been holding back, that or he actually got better as time went on. Thinking back on it, Master Chan’s movements were slow and less refined, something that the great swords master would never let happen to him.

His patterns for attack were also too predictable, seeming like he learned just one step beyond the Intermediate level and never found a challenge that truly pushed him to be a true Master Swordsman. This was concerning on multiple levels, as Terra now had to wonder just how much influence and change the being of ultimate evil had caused in this restart? Just how far back the being of ultimate evil had gone to alter the flow of time for this lifetime. While Terra was forced to begin at the same date every time, the being of ultimate evil was not bound by any such restrictions.

Rustle.

Terra’s toes twitched as she sat in silent contemplation. This was not much, in fact despite how crowded her open room was, Terra was certain that no one could hear her movement. Still, the fact that her toes twitched at all spoke to how restless her mind was. Realizing that she was unable to achieve a properly focused mind state was disconcerting, part of her wanted to fight through the discomfort, to push her mind to relax. That was the way she would originally push her mental attributes towards their maximum potential. The only problem was that Terra had already pushed her mental attributes to their maximum, thus sitting here pushing herself into a focused mind state was pointless.

As she sat, she realized one thing would not be pointless right now. Reading history books. For a second, she thought about reading her own history of the world, but then remembered her interaction with the store clerk and how she had in fact left the store empty handed. Then she thought about grabbing and reading a book from her fellow classmates. That thought too was quickly dismissed as she felt that such an act, if uncovered, would not put her in any real positive light with her fellow zero potential students. While their opinion was not necessary, nor was it particularly that important for life, no wait, that was not what she wanted to think about. That was actually the exact wrong way to think about things, as that was only perpetuating the elitism that she herself was now subject to. If she wanted to make change, then she would have to first start with her own thoughts. These fellow zero potential students were not only the most numerous, but they were also important to the way she wanted to grow this country in the future. If she was going to have a positive impact on this world, more so than just ridding it of the being of ultimate evil, she would need to create a world where even those with weaker potentials were accepted as key individuals. That start with her changing her very mindset that such people were expendable, something that she hated to admit, but began to realize she felt such a way.

Retch.

Terra felt bile coming up to her mouth as she realized what she had thought. The thoughts and processes that had been ingrained in her over countless lifetimes. The thought that someone who had a greater potential was worth more than any zero potential student, with magic or not, was abhorrent to her.

Forcing herself to her feet, she got up, and silently made her way out of the cramped bay of students. Once again, she made her movements so crisp and clear that no awoke, at least that was what she thought, until she received the system message letting her know that someone had witnessed her escape.

Stealth: Tier II: You have been identified by an expert as being able to slip away quietly. Your movement costs while trying to move silently and without being noticed are 20% easier.

Basic Obfuscation: Tier II: You have been identified by an expert as being able to slip into your surroundings, hiding your body from prying eyes. Your ability to blend into your surroundings and move away unseen is 20% easier.

With a pause, Terra realized that someone had noticed her escape, but the fact that she received the increase meant that the person who noticed her had lost track of her. Doubling back around, Terra waited and watched from the branches of a tall tree, as she did, she saw a dark haired almond skinned girl climb out after her. Nearly following her exact path that she took, but somehow getting lost at the way that Terra had doubled back so gracefully.

This was odd, as Terra had never seen such a girl before. It was clear from a simple glance that this person who moved was not in fact a person with zero potential, at least not someone that filled Terra’s traditional expectations for someone with zero potential. Then again Terra was living proof that just being labelled as something did not make it so.

The dark skinned girl made her way forward, then hiding under the same exact tree that Terra was perched in, she hid herself and began casting Divination magic. The effects of such magic were easy for anyone with a slight proclivity for the magical arts to see.

Within a second the purpose for the Divination became clear, as threads of blue mana circled out wildly, one even going straight up for Terra. Fortunately, the girl was either inexperienced with her magic, or was not fully in control of the spell, regardless of the actual case, the girl did not notice when one thread went up and tried to latch onto Terra.

Cleansing swipe.

With two fingers extended, Terra gently brushed away the thread of divination magic that tried to latch onto her.

The minute she swiped the thread of magic away, she was greeted with three more system messages.

Magical Sight Detected: Tier I: You have shown signs of having magical sight readily available to you. Any need to see the flow of magical energies are 10% easier to identify and follow.

Magic Disruption: Tier I: You have proven the ability to disrupt magic cast by others. Any attempt to disrupt the spells cast against you by another are 10% easier to perform.

Subtle Magic Disruption: Tier I: You have proven the ability to subtly disrupt magic cast by others, making it appear as though you are not there at all. Any attempt to subtly disrupt spells cast by others, while attempting to keep your activities hidden are 10% easier to perform.

Seeing the messages, they were ones that Terra had hoped to get by tomorrow, though she found it odd that a fellow zero potential student was the one who would unlock those skill perks for her. With them unlocked, her ability to excel on this campus was increased. Also, this meant that she could likely do more things to try to stand out less from amongst her peers, as most of the ways to earn these skills perks, especially early on would be by standing out and getting direct training from an instructor. Now that she had them already, it meant she could try to hide in the background.

But that did beg the question, just who was this girl with dark skin who allegedly had zero potential, and could cast what felt like an Intermediate tier Divination spell? At that, Terra wondered if Master Chan did have good reason to question why a student with zero potential was randomly training, and why they were seemingly hiding within plain sight. Admittedly, Terra had seen and even felt the skill Master Chan had used to analyze her, but she had allowed it to read her as she had wanted to get on her former master’s good side as quickly as possible. Now however, she wondered if there might have been more to her previous master’s concerns about her possibly being a spy. As that was the thought that as exactly going through her mind right now as she watched this young diviner cast and recast her spells.

“Gah!”

With each recast, Terra saw strands come towards her. Strands of magic that she instantly dispersed with deft hands, defying the will of the young expert. By now the girl had cast the Intermediate spell no less than seven times, each time it was cast perfectly, showing that this girl not only had thorough training with her Divination magic, but also had a mana pool that was larger than the regular F rank student. This implied that she too might have had additional training, training that occurred before she was screened to enter. Just the fact that she had magic available to her at all would have been enough to get her admitted here and registered, that way her genetics could be added to the family genealogy lines. But that didn’t negate the fact that this girl was seemingly purposefully hiding their true capabilities. Though the irony of such a thought was not lost on Terra.

Terra watched the girl cast her Divination spell twice more, before seeing her actively droop. It was clear that she was finally tired, which for most mages meant they were down to a quarter of their core’s actual capacity. Meaning that with nine casts, Terra estimated that her core’s natural size was at roughly a C grade, something that would be prized after by most people. Particularly when that was paired with her seemingly great affinity for Divination magic.

“Yeah, just two more hours of patrols.” The muffled voices of two guards talking while they roamed the school could be heard.

This was new, though in retrospect it should not be something of true surprise, as Master Chan had apparently just been attacked on campus. The fact that they would send out guards to monitor the area was a given, particularly since Terra knew for a fact that the actual culprit was not found.

Then smiling to herself, Terra got an idea. Moving quickly, Terra cast a slight Wind magic on her, one that propelled her through the treetops quickly and quietly.

Then with silent steps, aided by her newly improved Sneaking skill, she tiptoed her way through the window that she had escaped from, this was the same exact route that the little diviner had also used to follow her.

Rustle.

“Wait.” The diviner girl hissed out as Terra entered through the window then quickly latched it shut behind her.

Clink, clink.

The girl who had just arrived a second too late found the window shut. Now there were many things the girl could do to avoid this, she could cast a quick Unlocking spell to get the latch to remove itself from the locked groove it was in. She could use Telekinesis to move the lock, she could even use Luck magic to make it so the latch quickly jostled its way free after a few tugs. She did none of these things, either she was still too exhausted from her chain casting of Divination magic, or she had never developed a use for any of the other dozen or so spells that could help her get out of this situation.

“What is that?”

“Someone is trying to break into the girl’s dorm.”

“Might be a pervert of some kind.”

The two guards shouted, at that, Terra who was already far into the bay, used her mental focus on the window latch and cast a simple Unlocking spell.

Crinkle.

With that the window opened, and Terra could hear the way the girl was desperately trying to get into the room. By this point Terra had already put herself in her bed and waited patiently.

“What?” A girl cried out.

“A burglar!” Another girl shouted, then like that everyone in the girl’s dorm was awake, as they saw the little Divination girl enter the now open window, followed closely by the slimmer of the two guards that had found her.

“You stop right there!” The guard shouted, as he reached through the window, grabbing hold of the girl with all his strength and holding her tightly.

At that point the second guard had managed to barge his way into the girl’s hall and run to cut off the intruder.

“Illuminato.” An elderly female voice said, and suddenly dozens of light sources all flared to life illuminating the whole first floor of the room, showing a scene that was oddly comical given the circumstances. You had two school guards wearing their combat gear, and not just their typical patrolman uniforms. You had one guard pulled through the window, only stopped at their hips due to their scabbard that apparently made them a bit too wide to easily enter the window. He was through the window grabbing onto a dark skinned student who appeared to move with the grace and ferocity of a wild cat, then you had a second elderly guardsman who had charged head first into enemy territory, only to now find out that he was in fact in the middle of a dorm filled with young women, many of whom had very little in the way of extra clothing, or any clothing at all for that matter.

Then at the far end of the hallway was an elderly woman who Terra instantly recognized as Helga, the old and cantankerous woman who was in charge of watching over hundreds of zero potential females, making sure they had everything they needed to succeed in their trainings, and every advantage possible for the hardships they were to endure. From what she could tell the woman was a saint, though her current disposition spoke to her being less than enthused with her second need to be woken up in the same night.

“And just what do we have here?” Helga demanded her voice laced with the subtle art of Commanding Words.

Hearing and even feeling the power of such words against her mind, Terra could tell that there was in fact some bite to the words, but those words and their laced power met her natural mental attributes and were easily shrugged off.

“Evening Master.” The elder guard said, a faint accent filling his words as he seemed to be somewhat nervous when speaking with Helga. “We caught this one running around after dark. When we chased her, we found her here. That is when Earl there caught her, and…”

At that the elderly guard trailed off as he looked to see that Earl still clung to the girl, even though he was well and truly caught in the windowsill. Seeing the younger guard in trouble, the elder guard let his words trail off after that.

Helga for her part just let out an annoyed huff, as she quickly moved to gain control over the situation. Everyone was up and out of their beds, even the deepest of sleepers were now awake for the second time that night, as the lights and yelling once again awoke everyone up.

“You best see to him.” Helga said, gesturing towards Earl who was seemingly using his grip on the diviner girl to hold himself up.

“Right.” The elder guard said as he hurriedly went over to lift earl up and then proceeded to push him through the windowsill. There was a bit of grunting and pushing that drew light chuckles from many of the girls who hid their smiles and tried to make it seem like the young Earl was not the source of their laughter.

“And as for you, what in the world would possess you to go out tonight of all nights?” Helga said, immediately turning to square off against the dark skinned girl.

At that, the Diviner began to speak, “I went to chase after…” then her words trailed off as she recognized Terra sitting rolled up in her blanket on her bed. At that, the look of suspicion in the young Diviner’s eyes began to burn for a second, but she quickly regained her composure. Then just like that, she changed her mind, “actually, I just couldn’t sleep.”

“Couldn’t sleep?” Helga repeated.

With that the dark skinned girl just bowed her head and nodded.

“Well congratulations, now you have made it so the rest of us cannot sleep either. For this, you will be pulling guard duty with these two guards that you managed to also annoy by your antics for a month.”

“A month?”

“Yes, for the first two hours of every night, you will go out on patrol with these fine men, making sure they are safe. Also, let this be a warning that should anyone else attempt to leave here at night for any reason, they too will be forced to do the same.” Helga said, then scanning the room with her eyes, she nodded once everyone seemed to be properly frightened into submission by her statement.

“Now I trust we don’t need me to come up with ways to exhaust ourselves to make it so we can all get a good night’s sleep?”

“No ma’am.” The diviner said.

“Lights out then, I want all of you to be sleeping within five minutes.” Helga shouted.

Clap, clap.

Then with a quick clapping of her hands the lights that had been illuminated moments ago blinked out, and the girls all scampered to their beds in the dark.

Still even in the dark, Terra could feel the piercing gaze of the young Diviner piercing through the darkness and trying to latch onto her now resting form.