The infirmary at the Royal Adventurer Academy was a place of stark, sterile contrasts. The enchanted crystals embedded in the ceiling cast a clean, white light that was devoid of warmth, and the air was thick with the sharp, antiseptic scent of healing potions and cleansing salves. It was a place where the brutal consequences of the adventurer's life met the calm, orderly application of healing magic.
Celeste moved through the long, quiet ward like a being from another world. Her pristine white and gold robes seemed to repel the room's sterile atmosphere, and her very presence seemed to make the white light a little warmer, the air a little less harsh. She offered a gentle smile here, a soft-spoken word of encouragement there, her hands occasionally glowing with a soft, golden light as she eased the pain of a student who'd suffered a training accident.
She was the perfect image of the Saintess: compassionate, graceful, and divine. Every student she passed looked at her with a mixture of awe and adoration.
Her final stop was a curtained-off section at the far end of the ward. She pulled back the curtain to reveal Marcus Vance, his leg elevated and encased in a complex magical cast that shimmered with healing runes. His face, usually a mask of arrogance, was pale and sullen. In the beds beside him, Gorok and Pike were sleeping, their breathing heavy with the aid of a potent dream-draught.
"Lord Marcus," Celeste said, her voice a soft, melodic chime. "I was so sorry to hear of your… accident."
Marcus's sullen expression cracked, replaced by a flush of anger. "It was no accident, Lady Celeste! It was that F-Rank filth, Ashe! He did something… some kind of trick!"
Celeste feigned a look of gentle confusion. "A trick? But the healers found no trace of mana on your wound. And your guards… they spoke of a cloaked attacker."
"They're idiots!" Marcus snapped, then immediately winced, his anger jarring his shattered knee. "They don't know what they saw. It was him. He just stood there, and then… my leg just broke. He's cursed, I tell you. A jinx."
Celeste placed a cool, gentle hand on Marcus's forehead. A soft, golden light emanated from her palm, easing the throbbing in his leg and calming his frayed nerves. "Hush now. Anger will only slow your healing. The academy is investigating, I assure you. If there was foul play, it will be brought to light."
Her touch was soothing, her voice a balm. But her mind was a cold, calculating machine. A cursed F-Ranker? Unlikely. A strange, non-magical technique? Possible, but improbable for an untrained boy. She had heard the name 'Ashe' from the guards' testimony. He had apparently tried to 'help' them. The name tickled a distant, unimportant memory. A thin, eager-eyed boy from the Awakening ceremony. The Porter.
It didn't add up. The simplest explanation was usually the correct one: Marcus, in his arrogance, had lunged foolishly and suffered a freak accident. His pride simply wouldn't allow him to accept it, so he had created a villain out of the most pathetic person present. Still, she filed the name away. Anomalies, no matter how small, were worth noting.
"Rest now, Lord Marcus," she said, retracting her hand. "Allow the academy's healers to do their work. I will pray for your swift recovery."
She gave him one last, beatific smile and swept out of the infirmary, her duty as the campus angel fulfilled for the day. She had already forgotten about the insignificant Porter.
---
Unaware that he had briefly become a subject of the Saintess's thoughts, Zero was in Professor Finch's office. The room was a chaotic sanctuary of knowledge. Books were stacked in precarious towers that threatened to topple with every footstep, arcane charts and anatomical drawings of fantastical beasts were pinned to every available inch of wall space, and a faint smell of dried herbs and old parchment hung in the air.
Professor Finch was ecstatic. He had already confirmed the identity of the Whisperwood Cap using the academy's alchemical labs and had drafted a preliminary research proposal that he'd submitted to the Headmaster.
"The permit has been approved!" Finch announced, waving a piece of parchment with the Headmaster's official seal. "On one condition. Given the… unusual energy readings in the Fen, we are to be assigned a security escort. A third-year student from the elite track."
Zero's internal alarms went off. An escort. A witness. This complicated his plans significantly. He needed to be able to slip away to his own hidden locations, not be tethered to some overeager upperclassman.
"Who will it be, Professor?" Zero asked, keeping his tone neutral.
"Ah, an excellent student. Very diligent. Her name is Elara Vance," Finch said, peering over his spectacles. "I believe she is Lord Marcus's older sister. A C-Rank Artificer. Very talented with runes and magical constructs."
Zero's mind went into overdrive. Elara Vance. He remembered her. A quiet, bookish girl who was often overshadowed by her boorish younger brother. She was a prodigy in Artificing, a branch of magic focused on enchanting objects and creating magical tools. In his first life, she had a rather tragic end. Ostracized for her "unorthodox" and "dangerous" experiments, she had eventually been exiled from the kingdom after an accident in her workshop caused a diplomatic incident. She was a brilliant outcast in the making.
And she was Marcus Vance's sister.
This was not a complication. This was an opportunity. A glorious, golden opportunity.
"She will be joining us on our first official expedition tomorrow morning," Finch continued, oblivious to the silent machinations in Zero's mind. "Your job, my boy, will be to lead us back to the exact location where you found the specimen. And, of course, to carry the equipment." He gestured to a large, heavy-looking crate filled with sample jars, geological hammers, and arcane energy sensors.
"Of course, Professor," Zero said with the perfect amount of humble acceptance. "It would be my honor."
---
The next morning, Zero met the other two members of his "expedition" at the edge of the training forest. Professor Finch was practically giddy, dressed in a multi-pocketed adventurer's vest that looked brand new. Standing beside him was Elara.
She was tall and slender, with the same blond hair as her brother, but hers was tied back in a severe, practical ponytail. She wore a dark, functional leather tunic, and a pair of arcane goggles were pushed up onto her forehead. Her eyes, unlike Marcus's arrogant blue, were a sharp, intelligent grey that seemed to analyze everything they looked at. She held a strange, bronze-colored contraption in her hands, a mess of gears, lenses, and glowing crystals.
She gave Zero a brief, dismissive glance. "This is the Porter?" she asked Professor Finch, her voice crisp and clear. "He seems a bit… frail."
"Ah, but he has a keen eye, my dear Elara! A keen eye!" Finch boomed. "He is the one who made the discovery."
Elara's sharp grey eyes settled on Zero again, a flicker of genuine interest in them this time. "Is that so? You identified a Whisperwood Cap on sight? Most herbalists couldn't do that."
"My family taught me a few things," Zero mumbled, looking at the ground, playing his part.
"Indeed," she said, her tone skeptical. She didn't press the matter, instead turning her attention to the bronze device in her hands. "Professor, my Mana-Flux Spectrometer is picking up significant ambient energy distortions from this area. The Abyssal Mana you spoke of is very real. And very unstable."
Zero silently cursed. An energy sensor. That would make it far more difficult to access his inventory or use his corrupted skills without her noticing. He would have to be careful.
He shouldered the heavy equipment crate without complaint and led them into the woods. He didn't take them on the hidden paths he had used before. Instead, he followed a more conventional, albeit roundabout, route. He needed to maintain the illusion that he had simply "stumbled" upon the location.
As they walked, Elara proved to be a constant source of quiet observation. She rarely spoke, but her eyes were everywhere. She took readings with her spectrometer, collected soil samples, and made precise notes in a small, leather-bound journal of her own. She moved with the quiet confidence of someone who was completely at home in her field of study.
After nearly two hours, Zero led them to a small, secluded clearing on the very edge of the Whispering Fen's fog bank. It wasn't the Sunken Grove, not even close. It was a place he had scouted on his way back, a small hollow where a few of the genuine Whisperwood Caps grew, nourished by the ambient energy seeping from the Fen. It was the perfect place to feed Finch's discovery without revealing his own private gold mine.
"This is it," Zero said, setting the heavy crate down. "This is where I found it."
Professor Finch gasped in delight. The clearing was dotted with at least a dozen of the rare, silver-filigreed mushrooms. He immediately fell to his knees and began his work, his excitement palpable.
Elara, however, was not looking at the mushrooms. She was staring at her spectrometer, her brow furrowed in concentration.
"The energy readings here are… strange," she murmured, mostly to herself. "They're chaotic, but there's a pattern. A resonance. Almost like… corrupted data."
Zero's blood ran cold. *Corrupted data.* She was using the exact terminology of his own System. Her understanding of magic was clearly far more advanced and unconventional than the academy's standard curriculum. She wasn't just seeing energy; she was seeing the code behind it.
She was dangerous. And potentially, incredibly useful.
He watched as she walked to the edge of the clearing, her device pointed towards the deeper, fog-shrouded Fen. "The source is further in. Much stronger."
"Ah, we can't go in there, my dear," Finch said without looking up from a particularly large mushroom. "Strictly forbidden. Far too dangerous."
Elara didn't seem to hear him. She took a step into the fog, her figure immediately becoming hazy and indistinct.
Zero saw his opening. With Finch completely absorbed in his sample collection and Elara distracted by her readings, he activated his `[The Ledger]` skill. A new, invisible interface opened in his mind's eye. He focused on Elara.
`[Designating New Ledger Target: Elara Vance.]`
`[Creating Ledger Entry...]`
He poured his knowledge of her future into the entry.
`[KNOWN INFORMATION: Prodigy Artificer. Sister of Marcus Vance. Specializes in unorthodox rune-crafting and energy analysis. FUTURE KNOWLEDGE: Will be exiled for 'dangerous experiments'. Possesses a deep-seated academic curiosity that overrides her sense of self-preservation. Believes conventional magic is a stagnant, incomplete system.]`
As he solidified this last piece of information in his mind—her core philosophical belief—the Ledger flashed with a brilliant, white light.
`[PRIMARY PSYCHOLOGICAL FLAW IDENTIFIED: Insatiable Curiosity.]`
`[Exploitation vector confirmed.]`
`[You have gained a permanent passive bonus against Target: Elara Vance.]`
`[New Passive Skill Acquired: 'Intellectual Bait'. You have an intuitive understanding of how to pique this target's academic interest and manipulate their thirst for knowledge.]`
It was done. He now had a specific, System-backed tool to manipulate her. The first entry in his Ledger was complete.
At that moment, a muffled scream echoed from the fog.
Professor Finch's head snapped up. "Elara?"
Elara stumbled back out of the fog, her face pale. The front of her leather tunic was shredded, and three deep, parallel gouges were bleeding freely.
"Fen Lurker," she gasped, clutching her side. "Ambushed me. Its claws are coated in a paralytic neurotoxin. My… my legs are going numb."
She collapsed to her knees, her high-tech spectrometer falling from her grasp and shattering on a rock. The situation had just gone from a quiet research mission to a life-or-death emergency.