For the first time in a really long time, I was woken up by my sister.
“It’s time to get up Zenith” She said into my ear, suddenly waking me up.
Still groggy from being asleep, I yawn while looking up at my sister. “Aria, is that you? I ask. I was fused as to why she was in my room.
“Of course silly. I woke up before you and wao e wake you up” she said in an overly sweet voice.
“Really, did Anthem being mad yesterday really ge you?” I said, rememberierday m.
“Nope, pure ow e os hang out before we have stuff to do today” she said, pulli of bed.
“Alright” I said, getting up. Before I leave my room, I decide to grab my phone. But I couldn’t find it. I normally lie my phone plugged in on my bed while I sleep. “Aria, have you seen my phone?”
“Oh, it’s right over here” she said, handing it to me. “Must of left it an your desk”
“Thank you” I said, taking my phone from her. When I turn it on, I see several uexts, all from Mana. I don’t remember getting any of them st night.
I had no other texts from that time st night so I robably already asleep or put my phone down.
When I opehem, I saw about a dozes just saying ‘hey’. She didn’t say anything else, probably just trying to start a versation.
While I was walking down stairs with Aria, I sent a text back to her.
‘Sorry, I think I was asleep when you texted’
Then I tinued downstairs with Aria. We found our parents doing the same thing I saw them doierday. Mom reparing breakfast and dad was reading the neer.
“Oh, good m, Zenith and Aria” mom said when she saw us. “Wait, Zenith you know you let your sister sleep in, you didn’t have to wake her up yet”
“Actually, she woke me up” I told mom.
This left both of our parents staring at us.
Eventually dad spoke up,”Oh my, after 22 years and all it took was Anthem saying a dumb ent to have you get up on your own”
“Ok, what's with all of you thinking this is because of Anthem. None of you think that I could just have something to do today?” she said, exasperated.
“I mean, you have pns this early, you had perday and still almost slept till noon, if Zenith hadn’t woken you up” Mom said.
“These are different pns. I need Anthem for them so I o be up before him”
“Well, breakfast is almost ready. If you want you go wake him up” Mom said.
“You know what, as much as I sleep ih also wakes up Anthem most ms. I say we just let him sleep and see how long it sts”
“Didn’t you just say you had pns with him?” I asked.
“Yeah but that is ter today. I just o wake up before him for it”
“I don’t uand”
“Well, it's not important for you to worry about it” she said, rubbing my head. “Let’s help out mom”
So the two of us helped set the table. And quickly breakfast was finished.
“Ok, i’ll give you 10 more minutes before I go up and wake Anthem up myself” Mom said, making it clear that we ’t have breakfast without him.
While we waited, Aria and dad were talking about the news and I was on my phone. I was staring at my versations with Mana. She still hadn’t opened my text.
Thinking ba it, Mana and I have never had this problem before.
Whenever she would text me, I would respht away. And that not being the case right now was messing with me.
As I tio watch my s, Anthem came dowairs, without anyone waking him up.
“What the hell, did I sleep until noon?” I heard him say it whe down stairs. I heard what he was saying, but didn’t really prehend them.
“Nope, just woke up before you” Aria said ba.
“And you look just as good as yesterday. What was that about beauty sleep”
“You two, we talked about this yesterday” Dad said.
“Yeah, be better in front of Zenith” Mom then said.
“Yeah, yeah, just messing around with her” Anthem said.
“Yeah, same. And you know that, right Zenith?” Aria said.
I just tio stare at my phone.
I was scared that Mana was mad at me. For so long, Mana was my best friend. If she was doh me, I didn’t know what I was going to do.
So I just kept staring. I was thinking about sending aext, when I heard something loud.
“ZENITH!” Aria yelled, snappi of it.
“Huh, what?” I said.
“You’ve been staring at your phone for a while. We’ve been trying to talk to you”
“Oh, sorry. I got a text from Mana st night, and I didn’t see it until this m. I’m just waiting for a reply to the one I sent her”
When I said that, all of my family looked at each other.
Then mom said, “What did she say? You don’t really talk about your versations with Mana that much”
“She just said hey a dozen times. I think she was trying to start a versation. And for the most part we just talk about what's going on in my life. The st time we talked it was about Mia and Noah, and one quick text on christmas”
“So, you haven’t heard from her in a few days and the st versation you had with her was almost 2 weeks ago? Why are you so focused on it?” Anthem asked me.
“I don’t know. She's my friend. That's about it”
“Well, you try texting her again ter, okay” Aria said.
After that, I put my phone down, and had breakfast with my family.
After we finished, I headed out for the day, back to the slime cave the own over.
?
After Zenith left for the day, Aria called over to Ao talk to him about what happehe night before. She respected that he didn’t want their parents to know about his retionship style, so she had to do this in private, thanks to how close the topic is to that.
“Allright man whore, whose number is this?” She asked him, showing him the number who texted Zenith the night before.
“Um, I think that was that girl Abby, from Zeniths school and Mia and Noah's friend group. She gave it to me when I saw her at the Christmas festival. I think she has a crush on me.” Anthem replied, not hiding anything. “Why?”
“She sent this to Zenith yesterday” Aria said, showing him just the text she sent, not Zenith's reply.
When he read it, his eyes went dark.
“What the hell was she trying?” he eventually said.
“I don’t know but we might o do something” she said. “And there is another issue”
“I meah was texting Mana this m. Shouldn’t you worry about that?”
“I think this might be reted to that.” She said, pulling up Zenith's reply to Abby.
Anthem spent some time reading the reply, shocked by the nature of the texts.
“I’ve never seen him talk like this”
“Yeah, but have you ever seen someoell him to stop hanging out with you before? You know how much he cares about us.”
“Yeah, but what are we going to do?”
“Talk to the involved party. You o call up Abby to meet.”
?
When I got to the dungeon, I sed my Id with a different attendant and walked into the dungeon.
My first goal of the day was to finish the level for a defense and attack boost. Defense robably the easiest.
So I decided to ge up my strategy. When I found my first group of slimes, I just let them attack me.
There were 6 of them and all attacked at the same time. And 13 loops ter, I hear a message from my status.
Defense Boost Lv.1 has leveled up!
After that, I quickly rush the 6 of them and kill all of them, 2 hits each.
The message from the status remains the same.
When I look at my status I see the ge.
Defense: 21 + 2 - (3)
Defense Boost Lv.2 - 0/2000
The EXP for attack, lud speed both went up as well. My idea about speed boost was being more clear. It would gain EXP whenever I pushed my speed, not just run a little.
With this I do some quick math and figure out that I o kill around 140 more slimes to level up attack boost. The normal amount that spawn together on this level is 3 so that would be 47 groups I would o find. But after that I could just rush the finish.
But if I go down one level I would only need 24 groups.
So that's my pn, rush the sed floor and then run around there killing as many slimes as I could find. And now doing it without getting hit.
?
Abby was currently in her house, looking at the texts that Zenith had se night.
Abby was a member of the proup, but was also kio the less popur people as well.
This led to her not really being disliked by anyone.
So this was the first time someone had ever directed this much hate towards her.
But a few things stuck out.
“There brothers?” she asked herself. Thinking ba it, it should have been obvious. It makes sehat Zenith Bck is the younger brother of Anthem Bck.
She was also hung up on the part about the irlfriend. She had met A a club where men serve the women to raise their self esteem, but she didn’t know he was that type of person who would have multiple retionships.
But trying to focus oher thing, she thought baia and Noah, the people who used to be friends with Zenith. They should have known that Anthem was his sibling, but they never said anything.
So Abby makes up her mind, and calls Mia to ask her about it.
Whes an answer, Mia sounds kind of out of it.
"Abby, what's up?” she asked right away
“Hi, Mia. I o ask you a question about Zenith” Abby said right away.
“Oh, um ok. What do you o know?”
“When you were friends, did you know that he was Anthem and Aria, the two S-css hunters who did our orientation, younger brother?”
“Yeah, didn’t you?... Wait, what do you mean ‘were’ friends?”
“No I didn’t. I don’t think I know anything about Zenith, much less his family”
“...”
“Mia”
“You didn’t answer my question, what do you mean ‘were’ friends. Zenith and I are still friends” she said with a very dark tone. Abby could make it out over the phone.
“I mean, you started dating Noah. That means that you chose him over Zenith” Abby said.
Mia didn’t say anything for a while. About a mier, she finally said, “I o go now” and hung up.
This left Abby still with questions and only one pce to go. But before she could call Noah, she herself got a text from Anthem.
‘I think we o talk’
?
Level 5 Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
Strength Boost Lv.1 has Leveled Up!
“Finally” I said out loud, having finished my main goal for the day. It didn’t take me that long to finish but it also meant that I could move to a different dungeon starting tomorrow if need be.
My luck boost was also getting closer to leveling up, about half way and speed hit 75.
From there, I run to the end of the dungeon. Since I fihe dungeoerday, I already knew where the stairs to the st level were. I quickly make it there and kill the slime in just o this time.
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
From my uanding the stats for the greater slime look like this.
Name:Greater Slime
Hp:10/10
Level: 10
Strength:10
Defense:10
Speed:10
Intelligence:10
Luck:10
NamelessAlter
As the slime levels up, it doesn’t get anymore HP but the material that makes up the slime gets stronger. It turns from a slime to greater slime at level 10, but has no major stat ge. Apparently it gets a tack but I have yet to see it. After I finish up I gh the exit gate.
Before I start my run, I pull out my phone and start a timer. This is going to be helpful for when I do my math , to figure out if moving to a new dungeon might be better.
So I start my run, this time ign all other monsters and going right to the boss room.
?
Anthem agreed to meet with Abby at a cafe, the same one frequented by highschoolers.
When they both got there, they sat together. But it was a while before aalked.
Eventually, Anthem spoke up. “Ok, I think a good pce to start would be for us to apologize for what Zenith said to you”
“Oh, um thank you.” Abby said back.
“But I o know, why did you send that text in the first pce?”
“It was a suggestion. Make sure that you don’t spend time with him”
“Why would you do that? He is my family, I’m going to spend time with him”
“I didn’t know the two of you were reted, at the time. And beyond that, I saw what being close to him did to Mia.”
“What do you mean? What's this got to do with Mia?”
“She spent so much time with him. It was ruining all of her other retionships. That's why Noah tried to make it so they wouldn’t spend time together anymore.”
“So, you think that because she spent time with him, that would ruin her retionships?”
“Yeah. I mean, if you don’t know, Zenith isn’t really a good person. Everything Mia talked about for a while was him. What he would think about things. Hoould react. I didn’t agree with how the other treated him, but even I knew not to be close to him”
“What your describing has nothing to do with him though. Mia just had a crush”
“No, Mia is in love with Noah. This ulling her away from that”
“Are you sure? I have seen Mia and Noah together. She seemed close, but not in love”
“No, Noah told us. They grew up together. Best friends from childhood. Then randomly Zenith moved to their school and started to pull Mia away, like some kind of parasite. It wasn’t until retly that Noah was able to get Mia to have more friends than just them.”
“So thats what happehank you Abby, for tellihis.”
After he said that, Anthem got up to leave. But Abby stopped him.
“Wait, what's going to happen with the two of us?” she asked in desperation.
“Oh, yeah. tact me or my brain, aime, I will have a much less calm versation with you.” He said, anger filling his voice, a.
?
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
It took me about 30 minutes moving at top speed to run through the dungeon, without killing any other monsters. I had about 4 more hours until I o go home, so my pn became simple. Run the dungeon as much as possible a as much SP as I could. I would do some other stuff ter to figure out if I should ge pns.
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
Level 10 Greater Slime has died
0 EXP gained
Skills have gained EXP
10 Sp gained
Slime Cave +(spawn rate) has been cleared
And after my 10 runs of the day, I o head home. As I left I turned in the magic stones I got today. The 10 from the boss, the 10 from the boss chest, and about 5 from normal slimes. This ed me about 100 dolrs on the day. I was already getting to the point that would make me a det bit of money if I just tinued doing this.
After that I ran home, trying to get a few more points in speed.
When I got home, I had dinner with my family and talked about the day I had. I told them about the skill level ups with a lot of excitement.
After dinner, I went up to my room and looked at my status.
Name:Zenith
Gender:Male
HP:110/110
MP:10/10
Level:1
Title:[None]
Strength:21 + 2 - (3)
Defense:21 + 2 - (3)
Speed:11 - (3)
Intelligence:11 - (1)
Luck:11 - (2)
SP:120
Intrinsic Skill:
Absolute Creation Lv.1 9/10000
Skill:
HP Boost - Lv.1 0/1000
Strength Boost - Lv.2 11/2000
Defense Boost - Lv.2 0/2000
Speed Boost - Lv.1 150/1000
Intelligence Boost - Lv.1 10/1000
Luck Boost - Lv.1 459/1000
Item Box - Lv.1 0/100
My speed was going up a lot now with the stant running through the dungeon. I had a pn for what I wao try tomorrow and whivolved a little practice with some other items from absolute creation. It would take me an hour iween each item I made, sihat was my mp recharge time. But I needed a feons for my pn.
So that is how I spent my night, w with absolute creation.
?
After dinner, Anthem and Aira met back up to talk about what happened with Abby.
Anthem had only ohing to say though.
“It all started with Noah”
