Luna and Medici stared at Amon in disbelief, their expressions frozen as he finished his story. It was… what the hell!?
Luna shot to her feet, downed the rest of her juice in one gulp, and began pacing in circles. Then she stopped, turned, and fixed him with a wide-eyed stare.
"You did what!?"
Medici, still stunned, slowly nodded as the truth of Amon's true name sank in.
"So you did… You burned the Sun God's temple? Pfft-"
He couldn't help it. The thought was too absurd. Like, you're the Sun God… and your temple gets burned down by a mundane human? Now that was next-level humiliation.
Amon nodded, waving his hand dismissively as if it were nothing, only for Luna to slap it away.
"Stop trying to act cool. That's even more lame. And then you killed the Usurper who took the real lord's throne, and you broke the dam… How many people did you kill?!"
Medici stared at him in disbelief. My aspect is about destruction, not yours. Bro... Stop stealing my thing!
Amon blinked, then leaned back with a thoughtful look.
"Hmm… about a thousand. Maybe more."
Luna nodded at first, then froze. Her expression went blank as the realization hit her.
"Wait… you're already a monster?"
Medici's eyes widened. "Wait, for real?"
Amon just shrugged, then stood up and stretched with a yawn.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, forget that. We've got more important things to attend."
They paused, giving him a confused look. Then their expressions went blank as he lay down on the bed, hugging his pillow tightly.
He'd been dragged away from that 'important thing'. But Luna's annoyed gaze slowly shifted to curiosity, then to delight as her eyes lit up.
"So… how many soul shards did you steal? Share a little, yeah?"
Medici perked up as well, recalling the story about him swiping shards from Nepo.
Amon froze, staring at them in horror before inching backward.
"N-No way! They're mine! Stay back! I'll… I'll call the police!"
A few minutes later...
Amon sat sulking in the corner, knees hugged to his chest, while Medici and Luna happily absorbed soul shards.
"Satisfied?!" he asked, eyes glistening with tears.
"Yep."
"Pretty much."
Those shameless bastards! My loot… my dear loot. Amon's heart was… successfully broken.
With a sigh, he stood up. He'd fooled around enough, now it was time for the real stuff. Grabbing both of their shoulders, he transferred some of his memories to them.
Medici received Flag of Life and Armour Breaker, while Luna got Plain Robes and Carnivorous Rose.
Finally, he checked his own memories… only to see some of them vanishing.
Memories lost: [Chameleon's Cloak], [Jar of a Hundred Poisons], [Hidden Blades], [Hawk's Eye], [Hearth], [Fraud's Bag].
Eh, now he was truly heartbroken. Half his of arsenal was gone. Tragic....
The next day, Amon's two delightful friends decided to enlighten him about academy life. Apparently, one of the first things he had to do was choose what he wanted to study.
Did he want sorcery classes? Combat training? Archaeology? Runic language? The history of the Dream Realm? Wilderness survival?
The options were many, Amon could probably take most of them and still manage to scrape by in five months, at least enough to sound like he knew what he was talking about. But in the end, he settled for Archaeology, History of the Dream Realm, Runic Language, and Wilderness Survival.
Medici, unsurprisingly, went for the more combat-heavy classes. Amon couldn't blame him, his entire Aspect practically screamed "fight me."
Luna, on the other hand, focused on the flora and fauna of the Dream Realm. She seemed way too excited about getting new "test subjects" soon.
Hiss. That girl is scary.
So here he was, sitting in class and learning runes. Right now, Amon was trying to decipher the text carved into a weathered slab of stone, all under the watchful gaze of his instructor, Elena.
"So, have you figured it out?"
"Shush, let me cook. I just need second."
Elena sighed and leaned back into her chair, watching as Amon hunched over the tablet.
He glanced from his notebook to the stone, frowning.
"And… they sacrificed? Hmm… no, wait. They offered it to their lord? Did I get it?"
Elena smiled and shook her head slightly.
"Almost. You're a natural at this. The correct translation is 'they offered it to their lady.' The words for lord and lady sound similar, but if you focus on the letters in their alphabet, you'll see they're completely different."
Amon nodded, then frowned, tilting his head in confusion.
"Uhmm… Elena-"
"Instructor."
Amon sighed and took a deep breath.
"Fine… So why did they offer the balls of a nightmare creature to a lady? I mean… I know some people have weird fetishes, but-"
Elena blinked, then stood up in disbelief.
"Why is your brain always focused on dirty stuff?! In that place… uh, those parts of nightmare creatures were considered a delicacy."
Amon grimaced, staring at the stone with a look of horror and disgust.
Blegh… No. Don't throw up. Hold it back. But seriously, what the fuck?! Why would anyone eat balls?! And a delicacy?! I almost feel bad for the nightmare creatures! Balls are sacred! Family Jewels!
Amon left classroom with a haunted, almost traumatized look. Nearly two months had passed, and in that time he had buried himself in his studies like a man possessed, almost like a scholar of yore. Hmm… nah, he mused, the Mystery Pathways are the real peak.
Now it was time for his wilderness class.
The Wilderness Survival classroom was spacious, tastefully decorated… and completely empty. Amon had long grown used to being the only student here. Still, he knew that in two months, someone else would join.
His eyes soon fell on his instructor, Julius, a lively old man with messy grey hair, absentminded eyes, and a pair of bushy eyebrows that seemed to have a life of their own.
From the looks of it, Julius was absorbed in reading a research report.
He remained silent for some time, then took a flowerpot from Fraud's bag and placed it among Julius's flowers… It was a weed.
Amon smiled pleasantly and patted his thighs as he took a seat.
"I'm sorry, my dear teacher… I think I've found out what kind of flaw I have… Sorry for that."
As it turned out, Amon's flaw was rather tricky to deal with. At first, he was a little confused, but then incidents began popping up. Elena's classroom… was destroyed, and her research was burned. Naturally, Amon didn't take the blame, why would he? It wasn't his fault, but the heater's… Though, in truth, he had tampered with it, and that caused the fire to spread.
Luckily, he was clever about it. He took a picture of the empty room, placed that image into the security system, and carried on later. On the cameras, it looked like no one had been in the room at all, and the guards didn't notice. The blame fell entirely on the poor heater. And he was wearing Chameleon's Cloak as well, so chances of getting caught was low.
Such incidents kept happening around the academy, raising suspicion among everyone, except Amon. He was a model student: polite, helpful to his teachers, and definitely ready to blame any trouble on other students.
He had no idea what kind of mess his teacher might get into because of his antics, but honestly, he was excited to find out.
Apparently, weed was rare in this era. Not just rare, it wasn't even the same kind he knew. Somehow, this strange new strain was also called "weed" for reasons nobody seemed to understand.
But that wasn't all. For some odd reason, marijuana here had been engineered to be far more potent. It was so strong that if a normal human smoked it, it could easily trigger psychosis.
Well, the main active ingredient in marijuana, THC, is known to be linked with psychosis, so underground drug dealers had cranked its effects way up. They'd also completely removed CBD, which normally counteracts some of THC's negative effects, especially important for younger users.
This could lead to serious mental health issues: schizophrenia, depression, anxiety...
Okay, okay, this is getting a little heavy. The point is: don't smoke, kids. And please don't ask me how I know all this.
After some time, Julius finished reading and stood up with a happy, satisfied smile that made Amon's mouth curl up in mischief. What are you so happy about? You might get fired.
Then Julius noticed Amon sitting there with a polite smile and froze, a little embarrassed that he had forgotten his student and chuckled heartily.
"Oh, Amon! I completely forgot about class, my dear boy. How are you doing?"
Amon returned the smile politely and nodded.
"Same as always, teacher. It's good to see you in a great mood. Did something extraordinary happen?"
Julius nodded, his joyful smile growing as he took his seat.
"Indeed! I just got some new research reports on the history of the Dream Realm. My apologies, I got a bit too engrossed in my studies."
Amon blinked, then shook his head.
"There's nothing to worry about."
After that, Julius continued teaching Amon about the Dream Realm. By now, Amon had learned a lot. Sure, he had read the novel, but they were all from Sunny's perspective, about his expertise. Apparently, there were many other things just as important to survival.
After an hour, Amon left the classroom of his cheerful teacher, who might be getting himself into trouble sooner or later.
Overall... Amon was bored. This is such bullshit! What am I even doing here? I don't want to study! I've already wasted twelve years in school, for Spell's sake!
Please, dead gods, I promise I won't destroy your temples anymore... Sigh, why is my luck so terrible?
Blyat! Amanises, is that your trick again? Nah, nah...
Amon calmed himself and continued on his way, ready to start causing some mischief. As he walked, he brushed past a group of Sleepers gathered on the stairs. Unfortunately, one of them suddenly lashed out.
"Watch where you're going!"
"Calm down. It's nothing serious. Go on, friend. Don't worry about a thing."
Amon glanced at the group, nodded politely, and flicked his wrist as if pulling at something invisible, without anyone noticing of course. He repeated the gesture a few times until a faint, shimmering blob of light, visible only to his eyes, slipped into his body and began orbiting his glitching soul core.
"My apologies. I'll be on my way now."
He said courteously and walked off, but in his mind, a voice echoed:
[You have received a Memory: Wailing Fang]
Meanwhile, the boy who had lashed out looked at his friend with confusion.
"Caster, you're too kind. How can you just let everything slide? Ugh, I can't imagine living like that."
Caster smiled... but slowly, it turned forced and strained. His Jian... was gone from his soul sea.