Chapter 160: Woody

Sunday, Day 79:

Ziyad brought sweet garri with fine grains. It’s been a while since Zane had any, so he enjoyed his breakfast. As they ate, they began discussing various topics, starting with the High Potential List. Besides Devonte, Zane knew only Ziyad was on the list, so they had a lot to talk about.

"By the way, the ceremony date has been chosen: it’s on Sunday the 4th. However, it’s best to arrive a few days before for the preparations."

Zane frowned. "Early September?"

"What? Is there an issue?"

"No, I’m just thinking this might be around the time that the academy’s second-round courses might begin."

"You may be right." This academy term started on August 5th, so it made sense the next term would start around then. "The abosoms want it as soon as possible, and it must be on Sundays —Kwasi Day, so we selected the 4th."

Zane nodded. Sundays is considered the day the [Creator] descended, so it made sense for the ritual to take place then. What he’s most concerned about: why the hurry? Why did the abosoms want this ritual to occur as soon as possible? What was the ritual’s significance? Unfortunately, no one knew: not Ziyad, not the elders, or even his Grandmama.

After the conversation, Zane left for the guild missions. He missed a day because of the previous Departure Day, and next Sunday is a free lecture day. As such, he couldn’t miss today and had to make up for the missed day. On his way, Zane emailed Evelyn to confirm she was attending the party. He asked her if he could bring someone else, thinking how Ali might be interested in attending.

Today’s mission was one of the worst. By the end, Zane’s clothes were covered in an unknown black substance that made having enhanced senses a nightmare. After this experience, he decided that as soon as he could, he’d pay the guild fee instead of doing these menial jobs. He was done being the tower’s unpaid labor.

The next day, while using the voucher the instructor gave him to experience the Flow State in the Virtual Lab, Zane was inspired; he immediately replaced all of today’s reading time with training, trying to see if he could finally succeed. Unfortunately, until the knight-mage training, everything he did was futile. But Zane was never the kind to give up easily, so he chose to referee so he could think through his ideas.

Bam!

Ahmed was the first to notice and the first to act. After blocking a decent-sized rock from Evelyn, he dropped his shield and weapon to rush to Zane’s side. That’s when everyone noticed his situation and rushed over.

"What’s wrong with him?" Keesha asked.

"He’s seizing," Ahmed replied. "Help me move him to his side."

"Don’t touch him. Give him a few seconds, and he’ll be fine."

Everyone looked at Myk.

"That’s what happens when he trains his mental channeling. Give him a few seconds, and he’ll be back to normal." Everybody then remembered Zane was developing a mental technique.

"Those are the side effects? Is it dangerous?" Evelyn asked.

"His Life Energy has already reached 0.1, so he’ll be fine."

As Myk said, the seizure stopped in under 20 seconds. Zane used a bit of channeling to get rid of the headache and the terrifying confusion. "Sorry about that," he said as he slowly stood to stretch his legs and body. However, the moment he was on his feet, the atmosphere shifted slightly.

Khadijah immediately covered her eyes, and Ahmed instinctively followed, putting his hands in front of her face. Tom Nguyen turned away; Evans looked at Zane with envy, while Devonte nodded as if to say, not bad; Myk smirked. Meanwhile, Keesha and Evelyn grinned.

"You must be happy to see me," the wealthy heiress said.

"Right? It’s not morning, so I didn’t expect him to offer such prime wood," Keesha followed. "That’s prime oak, right there."

"No, that’s agarwood, that strong and expensive type."

"You think so? Well, Woody, what do you think?"

Zane was confused until he followed their gaze downward. He immediately turned around and channeled his mana in his private area to lower the blood flow. "How mortifying," he thought. Of all the effects the mental channeling could have on his body, why did it have to be this? Why now?

"Don’t be embarrassed, Woody," Keesha said.

"That’s right, Woody," Evelyn continued. "On the contrary, you should —"

"Alright, let’s stop before things get rated R," Ahmed said. "Anyway, we still have a battle to finish." Zane secretly gave Ahmed a thumbs-up; the man just saved him at least half an hour of utter embarrassment.

The teasing didn’t stop for the rest of the training session. Zane ignored these two. As they said, he had nothing to be embarrassed for. Plus, accidents happened all the time. He was to blame for not waiting until the right time to try his method; no, the real crime was that his inspiration was wrong—he didn’t make any new improvements.

Wednesday, Day 82, Elite Class:

As soon as Zane walked into the training room, he saw Keesha puffing her chest like a peacock trying to show off.

"What’s up with you?" he asked.

"Woody, I finally did it."

"Stop calling me that. "

"No problem, Woody."

Zane sighed. "What did you do?"

"Mental channeling."

"Oh?"

"That’s right. I can do basic channeling, like enhancing my reaction speed or memory."

Zane gave her a thumbs up. "That’s impressive. Great job." Mastering basic mental channeling in less than three months was impressive, especially since her talent isn’t geared toward that aspect like Zane’s or other shamans’.

"Don’t worry. I’ll surpass you soon."

"Well, dreaming is free."

Evelyn chuckled, but Keesha snorted. "Wait and see."

Zane didn’t take her seriously —at least, not now. Keesha will soon discover the difference between knowing how to do one skill and using it in battle. Even someone as talented as he was suffered from mild hemorrhaging when he first started using mental channeling during battles. For Keesha, the learning curve will be even longer.

Friday arrived, and it was departure day. As usual, Zane checked on Lysana before returning to Earth. His intuition told him the full payment from the dark web would arrive today, so Zane waited while browsing the web. Less than half an hour after he returned, articles about Oracle’s list began to spread online. The term [Little Giant] spread everywhere.

"It seems the news industry is forced to move at an alarming rate," Zane thought. For the recruits, more than a week had passed, but for everyone else on Earth, it had only been a day. Yesterday, Lee Woo Soo and the other shamans were the hot-button topic, but before the news could marinate for long, a new list of highly valuable candidates suddenly appeared.

"The Oracle seemed to have garnered a massive amount of influence in just a few weeks," Zane analyzed. In just two days, the Oracle’s information dominated the news headlines, a form of cultural and political influence. "He just started, and he’s already that powerful. What about the future?" The more these news agencies used his information for their headlines, the more power the Oracle could amass.

"If he can continue to build clout and prestige like that, he’ll probably build a massive media empire." As long as the Oracle uses the tower to gather his funding, then he’ll have no issue building such an empire. Zane could already see how much the media landscape would change if the Oracle entered this field.

"Let’s hope he doesn’t." Information is power, and currently, the Oracle seems to be the best Diviner; in other words, he’s the best at gathering and controlling information.

Ring! Ring!

Zane frowned after seeing who it was, and immediately hesitated. "Hello!"

"Son, it’s you, isn’t it?" Jaamal asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"The North America Little Giant — it’s you, isn’t it? You can always thrive in any environment. I’m so proud of you."

Zane didn’t care about his praise. Instead, his brow furrowed deeper. "Why are you asking?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I think my words were clear. What do you want?"

"Why are you like this?"

"It’s called pattern recognition — something you used to praise me for," Zane replied. "And in your pattern, you don’t call unless you want something. So, cut the bullshit and tell me what you want. If it’s about the money, I can pay you next week; that’s when hunting season starts."

"...It’s about William — he’s also a recruit."