Thanks to Tir's abilities sorting out his thoughts and cycled through them at the speed of… well, thought–Zeke had planned out his priorities.

First off, he knew that Saang and Kote were out for now. He was worried about them, but considered that they needed time to grieve. They lost a good long-time friend of many years, and he doubted they needed less than a month to sort out their feelings.

He knew how messed up he would be if he forced himself to work while thinking about passed loved ones. It was enough to stop him from moving entirely if he focused too hard, and he's the sort to do exactly that.

The next part was the news about the towers. So far, Cronus hadn't sent them anything, and since Alissa was busy doing whatever it was that was keeping her away from them, he doubted another tower had formed up. That was all good news as they were nowhere near ready for another tower, at least for now.

He also wanted to prepare Clara for her academy debut. He knew for certain Mikella fully planned on prepping her on what to wear and how to deal with the incoming classes. He also wanted to prepare some stuff to protect her in case she lands herself into trouble.

He didn't care whether he was overprotective or not–he would find a way to put a barrier-on-demand on her person at all times. He and Tir would make sure of it.

Finally, they came to the two most important things to focus on–training the otherworlders, and figuring out about his attunement with Ceru. Yesterday became a bit chaotic since the Lords showed up, so he was certain to get some answers on how to use his attunement.

That, and he wanted to find out exactly how capable he could be in combat with Tir by his side. According to him, they're going to need some practice if his plans on utilizing his magic to the fullest while in combat would work out.

And there was a gleam in Mikella's eye telling him that he wasn't the only one who wanted to try out something new with Tir as well.

"Let's head to the otherworlder base. I wanna see if I can try doing another simulator room for everyone."

"Good plan, but you're not forcing yourself or Tir to go too far again, are you?"

"That's the last thing I want," Zeke promised. "It won't be done today. I'm just going to start on the small stuff for now. Get the foundation started. After that, we'll train the otherworlders like usual. Maybe we can get Ceru to actually do something for us for once too."

"That's the only time you're going to talk about Ceru like that while she's not here, isn't it?"

"I'm a mad Runist, not a madman," Zeke said simply, getting Mikella to shrug before heading over to the base.

…..

When they arrived at the otherworlder emergency housing, or just simply the otherworlder base for simpler terms, they expected the otherworlders doing their morning stretching with perhaps Lyle and Janet offering help. He also expected the lords to be there giving them some guidance, with Val already befriending the otherworlders to trust her with everything.

While all of that did happen, what they didn't expect was Ceru being a part of the otherworlders getting training from Valorie.

The otherworlders swung their practice weapons with some heavy shouts, something that Val liked to get the others to do to keep up with their synchrony for movements and build camaraderie. What really made them pause was seeing Ceru, her usually incredible form completely vanished and showing some smudges of dirt and sweat, swinging her sword along with everyone else, showing the same sort of expression as everyone else.

Zeke rubbed his eyes, hoping that he wasn't caught with something. He even asked Tir if there was a strange debuff that wasn't listed on his status board.

"Nope, you're seeing Ceru training with the otherworlders, not the other way around."

"Okay, glad that's real then."

Zeke turned to Mikella who also had a shocked look on her face. "Did you know this was going to happen?"

"No. Did you?"

"Not at all."

"Okay, so I'm not going crazy then," Mikella closed her eyes. "What the hell is going on?"

"Guys! Guys, come here, quickly!"

The two switched attention to the clearly panicking Lyle and Janet who were desperately waving them over to them. Knowing full well to not ignore that kind of warning, they headed over there to hear them immediately explain what was going on.

"Whatever you do, do not reveal that Ceru is a Master to the Lords."

"What? Why?" Mikella asked incredulously, though she made sure to lower her voice so that only the four could listen. "What's going on?"

"It's another of those 'don't mess with what the Masters are doing' kind of things," Janet revealed, showing that she wasn't keen on this herself. "She wants to play a prank on them. Apparently she knew who they were but they didn't know who she was. So she got all of us together and made us promise not to reveal her identity to the Lords. And everyone agreed."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Everyone agreed, just like that?" Zeke asked, sounding more baffled than angry.

"You really want to get in the way of a Master and her fun?" Lyle argued, instantly putting down Zeke's complaints. "And she made us swear to make sure you don't spill the beans either."

"Did she force you to swear…?" Mikella asked, the tone in her voice making Zeke dread.

"Honestly, it was more of a suggestion. Not one of us was forced into it, just… well, it's only been a day, but she's everyone's best friend now."

"That's more suspicious than anything else," Mikella said.

"Honestly, it's kinda hard not to like her," Lyle admitted, though Janet sent a stink-eye his way but he didn't even notice. "She's hot, cool, fun, and doesn't care about any formal stuff. Plus, she already helped out a lot of people who had those questions we had difficulty answering, like how exactly Kinetic perception is used and how one can evolve their mastery skills. Kinda hard not to like her when she helped you destroy a wall that everyone faced so easily."

Hearing the sincere words did get the two to pause and think for a second. It wasn't hard to dislike Ceru at least, because despite her destroying his simulation room, he didn't feel a hint of anger towards her. Not even Tir felt that way, completely restored to normal the next day.

Zeke didn't like the idea of tricking the Lords into thinking Ceru was an otherworlder like them, but at the same time, it really did seem like a harmless prank. What's the worst that can happen? Cloud and Val would be shocked? Probably embarrassed? The idea of pissing off a Master, or 'ruining her fun', sounded way worse than just letting the prank go on.

This just felt like watching a bad reality TV show where the actor pretends to be poor to be among the masses, but everyone already knew he was just acting but pretended otherwise to get that sweet cash. In other words, it was just a waste of time for everyone other than the actor and the ones she wanted to trick.

It felt so stupid, but then again…

"It… would be kinda funny to see that happen," Zeke admitted eventually, and even Mikella nodded.

"But we gotta make sure she doesn't go too far, right?" Mikella said, getting all of them to agree with a serious nod. "If you see anything weird, stop it immediately. The last thing I want is to screw over Val when she's already going through some tough shit with Ali."

"How's that going, by the way?" Janet asked.

"She ran away. Didn't even bother talking to us throughout the night and day."

"Well, let's not get hasty. It's a good idea to just leave her be, yeah?" Lyle said, getting the two to agree easily. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, first," Zeke added, eventually getting back into the swing of things while the Lords were busy training the otherworlders, all except one who was having the time of her life apparently. "After yesterday, I completely forgot about the skill choice I had for my Class. I'm gonna pick one out and see if I can work with it. Then, I'll see if I can make that simulator room again."

"Oh, shit, I completely forgot about that," Mikella added. "Wow, it's been so long, I totally forgot that we get a skill choice at 75."

"Is it any different than the skill choice at 60?" Janet asked. Considering she just broke into Journeymen, she also had her choice. In Zeke's experience, the first Journeymen Class Skill is considered pretty defining.

"Should be the same," Zeke added, and then brought up the skill list to show what he gained.

Class Skill: Rune Assimilation An Arcane Runist knows not to just take in their own works, but to also take in others–literally or not. Allows the Runist to absorb foreign runes to analyze and even modify to the Runist's benefits. Absorbed runes are nullified and absorbed, either using them immediately for one's own purpose or regain mana at half the cost of the absorbed rune's cost. The Speed, efficiency, and complexity of rune assimilation increases according to the level of the skill and the current Intelligence and Spirit stats.

…..

Class Skill: Rune Printer You are no longer limited to writing out the runes you have written so many times before. With enough experience, just a thought brings them to life at a higher cost. Allows the Runist to instantly draw already-drawn runes without writing as long as the rune patterns already exist within Runic Library. The Mana consumption is decreased according to the level of the skill, the current Intelligence and Spirit stat, and the level of Runic Library.

Zeke took a step back in surprise. The first skill was decent as it is. With so many rune patterns everywhere in Arcelot, this was basically a free Mana potion whenever he wanted. Of course, he had to answer to several law enforcement after hearing about a Runist stealing runes from places and adding them to his repertoire.

Not that he would pick it regardless. It was pointless for him. So far he had no purpose in stealing other people's runes, especially since there were barely any Runists crazy enough to go down the path he went through. Should he find a brand new rune he never saw before, and had no time to study up on it, he could absorb it and have Tir instantly analyze while he used it for his own benefits, but again, that situation happening is extremely minimal.

Rune Printer, on the other hand, felt almost like it was made for him. The Printer in the name made it sound almost otherworldly exclusive, but then this world would also have their own version of a printer with so many books available in many libraries that were situated around the capital. But what got him was the fact that he no longer had to draw any rune he created before.

He can't imagine the possibility of this during combat. Would he even need to use his pens anymore? He could just put them in his gauntlets to further enhance their abilities to handle combat all while his runes just exist out of nowhere aiding him in combat.

And with Tir by his side…

Class Skill chosen: Rune Printer

Sometimes, he imagined the level of calamity he would make just out of curiosity.

But first, he needed to be an adult with responsibilities to deal with.

"Zeke, I know that look," Mikella asked, raising a brow. "You got something interesting, don't you?"

"I prefer to use it when we have a spar, and on that point…"

Zeke turned to her, and he swore he could feel her aura rise when she looked back at him.

"It's been a while. How about it?"

"Oh, Zeke, in front of all these people? How uncouth."

"Come on, you know you want to."

"Oh, how could I not?"

The two were practically stuck in their own little world while leaving out the exasperated Lyle and Janet. They already knew what they planned on doing.

It really has been a while, and there wasn't much else to do now that Cloud and Val were here. If anything, it made him want to show off how much he learned to them to prove that he hadn't been slacking off, and neither was Mikella.

Something told him that she got herself her own skill that was just as impressive, and he wanted to test to see if he can finally take her down in an honest fight.

It was time to prove that a crafter can just as easily kick ass if one worked hard enough.

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