Chapter 25: Zaria
Zaria slowly walked through the exploration group hallway slowing down sometimes so she could appreciate the murals on the wall and in the ceiling. After entering the group, she diligently trained while also taking the time to understand her abilities better.
She received permission from Weimar to visit her mother earlier and she only had about a day before she had to return and leave together with the group to the shallow marshes. The Valencia exploration group were not only responsible for providing mine guards, they also took it upon themselves to provide transportation escorts and expert miners inorder to ensure the smooth running of the mine system.
She was included in the team responsible for guarding both the mine entrance and the marsh exploration. She had a secret which she had hidden for a while, she had a pattern in her consciousness that she could split multiple times and while she could do this, she did not because she felt the benefit of this ability when she fought in the team competition.
She could use the accumulated energy from this pattern to form a moon vortex and while in this state, her moon path related abilities received more than a huge boost, it received a very huge boost. Her intuition and perception became heightened but after entering the elite world of the awakening, she became very cautious and restrained her perception.
She became a little curious about the central district after living with the exploration group for long. She secretly used this ability of hers to tame a small insect, she split a part of the pattern and attached it to the insect so she could use to spy on the central district and she succeeded.
Zaria was surprised by the way some of the buildings were built in the central district, there were actually tall buildings in this district.
Above the sky, silk like threads could be seen. From what she could deduce, the threads served as an early warning or sky defence system.
The rules of dell plane explicitly banned the development of high rise buildings and this rule was usually enforced strictly because those that could develop houses and structures of this scale usually had high level forces behind them.
Zaria was puzzled, she had lived in the outer district which mostly comprised of districts outside the central district and also including the safe zones and other manufacturing districts… she had visited all this places at one time or the other with her gang members and from this paces that had a proximity to the central district, she never once saw a high rise building from there. It should also be noted that the central district had no high walls except the basic low fenced building that served as warning to those from the outer district that wanted to sneak their way in.
She did not try to find out too much because as a rank 9, she could not achieve much with her minute abilities even if it was mutated.
She moved this small insect to a dilapidated library that was to be abandoned and destroyed within the next year or unknown.
Apart from meditating and gaining combat experience, she mostly read books through the insect.
Before the announcement for the decision to abandon the library was made, the most important books from there were already taken away so she mostly read books related to history, plane geography and other related subjects.
She also discovered a small fragment of paper in the library, at first she thought it was probably due to the rough handling of the moving team that lead to the tattered page becoming like this but after the insect felt it’s texture, Zaria realised it was not the case.
She started piecing the small words left on the piece of paper and after struggling for a while, she gave up temporarily so she could focus on advancing.
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After accumulating energy with her special talent, she attempted advancing. Good luck seemed to be on her side on the day of her advancement. Everything went smoothly without any hitches.
The exploration team were surprised, she was the first in a long time to display this level of talent. And with the way things stood, she might have a chance to enter the central district and become a part of a specially groomed team.
She only partied with the team for a while before she returned to studying the tattered fragment but this time, she noticed something different.
Indescribable words were dribbled on this tattered page and she could not make out what they were.
But something made her wary, her intuition suddenly became acute, parts of the words that she had deciphered previously came to her…
“The abyss seeks destruction of all…
“Everyone will die except for those____ … the words were cut off there.
“Chaos and death is inevitable in the presence and vicinity of the ___
“Everyone will seek a way out for themselves…
“A billowing fog and smog signifying the abyss can be seen from the infinite heights of the mountain of the Titans… at the point were the Titans were mentioned, an image was outlined in her perception.
A giant figure with an indescribable figure roared with lightning and fire covering it figure.
Zaria could not figure out whether the figure was male or female but before she could think further, the Titan turned to her direction, giving her a fright.
“The undead are extremely dangerous…
“Those affiliated with the abyss in any form should be eliminated…”
Zaria sighed after recollecting the words she could decern through the insect. When the Titan looked over, she only saw the following two words before the insect disintegrated.
Zaria already had a premonition so she cut off her connection before the danger revealed itself. Her heart could not calm down even now as she walked looking at the mural in the hallway. The murals gave her comfort and she wanted to stay a little while before leaving to see her mother.
The exploration team already offered to bring her mother over after finding out she was a genius- her mutation would give her high advantage over others of the same rank… she declined because her mother was comfortable with her current living condition.
Weimar Valencia walked past her with other members of the team smiling and nodding at her. He had a disarming smile and with his partial golden hair, round face and thin lips paired with the halo of the sun in the background, gave him an handsome and valiant aura.
Zaria smiled at his gesture. At that moment, she felt an indescribable and familiar aura from the leader of the exploration team. She turned to look at his back and as if sensing her gaze, he turned and gave her a half smile, waving at her.
…
Zaria’s home in the outer district was bigger than other houses close them. When her father died, the family were allowed to keep a tomb for him which was rare. Apart from the fact that he returned from the forgotten exploration, the area they lived in had other acres of land and was just about to be developed into a residential district.
Assigning more land to just one family would have no negative effect on the subsequent development. While extended families are rare in Dell plane due to the high death rate, the other members of Zaria’s family avoided them because of her father’s past.
Zaria’s mother fused over her daughter as she watched her eat, she kept on asking questions on her training, if she had any challenges or if she needed something from home to take with her when leaving.
“You have become like your father, strong and independent. Be careful when among those big shots in the central district and also avoid offending anyone there.”
Zaria simply nodded at her mother’s words, she gourged on the food, dismissive of her mother’s words.
“Mother, don’t worry. I have taken the time to join an etiquette training class so I can be prepared for occasions like this. She gave her mother the best harmless smile she could muster before she bent down again focused on her food.
After about an hour of recounting and reconstructing of events that took place in the training camp, she finally stood up because she needed to return to the team.
The Valencia family training has a very strict regime and they made sure to follow the rule of only allowing elites to be cultivated, those not hard working enough or without talent would only he given mediocre positions in the future.
While awakening improves the consciousness and grants extraordinary power to the awakened, how the abilities are used and the level of intelligence and imagination of each differs. Early display of having great wisdom and outside the box knowledge would help one lay a good foundation in the journey to rank 5.
The exploration team accepted a lot of people in the group but they also separated them after a while so that the resources would not be wasted.
She waved at her mother with a smile, her mother smiled back waving too with a look of melancholy. At this moment, Zaria felt the same indescribable but familiar aura.
She didn’t let her mother see it but her smile slowly disappeared.