EDIT: I updated whoo. Look at me. Be proud!

GAME OVER

Chapter 17 [Suspicion]

~~~~~

“I have no recollection of something like that, what the nether do you mean by my father’s book?” Seto stood in front of Adam. Adam knew he screwed up, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted Seto to know that he saw Seto’s past.

“It’s nothing, I...I meant to say ‘I didn’t mean to mess around with your...uh...favorite book…?’” That sounded so stupid. But now that he thought about it, Seto’s response was somewhat odd. He knew that Seto told him that the downsides of living so long is the difficulty in remembering things so far back in the past. But he didn’t realize that meant he would forget a thing like that.

Seto narrowed his eyes and sighed, “Well if you won’t tell me it hardly matters. Instead I have a job for you, mind filling a few of these bottles with experience?”

Seto walked over to a chest and brought out a compressed stack of bottles, “Yes sir, what do you need them for?”

“Enchanting. There’s a good chance enchanted weapons and armor will be needed.”

“I see, well I get going then,” Adam accepted the bottles from Seto and hurried off. He was relieved he managed to hide from Seto the truth, but the fact that Seto doesn’t even seem to remember that that book belonged to his father made Adam a little sad.

How much does Seto even remember of his own life and what is it he fights for if he can’t remember something like that?

It’s true, that Seto Magi finds it hard to recall much of his past. He holds no emotion for those memories so his memories delete themselves as if they held no value. And in Seto’s cursed state, they don’t.

From the moment Seto was cursed he’s held no other passion than revenge, even if the reason for it has been forgotten the passion for it burned even brighter, but how much of it has been forgotten.

A mere trip to gather experience is a trivial detail, one that I shall spare you of. Instead we’ll stray ever so slightly to listen to Seto during this time.

~~~~~

Seto mumbled to himself as he inspected the large but old book on his desk. It seemed none of it was damaged, however what Adam said before putting it down bugged him. He knew he didn’t hear Adam wrong, he definitely called this book his father’s. However, he’s hardly thought of his parents in over a thousand years, let alone his father. He and his mother hardly spoke of him, it’s always been a touchy subject for his mother.

But now that he thinks about it, this book has been with him longer than he can remember, so perhaps it was his father’s. That would make some sense.

Now what didn’t make sense was how a Human rank would know something like that. No, Seto shook his head and left the book on the table. He headed to his room and grabbed his cloak, spinning it around his shoulders and fitting it on properly. Seto grabbed his staff next and gave it a flick.

His notepad appeared. With his free hand he thumbed through the pages. What really didn’t make sense were the traces of magic all over that brat. See, anyone can make a potion, one doesn’t need magical talent for that. But what was odd was the faint whiffs of magic Seto constantly kept noticing, so possibly that has something to do with what was going on.

Seto stopped flipping through the pages when he found what he was looking for. He wrote down a lot of notes, not to mention kept a lot of his knowledge stored away in his magically infused band developed by Jason.

In this section he wrote down a few of his observations of Adam. Seto did notice some peculiar things about him.

●Golden eyes unlike any he’s ever seen.

●Faint golden aura, a power old and unknown. It defies all logic with OP’s being the only rank to possess magic.

●Odd behavior patterns, constantly energetic.

Honestly that third thing likely had nothing to do with anything, but he wrote it down because it was an odd trait. He noticed the same thing about Jason, but Jason had a logical reason. In his ever curious pursuit for knowledge who wouldn’t be jumping with energy...Not to mention the number of coffee and sweets the guy consumed. More than him for sure.

But with Adam, there was hardly any reason for him to be so optimistic. He concluded it must be a Human rank thing, since Human ranks hardly know anything about the real horrors of Rekrium.

Seto realized he lacked sufficient information to fully understand the anomalies that is Adam Azure. He knew of a person he could talk to in regards to Adam, but that person was currently in the capital. So he could not ask him.

Seto left his cave, he spotted Adam disappearing in the doorway of room G04. To make things quicker for himself he would use the quickest method of going from place to place.

A feeling of being enveloped in the warmth of his magic surrounded him, he held out his staff horizontally in front of him with two hands. The gems floating in them glowed before the space around him folded and Seto found himself not at the bottom of the ravine, but at the top. He didn’t teleport often as it was a waste of energy, but he decided to make an exception.

If he was thinking correctly, the only person with Jason at the time that Adam first became a Player in a sense, was Dr. Sparklez. She worked in the field of analysis, so she might’ve noticed something odd about Adam.

Seto saw Dr. Sparklez walking with a large box of files towards Jason’s lab, he hurried by her side.

“Ahem,” he coughed. She looked down at him.

“Good afternoon Seto, is there something you need? Perhaps you need me to send a message to Jason.”

“No, none of that. I've actually come to speak to you specifically about Adam. I wanted to know if you found anything odd about him since your first day with him.”

“Odd?” she pondered while carrying the box into Jason’s lab down the hall. Seto followed her. They walked in and ignored the fuming squirrel, “Well there was this one thing. After Adam respawned the first time Jason asked him for some details about it. Unfortunately he cut Adam off while he was speaking so there wasn't a lot of information. However, the one thing I do remember hearing was Adam mentioned hearing voices. He said they were arguing, but that he'd never heard those voices before.”

“Voices, hmm? Anything else you can tell me?”

She set the box down, “No, sorry. Try talking to Tyler, he spends a lot of time training Adam.”

“Thank you, I'll be taking my leave then.” Seto nodded and walked away.

Of course talking to Tyler was easier said than done. Tyler was away on a mission. Seto weighed his options. He could wait for Tyler or go to him and come back and no one would be the wiser. But it would also use some of his magic…

Seto decided he should just wait. There really was no need to rush anything. Plus it really did sound ridiculous. A Human rank with some sort of odd abilities. That is a complete shit. By the time Seto returned, so had Adam. Adam carried with him fully filled bottles of experience which he deposited by Seto’s table.

“Thank you, I must get to work. As I said before creating a variety of enchanted weapons will be useful for the near future. Adam, I’m giving you another task. Take this key card--don’t lose it-- go to level H to rooms H25 and H26. You may need to make several trips, but bring to me the items on this list.” In Seto’s hand appeared a silver key card and a pen and notepad.

He handed Adam the card before writing a detailed list of weapons, armor, and various other enchantable items for Adam to bring.

“Also, I’m telling you now, we’ll be working late into the night so take any breaks I give you with gratitude. Enchanting is a long and tiring process and I plan to get everything done in one go.”

“Y-Yes sir!” Adam gulped before taking the list and rushing off.

Seto watched him run off before turning to look back at his book. Despite attempting to tell himself that it was impossible for Adam to be anything more than a Human rank, he felt like something was very different.

Not to say Adam wasn’t a Human rank, he definitely was. He was as green as a blade of grass, but that it was because he was a Human rank that his presence seemed to equal something else.

You see my listeners and my readers, whoever you may be. Seto’s magical capabilities are very strong and very sensitive, the feelings he gets around Adam are because of the will of the gods. Their desire to see the wrongs made right overpower the possibilities.

Of course there was just as  much of a chance of Adam picking up that amulet as dying and respawning without it. Which is to say everything was due to chance alone, one small difference could very well change everything. Does that make sense?

If Adam had never bought that amulet this tale would not be occurring in this fashion. It may not have even occurred in Adam’s short Human life time, but it is, and that is why Seto feels this sense.

Because his presence here with all of them upsets the flow of the past into the future and marks a chance for some sort of rift in what has happened to what will happen again. That probably made no sense to you, I apologize.

What I mean is that the past has a funny way of sneaking into the future, and had Adam not found that amulet, Rekrium would fall victim to their past mistakes.

But maybe not again. We will have to wait and see.

~~~~~

Adam made his way to room H25 on level H, which was the level above level I (the one where he stayed). There was no possible way for him to screw up this one.

The list that Seto handed him asked him to bring quite a few swords for a small squadron of Players and armors varying from iron to gold and one diamond half set. It also listed a few bows and there was even a spear. He wondered if the spear was for Ty, since it was his weapon of choice.

Adam realized he was humming when he stopped at the door to room H25 with door H26 a few block away. With Seto’s key card he swiped the key lock and heard the click and hiss of redstone before the door unlocked. As the door was pushed open the room flooded with light and he saw to his complete surprise...a complete mess.

Actually, he was really shocked. This storage room had no sense of organization. There were chests overflowing with discarded weapon and armor and a surprising amount of trash on the floor. And by trash, it was mainly small slips of paper covered in Seto’s handwriting, notes similar to the one he had given him.

Adam sighed. He guessed Seto was unorganized, but he didn’t know his messy habits spread so far as a weapons storage room.

He had no time to complain. The sooner he gathered Seto his requested items the sooner he could continue his job.

He found about 3 bows, a pair of iron boots and a spear, which was only less than a quarter of the list. But he needed to make multiple stops anyways, there was no way he could carry all of it at once.

He slipped all three bows over his head and onto his shoulder, then tucked the boots under one arm and the spear in his hand. He picked up another pair of iron boots and a shield before he left.

Adam made sure as he left the door locked behind him.

“You’re kind of in the way,” Adam looked up. He saw two AHD trainees carrying chests.

“Oh! Sorry!” Adam glanced around, but these paths were so narrow you could hardly move around anyone, “I uh… can't go anywhere.”

“Go up then idiot!” the second shouted from behind the first.”

“But I'm trying to go down, wouldn't it just be easier if we all went d--”

“Man,” they began to advance and squeeze past Adam, “We don't have time for you shit, just move.”

Adam stumbled and wobbled as the two pushed past him. The sharp corner of one of the chest slammed into his jaw and Adam yelped before feeling the edge slip under his feet. The items he had been carrying fell from his hands as gravity took over and he felt himself falling.

Adam had no time to react as he hit the ground, the feeling of wood splintering and the wind knocked out if him. He couldn't breathe, and to add insult to injury, the weight of the armor he brought crashed into his stomach and the shield on his head.

Adam was unconscious.

“Dude, what a fucking useless loser, stupid Human should just go home and let the real fighters do their jobs. There’s no room for a twat like him,” the second trainee muttered and rolled his eyes at the unconscious Adam.

“I agree, let's hurry though. Can't keep Mr. Lox waiting,” the two of them continued on their way, there voices getting quieter as the climbed higher.

“Hey! On our break we should see if we can sneak out for a bit. I hear that Mike found a totally sick new place to explore!”

“Hell yeah man!”

~~~~~

Theories? I put some neat things is here, whoo.

Sorry for the long wait. I'm trying to get back on track.