Ball of Nothing

"Are you there?" Zero asked softly.

Mii scoffed in Zero's mindscape and showed herself. She'd grown a little more from what Zero remembered. Now, the strawcherry fairy had fairy dust particles and glowed slightly in the dark, reminding Zero about fireflies.

"You know I'm always here," she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and Zero giggled. He was still walking around the outskirts of the village, enjoying the chilly breeze as he did so. It was very dark but with Mii's map, he had no problems navigating his way around.

"Did you grow again?" he asked and Mii grinned, giving him a victory sign.

"You bet I did! Thanks to all those recipes I analysed, the system upgraded again. Also, new bookmarks have been added. You might be keen to travel to both the land of giants in future and the Abyss."

Zero was impressed. "You're really smart... how did you know I wanted to visit those places?"

Mii deadpanned. Did Zero really forget that she was merely an extension of him?

Seeing the strawcherry assistant's expression, Zero stuck out his tongue and apologised sheepishly. "Alright. Now that we finally have a moment, I have many questions."

Mii sighed and crossed her legs, floating in mid-air. She'd expected just as much. "Let me guess... you want to know more about your abilities."

Zero nodded with a huge grin and Mii's troubled sighs only became heavier. "Right. Let's begin with your innate abilities and the new status window, shall we?"

Zero paid attention to the fairy's lecture and asked questions when he needed to clarify something. Basically, the system has upgraded to version 2.0 and Mii is now more 'intelligent' with a personality that can grow alongside Zero by relying on what Zero sees, feels and thinks. Anything that Zero reads will add to Mii's database as she dubbed it and all the brunet really has to do is ask her about it the next time he wants a reference. This was great news for Zero who hated to go back to the books or reading device just to confirm a term or name for a plant. That could be a rather frustrating process with how many bookmarks Zero had. He used to think that there were so many colours in the world when he first gained his sense of sight. Now, Zero wished there was more... he'd run out of unique bookmark colours and had to repeat them, adding to his confusion whenever he needed to find something in a hurry.

"Just so you know, I don't appreciate becoming your walking encyclopaedia. You should try to remember some of those things... I've not levelled up to a point where I could do more than one thing at a time."

Zero poked Mii's cheek with his pointer when the strawcherry fairy snapped at him. "Don't be so stingy... you don't do anything half the time."

Mii couldn't argue with that. Most the time, she'd reside at the back of Zero's mind. She didn't have the spare energy to appear all the time with the overload of information she received from Zero the past few days. His learning curve was very steep and Mii struggled to keep up with her current capability.

"Just so you know, I'm always busy. In the upgraded version of the status window, you can see that there is a title section. That is accumulative and non-modifiable. Some titles you receive have status effects but I've not levelled up enough to keep a tab on your statuses. The system is still processing all the information received over the past few days but I expect the numbers to stabilise by the time your training period has ended."

Zero frowned. That was a long time. "That's going to be more than a year from now!"

Mii gave him the stink eye. "It's so easy for you to demand results huh? Who do you think is doing all the work while you sleep?"

"Owwww!! Let go, I'm sorry Mii..."

The strawcherry fairy let go of Zero's chubby cheek and huffed, blowing the stray strand of hair that fell away from her view. Despite growing more mature, Zero still retained his baby-faced appearance. Mii wondered if this was a side-effect of the Charmer blessing Zero had.

"Moving on," she snapped her fingers and Zero squinted at the familiar light blue screen. "These are your current abilities. You only have two at this point but they are very powerful abilities that are unique only to your existence. Absorption is almighty. There is nothing you cannot absorb into the void for your use at a later date. Energy Manipulation allows you to change anything within the void to energy points. You can use it to create something else within the void to be used or simply exchange those energy points for mana or qi."

"I know mana but qi...? How can qi be used apart from meditating"

Mii raised her eyebrow. "Shouldn't that be something you ask Hua Tuo? I'm sure he'd teach you how to use it seeing how he was the one who introduced it."

Zero nodded. That made sense. Still, there was a question bugging him.

"How do I control my abilities?"

Mii shrugged. "It follows your will. Also, know that I am a system created by the Great One to assist you. Sometimes, the will of the Great One and yours would differ. When that happens, the stronger will can overpower the other. In the case of absorbing Amaraline's gift, it was the will of the Great One who wanted to protect you. Without Truen around, you don't have any sense of danger and the system decided to absorb it on your behalf."

Zero swallowed. He didn't know how to feel about this revelation. It felt strange to be going against the Great One. He didn't want to fight against himself but Zero felt as if this would happen a lot more in future where they would disagree a lot when matters about Zero's interest were in question.

"We'll talk about this in future. I'll try to remember to make decisions consciously to prevent dreadful things like this from happening again. Would it be possible to inform me if the system is making a decision on my behalf in future?"

Mii paused and checked through her administrative settings. "Uh... as of now that function does not exist. I'm sure if you will it strong enough it could be there in the next update. That also means you can't slack off."

Zero pouted. "I never slack off!"

"Cleaning with magic is slacking off in a way."

"Hey! I was putting my gift to better use. That doesn't count..."

Mii smirked in silence and Zero blushed. They both knew that was only a half-truth at best. Zero was lazy and hated doing chores. Magic was something that made the boring task more fun. Plus, it was a lot faster. Zero would often take some time after cleaning to sneak into the forest to steal some honey behind Hua Tuo's back.

"Stop staring at me! Hurry up and explain to me the rest of this status window... I know that the Great Gods and En gave me some blessings before I left Heaven but I don't know what they really do. I've not used them intentionally but Coux said that Freya's blessing was active?"

Mii hummed and looked at the window. "That's true. Although it says that some of the blessings are skills that will only be activated when active, I think there is a hidden trigger requirement that automatically sets it off when the criteria are fulfilled."

"A hidden criteria? Do you know what they are?"

Mii shrugged. "I could analyse the number of times the skill is triggered and put together a list of possibilities but I can't be confident about it."

Zero nodded. "Anything is better than nothing. At least I could try to use a few during emergencies. The skill Karma sounds really useful. Also, as gory as One-Hit Kill sounds, it may be handy if I'm in anger."

Mii agreed. "If you want, I could contact the Great Gods and ask them for a detailed manual explaining how their Blessing work."

Zero nodded. "That would be for the best. Although nobody is telling me this, I think that a great battle will take place here very soon. Judgement, Karma and One-Hit Kill are Blessings that I'd like to know how to use. It could be very handy."

Mii agreed. She knew that the warriors were preparing for war but she promised to keep it from Zero. Although she wasn't telling Zero anything, they didn't mention that she could not help Zero prepare for it. Mii would only do what was best for Zero and for now, learning about his abilities took precedence over everything else.

"Thank you, Mii!" Zero beamed and the strawcherry assistant blushed. They talked about Mii's sudden growth and what kind of features might be added once Mii upgraded again until Zero stumbled upon a loitering Moona.

The silver-haired nymph looked rather nervous and Zero wondered what was troubling her.

"Hello, Moona!"

His greeting startled her and Moona dropped what appeared to be a letter addressed to Gweshr Zero bent down to pick it up much to Moona's embarrassment.

"Did you want to deliver this to Gweshr?" Zero asked cautiously and Moona blushed, shaking her head rapidly before caving into Zero's stare and admitting that she did.

Mii whispered at the back of Zero's mind that she smelled some kind of juicy romance and suggested that Zero deliver the letter on the shy maiden's behalf. Zero grinned and told the moonlight nymph that he would act as the messenger. Moona didn't decline his bold offer and accepted it shyly. Zero grinned and reassured her that Gweshr will receive it, wishing her luck just before he disappeared into the darkness of the night once more.

With Mii's navigation, it wasn't hard locating the werewolf. However, Zero tensed when they neared Gweshr. The werewolf wasn't in his apartment. He was resting against a rock in the underground tunnel near a light crystal. Zero smelled rust and salt in the air and hurried over. The letter could wait for later. Gweshr was injured and most definitely bleeding. Zero would never be mistaken about the smell of blood.

The werewolf was pale and clutched to his shoulder. There was a small dagger embedded in it and Zero gasped at the sight. Gweshr was half delirious from the pain and blood-loss so Zero acted fast. He pulled out the dagger swiftly and closed the wound using normal healing magic. Using reconstruction magic, Zero replenished the lost blood and Gweshr's breathing evened out.

"What happened?" he asked.

The werewolf blinked at the small doctor apprentice and thanked him. "I was careless," the werewolf smiled tightly and Zero frowned. He wanted to ask more but knew that Gweshr wouldn't say anything more than necessary.

"I've healed your life-threatening injuries for now but please stop by tomorrow for other injuries. Also, this letter is from Moona. I'm delivering it on her behalf. My teacher is waiting for me so I'll take my leave now. Don't overdo it with that shoulder, it will still be sore for a few more days!"

Gweshr watched the brunet leave and waved goodbye. Once the brunet was out of sight, he tucked the letter into his shirt pocket with a small smile. He'd read that letter and compose a reply later but for now, he had an urgent report to make. The chieftess was waiting.

Zero didn't need Mii's map to tell him that Gweshr was heading to Zenobia's hut instead of home to rest. He'd guessed as much and thought that if things have progressed this far, it would be better to let Hua Tuo know.

***

Hua Tuo listened to Zero's short report and stroked his beard. The crease between his brows told Zero that the situation might be more severe than he thought it initially was.

"I see. Thank you for letting me know, don't worry too much about it. For now, you should get ready to sleep. We shall visit Lady Zenobia first thing in the morning to let her know tomorrow."

Zero nodded and went to grab his toothbrush. Hua Tuo sighed. Adversity came in waves and Hua Tuo wasn't mentally prepared to let his disciple undergo fate's first trial for him as a doctor.

Zero was young. He was far too young to understand the helplessness of doctors. Even the Sage God of Medicine had illnesses he couldn't cure and people he couldn't save. It was far too soon for Zero to be learning the truth about this world in Hua Tuo's opinion.