Zenith academy 1, p.1
Zenith Academy 1, page 1
Contents
THANK YOU!
Strange Customer
The Test
Meeting The Mistresses
The Way Around
Chloe The Earthling
Cultivation Unlocked!
First Rank Aftermath
Interlude
First Dungeon Dive Part I
First Dungeon Dive Part II
Bully
Cash or Card?
Not Alone, After All
Robes Maketh the Man
Cultivation of the Ancients
Sharp Canines
An Introductory Seminar
Catching up with the Basics
Demonstration
Old White’s Legacy
Queen Core
Bringing the Party Together
Second Dungeon Dive I
Second Dungeon Dive II
Let’s Shake on It
Dealing with Issues
Getting Started
Weapon Soul
Prep Work
Third Dungeon Dive I
Third Dungeon Dive II
A Bit of Payback
Shit Gone Wrong
Creation Magic
Convergence
ALSO BY CASSIUS LANGE
STATS:
About the Community
THANK YOU!
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Copyright © 2021 by Cassius Lange
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or literary publication.
Publisher’s note:
This is a work of fiction. All names, places, characters, and incidences are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual people, alive or dead, events or locations, is completely coincidental.
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-7338095-6-6
Amazon KINDLE
1st Edition – 2021
Strange Customer
“You want me to leave?” the beautiful woman asked.
She squirmed in the booth as if making to leave. I studied her for a moment, calling her bluff. And wouldn’t you know it, she settled back down.
“I’ll take that as a no,” she said. She had a peculiar accent that I couldn’t quite place. Possibly Eastern European? Maybe Russian? Regardless, it was a delight to hear.
She watched me dry a glass, set it down, and pick up another. Her eyes were hazel-brown, her nose slender, and her cherry-red lips pulled up into a disarming smile. She had long, black hair, pulled up into a bun and held in place with golden sticks. They looked like the kind of things only cosplay girls used. My gaze caught on her cheeks; specifically, how incredibly pale her complexion was. It was only thrown into contrast by her unusual outfit. It was a kimono, but it wasn’t buttoned at the top, so there was more than a little of her ample cleavage on display. I didn’t see bra strap lines, so my curiosity immediately deepened.
“I just manage this joint. I only kick people out if they are drunk, or rowdy, or harassing my staff,” I said.
“Are you saying I haven’t been trying hard enough? I have been trying to harass you since I sat down.”
She bit her lip and shifted, drawing my attention down to where a freaking sword lay across her thighs. It didn’t look like it was made out of cardboard, but real metal. A replica, maybe? Either way, the flirting aside, she’d proven to be the weirdest customer I’d had in a very long time. If she was hungry, she was about an hour too late.
“I like the company,” I admitted, “But I gotta say. We closed an hour ago, so I hope you aren’t hungry.”
She and I were the only people in Judson’s Bar and Grill. Maybe she was looking for a hookup, which was okay with me… any other time or day, but tonight was one of the rare occasions where I had somewhere to be.
My staff had gone home thirty minutes before. Being the manager, I was normally the last one to leave… after all, I was responsible for final checks and lock up before heading out for the night. I had been well on my way to that phase when I happened upon this woman, sitting straight as an arrow in the booth, her hands clasped in front of her.
“You like the company, but…” she whispered.
“The grill’s closed, lady. We’ve been closed for half an hour. I’m not sure how you got in here, but you’ve got to go.”
“I’m not leaving until,” she said, pushing a crumb across the table with her fingernail, “I get what I came for. And what I came for is you, JD. You’re coming with me tonight.”
I laughed. “Is that so?”
It always felt weird hearing someone else say my name the way she just did.
She nodded once, then folded her arms in her lap and looked up at me expectantly. Almost as if begging me to say no for the second time. I hesitated, more than a little confused by her behavior. She was drop-dead gorgeous and dressed to kill, but there was something off about her, too. It wasn’t necessarily something I could put into words, but I had a suspicion she wasn’t exactly what she appeared to be. Was she lonely, seeking help? Was there a Con in town I didn’t know about? Was she into recreational drugs and just looking for someone to mess with?
I looked at the door, then back her way. I considered kicking her out for the umpteenth time. Then maybe I could go home, but maybe that wasn’t the best idea. Perhaps I could entertain her for a while. Besides, she looked like she was alone, and walking back to wherever it was she’d come from might put her in danger. After all, the way she was dressed, she was bound to catch all the wrong kinds of attention.
Judson’s was perched between a few seedy clubs and dive bars, which meant there’d be no shortage of drunk dudes on the prowl. And if I tossed her out and later realized that something had happened to her, well that would be on me.
Then I remembered her sword. I’d suggest a Mossberg eighty-eight for most women’s self-defense needs. But I guess a sword would work just as well in the “deter the leering creeps” department. And yet, this woman had a dangerous air about her, as if she wasn’t as innocent or helpless as one might think.
I finished drying the rack of glasses and stowed them on the shelf, struggling with the feeling that the woman wasn’t just some confused or lost cosplay damsel. And I had to wonder if she was the real deal. What? As though she might actually have been some femme fatale who had stepped through a portal and come to Earth for… me?
Damned sakes, I watched entirely too many movies. Or, it could have been the three fingers of whiskey I’d had since closing. I explained away my runaway daydreams to a long day and pulled off my apron. I was wishing for things that…weren’t quite normal.
I flashed her a warm smile, but it was hard to look gracious when I was tired and just wanted to go home. Only after I dropped off my payment at the phone company. Yes, that was my “big” thing I had to do. Sue me. I was behind and didn’t want them to shut off my internet.
I didn’t know how she’d gotten into the place, and she was clearly acting coy, so maybe one of my buddies told her to find me. Hell, maybe they had snuck her into the bathroom before I locked up. They were always trying to set me up with women.
Yes, I had excuses for being single. I worked long, late hours. Plus, I spent all my free time on my art, leaving me almost no time for dates or women. Aside from the ones I managed to draw on paper. But I was really close to a breakthrough with someone at Marvel Comics, so I couldn’t give up now.
Taking my keys off the hook behind the bar, I walked out and slid onto the seat across from the mystery woman.
“So,” I said. “You’re not going to leave unless I go with you, huh? And where is it we’re going? If it’s someplace worth visiting, I just might join you. But I have to warn you, I’ve been up since five this morning, so I don’t know how much fun I’ll be.”
“I suppose that might have been a little forward of me,” the woman replied.
I struggled to read her tone and expression, but she sounded somewhere between pissed off and amused. Maybe amused. Both?
“We haven’t even been properly introduced. Which isn’t fair, because I already know your name, JD. You are the general manager at Judson’s Bar & Grill, an aspiring artist, and the man I just happened to be looking for .”
“Sounds like you know me. Are you a fan of my hamburgers? Or did one of my buddies set me up?”
“No. See, this is the second time you’ve asked the wrong question. Third time’s the charm, right? Unless you’re not the man I think you are. I hope I wasn’t wrong about you, JD.”
I frowned and stared into her eyes, only then realizing how remarkable they really were. They weren’t just gray but shone almost silver in the bar’s soft light. And what question? Had something interesting happened outside? Like a world-ending event that only I wasn’t aware of? I sure as hell hoped not.
“How about you tell me your name,” I said.
She smirked, looking from my face, down to her napkin. She was…drawing my eyes. And she was very good.
“Hmm, slightly better. Although that wasn’t a question.” Her smirk widened, and she went so far as to wink. “Fine, it was close enough. My name is Mistress Salina.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Mistress? As in a domina? With a whip and all?”
She chuckled, then stuck out her tongue and dragged it across those supple, ruby-colored lips. “Mistress of Finances, actually,” she said, immediately dropping her attention to her doodle. Had I offended her? I immediately started to panic.
“I suppose the next question would be, why me? You said you’re going to take me somewhere. Where, a faraway land like Wakanda? Because that would be awesome.”
She leaned her elbows against the table, and as she did, her breasts squeezed together. My eyes wandered. It was hard not to look, like they had gravity and were pulling my gaze down to them. And let’s be honest, she knew exactly what she had on display.
“I was sent to find you,” she said, “And to deliver something into your hands.”
“Well, you found me. What is it you are delivering? An old inheritance from a long-lost relative? Wait, I have no relatives. You aren’t serving subpoenas, are you? Or is this one of those scams where I find out that some prince somewhere died and left me the keys to a kingdom?”
Her cool smile wavered just a bit, and I caught a glimpse of annoyance. It seemed that, while we had been flirting up to this point, her patience was running thin.
“No,” Mistress Salina said with all the finality of a bullet to the cranium. “I’m here to give you something much better than an inheritance. Something better than anything this world could possibly offer. You’ve been yearning for more, haven’t you? Even your drawings say as much.”
“Oh?” I frowned as something she said caught my attention. “Wait, did you just say, ‘this world’? And are you being serious right now? You aren’t trying to seduce me, only to have my friends pop up from around the corner and laugh their asses off, are you?”
I silently wondered if a bathtub full of ice was in my immediate future.
Salina shook her head as her smile returned, this time much broader than before. That was a good start as I rather liked her smile.
“Take this orb and hold it in your hands. We’ll talk more after.”
She held out her left hand, while still doodling with her right, but it was empty. I blinked, only to find a square box resting in her open palm.
“You are a magician,” I said under my breath. “Someone has hired me a magician.”
“Where I am from, to call someone a magician is a great offense,” Salina said, her voice dropping. She pressed the pen down, the tip biting clear through the napkin and tearing it in half. She quietly placed the box on the table between us.
“I am sorry. I mean no offense,” I said not quite getting what she was talking about. Where she was from? An offense?
I leaned over the table and looked at the box. It was lacquered wood with a symbol of a large tower etched into its surface. The craftsmanship looked outstanding. It was almost like a puzzle, the one Pinhead liked to use in the Hellraiser movies. Shit.
“Wait, are you trying to send me to hell?”
Salina raised her right eyebrow and considered me for a moment, evidently not catching the reference. Story of my life. Wrong joke, wrong crowd. That was my motto.
“Hell?”
“Never mind. Tell me about this orb?” I asked. “This is a box, and it looks quite expensive.”
“The orb is inside,” she explained, pressing a finger into the side of the box. It popped open, just like a puzzle box would. I repelled and let out a silent scream, but nothing happened.
She sighed and tilted the box toward me so I could see the insides. A shimmering, bright orb sat there. It looked similar to a fortune teller’s scrying orb, translucent but foggy and mysterious at the same time.
“So, you are a…” I started to ask, looking up at the beautiful woman, “psychic?”
“My affinity is with the element of metal, young JD. I’m not a psychic. Or like any of those other false practitioners. Please consider your words wisely. I enjoy a bit of idle banter, but if you insult me any further, I will get…physical.”
“Noted,” I replied but caught on to what she had said. False. What did that mean? And physical? Was she offended, angry? Or was she talking about the other physical activities? Honestly, I’d never struggled reading someone so much before. She was an enigma.
“Take the orb in your hands,” Salina said, interrupting my thoughts. It definitely sounded like she was growing impatient now. But why? If she wasn’t just a girl my friends sent to play a joke on me, then who was she?
Rather than keep her waiting and delay whatever trick was coming next, I reached for the orb and picked it up. It was cold and smooth, almost too smooth. A tingle bit into my palm, and then my fingers spasmed.
A loud, buzzing noise filled my ears, but it went quiet almost as fast as it started. The orb vibrated then, just as a floating screen appeared in the air above my hand, translucent with bright blue letters.
NAME: JD AGE: 24
WORLD: Earth CITY: Los Angeles
WEAPON AFFINITY: Unknown
POWER LEVEL: Unknown
“Wait, what?” I asked. “This is all correct information, and not that hard to find on the internet. Except for the ‘Weapon Affinity and Power Level’ things. What’s that supposed to mean? And ‘World: Earth?’ Come on, you can do better than that, right?”
“You’ll understand everything in time, JD. Now, are you ready?”
“Oh, shit. Wait,” I said. “Are you trying to induct me into a cult? No-No-No! My buddy Ryan is into that kind of crazy stuff. He went to a meeting just last week and said a freaky hot woman was all over him. Then she ‘inducted’ him into their little group? He said she wanted him to drink goat’s blood and do this weird chant.”
“I don’t know this Ryan, nor do I know of the cult you speak! I do not have any beast blood with me.” Salina’s expression hardened, taking her beauty along with it. I realized then that she was utterly, absolutely, without a sliver of a doubt, serious.
I swallowed my tongue and realized that I knew next to nothing about the armed woman sitting across from me. Nervously, I glanced at the sword lying in her lap. Right then, I could have bet that the blade hidden inside the scabbard was razor-sharp. It didn’t help that Salina was stroking it like a pet cat, and I subconsciously waited for it to purr.
Salina sighed. “It seems that, just like with most earthlings, you require far more evidence than is necessary. In this case, as I have neither the time nor the patience, I will provide you with it! So, we might move along before old age claims you.”
She slid off the bench and stood before me. With her scabbarded sword held parallel to the ground, she broke the blade free. A sound like wind chimes filled the air as the weapon slid free. The blade glowed a dull blue, waves of what looked like energy rippling into the air.
If it was a trick, it was a damned good one. But I saw no projectors, speakers, or other hardware. Was she using a hologram?
“Here,” Salina said and flipped the sword around, holding the handle towards me. I stared at it for a long moment, taking in its beauty—the gleaming, dangerously sharp blade, and intricate carvings on the hand guard.
How in the hell did she know I liked swords? I mean “like” is an insignificant descriptor, really. I was a major fan of movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hero, but that was a secret I kept close to my chest. I’d never even told my friends.
