Parallel Memory

"Let's go!"

Professor said as she began to walk away.

I gave a final look at the Ice statue. They were unlucky to meet Professor Mia though they are also lucky that they have not been killed.

While those people have indeed frozen to Ice, they were just immobilized. They should be fine as long as they are defrosted.

After exiting the dungeon, Professor Mia explained the situation to the guards and asked them to bring the criminal to jail.

Turns out those people were part of the Blackstorm gang which is the dominant gang in the Lair of the Brutal Lions.

Criminal organizations like those did exist in many dungeons. While The Authority had tried to take out such organizations, they failed because it was not worth the effort.

Hiring the Explorer and heroes was expensive and the number of organizations was numerous to take out. It was also hard to recognize such criminals because most of the things that happen in the dungeon are unknown.

Blackstorm turned out to be such an organization. Due to their deed in the Lair of the Brutal Lion for years, they are labeled as criminals.

Due to the authority that Professor Mia had, the guard didn't question the authenticity of her word and immediately set off to bring those criminals to justice.

"Say, you knew that those people were ambushing me?"

I said as we were waiting for the guards to bring in the criminals.

I asked Professor Mia the question because I see no other reason why she tried to walk with me back then. She should have silently observed until we were out of the dungeon.

"Ang huh"

Professor Mia nodded and turned her head toward me.

"I already observed what they were doing after you didn't jump in to save that girl. I heard them calling their boss. I thought it was a good opportunity to catch them in one move."

Professor Mia said calmly. What she said above was true but she also had another reason.

The reason was Zero. While she believed Zero to be strong, he got this personality of messing around sometimes.

Like when fighting with the Brutal Lion he would have killed them easily but he didn't and continued to get injured even though he was more than capable of annihilating them in one go. She didn't know his intention was to use those Brutal Lions to practice his combat with a large number of enemies.

Professor Mia for a moment became extremely anxious when she saw the state Zero was in. His whole body was covered in blood, akin to someone who is on the verge of dying.

However, as a professor, she would not let her emotions block her judgment as a professor.

Since the situation was not life-threatening, she didn't show up.

She was afraid that the same thing might happen if he met the gang. He might go easy on them because they are fellow humans.

Therefore, though it would have been a good chance for Zero to learn to fight with other humans, she decided it was not good to push Zero off the limit.

She had already pushed him too far by letting him conquer the dungeon, she didn't want to burden him extra with the guilt of killing a fellow human.

No matter the reason, killing humans always leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

We waited for the guards to bring in the Blackstorm gang. They need to verify whether what we claim is true or not. Though with Professor Mia, even if it turns out to be false they would not do anything to us.

After 20 minutes, the guards came out of the portal with prisoners bound to a special lock which sealed off the mana flow.

They were defrosted to make them walk. When they saw Professor Mia, they shuddered like a mouse seeing a cat.

It was already dark when we came out of the dungeon. We decided to go back to our home and meet up tomorrow. Tomorrow, I had to conquer another dungeon.

*****

Today, I was on time and we went to one of the dungeons. The dungeon that I went to today was much easier than the Lair of the Brutal lions.

So easy that rather than training it felt like I was just terrorizing the monster. Even the dungeon boss was slain in one attack.

Since the dungeon was easy, I completely conquered it before lunch.

Saying that she had something personal to take care of,Professor Mia soon went somewhere as soon as we were out of the dungeon.

I didn't have anything planned today since I thought I would spend the rest of the day in the dungeon.

I decided to take this opportunity to explore Agora Town. Last time, I was poor so I didn't get to buy things that I like.

Now that I am rich, I want to buy all the things that I fancy.

Looking at the stall and going inside the shops, I was just looking for something interesting and had no item in mind to buy.

As I walked through the streets of Agora Town, I noticed people staring at me and whispering to each other, like how the students at Ace Academy would.

"Huh? This is strange. Why are they staring at me?"

The number of people looking at me just increased as I walked through the street.

-CLICK! -CLICK!

*FLASH!

It was enough that there were people staring at me, now some people also took my pictures.

"Haha… I got a picture of Ice Enchantress boyfriend. Let's sell it to a news company."

"How much do you think you can sell this for?"

(!!! Boyfriend?)

Two boys were whispering to each other even though I heard them. I don't know what made them think such things but they seem to misunderstand something about me.

I went up to one of the stalls.

"Sir, do you know why people are staring at me?"

I asked the elderly owner of the stall politely.

"Ang? Boy, do you not know the reason?"

The elderly man asked, almost stupefied.

I shook my head. How should I know why they are interested in me? Maybe because of my handsome looks? Nah, who am I kidding.

"There are videos and pictures of you with the Ice Enchantress circulating in TwitFlick and newspapers. There are also rumors that you are the boyfriend of the Ice Enchantress."

The elderly man said.

I was surprised to find out the reason. Video of me and Professor Mia?

"Boy, are you really the boyfriend of Ice Enchantress?"

The elderly man asked curiously.

"No, I am her student."

I refused firmly.

"Student, huh?"

The elderly man got lost in thought for a minute. Might be to think about whether I am lying or telling the truth.

"Anyway, you should be careful. There are lots of fans of Ice Enchantress here in Agora Town. I heard they want to kill you who claims to be her boyfriend."

"!!! What?"

I never thought that my stroll to Agora Town would be so dangerous.

"Thank you, I will go now."

I quickly escaped from that place. Listening to the elderly, I don't think my life is safe in Agora Town. I know how frantic fans can be.

I returned to my room and vowed to stay there until the rumors died down.

With that my weekend training is complete. The next day was again a series of brutal training waiting for me.

Just like that, we continued to train. 5 days of training in the gravity room with some sparring with Professor Mia, while the other two days were spent inside the dungeon.

I never got outside unless it was necessary.

***One month***

"1 2 3, 1 2 3…"

Lifting 300 weights an

"Phew"

Sitting down to take a rest, I thought about how inhumane it is to make someone lift a weight of 300 kg in a place where gravity is 10X more.

[ "Status" ]

===Status===

Name: Zero Elea

Rank: D

Strength: C -

Speed: D +

Stamina: D +

Mana: C -

Luck: B +

Charm: A +

- - > Skill:

[ Rank SS: Parallel Memory ]

A skill that enables the user to get memories of their alternative self from another world.

Side Effect: The user may sometimes be overwhelmed by the emotion and personality of the alternative self.

- - > Art:

[ LVL 3: Shadow Style proficiency: Proficient ]

Art that enables the user to use the sword as if the sword is a shadow. The sword slash will be faster and stronger than a normal swing. After mastering the Shadow Style, the user will be able to move and attack using the shadow.

[ LVL 9: Cryomancy: Proficient ]

Magic Art is said to have been made by the strongest Ice mage in history after fighting the Ice dragon. The user will be able to use ice magic to freeze the enemy to death. The Ice related skill will be twice effective and the user will gain tolerance to Cold. After mastering the Cryomancy, the user may be able to freeze the world.

[LVL 6: Dual Art: Practitioner]

A unique Art created by Zero. The Art combines two Art into one. The power and effect depend on the Art that has been combined.

= = = = = = = =

Yeah, it had been one week since I broke through and reached Rank-D. Professor Mia was able to see through my rank during the training.

She increased the intensity of training and also made me train within 10x the gravity with 150kg on my body all time. Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to lift those 300 kgs in a 10X gravity.

The rank of the dungeon also increased with Professor Mia sometimes taking me to conquer Rank-C - dungeon.

With the increase in rank, Rank-C - monsters were no more than my punching bags. Though Rank-C - Elite monsters were able to fight with me for quite a bit, they can't defeat me.

Since my strength stat was Rank-C -, even without the use of skills, I could fight on equal ground with Rank-C - monster.

Today was the weekend and as always I was to go to a dungeon to train. Professor Mia said it was the Wyvern dungeon.

Wyvern used to be a challenging opponent when I was a Rank-E human, now that I have been promoted to Rank-D, I can't wait to find out how they fare against me.

"..."

I looked at my watch to see the time. It was already 9:10 am, way past the appointed time.

"What happened to her? She has never been so late."

It was very rare, no almost impossible to have Professor Mia to be late on something.

I remembered her giving me quite an earful when I was late on the first training in the dungeon.

It might be my turn now.