Evil Energy

When Zen opened his eyes again, he saw that he was still sitting at the dining table. The only difference was that Arthur was now eating in front of him.

Zen was dizzy and felt that something was amiss, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was, so he just shook his head and decided to forget it.

"Teacher, how many days was I gone?"

"Hmmm, roughly around 2 days." Arthur answered as he took a bite of bread.

Arthur glanced at Zen and saw that the fist mark on his face was disappearing.

'Phew, I got carried away with my attack earlier. I hope he doesn't notice.' He thought.

After a while, Zen posed a question, "Teacher, do you have anyways to get stronger faster?"

Arthur, who had just finished eating, glanced at Zen and asked, "Aren't you strong enough as you are now?"

This was true. On Earth, just reaching 6 on any Stats would be enough for Zen to be recognized as a superhuman, not to mention 99.

Even in the Free World, Zen couldn't be underestimated. He had already reached the stat limit for humans.

Thus, Arthur asked again, "How powerful do you need to be before you become satisfied?"

Knowing that his answer could decide his future, Zen thought deeply.

A moment later, Zen slowly opened his mouth and said, "I need enough power to protect my family…"

As soon as Arthur heard the word "protect" he began to feel slight disappointment towards Zen.

"...to kill the enemies that want my life, and to be able to kill gods with a flick of my finger." Zen spoke slowly.

Hearing the latter of Zen's words, the slight disappointment on Arthur's heart vanished as his eyebrows arched up in interest.

Zen nervously waited for Arthur's reply.

After a short while…

"Hahaha!"

Zen looked up and saw Arthur who was laughing.

"Good answer! The act of killing can be justified by the fact that you were just protecting. However, you must not be in denial, you must accept the fact that you are taking lives no matter how justifiable your reason was!"

Zen listened and understood. In fact, when his mother first asked him what he wanted to do with his powers, he wasn't sure what to answer because they were on Earth. On Earth, there were morals that restricted him, affecting his ability to answer Rina's question.

However, being in the Free World was another thing altogether. Although he still had morals, he felt more freedom in making a decision. He wouldn't need to worry about criticisms since it was the norm here.

Besides, he was bedridden since he was 10 years old which forced him to be more mature than his age. However, it was different now. He could be free and happy! That was the reason behind his answer.

'Of course, I couldn't deny that the fantasy movies, anime, and novels that I read influenced my answer. Teehee~' Zen thought to himself.

Then he looked at Arthur again who had just finished laughing.

"Alright, come with me. We'll talk on the way there."

Zen wanted to ask where but he knew that it wasn't the time to. So, he just followed closely behind Arthur.

As they walked, Arthur asked, "You've read about the war between the Free World and Ancient Evil World, right?"

"Yes, teacher."

"Was there something that you noticed?"

Zen thought for a while and answered, "It only stated that the Ancient Evil World was destroyed, not who won the war and the details of what happened to the residents of the Ancient Evil World."

Arthur praised him in his heart and said, "Exactly. This way those who read the records would assume that the Free World won and the Ancient Evil World was defeated, but this was where they were mistaken."

"How so?" Zen questioned.

Arthur took a deep breath and said, "Sure, the Ancient Evil World was destroyed. However, that was it."

He stopped walking and looked at Zen, "Do you know why the Free World suffered tremendous losses to the point that even Gods died?"

Zen shook his head, this was also something that wasn't included in the books that he read.

Arthur started walking again as he continued, "It was because of the energy wielded by the Revenants."

Zen listened carefully. Revenants were what the residents of Ancient Evil World called themselves.

Arthur explained, "The energy wielded by the Revenants is called Evil Energy. Now, there are many types of energy and Mana is one of them. Mana is the most basic form of energy which is accessible to all living beings. There are also higher types of energy and one of them was the Divine Energy that was exclusive to those who became Gods."

Hearing this, Zen was interested.

"The Divine Energy of the Gods is way more powerful and is much purer than Mana. It also enhances the power of skills. The Evil Energy, on the other hand, is on the same level as Divine Energy and this Evil Energy was what the Gods wanted."

"Why?" Zen was confused. They already had Divine Energy, were the Gods really that greedy?

Arthur saw Zen's expression and laughed, "I know what you're thinking. However, there's really something tempting about this Evil Energy."

Without waiting for Zen to ask, Arthur continued, "It was because of the Evil Energy's natural trait that makes it possible for all living beings to use it while being on the level of Divine Energy."

"Huh!?" Hearing this, Zen felt flabbergasted.