Lotus's Thoughts

After having made sure that the herbs were organized into the shelves, Lotus left her ring and went down to the lounge that night to read a book. It was there that she saw the familiar figures in dorm to which she smiled, "Oh, I didn't know where we're having guests."

"Oh, yeah. Deuce needs help with his notes again." Ace responded and gestured to the guy bluntly.

Lotus sat on a chair when she noticed Deuce speak to her, "How's your arm feeling? Any better?"

"Yeah." Lotus responded pulling a smile, "I'm doing better."

"That's good to hear." He smiled feeling a little better before speaking out another of his worries, "I heard from Cater-senpai that a renowned acupuncturist visited school the other day."

"Ah, I remember." Ace nodded with a loud grumbled, "We thought that they came to take away your needles."

"Nah..." Lotus responded with a grumble, "They didn't take my needles away. We had some trouble with student that got poisoned by those dead tarantulas. The nurse had an acupuncturist over to test me."

"So, you got off with a warning?" Grim said hopefully.

"Nah." Lotus responded bluntly, "The elder encouraged me to help the nurse whenever I can."

"Geh, seriously?!" Ace was stunned as he stammered, "Dude, we're talking about the old man who is renowned for his acupuncture stuff here! Cater said the guy once cured a member of a noble family once!"

"I don't know, then." Lotus shrugged, "He didn't really introduced himself much and I don't connect to the social network very often."

Yuu hummed, "So, what's going to happen to you now?"

"I'm going to stay around the dorms a little more often now that I'm injured." Lotus responded bluntly as she opened her book.

Lotus thought for a bit before responding, "That reminds me. I've bought a few armlets that have a sort of charm to it. According to the student, it was supposed to be able to help the person in their studies. Wanna give it a try?"

"Huh?" Grim raised a brow, "Why not just use it yourself?"

Lotus gave the cat a deadpanned stare as Deuce grumbled in exasperation with a sigh, "It's because Lotus is already so smart, he won't need something like this."

"Ah..." Ace scowled upon understanding, "So, he wants to test it on us. Damn it! We're not your guinea pigs! Ask someone else to do it for you!"

Lotus shrugged, "I can't just ask a random person to test out an object and, besides, I can't ask them what their grade average is either. According to the student, this object is supposed to be able to increase your grade point average by twenty to thirty percent and help others who have really bad luck. Those people have been able to find jobs and score higher on exams."

"I want to try it!" Deuce responded immediately.

The more she said, the more Deuce became enamored by the idea of the object till she finally caught him. Ace grumbled knowing that what she had said caught Deuce's attention almost deliberately, "Fine..."

She pulled out the armlets from her "pocket" and handed them over to each of them. They were a simple silver armlet that she showed how to put on using Ace as the example. As for Grim, she made a small ornament for his ribbon. The ornament was pretty simple with feathers and cranes adorned on it. Lotus worked all nights trying to get it right before wondering what sort of decorations would be good for their little ornaments.

Ace moved his arm with a grumble as the garnet stone on it shone under the light of the afternoon sun, "I don't know about this... Why does it feel like this isn't any different from Dorm Leader's collars?"

Lotus shrugged, "If you guys don't want it, I'll just have to wait for another opportunity, but who knows if they'll just take it and sell it? After all, I don't have magic to make others give them back or abuse my abilities to do that. The teachers would rethink my possession of my needles."

"Argh..." Ace grumbled with a sigh of resignation, "Fine..."

Lotus silently cheered to herself having finally made them keep the stuff on them.

.....

That night, she met with the twins who had gone from the night and returned.

"Master, we've completed the task precisely as you've instructed." Zhang Yong responded bluntly.

Lotus nodded, "All right. Now, we can focus on our own cultivation."

Zhang Yong looked to her dumbfoundedly as Lotus went on to messing with a trunk she had brought out from her ring. Not having paid them any attention, Zhang Yong was a little agrieved having had to sneak past ghosts and used up a lot of their resources to make pills and such to achieve their master's words but now was ignored.

Ah, it sucks to have to earn the loyalty of their master. He would have to learn to be more patient and that was his worst trait out of everything.

Lotus continued to rummage through her trunk as she continued, "Until I give the signals in the next few weeks, do not leave your rooms. There may be more guests coming to this dorm. Keep your presence scarce."

Heaing this, Zhang Yong wore a bewildered expression, "Are we not going to research their background?"

"No." Lotus responded bluntly.

"But... Ah..."

Zhang Yong nearly crumbled on the ground when his sister pinched his side. Zhang Yong scowled up to his little sister, "What was that for?"

Zhang Li shook her head, "If master said no, then no. Besides, the entire school is located on a floating piece of land. Master said that the students have to use the mirror to leave the school. So, how are we going to leave the school when the mirror can tell who comes and go with a conscious?"

As the brother stood up, Lotus took out two silver bangles as she nodded, "That's another reason anyway. But, the majority of the students in this school have different background and the school is not as bias as you believe, unless you want to go ahead and break a few valuable antiques worth millions of madol during your tuition."

Zhang Yong raised a brow, "But that demon that appeared a few days ago... Gah!"

He crumbled to the floor once more before glaring up at his sister, "What was that for, you crazy woman?! Have you gone mad?"

"As if! Did you not see the human figure underneath the lion?" Zhang Li folded her arms with a scowl on her face, "Those are master's friends you're talking about-"

"That was not a demon." Lotus clarified bluntly hiding a shudder and a slight flicker of emotions in her eyes.

Her sudden reply brought their attention in bewilderment.

"Wh-What?" Zhang Yong picked himself up, "But, then what-"

"To begin with..." Lotus took out a few more items from the trunk before putting it and the spiders away with the carcass to be burnt, "Magicians are much like cultivators in a sense that we absorb the energy they call mana and can manifest elemental abilities with them to manipulate their environment around them. However, they can also manifest objects from thin air and require a tool to help them use their magic without strong backlashes."

"Backlashes?" Zhang Li raised a brow.

As Lotus began to embed things into her items, she clarified, "Much like us, they also have their own limit to process mana and their bodies can handle certain amounts of energy. When they use powerful magic or use too much magic, they start to create waste from the mana in their bodies that they call blot."

"Blot?" Zhang Yong raised a brow before an idea hit him almost immediately, "Do you mean the black ink that was coming from the lion?"

"That's right." Lotus responded, "Blot is harmful to magicians and, to us cultivators, it would feel like something akin to demonic energy. However, they aren't demons and I'd like to think that nobody in the school has much close relations to demons as possible. Either way, I have yet to see one since arriving here."

"So, they aren't demons..." Zhang Li responded in bewilderment despite having clarified to her brother that the monster came from a human, "Then, why..."

"Magicians rely on two main components when using magic. One is the mana in the air and the second is their creative minds." Lotus explained as she continued to focus solely on her work, "Like Cultivators, they would also face dangers when using too much magic or using powerful magic. Blot is harmful to the body and is still a mystery to them that they have yet to gain more information about. However, when one magician gains too much blot in their body, it would intoxicate them turning them into a berserk state and the manifestation of their problems would began to take form."

"So, that lion was the manifestation of his problems?" Zhang Li looked to Lotus with an alarmed look, "But that thing was so powerful and dark!"

"That dark energy was coming from the blot." Lotus explained, "After he returned to his normal form, can you feel anything strange about him?"

Zhang Yong grumbled but shook his head in the end and admitted, "N-no..."

Lotus recalled the experience with her energy being pushed to the top as she was looking for a safe zone back then, "When the magician is taken over by blot, their mental state is weak and that's where the blot would take over the mind. That is what they call Overblot."

"Overblot..." Zhang Yong thought carefully, "I've never heard of such a term before. It would make sense since we're in another world..."

"It sounds like..." Zhang Li frowned, "Demonic poisoning..."

"True, but they aren't poisoned by demonic energy nor would they become demons." Lotus continued despite their words, "When people overblot, they become more prone to acting without a clear sense of their own actions and logic and, if left alone... it would be no different to dying."

A memory came into her mind as she continued, "There was a case once the prefect had before he became a student and prefect here. It was the case that displayed his ability to allow independent magicians to work together more easily than before. However, the case, that had been a normal foraging, turned into a battle against an overblot shadow manifestation in a mine. When a magician overblots, that's the warning sign and, if left untreated, it would continue to grow worse regardless of others' involvement. When the body dies, the shadow and their troubles in the soul remains to pursue the source of their problems. When we went to the mine, there was the overblotted shadow, but no person meaning..."

"The person died from overblotting and was the shadow was never dealt with." Zhang Yong responded with a nodded of understanding of the situation now.

Lotus sighed after finally embedding the final piece into the bangle, "That's right. Overblotting is basically one step before death. Once that threshold is passed, there's no going back when you're dead. By defeating the shadow behind them or knocking them out, they would be able to get rid enough blot to return to their original form and start back on the road to recovery."

"So, that's how the guy returned his human form..." Zhang Yong grumbled before a thought hit him, "No, wait! But he had lion ears and a tail!"

Lotus shook her head in bewilderment, "You've gone into the Savanaclaw mirror but didn't realize anything amiss despite being at the stadium either?"

"Um..."

"That man there is a beastman. They exist in this world too and live alongside humans. Fairies and the aquatic people are no different." Lotus responded, "He was born with those characteristics on him. His family is no different. That child we saved back there also has lion ears and tail. That was his nephew."

"Oh..." Zhang Yong nodded finally understanding the situation but scowled, "Those fools have gone as low as to kidnap a child of beastmen..."

"Not really." Lotus responded with a sigh, "The child is the first born young prince to a kingdom."

"What?!"