Chapter 145: Meeting a New Friend.

The security around Zoey's room increased after her teleporting visitor got caught in that trap. She now had a single permanent guard inside her room for the most part and two extra directly outside of her door. Her new watcher was a quiet type of person. They said nothing, did nothing but watch her, and thankfully didn't seem to want to harass her.

The watcher stood tall and straight as she kept her gaze on Zoey. She had a strong posture, well-developed muscles, shadow-black hair that hung wildly on top of her head, and a professional business suit as a uniform. Hung on her waist was that type of sword they use in fencing. It gleamed brightly despite the terrible lighting in the room. Zoey had some experience fighting people with swords. She wanted to see how this watcher stood up against someone like Hayato's skill with a sword.

Zoey could train in peace, be on her phone in peace, and do what she's been doing for the last few… How long has she been in here? When the hell are those daemons going to attack? What are they even waiting on?

Sometime after Zoey's visitor left, Zoey received a message from the Mercenary Faction, the Wanderers. Apparently, it was one of their guys trying to get in contact with her. They warned him about the possibility of traps being present, but he was too thick-headed and had to see for himself. Jax, the teleporter, thought it would be a huge advantage if they discovered that there weren't any traps at all. If there wasn't, they could just go in, grab Zoey, and teleport right back out.

It would be pretty sweet if that was the case, but Zoey was public enemy #1. As dumb as the magjistars are for allowing her to keep her phone, they aren't dumb enough to leave her completely undefended. Like normal people with functioning brains, they can adapt, which is why she now had a watcher inside her room and two guards right outside the room listening in.

Zoey wondered how strong her watcher was. It's been too long since she's had a good fight. All of this training was doing wonders for her body stat, but actually putting that sexy sexy number into practice was impossible. Shadowboxing was good and all for making sure her form was still good and fighting imaginary opponents, but it couldn't replace an actual fight. Was it bad that she was secretly looking forward to the daemon invasion?

It made Zoey think about whether she was really doing this to save innocent people or just to raise her skills. Although, she kind of already knew the answer to that. Maybe it was time she learned to accept that she's grown into someone she never thought she would have. Zoey wasn't staying in this stupid fucking prison because she cared about the people in the magji world. She was staying here to avoid having her family targeted by the OM, fight this OM branch, and fight the daemons.

It wasn't about saving lives at all. That was just an additional factor that came about Zoey following her desires. Sure, if Alexander or Lindsay were in trouble, she'd try to save them. But she wouldn't put her life at stake for anyone else. Plus, she'd be pissed if she needed to save them in the first place when she's already warned them of the attack. They should be far away or already prepared to fight without needing her help.

Zoey looked down at her magji cuffs. It was a thick green snake wrapped around her wrists like a long chain. As far as Zoey could tell, it was just like a real snake, except it hadn't needed to eat at all or poop or pee. It made snake noises, it was able to react when she touched its head, and it could bite.

It only bit her when she stretched her cuffs in an attempt to see how far it could stretch. Zoey guessed it thought she was trying to escape, or maybe it just didn't like being stretched. She didn't exactly speak snake or, in this case, magji snake. Since she didn't have anything better to do, Zoey tried to Teach the magji snek.

She never got the opportunity to Teach an animal yet. Although, she didn't know if this thing counted as an animal or an object. Maybe it was something in between? It didn't matter much, but Zoey still wanted to try since she had nothing better to do.

Zoey started the training off very simply since she didn't know how smart this magji noodle was. As far as she knew, it could be as sentient as her. Her background in magji tools was limited to those that can hurt daemons. Sadly, there were no daemons here yet.

"Hiss." Zoey ordered.

The snake flicked its tongue out as it looked around before going back to resting on Zoey's wrist. It did not hiss or even seem like it listened to Zoey's command. Zoey secretly felt embarrassed doing this in front of the watcher, but Inner Zoey encouraged her to continue. Sure, she might look fucking stupid, but she was in prison with literally nothing to do. Who cares?

"Hiss." Zoey tried again with no success. "Hsssss." She tried making the noise herself so that it could understand if it didn't. Still no response…

"If you hiss, I'll give you a good petting." Zoey tried to bargain.

"Hsssssssss." It hissed!

Zoey made good on her word and began petting the danger noodle. She stroked him softly and gently. Zoey smiled as she felt the snake's grip on her wrists loosen as she petted up and down its body. It didn't loosen enough that she felt she could slip her wrists free but loosened enough that she could notice it.

In the midst of her training with Slinky, Zoey was messaging The Wanderer's leader, Luna. Luna was detailing their plans for when Zoey's trial was scheduled. How she and her team were going to enter, break her out, and leave. Zoey just saved those messages to go over later when her trial was set. She couldn't focus on teaching Slinky and memorizing a complex prison escape plan. As a middling high school student with a fatal habit for procrastination, Zoey did her best study work right before the deadline. Cramming the knowledge into the brain right before she needs to use it seemed to work out best for her so far.

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Selena Star watched the infamous criminal Zoey Winters until the day of her trial. Selena and a majority of everyone else in Luminaurora knew there was no real reason to have a trial at all when The Council was assured of her being guilty before the trial. However, it wasn't her place to ponder if the girl was innocent or guilty. She was being paid to make sure no one broke the girl out until she was sentenced.

Selena was an A-Grade magjistar. Although she wasn't anywhere as strong as Kali or Victor in terms of strength, she was still quite capable in the world of magjistars. So, it isn't an exaggeration to say that she's seen quite a bit of the magji world. So as she watched Zoey Winters day after day, she began to understand why The Council feared this girl.

Every morning she adhered to a grueling training regime that not even those muscle-bound freaks from the Flexheart clan trained as diligently as this. Somehow the girl was capable of doing this on a single bowl of porridge a day, along with somehow training Serpent Shackles. If Selena wasn't watching it directly with her eyes, she would say what she was witnessing was impossible.

The girl's body should be incredibly weakened. Whatever slop they feed her shouldn't give enough nutrients to keep her body as healthy as it is now. She should barely be able to move around at the very least. But she was just as fit and energetic as someone from the Flexheart clan. A clan in the Connate Faction that exclusively practices a connate magji that lets them manipulate their muscles. Making them physically stronger than any other magjistars.

If that wasn't bad enough, magji tools like serpent shackles aren't capable of being tamed like this. They were created with the sole purpose of apprehending magjistars. They aren't made to follow commands, engage in playful behavior with magjistars, or be trained! What this girl was doing was impossible on every level unless these serpent shackles were defective.

Actually, that made more sense… A crazy Magjismith did more than he was asked to when crafting the serpent shackle. From time to time, a magji tool would do more than it was supposed to because of the strange whims of its crafter. For some reason, the magjismith made this serpent shackle with more purpose than being restraints to apprehend criminals with. Selena made sure to keep an eye on the tamed serpent shackle as she planned to order another one in case this one decided to free the criminal it was shackling.