Chapter 74: Starting From The Bottom.

  It hasn't been that long since Zoey was released from the hospital. Despite Victor's bullshit about her body not being healthy enough to learn the two techniques, Victor still gave her detailed instructions about them and how to practice them when she got better. Somehow, he was just able to know shit like this because Zoey damn sure tried to gain the techniques and add them to her skill list with the Box. But just like the asshole said, her body couldn't handle trying to perform them. Not to mention one of them would only injure her body even worst if she tried practicing it.

  Zoey thought she'd be able to enjoy a little break now that she wasn't dragged around by Victor all over the place anymore. She could go back to track practice, an activity that was very important to her future outside of the magji world! Because of Victor, she had to drop from the track team but thankfully, the coach said she was always welcome back when things weren't so hectic in her life. Getting a scholarship with track to go to college and be the first person on Zoey's mom's side of the family to get into college. Zoey knew damn well she wasn't going to get into college using book smarts. Might as well use her stupidly strong body for something to benefit her.

  If Zoey wanted, she could probably become a world-famous track star. An available option for her if she can't find any better-paying options. Right now, Zoey had a few career choices. Fighting instructor, video game coach eventually, Olympic runner, world-class fighter, youth fitness coach, full-time magjistar, competitive gamer, or a lab rat. It was too difficult to try and wrap her small little brain around the pros and cons of all those jobs as of now. So, she wrote them down in her journal as possible options and left it that.

  Along with track practice, she planned to hang out more with Callie and Katlyn since her week freed up. Enjoying a new style of high school now that she was kind of popular now and wasn't as awkward anymore. Zoey confidently believed she wasn't anywhere near as awkward as she was in the past and could live a far more fulfilling life now because of it. Plus, she actually had friends now!

  Besides school, she still planned to help teach her brother how to get better at video games so that he could participate in tournaments and win stupid fat dumb money prizes. Wouldn't it be a waste to have this box and not use it to help her family improve their lives too? While Zoey has been giving a fucking generous amount of money to her mom and dad from the cases she went on with Victor, it's a different thing to be given money because of someone else's effort compared to making the money with your own efforts. So, along with helping Everett become the greatest gaming streamer, she'll also help her mom and dad with stuff too!

  But helping her dad is going to be real fucking difficult. He was a video game designer and that shit wasn't simple to just learn and know. Zoey tried looking up some video game designer shit on the internet and was instantly locked out from learning more. She didn't understand anything she was seeing and knew that this wasn't the best path to help her father. It would take months of studying up on designing video games for Zoey to help her father become the best video game designer.

  Zoey's mom wasn't that different from her father. She worked in retail as an inventory control specialist. A position that helps companies prevent losses and takes notes of everything. Zoey didn't see how she could help with this either. So, she gave up and decided to only help Everette because she had enough on her plate as it was.

  The OM had different plans for Zoey though. Because of the trouble she and Victor caused, they didn't plan to let either of them rest for a while until this daemon incident was quelled. Zoey was scheduled to handle several cases starting from the bottom up. This was also partly because she was never classified as anything but a bringer. It was a ranking even lower than the lowest grade magjistar.

"Hehe. I may have forgotten that you need recommendations from other higher grade magjistars if you wanted to increase your grade officially..." Victor chuckled. "Just solving cases isn't enough for troublemakers like us." He added.

  So, because of that asshole's forgetfulness, Zoey had to start from the bottom bottom and solve cases as a Bringer. If she wanted to rank up to a Grade D magjistar, she needed to get the approval of two Grade-D magjistars and solve a certain number of cases as a bringer. At first, Zoey wasn't too upset about it because she went on several cases with Lindsay and Alexander but for some fucked up reason, those cases were strangely erased and there's no proof of her ever solving them.

"Ah, yeah. They'll do that sometimes when they don't want you going up the ranks. Nothing you can really do about it except solving so many cases they can't mess ya with anymore." Victor explained.

"Have I ever told you, I hate you?" Zoey asked.

"Who knows? I definitely wouldn't be able to hear such hurtful words from my one and only apprentice. I'd probably kill myself on the spot!" He laughed.

"I won't stop you." Victor just continued to laugh.

"At least, you'll have it easy for a while. Just make sure you don't embarrass yourself and you'll be fine. You're my little apprentice after all! If you make yourself look bad, that's gonna reflect on my teachings!"

"So, I just have to act as bait and then kill daemons? Or do I just act as bait and leave it to the Grade-D magjistars?" Zoey needed to know.

"All that matters is that you successfully solve the case. However, you can't beat up your allies even if they upset you, my violent little apprentice. They'll declare you a traitor to the OM, hold your family hostage against you, and send any available magjistar after you to detain you or kill you." Victor felt he had to remind her.

"They're really mad about that, huh?" Zoey took in his words.

"Super freaking pissed. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to falsely accuse you of traitorous actions to get rid of you or just kill you outright on your cases." Victor chuckled.

"If you weren't so strong, I'd kill you myself for getting me in this annoying crap." Zoey sighed.

"One of the perks of being strong!" He only laughed more.

"Whatever. I'll just do what I need to do." Zoey wasn't too worried. Despite how leisurely Victor seemed to take everything, Zoey knew he would step up to protect her and her family if it came to it.

"Don't forget! Make bonds with people! It's the only way monsters like us can fight against the weak without using our fists." Victor reminded.

"I'll do my best..." Zoey wasn't too excited about that part.

  If her social skills before the Box was at a D-, they were probably at a C- or C now. She'd try hard to make friends in the magji community but considering how badly everyone is painting her and Victor, it's going to be annoying as fuck. It did make sense considering the bulling spree she went on but still. Bullies only made friends with other bullies and weaklings who sucked up to them. Zoey didn't know if she could do something like that but maybe she could be friends with bullies if they were cool to her? She didn't know.

  What if they started bullying some innocent person in front of her? Would she care!? Zoey knew it was a bad sign of her mental health when she didn't know if she would be able to feel for a person being bullied if it was by someone she considered her friend. Did she even care about being a good person? She thought back to all the times she did something slightly heroic and frowned.

  Zoey didn't fight for other people, she fought for herself... Wait! That fight with the three daemons in the subway! She fought for her family, didn't she?! But would that really count as good that she fought for them? It's fucking normal to fight for your family.

'Maybe... I should see a therapist sometime in the future...' Zoey worriedly thought. 'Maybe when my selfish choices start to negatively impact me. I'll ask my parents to set me up with one then. Right now, it's mostly rainbows and sunshine so there's no need to go now. Hopefully, things will work out in my favor. I'm probably just overthinking how people think of me in the magji community anyway. I usually am.'