Ball of Nothing

Mitchnew and Ruth weren't too surprised to find that both master and student returned soaked to the bone. The dark elf prepared dry clothes while Ruth prepared dinner.

Hua Tuo made a mental note that for quicker progress, he should set up camp in that cave that Zero made. Submerging oneself into the training experience is always a good thing. Many masters achieved breakthroughs quicker when they go into seclusion to train. He took a look at the vampire and dark elf and made up his mind.

At dinner, Zero was pleasantly surprised when Hua Tuo told the dark elf and vampire to return to Half Moon Village for a month.

"Zero and I will be training in seclusion. If he doesn't succeed trials within a month, we are calling it off. I still have yet to teach him about surgery."

Pressurised by the sudden deadline, Zero quickly polished away the food and declared that he was going to pack even though there really wasn't anything much he should bring. Everything he needed was in his inventory.

Ruth and Mitchnew were surprised but didn't question it. After all, the Sage God will be there with Zero. A month would fly by very quickly and they wished Zero all the best before cleaning up for the night. They would depart the next morning.

Zero was uncharacteristically quiet that evening as he reflected in the contrasting types of voids he'd experienced earlier. One was warm and full of things that Zero always wanted while the other was like a horrible nightmare come true. How could the same space be so vastly different at the same time? The brunet couldn't understand it. In fact, his memory about the time spent in that void was becoming hazy. The illusions and sensations he experienced were messing around with his mind so badly that the doctor-in-training wondered if there was a right answer to the question.

Hua Tuo packed some bedsheets to lay on the stone floor for them to sleep on and a set of dry clothing. he wasn't repeating that mistake again. Zero didn't really have anything to bring apart from some mana recovery pills that he made a few months back. It was for faster recovery and special training that Hua Tuo briefed him about in the second stage. Still, the teen wondered when he would be able to overcome the first stage.

Hua Tuo turned in early and let Zero decide if he wanted to do some night training. The brunet contemplated going back to the Aggression Falls after his earlier failures to conquer it but decided against it. Hua Tuo let Zero teleport away into the lamp to sleep for the night. Knowing Zero, he would be in it tossing and turning for a few hours with thoughts crowding in his head before he fell asleep.

Sadly, he was wrong. Zero didn't really sleep in the lamp. He was doing intensive research on the reading device.

"Zero, your training begins early tomorrow," Bob tried to encourage his master to get some rest but the teenager was stubborn.

"I'll take some pills to recover tomorrow and throw on some buff magic if I'm tired. This is important."

The Eternal Dragon groaned. Zero was definitely not going to let this end until he found something. Mii was busy with her work because Coux contacted her earlier so Bob decided to take on the role of a guardian in her stead.

"What are you researching?"

Zero sighed. "I need to find out about the origin of all three waterfalls. Where did they come from? Why is this spring isolated from the rest of the water sources and why is Endow Hill so special even on Earth? Sleepy Cave's existence should be no coincidence either.

Bob blinked. He actually knew the answers to some of Zero's questions because he was the guardian of Sleepy Cave and in extension, Endow Hill. However, he didn't know if it was a good idea to let his nosy master know too much.

"What are you going to do after you find out?"

Zero smiled. "Device a new method for training. I only have a month to conquer all three waterfalls and that isn't enough time at all. Truen once said that preparation is often more important than the execution. I'm cheating a little now by using the time difference in the lamp to do my research before morning comes. Time really isn't enough no matter what I do... wonder if that's the reason why so many people yearn for immortality."

The dragon grinned wryly. He highly doubted people wanted to become immortal because of the long to-do list. Maybe in Merlin's case and Buddha's case or Steve Job's case because they were the academic type. On the other hand, Hua Tuo probably wished to return to the cycle of life and forget about his painful history. Most people who weren't' immortals wanted immortality simply because they feared death. It wasn't anything noble like what Zero thought it would be but he wouldn't correct the young doctor.

"The cliffs were formed around the same time Sleepy Cave was born if not earlier."

Zero looked up from his reading device. "Really? how do you know?"

Bob rolled his eyes. "I was Sleepy Cave's guardian. Surely I would know a few secrets."

Zero tossed the reading device aside and turned his expectant eyes towards the dragon. Bob swallowed and wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut.

"On second thoughts... it's probably not accurate information since it's now outdated for several centuries..." Bob tried to squirm away but Zero was faster and caught onto one of Bob's hind claws before the mini dragon could fly away.

"Tell me! It's fine if it isn't updated. At least that would be me a general direction of where to search. You have no idea how messy the information I got from the library was!"

Bob mentally cried and wanted to sew his mouth shut the next time. He had a feeling that his young master was going to sniff out new trouble again.

"Only if you promise me that you will not investigate the source of the water and focus on your training," the dragon put on his sternest face and Zero nodded like a pecking hen.

with Zero's promise, the dragon was careful not to disclose too much information and only enough to sate the boy's curiosity.

"They say that the water from these three waterfalls came from a different dimension or plane. It's also part of Sleepy Cave's mystery. The cave has a Lake of Reflection at the heart of it as you might have known by now. While the water isn't supplied from Sleepy Cave, the water from this spring flows to one of Sleepy Cave's passages in a small stream that goes into the Lake of Reflection. I guess you can say that the true source of power for everything living on Endow Hill is this actually the Trigression Falls."

Zero listened with interest and didn't voice out any of his questions, waiting for Bob to complete his story.

"The Trigression Falls was formed when there was a huge earthquake after the war between Dragons and Hunters. Back then, we were hunted for our hearts that could retain mana. Dragons were magical creatures and every part of our body was a treasure for many other races. Dwarves and elves have found ways to use our hearts as magical cores to sustain some of their most powerful magical formations or fuel mass weapons of destruction. Dragon blood rained on this very forest and attracted the attention of many mana hungry souls."

Zero could almost imagine the horrific scene where dragons were shot down from the skies with their blood falling like rain onto the forest soil, leaving everything bathed in crimson as they became smaller in numbers.

Bob had a faraway look in his eyes when he told Zero all about the deal he made with Gaia and how he became the guardian of Sleepy Cave.

Zero listened without speaking and understood a little better why Bob was so happy to meet another dragon in the abyss. Olaf might be weird at times but for Bob who no longer had family, Olaf was like a precious brother he never thought he'd see again.

"Many races came to the battlefield after the dragons had been massacred to harvest the dragon corpses and mana. The land wasn't able to repair itself after the bloody war and the forest grew angry. They borrowed Gaia's power to repel the looters and three cliffs were formed. The spring was meant to nurture the dying land and Gaia borrowed life sources from other dimensions. Sleepy Cave's existence was an accident. Initially, I was the guardian of Endow Hill and spent most of my time splashing around in the Trigression Falls. However, that didn't deter all the looters and adventurers who still tried to look for remains of that battle. They lost their lives and their resentment for the forest gave birth to Sleepy Cave that had been nurtured with life energy by the creek with Trigression Fall's water."

Zero didn't know how to react. While the source of the water still remained unknown, it was no longer important. The huge reveal about Bob's origin and the Sleepy Cave's existence made Zero feel angry at the Hunters. How could they hunt dragons like livestock?

Then again, the young doctor knew that he wasn't any different with the fish that he caught to eat and train revival magic on. It was a cruel world where the fittest survived. Zero wondered why life was such a cruel thing. It wasn't easy to create life but it there was simply too many ways to take it away. The cycle was important to the Gods to maintain the balance of the world but Zero wondered why it existed in the first place.

He looked long and hard at Bob who had reincarnated to his duty so many times he'd lost count of it. "Don't you feel tired having to come back repeatedly in this never-ending cycle of life?"

Bob smiled. "A little. However, it's probably better than returning to the void. At least I still have another chance at being happy and doing what I want. Hope is a thing that's hard to kill. Imagine if I'd given up on living a few years back. I wouldn't have met you and we certainly wouldn't be able to travel together."

Zero nodded. What Bob said made sense. However, he still couldn't understand Solo's intention when he created the cycle of rebirth. Wasn't it better to just create life and not death? The number of souls still wouldn't change and everyone can be immortals. the world could have been a happier place that never changed.

No, that was bad. If the world never changed, Zero would never have been able to get out of that void.

Aggression Falls was something like that newbie God that woke him up. It pushed him out of his comfort zone and made him aware of what he wasn't capable of doing. However, it was also a good thing because Zero desperately needed this push in order to overcome his limitations. Solo didn't have limitations back then and everything he created was following the same thought pattern. It wasn't clear earlier but Zero now understood why he thought that the world was so flawed.

Unlike Zero, Solo only saw the world as a huge puzzle with pieces connecting one of two things at a time. However, the young doctor didn't just see a pretty picture. He saw an intricate system that never ended.

It was strange how the world Zero was in resembled the void he was trapped in. Although Solo broke free from that empty space and filled it with a lot of things that he thought would be interesting, his past self was never truly satisfied. His creations often felt empty and Solo hated everything that he made. he wanted no part of the horrid nightmare that he couldn't undo so he created the Great Gods to oversee his project and ran away from responsibilities, pushing it to Zero to take over.

Now he understood a little more about the differences between the two void as he meditated earlier.

Bob watched as his young master yawned and tried his best not to fall asleep on the comfortable bed. It didn't take long after Zero had a breakthrough in understanding to fall asleep. With his curiosity sated and troubled thoughts answered, there was nothing much fuelling the brunet on.

the dragon flew over the drape the blanket over the teenager's sleeping form and whispered goodnight before leaving the lamp for Zero's mindscape where he joined an overworked strawcherry fairy with paperwork.