Ball of Nothing

When Zero received the news that Dorgon agreed to help them build Freya's statue, the doctor was overjoyed. However, Truen still sounded a little concerned so Zero asked why he wasn't feeling happier about the good news.

"We might have to make a trip to Derby Desert to find a gnome technician. Dorgon says that he has a Crafter's Suit that's broken and only a gnome can fix it. Without that suit, there's no way he could build a huge statue of Freya that's even taller than the giants. I don't think our mission will be done anytime soon..."

Zero smiled. "That's alright. It's an adventure, isn't it? Besides, how about you ask him where the Crafter's Suit is. I can take a look to see if I could repair it."

"Zero..." Truen warned. His friend had a tendency to take things too far by trying to help. "How about you leave the fixing to the gnomes instead and focus on transforming Princess Dorothy into a drop-dead beauty as you promised?"

The doctor rolled his eyes even though Truen couldn't see it over the communicator. "Don't be silly. She is already a great beauty now. She's just going to become better once she stabilises the second stage of her core. It's been two weeks since you've left, when are you coming back so that we can go to Derby Desert? Schaf wrote a letter. He said that Half Moon Village will be sending a representative over to negotiate with the royal family about trading for ores, minerals and salt with the dwarves in exchange for medical plants, potions and cultivation pills."

Truen sighed. "It takes about two weeks for the dwarves to walk to Geode Town and it might take me another two weeks to get back with Dorgon. We can't ride any horses because the dwarves aren't good horsemen."

With some reluctance, Zero agreed that he would only steal a peek at the Crafter's Suit but not fix it even if he thought giving Merlin a call would resolve the issue quicker. Truen threw his words right back at him for being impatient about wanting to get the job done.

"It's an adventure, right? Let me return to Rocket Mountain and then report the situation to King Darius with Dorgon so that we can make arrangements to go to Derby Desert. Besides, I believe that it might be better this way. You can take this opportunity to convince the stingy counsellor to give you your adventurer's pass."

The laughter took Truen by surprise. "Silly Truen! I don't think we need to negotiate at this point. In fact, you can call it a happy accident that I lost control of my temper back then. I'm receiving a treatment better than royalty right now so I'm bored out of my mind waiting for you. I'd even started to teach the princess some martial arts. She's a natural warrior, must have gotten it from her mother."

The archer didn't know if he should be happy or worried about how Zero described the situation at the capital. They only arrived at Rocket Mountain a few weeks ago but Zero was getting the royalty treatment for losing his temper? The doctor described the small earthquake caused by his clashing mana when he saw how the princess was trying to destroy her body by practising cultivation and magic at the same time.

"I did apologise later and talked to everyone about it. The chancellor agreed to keep it hush-hush but they were more understanding about why we wanted me to have a special guild pass with a healer class and a low rank with the ability to travel anywhere. King Darius won't be refusing to sign the document and I'm sure the monocle dwarf would have made arrangements by now."

Truen nodded. Not bad! Zero was improving even if he shouldn't have been that careless to lose control of his powers. "The monocle guy has a name. I found out from Dorgon today, he hates his name. Want to guess it?"

Zero hummed and tried to think of the most embarrassing names a prideful dwarf like the chancellor could have.

"Flower?"

"Nope. It isn't a girl's name so don't even try."

"Mm... Ginger?"

"It's not food," Truen sighed. "I'll give you a clue, it starts with "M"."

Zero frowned and made a list. "Mofofo? Mulan? Mustafa? Marian? Marie? Movolo? Mack? Mickey?"

Truen burst out laughing at the last one. Calling the strict dwarf Mickey was a little worse than his actual name but the archer wouldn't say it to the chancellor in person.

"None of it but Mickey is a good one...It's actually Motley. M-O-T-L-E-Y. Apparently Dorgon, Darius and Motley are childhood friends. Now you know why the king looked slightly guilty when we first brought Dorgon's name up. They had a fight and Dorgon left the capital."

Zero listened attentively and asked for details that Truen was happy to indulge the inquisitive doctor until it was way past bedtime.

"That's enough for today," the archer reminded. "It's time for bed for you. Don't make me report to your shifu that you started misbehaving. As a teacher, you should be setting better examples for your student."

After complaining about how unfair it was to use his new teacher identity against him for such things, Zero ended the call and Truen chuckled. Zero was still adorable when he was trying to lie and hide his embarrassment. He wasn't doing a very good job to convince Truen he was angry over getting acknowledged as a teacher. From the tone he used earlier, Truen knew that Zero must have been controlling his voice so that he wouldn't burst out in excited giggles. It was cute seeing how the little boy grew up but never changed much. He was still happy over little things like that.

Now that the call has ended, Truen took some time to write his periodic email report to the Great Gods and Zero's teachers. Although they were finally on their adventure, that didn't mean the people around Zero didn't worry. After updating his employers, Truen gave the Onion Union a brief update about where Zero was going next and how they were progressing.

Coux asked about their financial situation and Truen checked the shared inventory that Zero created for them by partitioning the void inventory using the upgraded system's function. They had a thousand gold from the king as a reward which was equivalent to 10 dinnites and 600 binnites. Mammon who saw that amount scoffed.

Mammon: If you have no need for that money pass me half of it. I will invest it and grow it on behalf of him. The business operation between Earth and Hell needed deeper pockets to expand quickly. Schaf is working too slowly.

Truen: You can have 8 dinnites, the rest we will need to get Zero registered and prepare for the trip to Derby Desert. I believe Zero will want to buy a number of gadgets from the gnomes.

The various faction leaders of the Onion Union discussed more the complex business network and Truen nodded in satisfaction. Everyone was working hard and the competition was still going strong between faction leaders. Mammon worked the hardest with Coux not far behind. Hence, he kept his promise and sent them both privately some of Zero's cute moments from when he was at Magnus Hilda. Zero's new look startled them at first but Truen explained that Zero did it so they could pass off as siblings easily on their travels.

Gaia who was stalking the chat didn't mind seeing Zero as a cute wood elf but she said something that made Truen shiver.

Gaia: Does it mean that if we want Zero to transform into other species we must first change Truen's appearance?

The archer declined to answer and made an excuse to quickly log off. He was very satisfied with his current body and didn't want any cosmetic changes done.