Ball of Nothing

Eventually, Zero returned to Half Moon Village. He did whatever he could on Magnus Hilda and now, it was up to Dorgon and his small team to complete Freya's temple. The King and Queen of Magnus Hilda didn't want to hold Zero back for much longer and urged him to return to his village to recuperate. They even tasked Camie to ensure that Zero returned safely, not that the giantess minded.

Grandma Moppo and Seff were probably the happiest and most eager to welcome Zero back. Truen was happy but he ended up being the last to greet Zero because he wanted his friend to settle down before he piled responsibilities onto the poor doctor. It couldn't really be helped, there were simply too many things that needed the village leader's attention.

Thankfully, Zero had time to enjoy a handmade meal by Zoe before he was ambushed in the small pool by Truen.

"Sorry to disturb your meditation," the elf apologised. "Are you able to multitask recovering mana and qi while answering a few questions?"

Zero blinked and looked at the misty blanket around him. "If you don't mind the strange temperature here, I could."

Not standing on ceremony, Truen fired off questions from his list and Zero felt as if it was an interview with the news journalists.

First, he gave Zero an overview about the number of villagers they had with the gnome additions and the allied village, including the name list that Jermine provided him for her clan before she left with Monoman, Turmeric and Crudgel. Then, he gave Zero a detailed briefing of what each and every Half Moon Villager was doing and where they were assigned.

"Currently, we have a few things that need immediate attention. The waystone that I created for temporary use in New Moon Village needs an upgrade. As you know, I'm not too advanced with arrays, I can't make the same thing you made for Half Moon Village and Hua Tuo's hut."

Zero nodded. "I'll do that when I recover my mana."

Next on the list was the number of people who wanted to see Zero for an opinion. Everyone from Cleo to Pepper wanted to discuss important plans with him and inform him about their progress. Zero paled when he heard the list grow longer and longer, looking worse than when he first entered the pool to recuperate.

After Truen ended, Zero sighed. "Is that all?" he asked hopefully but his hopes were dashed when Truen flipped to the next page of his notes.

"Not quite," Truen said and Zero sank beneath the water a little more to try and drown himself. Naturally, it didn't work. He had the ability to breathe underwater or not breathe at all if he really wanted to.

After one long hour, Truen was finally done. Zero didn't know if he could remember everything on that list but he understood one thing now - being a leader was a real pain in the neck! He couldn't understand why people wanted to be kings and queens so badly but for him, being the leader of a tiny village already came with so many responsibilities. He couldn't imagine if he became a king, he would rather sleep like Baal than do anything.

"Don't worry," Truen smiled. "For now please focus on recovering. We can start when you're better. I will be here to assist you every step of the way and it will be a good number of weeks before Jermine returns with her clan or Dorgon completes the Freya statue."

Crying rivers of tears in his heart, Zero thanked his best friend weakly and continued to stay submerged in the water. Recovering his mana was something Zero wanted to do for the longest time since the nova cannon incident but now, he was having second thoughts. The power of procrastination was truly too terrifying.

\>\> This is a sponsored line break announcement. If you are not reading on ReadNovelFull then the content is stolen. Support the creator - Destiny Aitsuji - on ReadNovelFull and check out their other works. \<\<

Two weeks. No matter how leisurely Zero took his time to recover, he was back to his condition before he left for Derby Desert. His mana reserves started recovering by themselves after Truen taught him a new and better way to use Parallel Minds. Several clones could be seen soaking on Zero and Truen's behalf at the pool, recovering mana while the best friends busied away, attending from one matter to another.

Zero didn't know how he survived the neverending reports from different people while he was in the spring for the last two weeks. Every day, some even several times a day, someone would come by to tell him the progress of his various projects and ask for advice about what to do next. Initially, it was easy and Zero didn't mind. However, he started to feel uncomfortable after a while when they started to bring things and people for demonstrations.

If you couldn't bring a child to school, you brought the school to a child. Zero used to think this was a brilliant idea but now, he hated the person who invented this concept. He didn't think that the gnomes would line up to present their ideas for Zero to look through while he soaked in the pool. From technical devices to floor plans for expansion, Zero had to listen to them and do all the thinking independently with little to no input from Truen or Mii.

On the bright side, most of the appointments that Zero had with the villagers were cleared within the two weeks he spent recovering. Cleo was delighted when Zero approved of their new garden design so that the Melissa golems can work more efficiently covering a smaller area with a higher harvest rate. Raj and Pepper were able to finalise the design for New Moon Village's underground bunker. Ginger was able to create a powerful ranged weapon that didn't operate using magic to be mounted on top of the barricaded walls. This weapon was able to shoot enemies down from the sky as well and Zero wanted it mass manufactured for new Mon Village's protection. The fact that no marksman training was required to use this new weapon well made Zero very excited. If the humans could protect themselves without Monoman, Clowis could save on stationing manpower there permanently.

Apart from settling boring miscellaneous matters, Zero had been writing letters to various people to coordinate the various ongoing negotiations. Rocket Mountain finally sent over their signed treaty agreement and Truen informed Zero that they already had Monoman's signature for New Life Village. They were simply pending one more representative from the mole beast folks who have yet to arrive. At the same time. King Vivian sent Zero a message regarding the people holding the keys he needed to find. Zero held onto the formal letter of introduction the Fae King sent and was currently replying to Mammon.

"Are you sure you'll be fine in the abyss?" Ruth asked. Zero was still soaking in the tub but he looked a lot better than he did previously. An army of five other Zero clones and three Truen clones were cramped in the small pool and the vampire wondered if expansion was required soon.

"Yes," Zero assured him. "If it is in the Garden of Roth, I'll be fine. Could you make arrangements? I will visit in two days after I manage to keep Mii online and get Wii to connect. I know Mammon is busy so if it isn't convenient for him, I'll leave rescheduling to you."

Ruth huffed. "There's no way Mammon will refuse you. Hurry up and get out of this tub. It's not becoming of you to be so sickly. We'll be waiting for you."

Zero smiled and waved goodbye to his combat teacher. Likewise, he didn't like feeling sick all the time. Honestly, he considered leaving a clone here permanently to recover mana and manage his village leader duties on his travels. Zero didn't enjoy the mountain of work waiting for his attention as they piled up. Today's work should be done today for tomorrow will have its own worries. He finally understood Hua Tuo's teaching.