Chapter 3431 Great Haul (Part 2) "Oh, gods! I know what's happening" Vastor said. "Strip, Zoreth!" "Shouldn't you offer me a drink f-" More vomiting cut the joke midway. "First, Orulm already did that. That's one of my best wines and you are wasting it. Second, I'm sorry but I'm taken, miss, and so are you." As Zoreth had her Bookwyrm armor slip off her body, the Master covered her with a blanket. "I said strip, silly girl." He took off her Skull as well and the vomiting stopped immediately. "What... what's happening to me?" Zoreth felt better by the second, now her head hurt just as if someone was drilling it from either side and the metal points were meeting in the middle. "The second part of our haul." Vastor replied. "Information. Capturing a Guardian was a gamble whose odds of success plummeted the moment Roghar called for reinforcements. "Yet just because we don't have him here, it doesn't mean we can't study him. It's the reason I entrusted Theseus with collecting biological samples and Zoreth to fight as little as she could and keep her Dragon Eyes on the enemy." "That's why she used no spell and limited herself to breathing Origin Flames." Abthot's eyes widened when the weird details of the fight finally made sense. "Well, duh." Bytra helped Zoreth to sit down. "The Skull is made of Yggdrasill wood that enhances the understanding and the Skull itself allows Zor to read the mana currents better than any Awakened can. "I assumed that by combining them with her Dragon Eyes, I might discover the secret behind the legendary Eyes of Menadion. I even added a special recording device solely to her Skull of Bytra." The Raiju removed what looked like a pair of small metal discs placed inside the helm at the level of the temples. "I Forgemastered it under Bytra's supervision. Vastor explained. "It uses Spirit Magic to record the interactions between the Yggdrasill wood, the Skull, and her Dragon Eyes. But enough babbling. Zoreth needs our help. "Come here, everyone. Tezka..." "Way ahead of you." The Suncater split into ten different bodies, each with a single tail. This method greatly reduced his combat prowess but increased his mental prowess by tenfold. He could study, research, and think ten times faster as if there were ten Tezkas. The Spirit Tail was pathetically weak, but its brain was as good as the other nine. The Eldritches and Vastor wore their respective Skulls, leaving only Zoreth without. Then, Vastor used a mind link to connect them all and shared the knowledge stored in Xenagrosh's brain from the fight. The Guardians' spells, the battle tactics, the arrays they used, how they manipulated their mana, and the surrounding world energy were all stored inside Zoreth's mind, cramping it with endless information and causing her pain. Vastor split the data between the Eldritches based on their specializations and talents so that no one was overloaded. It allowed the Shadow Dragon to forget about everything that confused her or made no sense to her. Making no effort to understand or retain the acquired knowledge, her body naturally blurred part of her memories from the fight, like it would do with a long and absurd dream after waking up. With each bit of information, Zoreth could let go of, her head hurt less and less. The quasi-hive mind formed by the mind link alleviated her strain and made her relax. In the span of a few minutes, everyone had watched the parts of their respective share of knowledge enough times to commit it to memory down to the slightest detail. Tezka, with his ten elemental masteries, took almost everything in by himself. "We definitely gained a lot." He said while his ten bodies organized and stored the knowledge in separate compartments of his brains with the help of the Yggdrasill wood. "Yet this is not the moment to press forward. "We are all tired and need to rest. We also need to examine what we've learned and arrange it in order of relevance to our goals. We need to focus on what's useful and prioritize it. The rest can be set aside for later." "Agreed." Vastor said. "We- Where are you going?" "To bed." The Suneater merged his ten bodies into one. "The kids aren't used to sleeping without me and tomorrow is a school day." "Fine." Vastor sighed. He would have liked to hold a meeting and set the schedule for the following day but working without Tezka was like not working at all. He was the oldest, wisest, and most knowledgeable among the members of the Organization. To make matters worse, his value to the research increased tenfold once he split. "We'll discuss this tomorrow. Have some rest. Especially you, Theseus, and Zoreth." "Thanks, Master." The Bastet's voice oozed sarcasm. "For your information, healing doesn't mean I don't feel pain. Today I died over a hundred times and my body has been ground to dust twice. I'm still reeling from the shock." "I'm fine and dandy, instead" Xenagrosh cleared the vomit from her chin, her voice sounded even more annoyed as she needed Bytra's help to stand up. "Seriously, Dad, I'm like shit now and Abthot too took quite a beating. "I know we are not that important but you should care for us as well. "I do care for you!" The Master said in outrage. "You have a funny way to show it." Abthot snarled. Vastor sighed deeper. "I'm sorry. It's just that we gained so much and learned a lot. We got much closer to our goal and enthusiasm blinded me. You are right. This waited for decades, it can wait until after school." His words were greeted with fake enthusiasm and lots of grumbling. After giving everyone a check-up to look less insensitive, the Master Warped to his bedroom. "Well? How did it go?" Much to his surprise, the light was on and Zinya was waiting for him. She was wearing a black lace nightgown and reading a book, only the lower half of her body was covered under the bedsheets. "It went great, thanks. Why are you still awake? It's late and you should be sleeping already!" "Because I was worried for you, silly. She walked out of the bed and to him for a hug and 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶 a sweet kiss. "And because I wanted to be the first to congratulate you for a job well done, whatever it was." "Thank you." Vastor returned the embrace, feeling his body tense up in shame for the secrets he kept from her and the desire to keep her safe from everything, even himself. "No, thank you, silly." Zinya replied. In a cold indifferent world where a blind woman was at the mercy of her own family, Vastor was the one who had given her light. Yet that paled in comparison with his choice to protect and restore the almost broken bond with her children. Many times had the Master put his life on the line to protect them for no reason but the kindness of his heart and the honor of his soul. He had taken Filia and Frey into his house and cared for them not because bound by blood but by choice. A choice he renewed every day just like Zinya did hers. The choice to stand by his side. No matter what Mogar might call Zogar Vastor, to her he would always be her hero.