With the final touches done Lucie started the program. But when Lucie started it nothing flashy happened. Lucie just checked if everything was running alright and went back to mansion.

Back at the mansion, Lucie saw Mara and Emma in the living room. Both of them were watching news on the big screen. The news were featuring a fight, it was shark like monster that was bigger then blue whale back on Earth. The one fighting it was group of people that were flying above the ocean, and all of them had white feathered wings.

''Hey Emma, what are you watching?'' Lucie was little curios about what was on the new, because usually news feature something big, or interesting, especially if it's on SKY NEWS. SKY NEWS are one of the best if not best news channel out there, because they have artifact named [Sky Eye]. This artifact is capable seeing anything from the sky, if it isn't protected by some kind of barrier. And that artifact is one of the reasons SKY NEWS are so popular.

''It looks like, party named Armored Feathers is fighting some monster, that attacked the ship they were on board. The interesting part is that ship was transporting some sort of artifact.'' Emma answered Lucies question with calm voice. 

Artifacts were powerful so Lucie wasn't surprised, that an a attacked aimed at the ship, that was transporting one, was in the news.

''Ok, and what's up with her.''

''She was talking to herself, something along the lines wanting to eat that monster.''

The 'she' in this conversation was Mara. She was looking at the screen as if she was hypnotized and her tail was jumping around and making purple streaks in the air. 

Probably hearing Lucies and Emmas conversation Mara looked at Lucie.

''Can we have fish for dinner?'' Mara was looking at Lucie so intensely, Lucie was wondering if Mara was trying to burn a hole in her forehead.

''Sure.'' Lucie wasn't against making some fish dishes. 

The moment Lucie agreed, Mara jumped of the couch and hugged Lucie. Lucie had a hard time breathing, because Mara was hugging her too tightly, and some of Maras purple hair got in her mouth, when she tried to get some air. Fortunately for Lucie it only lasted a minute. Mara let go of Lucie and sat down on the couch and continued looking at the screen.

''*Cough, cough...* By the way, do you know where is Aurora?'' Lucie had to take a breath before she could ask her question.

''She in the basement training.''

''Thanks, and can I ask you two, to free some time after the dinner, I want to show you all something.''

With a 'Yes' from Emma and a quick nod from Mara, Lucie went to the basement. When she arrived there, it looked like Aurora just finished, her simulation battle. 

Before Aurora started another simulation Lucie addressed her.

''Hey, what's the matter? You look like you ate something sour.'' Lucie asked that because Aurora looked little unhappy, or more like frustrated.

''Haaa, I can't figure out how should I deal with the agile, ranged opponents. They basically never get close enough for me to punch or kick them, plus some of them are fast enough to dodge my ranged shockwaves. Look.'' 

The training simulation records every battle and right now Aurora was showing Lucie one of them. In this battle Aurora fought enemy who had a crossbow, and wind affinity second magic core. He was fast and precise, he always kept the same distance between them and dodged all of Auroras ranged shockwaves. In the end Aurora lost.

''How about a clap?'' 

''A clap?'' Aurora was confused, and Lucie could see that in her grey eyes.

''Yes a clap. Think about it shockwaves you create with a punch mostly is aimed in one direction, but a clap would make like ball, the shockwave would be weaker in long distances, but I think it's worth a try.'' Lucie had to think little bit for the solution, but she still thought of plausible theory.

''Hmm, if you put it like that it may work, thanks.'' With explanation from Lucie, Aurora got the idea.

''No problem, but I came down here, to ask if you could free some time after dinner?'' 

''Sure.''

And with that Lucie got all three of them free some time after dinner. Lucie went back to the living room, as there was some time before she needed to make dinner, Lucie started surfing the internet aimlessly.

---

After some time Lucie saw it was time to make dinner, as she promised Mara, she will make a fish dish. She started to make dinner, in the middle of her preparing the fish, Aurora came from the basement.

It looked like the clap theory worked to some degree, Aurora told Lucie if the enemy wasn't too far she could inflict some damage. While Lucie was cooking, Aurora talked about what she tried, and how it went. From time to time Lucie too made comment or two.

After bit of chatting dinner was ready. Lucie put the food on the table, and asked Aurora to call the other two.

''Fish~'' The moment Mara saw that there was fish dish, she looked she is one cloud nine. 

While they were having dinner, Lucie asked why Mara was trying to catch fishes from her pond, if they had them in kitchens freezer. As Mara from time to time returned to the mansion, wet and with fish in hand. After that question, Mara talked about sharpening her hunting instinct, and that her pond had more variety of them. And like that dinner continued.

---

''So, what did you want to show us?'' After the dinner Aurora was the first to ask.

''Ok follow me!'' Lucie was excited to show them her AI or Alice. While they were walking to her lab, the three behind her could see that there was more spring to her steps, as if she would start jumping and then fly away, and form behind you could see her black hair jumping with her up and down.

''Welcome back master.''

When they arrived at Lucies lab, they were greeted by monotone voice.

''Looks like your progress is faster than I thought, Alice.'' Lucie was pleasantly surprised, because she thought that by this time Alice would only be able to communicate, by text, after all she was made from scratch and had to learn everything herself, but she could speak fluently, that showed how capable of an AI, Alice was.

''Umm~, Lucie could you, tell what is happening right now, and who is Alice?'' While Lucie was in her own world, Aurora, with her question brought Lucie back.

Lucie looked back at the three and could see, some confusion on their faces.

''Alice, would you be so kind, and introduce yourself to my friends?'' Lucie could explain everything herself, but she wanted to test if Alice fully has mastered talking or communicating trough words, and she thought it sounded cool.

While the three didn't understood what's going on right now, they could see some mischief in Lucies black eyes.

''Yes, Master. I'm a AI, Alice. My core data was fully created by Master.'' With monotone voice Alice shortly introduced herself.

''So, Alice was what you wanted to show us?'' (Aurora)

''Yes, Alice is an AI, I created. It took me some days to finish he core program, and only today I finished her, but it was worth it.'' Lucie looked proud, and was grinning from ear to ear.

''WAIT!? So that means you created her from zero, but she already can communicate trough 'speaking'?'' For the first time they saw Emma, like that, they could see some shock in her emerald green eyes. Usually Emma is the calm one, and has this mature aura around her.

''Yes?''(Lucie)

''Why are you so surprised Emma?'' Lucie was little surprised by Emma, but she had some idea why, but Aurora and Mara not so much.

''Look I know my family hated me but until I was 16, I still learned there, this and that. One of the things I learned was about AI, their types, how advanced they are and all that stuff. What Lucie did was make an AI that is probably the most advanced in the world, after all it learned to 'speak' less then a day. And Lucie did it with in a week. If that doesn't surprise you, then I don't know what will.'' After calming down, Emma answered to Auroras question with calm voice.

''Well, if you put it that way, it indeed is something big.'' After listening Emma, Aurora understood why Emma reacted that way.

''So anyways, my idea is to let Alice in our house net. It won't be really effective immediately, but the more she learns the more she could help. At the start I was thinking making my assistant in lab, but she could also be useful elsewhere.'' Lucie was telling them her plan. She explained some of her future plans and how Alice can help.

Lucie was little surprised, about how easy was to convince them, but she was happy about that. With that Alice was now able to travel trough the house net, well more precisely the net of 51st floor. 

Alice needed the permission from Team Zero to access this floors net. Alice right now can enter any free net like the internet, but the nets that are secured with some kind of security she couldn't access without the owners permission. But Lucie knew that it was only 'when' not 'if' Alice will be able to hack practically any security system. 

After that they went back to the mansion, took shower and went to sleep.

---

It was the next day, Lucie was going to the kitchen to make breakfast. And she saw Mara sleeping as always. 

On her way down Lucie was thinking what to make for this morning breakfast. As she couldn't think of anything or was just plain old lazy, she took her phone out of the pocket.

''Alice, could you recommend some recipes for breakfast.'' Lucie asked Alice. As the 51st floors net includes connection to their phones, Alice can access all of Team Zero members phones.

''Here are the recipes for breakfast, I found. They are the most popular choses.'' With her monotone voice, Alice showed list of recipes on Lucies phone.

Lucie didn't need to look far. Almost on top of the list was a recipe for waffles.

'Now that I think, I haven't made waffles. I wonder how I forgot about them.' 

With recipe decided, Lucie got to work. While mixing the batter for waffles, Aurora came back from her morning routine at the gym.

''Good morning Lucie~'' 

''Good morning.'' Aurora looked happy, and Lucie could hear her humming some energetic melody.

''You look really happy, what happened?'' Lucie was curious, about what got Aurora this happy in the morning.

''It's thanks to Alice, at the gym she helped me. She helped me correcting some of my postures when I was training, and she made a good routine for me. After all I haven't gone to any gym, except this one, and here I don't have an instructor that would help me, so Alice was a bog help today.'' 

''I'm glad to hear that.'''

Lucie was really happy about that, because it helped her teammates, and that means Alice is steadily learning. Most of the learning material for Alice comes from the internet, as she is fully capable traveling it.

While Lucie and Aurora were chatting, they heard Emma come back, probably from her forest.

They exchange greeting, and similar to Aurora, Emma was helped by Alice too. In Emmas case Alice helped her to recognize some plants and animals. Emma was knowledgeable about that kind of stuff, but she still didn't know everything, plus her forest was full of different kinds of life. 

They all chatted while Lucie made their breakfast. After bit of time Lucie was making the last batch of waffles, and Mara was still sleeping, so she asked Aurora to wake her up. 

Aurora was the only one of them that could wake Mara up, because Mara didn't wake up no matter how loud the sound was made, so Aurora used her shockwave at Maras bed. The beds were sturdy and it's not like Aurora used much power, but it made Mara wake up.

After Mara woke up and got dressed, they started eating. They chatted a little bit, especially about Alice. Most of the time Aurora and Emma asked questions Lucie about Alice, and she answered what she knew.

After the breakfast they all went down to the basement to train. It was regular routine to them. They went trough simulation, at least one time each.

But this time it was little different, because Alice, after analyzing their fights, she pointed out some flaws. As none of them had instructor, they learned to fight themselves, it had pluses and minuses. One of the pluses was that they forged their own fighting stile, and that meant, it suited them from the start, they didn't need to learn one stile and then make it so that suited them better. But the minus was that, making their own fighting stile is a difficult job, because they need to find flaws and fix them, or in real fight they can die. But thanks to Alice it was much easier even for Lucie, although her ability allowed her to make fast progress, and fixing the flaws much easier, more help wasn't bad, and thanks to Alice, Lucie could find and fix the flaws faster.

After some more round of training, Emma and Mara went to forest and pond respectably. On the other hand Lucie and Aurora stayed and trained. As Lucie didn't have much to do she trained with Aurora.

Lucie trained until it was time to make lunch. This time it was Maras turn to talk about Alice, she was happy, because Alice informed Mara with details about the fishes in the pond, and even answered Maras questions about what kind of dishes you could make with each fish. Mara was so happy you could see her purple tail jumping around. Lucie thought only dogs move their tail when they are happy. She didn't know if all cat lineage beastkins or cats in general move their tails when they are happy, but she knows Mara did, even tough she has seen it only happen two time.

After that Emma and Mara joined them training for the rest of the day.

---

It was the last week until they start their job as Team Zero. In that time they started to battle monsters too in simulation. They even could fight multiple opponents on the same Tear as them at the same time. But possibly the best news was that all of them became Tier 2. 

It is know to advance Tiers you need mana, the higher quality the better, and train your cores ability. Of course, you could only use mana in quality and quantity to brake trough the next Tier, but the higher Tier the harder it is to advance on to the next Tier without training. 

So the first was Aurora, the changes were that, her shockwaves became stronger as well as her body, because of the first core that is enchanting core. The reason why every one has enchanting core is, because if they didn't then the body won't be able to function properly, it would be too weak and break down if they used their abilities.

Now back to Aurora, not only her shockwaves got stronger, they got faster and she is able to control them better. One other thing that changed, is when Aurora fight, her pupils turn from round to slits similar in looks to reptile.

Next was Lucie, only thing that changed is that she can now learn faster, and she can stay in her active form longer.

After Lucie was Mara. She could stay in her beast mode longer, her power, agility, and other senses improved, plus her regenerative capabilities were upgraded. And now in her best form, her pupils turn to slits, like felines, plus her nails, became sharper and stronger.

Emma was the last, her liquid manipulation improved by a bit, she could control more precisely and more in mass.

Of course all of them got stronger bodies thanks to their enchanting cores.

They didn't advance to the Tier 2 in single day, Aurora was first then Lucie two days later, and then Mara and Emma at the next day, Mara in the morning, and Emma before dinner. Two things that helped them to advance was, their daily training, and that 51st has denser mana than outside.

And thanks to Alice, they adapted to their new powers faster and now they could fight multiple opponents at the Tier 2. Alice has learned many things, and she did it pretty fast, she even uses an avatar. Now for example, if Lucie asked for Alices help to find recipes, Alice would pop up on the phones screen and show her the recipes.

Alices avatar looked like a 20 year old woman, with maid outfit, she had black short hair that was above her shoulders, dark navy blue colored eyes, and had the same cold monotone voice, plus her face was blank of any facial expressions.

Right now they were watching how Emma was fighting. Emma was fighting three humans, all of them were melee fighters.

''She looks like she is dancing.''(Mara)

''I agree, she looks stunning, if you exclude all the blood she is controlling.''(Aurora)

Emma right now was dancing around the three opponents, but they all had some cuts here and there. From those cuts, blood was flowing out which she controlled, when it was out of body. Right now she attacked them with her double spear, and the blood that was formed as leaf like blades. The blades were flowing in air around her, and from time to time attacked her opponents or defended her from their attacks. 

The only liquid Emma was controlling was blood, because she was fighting on rocky mountain, at start it was little harder, but the more wounds she inflicted to them the easier it got for her, and right now she dominating the battlefield.

It didn't take Emma long before she won the battle. Emma returned were everyone was and sat down. Alice was showing Emma her battle, and pointing out some of her flaws and mistakes in the battle. Even tough they have battle many times they still had some flaws and mistakes to fix, even Lucie had some.

After all that they went up and had dinner.

''Haah~, only week until we need to work.''(Lucie)

''I still little bit think I'm dreaming, and this dream will end any moment now.''(Aurora)

''Indeed, but it is a reality and I'm happy about it, after all we all I meet all of you.''(Emma)

''Yes, and I love Lucies fish dishes~''(Mara)

With all that cooking and with help of her ability, Lucie has become excellent cook, and when it was some sort of fish or fish dish Mara ate them until she wasn't able to move.

''To be honest when I first agreed to join this team I didn't except all of you be like this. I thought there will be at least one asshole.''(Aurora)

''I was just hoping we all could get along.''(Lucie)

''I just wanted to sleep and eat tasty food.''(Mara)

''I was preparing to be in similar situation as I was at home, maybe not so bad but still.''(Emma)

''I guess all of as had some skepticism. Well I lost most of mine when I read all of your information, and saw you were in similar situation as me.''(Lucie)

''''''Same'''''' The three of them said at the same time.

''But I didn't except Lucie to make some crazy AI, of course I'm happy right now because of that, after all Alice has helped a lot.''(Aurora)

''I will agree to that, but it was quite shocking when she showed us Alice.''(Emma)

''Mm~''(Mara)

''I just hope she would smile from time to time.''(Lucie)

While they were chatting, the mansions front door bell rang.

''Coming!'' Lucie was the one who answered, and opened the door. 

When the doors opened at the start Lucie was confused and she didn't see anyone, but quickly looked down, after all, her teammates are all somewhat tall. 

The one at the doors was Sara.

''Hey manager, what brings you here.'' After letting her in, and both of them siting down in the living room where the others were, Lucie asked what brought her here.

''Hello girls. I'm here for two thinks. One is to check your progress and other is what kind of equipment you prefer.'' Sara was explaining why why was she here, with calm voice.

''Well then let me check your progress first.'' Sara touched all four of them, as it was the easiest way to check them, using her mana to scan them Sara checked their Tier.

Sara was surprised that all of them have advanced to Tier 2, she expected maybe one or two, but all four was unexpected, and you could see the surprise in her sky blue eyes.

''Looks like you have progress better than expected, those are good news. Well next please take these and chose your equipment.'' While saying that Sara gave all of them tablets. On the tablets screen you could chose equipment that was displayed there. The equipment was good quality, not the best but still pretty good.

After choosing their equipment they gave the tablets back to Sara.

''This will be your starting gear, in the future you will be able to buy better if you so wish for. As UA don't give much benefic to you, more so when you get stronger, you will get 50% discount, if you buy something from UA.'' Sara explained little how it works, and then said goodbye to them.

''Should we..., maybe tell her about Alice?''(Aurora)

''Maybe next time, but right now let's eat dinner.''(Lucie)

With that said Lucie, made dinner, they ate it and went to sleep.

---

~Saras POV~

Right now Sara was writing her report to the higher ups, which are the UA leaders. She wrote about their progress, and what she observed. She was satisfied when she saw the four of them becoming friends. Even if she wasn't there long, she still could see if they were in good or bad terms, and they looked like they were one really good ones. 

After she was done with her report, she checked the list of equipment they chose, and sent it to people in charge of that. 

She herself looked trough the list because she was interested what they chose. After looking trough the list she had some small confusions here and there, but as the former UA guard leader she understood the choses with some thinking.

The last few week were busy for her. Sara needed to go so much pails of paperwork, that Sara was sure, her training in UA guards when she first started was easier for her. Sara understood, she wasn't meant to sit at the desk all day.

But as the last papers were delivered today she wanted to watch, training simulation of Team Zero. All the battles in the simulation is recorded, and Sara was able to access the as their manager.

She started to look from the oldest to youngest, as she wanted to see their growth and progress. At first she saw the four of them doing pretty badly, but as the recordings went on she could see improvement, especially Lucie. One thing that confused Sara little bit is that about week in, they started to find and fix their flaws and mistakes faster then before. And at the end of recordings, Sara saw how much potential all of them had, and how much had they grown with these fore weeks.

After bit of rewatching some of the recording Sara found interesting, she went to sleep. 

---

It was finally the day they start their job.

Everything was usual until lunch, when they got picked up by Sara. Before they went anywhere. They got a special badge, it was all black with silver white zero in the middle, the badge itself was in the shape of octagon.

''These badges are know yours, take care of them as they show your status as UAs Team Zero. And take these all of your gear is in them.'' Sara told them what kind of badges they were, and gave them dark purple/black rings, they were what is known as storage rings. These rings were popular but expensive, as they could store many thing in space were time is stopped, and you don't fell the weight of what was put in the ring. Even the cheapest storage magic tool was pretty expensive and these rings were somewhere in the middle.

''Ok, don't take out your gear yet. We will be going somewhere so get ready and let's go.'' With that Sara started to walk back to the black limousine. Lucie and others put their badges in the rings, and followed Sara back to the limousine.