On his way outside the laboratory, Dam Son walked by a dark-robed stranger who glanced at him menacingly. “Ouch, my head.” He felt a slight pain emerging from his forehead but it subsided the moment he went by the dark-robed man.

“Hmm…” The dark-robed man stopped at the laboratory’s entrance to stare back at Dam Son’s fading presence. Looking down at the Blue Kismet Coin in his palm, he thought internally, ‘Did my coin just react out of impulse just now or…?’ Not lingering too much on what he felt earlier, the dark-robed man entered the laboratory.

“Huh?” Turning his head to identify the intrusive presence, Vor Eyes recognized who it belonged to, “Brother your back? One of these days you’re going to give me a heart attack if you continue sneaking up on me like that.”

Getting straight to the point, Tor Eyes asked his little brother, “Who was that kid I saw coming out just now?”

“Oh, that’s the friend I spoke to you about last night, remember?”

“Friend? Is he a classmate of yours?”

“No, we recently met. He’s studying at Caromine Institute.”

“Caromine Institute?” Hearing this, made Tor Eyes recall a certain memory. “Isn’t that the place where Splint and I recently tracked that beast?”

Vor Eyes didn’t hear clearly what his brother said, thus he asked, “Did you say something, brother?”

“It doesn’t concern you. I’m going out for a bit. Don’t make a mess of the place.” Tor Eyes turned around and began walking towards the exit.

“You’re leaving already? But you just got back and I have something important to share with you.” Vor Eyes wanted to inform his brother about the 90% plus purity rate of Mundane Core Dam Son had refined using his sapphire suitcase, however, he didn’t get the chance to.

“We’ll discuss that when I return. Don’t cause any more trouble.” Tor Eyes became suspicious of Dam Son, hence he decided to keep a close eye on him until he could be sure that he had no relation with the missing Black Kismet Coin.

……

Later that afternoon, Dam Son went to Caromine Institute to take part in Ms Enjoy’s general lessons. There he learned about the importance of Encryption and Decryption Scripts. Both methods could help Word Masters safeguard the private properties of their Guides and prevent any sudden hacks from befalling them.

The implementation of Encryption Scripts came about due to a forgotten event that happened decades ago. Fellow Word Masters used to slaughter each other for the sake of gaining access to the contents stored within their Guides. Many Guide bandits got rich from this method until the advent of Encryption Scripts came into play. As a countermeasure, Decryption Scripts were created to keep the balance. Decryption Scripts were mainly utilised by the police force to pry open the secret pages that criminals kept hidden. Nowadays, hackers were the ones abusing this attribute.

Ms Enjoy walked her students through the creation procedure of both coded scripts. During the lesson, Cinder Burn kept staring at Dam Son strangely. While her eyes were still fixated on him, she thought to herself, ‘He’s changed. It’s like he doesn’t see me anymore. Just the other day he was begging me to be his friend but now he’s…’

“Alright class, get to it. Chop-chop!” Cinder Burn was interrupted by teacher Enjoy’s sudden command. She told all her students to start learning the basics of crafting Encryption Scripts to safeguard their Guides from unwanted breaches.

“Wow, there are so many interesting things to learn here.” Dam Son was very eager to get started with crafting Encryption Scripts. Sometimes Ms Enjoy’s general lessons felt similar to what Wordsmiths would teach. Dam Son didn’t care about this small similarity. All that he was interested in was learning all that he could.

Just outside the classroom behind the clear crystal glass was a pretty blue bird spying on Dam Son’s every action. It secretly followed him everywhere he went inside the academy, it even followed him inside the bathroom where he took many leakages. All this time, Dam Son wasn’t aware that he was being watched by an ominous entity.

When all his classes for the day were over, Dam Son left Caromine Institute with Sugar Bun and Xuan Li tagging by his side. They were asking him about what he did inside Vor Eyes’ laboratory. As he explained the details to his friends, 2 cloaked figures kept following him from a safe distance.

“Splint, don’t draw too much attention to yourself. Try and blend in.”

“Don’t worry, those kids aren’t focused on us. So, Tor Eyes, that student carrying the blue suitcase is he the one you suspect is in possession of the Abyss Beast’s Script?”

“I’m not sure yet. When I went by him this morning, my Blue Kismet Coin produced a certain reaction that I’ve never felt before.”

“You went by him? Where?”

“By the lab. He’s friends with my little brother.”

“Really?” Mr Splint seemed surprised to hear this. “That little runt actually had friends? I thought all he does all day is coop up inside the lab working on another stupid experiment of his. He doesn’t even have a girlfriend at his age.”

“Hey, careful how you speak about my brother.” Tor Eyes gave Mr Splint a displeased glare.

“Sorry about what I said. The little brat is somewhat of a genius. Thanks to his previous invention we were able to mass-produce successful copies of the original Blue Kismet Coin, though they still have that unstable factor. This is why Boss Vage is so pissed at us. He desperately wants that Abyss Script so he could finish the production.”

“Enough talk. Keep your eyes on the prize. You and I both know what will happen if we fail this time.” Tor Eyes along with Mr Splint secretly followed Dam Son all the way to Jin Hennessy’s mountain peak. “Could this only be a coincidence? Didn’t we come here before after picking up a faint trail of that Kismet Beast?”

“Jin Hennessy’s mountain…?” Pondering for a while, Mr Splint told his accomplice. “All these occurrences can’t all be coincidences. First, you sensed something strange when you brushed against that kid, then you found out that he attends the same institute where we tracked the beast’s movement’s a couple of weeks ago and now here we are back to the place where we previously lost its trail. You know what this means right, Tor Eyes?”

“It means Jin Hennessy is hiding something from us. We should go inform the boss before we make a move.” Tor Eyes generated a portal out of sight that he and Mr Splint went through.

“Huh?” Jin Hennessy sensed someone watching him from behind the grove of palm trees and dashed over to take a look but he found no one. “Was it just my imagination?”

“Master Jin, what’s over there?”

“Nothing brats. Get back to your training!” That evening, Jin Hennessy taught his disciples another training method to better manifest their Natural Verb Force. Since Dam Son could already manifest Natural Verb Force, Jin Hennessy devised another training method for him that taught him better control and application.

Thus far, the Drunken Brats were getting a solid grasp of what it meant to be Word Fu Masters. They had to strengthen their weak bodies along with their internal Letter Force if they wanted to achieve maximum potential when they were ready to assimilate with Powered Scripts again.

As the darkness quickly descended across Raixom Academy, Jin Hennessy put a halt to his disciples' training. “That’s enough for tonight brats. Wash yourselves before you leave. And make sure I see all of you here at first light tomorrow!”

“Yes, Master Jin.”

Xuan Li gave his respectful regard, “We’ll be here bright and early as you desire my liege.”

“Don’t get cheeky with me brat. Hurry up and wash your smelly ass then leave my mountain!” Jin Hennessy threatened his pupil with his big toe. Feeling scared, Xuan Li quickly ran away