"Then I can finally get rid of you!" Cried Arsi joyfully .

"Don't think about it," Ink objected sternly . "We don't know what they know." Care must be taken. Besides ... for us, this is the safest place possible, but it's hardly worth relaxing. Mages may not find us in the zero world, but what about clans? How does this place relate to the rest of ...

"... the rest of the buffer," Ink finished mentally.

He realized that sometimes it was better to keep his mouth shut.

"I don't understand why to worry so much," said Arsi displeasedly . - Why did you even trample on this Glam? Yes, he is strong, but clans can give better protection. It would be better to visit the zero world accompanied by them, and not to run from any danger.

"You don't understand the whole situation," Kiass undertook to explain . - Each clan imposes certain restrictions on its followers. They are not looking for students, rather workers and servants, most of whom are not shining to get into the first world. Glam made us personal students, transfers knowledge, trains, checks. Do you think finding a mentor in clans is so easy? No one needs to bother with others. For such a chance, many in the buffer are ready not only to run around the city, but to give out all their property accumulated over dozens, or even hundreds of years in the buffer. In addition, Mad Glam is well known, and his reputation is such that very few will risk contacting him. We were attacked in the buffer by some trifle, here are magicians, but none of the large clans showed up. This is not an accident. My knowledge of the buffer is limited, but even I have heard of Mad Glam. They say that he has a secret. It shows a certain strength, but such opportunities are not enough to destroy several clans. No one knows the limits of his possibilities.

Ink thought about his decision to join the mentor and it turned out that he was counting on a slightly different development of events. The possibility of developing abilities in a zero world made him happy, and they chase after him because of an error regarding his origin or for the sake of mysterious energy in his body - what's the difference? The first is even more preferable. Clans are afraid to incur the wrath of some higher powers, but who will regret alone with a force of nine points on a buffer scale?

"If you say so, my beloved, I will agree," Arsi whispered joyfully .

"How did you get out with your" beloved one, beloved this one, " Grank began irritably ," stop this nonsense already. "

- This is a new life and you need to go through it with dignity. I have a memory and, looking impartially, the past I was not the best person. I do not want to repeat her mistakes. She lived right in this city. One of its most unpleasant features is the frivolity in a relationship. For this reason, I decided to choose one man and follow him. Free oneself from a past life and perfect mistakes, become free in every sense. This will be correct, therefore ...

- You're confused - interrupted Arsi Grank . - You say that you don't want to be like in a previous life, but are you too much? Surely there were some good qualities that would be worth preserving. The fact that you are so fixated on this, speaks of being in the shadow of yourself past. If you were truly free from that life, it would not have bothered you at all. Looks like ... doesn't look like ... It's all your chains. I never understood the desire of people to turn their brains into an arena for the battle of complexes. Be easier and be happier.

"That's why you look so" happy "all the time," Arsi quipped .

He fell into one of the three beds without undressing and turned to the wall. He was definitely not going to continue the conversation.

"We all need to rest," Kiass moved from a creaking stool to another bed.

"As you say, love," Arsi said melodiously . "Fine, my last bed."

"Yeah, I ran," Ink massaged his whiskey. Sometimes a girl gets really annoying. "You stay in the body of the child, you have enough space to relax."

Ink put a pillow against the wall and sat on one side of the bed while sitting. Arsi curled a little to the side.

"I would like to decrease too and lie down normally."

For a moment, Ink thought about compressing the force field again, turning the girl into fog, but something inside resisted such an undertaking. Moreover, in the buffer, her body became as dense as the rest, not the fact that it would turn out this trick.

"By the way, since her body became denser, why didn't I feel a change in weight? I felt her weight in the buffer, but not in the zero world. "

Reflections on this helped Ink to distract from other experiences. What caused the ignoring of such changes? Considering options, he soon fell asleep.

Some kind of sound prevented me from resting. ~ Uln ~ Rrr ~ Trrnklnul-l-eh ~ For a while Ink listened intently until he realized what he looked like. Fluctuations that went in the waves of a metal sheet.

"It's like someone is pulling metal like a towel on the beach ..." - Ink came to sleepy mind and the association.

He tried to open his eyes, but did not feel them. Soon white light and twisted strips of metal appeared. Parts branched like vines of loach, others twisted like a spiral of a factory in a mechanical watch. At the same time, they all connected, creating a strange, but unified design.

Ink noticed that part of the white environment is losing its solidity, although he did not understand how this is possible. Particles of reality disintegrated into the fog, the whitest space, were captured by metal stripes.

"These vibrations bring fog to me, but I don't see the body. Is that my consciousness? "

Half asleep, Ink was ready to accept any version, even if in a peppy state, she seemed delirious. There was no doubt. His mental gaze went in a circle, and after Ink tried to draw some of the fog to himself and eat, even if there was no mouth.

"Like a cloudy drink!"

Ink reached for the fog, as he opened his mouth (ignoring its absence), trying to swallow it and abruptly shut it, biting off part of the white space itself. The metal stripes trembled even more, the white world trembled, in an instant replaced by a room with concrete walls, a muffled fluorescent lamp, which saw a lot of furniture. Grank and Kiass were still sleeping.

"A strange dream ... If I can draw all this, I can become famous as a master of surrealism in painting"

At the expense of his fine art abilities, Ink had great doubts. The memory developed to the details thanks to Keenra gave some hope for a correction of the situation, but there was no desire to do something like that.

Ink stretched, dispersing blood in a body stiffened from an uncomfortable position. A strange heaviness was felt in the hips. A quick glance showed that not a ball of thread lay on his feet.

"To the touch like silk ..."

Ink tried to remove the obstacle, but heard a faint moan. A hand threw back her hair, revealing Arsi's face in her adult form. She opened her eyes, mumbled something inaudibly, and returned to sleep, sniffing Ink a in her stomach .

"Am I now a pillow replacement?"

Ink raised Arsi's head and cautiously got out of bed. She mumbled something again, half-open eyes watching every movement. Ink laid a pillow under the girl's head and began to warm up. The dream is gone completely. Underground it is not clear how much time has passed. There was no clock in the room. Ink created a mirror from a force field and happily discovered the absence of new changes in appearance. The disguise on the horns disappeared, and they again began to stand out with their bright green color.

"Time to train. Keenra brochures remained in the house, but this is a good opportunity to check the progress in my abilities. "

First, Ink enlarged the mirror from the force field. It turned out that now in the buffer the boundaries of the action of micromanipulation are limited by a radius of two meters from his head. Keenra's classes were not in vain, although Ink did not see his merit in this . He led the mirror to the lamp, trying to create darkness in the room, but the rays still pierced through the force field.

"Too subtle ... Or is it the power of consciousness? You will need to ask Glam when he will be back. "

"Now blood control."

Examination of the drops of the blood mage showed that the strange ripple in her disappeared. Ink tried to activate the awakening, but bits of knowledge surfaced in his head about the need to use micromanipulation, changing the state of genes in a separate DNA sample. They need to be suppressed or stimulated by blood control.

"Of course, everything could not be so simple ... And how am I supposed to do something like that without microspop?"

Ink could only reconcile and try at random. To his surprise, he found that the microscope could well partially replace micromanipulation, and the notorious genes were intuitively understood through blood control.

"It's like blindfolding trying to determine the beauty of a sculpture"

Something was still happening, Ink found many different substances in his blood. When he slightly released the suppression, new ones began to appear due to other activated genes.

"I need the Internet ... I don't understand what's happening now."

Thoughts about the meager environment, the allegedly blown up house and Glam's absent work mood did not stimulate at all. The memory of the mentor's stinginess only added a desire to quit everything, all the more so since the abilities almost did not develop in the buffer.

"Want to come to the river, get ready to cross the dusty road. So! Gathered and done. You wanted a chance, you have it. Twelve points, remember twelve points. "

Ink didn't give himself a kick in joy, but allowed to drop thoughts of the futility of his efforts. The time spent in the experiments flew by unnoticed. When the others woke up, there were some debris from the blood mage's DNA in Ink's collected drops. He did not understand what led to the destruction, but he remembered all his actions well.

"Later you need to analyze all the impacts and results. Keenra is cool. Without comprehension of the first stage, learning to awaken the blood would be completely unrealistic at all. "

"She still kicked you out of bed?" - asked Grank languidly , stretching.

- Not at all! - objected Arsi . - Just ... Oh! That's right, I shoved him. Good morning darling!

Kiass, who had risen to her feet at the sparkling gaze, answered with a sigh, looked longingly at the bed and wandered off somewhere. In the middle of the room, he suddenly stopped.

"Exactly," the golden-skinned looked around, "where is the bathroom?"

- We ask at the reception near the entrance.

Moving along the tangled corridors did not cause any problems. Ink did remember everything in the smallest detail.

"We need to wash ourselves , " said Grank immediately when the group reached the entrance to the underground rooms. "And preferably separate rooms."

- Shower, toilet and other in the extreme rooms at the intersections of corridors. If you don't have your own brushes and towels, you can buy them in vending machines. Private rooms also cost money. Though check into the presidential suite, if you have something to pay, "the guy behind the counter answered lazily.

"We have no money," Gran frowned . - Do you need workers?

- Want to join us? - the guy at the reception cheered up noticeably. - We don't take beginners, you are too weak, and situations are different, especially here, in the place of power. If you really want to make money, there is one option.

The guy winked conspiratorially and raised a finger to his mouth.

- Well? - hastened Grank .

- Participation in battles, - not allowing to ask a new question, the guy waved to the side - go straight along the corridor, without turning anywhere. You will understand everything yourself.

The indicated path led to a huge room. Ink immediately remembered the auction building, this place had a lot in common with him. The rows of seats descending the steps, the platform in the center, but its dimensions were an order of magnitude superior to the construction previously seen. In the very center of the giant round arena, about a hundred meters in diameter, two people fought. One held a sword and moved almost imperceptibly to the eyes, while the other was covered with fiery armor. There weren't a lot of people in the stands, but cries of support spread throughout the hall.

The winner was a fire-covered participant. His opponent could not inflict any significant damage and admitted defeat.

- Fights, huh? - Grank showed a slightly insane expression on his face. "I don't know about you, but I intend to stretch myself today."

"Take your time," Kiass carefully looked around, "there are no weak ones." If we want to not just be beaten, we need to learn more about this place, its rules and traditions.

"Of course," Grank slammed his hand into his fist. - Your ability to determine strength will also be useful.

Ink with amazing clarity realized that his ability to be difficult to attribute to the military, but no less clearly understood another thing - he would not sit out in the stands. Clans, magicians, higher powers ... the importance of the ability to defend himself did not raise his doubts.