NOVEL NEXT Chapter 68: New way 2
Xane said with a smile. "Good morning, Maya?"
The girl puffed her cheeks. "Young hex master, I am Mia."
On the other hand, Maya started laughing on the side.
Xane scratched his head. "Oh, sorry, Mia. Both of you are so beautiful that it's hard to discern."
Mia smiled and nodded with enthusiasm. "Here, thank you for the compliment, hex master. Do you also want to change your accommodation, hex master?"
Xane raised his eyebrow. <What's with this change in accommodations?>
Zayn thought for a bit, and then it hit him. [Ok, so team building has started. I remember in the novel everyone moved closer to their teammates.]
Xane mentally nodded and handed his ID to Mia. <Oh, don't worry about that. I just wanted to collect my points.>
Mia tilted her head in confusion. "Hex master, have you not collected the past week's points?"
Xane showed her two fingers. "Past two weeks."
Mia looked at the name on the ID and then touched the metal plate attached to the reception desk.
Soon she looked at him with wide eyes and asked, "Oh, sorry about the incident. Are you already well now?"
Xane raised his head and looked at the metal slab with interest. Like he thought, all these IDs were somehow connected.
He stared at his own ID with interest as another thing was added that he had to look into.
Mia took a few seconds as he saw her tapping on the metal slab. After some time, she said, "Hex master, I can see that you have already paid for the medical expenses. But you have missed the last two weeks' payment for your current accommodation."
She looked up at him. "For that, I have to deduct two points. Is there anything else you want?"
Xane asked just to be clear. "Ok, so my stuff is still in my room, right?"
Mia nodded her head. "Yes, hex master. The lowest-level accommodation allows three months of back payment."
Xane picked up his ID, now with 18 points, and nodded his head.
Just then, Maya added from the side. "Hex master, you should check the past messages on your ID as there are a couple of new places where you could spend your hex points."
Xane just nodded to her as he walked out of the staff building, all while his thumb was running over the number on his ID.
He stared back at it and mumbled while frowning, "18 reward points."
Zayn also started complaining in his mind. [Ah man, that's not enough. With only this many points, we could either spend them on three meals per day, which would help in fast recovery.]
[Or take the risk of buying the hex art to access the projection plane. The 18 points would give us six chances.]
Xane's lips twitched in amusement. <Both will lead to doom.>
Zayn sighed. [Yeah.]
Xane twirled the card in his hand as he noticed a couple of morning runners passing him.
Not caring about any of them, he waved his hand through his hair and asked, <Zayn, what's the way to get more points?>
[Doing some manual tasks. Extra rewards from teachers. Working as someone's lab rat… or-] Zayn hesitated.
But his silence was more than enough as Xane said in a low tone with a sharp smile creeping on his face. <Or we take it.>
A heavy silence formed between them.
Zayn asked in a low tone. [Take it? From who?]
Xane turned toward the residential blocks in a super casual wave. <Our dear roommates. Don't you think they would love to support the rising Zenairs?>
On instinct, Zayn protested. [No, Xane, that's too risky. Once we attack them, there's no saying they might counterattack us next time.]
Xane raised his eyebrow and said in an amused tone. <Oh, so you think we should wait for them to attack first?>
[Wait, no. Why would we…] Zayn paused himself.
His first instinct was to protest, but the words never came out of his mouth.
The void, the memory of his failures, the promise he made not to hesitate, they burned in him.
Slowly, dangerously, a new thought rooted itself: to have the change, he had to start big.
There was also the looming threat of Melina and that attacker.
[Fck it.] Zayn mentally screamed and shook his head. After a couple of seconds of silence, he accepted. [Yeah… you're right. They probably will attack us.]
Xane started walking down the track toward their building as he asked. <By the way, how much time does it actually take to learn the hex art?>
Zayn thought for a bit and said, [It depends on the person. But on average it takes around a week.]
Xane frowned a bit. <Ah, that would make things difficult. We have to be swift.>
Now that Zayn had made up his mind, he also added. [It's better to avoid their sight. In the initial stage, a hex master needs to focus on their targets, so keep that in mind.]
Xane nodded to Zayn as he checked the time. If nothing changed drastically, he should still have about an hour before his roommates woke up.
Though not taking any chances, Xane just rushed toward his residential building.
Not long after, Xane stood before his room. He calmly placed his ID on the door.
Creak!!
The door slowly opened as he saw this dim mana gem lighting the room. He looked around with interest as he saw that both the 4th and 6th beds were empty.
It looked like one of their roommates was part of the crowd that shifted their accommodations recently.
Not caring about any of them, Xane casually removed the loose robe around him and rolled it around his left hand.
Zayn saw all of it from inside. He could not believe how casual Xane was, but he dared not disturb him as he knew if they failed, the consequences would be super bad.
Xane calmly walked next to the first bed. He stood over the first roommate as he saw the boy's chest rise and fall slowly, oblivious to the danger next to him.
Then, without hesitation, Xane pushed his left hand onto the boy's mouth.
The guy tried to roll over, but the very next moment,t his throat was struck.
The skinny dude twitched once as he snapped open his eyes in shock before his eyes rolled backward.
Just to be sure, Xane chopped two more times at the boy's neck. On Earth, such an attack could lead to fatal injuries, but it was not the case in this world.
Xane held the body down for a second longer, making sure the roommate wouldn't rise again. All this while, his expression remained calm, almost indifferent.
Soon, he got up and walked to the second bed. This time, though, the guy lay curled up, snoring faintly.
Xane calmly pressed the second guy's head onto the bed. With swift precision, he hit this one's chin.
The boy's body jerked violently before going limp.
Xane smiled at the limp guy and mentally counted. <Two.>
Zayn just gulped down in fear and tension. Looking at Xane reminded him of the butchers who used to kill tons of animals with no emotion on their faces.
It's just that Xane was a butcher of humans here.
Zayn reminded him. [Xane… don't kill them.]
But Xane moved his fist and moved to the next bed like a predator.
Zayn even noticed that, to avoid making extra noise, Xane was walking on his toes.
But as Zayn looked at their next bed, he realized this one was going to be a challenge.
Unlike the other two, this one was a bulky, muscular guy who slept with his arms sprawled wide.
Xane narrowed his eyes as he adjusted his grip. Then he rushed forward and slammed his fist straight into the guy's sternum.
Crack!
A muffled grunt escaped the guy's lips before blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. The body shuddered once and went still.
<Three.>
Xane took a deep breath, but just then he heard a confused, groggy voice.
"Ah, what's going on?"
Zayn shouted in his head. [Oh no.]
But Xane controlled his nerves as he calmly turned around. He saw the guy on the fifth bed still rubbing his eyes as he asked him. "What's going on?"
Xane glanced at the empty bed between him and the guy. As this was the last one, he slowly unraveled the robe from his left hand.
The fifth guy squinted his eyes toward the sound, but the very next moment, he felt something dropping onto his head.
He shouted in panic. "What's going on?" and ripped the cloth off his face.
The next moment, his eyes looked at Xane's figure, and all he saw was a skinny fist descending onto him.
The roommate opened his mouth to shout, but the next moment, he found himself dropping down on the bed.
Before he could understand anything, everything blacked out.
The room went dead silent as Xane punched the guy on the fifth bed a couple of extra times before slumping back next to him, trying not to wince.
He looked down at the back of his hand, and he saw that one of his fingers had been dislocated in the confrontation. <Fck, we are so weak!>
Zayn suppressed his scream.
He wanted to shout at Xane for his stunt, but remembered that just now Xane had jumped from his own bed and, even with that, managed to precisely hit the guy on the chin.
He just took a deep breath as he now realized there was a super high physical gap between him and Xane.
The room fell into dead silence once more.
As Xane was about to adjust his finger joint, he suddenly heard a clicking sound as, the very next moment, someone opened the bathroom door.
Creak!