The Veilwalker

The trio were guided to the upper section of the block where the principal's office was located.

'The principal's office, huh? Well, it was expected.' Alex mused as they stood in the large hallway looking at the double doors that reached a height of three metres.

"Knock once and enter" The staff member instructed, and the trio nodded in acknowledgement. They watched as she walked away before turning their attention back to the door. After exchanging a quick glance, Alex moved to knock.

However, before he succeeded, they heard a voice, "Enter"

Julia furrowed her brows the moment she heard that voice, so she moved to open the doors, entering first. Alex and Ross followed behind her and entered the office.

"Uncle, were you the one who summoned Alex?" She went straight to the point the moment her eyes fell on her uncle.

Alex was mildly surprised upon seeing Zol Knight after many months of no contact. Of course, he had ways to reach him, but he felt it would be a bother to someone like him when he had nothing in particular to talk about with him.

'But to be the one to call me out… Is there something I did or what?' His thoughts raced with the possible reasons his mentor could have in summoning him.

His money was on the principal the moment they started moving in the direction of her office, but she was nowhere to be found when Alex looked around the large office.

Ross on the other hand was momentarily frozen from surprise and excitement. Just like Alex, Hunter Zol was his role model.

So seeing him right in the flesh was a novel experience for him. He was not sure how to behave, so he just stood there unblinking, waiting for something to happen.

"Why don't you guys take a seat first," Zol suggested to the trio. Without wasting time, Julia moved to sit directly facing her uncle. When Alex began to move as well, he noticed Ross still stuck in the same position.

His dilemma brought back a few memories of his first time meeting Hunter Zol as well.

'At least, I wasn't frozen like a deer in a headlight.'

He nudged Ross in the side, promptly waking him up from his stupor. "Oh, sorry." He apologized for his embarrassing display, but Zol thought nothing of it.

It wasn't his first time seeing this and the kid would break out of it sooner rather than later.

Once the trio sat down, Zol proceeded to observe them carefully, particularly Alex, using his divine sense to see if there was anything different about him than he had heard. But his checks came back the same as before.

'There is not a single trace of void aura around him… Then again, it's too early to say.'

Zol turned to Julia and, "I've been away for some time and heard you tried to reach me but couldn't." He stated and Julia nodded, waiting for him to continue.

He briefly talked about being on an important mission the kids didn't need to worry about.

His attention then moved to Alex to inquire about the incident that happened with The Order. And while he had heard the reports from James, he still wanted to hear it from the lips of the person himself.

He did, however, make a few deductions from the report he received from James. First, the timing of their activity around Alex's family started around the time he and the other S Class Hunters faced that 'Class S' void creature and the female visitor with the cat features.

Secondly, while the empire oversaw everything, they weren't the only force out there. Information could be easily leaked to those forces. The empire was in the open, but the rest weren't, and they had eyes and ears everywhere. So it wasn't farfetched that they heard.

Sometime later, Alex completed his narration about the events he experienced. Ross chipped in on his part as well. To make a sensible conclusion, Zol needed all the data he could get.

"Mm… The good news is that The Order isn't known to harm civilians, but that remains to be seen. However, for them to mention saving the universe… And you included…"

Getting to that point, he looked at Alex who understood his gaze. His experience from the cosmic mana wave was not known to a lot of people. Furthermore, The Order didn't explicitly say Alex was the key. They only deduced that he might be the one due to him surviving the cosmic mana wave phenomenon.

'But how could they make such a connection without knowing what we know? And we don't know much to begin with.' This was where his confusion stemmed from. Nothing tied Alex with the strange visitor, except that Alex survived a cosmic mana wave.

What their visitor did was to come out of what seemed to be a veil tear and Alex had not given off any void aura.

'Wait…'

Zol then looked over to his niece and asked, "Why did you call the last time?" After returning from his mission and regrowing his lost legs, he hadn't really settled in to receive all the reports he usually does.

His interest in Alex and what Mason said stuck with him, bringing him here to find out.

Julia exchanged a glance with Alex, but he was confused as to why she would do that since she had not mentioned confiding in anyone about his inability to increase his level and what his 'mana' felt like.

"Well, it was about Alex and his inability to increase his mana pool." Zol remained quiet, waiting for her to continue. It was clear that he knew of Alex's issue.

'Of course he would, why wouldn't he? The instructors already know about that.' Julia thought before turning to Alex, signalling him to continue as it was his issue. All she wanted was to try and find out if her uncle could help, and his being here was the perfect time to do so.

'Wait, why did he summon Alex in the first place?'

It had slipped her mind as their conversation flowed seamlessly since they got here. And her uncle had not mentioned anything, he just asked them to describe what happened with The Order.

"Well…"