The judges were puzzled seeing the King leave. He was supposed to stay and decide the gifts for the top ranked mages, based on their performance. Without any other choice, they communicated with the Academy Council behind the throne and simply announced that the gifts would be handed out later.
The crowd soon dispersed, allowing Daneel to go meet his friends and family. Elanev patted his head as soon as he came, saying, "Well done kiddo! I knew you would shine! Damn that King. I knew he was ruthless, but to use a technique to make you kneel? That's... something."
He looked like he wanted to say something else, but moved away after noticing that Maria was running towards Daneel with arms stretched wide open.
She hugged him tight, crying uncontrollably. She couldn't even speak, so Daneel just patted her back feeling happy seeing the tears of joy. His father was also standing just a few steps away, with a wide smile and clear eyes, clearer than Daneel had seen in many years. It seemed that seeing his achievement had started to wash away the years of suffering and regret that both his parents had borne.
Faxul also simply hugged him after his mother. But in his expression, Daneel saw both the happiness for his achievement and a longing to stand equal to him. Faxul was such a person-he spoke little, but felt quite a lot. Seeing Daneel being applauded by so many people had lit a fire in him.
Everyone was invited to the villa given to Daneel where the Anivron family threw a huge party. Many people from the slums also made their way over on Robert's invitation.
Even Felix was invited, and he arrived bringing two bottles of red wine. As soon as he arrived, Robert teased him saying that he had brought two bottles despite being so stingy. This was the first time Daneel saw his father tease anybody.
As the night progressed, people passed out one by one as the strong wine coursed through their bodies. Daneel didn't drink, but he had fun watching everyone's drunken interactions. He was actually just waiting to get to bed himself and explore the system store.
Soon, it was just him and Felix. Felix had congratulated him when he had first entered the house, but he hadn't said a word to Daneel since. Now, he came and sat beside him on a stool, nursing the bottle of wine he had brought in his hands.
"Elanev told me what happened during the assessment." he said, before letting out a deep sigh and taking a swig from the bottle.
"My father told me about a time when the King treated commoners and the royal family fairly. The Kingdom flourished, and that was when we expanded our kingdom to what it is now. Men and women worked together, putting everything aside, to build the great walls that now protect this kingdom. But, it was all ruined when that king's brother, the father of our present king, betrayed him. He took the throne and built the walls between the inner and outer city. He started the mindset that the nobility were above the commoners.
"Something needs to change.", he said, before slumping down on the table in front of him and going to sleep.
This was the first time Daneel was hearing about a time when there were no inner and outer cities. He was fascinated by such a king who could make such great things happen. Indeed, something had to change, he though before standing up and going to bed.
"Open system store", he commanded as soon as he closed the door to his room.
[System Store is accessed best with the HUD-1 Tool. Would host like to equip the tool?], asked the system.
As soon as Daneel said "Yes", a book case appeared in front of him. Thick, hard bound books adorned the shelves in many colors, making Daneel feel as if he were back in his room on earth. This exact book case had been purchased by him with his savings, as he had seen it in a store and loved it at first sight. Sadly, he had not managed to fill the shelves before having to sell it off due to the dire circumstances. One of his regrets was not seeing that case filled with all of his favorite books.
Now, seeing that same book case here, Daneel was shocked.
[Optimum display configuration chosen from host's memory.
Available EXP: 1150
Please browse and select the tool that you would like to purchase], came the system's voice, making him snap out of his reverie.
Daneel got up and walked to the case. He hesitantly raised his hand to take out a book, only to find that his suspicion of everything being virtual was false. The book that he touched felt real, with the leather of the binding rubbing against his fingers. Taking it out, he felt the heft of the book before opening the page to find:
"Parallel Processing-1: Allows host to use 2 techniques at once. Cost: 1000 EXP"
The rest of the book was made up of complex formulae and drawings that made no sense to Daneel. What struck him was the possibility of developing both his body and mageroot at the same time. In the academy, he had chosen to focus on his mageroot exclusively after seeing the incredible effects that the first 2 months had had on his psyche. But, he had never forgotten his base which was his body. He frequently practiced the hidden fist and exercised his body daily so as not to forget everything he had learned in the 3 month hell training.
Daneel was tempted to outright buy this tool, because it said "techniques". This meant that he could potentially utilize 2 spells at the same time. Right now, he needed to first use one then the other, which took some time. Also, the effects couldn't combine. If fire and lightning really had combined in his strike against Laravel, the kid would have died for sure. Daneel had only used the fireball spell followed by the lightning bolt.
Exercising some self-restraint, Daneel put the book back. As he did so, he noticed that some books had bright colors whereas others were black. He tried pulling out a black one, but it did not budge. On asking the system, the reply that he got was,
[The black books are special tools. Secret conditions must be met in order to unlock them.]
The wide smile was wiped off of Daneel's face who had been feeling happy that he had unlocked everything.
Shrugging, he started checking the other books. Some tools, like "Faction Control-1: Obtain detailed statistics of 10 Faction Members. Cost: 5 Faction Points" were useless to him right now as he had not built a faction yet, although he planned to begin building one soon.
Others were too costly, like "PAM-3: Unlocks predictive capabilities. Allows host to guess the technique a certain time before the technique is used. Also has other functions. Cost: 2000 EXP". Such tools were way out of reach from him right now.
Finally, with his present points, Daneel had to choose between two tools:
"Parallel Processing-1: Allows host to use 2 techniques at once. Cost: 1000 EXP" and
"Disguise-1: Allows host to change face structure and body size. Increase in size will result in decrease in power. Duration: 24 hours. Cost: 1000 EXP."