The Discarded Son's Skill Market

Kaaa!

Kaaa!

The screech of an eagle rang out loudly in the ears of passersby in the capital city of the Kingdom of Toluria, Astraea City.

The great metropolis was bathed in morning sunlight. Birds and wild animals emerged from their burrows to greet the day, as did the thousands of workers walking the streets and the children hurrying to school.

It was Monday, October 17—a day that was nothing special.

The sun shone brightly into a room in a building where a young man was basking in its rays, though he didn’t realize it.

He was unconscious, but two strange creatures around him brought him out to bask in the sun every morning.

A cat and a snake taking care of a human.

If anyone saw them, they’d think they’d gone crazy. Even in an age of portals, dungeons, beasts, and hunters, who would have thought that a snake and a cat would team up to protect a human?

"A week has passed," Valia murmured.

Beside her, the blue-and-black snake looked a little pale. "That bastard keeps wasting my precious power, taking a nap..." it complained.

How many times had he done it in the last week? Not even he knows.

"His spirit is fine. Why is it taking so long?"

"I don’t know why it’s taking so long, but you should shock him again!" the snake exclaimed, annoyed. "I just want to be able to tell him what the problem is. If I keep this form and this power, I’ll be done for by the time he reboots."

Valia sighed. "Reboot... Are you sure it’ll work?"

"How would you explain that you’re not dead, if it weren’t real?"

"You’re right. I also feel like there’s something strange in the air. It’s as if... as if some power were forcing something through time."

The snake swayed in the air and positioned itself right in front of Zaid’s face. It immediately began slapping him with its tail and then looked at Valia again.

"You’re a spirit. If you weren’t so weak, you’d be able to see everything that lies beyond. You wouldn’t have been deceived, and your spirit wouldn’t have been hurt."

"My father often says that we spirits have a very powerful Concept..." Valia replied.

"Your father knows things."

The snake slapped him so hard with its tail that Zaid’s cheeks turned red, but he didn’t wake up.

"That bastard..."

He couldn’t blame him, either. He’d taken a direct hit from Zayn. It was a miracle his heart was still beating.

"Sigh." The snake slithered back to lie down on its side of the folding chair.

At that moment...

Chrrr!

The wooden folding chair screeched. Zaid jumped to his feet. His breathing, which had been calm, became strangely ragged.

When he opened his eyes, the sun hit him squarely in the face. He was forced to raise his arm to shield his eyes and looked around, bewildered. He didn’t make a sound, perhaps out of fear.

He didn’t understand his surroundings, but he saw Valia... and that snake.

They were both scared out of their wits. Valia, in her cat form, had stood up, and the hairs on her body were standing on end.

The snake fell right off the chair and rolled across the floor.

"Damn it, you’re going to give me a heart attack!" the snake suddenly exclaimed.

Zaid didn’t understand what had happened. It took him a moment to catch up. "And Zayn?" was the first thing he asked.

"Don’t you care that you gave me a mini-heart attack?" the snake exclaimed, indignant.

Zaid confirmed with Valia that Zayn wasn’t here. "Are you okay?" he asked Valia.

She nodded. "I’m fine... I thought you’d never wake up," she said.

"Why? What happened?" He looked out the window. "This is Astraea..."

"Yes. We’re back in the capital. A lot has happened," she said. "You were in a coma for a week—it’s already Monday the 17th."

Zaid was alarmed. ’A week? In a coma? We’re back?’ So many questions swirled in his mind that he didn’t know which one to ask first.

"Don’t ignore me, you bastard! I’m the one who saved you." The snake floated toward him. Then it clarified: "Well, you saved yourself—but through me."

"Oh, right... It’s you." Zaid frowned. "The one who gave me the awakening... That thing Zayn gave me."

The snake nodded, but reminded him, "I didn’t give you the Awakening. I simply returned to your body."

"You returned?"

"Didn’t Zayn tell you? You were an experiment."

"I know it was an experiment by that bastard..." Zaid said, but then he frowned. "Wait, was it? Am I not one anymore?"

"Let me explain it to you, and don’t ask any questions. I don’t have much time," said the snake. "When I say ’experiment,’ I’m not referring to what you were as Zayn. I’m referring to what you were as Zachary. Didn’t you ever wonder why you were born with a defective talent? A talent that never awakened."

Zaid frowned. He had asked himself that a thousand times.

"The fact that your awakening was flawed and the fact that your family wanted to kill you are related. You didn’t actually awaken in a flawed way. You were the product of a cursed experiment that stripped you of the power you were truly born with. That’s why you never awakened."

Zaid frowned even more. But...

"You just told me that you didn’t give me the Awakening, but that you returned to my body... Are you saying that you’re that thing they extracted from me?"

"Actually, I was born with you... Or you could say I was born from you. But I didn’t develop inside you. In the end, I returned to you, which is why you were able to wake up."

Even though it sounded far-fetched, how many of the things he’d heard and seen over the past few days didn’t sound far-fetched? And they were all real.

If what Zayn said was true, the reason they were trying to kill him was to erase the last trace of the "cursed Zachary" from before.

’But that must have happened before the portals appeared, 10 years ago...’ Zaid felt as if he didn’t know the world he lived in...

"Don’t overthink it." The snake interrupted his thoughts. "I am the embodiment of Scavenger. That’s why the information about me appeared right after I returned to you."

Zaid nodded gently. He believed it because he’d lived through it.

For now, he had no more questions for the snake on that subject, so he set it aside and focused on what really mattered.

"We’re back in the Capital... How did we get back? What really happened? I don’t think Zayn has forgiven me."