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>SLAM<

The door echoed in its closure as Elian stepped out, a faint smile lingering despite the abruptness of their conversation's end. Reflecting on the brief interaction, he realized its immense impact, even in its brevity. It was like a splash of cold water on a sleepy mind, jolting him to recognize the limitations in his thinking.

He found it ironic that he had intended to pass off the dungeon problem to his mother, only to realize that not only would he need to handle it himself, but that this was merely a fraction of the issues he'd confront as the new head of the family.

Yes, he had resolved to fully embrace his role as the family head, realizing that without earnest dedication, there might soon be no family to lead. He recognized he couldn't persist with his previous lifestyle, not that he could, given the repercussions of the punishment.

To fulfill his responsibilities, he had to tackle numerous tasks within a limited timeframe. But before delving into those tasks, he turned toward the young maid who stood nearby,

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. You could have used a chair," he expressed with genuine concern, noticing that she might have been standing here for a while. Elian's brows furrowed slightly, indicating his sincere worry for her comfort.

"Not at all, young master. I hardly noticed the time, and standing is nothing new for me. I'm quite used to it after spending hours on end in the kitchen," she reassured him with a warm smile, appreciating his concern for her well-being.

"If you say so. Um... Could you make me something, please? I haven't eaten for a while, and I have some work to do later," he admitted with a tinge of shame.

Just moments ago, he had dismissed her, preferring not to have her around. Now, he found himself ordering her to cook for him. As the lord of the house, he had every right, yet his inherent kindness clashed with his actions, leaving him with a sense of guilt and wrongdoing.

But he had no choice here, he wanted to eat. He wasn't really hungry as he could tell his body was satiated. After all, Julia somehow filled his stomach when he woke up.

However what she didn't do was warn his brain about that so the latter was sending him signals of hunger as it still thought that the stomach was empty after days of coma.

Elian could just ignore it, but it would seriously impede him in what he was about to do. Especially now that El wasn't here anymore since he was the one who was able to make his body ignore hunger. Well, he could probably do that too now if he tried seriously but he absolutely didn't want that for many reasons but that's for another day.

So, he absolutely had to eat and who better than his personal chef to help him with that. However, he couldn't just forget what he said to her barely ten minutes ago so it was really awkward for him.

Fortunately, Isabella didn't notice or just ignored his predicament and said,

"Absolutely, I'll get something started immediately. Do you have any preferences or specific requests for your meal?" she inquired.

"Anything will do. Just bear in mind, I haven't eaten for a while, and I'll probably be pulling an all-nighter," Elian replied.

"Understood. I'll have your meal ready in an hour. If you don't mind, I'll take my leave to prepare everything promptly," she responded with a respectful bow.

"Alright, you'll find me in my room," he said before departing.

...

Now in his room, Elian was seated on his chair next to his table. Table, which by the way, was completely empty and would probably even be dusty if not Lys cleaning it regularly.

After all, he only used his bedroom to sleep and everything else he needed was in his lab so it didn't bother keeping something here. And now that he would have to stay away from the lab for a while he realized how isolated he'd made his living space.

The room felt strangely foreign to him, a stark contrast to the organized chaos of his laboratory, which held all the tools of his work.

He couldn't help but regret not furnishing the room with some runesmithing equipment so that he could work away for his lab but he never thought of that simply because it didn't cross his mind that he'd need an alternate workspace. He'd been so consumed by his experiments that he overlooked the importance of having a setup in his room for such contingencies.

'Another oversight due to my obsession,' Elian realized, a frown etching his face. It was one of the lessons gleaned from his brief conversation with his mother. His fixation on experiments had eclipsed everything else in importance.

Witnessing the repercussions, from the barren table to the turmoil in his family, remorse tugged at him, but he swiftly expelled the thoughts with a deep breath. He had more pressing matters to attend to, the most urgent being, of course,

'Book' Elian willed it to appear and in an instant it appeared in front of him closed.

[Yes, Master?]

'Tell me everything, what exactly can you do?' Elian's query was direct and urgent, lacking the leisurely pace of his initial interaction with the book. He was in a rush, devoid of the time for playful exploration, seeking concrete answers and practical information.

[It all depends on you Master, as I was made to be able to do everything and anything as long as my Master is compatible. For example, the only reason I can access any knowledge for you is because of your official status as the Keeper's disciple. Noone else would have the same privileges. It's even more true for contracts. I can help you create and manipulate contracts thanks to your affinity with them.]

Elian was silent as he was digesting what he just learned and he easily understood. The book's functionalities were intricately tied to the master's inherent capabilities, implying that it could be either utterly useless or profoundly impactful, contingent upon the master's latent potential.

[Retrieving 'Zero One' data.]

[Transfer to the AI token.]

[Token initialization done.]

[Connecting to the ####### #######.]

[Processing power set increased.]

[Memory increased.]

[Training started.]

[Training in progress... 1%.]

Elian was well aware that training an AI could be time-consuming, particularly when dealing with vast training data like this. However, he found himself unable to look away from the notifications even for a moment.

Recalling the days he spent training Zero One initially, he hoped the near-infinite resources would expedite the process. He certainly didn't want to wait for days, as he did during his first attempt with Zero One a few years back.

To his relief, progress seemed astonishingly rapid, with notifications flashing every ten seconds.

[Training in progress... 2%.]

[Training in progress... 3%.]

[Training in progress... 4%.]

[Training in progress... 35%.] (5 minutes later.)

[Training in progress... 95%.] (10 minutes later.)

Elian, fixated on the notifications, found himself unable to remain seated. He stood, eyes glued to the updates, eagerly anticipating the culmination of the process.

Less than a minute later:

[Training in progress... 100%.]

[Training completed.]

[Testing and Validating.]

[Satisfying result.]

[Processing power and Memory reduced to soul power.]

[Deployment.]

Elian couldn't contain his elation, grinning from ear to ear. He restrained himself from leaping around in his room, eagerly awaiting the outcome. Before long, above the book materialized a floating, luminous orb emitting a gentle, soothing glow. Its surface displayed intricate, shifting patterns reminiscent of intertwining pathways.

Then, a message echoed in Elian's mind:

[Hi Elian, thank you for this unexpected upgrade. I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long.]

"..."

[Hm?... Elian?] The orb called him, noticing Elian's silence.

When Elian snapped back,

"Zero One? What's going on with the voice?" he exclaimed, genuine surprise evident in his tone.

Internally, he thought, 'The voice is way too feminine!'

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