Zero quickly explained the situation over tea. The old lady they had just met was a friend of 'Grandma', who was on her way out. It was this old lady, Zero mentioned, who prepared the tea blends they were enjoying.
When Steven took his first sip of tea, all he could think was:
Exquisite. The tea was exquisite, an aromatic blend that was the right amount of bittersweet, and the accompanying cookies? Absolutely divine—
Off-topic.
"Sorry, Steven said, accidentally knocking a cup over. He wondered how 'Grandma' in front of him managed to balance the tea gracefully on her hooves. With surprising skill, she tossed the cup up, caught a sip, before catching the dainty tea cup on its way down.
All without spilling a drop.
"I'm Zero's grandma," Zero's grandma introduced. She had this melodic quality to her voice that almost didn't match her face. "All of you are Zero's friends, so just call me Granny Laohu."
Her words came out in a sweet, tonal accent.
"Hmm, why are you here today, eh? Didn't school start already?" Granny Laohu took a quick glance at Zero for an answer.
Long story short, Zero told his grandma the issue: His friend, Steven, was very weak.
Steven blinked.
Now, that wasn't true. He was not... 'very weak'. Hadn't he only gotten his butt kicked... like five times (recently)? But honestly, that was an accomplishment considering his previous track record.
['Delusion +1']
"...Do you know anyone who can teach him the way of the flute?" Zero asked. ('The way' was a cultivator's fancy 'way' of making it so that everything they did sounded important.)
"Of course," The granny said. "I know just the right..."
She clicked her tongue.
So, while Zero partook in tea time and activities with his grandma. (Something about picking dandelions.) Mayo went around, muttering about something serious.
When he asked about it:
"I'm going around to put rocks in places. Bang!" Mayo made a finger gun, and shot it to Steven's head.
That left him alone with his new tutor, which happened to be a humongous tiger.
Could tigers even play flutes?
The tiger looked at him, picked up a leaf, played a quick melody: 'toot-toot-toot' and then smacked him.
['-10 HP']
"Huh."
1. The first thing that the tiger instructed him to do was to take out his flute. It analyzed the instrument carefully with its paws in an almost human way. (Like a couch-potato. Like a grumpy old man that had its face permanently pulled in a "..." scowl and a side-ways glare.)
2. Then it started whacking his FLUTE! on a rock.
"What are you doing!" Steven said in a calm voice. (His voice was calm, because tigers probably ate kids that looked not-calm.)
The tiger motioned him to follow. And Steven had no choice but to follow along, whacking the rock. He took his flute and mimicked the motion.
"Whack! Smack! Whack!"
['Strength +1'... 'Strength +1'... 'Strength +1'...]
Time passed like that quite quickly.
When the sun finally started to set, Steven took a good look at his masterpiece.
YOU ARE READING
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Fantasy[??? book - D grade] [Description: A third-rate novel about the slice of life adventures of a boy and his friendly AI assistant. Nothing bad happens.] Recalibrating description... [Description (Revised): A hand-me-down novel about a boy who goes mi...
