Within his cozy office, Otto was currently seated at a circular table where his assistant, Amber, sat on the other side, picking up the teapot and pouring it into the man's cup, then into her own.
After taking a sip of the strong, malty, bitter liquid that went down his throat, Otto felt its warmth travel into his body, giving him a subtle surge of warmth throughout his chest.
He took the time to admire the black tea in his cup, and its reflection showed his smooth face, devoid of a monocle.
"Quite smokey, isn't it?" Otto commented as he put the cup down, and its warmth lingered on his hand.
"You can add honey to sweeten it, if you're the type of person to do so," Amber muttered.
"Is that a backhanded insult, I hear? How sweet, our relationship must have gotten to the point where we can insult each other." He warmly said.
Amber choked a little on her tea from the unexpected response, but recovered herself and answered,
"That wasn't my intention...Master Otto. It would ruin the experience." She stated as a fact.
"Alright, that is a valid point, but if someone didn't enjoy the experience of bitter tea and decided to add a sweetener to make it enjoyable again. What would you do now, Amber?" He gleefully smiled.
For a while, Amber's sweet blue eyes stared at him before saying, "Then I would have to force feed them a scone to quiet them for their uncouth mouth."
Her hand latched onto the nearby plate filled with an assortment of baked goods and grasped one soft honey biscuit to intimidate him.
After all, tea was a culture that shouldn't be disrespected, especially if her Overseer was subtly teasing her.
He quietly chuckled at her actions and drank the entire cup of tea while Amber watched with surprised eyes.
"Master Otto, please don't do that again."
"But it's quite good, why don't we have more of these Tea Time?" Otto asked with a pleased smile, although not to his taste, having a sweet and hardworking lady make him tea brought a delightful feeling to his heart.
Amber's ears fluttered, hearing this. She was surprised at the offer since all the questions her Overseer asked were about work and her results...She always wondered what his sudden change of heart was during this month.
Praising her for work, ordering her to chant a summons for him...Her Overseer was strange, but not this strange. Well, drinking tea with her Creator wouldn't be bad and a little enjoyable.
"If my work schedule isn't as hectic as it is, I'll try to make it." She answered hesitantly.
"Well, if you can't make it...Maybe I can pull a few strings and you know. It'll be a secret between us." He let out a cherish grin towards her.
"That expression of yours would give children nightmares." Amber instinctively muttered with a little smile. It somehow felt natural to banter with the man in front of her...Speaking as if they were coworkers.
"Nonsense, I am good with kids...Didn't I raise you to be a fine lady, and little Theresa, too. She's all grown up now and running a Schicksal Branch that one day might rebel against me."
"You spoil, Miss Theresa, too much." She lamented with closed eyes.
"It may seem that way since I make sure to deliver her Bitter Melon Juice on time, make her the most gorgeous dress, and give her some extra spending money, but I care for her...Anyways, what do you do in your spare time, Amber?" Otto asked with another sip of tea.
Amber feigned ignorance over the change of topic and instead focused on his question.
'Is it weird for me to say I enjoy, Magical Girls...' Her gaze extended to the Overseer seat in front of her. His hands moved nimbly as the napkin in his hands was shifted into a paper figurine. Pride was apparent in his eyes, gazing at his creation.
"I-I like gushing over magical girls when I finish work." She ambiguously explained.
"Oh, so you're in that type of genre? Why don't you keep on talking, then I'll be listening with an open heart."
Amber nodded and followed her beating artificial heart...She started her hour-long rant about why Magical Girls were the best, and Otto mindlessly nodded to her every word.
'Paimon, I think you have competition...'
...
"And that's why I think the Yazuka series should crossover with Sailor Moon." After her talk, she took a moment to devour the air around her.
Amber's lungs started to strain with each heavy breath she took, and with a sip of black tea, her vocal cords seemed to have recovered a bit.
Otto took a look at his wrist where his "watch" was and said to the white haired assistant.
"It seemed time decided to throw a wrench in our tea time. You should be getting back to work, it's calling for you with its wails."
Amber blinked for a moment before preparing to put away her tea set. Her delicate hands moved with practiced grace, and with the help of her blonde guest, all the cups and plates were set on one fancy tray.
Before standing up to leave, her gaze faced the still-smiling blonde man seated at the opposite side.
"Sorry for my rant...It felt nice talking to you." Amber confessed whilst getting up.
Otto let out a delighted expression, "It's no worries...Come by whenever you want to rant about anything."
"Alright..."
Her face beamed with one last smile before leaving, and Otto waved goodbye, seeing her out the door.
Once her presence was out of sight, the man's posture fell to a state of exhaustion, and his body limped on the chair. A heavy sigh left his lips as he stared at the ceiling.
"She reminds me of myself...Ah, the good old days of having nothing to worry about, just bills, rent, food, insurance, and gambling."
He stood in complete silence for a moment before he slapped himself with his two hands. The pain was giving him a morning wake-up.
"I want to laze around on my couch and do nothing but...Duty calls, and the moon is haunting us with its f*cked up embrace."
His hands latched onto his chin as he questioned himself, "What would every person do when they're stuck in a situation of fearing for their own lives? Train and prepare themselves till the point of death."
Coming up with a conclusion, Otto made his way out of his office and walked to the previously visited Schicksal Physical Center.
On the way, he made sure to properly greet every person he saw, but most of them couldn't even look him in the eye when responding, and some were fidgeting just from his smile.
'Am I that scary? Oh, well, not everyone is going to receive me in a positive light.' He thought to himself as he entered the gym.
With the sun rising strong, most Valkryies were heading in, but the atmosphere took a slow turn when they spotted the Overseer roaming around.
Otto ignored the commotion he was causing and walked to one of the empty private training rooms.
Once the metal door was opened, what he saw was a vast room filled with training equipment, mats on the floor, rows of locked cabinets filled with practice weapons mounted on the wall, reinforced training dummies in the back, and further in was a sub-section of an enclosed room with just a singular touch screen engraved on a pestidial.
He let out a sharp whistle at the space of the place, and moved forward while taking off his black vest onto one of the benches on the side, leaving him with just a white buttoned collared shirt.
Finished with his simple preparation, he positioned himself in one of the reinforced dummies. Shaped like a human torso, they stood at an average human height, plated with an alloyed frame and tempered to the point that some Valkyries would have trouble breaking through it without any weaponry.
He clocked his fist back in motion and struck. The clanging of metal blew into the room as the dummy stumbled on the matted floor before balancing itself. Otto shook his hands from the electrifying numbness and pain in his knuckles.
His eyes turned towards the amount of damage he had caused, and it was only a dent on its chest, as if a cannonball had dug into its metal flesh but didn't completely penetrate it.
Seeing the results, he took it further as a golden aura enveloped the man. Its strains of energy move and ebb like a flowing river around him.
Shin (心) was used to strengthen the body to the point of Superhuman levels, to the point where it was comparable to human skin augmented with steel.
Mang(望) is the other half of the technique, by converting Shin into strength, it forms light rings around a weapon or body part. Which, in turn, strengthens that corresponding part.
Otto theorized that with enough mastery, he could use both at the same time, but he questioned himself how one converts their Shin into Mang.
Instead of lingering in his mind, with a deadened breath, he decided to empty it all. His emotions running around in his brain slowed to a still wave, and he rummaged through his bag of memories for the densest and deepest memories to fill his head.
He envisioned it in his mind: the burning of his home, the Honkai Beasts slaughtering everyone, the people screaming in agony, and most importantly, the day the Holy Maiden, named Kallen Kaslana, died by his own hands. Pierced through the chest by the unforgive sin he committed.
The golden aura flowing throughout his body ceased to exist, but instead it condensed into a ring of light around his right hand. It wasn't well defined, but merely a flicker of light with potential that still brought a sense of warmth instead of the memory burning with nihilistic, bitter cold.
Instead of a fist, his hand shaped into a chopping motion, and with a swing downward, the hand empowered with light struck once again straight down the middle.
The dummy collapsed onto the ground as its body was flattened to its midsection. Its current appearance was that of a crushed can.
Finished with his results, he took the time to gather his thoughts and found a conclusion. Shin and Mang were strong in enhancing the body to superhuman levels.
It was an ideal way to enhance his close combat capability further, and despite having no "Complex Hax Ability" tied to it, who said that a basic ability couldn't be Hax as well?
Currently, a single Mang has increased his strength by 25%, and the maximum possible limit Lin saw when he played Limbus Company was seven...So hypothetically speaking, what would happen if creating one hundred Mangs and possibly applying it to their "Complex Hax Ability"?
Simple, it would be pure destruction that Nanook would be proud of. The possibilities of this light were endless, but were held back by Otto himself as he could make a single ring last for a few seconds.
"Well, everyone starts somewhere..."
His hands were clasped together as he stretched to wring out all the sloth coursing in his body.
"I am not getting out of here until I last more than a minute...Pause."
...
It has been several hours since the man started training.
The once clean, perfect room became a mess filled with small spider cracks and several craters on the ground. Dummies that were shaped in that of humans were damaged to the shape of an abomination, and their limbs broken beyond human measure.
The man who caused such damage had sweat dripping from his forehead, and his eyes glared at the metal training sword in his hand. A long, straight blade with blunt edges, a simple cross guard, and a wrapped grip for comfort.
A single warm ring of light appeared on the midsection of the blade. It was more apparent and defined than before.
Its constant shape stayed for a minute before sizzling back into nothing. With the result finished, Otto threw the sword to the side and collapsed onto the ground.
His hand shot up onto his forehead and caressed it to soothe the aching, dull pain on his forehead.
"...Damn my head, its like Fate wants to bash my skull open with how many times this keeps happening. Throughout the Heavens and Earth, I alone get head trauma."
Done with his musing, Otto thought of his next course of action. His newly implemented training was done, and so the next step was to prepare himself to death.
After showering, of course, he didn't want to reek of sweat.