Chapter 20: Class
DRAG-
Ten minutes before the first class, I entered the classroom as most of the students were arriving.
"...What?" Leon, who was already sitting, asked in disbelief when he saw my face.
Then, as if remembering our unspoken agreement not to acknowledge me, he turned his head and shot me a silent, angry glare.
I ignored the look and glanced at the other side of the room.
My eyes met those of the students from yesterday. I let out a sneer and gestured to them with my head.
"I left you guys behind, but you managed to make it back on your own."
"..."
"Hey."
They stubbornly stared forward until I walked over and tapped one of them on the shoulder. He flinched and slowly looked at me.
"Do you want me to make you come here myself?"
"N-no... why...?"
His eyes were trembling. He clearly remembered calling me out and bullying me, but he had no memory of hitting me so obviously.
He knew something had happened, yet all that remained in his mind was a vague sense of dread.
I smiled, my hand still on his shoulder.
"Grab your bag and come sit next to me."
"Huh?"
"All four of you. Sit next to me."
His face frozen, he slowly got up from his seat. Then, with a confused look, he asked, "Why would we sit next to you…?"
I returned to my desk and tapped it without a word. They exchanged glances, a look of confusion on their faces, and sat down next to me.
"What class is this?" I asked nonchalantly.
"...Basic Biology. I think."
"Good. Open your notebooks."
They just stared at each other, looking bewildered, before finally taking out their notebooks. Just then, the professor opened the door and entered the room.
"Good morning, everyone."
While the professor was searching for the attendance sheet, I spoke to the students beside me. "What are your grades?"
"36th... And they're in the 40s, I think. Why?"
I let out a scoff.
"40th out of 50? I can't expect you to grasp the main points, can I?"
"B-but you were… 48th, weren't you?"
Luca had been. He had even been absent on the day of the exam. He had consistently been at the bottom of the class, only barely avoiding last place on the final exam.
I ignored his question and pointed at his notebook.
"From now on, write down everything the professor says, word for word. Don't bother trying to find the main points. Just record everything from beginning to end."
"What?"
"Write it down. All of it."
All of it? The student looked confused and furrowed his brows.
"But… why should we do what you say?"
"You don't want to?"
I smiled, staring at his face, and he awkwardly looked away.
"No, but writing down everything is a bit much…"
"If you don't want to, don't. It's your choice. You don't study because someone tells you to, do you?"
Don't? So easily?
Was it really okay if he didn't? The student looked bewildered again.
Just then, the professor looked around the classroom and tilted his head when he saw my face.
"Student Lucas, what happened to your face?"
"Ah, I was in the early morning…"
I stood up to explain.
BAM!
The sound of a desk hitting the floor echoed in the quiet classroom. The student next to me had turned pale and grabbed my hand. He whispered desperately,
"I'll-I'll do it! I'll do everything!"
"...Hmm."
"The early morning?" the professor asked, looking between the student and me.
From across the room, Leon let out a long sigh. He seemed to have finally figured out what had happened.
The same realization was dawning on the other students in the room.
I looked down at the student holding my hand and smirked.
"...It's nothing. Just a little argument with my friends."
"If it was a violent incident, we'll have to hold a disciplinary committee."
"No, it's nothing of the sort. We've already resolved it peacefully."
The professor, not wanting to make a big deal out of it, thought for a moment before nodding.
"Hmm… If you ever need help, feel free to speak to any of the professors. Even if it's later on."
"Yes, I will. Thank you."
I smiled and sat down.
Then, I pulled a thin, covered book out of my bag. It was a book I had borrowed from the library to study Divine Power-based special magic.
I opened the book, placed it under my textbook, and gestured to the students next to me.
"What are you doing? Start writing."
"..."
The students stared blankly at my book before the professor began to speak, and they frantically started to write.
"Alright, I'll see you next week. Make sure you review everything." The professor packed up his materials and left.
The students next to me shot up from their seats, gasping for air.
"Phew… it's… it's over."
"Lucas! We wrote everything down!" their tearful voices shouted.
I looked up from my book and quickly scanned their notebooks.
Of course, there were some missing parts, but since there were several of them taking notes, they were filling in the gaps for each other. I gave the notebooks back to the students.
"You did well."
"...Aren't you taking them?"
"Seriously... some people only study for the first class. Does school end after the first period?"
Their faces fell. I laughed and patted them on the shoulder.
"Just hang in there until 6 p.m."
When the regular classes ended, I collected all the notebooks. The students, their faces drained, rubbed their arms as they handed them over.
"Your handwriting is all over the place. Can't you do better?"
One of the students who heard my complaint hesitated before speaking.
"...But, about the report…"
"I won't do it," I said, shaking my head.
Light returned to their faces. I watched them for a moment and continued.
"As long as you keep doing this. I believe that a report for a violent incident can be made anytime before graduation. Right?"
"Huh? Oh, no... then…"
I smiled, looking at the speechless students.
I had already gone to the hospital and gotten a doctor's note.
Unlike before, I slowly read through the notebooks and nodded.
It was incredibly difficult to sit still and listen to high school classes I already knew.
It was a chore to listen to a one-hour lecture when I could have just read the notes in 30 minutes.
I had worried about this a bit, since the curriculum wasn't the same as in reality, so I couldn't completely ignore it.
'This is great.'
I closed the notebooks filled with lecture notes and smirked.
"I'm borrowing these."
A short time after Lucas left, a student sighed and ran both hands over his face.
"He's a thug, this bastard..."
"T-there's no such thing as a thug who steals notebooks…"
"It's still extortion, isn't it?! Aren't notebooks my property?!" he yelled. Another student shook his head.
"Calm down. He clearly said he was borrowing them. Let's see if he returns them."
"If he doesn't, we'll report him right away."
"He'll probably return them. He'll have to if he wants us to take notes for him tomorrow."
"..."
Everyone fell silent.
His words were grim, but they were true.
After stopping by my room and stacking the borrowed notebooks on my desk, I headed to the training grounds.
"What the hell happened yesterday?"
I looked up, and my eyes met Leon's, who was sitting on a chair at the training ground.
I knew he would ask. It would have been weirder if he hadn't. I thought for a moment before answering briefly, "I got hit a little."
He was obviously not asking that; he wanted to know how the event had unfolded.
But there were many details that didn't need to be shared, such as them bringing up Leon or me making them eat dirt.
It was better not to explain at all than to risk a slip of the tongue.
'If I say something unnecessary, I won't even make it halfway.'
Especially the part about the dirt. I thought of Leon's upright character and kept my mouth shut.
Leon looked at me with a bewildered expression again, then shook his head.
"Fine, never mind… That's not important. Did you get checked out?"
"Yeah. It's just a bruise."
"Good." Leon nodded and then asked a random, out-of-character question.
"So, did you win?"
"What?"
The question was so unexpected that I let out a dry laugh. I had read about Leon trying to stop the main character from fighting, but I didn't remember him ever asking who won.
'He's already assuming I used magic.'
He wouldn't have asked about winning or losing if he didn't assume I had used magic. I answered lightly, "There's no way they'd listen to someone who lost."
Leon burst out laughing at my reply.
"Ah, I feel better now. Of course. Who was it that taught you? You couldn't possibly lose to guys like that."
"It's strange that you assumed I used magic."
"Those guys don't know how to hold back. There's no other way to get out of a situation like that without using magic."
I nodded. The moment they tried to feed me a live animal, they crossed the line. If I hadn't used magic, I might have actually had to put it in my mouth.
"How are the kids reacting?"
"They think I was a one-sided victim. And they're speculating that they accidentally hit me in the face and I'm using it as leverage."
It was a perfectly logical conclusion. It wasn't easy to believe that a guy who couldn't use magic beat up three or four mages.
This meant that the news about my magic hadn't spread. I had only gained the divine power as a reward, and I had taught myself the mind-manipulation spell using it...
'For something I learned on my own, the effects are certainly solid.'
Special magic using divine power was worth investing in for the long run.
But first, I needed to focus on something more fundamental. I had to raise my health stats faster. Mental power was the same; if it hindered my divine power, it was a problem.
It was the fourth week of September, and October was next week. A month had already passed since the new semester began.
So… it was time to speed up the process of improving my stats.
Three hours into training, Leon put his wand back in his belt and checked the time.
"It's ten. We should head back soon."
I wiped the sweat from my face and nodded. Unlike me, Leon didn't look tired at all. He smiled and said,
"We increased the intensity today, so good job."
"You too."
This was why I had to raise my health stats quickly. Even when I wanted to do something to improve, my health was a hindrance.
'Let's see how much it increased from today's training.'
I called up my status window.
Lucas René Ascanien
* Title: Hunter of ???
* Health: -3.3 (+0.1) [-0.3]
* Mental Power: -7.6 (+0.1)
* Magic Power: ?
* Skill: +1.065 (+0.05) [+4.065]
* Impression: -10
* Luck: -6.385 (+0.1)
* Traits: Dawn777, Divine Power
It increased by 0.1 a day, so it would be 1 point in ten days. For comparison, it had increased by 1 point a week last week. The higher the value, the less it increased.
Still, if I pushed myself, I could get out of the negative range in about two months, so it wasn't a problem yet.
The problem was what came after that.
I looked at the skill section. My only positive stat, Skill, was increasing by a smaller amount than the others. It seemed that once it turned positive, the speed would slow down to a crawl.
'Since it's only going to get slower, it's right to get out of the negative range as fast as possible.'
I had a limited amount of time and a lot to do. Should I even cut down on sleep?
While I was thinking about this and packing my bag, Leo let out a gasp and called my name.
"Oh, Lucas."
"What?"
"The medicine you asked for came in. Today is the fourth day, like you said."
Leo lifted a box from under his bag.
Hmm, if I had to make that during midterms, I really would have to cut down on sleep.
Just as I was thinking that, a familiar notification sound rang out.
DING!
Chapter 3. The Constant Drip Wears Away the Stone (1)
Prompt 2: Achieve 0 'Health' (0/1) (167 hours, 59 minutes, 58 seconds)
* Route 1—Chapter 3 Special Reward
* Route 2—Chapter 4. One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer
"..."
"Lucas?"
My health increases by 1 point in ten days... And now I have to raise it by 3.3 points in a week?
Yeah, I guess it was about time for a prompt like this. The chapter title was so dramatic that I wondered why it had been so quiet.
I scoffed at the unrealistic time limit.