A few days later, I was finally discharged from the hospital and allowed to return to school. Once again I was reminded of the difference between reality and controlled environments. The boundary field in the school's arenas ensured that we would be kept alive no matter what, and no injury would be fatal. I wasn't sure how the enchantment worked, but no matter how serious the injuries, the people who suffered severe wounds within the boundary field would always recover in the matter of hours.
The boundary field seemed to have a special effect on containing and restricting the types of injuries the people within sustained.
In contrast, reality did not have such safety devices. There was no boundary field to limit the types of injuries we suffered and prevent it from becoming fatal, and as such, life-threatening injuries sustained outside would require more time to heal than those acquired in the boundary field. I honestly wasn't sure how it worked, but hey, let's just ascribe it to magic.
The moment I returned to school, Alicia was the first to greet me.
"I'm very sorry!"
"Eh? Why are you apologizing?" I was caught off guard by her apology. Alicia bit her lip, and lowered her head.
"My society members have caused you a lot of trouble."
"Huh? No, they didn't. I was the one who decided to save you guys."
"Ah…no, I'm not talking about Elliot, Nicholas and Jin Hao." Alicia realized I had no idea what she was talking about. "I was referring to Bei Pan Zhe, Lavender, Daisy and Dan Xiao Gui. The party you originally set out for the rescue mission."
"Oh, that reminds me." I had completely forgotten about that. A week spent in a coma would do that to you. "How are the refugees? Are they all right? I hope they made it to Jing Tian City safely."
"They are definitely all right. The four of them did their job properly. Even so…what they did to you was inexcusable!"
Now the memory of what happened was coming back to me. I frowned when I remembered the last conversation I had with them, what with Bei Pan Zhe rudely hanging up on me when I called him with Adrian's phone.
"What happened? They were supposed to back me up, but they never came. And when I tried to contact them, they cut me off."
"That's…" Alicia looked glum. "They abandoned you."
Where did I hear that from? Oh, right. Allison told me that when she called me right after the mission, before she requested me to reinforce Alicia's party.
I later learned from Alicia, as well as Dong Fang Yue Chu, about the charges brought against them (now I remembered Allison mentioning those to me), and their motives. They even recorded their dialogue with the device and used that as evidence against them in court. I wondered why they were stupid enough to openly discuss their plans when they should have known that they received a recording device.
Speaking of recording devices, I learned that Allison had retrieved mine from my glasses while I was hospitalized, to acquire the mission logs and other stuff in it. A good chunk of it was also used as evidence against my original party members, and to tally my kills. Apparently I also earned cash for each monster I killed, and with over hundreds of monsters to my name, I was practically a rich man. If only I could convert those into prestige points…
"It happens," I muttered after getting the story from Alicia. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They tried to murder me because they were jealous? The girls didn't want me to get near Alicia, and Bei Pan Zhe was envious of me attracting her attention? What kind of logic was that?
"I'm sorry! I'll keep an eye on my members and make sure they don't do something as horrible as this again!" Alicia promised, bowing frantically.
"No, no. It's not your fault. It's not as if you can control them like puppets." I waved my hand dismissively. "I appreciate the thought, though."
After assuring her a few times, I headed for my classroom, where Harvey waved at me.
"Vice-President Richard!"
"Don't call me that," I told him as I approached him.
"Yes, Senior Richard." I didn't complain about that, so he continued. "The protection period is over this week."
"Don't worry about it," I assured him with a grin. "I already have an arrangement with Thunder Hammer Society."
After I was discharged, with Dong Fang Yue Chu's help, I was able to contact Thunder Hammer Society. The moment I told them I would be accepting their challenge, they immediately changed their format to a one-on-one, as opposed to a team battle.
I understood why they changed their minds. They were aware of my reputation of team-killing the other party, and didn't want to risk it. After all, just like the Iron Fist Society, they would lose a ton of prestige points by getting team-killed. About five times as much, but obviously it varied depending on the opponent. I received more prestige points and went higher up in ranking if my opponent was stronger, and less if he or she wasn't that strong.
That didn't stop people from "grinding" by picking on a ton of first-year students or weaker societies since you can accumulate prestige points and matchmaking rating, so the more you challenge, the more points you could gather.
Originally that was the reason why Thunder Hammer Society proposed a team battle. But now that I was back, they didn't want to risk it. They couldn't just withdraw their challenge as that would be unethical (and against the rules), and if they won, that would still benefit them. So they decided to just go for it while mitigating the possible damage that would be incurred if things didn't go their way.
"But will you really be all right, Senior Richard?" Harvey asked worriedly. "You only just got discharged yesterday."
"I'm fully recovered," I reassured him, stretching my arms. There were no longer aches and my body was finally moving the way I wanted it to. "I need to work out, to get back into shape. And Jing Tian Hospital did a good job of restoring my strength."
No, I was actually eager to fight. Now that I had tasted success from two consecutive missions, I wanted to get stuck back in, after over a week of inactivity. I wanted to exchange blows with a proper opponent, to test out my magic and see how it would fare against human opponents. And I was also pretty eager to improve my rank.
Even though I had succeeded in moving my rank up from dead last to 900+ after defeating the Iron Fist Society, that didn't mean I was safe. One of my eventual goals was to get into Stellar Nebula University, the one my Dad went to before breaking out as a legendary summoner. Being one of the seven elite universities, the only way I could enroll in it was to be within the top 100 of my school. And even then, that wasn't a guarantee, given how all the different schools from the Federation would be applying from it. It was possible that even top ten in Jing Tian Magic Academy wouldn't guarantee me a spot there.
And I hadn't even mentioned the exam yet. To qualify for the university entrance examinations, I needed to be among the top 100 of Jing Tian Magic Academy. That was why I said it wasn't a guarantee. Not only that, I had to achieve a good rank in the university entrance exam, or the elite universities wouldn't even consider me.
I might have two years to climb up the ranks, but that sounded deceptively long. Honestly, it was actually a very short time. If I wanted to climb up the ranks, especially now that I was in my second year, I had to accept as many challenges and offer just as many of my own as possible, or I would never be able to break into the top 100.
Fortunately, one way of going up in ranks was taking missions too. Having succeeded in both missions saw me move up by over forty tanks, and now I was 904th. Just 5 more positions and I would be in the top 900, and become among the 800s.
I intended to do that by defeating Thunder Hammer Society. It was a pity that they didn't go through with their promise of a team battle, but that was fine. Taking one step forward was infinitely better than taking no steps at all.
"Just watch me!" I told Harvey confidently. "I'll show you how it's done!"
Harvey watched me in wonder, having the same hero-worship expression ever since he witnessed me defeating the representatives from Crowley Academy. He nodded enthusiastically. "All right! Go get them!"
After classes, we gathered in an arena in a building adjacent to the main hall. Since there were literally dozens, if over a hundred matches everyday, not everyone could use the main arena and stadium. That was reserved for formal events, such as the interschool tournament, or to decide representatives and stuff. A minor duel between Ultimate Outcast Society and Thunder Hammer Society could be settled in any of the training rooms.
As a middling society, Thunder Hammer Society had a big training room that often doubled as an arena. We agreed to allow Thunder Hammer Society host the duel there. All we needed was a referee, and Teacher Fielding was on hand to referee the match. This time, he was a virtual figure, having use magic to make a digital clone of himself to oversee the match.
He had no choice but to do that because there were over a hundred matches, and not enough teachers to referee all of them.
"So a one-on-one match, huh? Are you sure?"
Dong Fang Yue Chu was going through the details with the members of the Thunder Hammer Society.
"That's right." The president of Thunder Hammer Society, Theodore Hammond, nodded. He straightened up and pulled his broad shoulders back. "We thought it would be more…appropriate."
Like hell you did. You were just afraid of getting team-killed, weren't you?
Of course I didn't say that and merely nodded in understanding. Behind me, Harvey, Stan and Wang Fei stood, facing off with the numerous members of Thunder Hammer Society. They weren't as big as one of the four Great Societies such as Black Rose Society, but they still had quite a decent number. About thirty, by a rough estimate.
"From our side, we'll send Richard. I trust you have no problems with that?" Dong Fang Yue Chu maintained his polite smile. Theodore shook his head.
"No, I'm looking forward to it, in fact." He grinned.
"Who will be fighting from your end?" Dong Fang Yue Chu questioned, refusing to be sidetracked.
"Me, of course." Rearing up to his full height, which was massive, Theodore Hammond towered over our average-height president in an intimidating manner. Before Dong Fang Yue Chu could topple over, Theodore marched toward me and offered a hand. "Let's both do our best."
"Yeah." I accepted the handshake and winced as the big guy crushed my hand. Already playing these stupid games before the match, huh? I could see the smirk in Theodore's expression. But he knew better to underestimate me, so he nodded respectfully before withdrawing.
"If both parties are ready, then we can begin right away." It was Teacher Fielding. His holographic image flickered, and the both of us nodded. Proceeding to the opposite ends of the arena, we then made our final preparations before facing each other.
"Ready…fight!"
The match began.