A day later…
'Finally…!'
I walked to the exit of an alley next to a gym hall.
Behind me, there were three C-rank students who were moaning in pain with visible wounds on their bodies.
Next to them, there was a sobbing figure of a D-rank student who I had 'saved'.
This was actually the fourth group of people I had encountered as a vigilante since yesterday. It wasn't too difficult to locate such incidences of abuse after all.
'This is the sweet feeling I was talking about!'
Upon reaching some distance away, I quickly added the stat points to myself. A slight pain overcame my body which felt euphoric to me instead.
[Name: Soren
Race: Human
Level: 5 (60/3000)
Stats -->
Constitution: 60
Agility:67
Intelligence:53
Unassigned points: 0
Skills -->
Vanishing Steps
Abilities -->
Dark-Cold Manipulation]
While I was happy that my power increased, I was instinctively having a feeling that I was not utilizing the true potential of the system. There were surely some hidden features to the system but, perhaps, needed higher levels or special quests to unlock.
At any rate, there was truly no rush…
In the next moment, I checked the time in my watch to realize my next class would start soon.
It was the weapons combat class which I had signed up for and exchanged with Sylvia earlier. While I wasn't too interested in learning weapon skills, I figured it would be handy to at least know how to deal with the various beast artifact weaponry that existed.
So, without much delay, I checked the location of my class and headed towards it.
…
Whistling to a tune on the way, I came across Sylvia who was walking in the same direction as me.
I casually waved to her and said, "Yo…"
"Hey…"
"Heading to class?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
Sylvia's lack of responses barely fazed me, and I kept whistling to a tune as we walked together.
Soon Sylvia became aware that we had been walking together in the same direction for a solid minute.
"Are you following me?" She asked, her eyes squinting at me.
Without even giving Sylvia a glance, I said, "Nope."
"Hmph!" Sylvia didn't believe these words, since she could not recall there being another relevant location in the direction she was heading.
Yet, she didn't feel the need to say anything more. It's not like I could attend the same combat class as her.
"Soren…"
"What?"
"Why is Mika with y-"
Stopping herself right on time, Sylvia bit her tongue and hesitated. Even if she didn't want to admit to herself, the ingrained fear from the Yui family's reputation prevented her from interfering so lightly.
Regardless, I had heard Sylvia and even observed the strange reaction from her.
'Why is Sylvia interested in Mika?'
With my lips pursed, I stared intently at Sylvia.
"Mika… What about her?"
"Ah… Kuhum… I was just wondering why a cute girl like Mika was following a pervert like you!"
'Does she think I am stupid?' Despite the strange tone of voice and Sylvia's flushed face, I could only pretend to nod and accept the question.
"Maybe she likes how strong I am… Don't worry though… With my super awesome C-rank powers, I will definitely protect you too!"
With an exaggerated motion, I flexed my biceps.
A small smile formed on Sylvia's face as she watched my antics.
"Pfft… Please take your talents to Mika!"
In time, we had both arrived in front of the combat center.
Sylvia glanced at me with a mocking smile on her face before getting her wristwatch scanned, opening the glass door to the combat center.
Almost in the next instant though, her smile vanished along with her eyes widening.
I had scanned my wristwatch and entered this combat center along with her too.
"How…?! Didn't you exchange your spot in Mr. Smith's class with me?"
"Oh, I just got another one." I said, my voice calm.
With an aloof expression, I began walking to the center of the stage where the rest of the students had gathered. Sylvia bared her teeth at me and rushed her footsteps to catch up. 'This guy must have somehow secured two seats earlier and played me!' She thought.
Contrary to how calm I showed myself to be, the reality was different.
'Why…?! Who the hell did this?!'
After realizing that Sylvia had entered the same combat center as mine, I had checked my class schedule again only to confirm that my instructor was changed to Smith.
It was very fishy…
There was definitely someone with higher authority whose attention I had grabbed.
Sigh… All things considered, there wasn't much point dwelling. I was helpless into passively accepting the situation for now.
Shortly, both Sylvia and I had walked over to the class meetup spot.
Like us, there were another ten students who were here.
"Oh, hello!"
"It looks like we have another classmate...!"
They waved and greeted us, or more precisely, Sylvia.
To my surprise, it looked like even the previously anti-social Sylvia was able to fake a smile and greet them back.
Maybe this wasn't too shocking since even Sylvia didn't want to be on bad blood with everyone here. Every other student here was an A-rank and probably had parents who held key positions in major guilds or even the Alliance.
Of course, one or two people took note of my presence too…
"Why is that C-ranker here? Did he get in by mistake?"
"Oh, I think he is an errand boy for that girl. I didn't think they would allow one inside."
"Ah…"
Even if I had expected this, my face still distorted a bit. 'These bastards!'
Sylvia also hopped onto this bandwagon by giggling next to me. "I thought you were going to protect me rather than be my errand boy?"
Not having a half-decent reply, I only glared angrily at Sylvia.
In the end, it only made her look more triumphant as she thought she had taken some kind of revenge for earlier.
"Hello, lady Sylvia!"
All of a sudden, a fellow walked up and stood between Sylvia and me. It was a tall, blonde haired boy who had an elegant and handsome appearance accompanied with a charming smile.
Apart from that, he had a very impressive A-rank ability with a four-star combat power.
Soon the handsome fellow reached out with his hand; everything from his mannerisms to posture were screaming prince charming.
"It's been a long time, lady Sylvia…"
With a stiff smile on her face, Sylvia shook the fellow's hand and said, "It truly has been a long time, Hector."
Being completely ignored, I stepped back a little and allowed the two to have a conversation.
It was clear that Sylvia had some sort of connection to the fellow.
"I can't believe we're both in the same school and class. It looks like my Dunton family and your Roland family are fated to have good relationships!"
"Oh…"
"I've meaning to ask; how's the latest expedition of the Roland's family guild going?"
The stiff expression on Sylvia remained as she started to provide some sort of routine answer.
It was just a boring, pleasantry conversation, but I could observe that this Hector fellow was subtly checking Sylvia out.
I was definitely not one to blame him since there was almost no one who could resist Sylvia's beauty.
The exhausting conversation continued for another half a minute, and Sylvia was already darting glances at the entrance to see if the instructor would show up.
'Hmm, the girl truly has no skill for conversation…'
Being bored myself, I positioned myself right behind Hector. In the next instant, I was making funny faces at Sylvia.
With her genetically enhanced senses, Sylvia had obviously noticed what I was doing. She tried to resist but only to end up covering her mouth with her hand.
It looked really funny how she was trying to hold back her smile…
The unnatural reaction from Sylvia also didn't escape Hector as he stopped his speech and grimaced. When he turned his head back though, all he saw were the rest of the students patiently waiting and a dumb-looking C-rank student who was glancing everywhere.
Hector guessed that it was just his imagination…
"Ah, as I was saying, Sylvia… My father has told me that we will collabr-"
"Puhahaha!"
At that moment, Sylvia finally broke down with laughter. Hector's ears reddened as he watched Sylvia laugh, very confused as to what was happening.
"Puhaha… I'm so... Psst… I'm so sorry!" Sylvia's glare fell on to me as she continued, "Soren, you bastard! Psst... You better stop making those funny faces before I hack you into pieces! Puhaha!"
Immediately, Hector turned his glance back at me with venomous eyes. It was probably the most maliciously someone had ever looked upon me.
It didn't help that Sylvia would occasionally burst out with laughter despite cursing me.
'Sylvia, you bitch! Why did you sell me out?!'
Taking a look at Hector's expression, I myself thought that I had taken some Wuxia course on how to offend people.
'Can you chill a bit, bro?'
Hector, while he kept his venomous eyes on me, impressively kept his wits about him.
He soon only gazed at me with an indifferent expression. His mind kept processing thoughts about my existence like, 'Why is a C-ranker here? Is he special and connected to Sylvia?'
I was about to go and formally apologize to Hector, when suddenly…
Thump…!
My heart pounded loudly as a strange suppression force entered my body.
It was inhibiting my use of Geno force and even taking a huge toll on me.
"Wha… Wh…"
Despite trying my best to scream, not a single word could be uttered from my mouth.
With a pale face, I turned my head around to find that everyone in the hall was going through something similar.
A few students had even dropped the ground and were groaning with pain.
It was right then, a voice I wouldn't forget sounded from the entrance of the hall.
"Welcome to my weapons combat class… I'm your instructor, Carson Smith!"