"I'm Halie Sylvester."
"Zane Felix."
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In the cafeteria,
Zane saw that the menu had added a price, which wasn't there yesterday. The base price of the sets ranged from 500p to 8 000p
'Thank goodness there are cheaper ones. 5 000p is just too much.' He let out a sigh of relief.
"Why don't you find a seat? I'll go order."
"Ok." 'I'm already here, might as well have lunch,' he thought.
He found an empty table and sat down.
'500p a meal… If I order the cheapest meal three times a day, it'll cost me 45 000. I'm still 15 000p short.'
As he was deep in thoughts, Halie returned.
"Here." On her hand were two sets of meals. It came with steak, a bun, a side of salad and a glass of orange juice.
"Thanks." As he was short on money, he didn't reject it.
"What are you thinking so hard about?" seeing Zane's conflicted expression, she asked.
"Its nothing,"
Just then, a girl came to our table panting.
"Halie! There you are! Why did you run off without telling me? Wha...:" she stopped midway as she finally saw Zane who had started eating.
"Who is this?" she asked.
"Oh, him? I accidentally shot him with my arrow."
"It missed," Zane corrected her but it seemed like she didn't hear it.
"How could you shoot someone? You didn't forget to apologize, did you?" she said while pulling Halie's cheeks.
'Do people in this world have hearing problems?' Zane thought.
"I dit! Zhat's vhy vim Freating fim to vunch!" she said with her cheeks still being pinched.
"I'm sorry if s. . . . . . Eh? Where did he go?" Zane disappeared.
"See? You scared him away!"
"You were the one who shot him!" and they kept on bickering.
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On his way back to class,
'How can I earn money? Maybe I can take a part-time job?' Zane was thinking about how to earn money. Currently, he doesn't have enough money.
'Nova's food costs 15 000p or maybe more if he grows. I need at least 45 000p. My minimum expenses would total to 60 000p.' 'I'd better rank up then.'
Zane made up his mind. He's going to increase his rank to have more allowance. He turned on his watch and found the academy's duelling website for recruits. This website is made for recruits to challenge others. You could challenge others in person but you'll still need to register on this website.
He clicked on the link and his profile popped up.
[Name: Zane Felix
Grade: First Year
Rank: 805 /1000
Attempts: 3
Mandatory: 3
History:
>Duels - 0
>Victory - 0
>Losses - 0]
[Challenge]
[Request]
[Ongoing]
[Rules and Regulations:
>recruits can only request 3 duels a month.
>Recruits must also accept the first three requests if they are challenged.
>no intentional killing.
>Must be approved by the academy.]
Zane clicked on [Challenge] and a list of the first-year recruits appeared in the order of their ranks.
[Rank 1 - Eric Gratos
Rank 2 - Helie Sylvester
Rank 3 - Zhong Ye
Rank 4 - Aiden Flayre
Rank 5 - Nino Casteel
Rank 6 - Cha Jee
Rank 7 - Michelle Klauz
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Rank 805 - Zane Felix
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]
'Helie. Wasn't that her name? Never thought she's ranked 2nd'
'Now who should I choose? Let's just use the randomiser.' He found the randomizer.
[Random:
>Range: Rank 100 to 200]
He typed in the range and hit search.
[Match Found!
Name: Will Varos
Grade: First year
Rank: 129 /1000
History:
>Duels - 0
>Victory - 0
>Losses - 0
Confirm Challenge?]
He pressed confirmed. A few seconds later,
[Will Varos has accepted your challenge. The duel has been approved by the academy.
Date: 4 January 2056
Time: 6.00 pm
Venue: 1th Arena]
'That was quick. Now to prepare bullets' He thought and went to the armoury.
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At the armoury, different weapons from firearms to armour were displayed.
"Welcome. How can I help you?" The Clerk asked.
Just then, he remembered something, 'Do I use training bullets or real bullets?'
"Quick question. Do I use real bullets in a duel?"
"A duel? You're only allowed to use training bullets."
"Oh ok. I'd like 10 rounds of 7.67x51mm MB bullets."
"Hold on a minute," he said and went to get the bullets.
"Here." He came back with a box.
"How much would that be?"
"It's free. Bullets and arrows here are all free, requirement repairs are also free of charge. "
"Why?"
"The bullets and arrows here are made for training. Sure, they can kill low ranked monsters but it's impossible to kill higher ones. The repairs are sponsored by the Slayer Association."
"Oh, ok. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Zane then went to class. On the way there he was deep in thoughts.
'They can't kill high ranked monsters?' He looked at the bullets in his hand.
'Where can I buy stronger bullets?' Just then, he thought of something.
"Magic!" These words accidentally slipped out, causing everyone around to look towards him.
"Ahem!" He let out a cough and ran away.
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In class, most of the recruits had already returned. Zane sat down at this table and turned on his watch. He searched [Bullets with magic]. A couple of results came out.
[Magic Bullets]
[How to create bullets with magic]
[Magic bullets on sale]
[How to imbue spells into bullets.]
'I don't think I'm in a position to spend money.' He clicked on [How to imbue spells into bullets.]
[Objects can be imbued with magic through runes to make them stronger or give them special functions. This includes bullets.
Runes are symbols of an ancient language used by mages. Runes allow mages to imbue magic on objects such as attributes or enhancements.
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Then, Zane read it until the teacher came in.
"I don't know who left a bunch of dead birds in the shooting range but don't do it again!" The teacher complained.
'Don't react. Don't react.' Zane repeatedly told himself.
"That doesn't matter anymore. If it happens again, I'll find you. Now, let's start our class. . . . . . . . . . "
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After class ended, Zane went back to his dorm straight away.
"Now, which one should I choose?" He looked at the list of runes available.
"This one." He chose something called [Spark]
With this rune, the object, in this case, the bullet will emit lighting when mana is released into it.
He took out a bullet and placed the bullet on the table. A blue don't of light appeared on tip of his right index finger as he concentrated his mana on it. He looked at the instruction and memorised the symbol.
As he moved his finger, a trail of light was left behind. Slowly, it started to resemble the symbol in the instructions. The symbol, now a rune, turned purple right after it was completed.
"Now to imbue it onto the bullet." the symbol shrunk until it could fit on the bullet. Then, it moved towards the bullet and placed itself on the bullet surface.
Just as he thought everything was going according to plan, sparks of electricity appeared.
"Shit!"