Having spent most of my day practicing the use of my scythe, me and my clone were now standing in front of the biggest challenge yet.
"I have to eat..."
Having already skipped one day of eating, my insides felt it was eating themselves. With sorrow in my eyes, I looked at clone-me. "Do you think what we have in the fridge is enough for a healthy meal?"
It was after all him, or me, who had suggested staying in for the day and just eating what we had available. Unfortunately, I both knew that it was a bad idea.
"We only have crackers and milk... I don't think it will be good to not eat a real meal if I am planning on training so much..."
"Yea, I am right... Fuck... I have no choice then..."
"Urgh!", Recalling my clone, it felt like I was punched in the gut when I felt the exhaustion after swinging a scythe for multiple hours.
Luckily, his sweat didn't come with it.
"Fuu... I can do this!"
Taking a deep breath, and with determination in my eyes, I set the GPS on my watch to the cafeteria and got going.
Walking out of my room was horrible, once again I was surrounded by other students who stood in the halls, chatting... having fun...
Forcing myself to concentrate on my watch, I made it out of the apartment building. Although I was connected to my clone, there was a slight difference in how my brain received our surroundings. My main body was a bit more receptive and connected than my clone, which in this case was a very bad thing, as it only increased my anxiety.
As my feet dragged me through the grounds, I couldn't help but be amazed by the other students. They all looked like they came straight out of a Hollywood movie, the boys tall and athletic and the girls tall and beautiful...
Yes, in my eyes almost everyone else was tall...
In just a couple of minutes, which felt a lot longer, I had found my way to the cafeteria where I happened to stumble upon a familiar face, as well as a not-so-familiar face whom I still knew.
"James! Are you here to eat too?"
It was Sophie and, who I assumed to be, Arthur that was also standing just outside of the cafeteria, most likely getting ready to eat together. Oddly enough, it looked like Arthur was in pretty bad shape. 'Is he already getting bullied?'
What I didn't know was that his state was the result of once again sparring with Sophie and, once again, getting his ass kicked.
Before I could even open my mouth, I was met by a disgustingly bright smile coming from the hero of our story, "Oh, are you a friend of Sophie? God, you make friends so easily Sophie!"
"Stop, Arthur... You are making me blush..."
Watching him compliment the amazon and seeing her cheeks flushing made me feel nauseous. 'I want to go back and talk to myself...'
It was truly a shame that I had already gotten entangled with these idiots as it would now be considered incredibly rude if I just walked away. Something my awkward heart couldn't take. In order to not have to stay out of my room a second longer than necessary, I took control of the conversation.
Raising my hand towards Arthur, I introduced myself, "Hello, I'm James Jackson. And I guess you could say that I'm a friend of Sophie."
As he took my hand and looked down at me, his smile once again gave me shivers, "Hi James! I'm Arthur Luminary. But what do mean by "I guess"?"
Having concluded our small handshake, I quickly dismissed his question, "Oh, long story. Anyway, I'm starving. Let's go and eat."
Not waiting for their response, I entered the Nightmare difficulty dungeon in front of me. As the automatic doors opened, I was met by the sound of happiness and joy coming from the students who were appreciating their academic lives. 'I hate this...'
The cafeteria was pretty much divided into two parts. To my right was a queue for the lunch ladies who served the food and to my left were several tables, big and small, where you were supposed to eat your food. Luckily, the queue wasn't all too long and I quickly got to one of the lunch ladies.
"Oh, aren't you a cutie! Well, if you are going to grow you need to eat a lot! So here you go, a double serving to make sure you get enough nutrients!"
"Thanks..."
I wasn't unhappy about the massive amounts of rice and meat that I got on the tray that I started carrying to an unhabituated table, in fact, it seemed to be the perfect amount for my starving body. Nor was I unhappy by the fact that she wanted to help me grow, I also wanted to help me grow after all. However, calling me a cutie...
'You will see... When the Trickster descends...'
Sitting down at a table with four chairs, to make sure that my 'friends' could sit with me, as it would be incredibly discourteous to not make sure there was room for them, I started wolfing down the food in front of me.
'It's so good!'
While I was on the verge of crying as my poor body finally got the calories that I had exempted it from, dumb and dumber arrived at the table as well, with dumber seemingly astonished that I had almost emptied my plate already, which he didn't even know was a double serving.
"Wow... I didn't think you were that big of an eater..."
Taking a swig of the water I had gotten with my food, I emptied my mouth to respond, "Well, it kind of happened that I didn't eat yesterday. Too busy training."
His eyes opened wide, almost as if he was impressed by what I had just said. To be fair, as I didn't tell him that I was afflicted with the worst muscle pain I had ever felt and that it made me unable to leave my bed, it probably did sound pretty impressive.
Not minding the big, beautiful, elegant... 'No stop me! Get back to work! We have to get back to our room!' Even though it was weird that I had begun thinking in plural, my spoon started to move yet again. As if she didn't see how determined I was to get away from them, which she probably didn't, Sophie started some small talk as well.
"So, James, what have you been up to? Me and Arthur have spent most of our time training, pretty hard as well... Getting sweaty and..."
"What did you say, Sophie? You are doing that thing again when you start talking too quietly for anyone to hear."
Even though Arthur didn't hear what she said, I heard it clearly, "Pervert..."
Her gaze quickly shifted to me, her eyes violent with anger, "What did you say, π¨ππ§ππ’π₯?"
My bad habit had yet again bitten me in the ass. Although I didn't think it was that big of a deal, that I couldn't keep my mouth shut, when I looked at the big woman in front of me that could strangle me with one hand, a bit of cold sweat emerged on my back.
"Nothing, madam! I said nothing! Anyway, I have only been training. Mostly meditating and physical training."
Arthur once again seemed pretty excited by my words, happy that he had found another training addict like him and Sophie, "Oh! You are also training hard, huh! Have you also managed to break through to E-rank like Sophie?"
Although it was a bit unfair to say that I have broken through, as we were sent here as E-ranks, I just told him a half-truth, "Yea. Me and Sophie are probably the same rank."
"That's incredible! Oh, I also want to be strong like you guys... I am still stuck in F-rank after all..."
'Oy! Why did he get so depressed all of a sudden?! Isn't he supposed to be a hero?!'
This wasn't something that I wanted to see at all. I knew from the game that he was weak in the beginning but what I didn't know was that his mental strength was abysmal. Signaling with my eyes toward Sophie I tried to communicate mentally...
'Yo, is this guy okay?'
'Yes, the food was really good!'
It didn't work.
Thankfully, I had finished my food in record time and thus I was getting ready to climb back into my cave, hopefully not leaving again for the foreseeable future... Or at least until classes start. During my distress before I had figured out that one could order food to stock up in the fridge, which I had quickly done. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be delivered until tomorrow, which had created my current predicament.
Standing up, I began to say my goodbyes to the stupid pair and tried to make my escape, "Thank you for this time guys. I'll be making my way back to my room to continue my training."
Arthur easily accepted my words and construed them as proof of my devotion to growing stronger. Sophie, however, managed to somehow look through my act with ease. "Are you honestly that introverted...? We have barely been here for 15 minutes, you know?"
Not minding the daggers that she repeatedly stabbed into my heart, I forced a smile and concluded this hurtful conversation. "Every second that I am staying here is a second less I spend on training. Therefore I must take my leave."
As I turned around and started to walk away, a disgusting voice could be heard behind me.
"So cool!"