Hera nodded her head along with Oephilia, only choosing to speak after she had stopped to let my brain catch up. "Don't worry and just think of this as a good thing! Once you get past this cap you'll be much stronger than the others!" Oephilia nodded, agreeing with Hera.
"The Level Cap is never impossible to lift, so long as we eventually figure it out you'll be good to go." She smiled brightly at me. I could tell that the two of them were attempting to keep me in good spirits rather than let me despair about my circumstances. I appreciated it. "Now, for the others I was controlling their leveling rate to keep them from the negative side effects of stat raising too quickly, but since you are going to be experiencing that anyway I think we should just go all in and have you gain a shitload of exp. What do you think?" I nodded my head. "Are you sure? I'm going to work you to the bone day in and day out, your training, your exp grinding, and your classes will take up the whole day and probably some of your sleeping time, do you think you can do it?"
I would be lying if I said I wasn't dreading it. It was going to be an unreasonable amount of work, but if I wanted a chance then I had to work at least this hard. "I can, no I must." I turned towards Hera with an apologetic smile. "Sorry Hera, but it looks like you'll be healing me pretty much every night from now on."
She shook her head, her beautiful purple hair bobbing slightly as she did so. "Don't worry about me, one heal spell a night is nothing." Oephilia laughed out loud.
"Good, then let's stop wasting time! Pickup your sword. I want one thousand swings in an hour and a half this time!" I picked up my sword, and shot a smile towards Hera, who gave me a supportive thumbs up before beginning my second ever training session.
Time flew by as the semester began and my schedule lost all of its breaks. I was busy rushing around everyday, even on weekends, doing everything in my power to stay afloat. It had been three months since the semester started, and my body had grown accustomed to this chaotic lifestyle. I no longer felt tired with just six hours of sleep, nor did I complain about any of my training, exp grind, or classes. Today's classes had just finished and my exp grind was beginning. I no longer killed helpless beasts who were captured by the others, instead I went out into the forest around the Academy and hunted them myself.
The forest that surrounded the Academy had a high density of beasts in it due to the fact that no one aside from those in the Academy could enter its grounds. This meant it was a good location to get not only exp, but also general combat experience. It had been roughly two months since I first started to hunt in the forest, and only one month since I could do it alone, without Oephilia's help. It seemed like fairly quick progress, but my fellow heroes had been able to hunt on their own by the time the semester started, so it was fairly easy to see how far behind I was.
But I didn't lose hope. Today's hunt was going well, I planned on grabbing one more kill before leaving for training. I had been following the tracks of my prey for a while, it was a wolf-type beast, one of the stronger beasts in the 'Freshman' level of the forest. The forest was separated into levels just like the four quadrants inside the academy, with the level rising the further away from the Academy you got. I had yet to leave the 'Freshman' level of the forest, after all I still struggled with just fighting a wolf-type.
That was the reason I went through all of this stalking and preparation, if I fought head on I would no doubt get injured. It was sad, but necessary. I sat in the underbrush, and erased my presence as best I could. I stayed completely still and reduced my breathing to a slow rate, making them as shallow as possible so as to not disturb the forest around me. The wolf-type finally entered my field of view. I didn't move my head, tracking it only with my eyes. Any sudden or abnormal movement would spook it. It slowly walked closer to my trap, and when it was within strike range I leapt out. The panic from my sudden movement made it tense up and backstep, a reaction I had grown to expect. My sword accurately pierced through its skull, killing the beast instantly.
Phew. That's today's hunt done, let's go back and check my status.
I hurried back onto campus, and rushed towards the practical arenas. The last thing I wanted was to be late for training. I checked my stats as I ran.
Name: Caesar
Class: Famished
Level: 1 (4267/100 exp[Level Cap Activated])
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 6
Wisdom: 6
Charisma: 11
Skills:
Ravenous (No Information)
My stats were still pitiful compared to my fellow heroes, and in these three months neither me, nor Oephilia, nor even James or Hera could find anything relating to my skill ravenous. The only thing we could find was a simple statement about my class, 'Famished' which said 'he who desires more'. It really wasn't at all helpful. I shook my head and ran even faster towards the arena. It wouldn't do to get my ass beat just for being a little slow.
Training had also changed, my stats would take far too much effort to raise with training as they are now, so instead we focused on practical skills. Namely, swordsmanship. We, the other heroes and I, had a class on this taught by Oephilia everyday, but I got extra guidance every training period. And by extra guidance I mean I got my ass handed to me on a platter in every spar. Nowadays I ended my training sessions with more bruised skin than non-bruised skin. Today was no different, and by the time I fell against my bed I was dead tired.
I couldn't even wait for Hera to cast her healing spell, and simply knocked out the second my head hit the pillow. I could tell that Hera had cast her magic on me while I was asleep because the next morning I didn't hurt all over, instead there was just a leftover dull throb that surrounded my muscles. I quickly tore off the dirty clothes from last night that I had slept in and jumped in the bath. This was the only time of day I could relax, even if it was only for ten minutes. I enjoyed the soft embrace of the water before calmly washing myself.
I exited the bath after exactly ten minutes, taking a moment to admire my body in the mirror. The constant overuse of my muscles combined with Hera's magic which sped up the recovery speed of my body meant that my body had become one to die for. I was tightly packed with muscle on every inch of my body, my perfect abs gleamed as the water from the bath dripped down them. I was proud of this body, it was the proof of my hard work.
I dried off and got dressed. Today was a special one, it was the first day I would have off from training, as Oephilia had to leave the Academy for a day. This meant that for once I could relax for an evening. I was still planning on heading out on my hunt, but the few hours dedicated to training were free for me to do whatever I pleased. A smile sat on my face as I walked towards my first lesson for today, mana theory.
Mana was the substance that resided in everyone and allowed them to surpass the limits of the world, whether that be to cast magic or supplement one's body. So long as you had mana and the knowhow, anyone could strengthen their body, usually it would increase your physical stats by one or two. It was a fundamental aspect of becoming a swordsman, and one that I learned quickly with Oephilia's guidance. It didn't matter much now, as my mana strengthened self couldn't even compare to the base stats of those around me, but it was still a skill I honed.
"Caesar!" A feminine voice rang out behind me. I turned to see Aliya and Jasmine jogging towards me. Jasmine was the one who called out to me. "How are you?" We began to exchange pleasantries as we walked to the classroom.
"Tired but alive, same as usual." Jasmine and Aliya both chuckled at my response, after all I had been responding with the same sentence for almost two and a half months now.
"You really don't change. Oh, Elly!" Jasmine quickly called out to a girl ahead of us. She turned around, green hair spinning as she did. Her petit features perfectly fit her large pink eyes, she was a beauty, no matter who you asked. And she was the princess of the Haliborn Kingdom, King George's only daughter, Princess Elizabeth Haliborn.
She quickly fell beside Aliya, shooting each of us a greeting as she did so. The three of them together had become a normal sight, as the three were best friends. Jasmine had gotten over her introverted nature and was now more outgoing, especially around those two. It made me happy to see she had friends.
"Oh right, Caesar, since Teacher isn't going to be here today does that mean you have today off?" Aliya spoke with genuine curiosity. I had made no effort to hide my tutelage under Oephilia, there was no reason to. Most of the 'Freshman' class knew of my circumstances, the fact that I had a Level Cap at level one was common knowledge. But my efforts to become stronger allowed me to become friends with most of the people in my classes.
Ironically, the only people who actively disliked me were those who came from Earth with me. Aside from Aliya, Jasmine, and Thomas the rest had some kind of problem with me. The cause was Cameron and Alex, those two had it out for me the moment it came out that I couldn't level up. Knowing their personality, it was simply because I was weak and they were not.
I spotted their group of six as I entered. Cameron and Alex were the leaders of the group, and the strongest of them. Alex's dyed blonde hair had grown out in the past three months, making it half blonde and half it's natural chestnut brown. The four other girls were as follows: The two black haired girls with blue eyes were sisters barely a year apart, Kassandra and Georgia, their personalities, interests, and even looks were so similar people often mistook them for twins. The girl next to them was Hannah, who was my friend, but her desire to fit in with the others caused a wall to be driven between us, so we didn't talk anymore. The last girl was a quiet redhead with curly hair, named Jezabel. Her glasses matched her introverted personality, and the only reason she hung out with the people around her was because Hannah was her best friend.
I avoided eye contact with any of them and quickly took my seat beside the three girls I had been walking with. Thomas arrived shortly after, his messy bed head and tired expression the same as always. He sat next to me with a yawn.
"You really gotta fix that sleep schedule of yours, Tom." I prodded him lightly trying to wake him up fully. He twisted away from my touch before turning to counter attack.
"Hey, how many times do I have to tell you, I'm a night owl. It's not my schedule that's wrong, it's the Academy's." He spoke before finally breaking through my offensive and landing a poke into my side. I bent to the side heavily, I may be in better shape than him, but the difference in our statuses made him immeasurably stronger than me. He smiled and lifted his fingers into a 'V' for 'Victory'. "Anyway, today's your day off, what's the plan?"
"Today, I'm gonna relax. I want nothing more than a boring, lazy day."