Hearing the entrance door open, Jake used as much speed as he could to turn off the electric cooker, wipe the sweat on his face with his shirt, dump the napkins in his mouth into the trash can and rush to open the refrigerator before the person who came into the house got to the living room.
"Thank god it's you." Sky said when he got to the living room and saw Jake. Seemingly a little bit out of breath, Sky asked Jake "Why are you sticking your head in the fridge?"
Removing his head from the refrigerator and taking a bottle out of it, Jake answered "I was looking for something." Turning around, he asked Sky "Where were you?"
"In the neighborhood. Dad isn't back yet right?" Sky asked.
"He is, and guess whose allowance is going down a few credits?" Jake asked as he took a sip of the drink in the bottle he was holding.
"I know you're not serious, Dad can't possibly be home already. He couldn't have gotten home before me." Sky said, panicking slightly and going towards the stairs.
"Relax, he's not home." Jake said, chuckling.
"That is not cool, you can't joke about my allowance like that. What if I had a heart attack?" Sky asked.
"There's a hospital close by, I'm sure you'll make it there by yourself."
"Haha, very funny." Going to the refrigerator, Sky brought out the food they were going to eat. "You hungry? Or did you eat where you went?"
"I didn't eat, so set the table for two." Jake said.
"What about Dad?"
"We don't know when he's going to come back, so just set the table for two, when he comes back one of us can set the table for him. Let me know when you're done."
Climbing up the stairs, Jake went to his room and shut the door. 'Time to see what the new quests are, fingers crossed it's something easy.'
[Quest Update]
[Practice using magic for 2 hours= Magic +4, +30exp]
[Deplete mana completely and keep using magic for 7 minutes= Mana +6, +90exp]
[Run around a house 10 times in 15 mins= Speed +4, +25exp]
'Finally, an easy quest, I needed that. But now it wants me to use magic without mana for seven minutes? At least the reward is nice this time.'
[You have successfully made direct contact with sunlight for 1 week]
[You have received 93exp]
[Exp: 418/800]
'To level up is now difficult, and it doesn't get easier. The more I level up, the more exp I'll need to get to the next level.'
"Jake?" Sky called from downstairs.
"I'll be there in a minute." Jake responded, already knowing why Sky was calling him. Going downstairs, Jake joined Sky at the dining table then heard the entrance door open before seeing Andrea enter the living room.
"Welcome back." Jake said.
"Thanks." Andrea said as he took off his coat and went to the kitchen to wash his hands before sitting down at the dining table to eat.
***
In school the next day, Jake and the rest of the students that go to the same training room as him were waiting for Miss Anna. She had left the training room a few minutes ago and said she was going to be back soon.
"Morning everyone, I'm not sorry for keeping you waiting, because you all waited for a very good reason." Anna said when she came back to the training room. "I've made a new improvement in our training room, sorry, a new improvement in my training room. Take a look."
Following the direction in which Anna was pointing, the students looked there and saw a holographic display of what appeared to be a leaderboard. "From now on, there will be rankings."
Chuckling, Jake said to Kevin "You better be ready, we're about to see who's stronger between you and Smith."
"That's nonsense man, I'm gonna wipe the floor with Smith." Kevin replied. "No offense." he said to Smith.
"None taken." Smith said.
"Let's all move to the large television and each one of you should touch the small box underneath it." Anna said.
"What will that do?" Jake asked.
"It will get all of your names so it will be able to arrange you all into different matches which will be shown on the television." Anna explained.
When all the students were done touching the small box underneath the television, their names appeared on the television along with the person they were going to be fighting.
"This is going to be like a tournament." Anna said. "As you can see on the television, there is only one side and no teams. If you manage to win all your fights and make it to the final match, whoever wins will be the number one student in the training room. That also means he or she will be the strongest student in the training room. When you lose your fight, you take a seat. The first fight is between Kyle and Mike."
"How do we fight?" Kyle asked as he stepped forward.
"Forget it, you've lost." a student said to Mike as he also stepped forward.
"Put on this helmet and your mind will be transported into the arena in the television." Anna answered Kyle's question.
"So you guys will be watching us on the TV?" Mike asked.
"Yes." Anna replied.
"What happens to our bodies?" Kyle asked.
"Your body becomes unconscious so we'll lie them down on the floor. After the fight is over and one of you wins, your minds will return back to your respective bodies. Does everyone understand?"
"Yes." the students answered.
"Miss Anna, can I talk to you for a moment?" Jake asked, walking away from the students.
"What is it?" Anna asked when she got to where Jake was standing.
"You know you've taught me more than them right?" Jake asked.
"Yes, so?"
"So, wouldn't it be unfair to them? I'm stronger than all of them, I've learnt more than all of them, I'm obviously going to win this tournament or whatever it is." Jake said.
"Of course you should, I expect you to win, you're my student after all. You can make it fairer to them by not using your full strength and maybe, don't use the kicking technique I taught you. Act like an amateur."
"Okay." Jake replied and followed Miss Anna back to the students.
"Just so you all know, magic is allowed." Anna said to the students. "Let the games begin."