"What? Are you sure you're alright?" Kenichi asked while looking at me worriedly, I couldn't deny that he was a genuinely sweet guy.
"Don't worry about it, I told you those guys are just overly worried that's why I got 1 week off of school so I'm just going accompany you to school before going on my jogging." I said with a smile to try and reassure him.
"Oh, alright but still take care, I don't think jogging is the best thing to do when you're injured." He replied as if he was some worried mom, it was a nice change.
"But what about you? Are you really okay?" I looked at him with some worries in my eyes, he was trying to hide it but I knew he was injured.
"I'm fine don't worry about me." He tried to smile to cheer me up but I knew it wasn't that easy.
"It's the guys from the karate club right?"
"Yeah..." He looked down in shame while trying to avoid my gaze.
"Do you want me to help you deal with them?" I knew I wasn't the most physically strong person right now but I'm a specialist when it comes to fighting dirty, I was confident enough to deal with some basic high school bullies.
"No, I think it's my own problem to take care of." he said with a determined look on his face.
I stopped trying to convince him since I knew how stubborn he could be and simply moved on from this conversation.
"Hey do you also want me to pick you up from school? I'm free and am usually kinda bored so it could be fun." I tried to change the mood and proposed while hoping to spend some time with my new friend.
"Yeah of course I'd love that." His genuine smile made it easy to see that those words were the truth.
------
A few days went by and I kept on going through a new routine.
My day started by simply going to make myself breakfast, sometimes I even cooked something for Kenichi, I didn't mind doing so since I had nothing else to do, it also helped in raising the level of my cooking skill.
Afterwards I put on my sport clothes and went out for a 6 km jogging, it was pretty fun to go out and run now that I had a way better endurance than most people.
I always met up with Kenichi on the way while running, today wasn't anything different, I tried to call out his name to go to school together but he seemed in a hurry.
He didn't hear me and simply kept on running when suddenly a girl put her left leg behind him and pushed his face with her left hand which sent him flying backward and end up on laying on his ass.
I hurriedly ran to check up on him while observing the girl who just threw him around, she was a nerdy looking girl with blonde her that made her stand out a lot, she was probably more than 10cms shorter than me.
She didn't look very muscled but having some prior knowledge about her, I know better than to fuck with her, she's someone who could easily break a few of my bones if she wanted to.
"I'm so so sorry! My body reacted on its own." She looked embarrassed as she apologized to Kenichi.
"What type of body reaction is that?" I knew her apologie was genuine but that explanation still sounds off to me.
"If somebody suddenly appears behind you it's normal to throw him right?"
I didn't wanna think too much about what she was trying to say by normal so I simply asked her to help me pick up kenichi's books.
"I'm so late! Thanks for the help Amon and goodbye!" Kenichi who finally gained back his brain after that finally got back to running as fast as he could to not get late.
I was going to turn around to ask a question to Miu but by then she had already disappeared.
She really is inhumane.
I can't even begin to think about her grandfather, that man is nothing short of a real life Superman, wasn't that even one of his nicknames?
I stopped thinking about it and simply continued my jogging then went back home.
-------
'Status open'
[Status:
Name: Amon Daisetsu
Age: 15 yrs old
Title: "enemy of love(B)"
Job: "student of Bonyari high school" (+2int/+1cha)
Stats:
Strength: 6
Speed: 7
Endurance: 13
Dexterity: 9
Intelligence: 16 (+2)
Charisma: 12 (+1)
Skills: Cooking (Rank F/ lvl 25)
Balance: 0 coins ]
Looking at my status I knew I had a lot of work to do, luckily now that my endurance reached a normal Athlete's level I had way less worries. But I knew that much wasn't enough and I had to speed things up.
It seems like the more I think about it the more the only solution is "that", I hated to envisage this possibility because I knew how many risks it will bring me, and I also knew how much of a hell that would be.
I tried to stop thinking about it and went to make myself dinner, I was starting to get tired of the basic dishes I had to cook myself, they for sure were tasty thanks to the level of the skill but if I could upgrade the skill and learn how to make a bit more recipes I wouldn't hate it.
---------
"Heyy Kenichi how was school yesterday?"
"Heyy Amon, I'm sorry for yesterday, I was late so I couldn't greet you properly." He looked genuinely sorry which almost made me laugh
"Don't worry about it buddy, other than that did anything happen?" I already knew but I still wanted to see if things would go according to "fate" and as expected his reply didn't disappoint.
"Yesss!! Do you remember that girl from yesterday?? The one who pushed me and threw me? She's a transfer student in my class!" He seemed very excited about it.
We talked about it for a bit then I parted ways with him and agreed to meet up after school since yesterday I didn't come see him after school.
During our talk I realized that my small interaction with them yesterday changed a bit of the beginning of the story, they already became friends since the first day of school while in the manga it was in the second day if my memory isn't failing me.
-------
Finally the time of the meet up with Kenichi arrived, we agree to simply walk on the same way and meet up wherever we crossed paths so there were no real designated location.
I simply kept on walking when suddenly I saw that same nerdy looking girl facing 5 gangsters, she seemed to be defending an old man who was on the ground.
Not far from the scene was none other than my dear friend Kenichi who was clearly pissing his pant. He was hiding behind the wall while eyeing the scene.
Watching this scene triggered a very familiar sound in my mind. It was the sound of a system notification which I immediately checked out.
[Main quest:
Prove your worth (difficulty D)
Description:
Help Miu and take down at least one of the gangsters.
Reward: 10 F class chests, system upgrade 0.5 (additional reward will be awarded for every gangster taken down).]
I finally got another quest, but this time it was different, finally! A main quest. After upgrade 0.5 I'll be able to unlock skills.
I didn't have much time to think so I simply took a pretty big wooden stick I found put next to a wall and started coming close to them from behind while making a shush sign to Miu.
I needed to take down as many as possible so I had to make sure the first one will go down in one hit.
"AGHHH" once I was close enough I used up all the strength I had to hit the skinniest looking one right in the back of the head.
He directly fell with no resistance but all other 4 gangsters turned in my direction.
I tried to fight off against them and keep them at a good distance using the stick but one of them managed to sneak up behind me and punch me on the side of my stomach, right where Claude hit me last time.
Thanks to my high endurance I could resist that much damage pretty well but that blow still made my knees shake.
"WOAHHH" suddenly Kenichi came running towards us out of nowhere.
"YOU BASTARDS LEAVE HIM ALONE!" He tried to throw a punch towards one of the gangsters who easily dodged it and punched him straight in the face.
He directly fell down to the ground which was the clue for Miu to finally act. She immediately beat up the one who took down Kenichi and was about to take care of the others.
I made use of the opportunity that presented itself to me and made use of the fact that Miu was taking all of their attention to sneak up behind the man who hit me in the stomach.
Seeing that he also had glasses like Claude pissed me off even more.
"All of you four eyed people know how to piss me off!" I swung at him using the wooden stick and aimed for his head.
It hit him right on the side of the head, that was enough to make him pass out.
In that very short amount of time Miu was already done taking care of the 3 other gangsters.