"Hi, you must be Ren Ashburn." A young lady of similar age to Ren said. He had red hair and red eyes with a timid personality, at least Ren could see that much.
'Come on, I'm pretty sure you already know who I am.'
"You must be the one Ms. Ava was talking about, right?"
"H-How did you know that? Did she perhaps inform you ahead of time? Of course, that's what happened."
'Well, you are the only person who's holding so many books even though we're currently on break and everyone's eating lunch.'
"Come on, sit, there's enough space for you." Ren was sitting on a bench in the school compound at the time.
"Ah, yes. My name is Yulia, Yulia Lee."
"You already know mine, so let's get into it."
(A/N: Just so you know, Lee here is an English name, not Asian.)
. . .
Ren already expected there to be more people, so he wasn't thrown off when Yulia told him that there was one more person in their little group. It was never a group in the first place, but looked like now it was.
Since that was just their first meeting, they didn't do any studying in particular, they just planned out their activities together. Ren didn't want to study at night since he didn't want to be distracted doing whatever he chose.
As the days went by, Ren met with Yulia and her friend Lucy for the study. They met at the library, but once there, Ren wouldn't participate much in the study stuff and would instead carryout his usual routine.
"Why do you read so many books? And all of them are about skills and techniques too." Ren could tell just how hostile Lucy was towards him, well not too much, but definetely not normal either.
'I really don't know what the reason is. Does she think I'll try to pounce on them because I'm handsome or something?' Hmm, Ren wasn't used to his good looks just yet.
"I'm reading up so I will become familiar with as many skills as possible. In the real world, such practical knowledge is more helpful." Ren answered.
"But why would you be reading up on just random skills and not ones used by monsters, it's not like you're planning to fight humans, right?" Lucy asked, her tone hinting at something that Ren understood quite immediately.
'I see, does she think I'm part of some criminal organization or something?' It was understandable, since the military deal majorly with affairs related to Dhairgi and dungeons, there would be no reason for someone to focus so much on other information used by other humans if they didn't plan on facing them. It was not like the Dhairgi particularly used similar skills and techniques with humans.
"It's good to be prepared for anything, that much is common sense, I guess."
"Come on now both of you, why don't we forget about that for now and just focus." Yulia tried to diffuse the swelling issue before it became heated.
Their days continued like that, after sparring classes, they would head to the library to read. It was a rough routine, since they didn't rest much after physically exerting their bodies before stuffing their brains, but they managed. Ren was also curious what Yulia's class was and why she was so invested into books while the rest paid more attention to the more practical aspects.
. . .
After the training class on Friday, the instructor gave an announcement that there would be a mock raid the following week on Monday, and urged everybody to get ready.
"Also, there won't be any lectures on Monday, and the teams will be decided then as well. Ok, that's all for today, you may all leave."
For one, everyone seemed happy hearing the news that there would be no classes on Monday, and to top it off, they were hyped for the mock raid that was coming up too.
'Well, it's not actually a mock raid, more like practical test that will affect out grade. They'll probably tell us that when we arrive on that day.'
Apart from that, the coming of mock raid also meant one thing, and Ren remembered perfectly. 'Today should be the day when the abduction incident is to happen.' Ren was sure of it, because in the original story, it was also stated that it happened on a Friday.
'I could just end this and avoid it all together, but…'
Ren already saw Dominic and knew of the fact that he was in block G already. He could have solved the problem early to avoid the incident and stop it from happening all together, but then again, this was the incident that created the perfect circumstance for Ray to unlock part of his bloodline power, and it would be important as time went by.
'Really, why did I read this book again? Heh…'
Regardless of the fact that the dangerous situation acted as the perfect catalyst for Ray to unlock his sealed bloodline, Ren was well aware of his lack of strength compared to the original, so there was still the possibility of him dying before he even gets to unlock anything. Classes would normally finish around 5:00 in the evening, and according to his knowledge of what is to happen, it happened just around the time the sun went down, 'that should be around 6:30 to 7:00 pm.
The reason he returned early was because a portal was going to be opened and that was how the syndicates made it out of the academy grounds without being noticed, and since the portal would disappear after a while, he needed to be there so he wouldn't miss it. Also, Ren wanted to eat something first just in case it took long before they got back.
'Heh, as soon as I create the analysis skill, I have to create some kind of skill to allow me sense those around me and stuff, and I already know what I want… hehehe"
"I should just follow them incognito first and only act when necessary."
An hour and a half later, Ren could clearly hear several footsteps, but these footsteps were headed down, he figured it had to be Dominic and one of his goons. The description was that the portal would be opened in the roof of block G, so once the people headed out left, Ren made his way to the roof so he could just hide and wait for their return.
After an hour and a half, Ren was yet to see any signs of people coming to the roof, or of any portal being opened.
'Well, this is definitely strange? They should have been back by now at least.' While on that thought, he heard a loud voice calling for him from below at the bottom of block G, outside. To say the least, he could hear the urgency in the voice, so he already knew what the problem was.
"REN!" "REN!" "WE NEED YOUR HELP!"