The teacher reprimanded Klay for being late and getting into trouble before dropping him off at his classroom, taking around 10 minutes in total to do so. When he entered, Klay's teacher, Mrs. McKeller, and the other students ignored him as he quickly walked to his desk.
Making as little noise as possible, Klay sat down at his desk near the window. Due to the nature of that morning, Klay was slightly unraveled and barely paid attention to the lesson and instead scribbled on his notebook paper as he calmed down.
Slowly, the lesson drew to a close and the class had a short time for a break.
Reaching into his bag, Klay pulled out a fiction book from his bag, quickly turning the page to where he left off with a small smile on his face before being abruptly interrupted by a loud voice.
"Oh! I almost forgot, I finished the book you lent me, let me grab it." Klay's deskmate reached into his bag, rummaging around for longer than should be necessary before revealing another book with a sticky note on it saying 'Return to Klay!!'.
Klay's deskmate was a tall and scrawny boy named Simon Duque. He sported dark, wavy hair and had a pasty complexion. Unlike Klay, he wore fairly normal shirts and pants that did little to hide his figure which made him the target of some bullying, but his congenial attitude towards everything tended to dissuade such behavior even if it didn't award him any friends.
His favorite pastime was to read books and novels, just like Klay, which led Simon to see Klay as a kindred spirit of sorts. Despite their shared passion, Klay's dislike for socialization created a gap that prevented Simon from truly becoming friends with Klay, no matter how much they spoke.
Placing the novel on Klay's desk, Simon continued speaking. "I really liked the fantasy aspect of the novel, but I like how it was shown in the earlier books more because…" Simon drawled on as Klay nodded mindlessly, trying to ignore Simon in order to read his book.
"Are you alright? Do you feel bad about what happened earlier when you were coming into school? When Alp was arguing with you?" Simon, noticing Klay wasn't paying him any attention asked him tactlessly, in a voice far too loud for their setting.
His face flushing, Klay quickly closed his book and frowned at Simon, letting his displeasure show clearly despite Simon showing no signs of realizing it.
"Quiet down, we're in a classroom. Plus, it's hardly your business whether or not I'm fine with what happened earlier." Klay reluctantly replied while trying to hide his face from the view of his other classmates who had turned to look after Simon's outburst of sound.
"Is it not? I saw it though, through the window earlier. Plus we're friends. Should I not ask?" Simon said, with a seemingly cluelessly innocent look in his eyes.
Sighing helplessly, Klay looked up at Simon.
"Even if we were friends, you shouldn't ask about something private like feelings in a loud voice. It's like you're just trying to out my weakness to the entire class. It's rude." Klay told him before turning his head into his arm fully, laying his head on the desk and signifying the end of the topic.
With a nod, Simon looked outside the window into the parking lot, waiting silently for a bit before continuing to pepper Klay with comments and questions about the book that Klay either nodded or shook his head to.
Soon, the lesson continued as Klay kept his head down and ignored the teacher as she spoke, instead clarifying some aspects of the system and ending up with a few messages.
[Strength is the ability of your muscles to output force, and affects the amount of power and speed movements have.]
[Dexterity is the reflexes and fine motor control of your body.]
[Flexibility is the level of mobility the systems of your body have, like your muscles, bones, and organs.]
[Senses is how precise and sensitive your ability to detect external stimuli is.]
[Intellect is your ability to think quickly and recall memories.]
[The average stat levels of a human is 7-20 for the main stats, while hidden stats like regeneration are measured with 1 being an average human.]
After having read the last message, Klay's interest was peaked.
Hidden stats? What exactly are those?
"[Hidden stats are stats that are not revealed through the system, due to their nonessential nature in regards to your mind and body. Regeneration is revealed as a stat because of the unique nature of the Regeneration System.]"
While digesting this information, the bell had rung and students began filing out of the class as Simon shook Klay out of his thoughts.
"It's time to go to our next class. There's a book I want to show you in the library too, so let's go." Standing up, Simon waited in his unkempt school uniform, with his personal accessory of an anime pin with the main character of a niche anime he liked stuck to his collar.
Klay stood up and slid the few items he pulled out earlier back into his bag before following Simon out of the classroom in silence, maneuvering through the many students walking around the hallways. With Simon standing straight and walking through people with little care and a flat smile on his face and Klay looking down and quietly following after the taller Simon while moving around groups, they made a unique looking duo.
Shortly, they arrived at the library where Simon led Klay to the fantasy section before moving his gaze across all the spines of the books on the shelves while searching for the one he wanted to show Klay.
"It should be here somewhere…"
"What would you do if you suddenly got superpowers?" Klay asked out of nowhere, almost shocked at himself for speaking out like that.
Pausing, Simon thought for a short minute before continuing his search as he responded to Klay. "Do you have a specific power in mind or just superpowers?" He asked.
Looking around to see if anyone else was nearby, Klay saw and heard nobody else and responded in a quiet voice.
Looks like there's no one else here, and I don't have to worry about Simon doing something unreasonable since everyone knows he's a scatterbrain and tends to get caught in his own thoughts.
"Uhh, regeneration. What about regeneration?" Klay asked, with a shaky tone that made his nervousness clear despite the calm situation.
Spending another long moment thinking, Simon eventually responded while pulling a book out of the shelf. "Found it. I would start to workout extremely hard since my muscles would be able to heal faster than normal and I wouldn't get fatigued easily. Look at the writing style here, isn't it similar to the book earlier? Do you think the author–"
"Alright, but what then? Would you just get stronger and nothing else?" Klay interrupted him, asking more questions.
"Well, unless something about my life drastically changed after I got the power, yeah. I don't have any particular goals I want to work towards so my answer is as simple as that. Why do you ask? Did you get superpowers and now have nothing to do with them?" Simon gave a serious response and made a joke all in a similar tone, making Klay take a moment to figure out which parts were jokes and which weren't.
I do have a goal, don't I? I have to figure out what actually happened to my mother.
About two years before, Klay received the sudden and shocking news of his mother's death from his father. That day, when he was told of her passing, his father had merely said it was an accident, but Klay noticed a look on his father he had never seen before: pure anger. His father was extremely angry at something, but for whatever reason, chose not to let Klay know what, simply leaving him in ignorance.
I have to prove my strength to my father, so I can truly understand what happened to my mother.
"No reason, I was just curious and decided to ask." Klay clarified to Simon, letting him talk more about the books while Klay asked the system some questions.
Would I be able to do that, system? Build up my strength through regenerating like that?
"[If your regeneration stat was high enough, you would be able to do that.]"
And how can I raise my regeneration stat?
"[There are multiple ways to advance your regeneration stat. With the Regeneration System, your ability to regenerate grows as you exercise it, meaning letting yourself heal from injuries will increase your regeneration stat slightly. When you level up, the Regeneration System awards you with a stat point which can be allocated to any stat visible to you, including regeneration. With the information you have gathered at this moment, the number of ways the Regeneration System can accurately list are limited.]"
Nodding internally, Klay broke up Simon's one-sided discussion of the books in the library and they began to walk out of the library, quickly heading towards their next class before the bell rang to signify them being late.
The teacher was casually taking attendance when a student suddenly walked in and towards the teacher, whispering to them before the teacher looked over at Klay's seat.
"Klay, you're needed in the office. Walk with Mr. Botterhill here as you go." The student that had appeared stood a bit away from the teacher, looking over Klay's skinny and unassuming figure as he approached with a predatory glint in his eye.
Sticking out his hand towards Klay, the student exposed a toothy and proper smile. "Hi, I'm Elias Botterhill. I help out in the office sometimes to deliver messages. We should get going now."
Klay took his hand and shook it, worried at the odd behavior of the student as he was led out of the classroom and away from the view of all the other students.