I breathed out with relief, not even sparing a glance back at Lauren.
I quickly ascended the stairs, leading to the First Year Hall, as I wanted to get away from her as fast as I could before she would change her mind and follow me.
From my assessment of her responses toward me and the manner with which she conversed, I knew for sure that I succeeded in rousing a sort of feeling from her toward me.
However strange it might have been, I stirred up something.
Whether such a feeling was a good one or a bad one, that I didn't know. But I hoped for the former.
Not long afterwards, I reached the entrance to the First Year Hall in the gym.
As I stood in front of the door, I couldn't help myself from stealing glances at the last staircase which led upstairs… upstairs to the Instructors' Hall above ours.
Curiosity had overwhelmed my mind and I wanted to know what was going on there.
Even a glimpse inside would satisfy me.
But at the same time, fear cautioned me, keeping me sane and calculative as I considered the best and worst possible scenarios.
The worst possible scenario that came to my mind was instant death and that thought prompted a weirdly crooked smile to appear on my face.
I gulped a few times at the thought and turned my face away from the staircase that led up to that instant death.
With how weak I was right now, even the weakest Instructor would swat the life out of me like I was a mere housefly.
Considering that the worst outcome for my intrusion into the Instructors' Hall was death on the spot, it didn't matter what my best scenario would be.
What would it matter if I died a second or less later after experiencing that best scenario of mine?
I gulped again.
My throat dried up from the dread that was building as an effect of the thought I had.
Regardless of having witnessed the powers of the Instructors, I still find it difficult to shake it off sometimes.
They were just something else.
After some seconds of further contemplation, I settled with remaining in my lane as a recruit and gripped the handle of the door that led into our hall.
Creak–!
The door creaked open under the pressure of my grip and I entered the gym to see several of my fellow First Year Trainees engaging in one routine or the other.
Surely, I was impressed.
I hadn't expected the number that I was seeing in front of me since not this many of us had awakened on the first day.
In fact, a good number of us awakened by the third day after consuming the Elixir of Awakening.
'Is it the euphoria of possibly awakening?' I thought to myself as I glossed over the room.
Some were lifting weights, both the ones that they could handle and the ones that they couldn't… hypnotising themselves into trying their best to.
Some were boxing.
They were either sparring with their fellow recruits or landing blows on the sandbags that hung in a section of the hall at the far right corner, sometimes dangling to the pressure and other times not even moving.
…It all depended on who was punching.
Some were running on the treadmills.
Chin presses, rope climbing et cetera..
Everyone was busy with one routine or the other and I simply stood at the entrance watching and glancing around.
"Hey, roomie!" a familiar voice shouted out to me.
Apparently, I looked dazed as I stood there.
So dazed that I didn't hear Bright calling out to me until he got a little closer.
It had not been my intention to hurt my roommate and I'm sure it wasn't his intention to startle me.
However, just a second after he touched me, we found ourselves in a surprising position with Bright's arm twisted and put behind him and the one who had been responsible for this quick manoeuvre was me.
"Ooww!" Bright grimaced in pain, wasting no time to tap out.
That was when I realised that it was him and apologised.
"Oh, Bright? I'm sorry," I said, letting go of his arm and stepping a few steps away from him.
"What are you doing here?"
Bright arched his eyebrows and looked at me weirdly as he massaged his shoulder to numb the pain he was feeling.
"Gotta… owww!... Keep my body in shape, you know. How else will I get to be a knight in shining armour? But damn, you almost broke my arm."
'Knight in shining armour? Really?'
I sighed and shook my head.
Indeed, Bright was shameless, in a good way that is, and my situation with his childish behaviour was hopeless now.
Not like I'm going to try and save him from it anyway.
…Like hell, I have time for that?
"By the way, are you feeling better now, roomie?" Bright asked.
His expression turned sombre for a second.
"What do you mean?" I asked with a raised brow.
Bright gave me a serious yet unserious look.
His face held a countenance that passed the message 'Are you for real, dude?'.
"I know you were squirming and shouting in muffled tones last night. That's why I'm asking if you are better. You seemed sick."
His response had come as a shock to me as my eyes broadened almost thrice the usual size.
I was grossly surprised by what he had said.
'He was awake?'
And here I was, thinking he was asleep at that time.
I gave Bright a critical look.
Bright stepped forward and covered his mouth to whisper to me.
"Hey, roomie. Have you awakened?"
I paused and gave him no answer.
After a few seconds, he turned to his right side and sneakily pointed to some guys gathered together, about six of them.
"The two of them there have awakened. They said they felt the same pain as you did and also said they thought they had fallen so sick that they believed they would die.
"I think that's your own case too."
The boy paused and placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Don't worry, you can trust me," he assured me with a smile.
'Trust?' my mind snapped on hearing this word from Bright.
I sighed.
'You have the loudest mouth of anyone I know, man. Why would I trust you?' I contemplated.
Don't get me wrong.
Bright wasn't a bad guy.
He was a good guy but one who didn't know when to keep his mouth shut, especially with women.
That was why I was not exactly sure if I should trust him with this information.
I quickly contemplated and luckily, I wasn't going to lose anything from telling him since people were already awakening. So, it was not a secret any longer.
However, what I intended to keep a secret from him for now was my Skill—[Jack of all Trades].
If Bright was to find out my ability now, without a doubt, others would get to find it out as well and the whole point of wanting to keep it a secret would be useless.
I scratched the back of my head and let out a wry chuckle as I stared at my roommate.
I knew that he knew the truth already. He was not stupid and so, I had to give him the truth as a reply.
"Yes," I muttered. "Mine happened last night."
A smile broke out on his face as he jumped on me and patted my back like a proud big brother would, leaving me stunned.
Reflexively, I pushed him back and maintained a distance.
"Tell me, what ability do you have?" Bright asked, his face projected gross eagerness to know.
"I don't really know, to be honest. I can't say for now if I have any or not."
An obvious lie.
I knew.
Just didn't want to tell him.
I glanced at his friends from earlier and then back at him while nodding in that direction.
"How about them? Have they figured out theirs already?"
Bright breathed a loud sigh, shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Nope. Not yet."
He turned to his friends. "Just Theo has. The one with permed black hair, resting on the bench press."
"Ooh?" I expressed. "That's good for him. Looks like he has a cool ability."
For a second, I had forgotten what ability Theo possessed.
I didn't have much contact with him in my past life and we were not exactly friends but I do remember that his ability was somewhat cool.
Bright grazed his chin with his fingers in thought. "I haven't seen it though but he did say something about iron blah blah blah."
Yes! That was it.
I remembered it now.
Theo had an annoying ability that was frustrating to deal with at the early stages of our time here in the Cube.
'That's it!' I exclaimed with joy inside my head as I clearly recalled Theo's ability.
Excited by the new information, I hatched my next set of immediate moves.
'His won't be a bad place to start…"