Math, History, Science and Literature. These were the morning classes we would be taking every morning, while the rest of the curriculum was focused on physical training or magic training. After the morning classes were concluded, we were released to go to lunch, before our afternoon classes began.
Walking with the rest of the class, I made my way to the cafeteria to get some much needed food, when I was suddenly pulled to the side by a pair of hands. Before I could realize what was happening, a punch landed onto my stomach, I was on the floor in an instant.
*cough*
"Still wondering if I'm just going to lecture you?"
I looked up and saw the Alan kid from earlier. He was sneering while looking down at me. I was clutching my stomach because surprisingly the punch he gave me was actually very painful. I wasn't expecting it, and I also had a frail body to begin with.
I tried to stand up, but I received another kick in the ribs. I tried my best to protect my vitals, but he always seemed to find my stomach unguarded. The beating went on for ten minutes before he finally got tired of me. Throwing another kick to my side while I laid on the ground he spat out a few more insults before leaving.
I struggled to raise myself to a sitting position, with my back to a wall, before struggling to remove my mask so I could spit out some of the blood that had pooled in my mouth.
"Ptoo."
I looked around, but there was no one nearby.
"Sigh. They must have seen it but chose to ignore it... Looks like I'll have to handle this issue myself. I guess they probably don't have laws against bullying..."
I touched my side gingerly, and winced at the sharp pain I felt when my fingers touched my ribs.
"Ahhhh shit... I'm really too weak to do anything. Catching him by surprise with my poison will only work once, after that he'll not fall for the same trick so I'll just get beat even harder... What to do?"
As I was talking to myself, I slowly lifted myself up off the ground, and made my way to the lunch room. Even if I was injured, I couldn't afford to not eat, as not getting enough nutrients would only stunt my growth longer. I needed to begin to live a healthy life. This body had been abused for so long by drugs and alcohol, that I wasn't sure how much longer I would have if I didn't change things immediately.
Walking into the cafeteria, a lot of people looked at me and began gossiping among themselves. Although I tried to shut them out, I inevitably heard their mocking comments.
"Looks like Gideon Alabaster finally got what he deserves."
"Tch. Someone should have done it sooner in my opinion! I don't know how they let that trash walk around."
These kind of comments were everywhere, followed by laughter and jokes. I even heard upperclassmen sharing the same sentiments, and realized that there really wasn't anyone on my side at the academy.
'Whatever... I don't need these kind of people as allies.'
I sat down and began to eat my lunch. I was still in pain, but there was also the small pang of injustice that I felt inside.
'They... don't even know me. It isn't even my past yet I'm getting inconvenienced by it, and deemed as deserving of the beating..'
Alan walked by with a few other students, and as he walked by he spit in my food. He laughed and stole my fork out of my hands. Using it to mix his spit into the rest of my food. I didn't even bother looking at him, instead I was glancing around at the rest of the students, but as suspected they were holding back their snickers.
Alan threw my fork onto the ground and walked off laughing with his posse. I sat still for a moment, before deciding to just eat eat the food he didn't spit in. It was at this moment that I began to feel truly aggrieved.
If no one was going to help me, that meant I had to help myself, and I was capable of a much more ruthless retaliation than others. I would show them what it means to mess with me.
****
I had quickly finished my lunch, since I didn't want to be in the cafeteria wasting my time for no reason, and was currently back in the classroom. I was the only one in the classroom, which was fine for me because it allowed me to focus on what I was trying to do.
I was currently meditating with my eyes closed, and slowly feeling my way around my body with my mana. The point of this was to establish a better feel for controlling my mana. I had realized that if I could control my mana output I would be able to gain the most from my mask. The gas mask was an incredible relic, but I didn't have time to slowly build my strength comfortably. I had to use it the way it was intended, and that meant being hard on myself.
If I was previously limiting my output to 10%, I was now pushing my mana to about 30% of the limit of what I could take, and the effects were much more pronounced. I hadn't immediately passed out, but I felt my entire body go numb. My head hit the desk hard, and I was only able to keep my consciousness for another couple minutes before I finally passed out.
****
"Ms. Redzigan, I heard you had that troublemaker Gideon Alabaster put into your class today? That must have been a headache to deal with."
A tall blonde woman was walking alongside a shorter man, while on their way to their classrooms. She didn't react much, and kept a cold atmosphere.
"Rumored troublemaker. He kept his head down on his desk the whole morning, but he wasn't sleeping so I can't really claim he wasn't paying attention. However..."
"Hm? However?"
Redzigan stopped as they arrived just outside a classroom door, and turned to the male teacher.
"However, I feel like he is hiding his true colors, and that is always more worrying than someone who is an outright problem... Anyways, I have to organize my schedule for the afternoon, but thank you for walking with my Mr. Weisse."
The man was smiling brightly at the woman's simple thanks.
"Haha, no need to thank me I just enjoyed spending time with you! Well, if you'll excuse me then, I should plan for the rest of my day as well."
He then walked off with a spring in his step, but Redzigan ignored him completely.
Weisse was the son of a viscount of a nearby territory. He had been spending a lot of time trying to win Ms. Redzigan's favor, however she just thought it was burdensome. To not cause problems, she just allowed it, but drew clear lines. She never did anything unprofessional, and strictly spoke of work.
She opened the door to the classroom, and began to walk towards her desk in the corner, when she noticed a student was already inside. Immediately recognizing the black hair, she called out to the student.
"Mr. Alabaster."
However there was no response. Wondering if he might be sleeping, she walked up the stairs, with her heels clicking the ground as she walked.
When she arrived next to him, she noticed a few details.
'His clothes are dirty. Did he get into a fight?'
However when she looked at his knuckles, she noticed there was a lack of any sign of hitting anything. Instead, she noticed a small blotch of blood on his sleeve, and felt she had to investigate further to figure out if he was hurt or if he hurt someone else.
She reached down and unclasped the mask he was wearing. Many students came with various artifacts or trinkets given by their families, so him having a mask wasn't worth questioning. Although she felt his mask was of exceptional quality, it didn't give off any mana signatures, so she figured it was purely decorative.
However that preconception was shattered as the moment the mask fell from his face, a cloud of green gas escaped the inside of the mask. Redzigan immediately covered her nose, and stepped back slightly. Waving off the gas, she took a slight sniff, but that caused her eyes to go wide in shock.
'This is poison! Why is he inhaling poison?'
Reaching down, Redzigan grabbed the mask, and inspected it. The design was incredibly well made, and it was imposing to look at up close. When she turned it over to look inside, she realized that the mask itself didn't produce poison, but instead diluted it. Touching the device, she wasn't able to accurately deduce how it did it, but the item wasn't dangerous by itself.
Instead, she placed the mask back down and looked at it's owner.
'Poison attribute magic... Is he trying to build a resistance to his own magic? That would make sense... Also...'
She walked back to her desk, and began organizing some papers on her desk while looking at Gideon.
'He's definitely smarter than he lets on.'
****
I had woken up to the sound of everyone coming back from lunch. When I woke up I calmly put my mask back on.
'I must have taken it off in my sleep. Well, good news is that 30% doesn't knock me out for more than an hour... Roughly 45 minutes?'
I checked my phone and confirmed I had only been knocked out for a little over 40 minutes. Students had all filled their seats, and our homeroom teacher was already standing behind the podium.
Once everyone took their seats, a gentle bell rang out from a distance, and she began speaking immediately.
"Okay, we're going to head to training center. We will begin with physical training for an hour, before we move onto weapon training. When we get to the training center make sure you change into your training clothes."
Everyone then grabbed their bags and began to filter out of the classroom. As we were leaving, I walked towards the teacher, as I had something to ask. When I approached her, she raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn't react in any other way.
"Hi, uh Ms..."
Seeing me draw a blank, she finally spoke.
"I haven't introduced myself. I am Ms. Redzigan, your homeroom teacher. What do you need Mr. Alabaster?"
"Hello Ms. Redzigan, I wanted to ask about the training clothes? I wasn't given any yesterday when I went to the wardrobe room."
Nodding Redzigan stood up and began walking towards the door. Hurriedly I followed behind her.
"Training clothes are given at the training center. You just need to fill out a form and they'll give you a few sets of clothes. Make sure you bring at least one change of training clothes everyday."
"Okay, thank you."
Redzigan gave me a sideways glance, but didn't say anything else.
'She doesn't seem to like me much. Whatever.'
I walked silently alongside Redzigan. Unknowingly, I avoided Alan's plan to harass me on the way to the training center.
****
After running for almost an hour, Redzigan called for us to stop and we moved to a separate room. Inside this room there were sparring dummies, weapon racks with training weapons, and there was even an area to spar each other in.
Next to the central room, there were individual training rooms, where you could practice in private. These rooms were also equipped with magic sparring dummies, which were autonomous and were perfect for simulating combat.
Some people walked into the private rooms, but most of the class stayed out in the center room. Multiple instructors entered from different doors, and students began to gather around them. As I was watching, trying to figure out what was going on, a cold female voice sounded next to me.
"They are different weapons instructors."
I jumped as I turned to face the voice. It was Redzigan. She raised an eyebrow at me, before gesturing towards the weapon rack.
"What weapon do you use?"
I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.
"I have never used one before..."
"Hmm.."
Redzigan gestured for me to follow her. I walked behind her to the weapon racks, and she turned to look at me. After a moment of looking at me, she turned to point at the various weapons, explaining how I should choose.
"You don't look like someone who relies on brute strength, so look towards using a finesse weapon, or something that can be tricky to fight against... Wait."
She walked over to a separate weapon rack, and grabbed two daggers. Turning, she tossed them to me, and I just barely managed to catch them.
I held the two daggers in my hand, and thought about it.
'This isn't a terrible idea? Daggers are really scary because they can fit in tight gaps of armor, and if I can even get a single scratch on someone I can poison them. Later, mixed with maybe a gun, I could make up for the lack of range daggers have.'
I looked up at Redzigan, after having made the decision that would influence the rest of my life, and looked her in the eyes.
"Who do I need to talk to, to learn how to use them?"
Showing an inkling of a smirk, Redzigan walked towards the door we initially entered from, and I confusedly followed her. We made our way back to the running track. She then turned towards me.
"The single most important thing for a close range fighter is stamina. Start running, Mr. Alabaster."
I almost looked at her with a look of horror, but I kept it hidden. To a certain extent, I agreed with her statement that my stamina would be the biggest limiting factor for me right now, but that didn't mean I liked it.
Begrudgingly, I began to jog along the track, again.
Today would turn out to be one of many long days of PT.
****
When the class ended, I was finally free from my torment, which came at a great relief to me. While I could have stopped at any time, I didn't want to deny myself the opportunity to better myself. If I had told myself that it was okay to stop, while true, it would not be doing me any favors.
So instead of letting myself quit, I pushed myself even harder, which made me feel better about the fatigue I felt. As I was out of breath, I joined up with the rest of the students while we sat in front of Redzigan, who was going to teach us magic.
"Today we will start with a new exercise for improving our mana control. I want you all to start by using Ball of Light, and to improve your control I want you to change the size of it until your mana depletes. You want to aim for going biggest you can, to smallest you can make it, at least six times each. After that I would like you all to practice Magic Missile for a while, but if you're aware of your attribute type feel free to practice a different spell."
While everyone else spread out and began to practice, I walked up to Redzigan and asked for her guidance. I knew how to manipulate my mana in the most basic way, but I knew this was vastly different than casting a spell.
"There are steps to follow when you are casting a spell. The first is moving the mana from your body, outwards, and can be the hardest part for someone to learn. Not enough mana the spell won't cast. Too much and the spell could overload. After you learn how much mana you need to successfully cast the spell, you need to learn to visualize the spell."
She then manipulated her mana and created a small sphere of mana that floated above her hand.
"Without visualizing a ball, your mana would simply disperse. Manifesting your mana required creativity and control. After visualizing the spell, you have to move onto manifestation. This is where your intent has to be clear. The difference can be whether you get a bright light, or a weak one."
With that the ball in her hand suddenly lit up, like a light bulb being turned on. She then closed her hand, and the light dispersed.
"Now, since this is your first time using a spell, it will take some time to get used to it. By the way..."
I looked up from my hand where I was imagining a ball floating above, and looked at Redzigan who suddenly stopped talking.
"Do you happen to have an attribute? If you do there are different spells you could learn depending on the attribute."
I tilted my head in contemplation for a moment.
'I already decided that telling them might be beneficial, so there isn't any reason to even keep it a secret.'
"Yes, I have a poison attribute."
Redzigan didn't show much change in her expression, which made me think poison wasn't very impressive, but I didn't let that bother me. I had the attribute I had. I didn't have much of a choice.
"I'll try and get you a basic spell tome. There is also a well known book store in the capital, where you could look yourself."
I was about to say that I didn't have any money, since I was basically already disowned by my family, when I was interrupted.
[Mission!]
[Investigate the book store in the capital.]
[Reward: 1 Basic Spell Tome - Poison, 10 RP]
I smiled lightly, which caused Redzigan to look confused, and asked.
"What's the name of the bookstore?"
****
"How is distribution going?"
"It is proceeding smoothly. Once enough tomes are in rotation we will be be able to proceed to phase two."
A man in a dragon mask walked over to another man in the same mask, and patted him on the shoulder.
"Make sure there are no mistakes. The Almighty One would be incredibly displeased."
Shivering, the second man lowered his head, and nodded vigorously.