Inside the shower, Mark relished in the respite. The water temperature was absolutely perfect—the showers were even better than Earth. Magic was just so great.
'Wish I could actually use magic. Gotta study a lot, unfortunately.'
He stepped out of the shower and dried himself off with a towel. His entire upper body was sore.
Mark had made sure to hit every single muscle group in his upper body till failure. But if he really wanted Strength that bad, why did he skip his core and legs?
'Stupid question.'
Wrapping the towel around his waist, he stood in the mirror to check himself out.
From his experience in the gym, it appeared that his physical fitness was the same as before his transmigration.
'Pretty good pump going…'
However, after that workout, he had already surpassed his previous physical peak.
When his Strength reached 1, it was as if he got a second wind mid-workout. Even with just one point, Mark could already handle a bigger load in the gym.
'Pause.'
…
'Status.'
┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐
Name: Mark di Abbott
Age: 18
Race: Human
Class: Shredder of Weave
Title: End's Apostle
[Level: 4] Novice
◄ Strength: 2 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►+10
◄ Vigor: 0 - ◆─◆─◆─◇─◇ ► +2
◄ Insight: 0 - ◆─◆─◆─◆─◇ ► +3
◄ Dexterity: 1 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ► +4
◄ Intelligence: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇►
◄ Arcane: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►
◄ Faith: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►
◄ Charisma: 1 - ◆─◆─◆─◆─◇ ► +4
◄ Luck: 0 - ◆─◆─◇─◇─◇ ► +1
➥Unallocated Shards: 25
◃───***Skills***───▹
Skill: Hidden Hand → Grade: F
◃───***Arts***───▹
◃───***Affinities***───▹
◃───***Items***───▹
└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘
'Still at a pretty slow pace with my stats overall, but saving on 10 Strength Shards is still great value.'
Losing out on the Bolstered Core hurt even more now.
One point in Dexterity improved the swiftness of his arm movements—though this could've just been a placebo.
Mark also noticed his Charisma had gone up by 4 Shards, though he had no idea why.
After the Emergency Quest, he gained 2 Shards in Charisma as well. He hadn't interacted with anyone.
It seemed as though no one really noticed Mark when he walked. As such, he was reasonably perplexed at the boost to his Charisma, but any growth was welcome.
As for Vigor and Dexterity, they were both physical stats and probably side effects of his workout and his earlier fight with that Straw Ridge crook.
Insight was typically leveled by finding objects and quickly responding to one's senses.
'Pretty vague, right? It could be any number of things, but I would guess it was also from my fight with the crook, especially with the dark.'
And the Luck stat was a complete troll. Intangible effects combined with intangible methods of growing it. Luck appeared like a redundant stat.
Which was what set off Mark's ape brain.
'What if I put all the present and future quest Shards into Luck?'
He imagined himself in a duel with William, his fancy sword swings all missing without Mark having to lift a finger. Fate would be his mistress.
But reality hit. He disliked the possibility of such a plan failing. Surefire and steady would be the way to go.
All of this was great, but Mark had some big issues ahead of him.
Meeting the main cast—or lack thereof—along with the obnoxious curriculum of Class 1-A
If he remembered correctly, the first day in the novel was quite eventful, boasting rankings, ego stroking, and immediate classwork. And this classwork was much more physically demanding than the classwork he was used to.
Mark was not looking forward to the mind-melting mush of real academia, but it was a challenge he could tackle.
Speaking of rankings, couldn't he check his?
'Probably should've done this earlier…'
As he got dressed and began brushing his teeth for bed, Mark checked his watch for additional information.
===================
User: Mark di Abbott
First-year Initial Ranking: 100th out of 300
→ Full Rankings
===================
'The bare minimum for me to qualify for Class 1-A, but any normal Extra would be placed in 2-A or 3-A with this placement. I assumed I would be top 50… guess End did the absolute bare minimum.'
The 'Full Rankings' option caught Mark's eye. When he tapped on the projection and began reading, he nearly spit out his toothpaste.
===================
First-year Initial Rankings:
1st: Lucas Raymond
2nd: Ranni Luikots
3rd: Valeria Sarr
4th: Ronald Montour
5th: Natalia Cristall
…
…
…
49th: Zac Cristall
…
…
100th: Mark Abbott
===================
'What? Where the hell is William von Westergard…?'
Mark continued to scroll down through the first years, even going through the Second-year and Third-year rankings.
But William was nowhere to be found. It was as if he never attended the school. As if he didn't belong.
Aside from William, there were more surprises.
The names were all familiar but still different from the main cast that Mark was familiar with.
'Are the first names changed? I recognize Raymond, that's the royal family, no? Luikots is from the Mother's Apostle, and Cristall is the Traveler's Apostle. Sarr and Montour must be lower aristocrats. But the first names are all changed from the original novel. Gender seems relatively the same...'
Mark's best guess was that—just like how Kalé's character was changed—every single character in this world had been altered from the novel.
The only ones that remained the same were the Gods. As for the reason why, he could only guess that it was because they were vital parts of the world.
Though William's name was the same, the reason he was entirely different was due to some alternate shenanigans—either transmigration or regression.
'That actually makes things much easier. It would be best to stay away from William and focus on strengthening myself before he gaps me more than he already has.'
At this rate, Mark would probably need to take some drastic actions in the future.
Finally spitting his toothpaste out and getting dressed for the night, Mark went to bed on an empty stomach.
***
"Vice Principal Everett,"
The worried man's voice filled the silent office, the only other source of sound being the scribbling of the pen upon a mountain of paperwork.
Professor Everett had long black hair with white highlights tied neatly in a braided bun. Two white, wavy wisps of hair flowed down her face, accentuating her mature and well-honed facial structure.
Her face was steely; a facade that covered the tired soul behind her black eyes.
She wore a white dress shirt, a black pencil skirt, and a jet-black gem necklace that hung below her collar. Her robust curves popped out to create an alluring figure.
"Yes, Mr. Chesley?" Professor Everett asked, her gaze focused on the paperwork on her desk.
"I went to the Alchemy Lab this afternoon for inventory," Mr. Chesley said, a tinge of irritation leaking through his timid demeanor. "An exceedingly rare but unstudied ingredient was stolen."
"That's worrying. Did you check the watch trackers?"
"I did, but there must have been a bug or interference. It showed that the main campus building was empty."
"What about witnesses? Surely Secretary Hofer saw something,"
"Um… that's the biggest issue. I've deduced the time when the item was stolen, Ms. Hofer had been on break at the time. She hadn't seen anyone. Said she'd only seen about two dozen students come and go the entire day…"
'Fucking union-mandated bullshit…'
Professor Everett set her pen flat against the desk with a deep sigh as she raised her head to meet the timid man's face.
"Security is our number one priority," Professor Everett stated, taking out a special type of paper from her desk and filling it out with trained ease. "Take this to the Investigation Team. Give them your testimony and remind them to obtain the Kriophorus logs along with any students or staff who were near the main building before and after the theft."
"Yes, ma'am," Mr. Chesley said with a nod, taking the paper and exiting the office.
As he gently closed the door, Everett's shoulders sagged as she plopped her head against the desk with a scowl.
"I should've stayed in the Luikots Guild… why the fuck did I ever become a teacher?"