"How does it feel to die?"
Hearing Jun's questions, everyone stopped and turned to waiting for an answer. After all we've gone through, it must've slipped their minds until Jun mentioned it again.
"Y-yeah, how are you even alive?" Amara stuttered "I-i watched you die"
Since she was the closest to me, she must have been terrified watching me lying there, lifeless.
"Well, I kinda unlocked a new skill" I replied, deciding to be honest with them "after I died, my system told me I had met the requirements for the skill".
"What skill?" Jun asked.
"It's a skill called Immortality, It allows me to revive every time I'm killed" I left out the part about being permanently killed if my soul was destroyed and also the part about my stat increase.
"That's so cool!" Jun exclaimed "I've never had an immortal sidekick before"
Again, I never agreed to being your sidekick.
"We're just glad that you're alive" Mia said with a light smile on her face "Just don't go dying again"
I couldn't help but also smile. This is the first time I've felt people show me this much care.
"Yeah, I don't plan to" that was a lie of course, I plan to use Immortality to increase my stat to the max.
When we stepped out of the dungeon and into the forest, that was darker now due to night falling, I was hit by a barrage of system notifications.
[Congratulations on completing the dungeon: Gaia's test]
[You have gained a total of 1000 exp]
[You've leveled up ]
[You've leveled up ]
[You've leveled up ]
[You've leveled up ]
[
[Status:]
Name: Alex
HP: 100/100
MP: 800/800 (1600)
Level: 5
Exp: 70/500
Blessing: Thanatos' Chosen
Stats:
STR: 70 (140)| AGI: 100 (100) | STA: 90 (180) | INT: 100 (100) | END: 100 (200)| LUK: ???
]
[Night blessing is still active]
I had forgotten that our exp gain was withheld until we left the dungeon.
After that level up, I felt like I could take on the golem knight even at its full power. I'm not sure about winning tho but I was confident of not dying to it.
"Ha ha ha, this great sage is finally level 10" Jun interrupted my inner monologue.
Level 10? I still had a long way to go to catch up to the rest.
As it turned out, I was the only one with a single digit level. Amara and Mia were also level 10 like Jun, Blaze was level 12 which was not surprising since he's had more training than most of us.
But the weird thing was, they only leveled up twice while I did four times. Now that might just be because of the higher exp requirements but Jun defeated a golem by himself, so I expected his exp reward to be a lot higher than mine.
"Be on alert everyone" Blaze reminded us "we might be out of the dungeon but we're still inside a portal"
He was right, although we completed one test, there was still another to complete.
Leveling up set the dungeon difficulty from hard to easy. We breezed through the dungeon with relative ease and completed it by the time it was morning again.
"That was easy" Jun spoke as we stepped out of the portal.
We walked out of the portal to see Michael waiting for us and I guess we must be the last ones, since all the other students that entered with us were standing there.
"I guess your class is coming last this year Michael" Luna taunted "your students were the last to come out after all"
"I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions" Michael countered calmly "We're yet to grade then".
Our group walked towards the other students. Some looked exhausted and others looked heartbroken, like they already know what grades they'll have without the teachers telling them.
"Congratulations on completing the test, take a few hours to rest" Michael said "your results will be announced later".
He looked at the big hole in my uniform, clearly curious but he didn't ask any questions for now, allowing me to leave.
We dropped the 'save me' button, since we didn't use it and turned to leave the portal room, heading towards the dorms.
"How about we meet up at the cafe near our hostel in an hour" Mia suggested to which we agreed, Since we had nothing else to do.
Blaze, Jun and I separated from the girls and walked towards the boys dorms, which was in a different building from the girls dorm.
To my surprise Jun's room was a few doors after mine and Blaze's room was just before mine.
I walked into my room, quickly took off my uniform and headed to the bathroom. I stopped to take in my appearance that appeared in the mirror.
I guess the increase in stats did affect my body. My muscles looked more refined now and although they didn't look much bigger than before, I could feel the power they packed.
I turned my attention to my face next, noting the my silver eyes were producing a barely noticeable glow.
(I didn't notice before but I really am handsome)
{Careful, your narcissism is leaking}
(Let me have my moment)
I hurried and took my bath, dressed in the extra uniform I was given and walked out the door to find Blaze and Jun waiting for me.
We heading to the cafe and saved a seat for the girls who arrived 30 minutes later.
"S-so what grade do you think we'll get" Amara asked after we ordered some milkshakes "How are they even going to grade us?"
"I don't know, maybe they have sensors that'll detect and count every beast we defeat" Blaze guessed, although he sounded unsure.
"I'm confident we'll get a high score" Mia said.
We continued talking while enjoying our shakes before we received a notification on our academy badges.
(Wait, this thing was digital all along?)
We were being summoned to the main hall of the academy. I guess they were ready to tell our grades.
I walked with the rest heading to the hall, hoping for a good enough grade, although although we completed the portal I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.