I reached the Lecture Hall about ten minutes before 9:00 AM, the designated time for homeroom to commence.
It was, as I already expected, nearly empty. Students had already started slacking off a little, and considering the fact that the lecturer was quite late yesterday, not many wanted to arrive too early.
Still, I surmised that a majority would arrive before Homeroom started.
“Huu…” I made myself comfortable in my usual seat stationed at the forefront of everyone else.
My head fell on my desk and I closed my eyes to have a little rest. The slight exhaustion built up from yesterday still lingered, albeit barely.
Just like yesterday, no one dared to seat anywhere remotely close to me, on either the right or left side of the seats. In a way, it was perfect. Though it meant making friends would be a lot tougher and I could become a social enigma. Still—
‘I could get used to this.’
Unfortunately, my thoughts didn’t last for too long.
HUMMP
I felt a sound coming from just a small distance from me. If I wasn’t so perceptive, I could have ignored it. However, this sound was akin to someone having their seat, and it was so close.
My head mechanically turned and I opened my eyes, gazing upon who decided to have their seats close to me.
‘W-what the-?!’ My tired eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as the person’s image burned into them.
Edward Karl Leon—that was the person who sat a few seats from me.
I quickly contained my shock and looked away, returning my head to my desk as though I noticed nothing. Many thoughts ran through my mind, but the most prominent of them was… WHY?
I achieved an overhelming victory against him yesterday, I allegedly slandered the Martial Arts he practiced and even embarrassed him in front of so many students. He was meant to avoid me like a plague and we would simply ignore each other.
Why, then, did he take the initiative to sit where no one else dared to and choose the right section of the two divides—the exact place I chose?!
‘Is he trying to start something again?’
Well, he did seem like a persistent person. Perhaps he hadn’t accepted his loss back then. I was conflicted about what to think.
‘His eyes back then, though… I was certain I won over his spirit…’
Sighing to myself, I brushed aside those thoughts and concluded that I was simply overreacting. The boy had said nothing to me so there was no need to conclude that he was specifically targeting me.
‘Maybe he wants to be a model student and achieve total concentration…’
Giving that excuse to myself, I ignored the gnawing unease within me.
There were other things to consider so it didn’t take long for my mind to wander away from the boy beside me.
First was the advancement of my three cores. While they were strengthened to the point of rivaling Yellow Core Grades, there was still a limit to how much growth I could achieve using a White Core.
‘Should I begin advancing the other cores to Yellow now?’ The thought weighed heavily on my mind.
Of course, I would leave my base core untampered with and focus on the two others. Well, that was one way to go about it. The second would be to focus on making more cores and distributing them to other areas in my body to further strengthen it.
There was a limit to how many I could handle, but having more cores was guaranteed to boost my abilities by several folds.
‘If I advance all but my main core to Yellow, I won’t be able to quickly form other cores since only the main core will bear the burden…’
In contrast, leaving the cores white allowed me to share the burdens with all three and quicken the process. The problem, however, was specialization.
The reason Grade Cores changed color was due to an increase in mana and specialization. The higher one achieved in their Mana Core Grade, the more intense their specialization would be.
As I currently was, I couldn’t use anything but basic magic—a jack of all trades and master of none.
Advanced magic was out of the option without having a more solid Core Grade. That meant I couldn’t remain a white Core forever… at least for my other Mana Cores.
The second issue that bothered me was related to my duel yesterday. The poor state of Martial Arts in the world, as well as the crude movements Edward made that seemed to pass as a style according to a particular School.
‘I’ll need to learn more about modern Martial Arts.’
There were also issues relating to alchemy and potion manufacturing, so I needed to retrieve more plants and get new types that I didn’t pluck yesterday.
‘Ah, so much to do…’
Our Lecturer arrived in the hall and every student arose. I noticed his entry and followed suit.
“Good to see you, students. Have your seats… homeroom begins.”
***************************
After homeroom—where Neron Kaelid emphasized the upcoming events and also advised us concerning the use of the Library and other school facilities— our dear Lecturer took his leave and gave us enough time to prepare for the first Lecture.
Our first course for today was a General one, which meant every student would be in attendance. After that, it would be Specialized all through the day… not counting Electives.
A thought flashed in my mind as Neron left, but I decided to ignore it. Our Lecturer must have intended to tell us during his time in the first course—where we would be having our Specialized Courses.
There was no mention of a location on our respective brochures—the documents Neron gave us yesterday concerning our courses and the time. It made me curious as to why he hadn’t mentioned it yet.
In the meantime, I felt more uncomfortable the longer I spent in my seat. Why? Because I could feel a gaze always shifting to me at several intervals.
‘I can’t take this anymore!’