“It’s Riverine. Ken Riverine.”
The first-year left the scene after stating out his name ever so proudly. Only then did the seniors get to know why this greenhorn was daring to cross with them with so much confidence. He was from the house of an Earl. Most of the seniors started regretting jeering at the guy. What if uses his mighty house’s power to mess with them?
But not all the seniors thought like this. Especially not the guy who was the last one to speak to “Ken”. He spoke out after “Ken” left and gave some assurance to the senior students around him.
“This Ken is a fool if he thinks his family name can safeguard him inside the academy. LA is the sole judge, jury, and executioner on the academy grounds. As for the outside threats coming from the house of Riverine, my family will manage them.
Name’s Roody Orton.
My family is only a viscount for now. But my father serves in the royal court. He is enough to prevent the house of Riverine from acting out as long as we don’t kill the guy.
Maybe the kid would realize his mistake later in the day after carefully thinking about it. We’ll give him some time to do just that. But we’ll make sure to make a better man out of him if he doesn’t listen.
A few of us need to be looking out for Ken tomorrow at this place if he decides to show up and pull the same stunt he pulled today. If he does that… I swear to all the things I hold dear, I’ll fo*ck him up to six ways to Sunday!”
Roody assured the crowd with his name before declaring his stance. The students overcame their fear due to that and realized this was indeed LA grounds. There was no king or slave among them. They had seen the rich kids struggle the same as them in this academy. And Orton’s family was there to take care of the outside threat.
Of course, most of the senior students didn’t believe that Roody would uphold his promise once he took care of Ken. They needed to publicize the matter between Roody and Ken to make him accountable. The senior students had decided to blame everything on Roody for whatever happened to Ken. a silent agreement was passed within the crowd.
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Unknown to all this, the ‘protagonist’, the real Ken Riverine, was going to come tomorrow to accept the same type of missions Eren had accepted. And then he’d get caught in a mess Eren had created for him.
Ken had accepted the same type of missions in the previous timeline. But he was aware of the unwritten rule. He didn’t like to disrespect his seniors so he had only accepted the half of missions that Eren had accepted in number. Plus, he didn’t act this rudely to his seniors when he was confronted by them.
So the repercussions Ken faced in his previous timeline were lighter in nature. They became a driving force for him to improve himself and beat the same seniors in inter-year battles eventually, making his name known across the students of all years.
But this time, “Ken” had taken almost all the sweet-pie missions and dissed his seniors horrendously. Only time would tell what his state would be after this timeline’s repercussions befall him.
****************
The fake Ken found another facility and restroom inside it to change into his original form. Reen returned to being his neck pendant. Only then did Eren who also looked like Eren make his way towards another facility.
Eren was no fan of having an entourage of senior students hindering him while he roamed the forest to complete his missions. He had the protagonist shoulder all his burdens like a good guy he was.
Although the senior students might realize the guy who dissed them and the real Ken were two different guys later down the line, a rift would have been formed between them and the house of Riverine. Both sides would get too busy within themselves against their will to care about any other first-year after that. Just as what happened in the previous timeline.
This timeline’s outcome was going to be the same as the previous timeline’s. Only its severity had been altered. And Eren had intercepted the process in the middle and took all the benefits for himself.
Whatever happened to Ken or the senior students after his actions weren’t Eren’s headache. He was in a hurry to collect more merit points for himself so that he could use them all in one go during a particular event.
Eren found the building he was looking for. It was named Novice’s Treasury. It was kinda a sacred place for all the F-Rank students. It contained all the ranking techniques and spells the academy had to offer for all the Novice rankers.
Eren was here to get his hands on the most basic lightning-element spells. He didn’t need them for his missions inside the sanctuary because he had Reen. But the entry of his acceptance of spells was needed in case Besanc checked his pre-mission battle status.
The butcher was going to hold on to get a ranking technique. Even the lowest of a lightning element ranking technique would cost him a lot in merit points. But the real issue wasn’t just the wastage of merit points.
Eren knew he was going to get his hands on a better ranking technique within a week. Why would he even start practising a ranking technique for a few days only to abandon it and make all the efforts go to vain?
Of course, not having a ranking technique was going to affect Eren’s post-battle recovery. But that was something he could manage somehow. He just needed to make sure that he doesn’t engage in a situation that he can’t deal with quickly. If everything fails, he still has Reen who he will call forth only as a last resort.
Eren found himself in front of another counter. The receptionist was a male. Eren asked him about the lightning element spells in F-Rank with each of them having a cap of 100 merit points. The latter sent him a list on his spectral screen in response.
[F-Rank Spells.
Filtered out by the cap of 100 Merit points and arranged in descending order:
Blitz Steps (Three-star)- 100 Merit Points
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XX (XX)- 100 Merit Points
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Blitzortung (Two-star)- 100 Merit Points
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XX (XX)- 89 Merit Points
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Rayo (Two-star)- 87 Points
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XX (XX)- 89 Merit Points
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Blitzstrom (Three-star)- 85 Points
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.XX (XX)- XX
Eren had zeroed in on spells named Blitz Steps, Blitzortung, Rayo, and Blitzstrom. They would collectively cost him 461 merit points that would get taken out from his current balance of 1000 merit points.
Blitz steps was a movement type spell. It would make Eren’s feet get surrounded by tongues of lightning and increase his speed after he channelled his mana in a specific way.
Blitzortung was a defence-type spell. Meant to be deployed at crucial times. It would create a layer of lightning around Eren that would last for a few seconds before disappearing.
Rayo was a solo attack spell meant for close combat style. It would generate a slim rod of lightning from Eren’s index finger that would have a high penetrating power.
And finally Blitzstrom. It was an AoE spell meant to be released when the user gets surrounded by enemies from all sides. It would generate untamed lightning streams that would wreak havoc around the area with Eren in the centre.
Eren had covered his basic needs of movement, defence, attack, and AoE with these spells.