Chapter 116 Augh . . . I Don’t Want To Be Here, But . . .

Looking at the bracelet, I pressed it, and it showed my altered stat and information.

Wait . . . +2 STR and +10 INT?

Who would believe that number after my stay here for almost a month? At least make it in the twenties.

"Cross!"

Thomas ran to me while stumbling on his feet.

Panting, he said, "Whew. I thought I would never make it with ten INT and two STR.

". . . Uhm . . . You're a White Mage, right?" I asked.

Thomas readily nodded before he scratched his head in embarrassment. "Yes. I don't have any attack spells with me, yet. So . . . my weak stat."

I guess the jokes were on me.

His face then brightened. "How about you, Cross?"

"Ah . . ." I looked away. "My stats are the same as yours too."

Thomas blinked. "Oh, so you're a White Mage like me too?"

I scratched my nose. "That's . . . I'm a . . . Black Mage?"

". . ." Thomas blinked before he patted me on the back. "It's fine, Cross. We can work on our stat together if you like. I can heal you while you burn some beasts or something."

I forced a smile. He was a nice kid. And I didn't want to see his head rolling on the floor in the future, so I had to maintain my distance.

"By the way? There's a map in here," Thomas said as he pressed the bracelet on his hand. "It showed our dorm as well. What room are you in?"

I pressed my bracelet again. "It showed here that I'm in Room 207."

"Me too!" Thomas's eyes widened. "I guess we're really destined to be friends."

. . . Friends . . . I like the sound of that, but I was afraid that the friendship would turn into a tragedy in the end.

My thoughts were disturbed when Thomas nudged my robe. "Hey, look at that. She's so beautiful. Is she a player like us, too?"

Looking at where he pointed, I saw Amara once more walking on the corridor with her entourage. I think the class was over for her.

Come to think of it. My other self used [Evil Eyes] before, so he must have noticed Amara here. But since he wasn't interested in the woman, Amara might not have stayed in his mind, and thus, me not knowing that she was here.

I didn't know if my other self loosing interest with Amara was a good thing or a bad thing.

<A good thing, of course! Evil Host could break her heart anytime he wanted!>

". . ."

I looked back at Thomas. He had a big grin plastered on his face. "She's hot!"

"Well, yeah."

"Oh, look who's here."

We heard someone say from behind, and we looked over at where the voice came from.

Egh . . . it was Edie, Ben, and Jo.

Great.

I was expecting that they would get back at me for what my other self did with them, but they all flicked their attention at Thomas instead.

"So you made it here, twerp?" Edie huffed a condescending laugh. "We thought that you've got eaten by the beasts."

Thomas only shrunk under their gazes.

"He must have leeched off other players," Ben chuckled.

"I'm amazed that he even made it this far," Jo added.

Before the three looked over at me and their frown deepened.

"So you've enrolled here, after all," Edie said at me and sneered. "Watch your back. The restaurant is far from here."

". . ." I didn't know what the restaurant got to do with anything, though.

"Watch out, twerp," Ben spat before they passed by and bumped Thomas against his shoulder.

"I, for one, am glad that he is here. We have an errand boy again." Jo laughed.

And their laughter boomed even after they went away.

It was like watching those popular bully movies.

"You know them?" I asked Thomas, who was shaking at the side with eyes wide and red veins crawling on his pupils.

It seemed like he was really traumatized.

Thomas flinched at my voice before his shoulders slumped like he got deflated.

"Yeah. I know them." He sighed like the world was ending. "I was in their group before, but I was left out of EXP and gil."

"So you healed them without anything in return?"

Thomas sadly nodded. "Yeah. They said that to be in their group, I had to heal them without anything in return. At that time, I had no choice since I was all alone, and this world was so scary."

"So that's why you didn't level up."

Thomas nodded. "They left me, though. We were cornered, and they used me as cannon fodder."

"T-that . . . that's terrible." I suddenly thought of Jane pushing me into Minion 0 before while I was saving her.

Bad times.

"A good thing that another group passed, and they saved me just in time. But they refused to let me in since they didn't want to share their EXP and gil, and they already have a white mage with them."

"So you've been traveling on your own ever since?"

Thomas nodded. "A kind NPC from a village near here took me in during the Blood Rain. And if it wasn't for her, I would not be here right now."

Whoa . . . there's an inhabitant like that?

Thomas took a deep breath. "I didn't know that they're still here. I thought that they were already gone since it's almost like three weeks since we last saw each other."

Ugh . . . Thomas was so down, but I didn't know what to say.

I was not a man for comfort.

And I was starting to realize that this idea of enrolling here was a bad move on my part. Edie and his friends were here, and that Edgar guy was an instructor here to boot.

But in the first place, I didn't want to be here . . . it was all because of . . .

I looked over at Amara, and she seemed like she was going towards the girl's dorms.

The boy's and girl's dorms were in the same direction, though different buildings.

I took a deep breath and blasted it over the sky.

It was all her fault.

I blamed her but I blamed myself more for being an idiot and stepping into that magic circle.

And even if I wanted to leave, now I couldn't. Amara was here, and whether I liked it or not, I was drawn to her. I wanted to make sure that she was fine here, and that after she graduates, I'll go on my way too. I kept telling myself that excuse.

"Let's go and settle in the dorms," Thomas said, and he began to walk towards where Amara was.

We were in the wide courtyard, and Amara and her entourage were climbing down the stairs, and we would definitely meet halfway in the courtyard, and we would mostly be going to the dorms at the same time.

I followed Thomas while holding my breath. With each step we took closer to Amara, I became more nervous. It was because I didn't know what to say or how to approach her. The only time I talked to her was in grade school, and even then, I couldn't remember much.

It was such a long time, and she made it clear that she didn't remember me anymore, as evident by our first encounter in this world.

But maybe this time . . .

<Host, can attract her attention if you take that Handsome Elixir. You have enough points for it now. And once she falls head over heels in love with you, you can break her heart and fulfill one of the main quests! Killing two birds with one stone!>

I was more inclined to buy an item that would shut you up no matter how expensive it was.

<Error!>

I didn't argue with the system anymore as Amara and my paths were about to cross. And when our eyes met, her bright blue eyes were blank. There was no recognition in her eyes nor emotion on her face.

Like always, she was walking with her head held high and a confident strut that was enough to repel anyone a few meters back.

She had the right to be confident and prideful. I thought as I checked her stat again.

She was a White Mage, but her INT was already in the seventy. What's more, she had a unique spell that others didn't have.

[Reverse Heal], an AoE spell that dealt damage to her enemies based on her INT.

I think she was the only White Mage I knew that had an attack spell this early on. And with an INT like that, I knew she was one of the BUG players, and I knew that a lot of Kingdoms were going to fight for her.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)