After reading the entire book, neither Katherine nor Sophia had come back to open the door.
With no way of telling time besides the sun, which had barely moved at all, Alex was getting a little bored.
The sun was still relatively bright, shining through the porch, which was perfectly angled in front of him.
"There has to be another way to get inside."
Alex quickly got up from the porch and started looking for a way to get inside.
The window was off the table, as it was completely locked, just like the door.
So he headed towards the side of the house, only to face a fully blocked wooden fence that was almost double his height.
"I can climb this... Can I?"
After thinking for a bit, Alex quickly threw his back over the fence before taking a few steps back.
With a running start, he jumped as soon as his hand touched the fence, allowing him to latch on to the top.
However, his muscle strength didn't allow him to pull himself up just by using his arms and hands.
So he started kicking his feet against the fence, trying to jump off of it to reach even higher.
The back-and-forth lasted for less than a minute, as Alex eventually had one of his legs pass to the other side.
Jumping down to his backpack, he had finally made it into the house's backyard.
"Please don't be locked."
Alex started praying as he headed towards the backdoor of the house with his backpack.
As he arrived at the backyard, he nervously moved his hand towards the backdoor.
Fortunately, it opened as he walked straight into the house's storage room.
Closing the door behind him, Alex began heading to the living room before sitting down on the sofa.
"Thank god the backdoor isn't close... But why would it not be locked?"
The question eluded Alex as he just couldn't find a reason other than Katherine forgetting about it. Explore stories on m,v l'e-novelhall.net
However, knowing how paranoid she had been about locking the door, it just seemed unlikely that she would forget about it.
"What do I do now?"
Alex wondered as he didn't really feel particularly sleepy, nor did he want to read anything.
"Maybe I should just meditate..."
Not wasting any more time, Alex closed his eyes before entering into meditation.
However, after meditating for just thirty minutes, he suddenly felt the urge to go to sleep.
So he headed straight to his bedroom before changing into his pajamas and lying down on the bed.
"Stupid period..."
---
Meanwhile, all the way back at the school's training center.
As Sophia and Mary walked along with their four friends, they noticed that even more people than usual were lining up for the arena challenges.
It was almost as if everyone was trying to get a better score for this year's graduation status.
"This room is so much more mana than a level one room," Camille murmured as she waited for the other to finish.
With ten minutes going by, Luna was next, followed by Evelyn, who seemed satisfied with her result.
"I can feel I'm so close to level two now..." Evelyn whispered as the three sat in the corner.
"Same... I'm just at the barrier at this point. Within this week, I'm going to get to level two."
Seeing the two making massive progress, Camille remained silent as she was only two-thirds of the way there.
"Camille, you good?" Evelyn quietly asked after noticing her not speaking up at all.
"Yeah, I'm fine... I was just wondering when they will be finished with their meditation."
"Probably like 30 more minutes or so. There's no way they can mediate for another hour without burning out."
"How about we make a bet?" Luna's suggestion caught both Evelyn and Camille's attention.
"What kind of bet?" Camille curiously asked.
"Who's going to exit meditation first? Chloe or Sophia? Whoever gets it wrong needs to wash the dishes," Luna explained.
"Has to be Chloe. She's an elf, after all. She should have an advantage in this." Camille declared.
"I'm going to bet on Sophia... She's had been climbing at a rapid pace ever since that competition." Evelyn quietly stated.
"Okay then... Let's see who wins."
As the three waited in silence, Luqing had been sitting on the grass with her eyes closed.
Even though she wasn't meditating or anything, her mind was still very preoccupied.
"How should I teach those teachers?" Luqing wondered, knowing she couldn't just teach them the lesson.
Considering that many students in her class questioned its purpose, she could already imagine other classes being even worse.
Not to mention, the school principal clearly implied that one teacher like Amy would teach both classes.
"Oh, look! Sophia was the first one to open her eyes."
Camille's whispers made Luqing open her eyes back up as Sophia stood up from the ground and headed towards them.
"What are you guys doing sitting here in the corner?" Sophia curiously asked.
"Don't worry about it. It looks like you're washing the dishes this week," Camille happily said as Evelyn looked a little down.
"Whatever..."
As the four waited patiently, they were all surprised when Chloe was the next one to exit mediation.
Mary was the last one, still meditating in place as Chloe began walking towards the four.
"How's your guys progress?" Chloe quietly asked as she went over to sit down next to Camille.
"Pretty good... Look like neither of us won," Evelyn replied, her face looking a little happy that Mary won.
"That doesn't count. We only bet on Sophia and Chloe, not Mary." Camille immediately argued back.
"What are you two talking about? What counting?" Sophia curiously asked as she walked over to the four of them.
"Yeah, what counting?" Chloe asked, looking a little curious as well towards the three.
"N-Nothing. Don't worry about it."
Luna quickly replied, her face panicking a little as she didn't want to be responsible for it.