Chapter 8 Working Hard In My Own Way

I woke up <5:32 A.M> of the next day.

I washed my face, ate breakfast, brushed my teeth and took a bath.

I did the same routine I do every morning, the only difference is Yuki accompanying me everytime.

About <6:20 A.M>, I finished preparing for the day. I always take my time taking baths so I can make sure I'm clean.

'I still have more than 4 hours of free time.'

So I decided to train in the training grounds.

I put on my training suit.

But as I was about to go out of my dorm, I looked at Yuki, sitting on my right shoulder.

'Is it okay to bring her out?'

I asked myself internally.

"Nah, other students might steal you because you're too cute."

After contemplating for a while, I decided to leave Yuki in the dorm.

-Kyu! Kyu!

Maybe she know that she was about to be left behind. Yuki started tweeting loudly as if to protest.

I also don't want to leave Yuki alone.

"But I can't hide you while I'm training."

Yuki stopped tweeting and slouched, she was thinking.

I looked at it for a while as she was cute. But I don't want to waste time so I was about to place Yuki down.

But before I was able to completely place her down. She looked at me with twinkling eyes.

-Kyu!

As she tweeted, she got absorbed by the [Ring of Gluttony]. She entered the spatial storage.

"She can do that?"

From my knowledge, living beings can't enter spatial storage, their life forces are needed to be cut first.

'Guess Yuki can do that as she's originally from the ring to begin with.'

"Well, whatever."

I didn't think about it too much as I find it bothersome.

"Well, this works. Let's go."

With this weird skill of her, I can bring Yuki with me.

And with that, I made my way to the training grounds.

***

Arriving at the training grounds.

There are few people in here. Including the main characters and some professors.

I ignored them all and went to the weightlifting area because currently, my physical strength sucks.

'Hey system, what weight should I start with?'

I asked the system as it will be embarrassing to lift something my body can't handle and fail in front of the others.

[Start with 15 kilograms and lift it 10 times. If you think you can still carry—]

"Wait."

I stopped the system's explanation halfway as I thought of something.

[What?]

"I just thought of a better way."

Not waiting for the system's reply. I ran back to my dorm.

Some people in the training grounds looked at me weirdly but I didn't give a shit.

After getting back, I opened my V.D and went to the online shop site. Then I ordered 4 <Training Bracelet>.

It's a man-made bracelet artifact, its weight can be adjusted based on how much mana you pour into it.

I'm not really sure if there's something like this, but this world have very advanced technologies so I thought things like this will definitely exist.

And I was right!

After 10 minutes of waiting and playing with Yuki. I heard a knock on my door.

I opened it, and one of the academy's staff with a package in his arms greeted me.

"A delivery for you."

He said.

"Thank you."

I smiled and took the package. I signed something he handed and gave him 1000 Zeals.

The staff looked at my hand that is handing him the Zeals, then he looked at me in a questioning gaze.

I smiled, with my best effort, and spoke.

"It's a thanks for bringing the item to me safely, it may not be much but please accept it."

Normal academy staffs earns 5000-10,000 Zeals every week so it really doesn't amount much for them, but everyone like free things. And also the thought is what counts is what they say.

1000 Zeals is a small price for a good relationship with an academy staff.

After hearing my words, the staff smiled and took the Zeals I'm handing him.

"Thanks, have a good day."

He said and left satisfied.

Meanwhile, I went back inside the dorm and opened the package, and saw 4 black bracelets inside.

'Each bracelet cost 10,000 Zeals. So I roughly have 90,000 Zeals left in my account and I'm gonna meet with Tyrone 6 days from now.'

'I need more money...'

I wore a bracelet each on my both wrists and ankles. Then I started imbuing mana in them.

I adjusted all of their weights to 20 kilograms.

"It worked!"

I exclaimed excitedly when I felt my whole body getting heavy. Especially my arms and legs.

[Is this your idea?]

The system asked.

Casually looking at the transparent window in the air that I assumed only me can see, I shrugged my shoulders and opened my mouth.

"You can read my thoughts, right?... Staying in one place lifting weights is boring, so I thought of other ways to do it."

[The bracelets needs continuous supply of mana to maintain their weights, what if you ran out of mana in the middle of class and pass out?]

The system asked. I thought for a second before calling Yuki, who is playing all by herself.

She flew towards me and landen on my palm. It's cute.

Shaking the unnecessary thoughts first, I asked Yuki.

"Can you use <Devour> seperately?"

Yuki just tilted her small fluffy head as a reply, she doesn't understand the question, so it took me about 3 minutes to explain things to her. I used the skill in front of her asking if she can do it too.

After understanding my question, Yuki proudly nodded her head.

"Great, try using it."

-Kyu!

Yuki opened her beak and a white vortex-like smoke came out from her opened beaks.

'It's really the <Devour> skill!'

I exclaimed inwardly, I didn't really expect Yuki to do it.

The vortex then absorbed all nearby mana except mine. Then after a while Yuki closed her beak.

She's done. Yuki looked at me with lively eyes.

"Good girl! Now, can you pass the mana to me?"

I asked her. Yuki nodded as a reply.

'She's getting smarter.'

I felt proud. After that, I felt my mana replenished as I didn't consumed a lot of mana anyway.

-Kyu!

Then Yuki tweeted, she's puffing out her chest as if boasting.

I patted her head.

"Good job."

-Kyu!

'Now, I'll bring Yuki to the classroom and have her absorb mana for me time to time to avoid mana exhaustion.'

I thought as I smiled internally.

[You need to work hard.]

The system then appeared again.

"I'm working hard on my own way. You can't just tire yourself out randomly."

I shrugged.

"Now if I run with this bracelets on, I can train my strength, agility and stamina at the same time. And with the continuous usage of mana, my capacity might increase, the same with my mana control."

'And lastly, I wouldn't need to train to the training grounds that's packed with people.'

Just thinking about it sounds tiring.

Anyway, I headed outside the dorm. Yuki got in the spatial storage, I'm not heading to the training grounds. I'm planning to run all over the academy.

"Working hard is good but you need to use your brain too. If you can do something while sitting and produce the same result as doing it while standing, then there's no need to stand right?"

I said to the system, I didn't wait for its reply and started running around the academy.

***

"Haaa... Haaa..."

Rough breathings came out from my mouth.

'The academy is as large as a small city!'

I complained.

I stopped running when it's <9:00 A.M>. I ran for about and hour and half. I didn't even know how far I ran.

[You ran 15005 meters.]

Looks like the system counted.

'I think the academy is about 5000 meters x 5000 meters.'

So I ran all around back and forth of the academy for at least 3 times.

You might think that I ran a lot, but it's just average for ability users like me. But in my case, I'm wearing weights.

While grumbling because of the fatigues I'm feeling, I went to the training grounds. I still have an hour and half before class starts. I don't have anything else to do anyway.

***

As soon as I entered the training grounds I went to the shooting range. There are few people as I assumed most students and professors are getting ready for the classes.

Well, I don't really care.

I ignored all of them and started my own training.

I got pretty used to the speed of difficulty 7 so I started with difficulty 8. I also added targets, now there's 15 moving targets.

With that, I trained my shooting skill for an hour.

After an hour of training. I was covered in sweats.

"<Cleanse>"

So I casted a support magic I learned. It's a spell that removes the sweats and dirts on the target.

After that, I returned to my dorm. I took a bath for about 20 minutes, then put my academy uniform on.

***

I arrived in the classroom 5 minutes before the the class starts.

Almost all of my classmates are here.

I headed to the mid row but now in the left corner. In the right side of classroom was the building's hallway so I can't make Yuki absorb mana there. While in the ln the left side there's a window leading to the outside.

Since It's still the second day, changing seats is common. The owner of the seat you want to change with just need to agree with you.

"Hey, let's change seats."

I said looking at the one sitting beside the window.

The seat owner turned his head to me and was about to yell, but stopped.

Luckily the seat owner is one of the bully yesterday, so everything went pretty smoothly.

"<Cleanse>"

I casted a magic to the seat before sitting.

The only disadvantage of sitting in this spot is that I'm near the main characters.

'But well, why would they care about me?'

"Now, let's just wait for the professor."

I weakly mumbled as I think of how boring the classes yesterday are.

***

[Alec's POV]

Raven entered the room. Because of what happened yesterday I got curious about him and looked up at his name.

Not just me but everyone from the group yesterday. Well, I don't know about Eve.

Anyway, I saw Raven early in the morning enter the training grounds but ran out after a while without even touching anything inside.

I did think that's weird but I continued my own training that time without minding it much.

But, Raven came back after about 2 hours with some weird bracelet with mana on each of his wrists and ankles.

I was still training at that time.

Raven was drenched in sweats and breathing heavily. He went to one of the training room of the shooting range and didn't come out for an hour.

And now in present, Raven entered the classroom like he just woke up. He's clean and organized.

"He's still wearing the bracelets."

I mumbled as I noticed his wrists still having the bracelets on. I can't see his ankles because the academy uniform uses pants but it's most likely he still have it on.

'I wonder what are those for.'

Raven then walked in a seat in the mid row, left corner near us. He picked a seat beside the window, and made the owner of that seat switch seats with him, peacefully(?).

But before sitting, Raven casted a <Cleanse> magic on the seat.

"Is he a germaphobe?"

Aoi asked with a frown. Looks like I wasn't the only one curious of Raven.

"Well, it's more impressive that he casted a magic smoothly."

Adelle said. I nodded in agreement.

But then a weird expression appeared on my face as I looked at Aoi and Adelle beside me.

"Wait, why are you guys here?"

I asked. They were near my seat before but not beside mine.

"Well, me, Aoi and Eve knows each other even before entering Lunar, we're just following Eve because she doesn't want to change seats with others."

Adelle explained. Eve's seat is just behind ours. And just in front of Raven's new seat.

'As I remember, Eve's, Aoi's and Adelle's parents are all important people.'

Guess they're close to each other because of that.

After a while, a professor came in and started a lecture.

***

[Eve's Pov]

It's been a while now since the class started, but I can't focus on the lecture.

-Kyu...

Slowly looking behind me to not make anyone notice. I saw a white cotton-like thing.

'There is it again...'

From time to time this man behind my seat brings out a cotton-like bird and makes it fly out of the window beside his seat.

And it looks like the bird is using a stealth skill as not everyone notices it, just some few students noticed.

I might also not notice it if not for the tweeting sounds that I heard.

I can't focus on the lecture because of the tweeting sound I hear from time to time!

And the man doesn't look like he's listening to the lecture, he's not even looking at the front of the classroom.

So he doesn't really see me looking at his direction.

'What's his name again?'

I don't know. He's familiar but I don't know anything about him because of my lack of care.

"I knew it! It's a Shima Enaga."

As I was trying to remember who the man is.

Aoi suddenly exclaimed in a whisper. Aoi, Adelle, and Alec also heard the tweeting sounds so they noticed the cotton's existence.

Curtis is in the back row of the classroom so it's most likely he doesn't know, and I don't really care.

"What's a Shima Enaga?"

Adelle asked Aoi. Alec seems to be curious too and waited for Aoi to answer.

They didn't wait for long as Aoi immediately explained.

"It's a bird from Japan. It's well known for its cotton-like appearance."

And after a brief pause.

"But it doesn't look like a normal bird as it can use a skill."

Aoi added. We all looked at the guy playing with the bird.

"Does he like cute things? That's weird."

Alec said. Seems like Aoi thought so too.

Well, all I can see is the guy looks always bored at everything.

"But that side of him is cute."

Adelle said. We ignored her, however we have a frown on our face because of her statement just now.

It was then, the cotton-like bird looked in our direction and pointed us using its wing.

We got startled.

The guy looked at us, and frowned.

The guy opened his mouth, and mouthed:

'You guys should focus on the lecture.'

Then he turned his attention back to bird.

My faced twitched, his words annoyed me. He was the reason I can't focus on the lecture. In a bad way.

"I want to strangle him."

I muttered. It's not just me but Alec and Aoi are frowning too.

Adelle didn't mind it as she just observes the cotton bird.

"It's cute though."

She said. Well I can't argue with that.

"Raven Obadiah."

Then, the professor called someone's name.

The guy we were observing stood up.

'So that's his name.'

I thought as I told to myself to remember it.

"Can you please explain our lecture?"

The professor said. Looks like he noticed that Raven is not listening, he's asking Raven with a rather sly smile.

I smiled with the thought of Raven not being able to answer and being embarrass in the end for not listening. It seems like all who had been disturbed by him, or his cotton to be exact, also thought so.

But contrary to our predictions. Raven explained the lecture in a clear and confident voice. He also shortened and made the explanation more understandable than the professor.

After that, he just sat back and crossed his legs, then he looked outside of the window with a face saying he didn't do much and he's bored.

Outside the window he's gazing at his cotton flying in circle.

All who thought that Raven was gonna fail, have their mouths hung opened. Then those who had trouble understanding the professor's lecture looked at Raven with grateful eyes.

"...That's... A very good explanation."

Said the professor who was silent for a second. He thought Raven was not listening so he planned to embarrass him, but contrary to what he expected, Raven answered and explained the lecture better than him.

"The way he carry himself confidently is also attractive."

Adelle said with a smile. Aoi was about to rebut but didn't as Raven does really looks cool after that.

Alec have a complicated expression.

And I was just purely annoyed.