Chapter 20 Sparring[1]

Alec, Adelle and Blake were feeling a bit of discomfort.

"I'm sorry, my dorm is small."

Raven said.

They're currently inside of Raven's room.

"Ah, no it's fine."

Adelle replied. She was looking at Keara who's preparing the breakfast with Raven.

"So what did you guys do last night to be that noisy?"

Blake asked innocently tilting his head.

Awkward silence engulfed the room.

With his question, Adelle and Alec bacame flustered and scratched their cheeks.

"Shut up idiot."

Raven broke the silence and answered while frowning.

Keara stopped preparing as she was embarrassed as well.

Not long Raven finished preparing the foods in the table.(He cooked new dishes as Adelle, Alec, and Blake came unexpected.)

The dishes looks appetizing and have a lot of meat in them that will give you energy.

All of the foods are simple dishes but they look extremely delicious.

It also smells good.

Adelle and Blake started drooling.

Alec tried to hide it but he also wants to have a taste.

"Woah! You cooked all of these?!"

Blake exclaimed.

Raven sat down to the opposite of the three and Keara sat beside him.

"Yeah. Let's eat."

Raven said unenthusiastically while waving his hand.

Following his words, the three took a bite from the food in front of them.

The deep-fried smoke bull. The 3 have been eyeing it since it was placed on the table.

Smoke bulls are monsters, not beasts, they're <D> rank monsters and known for its healthy and delicious meat!

Chomp–

Upon taking a bite of the monster's fried meat,Alec, Adelle, and Blake, all 3 of them have widened their eyes in surprise!

"Woah, this is awesome!"

Blake said and took another bite.

"Right? He's really great at cooking!"

Keara said proudly, it looks like she really wanted to boast about it.

Adelle and Alec nodded in agreement.

"He's a really good cook!"

"Yeah! This is million times better than foods that they sell on the cafeteria!"

Alec and Adelle said respectively.

"Slow down eating."

Raven was frowning but one can tell he's quite delighted.

Raven likes to be praised.

The four of them smiled upon realizing this.

"Why are you all grinning like an Idiot?"

Raven asked, annoyed.

"Nothing~"

Adelle, Alec and Blake said teasingly at the same time.

Raven frowned but decided to ignore them.

Keara smiled at this sight.

After a while, Alec opened his mouth.

"Do you always cooks your own food?"

He asked.

Raven looked and him and nodded.

"Come to think of it, I never saw you in the cafeteria."

Blake stated.

Adelle and Alec also realized this.

Raven looked at them.

"I'm just not fond of the idea of eating someone else's cooking. So if possible I always cook for myself."

Raven said casually.

"So, are you a germaphobe?"

Adelle asked Raven the question that has been lingering in her mind for a long time. The answer is pretty much obvious but she still wanted to ask Raven herself.

"I'm not."(He is.)

Raven answered.

Adelle frowned. Even Alec and Blake.

Keara just smiled awkwardly.

"Germaphobe is someone who's afraid of germs."

"I'm not afraid of germs, I just find dirty things bothersome and annoying."

Raven said confidently.

'Isn't that pretty much just the same thing?'

Adelle and Alec thought.

Blake is nodding totally convinced of Raven's reasoning.(This guy is an idiot...)

Keara didn't say anything and just continued to eat.

"So, why are you guys here?"

Raven asked to change the topic as he noticed no one's believing his answer.

"I doubt it's just to invite me for breakfast."

"Oh yeah! Do you want to train with us?"

Alec asked not beating around the bush.

Raven likes that.

"Unfortunately, I already have my training plan ready."

Raven said, wiping the food stains on the corner of Keara's mouth with a tissue.

Raven is doing it unconsciously. Because his mind was set to his promise to spoil Keara.

Keara got embarrassed but didn't stop Raven as she likes it when Raven takes care of her.

Looking at the two being chummy with each other.

Alec's and Adelle's faces turned red.

'Cute.'

They thought watching Keara being all embarrassed but not stopping Raven.

Blake didn't notice it as he's just eating continuously.

"Oh, that's too bad we can't train with each other."

Regaining his calm, Alec said in a disapointed tone.

Adelle also feels a bit disapointed.

"Well, that's for combat and physical training but we can study together in the library."

Raven said as he noticed the two being all disapointed.

"Why would we need to study?"

Blake finally stopped eating and asked.

Adelle and Alec was also a bit confused.

'Isn't the test all about fighting?'

They thought.

"Are you guys stupid?"

Raven said while frowning.

"Haaa..."

Seeing them confused, Raven let out a sigh.

"It's called and 'assessment' test, so obviously not just our combat strength but they will also test our knowledge."

Raven explained.

Realization washed all over the three.

"Like about monsters' informations and dungeons."

Adelle and Alec understood thus nodded their heads.

While Blake was devastated.

"Guys! Help me, I may not look like it but I'm not very good at studying."

He exclaimed.

"Shut up, it's obvious."

Raven bluntly said.

Blake was purely shocked at Raven's words.

'So Blake doesn't know that he looks like an airhead.'

Adelle and Alec thought.

"Anyway, thanks for telling us, how do you know it anyway, did Miss Keara or Miss Ruby told you?"

Adelle asked Raven.

"No, even if I have some kind of relationship with them, they can't disclose informations of the academy easily."

Raven explained.

"As of how did I know, it's pretty obvious if you think about it properly."

"I bet Aoi and Eve already know this."

Raven added.

Curtis probably knows it too but he's not that close to him so he didn't mention him.

Looking at the three, Raven frowned.

'They're not stupid, in fact they're smart. I guess they got too excited about the test.'

'Well Blake is stupid.'

He thought.

After that they all continued to eat.

They talked from time to time but it's just Adelle and Alec asking Raven some things they're curious about.

***

[Raven's POV]

We all just finished eating.

Keara started to put away the dishes we all used.

"I'm so envious of you."

Blake said to me while looking at Keara.

"Well, you should."

I said slyly.

Who wouldn't envious, right?

Tok. Tok.

Then someone knocked at the door.

"I'm gonna get it."

Keara said unconsciously again.

I shook my head.

"We're not in the hotel, it may be students again or academy staffs."

Keara then scratched her cheek and nodded. She forgot again.

She looks pretty down.

"Can you just wash the dishes for me?"

I softly said to Keara.

Keara's face then brighten and she nodded.

"Okay!"

She then started to wash the dishes enthusiastically.

'She really likes to help me even in small things...'

I thought with a smile.

"You guys go to hotels? Why?"

Blake then suddenly asked, breaking my smile.

Alec and Adelle frowned.

I frowned too.

"It's none of your business."

I answered and left them and went to the door to open it.

Upon opening it, a man holding a push cart greeted me, in the cart there's a single small box.

"There's a package for you."

He said to me.

I signed some papers and received the package.

It's goddamn heavy.

"Thank you for bringing it to me."

I politely said with a smile. Then handed him 1000 Zeals.

Like the other staffs, he seems pretty flustered by it, but upon saying it's my thanks for bringing the package to me safely, he left with the 1000 Zeals, satisfied.

Entering my dorm again.

Adelle, Alec and Blake are looking at me, to be exact, the box I'm holding.

"What's that?"

Blake asked pointing at my package. Adelle and Alec looks also curious.

"It's for my training, anyway, can you bring this to my bed, I'm gonna help Keara."

Blake nodded his head and took the package.

"Woah! What the?"

Releasing my hand to the package.

Blake recieved the package's full weight.

"Oh, it's 100 kilos, sorry."

I forgot to tell him.

Hearing my words.

Blake's eyes widened.

Alec and Adelle seems to be surprised too.

It's bearable to lift for ability users, but it will still be quite heavy.

Inside the package are 4 training bracelets weighting 25 kilos each.

It's their permanent weights. It can't be adjusted.

My bracelets are getting light for me.

But making it heavier using mana is hard for me at the moment as I have small mana capacity. It will be burdensome for my body.

So I bought these equipments instead.

"I told you, I already have my training plans ready."

I casually said and shrugged as they're looking at me with weird gazes.

***

After talking to each other for a bit, Alec, Blake and Adelle left.

Keara also left after washing the dishes.

I also left and did my daily training routine.

After that, I went to the classroom, it's uneventful, nothing special happened.

Blake just ran his mouth all the time.

Alec asked some questions about the lessons sometimes.

The 3 girls are talking to each others.

We can't hear them even after enhancing our hearings as Adelle used a special wind magic.

Looks like they're having a girls talk.

Well, I honestly don't care.

They join our conversation from time to time.

And Curtis who was sitting on the back row with his goons goes to our seats from time to time.

He asked me relationship advices.

Well, whatever I said left him unsatisfied.

He seems to not like me.

Maybe bacause I'm sitting near Eve.

'Did I really create such weird character?'

I questioned my self because of Curtis' actions.

***

<5:30 P.M>

All the lessons are finished.

I'm physically exhausted.

Because of the assessment test at the end of the month, we have more freedom and the academy schedule till the assessments are cut into half.

It is so we can focus on training.

Well, there are some class that is still ongoing, it's up to us whether we attend or not.

We just need to make sure we pass the tests in those class.

'Well, it's gonna be easy for me.'

With that in mind, I went to the library.

At the entrance of the library, I saw a very unusual group.

It was Alec, Blake, Adelle, Aoi, Eve, and Curtis.

"You're here!"

Blake exclaimed.

Following his words, all eyes went toward me.

Eve just glanced at me for a second and went inside the library.

Alec and Adelle waved at me.

Aoi looked at me for a while too then followed Eve.

Curtis glared at me then followed Eve too.

"I just want to study in peace..."

I muttered.

***

We're currently occupying a whole table in the library.

We've been here for about 3 hours.

All students are looking at us curiously.

I didn't know and didn't care but it appears that Blake is popular with girls too.

He is rank 1645 in all freshmen, but he's filthy rich.

Curtis is not reading any books and just looks at Eve.

Talk about creepy.

Blake is trying to study but fails to focus every goddamn time.

Adelle and Alec are seriously studying.

Eve and Aoi are chill, they're the smartest students of all freshmen after all.

I'm just flipping the pages of the books in a rather fast pace.

The system records the contents of the books and my trait <Understanding> is explaining them to me.

Although doing this hurts my head and drains my mana rapidly.

Nobody question my reading style which is good.

Anyway, because of our unusual group, there are a lot of students that tried to approach us.

Who wouldn't?

We have the most handsome and beautiful students in our group.

And they're also the strongest in all freshmen.

I think Blake is okay to be here.

But I'm kinda feeling awkward because of my rank and I'm not really that handsome.

'Damn charm monsters.'

I thought with a frown and just continued to read.

'I don't really notice any students looking at me negatively but I'm sure there are some.'

Then just as I thought of that, I saw some boys glaring at me.

'Look at those boys looking at me with death glares.'

Anyways, I'm just going to ignore them.

(Unbeknownst to Raven, he's also popular with girls that's why the boys hates him, he bacame a hot topic because of the incident yesterday with Ruby and Keara in their classroom. In fact, some professors also hates him, he just didn't know.)

"Fuck."

I weakly muttered as my whole body aches.

I'm physically exhausted because of my morning training.

The sudden weights I added to my body this morning caused my whole body to hurt.

Just flipping the pages of the book is hard to me. And I'm doing it continuously fast nonstop.

Unable to hold it anymore, my arms that are on the air holding a book, lost strength.

Boom-!

A loud sound was created as my arms fell on the table.

The tabled that is made from some sort of metal shook and a small crack appeared on it.

The training bracelets in each of my arms weighted for a total of 50 kilos.

So my arms simply falling on the table created a weak force.

Luckily, Adelle is using the magic she used earlier when Eve, Aoi, and her had a private conversation among themselves.

It's a wind magic that makes noises and voices doesn't leak outside the area of the magic, we can hear the students outside the magic but they can't hear us.

I can't cast this kind of magic because it's a 4th tier wind magic.

The magic is surrounding our whole area so no one heard the loud sound, except us who are inside the magic.

Alec, Blake, Aoi, and Adelle got surprised by the sound and looked at me with wide opened eyes.

Eve frowned at me.

Curtis was looking at me with a questioning face.

"What happened?"

Alec asked.

"Sorry, My arms can't hold the weights any longer."

I bashfully said.

"Oh, is that so."

Alec said looking at me with worried eyes.

Blake is the same.

Adelle seems a bit concerned too. Seeing Adelle like that, Eve and Aoi frowned and looked at me like I did something wrong.

"Haa... What a weakling."

Curtis said and tried to lift both of my arms with one hand.

"Hm?"

But my arms barely moved.

Even for Curtis and Alec, raising 100 kilograms with one hand is hard.

Confusion can be seen on Curtis' face.

At what happened, Alec, Aoi, and Adelle got surprised.

Eve also showed a bit of interest.

Blake is clueless on what's happening.

"What the hell?"

Curtis lifted my arms with both of his hand.

"You're moving with these all this time?"

Curtis said with amusement and shock.

~~~~~

(Raven have a total of 8 training bracelets on, 2 on each of his limbs, and each of the 8 training bracelets are weighing 25 kilos.)