Princess

Lake went to school the next morning and as soon as he entered the grounds his eyes narrowed and his face went cold. The surrounding kids felt uncomfortable as it felt like the temperature had dropped suddenly.

What was Lake looking at exactly? What else but the boy who knocked him out and threw him into the forest to die. Gregory Chor.

Gregory had apparently found new prey as he and his followers were surrounding a boy who was on the ground. He was already covered in bruises while the ones surrounding him laughed.

Seemingly feeling something Gregory turned around and met Lakes gaze. The arrogant smile on his face immediately froze and it looked as if he had seen a ghost. The other kids noticed that Gregory was distracted and looked over as well.

Each and every one of them were petrified where they stood. The boy they thought was dead, the one they threw into the forest themselves two days ago had somehow appeared in front of them!

How?! How is this possible?! Shouted Gregory in his mind. He gnashed his teeth wondering what went wrong with his plan that Lake could possibly survive in the forest for an entire night.

Like he knew what Gregory was thinking Lake just smirked and began walking to class, but in his heart he had already registered Gregory and his followers as dead.

The class went by normally, everything the academy taught Lake had already found out by himself.

Instead he spent his time deciding on his next move. Hitting a wall in his training left him distraught so he thought he'd try to find another way to breakthrough.

There weren't many ways for a person to cultivate. There was the conventional method which was to exercise and study. There were elixirs on the market that could enhance the effects of training. And there was training the person's mastery in their ability.

Lake had hit a wall using the first method. The second method required using massive amounts of money to accomplish. And the third way required one to have an ability, which he unfortunately didn't have.

"Looks like I need to go look for a job to buy elixirs." He decided that he could only go with the second option, and to do so he needed money.

Looking online there were almost no job openings, because of the evolution of humans jobs that used to require multiple people to accomplish can be done with just one person. And almost no places would want someone like Lake who had just entered 2nd academy.

"Nope. Not this one. What the? Why would they post something like this so publicly, have they no shame?" Sighing Lake decided that if the next opening wasn't suitable he'd have to find other ways to make money.

Hm?

The next opening Lake came across was one for an armament craftsman's store, to man the store front for the owner. This is it! With shining eyes Lake applied to the store and almost immediately got a reply telling him to come by at 5 pm.

"Luckily I found that otherwise it would've been difficult to find a different way to earn money."

Lake left the class in a good mood, he walked while humming a small tune to himself when suddenly.

Wham!

He fell and hit his butt on the ground. Looking up he saw a girl on the ground, he realized he had bumped into the girl coming around the corner of the hall.

"Oh I'm sorry about that, are you okay?" Lake stretched out a hand while asking.

The surrounding students saw the spectacle and gasped when they saw who it was. They started whispering in excited voices.

"Oh my gosh he just knocked the princess down!"

"How's the princess gonna deal with him?"

Princess? Who could be so pretentious to call themselves Princess? In reality the name wasn't her idea, it was just a title the students gave her due to her incredible talents.

It's not hard to understand why Lake had no idea who she was as he usually unconsciously ignored the people around him.

When the girl looked up her hair moved away from her face and Lake saw what she looked like. A beauty, a girl with skin like jade. Her eyes were a deep blue like the ocean yet her hair was shining black.

Lake was stunned for a moment before moving forward to help her up.

The princess just ignored him and got up on her own. Glancing at Lake she seemed to think of something then walked off.

"Uhm, sorry?" Lake scratched his head confused on if he had offended her or something.

Shaking his head he put this matter behind him and continued humming.

He headed home first to collect himself before heading over to the store he had applied to.

The Misty Armory.

Looking at the location that was sent to him he headed in the direction it indicated. Soon enough he reached where the store was supposed to be yet he didn't see anything.

"Where's this store? This isn't somebody playing a trick on me is it?"

Clang! Clank!

Suddenly he heard the sound of metal clashing in the alley next to him. Looking down it he saw a large door and a sign that read "The Misty Armory." Found it!

Walking over he opened the door only to find no one there. He took a quick look around and found the place to be a mess. Armaments were strewn everywhere on the shelves, floor and desk.

"I-Is this really an armament craftsman's workshop?" Lake could hardly believe it, but he looked around at all the armaments on the floor and noticed that although they were everywhere, they were high quality goods.

"Incredible, for them to be able to make so many high tiered armaments is amazing."

"Hello? I'm Lake Halma, I applied for the position here!" He shouted.

Soon he heard the clanging stop and footsteps reverberating from the back.

That must be the owner he thought.

Suddenly the door to the back slammed opened and a small figure came out screaming, "What the hell are you doing yelling out here?! Can't you see we're busy?!"

Huh?