Vigor

I was let off easy on that incident. Didn't have to pay for all the damages as the only thing I broke was the windows and those could be repaired with magic.

However, every other student started avoiding me because of that incident. It was because of two reasons. One, the size of my wings was frightening. Nobody has ever been recorded to have such large wings and I seem to be the first.

I don't know if I should be proud or disappointed.

The second reason was how easy I was able to control them. By controlling, I mean altering their size. It turns out that even though you can alter their size it requires at least a week to control them fully and I did just that in just under a minute.

I mean what can I say? It's not that hard once you know what you are doing.

It's been a week now and it's currently my break. It seems that even that masochist of a teacher must've been scared off because I haven't seen her at all except during first period.

I can finally return to my spot under the tree. I can't bear to sit under the sun for so long or the bags under my eyes will be even more visible. More couples have been coming to the inn and I could hear them through the ceiling.

"Greetings."

Aurelia appeared in front of me with a smile.

"H-hello."

Well, not everyone has been ignoring me. Aurelia still came up to me and chatted with me a little. Even Ordos but that fool is always somewhere flirting with girls.

"It seems that everyone is still afraid of you."

Aurelia lifted her head and everyone took their gazes off me.

"Yeah, because of my stupid wings. Now I'm wondering if I actually should've got them in the first place."

If I didn't have such large wings I wouldn't have been ignored for so long. Well, not like that matters anyway because everyone has been ignoring me in the first place. But now I'm just getting stared at like some monster.

It's like every other school that I attended in my previous life. Yes I attended school, just because I was an assassin doesn't mean I don't attend school. I was always the guy who sat alone and ate alone. My role was basically an introvert. I mean, it basically suited me. No one even gave a damn about me. I was bullied once or twice but still, just a normal life.

However, one time I accidentally blew my cover. Some jock and his friends were taunting me and saying I was some weird kid, calling me any bad word or slur that came out of their impudent mouths. I didn't really care and tried ignoring them. But then he tried throwing a punch at me, and that's when everything went downward.

I almost killed that guy and his friends, and after that incident, I was looked at like some monster. Everyone avoided me but they gave me the same looks that these guys were giving. Not only that but even the teachers too.

The world is always unfair. A group of guys harasses some kid and everyone just pretends they never exist or they're probably just playing. But once that kid does something in self-defense, oh look, this guy beat the shit out of this group of kids, he should be arrested because the group of kids did nothing wrong except play around with him.

It's just like that in this world. You do something unexpected and you suddenly get isolated. Different world, same cliches.

"Seiya? Are you ok?"

"Huh? Y-yeah I'm alright."

Though I should say this world has its benefits.

Aurelia sat next to me and unwrapped her lunch which was salad again. I also unwrapped my lunch which was sitting on my lap.

I prepared myself some miso soup, a little patch of smoked salmon rolls, and some tempura, though I wouldn't really call the tempura, tempura. There weren't any normal shrimp in this world since, well, this is another world. The shrimp in this world was a different color and a little larger than a normal shrimp, about half a foot. I haven't really tried it yet since I didn't trust the shrimp but my customers did say it was really good so today I'm going to see if what they say is true.

I feasted on the tempura first. Turns out that it still has the same taste it does in my previous world, just bigger.

"Mind if I try one?"

"Sure, go ahead."

I gave one to Aurelia and proceeded to eat my lunch.

"Your food doesn't taste so empty anymore."

I heard Aurelia say and I nodded.

"Thanks to what you said, my customers are even more satisfied now."

"Well that's a good thing to hear. So tell me, what feelings did you place into this?"

"I… wanted to make myself satisfied…"

"Well, you probably are."

"Y-yeah."

Damn it, she's making me bashful. If I told her the real reason it would make me look weird.

"Le-let's continue eating."

***

It was now magic practice class and we were in our homeroom. We don't always go out to the courtyard for magic practice, most of the time we are in our classroom listening to our teacher, Oki give us a lecture about multiple magic theories. To be honest I wasn't most interested.

While she was giving us a lecture on how to fully manipulate elemental magic, Ordos turned around.

"Hey Seiya."

"What is it Ordos?"

"Are you available tomorrow?"

"Yes it's a weekend, why?"

"I just wanted to ask, can we spar in the outskirts? I just want to see how much I've grown and also prepare for the upcoming exam."

"Exam? Oh yeah."

That exam, yeah, I almost forgot about it. The exam where we need to survive for 5 days in the wilderness. I've been slacking off these past two weeks because of work and I was given two days off so I could rest. But now that I was reminded of the upcoming exam, I'll have to use those two days for training.

"Sure I can do that."

"Oh really? Wow, I was expecting you to reject or something."

"Shut up and turn around before we get in trou-"

"Mr. Ordos and Mr. Seiya, do you two have anything to say?"

Oki demanded and we quickly shook our heads.

After that ended we headed towards the courtyard where our last session of the day will take place. To be honest, combat class is a lot more hardcore and complicated than I expected. We had to learn about fighting philosophies and all that boring crap. That was the complicated part. The part where it's hardcore is the fighting arts we are practicing.

Let me just make it easier for you to know. Basically, with all the spiritual energy stored inside us, we use it for spells and mana accumulation, but it also has another use.

Today, we are learning how to manipulate and draw out the vigor in our bodies. Vigor is a different type of energy. Though it may run through the same place that our mana runs through, it is completely different. There is a reason why our spiritual energy has two colors. Now it's not the same as performing a spell or transforming. There aren't any gaps in our bodies that can vent out power or anything like that, we have to forcefully bring it out.

We were first taught how to draw a small portion of our energy. It wasn't easy since I kept making the same mistake over and over again; I kept on drawing mana out instead of vigor. I know I haven't been drawing or vigor because the energy oozing out from my hands was still dual colored.

I took quick glances at Ordos who was next to me and he was also struggling with drawing out vigor. I looked around and looked at all the other students, and most of them were struggling as well. It took a while until I heard the teacher compliment a student.

"Good job Mia, you pass."

Mia? If I recall, that is Aurelia's cousin.

Sure enough, I got a view of Mia. She was holding what looks like a ball of pure red energy in her hand. Then she threw it at the ground and it left a crack in the floor.

The expression on her face was calm like she didn't even need to try at all. So she's a tranquil type, huh?

Vigor comes in five forms. The first form is the enhanced type. This allows you to wrap any part of your body with your vigor, enhancing your strength, speed, and defense. The second form is the tranquil type which Mia just shown. This form is the easiest one to do. All you need is to be calm while drawing out energy and then you'll be wielding vigor in no time. The third form of vigor is the bending type. This allows one to, well, bend vigor. They can shape it into anything they want, let it be a sword or even a gun but guns don't exist in this world so… scrap that. The fourth is the focus type. Focus type is a little different and it's a mix of tranquil and bending. You need to focus all your vigor into one or two points in your body, then you will be able to force your vigor out just like that. Hence, focus. Lastly, the chaotic type. The chaotic type is the polar opposite of tranquil type, mixed in with enhanced. I don't think I'll need to explain this one.

Even though there are all these types, you are only able to perform one out of five of them. So once you find out what type you are like in this case, a tranquil type, you are unable to perform any other types.

I've tried doing enhanced, tranquil, and bending, but I still haven't been able to bring my vigor out. Now I am going to try focused type.

I focused all of my energy on the two tips of my index finger. I began to feel a tingling feeling at the end of my fingers. I activated my spirit vision and attempted to separate my vigor away from my mana.

Sadly, after a few seconds, it didn't work. I was at the point of giving up but then I accidentally grazed my index fingers with each other and then I felt a snap.

Suddenly my hands were wrapped in bright purple energy. I was a bit confused as I have no clue what I just did until I was congratulated.

"Good job Seiya, you are a focused type. Though I would say that was to be expected."

So I activated my vigor by brushing my fingers? No, I think I get it. By sweeping my fingers together then separating them, it acts as a trigger.

Well, now that I know how to activate my vigor now, it's time for me to master this in under a minute. I just need to find a way to activate this without a trigger and activate it WITH a trigger without messing up.

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