Aftermath

The audience is in commotion. The people that root for either Ben or Elise argue on why the latter won and why the former should be the winner.

Grandmaster Windstrum just keeps a grin on his face then raises his hand to silence the audience.

"I understand that some of you do not see why Team Venorth won, so I will show you."

Windstrum brings out the spherical magitech device from before, a screen projects out and shows the battle between me and Ben.

It slows down at the time I appeared behind Ben. They can all see me slip something out from Ben's pocket right before he slapped the living daylight out of me.

Windstrum takes it back a little then zooms it into my right hand and when I slipped the blue orb out from his pocket can be seen.

"Wow!"

"Danton you're amazing!"

Arleore and Elise both hug me at the same time. Then let go after a few seconds.

"As you all can see, Danton Stonehead snatched the blue orb from Ben Gray," Windstrum pauses, due to the boos from the audience at the mention of my name, "Making Team Venorth the winners!"

""Yayyyy!"" The whole crowd cheers at the mention of her name and start calling out,

""Team Venorth! Team Venorth!! Team Venorth!""

I turn to look at Ben, who looks sad. He didn't win and he probably already knew that before the results were shown.

The rules Windstrum set said the leader of a team loses automatically if a member of another team takes the blue orb.

I feel pity for Ben, but it wipes off when I remember he slapped the living daylight out of me, but still,

"Don't be sad. You're the strongest among all first-year students including me and Windstrum noticed that." I console him arrogantly, but he still becomes brighter.

'Ttri-ting'

[Due to violation of system rule: System rebooting.....]

[...]

[Rebooting...]

[...]

[Reboot successful!]

[Notifications will be sent shortly]

[...]

[You have unlocked skill: Deception 4th Symbol – False Strength]

[Congratulations! You have defeated the Beginner Black Candidate (Chess King)]

[You are now the Intermediate White Candidate (Chess King)]

[You have gained additional rewards]

[Overall team stats +100]

[Role effect x2]

I want to inspect and explore the messages from the notifications, but I'll do that later.

"Today's class has fully ended, and I am glad to say it was fun… at least for me. Classes are over for today, so you should all go to your dorms and prepare for night classes." Windstrum finishes and takes Ben and Elise with him as he takes his leave.

The students start to leave the training ground and most of them stare at me grudgingly.

I look to check for the earth-mage general and Vin Drale, but they are nowhere to be found. They were probably taken to the school nurse.

Suddenly, a horde of students floods the training ground, asking where the competition is taking place. The senior students probably heard of the competition and probably now want to join to also gain 'Windstrum's favour.'

"Danton, what do we do now?" Arleore asks but this time not in her dominating and cold way.

"Do you guys want to join my faction?" I smile as I ask.

"What faction?" Arleore asks, perplexed.

"I am going against the Student Council. Do you want to join?"

"Uhm... Sure, I guess." She answers but still looks confused.

"What about you Bruce?" I just ask to hear the big guy's voice.

"I WILL GO ANYWHERE MADAM ARLEORE GOES!" Says Bruce.

Damn. That voice.

I just answer with a nod and bid them goodbye.

***

I am walking to the male hostel block with Zeus and Hades. I just followed the path most of the male new students went.

When I arrived, I noticed the male hostel block looks like every other building in the school.

I entered and started looking for the room number I was handed when I was about to enter the hostel block.

'26'

I found the dorm on the second floor without much stress because the rooms were numbered appropriately.

I entered the room and I can see four beds, two at each side of the room with a magic-crystal lamp on a table in the middle of the beds. The left side and right side have beds, while the wall in front has two windows evenly spaced and have transparent blinders. Directly in front of the two windows, there are two reading tables.

The toilet isn't located in the room and is placed outside the rooms at the far end of the hall.

So much for a prestigious magic high school.

My hostel uniform is going to be delivered to me since the school doesn't allow students to wear clothes that aren't given by the school itself on the school premises.

I have been walking around the school shirtless. That Windstrum didn't even give a damn about how I looked.

'Thud!'

I land on one of the beds on the right-hand side of the room with my face up.

This is the best time to check.

[Name : False Strength]

[Type : Skill]

[Grade : ]

[Description : This skill gives the user the strength the user sees their self MENTALLY portray]

[Condition : Must have less than 10 HP left]

[Cost : (none)]

[Duration : 20mins]

So much for being an ultimate skill. Looks like I won't be using this since I don't plan on dying any time soon.

[Job Class : Intermediate White Candidate (Chess King)]

[Description : This job allows you to make your team of individuals and help them grow stronger collectively with each other. You have the chance to become the Advanced White Candidate (Chess King) by gathering allies, setting your pieces and defeating the Intermediate Black Candidate]

[Effect : Members of your team get different stats' boost according to their set piece]

[-Roles/Pieces-]

[Queen : (empty)]

[Black Bishop : (empty)]

[White Bishop : (empty)]

[Rooks : (empty)]

[Knights : (empty)]

[Pawns : (empty)]

[Awaiting to be set : Ben Gray, Elise Venorth, Arleore Bedivere, Bruce Nagey]

I guess I will assign them to their roles next time we are all together.

[Do you want to view overall team stats? Y/N]

'Yes.'

[-Overall team stats-]

[You are the only one in your team currently]

[Assign roles!]

*Exhales*

That was expected.

I raise my left hand with my palm wide open.

'I am still so weak.'

'How can I grow stronger?' I ponder on that question before gently closing my eyes to sleep.

As my eyes slowly blur, I hear a soothing sound followed by the new notification.

'Ting'

[You have used skill : Astro Pr.....]

***

VIVIAN THE LIBRARIAN

I am on my way home since it is almost six o'clock, but I have a feeling that I am being followed. I didn't turn back to look, so I won't let the person know I know.

I change course from my house to a dry and quiet street.

After walking for a while, I enter an alley at my left.

The alley is fairly large enough for six people to stand on the same line vertically. It is filled with solid waste, broken weapons, armour, and household tools.

I walk to the middle of the alley. Then suddenly, three figures wearing white clothes in different styles appear in front of me.

I turn back and see three figures standing there also, making it six different people.

Their faces are shrouded under the hood they wear and the mask their faces with what looks like bandages.

Their heights vary and the one that looks muscular and short steps forward and speaks, "Hey there! I hope you wouldn't mind us killing you, Vivian Hartel."

As he finishes, I feel an unbearable pressure that could make me pass out, but since I am an experienced and skilled sorcerer I can withstand it.

I already know who these people are, and I know what they are here for.

I create a wall of fire that also shoots out balls of fire around me.

Only one of them engages in battle with me, while the rest just dodges the fireballs I shoot out.

The person fighting with me constantly dodges the fireballs and creates a small metal black bar from his hand which he threw at me.

Some metal bars hit me and now up to twenty are in my body. The power these people possess can't be reckoned with.

My mana couldn't flow from my body anymore, and I realized that he clogged my mana connectors using his metal bars. But that doesn't explain why I can't move my body now.

"He hit your nerves and you are temporarily paralyzed." The muscular and short one politely answers without me even asking. It seemed somewhat unlikely that this well-mannered man came to kill me. Even the one that fought me made sure he never hurt me, these people are all so strange.

A new individual that has black hair joins them. He has a big sword behind his back and I can swear I remember him from somewhere.

"So it is my time, isn't it? This is how I pay for my mistakes." I start thinking out loud.

I fall to the ground as I couldn't stand any longer due to the paralysis getting stronger by the second.

The black-haired man walks closer and raises his sword.

He stabs my stomach and blood slowly seeps out as my vision starts becoming blurry.

I can see a boy with a deep-violet hair cry. His mouth is moving, so I think he is saying something.

He reaches out to me with his hand forward, and I used the last strength I could muster to try to grab his hand. But my hand just passes through his.

He cries some more and tries to carry my hand but all to no avail as my vision started going blank.

"Be... a... good... kid."

Just as my vision was just about to go blank, I hear his voice.

"....DON'T DIE!!! PLEASE!!!"

I gently close my eyes as I welcomed the darkness.