First Week Of School

The horse carriage shook slightly from time to time on the tiled road of Chelfester, the major city town between Drimble and Bridth as I returned home with Ben, Elise, Zeus and Hades.

It was my first week in General Magic High, but it was also the worst week of my life. All the quests repeated daily. A quest after school to revise, a quest to train, a quest to go for dinner, a quest to sleep and occasionally, a quest to complete assignments. Apart from that first day the quests didn't give me any reward apart from exp.

Almost all the first-year students started recognizing my face and antagonized me. Luis told my classmates who I was and they all moved away from me. Only I sat in a secluded area. Although there would be students there when I came into the classroom, but soon after, they all disperse. Then Luis comes back to sit close to me and says I shouldn't hit on Elise or else…

I wanted to lash out at him at first but I slowly became detached. My father isn't dead but he isn't here, Vivian died in front of me by the same man that made my father disappear and a mysterious blurred-faced man stumped my growth despite my hard work. Those were the issues that had meaning. Windstrum could go eat his resources, all those students could hate me and Luis could hit on every single girl on earth for all I care.

'Sigh, at least I'm going back home.' I sat there, staring out the window as my gaze was lost amidst the bustling streets.

Out of boredom, I opened my stats screen.

…

[Name : Danton Stonehead]

[Species : Human]

[Job : Intermediate White Candidate (Chess King)]

[Level : 11]

[EXP : 10/600 (1.66%)]

[HP : 250 (100%)]

[MP : 515 (100%)]

[Strength : 50]

[Stamina : 35]

[Speed : 6.6mps]

[Intelligence : 138]

[Agility : 42]

[Endurance : 54]

[Magic Type : Beastly]

[Grade : D-Rank]

[Mage Class : Scribery]

[Abilities : Omega Eye Lv.1, 9th Sense Lv.1, Body Reinforcement Lv.3, Sword Art Lv.2, System]

[Skills : Bear Slash, Bear Charge, Blink, Astral-Projection, False Strength]

…

'Sigh, no significant progress.' I fell limp to the thought of having to go back to school after only two days of rest, which I didn't believe the system would give.

'So pitiful.' The male-sounding voice reverberated in my head.

I wasn't joyful or surprised in the slightest as I just replied, 'What is it?'

'Haha, you look like you had your soul sucked out.' Garmi chuckled.

'Sigh, just leave me alone.'

'What happened to the ever so arrogant Danton Stonehead?'

'Piss off, will you?'

'Annoying brat! I just wanted to help lighten up your mood, and now my mood's crumbled too… Anyway, some people have been following you since you entered Chelfester.' Garmi left immediately after he finished.

'Tch. Finally, people I can vent my anger on.' I thought while thinking of a way to deal with the stalkers.

'Let us wait and see.' I decided to let them attack first. I wasn't sure if they had ill-intentions or not. It didn't even matter if they had or not, what matter if they could beat me, Ben, Elise, Zeus and Hades. I scoffed at the tailers, they didn't know what they had in store for them.

…

We got to the forest area, separating Chelfester from Forklore, the small town.

I decided not to have a plan since what decided the outcome of the battle was strength. But of course, I made arrangements so we would be able to get out of the bind if we end up being captured.

I was also struck by reasons why someone would want to tail us. Was it because of Elise's family's wealth or was it those mysterious people dressed in white? The reasons for their actions were still unknown to me but I couldn't rule out the possibility it had something to do with me. If they only targeted my father then it could be an inner strife among Kings but Vivian got involved.

"Danton, you've been lost in thought, has school been hard on you?' Elise who sat across me asked worriedly.

"Sigh, I'm fine. It's nothing I can't handle." I said. Since I've already decided to face it then there's no need to see it as a problem and talk about it.

"How about you? How was your first week in school?" During the week I hadn't been able to communicate frequently with Elise but I managed to ask her the necessities like, How was her training? Was her mentor hard on her? Had she been bullied? And so on.

"It was great! Everyone treats me very nicely.' Elise was timid so she was likely moved when people acted nice to her.

"Nice," I was jealous but I took note of the fact that it was my way of doing things that made me hated by everyone. I turned to Ben, who was sitting at the far end of my seat, "How about you?"

"It was fine, aside from the fact that I am better than every first year and a few second-year students. None are worth sharing the same air I breathe." Ben's gaze was cold, I and Elise looked at him in astonishment.

He noticed our expressions and changed from a cold gaze to his usual shy and calm self. He put his hand on his forehead and smiled weakly as he said in confusion, " What… did I just say?"

'That… wasn't something Ben would say. Something weird is happening to him. Over a short period I've noticed he has gained a considerable amount of confidence but I didn't know it was this far. Hmmm… up this is how I can see real dragons act. Could he be possibly--'

Boom!

Before I could ask Ben what was wrong or finish my train of thought a loud boom was heard outside the carriage.

The carriage stopped. No sound came from anywhere.

'Heh, so it has already started.' I smiled and held the carriage door handle to go out.

"Danny! Don't you think it'll be safer if we stay inside? What if it's just a wild beast passing by and the horse was a little agitated by it." Elise said as she grabbed my hand that held the carriage door.

"I'm just going out to see if everything's ok." I opened the door and stepped down.

Ben followed suit and the twins wanted to but I instructed them to stay in the carriage.

"Something isn't right." Ben said, darting his gaze around as he inspected his surroundings.

"I know." I took a deep breath then exhaled heavily as I activated 9th Sense.

'They are four in number. All male. Not much intent. They're strong but not stronger than me. Two are hiding in the forest behind us and one is up in a tree and the other…'

I ran to the front of the carriage and saw a man that wore black and covered his mouth with a red scarf, however, I could see his green eyes burning with desire and his scattered hair.

Bam!

I jumped and gave him a front kick as he tried to climb the carriage to assume the position of the driver.

Swoosh… His teammates came out from the forest to engage in their assault.

I used Bear Charge to get to one then punched him hard in the stomach, followed by his face.

With Ben's strength and speed, he ran over to one then kicked him in the tummy.

Boom! He flew backwards and hit a tree.

Immediately following the attack, Ben headed for the last one. He leapt into the air using wind-type magic to augment his flight and did a round spin with his right leg in front and struck the head of the bandit.

Boom! His head hit the ground and a small crater was underneath. They didn't even have the chance to retaliate.

'D*mn.' I was left astonished by Ben's performance. He took down 2 bandits in less than 5 seconds!

They all had the same get up. Black clothing and a red scarf around their mouth, only revealing their eyes.

We tied them up and got the real carriage driver back from where they took him.

"Hey!" I kicked one in the face, "Why the hell did you attack us?"

"We-We were hired! Yes, hired!" He answered.

"By who?"

"S-Some rich kid called Vin Drale. I swear we wouldn't have taken the job but he offered us 2 gold coins," He paused then his eyes met my cold glare, "H-He said we should teach someone called Dogthing StandRed a lesson, I swear I'm telling you the truth."

"Pfft~"

My eyebrows furrowed as he finished. I glanced at Ben, who was trying all he could to hold his laughter in.

I quickly turned to look at the carriage. Elise was covering her mouth as she was looking through the window.

My mouth constantly twitched as I left them and went back into the carriage.

There were no nearby officers so all we did was give them a good beating and warning before sending them off.

Soon enough, the carriage continued its journey to the small town of Forklore. Before getting to the merchant's playground, Bridth.

I remained looking out the window but from the side of my eyes, I could still see Elise and Ben laughing.

We got to Bridth after about 30 minutes and dropped Elise off first before we arrived back home.

"Danton! Ben!" Mom called out in joy as she came to the carriage.

'Hearing that name leaves me in so much discomfort now.' I thought as I came down.

"So how was your first week in school?" She asked as we made our way back into the house secluded a bit in the forest.

I gave her a rough sketch about everything and made myself look awesome and abominable. From when I stood up to the Student Council President to when I saved my team and won against Ben.

She just stared at me, smiling, then she suddenly became serious.

"You're lying, aren't you?" She said

Then Ben who was supposed to narrate his after me, exclaimed, "Yup!"

"Woof!" Even the dogs did so too.

The whole universe was against me!