Grind [1]

Lying on my bed, exhausted after having a fierce battle with my nemesis, trying to sneak by his sturdy shield, I got a message from James,

*Do you have any plans for tomorrow? We were thinking about going to the city and checking out the stores. Maybe even getting some new gear! emojidk*

''We' most definitely means. Sarah and Brad as well.'

As fun as it sounded to check out the city, two big reasons were causing me to reject his invitation.

The first one being, that I didn't have time. Especially now that the gorilla had suddenly dropped a bomb, the fact that we would be doing a dive next week. This meant that I couldn't take a day off training, without risking looking immensely bad to the teachers, which I hadn't even met yet.

The second reason, which hurt me deeply, was the fact that I didn't have any money.

[Kirkegaard Student ID]

[Current Balance: 650 crowns]

Even with Mike and the principal now openly supporting me, they could still not go against the more elitist teachers who wanted me to prove myself, and so I would still only get my 400 crowns a month. When just a simple meal cost about 50 crowns, I couldn't imagine how much a piece of decent gear would go for.

'I have to find a way to make money in the future...'

With no idea of knowing what kind of economy the future required, it was still obvious that I need to have some money to spend in times of need.

Potions were a great example. One simple mana potion was priced at 200 crowns, and one health potion would cost me the entirety of my monthly pocket money.

'I wonder how much my two instructors spend on me each lesson?'

Both the principal and Mike weren't exactly frugal with giving me potions every time I needed one. With me being too focused on training, I didn't even know how many I drank during one session, but it couldn't be less than five.

The only problem with potions was the fact that their efficiency got reduced with each consecutive consumption, resetting after about 24 hours, meaning you couldn't regain endless mana or health by using them.

Still, they were incredibly useful. Just the fact that one could artificially increase the duration of practicing using mana was great, not to mention the fact that they could literally save lives.

Having a healer was rare, and having someone like Sarah with the rize element was even more so. It was a luxury, not a requirement, for a party to have one.

This was because only very specific Battle Arts could use their wind or water element to heal, something like [Restorative Wind] or [Water of Sanctity].

Most mages holding these elements were offensive types, like Akane with her [Aquamancer] Art.

*Fuuee*

Having rejected James's proposal, I closed my eyes and prepared myself to use the last hour of the time capsule and train as hard as I could for the rest of the weekend.

****

After waking up, I got to have a calm morning at the cafeteria, enjoying a cup of coffee. Even if I welcomed the company of my newfound friends, sitting alone had a different kind of charm.

I had already made my plans for today. First, using my last hour in the time capsule, then spending the rest of the day in Mike's practice room, alternating my time between attacking Blockalot and practicing mana control.

"Is this seat free?"

A silver-haired beauty had come up to my table, and before I could even answer she sat down in front of me.

"Eh, sure?"

A bit thrown off by Lindsey's unexpected visit, I had blurted out an answer without anything else to say.

Both of us were sitting in silence, drinking our hot beverages. With the cafeteria being almost completely empty, she had to have something she wanted.

'What does she want? Did I do something, or is it because of what Bayyan said?'

Waiting for her to initiate something, we continued our silent coffee time.

After some time, she emptied her cup and left.

'What the fuck just happened?'

****

'Again'

Charging my legs with my electric mana, I got ready to once more try my combo.

I blurred forward, and when the momentum stopped, I did a cross slash in the chest of the dummy, just to end the sequence with another step backward.

With my legs screaming, I quickly reset my virtual conditions and sat down for a bit, satisfied with my progression. I could now reliantly execute my new creation, a consecutive execution of my [Lightning Step] sandwiching an attack. I hadn't gotten to the point to use lightning imbued attacks yet, but I was happy with the progress I had made after a week.

At this point, my step had gotten incredibly natural for me, having no problems using it to jump into the air and then dashing towards an enemy, or doing a double step back to increase distance. It felt like the mana control training had helped me a lot in using it more efficiently, making my legs not sustain as much damage as before as well. This meant that now I could use the double step another time before my limbs felt like ripping apart.

"Control panel up."

Using the screen I finished my training, exited the capsule, and made my way to Mike's personal room. Opening the door with my key, I was surprised that my expectation of being alone had gotten proven wrong.

Inside the room were two individuals, one being the Gorilla and one being a young girl with green hair, Suzuka, sparring against each other.

Suzuka wielded a traditional katana and was continually weaving in and out of Mike's range, doing one combo at a time before retreating. Our teacher, appearing quite relaxed and parrying her attacks with just his fists, threw out words of advice now and then.

"Slow! Don't slow down after your [Double Strike], make sure the finisher of the combo is strong and fast!"

Seeing the two of them fight, the girl slashing like a whirlwind, and Mike as the impenetrable wall, ignited something within me. I never thought I would be a fighter, nor do I think so now, but something about facing someone with nothing but one's combat skills felt incredibly appealing right now.

Catching Suzuka's katana in his right hand, our teacher ended their exchange and turned his head towards me, "Let's stop here. We can't keep the little hare waiting too long."

Wanting to scream, I tried to hold my tone as respectful as possible as there was another student with us.

"Please stop calling me little hare, sir!"

"You still haven't gotten over your nickname? How long will it take for you to accept it? I've already told you, you should be proud of it!"

Taking a deep breath, I swallowed my pride and let it go, "Sure... Anyway, I was thinking about training a bit against Sir. Blockalot, but I don't want to interrupt your sparring. I'll come back later then."

As I turned around, ready to leave them alone and go to the freshmen's training center to use another practice room, Mike stopped me,

"No, it's fine. We just concluded our sparring and I think Suzuka has to go anyway. Isn't it so?"

Hearing her talk for the first time, she explained, "Yes. I am supposed to meet up with my sister in just a bit."

"Oh, then it's fine if I borrow the room for a couple of hours?"

With a smile, Mike confirmed my question, and also proposed, "Yea, but now that we are here, would you want to go for a quick spar with Suzuka? It might teach both of you something."

Both I and the girl looked skeptically at our teacher, with her opening her mouth first.

"No disrespect, but even if I do think Miren might be good at some things, I don't think I could learn anything from battling an M.G [Lower] class."

'!'

Something inside me switched on, a cold feeling emerging that somewhat swept my judgment with it.

"Let's fight..."

Right now, I didn't care about the fact that I would probably be weaker, nor did I care that she most likely did, indeed, mean nothing bad about her statement. It wasn't a lie that the most logical conclusion would be that she would most likely just beat me, without me scratching her.

I could see her face concentrating a bit and her eyes sharpened, "What did you say?"

"I said let's spar, but give me one week. The Saturday after the dungeon dive, let's not just spar, let's have a duel even without our rankings being decided."

"HAHA!"

A burst of loud laughter rang out in the hall, with the source being Mike, "Good! I like that! I will be the supervisor and judge of the fight!"

"But won't it just end with you getting humiliated? Mr. Borr, are you sure about this, we all saw the difference in our stats? I also know he has talents of his own, but will that really matter?"

Not letting the gorilla answer, I took the lead, "Do you accept or decline?"

She looked incredibly hesitant, not wanting me to lose face, but in the end, she couldn't decline because of her pride.

"I accept."