Hunters Academy (5)

A few hours earlier.

Zen returned to his room, dismissing his friends. Upon entering, his anger swiftly boiled over as he unleashed it on the furniture and anything he could grab.

"That bastard! Who does he think he is?!" he exclaimed through gritted teeth, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself.

Though what had happened was hardly an embarrassment to him, the fact that he did not get the final say when Julia interrupted caused all the momentum he had built from the setting while asserting his dominance to dissipate.

Merely thinking about it drove him mad. "Just because he got a little attention, he thinks he's a big shot." He turned around and sat on the floor, his hands resting on his knees as he took a deep breath.

Zen had always been regarded as a genius from a young age. As a potential hunter, everyone who knew him believed he would excel in his class once he awakened his ability.

But that small victory was snatched from him by an inconsequential person who merely survived a Cosmic Mana Wave. What was even more annoying was the fact that Alexander's physical stats after awakening were unprecedented.

While Ross also had high physical stats, they were roughly the same. Furthermore, the One-Horned humans were renowned for their physical strength above all else, so there is that. 

However, for a typical human to possess such statistics, even if he were a hybrid, it would not have been enough to yield such values.

Of course, he also understood that strength was not everything, which is why he chose to challenge him.

"That bitch had to interfere. Why is she even with someone like him?" Zen could not comprehend why Julia would associate with someone like that.

Until a few months ago, Alexander Gray was on no one's radar. Then, all of a sudden, the wonder boy leaps to stardom! Zen found that rather suspicious.

Julia Knight herself was unknown to the public. Even though her family was powerful, not all its members were in the public eye.

Regardless, the power they all had made it difficult for others to mess with them. 'How the hell is he even friends with someone like that?' His thoughts were all over the place.

He also heard of the theories circulating about the reason for his strength, but he cared little for that. Since Alexander came to everyone's attention, he inferred that if he overcame him in front of the crowd, he could claim the spotlight for himself.

Yes, he was an attention whore, but that was beside the point. He wanted to be known as the strongest among his peers.

"Just you wait, Alex…" He silently vowed to himself. He was also aware they were in the same dorm building, but approaching him here would have no benefits.

He wanted Alexander to be humiliated, not to secretly beat him up. Moreover, doing so would put his points on the line. "… you'd soon know your place."

His thoughts raced as he devised numerous plans he could employ against Alex. Naturally, most of these revolved around the idea of isolating him from the Knight princess.

If he could also persuade someone to make his life a living hell on the Academy grounds, it would be welcomed.

But the issue was that no one wanted their points deducted. It was already a blessing to be here without having to pay a penny. No one in their right mind would wish to sabotage that simply to please him.

He sighed to himself, resting his right hand on his forehead. The One-Horned rose and approached his desk, linking his assistive AI to it and generating a holographic display.

"Kev, bring up the files we received from the instructor today." He directed, folding his arms across his chest.

As he couldn't come up with anything tangible while the ball was in Alex's court, all he could do was wait. However, waiting was not one of his strong points either. Hopefully, he thought of something soon.

.....

Alex entered his room after bidding farewell to Ross. Once inside, he went straight to the bedroom.

The rooms assigned to each student included a small guest space with sofas, a kitchenette to one side, and a bedroom with an en-suite washroom.

However, the bedroom also had a virtual reality pod and a mana podium.

The virtual reality pod enabled students to connect to the academy's VR world, where they could learn various things and interact with other students. However, it was primarily used as a space for learning combat.

The mana podium, on the other hand, was a small platform in the centre of the bedroom that condensed the surrounding mana for cultivation.

As atmospheric mana was extremely slow to harness, humans developed a device that could condense mana for their users to cultivate.

Of course, there were different grades of mana podiums. But the ones given to students were the most basic, as they are beginner hunters.

Currently, the VR pod and mana podium were inactive and needed to be activated by the students themselves. This required the students to visit the combat systems to turn them on. 

Alex already had plans to activate his account the following day. With the rest of the week free to focus on learning as much as possible at the academy, he intended to do so while also practising his ability.

He had not had much practice with his light ability or his vision prowess.

He had yet to inform anyone of his vision—not even his parents—as he deemed it trivial, given that many others had similar vision prowess.

Once Alex sat down in front of his desk, he connected his AI system to the desk and instructed, "Xex, let's go through the files we got from class today. I want to get this over with as soon as possible."

[Yes]

The display appeared in front of him, showing the rules and regulations students were expected to know, as well as the first-year curriculum.

'Let's look at the rules and regulations first.' He silently thought before passing his instructions to Xex.