Chapter 8

Kari sat on the couch, a laptop on her lap as her legs swing from front to back. "Shadiiiiiiiiii!~" Kari whined loudly, catching Shadi's attention.

"What?" He asked, as he looked through the latest documents his assistant had sent him, which was standing next to him. "Why aren't there any good hackers in this world?" Kari said unhappily as she leaned backwards on the sofa.

"I don't know honestly," Shadi admitted. Kari sighed as she put away her laptop.

She grabbed the TV remote and on the TV, going to Netflix and watched Danganronpa.

Distracting Shadi from his work and putting it away, telling himself that he will do it later. The assistant could only sigh at this action of his boss who became 10× lazier when he was introduced to Netflix.

"Shadi, stop watching and go finish your work." Kari said sternly, Shadi looked at her and frowned, "I will do it later." She sighed, "Don't lie to yourself and me, you know you won't. Now finish it or I will force you to eat my cooking for you for a few months." Shadi stared at her and then horrified expressions formed as his assistant cheered for Kari silently.

Shadi gave in and did his work, finally finishing his work pile which has been increasing constantly due to him neglecting his work for many months.

-Kari POV-

"Hey Shadi, are there any more forgotten attributes?" I asked. "I will tell you if you encounter a person who has it." He said, his eyes focused on the TV.

I groaned, he had informed me about Sazuki's attribute so suddenly, I'm still trying to get over the fact that there were forgotten attributes.

I also have been trying to search around my past life memory to see if Sazuki was in the game. His backstory felt like one for all I know and his looks could rival the main capture targets.

I sighed as my mind filled with endless thoughts.

"Oh yeah! I forgot, where are the others and Sazuki?" I asked as I looked around the empty room.

"The pets are in the training room and Sazuki is in a forest filled with harmless animals that I have created." Two doors suddenly appeared, I walked up to them and opened each of them slowly.

The training room was a humongous squared room, it was completely white and there was a digital panel on the wall to design how you wanted it to look. Austin was fighting Isabella, Zeke was fighting Yuki and Pyshic was fighting Delta.

'I guess they're training...' I close the door and opened the other one.

The other one was filled with trees and bushes, plants and well, they were filled with greenery.

There were insects and many animals, like birds, squirrels and surprisingly many animals that I have seen when I was on earth.

I could see Sazuki sitting down, on his lap was a snow-white rabbit and he was petting it, smiling cheerfully at the other animals.

I walked up to him and bend down. "Are the animals nice?" I asked with a smile. He looked startled for a moment but relaxed when he saw it was me. "Yes..." He said softly. I

I rubbed his head with affection and left him alone, exiting the room. The two doors faded into the wall as I walked back to the sofa.

"Aren't you supposed to go to class now?" Shadi questioned suddenly.

"Huh? What do you mean? I'm not lat.....OH MY GOD- WHEN DID IT BECOME 8:55 AM?!" Shadi shrugged as he watched me panic as I got up and started scurrying around, trying to find my stuff.

Panting, I arrived at the first period just in time. I sat down next to Amelia who looked at me with concern, "Are you alright Kari?" I nodded as I took out a pack of tissues and started wiping my sweat off.

"Any news?" I asked, tossing the in the trash.

Amelia nodded, "I heard we're gonna be paired with the second years during combat magic!"

I almost whacked my head for forgetting such an event.

For this event, Amelia by chance will get paired with four of the boys (ofc)

They are tasked to fight an F, E, D, C ranked monster and get their core. But by accident, an S ranked monster had gotten through the barrier set up by the teachers and Amelia and the boys encounter it.

The B rank monster will hit Xlec and you will get to choose whether or not, you wanted to jump in front of Xlec to save him which will trigger his route. But based on Amelia's personality, I'm very sure she will jump in front of Xlec.

But hey, there is some romantic mood in this, like when Amelia opened his shirt to deal with Xlec's wounds and saw his muscles.

He has a 6 pack, wonder where he got it from. I kept fidgeting in my seat as I waited for the event to come by, I planned to escape from my group and spy from afar.

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The girls and boys were chattering excitedly as they faced the class filled with second years, though most of their attention was on the four crown Princes who were chatting with each other.

Someone cleared their throat loudly and everyone fell silent. "Looks like I finally got your attention." The teacher said with a stern voice.

"Anyways, me and the other teachers to have you go students go in groups," She gestured towards a dark blue box. "We will be putting you guys in groups of 5, it will be random so don't you dare say that we picked unfairly or dare complain." She raised an eyebrow, scanning the crowd for any looks of displeasure, "Now please line up and reach into the box to get your group number."

Originally, Kari, the villainess was at the start of the but I decided to line up behind Amelia who was at the right spot she was original.

Amelia walked up to the box and pulled out the number, '5'.

I instead pulled out the number '7'. Amelia saw my number and frowned heavily.

She pouted, "Why am I not in the same group as Kariiiii?" I gave her an awkward eye closed smile as I pointed to the crown princes who were holding the same number.

She perked up a bit she was thankful the one she had paired up with wasn't the girls who were mean to her. I bade her as she went off to her designated group, not leaving before hugging me.

I look around to see if I could spot anyone who had the same number as me. I spotted a dark blue-haired boy with a cyan highlight and cyan eyes with a tinge of purple in them.

He held the same number in his hand like me. I grinned as I went up to him and tap his shoulder. He turned around, "Ye-Ohhhh, his teammate." He spotted the number in my hand. "Do you know who the other 3?" I asked.

He shakes his head, "I guess we have to keep looking around then." I murmured, "Come on!" I grabbed him by his hand as he widened his eyes, I dragged him around, looking for our teammates.

I spotted another boy, his head turning from left to ride as he tried to find us. He had slightly dark blonde hair and pastel purple eyes. "Hey! You're our teammate!" I shouted to him. He turned around, seeing the number in my hands which I was waving at him.

He smiled as he followed me.

"One down, two more to go!" I said happily, I left the dark blue hair boy in blonde hair boy's hands.

And told them to wait here as I find the other teammates.

Looking around, I saw a girl with darkish reddish magenta hair, her hair was covering the right eye.

Her left fiery red eye was looking around calmly. I waved at her and she walked towards me, flashed her number at me and I pointed in the direction where the other teammates were.

'One down, last one to go!' Seeing a blue hair boy who had a pair of white headphones on his head, in his hand he was holding a toast with an egg on it while the other was holding the number '7'.

I went up to him, grabbed him by the hand and dragged him back. He almost choked on his toast, but oh well. He didn't die so it's fine.

"Let's introduce ourselves first, shall we? I will start first! My name is Kari, I'm Year 1 and it's nice to meet you all!" I introduced myself, as I gestured to the dark blue hair boy.

He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "Uh, I'm Aiden. I'm year 1, Nice to meet you."

The blonde hair boy softly smiled, "My name is Qino, I'm year 2."

Her red eye surveying each of us, "I'm Maida, Year 2."

And the last boy, "Valac, Year 2." He simply said.

"That's great then! What are your attributes? Mine is Lava and Darkness. " I said.

"Uh, mine is Water and Lighting," Aiden said.

"I have wood and earth," Qino said.

"I have fire and wind," Maida said.

"Ice and metal." Valac simply said.

I clapped my hands together, "Alright! Let's go hunt some monsters!" I first pumped as Qino chuckled at my actions and Maida grinned widely.

Valac had a stoic expression on his face and Aiden was smiling softly.

Kari led the group as she held a piece of paper that contained 3 monsters that they were able to kill according to their attributes and skills.

A monster comes with a monster core, so they had to get it to prove that they killed it. They also had a flare just in case they got into trouble and can alert the teachers.

Walking into the dense forest, Kari opened her status and enable the Map option which allowed her to view animate things on it.

It could also provide information if you press on the dot that shows that animate thing.

Kari looked at the paper which was actually featuring the map.

She saw a red dot moving and looked at the list, 'Ah! It's one of the monsters, let's get there quick! I need to spy on them.'

"Hey, let's go this way! I have a feeling one of the monsters is on the list." Kari causally pointed west. Everyone decided to go along with Kari.

ROAR! Hearing a massive roar, Aiden suddenly froze while Qino and Kari got closer to the source of the noise.

"I see it!" She whispered. She looked at the others, forming a plan in her head to kill it.

This monster's weakness was ice, it cannot stable itself on an unstable surface.

She gestured for Valac to come closer, whispering into his ear. "Try to freeze the ground below the monster." Valac nodded and aimed both of his open hands at the dirt ground.

A stream of cold water shot out of his arm, it touched the ground and immediately turned to ice. The monster roared loudly as it slipped and fell on four legs.

"MAIDA! BURN THE MONSTER! QINO, TRAP IT IN THE A CAGE! AIDEN, HIT IT WITH LIGHTNING!" Kari shouted out the instructions as everyone got to work.

Maida sprinted to the monster using her wind attribute, she held out her hands, and a burst of fire shot out.

Qino raised his hands and branches grew out of the ground, entrapping the monster.

Aiden brought his hand down, hitting the monster with lighting, the monster whimpered in pain.

Kari then formed a huge blob of lava and dropped it on the monster.

The lava sizzled loudly, burning the monster to its bones and going back into the cracks that Qino had formed for the Lava to go through.

What was left was the skeleton of the monster and a bright glowing orange diamond core in its ribcage.

Qino ordered the branches to stretch the bones of the ribcage, giving them access to the bright core. Kari picked it up, "Who wants to hold it?" She asked.

Everyone avoided eye contact, Kari sighed as she decided to place it in her bag. Transporting secretly to her space storage.

Kari looked at the list, "Alright, one down, two more to go." She said as she opened her map again.

•After hunting•

Kari took the bright green round core from Maida and stuff it in her bag, she patted it with satisfaction.

"Alright! We finished, let's go back now." Everyone agreed and headed back.

Handing the cores to the teacher who checked that it was authentic.

The teacher allowed them to leave early for the lesson, "I'm gonna stay behind and wait for my friend, it was nice teaming with you guys." Kari smiled at them.

"It was a good experience, besides you did most of the work." Qino simply said.

Valac gave a small nod, "I agree! You look really amazing when you were fighting." Aiden said excitedly, losing all the shyness he had before.

Kari grinned and thanked him.

Maida put her arm around her neck and smiled, "If you ever wanna go fight some monsters, include me!"

Kari laughed and agreed, she bade them goodbye.

Kari went back to the tent and once she was out of the teacher's sight. She sneaked back into the forest.

Opening her map, she pinpointed where Amelia and the Capture Targets were.

Seeing a red dot venturing closer and closer to them. Kari immediately sprinted to their location quickly, summoning Pyshic to help her by using his branches to carry her underground towards them.

Kari's head popped out of the dirt as she heard familiar voices nearby, not forgetting to strap on a black mask, she sneaked out quietly and carefully.

Going closer to the voices, Kari saw multiple figures and quickly hid behind the tree.

Her eyes sparkled as she watched the scene.

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"Crap!" Xlec shouted out in frustration as his attack missed again.

The monster shot another attack, which hit Xlec in his chest, as he fell to the ground, gritting his teeth.

"Damon! Use your metal attribute to create a cage to try to stall the monster for a few seconds!" He instructed.

Damon nodded and metal walls arise from the ground and beneath the monster, trapping the monster which stomped loudly in anger.

Arties aimed at the monster with lava, since metal was a good conductor of heat, the monster could feel the heat seeping through and cried out in agony when it burned him.

'Arties...had a slightly Sadistic manner...he personally likes to torture things...like that monster there...Poor thing.'

Arties gave a small smile, the dangerous glint in his eye in view of the others as they shivered internally.

Amelia made her over to Xlec worriedly as she bend down to undo his shirt and look at his wound, summoning her light magic, the wound magically disappeared like it was never there.

Meanwhile, Kari's eyes were twitching, Amelia didn't exactly go according to the script?!

But, where was the romantic tension when Amelia was healing his wound? Her aura turned dark as she frowned, very unhappy.

Kain suddenly frowned as his eyes went to a certain tree that Kari was hiding behind.

He gave a signal to others as they looked at the tree too. Before turning away, not wanting to arouse suspicion from Kari.

Amelia was trying to get the core from the monster, seeing the boys not helping her. She was annoyed, 'Can you help me out here?! The bones are freaking too hard and stiff to move.'

Finally, Arties noticed what was happening and used his Earth attribute to get the core out, branches coiling around the core, it made its way to Amelia who finally got it in her hands.

Amelia gave a small smile to him and thank him which Arties just simply nodded. His eyes looking at that tree.

He walked up to the others, "Know who the girl is?" Damon nodded and gestured to Kain.

"Daughter of the only Duke in Zuterra. Kari Dim Vol." Kain informed them, looking at the rectangle hand-sized device which contained the information of every student.

"Attribute is Lava and Darkness and she's a friend of Amelia." The others looked at Amelia who was still smiling stupidly at the core.

Only Amelia knows what made her so happy.

'Kari will definitely praise her!' She thought as she daydreamed.

The others sweatdrop at this scene and ignored her. Xlec took out the list,

"Do you guys still want to hunt the other monsters?" Everyone shakes their head. "Ok then, well how about we pick that Kari up on the way too?" He playfully grinned.

They all sighed as Xlec's playful manner appeared again.