7 7: Managing time [pt1]

Once the night descended, Olivier was up and ready to start leveling up again. Yesterday had been a progressive day and Olivier had managed to cross lvl 15 before he was called down.

Progressing through earlier levels was easy in such games but they became a grinding game once you were at a higher level.

That was why Olivier wanted to level up as much as possible without doing side-quests. They would yield more exp if Olivier did them once he was at a high enough level for the world bosses and raid dungeons.

Olivier's avatar appeared on the bright game screen and Olivier moved it around a bit to check for connection speed. But so far, everything seemed to be in order. Olivier's avatar moved how he wanted it to move.

"Everything looks alright. Let us start the mandatory chain quest and then hit lvl 20 today. I want the exp boosting pendant from this event."

Olivier quickly took the quest from the front guild and hurriedly made his way into the abandoned caves where his mission was based.

What he did not know was that his decision to exp block his teammate from yesterday would come back to waste his time so soon.

The summoner from yesterday was keeping an eye on the records of who entered the game server and who left.

Her actual identity had been a gaming streamer who had just started playing this game. Everything humiliating that had happened to her yesterday had been caught on her stream and her fans had screamed for revenge.

The streamer's name was Aoi Harada, one of the top streamers currently in the gaming community. And she was looking to take her revenge.

As soon as Olivier's avatar was spotted, her chat exploded into screams and alerted Aoi about him. She quickly left what she was doing and fled after Olivier.

She did not want him to get away. This time, she was going to kill him on the world map.

"Everyone, it is time for me to take my revenge. I am 5 levels higher than this immature child and I will show him what happens when you fight against superior players."

Until you hit lvl 20, your class was treated as 'unspecialized' and you could not use your class-specific skills. But Echoes was a game aimed to make a profit at its heart. There were special benefits for guilds as well as well-known streamers.

As such, Aoi already had summoner skills in her set and she quickly used all her mana to call forth her minion.

"Hurry up and kill that player. Drop his exp to zero so that I can have my revenge."

Aoi watched from the sidelines as her familiar followed the unspecialized gunner. But before it could reach the male avatar, the cave entrance blocked the familiar.

Her familiar gave a fizzled cry before it was forced out of existence.

"Huh, what happened? Why did my familiar not able to enter the cave? Is this some kind of bug? Do I need to report this to the admin team?"

Aoi was freaked out as she looked at her screen. It was the second time this had happened to her and with the same person even. It was understandable why Aoi was upset.

"Shut up chat. It is not because I am lacking in skills and awareness. It is all this game's fault. How long will it take for my mana to get replenished anyway?"

Usually, mana replenished quite swiftly but it was only after you completed the class quest and gained the passive skill needed to do so.

Currently, Aoi was not at a high enough level to naturally replenish her mana in time. And her chat made sure to remind her of this constantly.

'You messed up.'

'Your mana will only get replenished by tomorrow. You are done gaming for today.'

'Hahahah, someone forgot to check the rules before playing this game.'

All these teasing tones got to Aoi quite soon. It made her hatred and annoyance for the avatar on the screen worsen.

But try as she might, there was nothing more Aoi could do without risking her reputation. She had already shown that she was annoyed at this man. If anything happened to him off-screen, then it would only come to bite Aoi back later.

"Fine, I am quitting the game for today, does someone have another idea for what we can play today?"

Aoi changed games after that but she vowed to get her revenge for this humiliation.

....

Meanwhile, Olivier noticed that he had been marked as a target by someone's summons. And that was why he had entered the site for his mission in such a hurry.

A quest site provided a natural immunity to such tactics while also serving as a resting spot. The only downside to these places was the timer.

Once you entered any quest site, the timer for that quest begins. And oftentimes, this timer was too short to take a detour.

But all those kinds of specialized quests could be taken up after you hit lvl 50 and above. There was still a long way for Olivier to go if he wanted to reach that level.

"Alright, time for me to fight the monsters in here. I am glad that the quests for the low-level exp gaining are just monster killing. I do not think I have enough mental power left in me to take up anything complicated."

Olivier looked at the monsters in front of him and they all looked quite dumbly back at him. Not a single thought was hidden behind those AI eyes.

Olivier's avatar had a little problem starting the initial attack, but he quickly got into the rhythm of killing the monsters. They died like paper under his blade. It was quite easy for Olivier to kill the monsters in front of him.

One died and then two and then three until Olivier lost count of them all. All he needed to do was to keep on fighting these monsters until he hit the required number.

Olivier's whole night was spent killing monsters but he was able to level up to 20 somehow. That meant that it was time for Olivier to do the ascension quest and finally be able to participate in the event.

'Let us take this step tomorrow. I am too tired to do anything more than I have already done anyway. And, the sun is about to rise and Adolf would ask questions if he found me outside of my bed.'

Olivier finally rested his body on the bed. His body felt so much lighter than before and he was also able to relax his back muscles. Olivier had no idea when they had gotten so tense, but even trying to relax them hurt his body.

It only felt like Olivier had closed his eyes for a moment when he was woken up again by an urgent shaking of his shoulder.

"Young master, it is time to wake up. Your new teacher would be here any second now to check up on your progress. You need to be ready for your new teacher."

Adolf woke him up just as Olivier had managed to fall asleep. His body protested the sudden movement as it was not used to waking up for such long hours.

But Olivier knew he needed to train himself to do better if he wanted to endure long matches. Professional players required much more concentration than this after all.

"Hmm, I guess things are not too bad for me right now. At least I have yet to reach the 'desperately need sleep' stage even after pulling an all-nighter."

Olivier spoke these words in a low voice to not be heard by Adolf. But he had a feeling Adolf had heard him anyway and was now only humoring him by pretending not to hear his words.

Olivier decided not to cause too much trouble for the old butler after that. Adolf had the power to take away his internet connection as well as PC privileges. The old butler had done so before as well.

Once again, when Olivier came down, he was the only one. No other member of his family was even awake and Olivier was able to have a quiet breakfast.

And then came the person Olivier had been dreading - his home tutor.

Nicolas D. Alphonse was a name and a face Olivier was very familiar with. The man had aged considerably since Olivier had seen him before but the man still looked as rigid as ever.

"Young master, this is Nicolas D. Alphonse and he used to be your father's tutor a long time ago. He is an excellent man and I hope you do not give him trouble."

Well, now that was going to be difficult to Adolf to do.

In his previous life, Olivier had tried everything he could to make Nicolas like him. But the rigid man had never appreciated Olivier and his gaming skills. All he had gotten for his effort was a cold smile and even more worksheets.

And somehow, looking at this man now. Nothing seemed to have changed from that time long ago.

"This is Olivier's kid? The child looks just like him - stupid and worthless. I hope you will not disappoint me like your father did and you will work harder as well."

Olivier could see Adolf frowning from the corner of his eyes. But the old man did not say anything to his tutor due to the long history of well-being that was established between Alphonse house and the William house.

The sound of footsteps could also be heard coming down and Olivier noticed Natasha's familiar silhouette walking down the stairs.

She was halfway through the stairs before she stopped and decided to go back. Her expression looked a little terrified when she saw her previous tutor.

"Anyway kid, come and follow me. We need to check your current level before I can begin working with you."

Olivier groaned as he followed the man. He had finished all compulsory levels of education and even had a degree in computer programing in his previous life.

So, it was safe to say that he knew most of what he would be taught in school.

But it had also been years since he had last seen any 'hypothetical' problem so it was safe to say Olivier had thrown everything useless out of his brain.

And that was the reason Olivier would blame him for failing an elementary test.

It was not his fault he did not remember. It had just been a long time since he had last seen such problems, alright? And it was not like any of these had any real impact on the world.

Most of these problems would never see a practical application.

"You did as well as I expected from you - pathetically. I guess you are Olivier's son after all if you cannot even solve such easy problems."

Olivier could not even bring himself to get angry at his tutor. The problems he had been given to solve had been elementary.

But how would he remember the formula for compound interest when he had never had to compute it before? That was what banks and online apps were for.

"Now where is your attention span? Pay attention to our lesson and I promise you will be able to succeed in life. Here, is the lesson plan that we need to go through before you can begin your school next week."

The planner was full of study sessions. It hardly left time for anything else in it but Olivier knew better than to complain.

Besides, if his planner was so full then he will have an excuse to decline to do other things. He would be able to devote that time to his gaming instead.

'Well, I got through this timetable once, so I am sure I will be able to get through this again. I hope my new school has an online gaming club I can join.'

After all, times were different from when Olivier had been young before. Now Esports was considered as an actual sport and was encouraged.

Maybe Olivier would have a better time following his passion in this new world than before.