Vital Information

The entire morning routine resumed once more. Alex attempted to cheer Thomas up by mentioning the sword again on their way to class.

For Thomas, everything started to become like whitenoise, he was lost in thought and his own status scared him.

[Thomas Rosemary]

[3/5 HP]

[Message: Your HP will be recovered the following day]

[Medicinal vials or abilities will not have an effect on you]

This meant every time when Thomas defied the system and tried to majorly alter the event by seeking Cassie's help, he lost an entire health point in the process.

Thomas had a lingering suspicion: either his deaths were worth half a health point each, or the system was slowly doubling. The first death then might have been a freebie and it terrified him even more.

During class and lunch, Thomas kept on being quiet. Alex and Corbin did not intervene, hence they thought Thomas would come around on his own after his panicked state.

"I will be heading to the library for now, catch up with you guys later!" Thomas smiled.

Corbin and Alex shared a worrying look, and Thomas noticed it.

"Guys, I am fine! Do not worry! Everyone is bound to have a nightmare or two in a while, right?" Thomas smiled and reassured them.

His friends smiled back and waved him off.

"Cya later Thomas!" Corbin yelled.

"Do not you dare be late!" Alex was back to treating Thomas in his usual playful way.

Back at the library Thomas thought he would adopt a new approach. What were the demons attributes? Ooze-like abilities, stretching, hardening.

Thomas walked up to the orb on the podium and asked it, "Any records on ooze-like properties and hardening?"

"Records found containing both," A fairy AI appeared out of the orb and voiced.

Thomas resumed his old spot and pressed the orb. However right before the bubble was formed someone jumped in to share the table with him.

"Do you mind?" Emily asked and took Thomas by full surprise.

"No, not at all," Thomas replied and she sat down across from him.

They both read in silence and the books did not really mention anything of importance, only how the abilities work more or less. Emily glanced over from time to time, and Thomas pondered about her actions. Emily all of the sudden slammed a book in Thomas' face.

"What am I looking at?" Thomas looked up after seeing the new book on top of the old one.

Emily sighed, "The books you have selected all are wrong. I saw you picking them out after the AI told you, and thought you wanted some more specific information in how to…" Emily halted her sentence.

"In how to…?" Thomas was now extremely curious.

Emily looked away for a second, then back at Thomas.

"In how to deal with a specific tier-2 demon…" Emily stood up and pressed the orb to take her leave.

"Wait!" Thomas grabbed her hand, "How did you know…?" Thomas inquired.

Immediately after he grabbed Emily's hand, she pulled back and then looked back only for a brief moment before leaving.

"I have said enough… and tier-2 indicates two properties of its attribute…" Emily uttered hushly enough for Thomas to hear now that the bubble was removed and then left promptly afterwards.

Thomas smiled, "Finally some insight!" he thought with newfound confidence.

The Emily issue had to wait for another day. From what Thomas could gather about her, was that Emily was extremely insightful and resourceful. Just from one glance, she managed to figure out he was looking for a specific tier-2 demon counter.

Thomas began to flick through the book. Finally he came across the ooze section in the book Emily recommended.

[Ooze: Has multiple attributes]

…

[Hardening]

…

[Stretching]

…

Both of the attributes were listed amongst the potential ones.

[Hardening: Weakness - Ice]

[The magical molecules are hardened and therefore Ice can freeze them easier while they are not moving at a volatile rate and are more stable]

[Stretching: Weakness - Fire]

[The magical molecules are in volatile movement and more unstable while stretch outwards, making it easier for Fire to severing their bonds]

Thomas grinned, "This was it!"

Another thing took him by surprise.

[Arcane System: Message]

[Gaining Knowledge About Main Quest]

[You have gained 10 Exp]

[Experience: 25/100]

This confirmed it even more. The Demon's weaknesses were clearer than before. Thomas leaned back in his chair and pondered for a second.

"Alex has Fire… Corbin has Water… if I can somehow enhance their abilities and create a stronger Fire and turn his Water into Ice…" Thomas pondered in deep thought.

"I got it!" Thomas rose up and headed out of the library.

Thomas remembered something from the past. On his way out of the library Thomas could hear the noise of a thud and couple books falling over. The bullying event of the second day was taking place again, just like scheduled to make it two days in a row.

"Did you think you would get away today after lunch?!!" A couple of students laughed while ganging up on the same kid from yesterday.

And Emily appeared behind Thomas like before and shook her head. She signaled for Thomas to let it go a second time and not intervene.

Thomas sighed, and then before taking his leave he glanced at the students. That is when he realized what the forgotten feeling was about, right before his third death.

One of the students beating the nervous kid wreck up was the other one at the demon incident. He was the first-year noble who was friends with the second-year one back at the staircase incident yesterday.

Thomas idly watched until they finished beating him up. The student coughed up blood and slowly got up, and clinged for support against the rafts. He then changed for support against the walls in the hallway and moved slowly towards the North-Eastern Wing.

"They think they can get away with anything! NO! I will make them pay," The student laughed out in pain.

That is when Thomas saw something change within the student, his eyes and pupils blackened.

"No, we will make them pay," A familiar voice announced.

Thomas shivered in fear, that was the voice belonging to the demon. He trailed carefully behind the student, and saw him trailing a few others.

"We will exercise some repentance today, how about it?"

"Sounds good!"

"Yeah… teach that Alex what he deserves"

A few people were having a conversation. Thomas deduced quickly that this was a golden-crest gathering. He could hear Olivia's voice amongst them.

"Then it is settled," Olivia said and all of them took their leave, apart from two students.

"What is the plan?" The one back at the library asked.

"We will lure Alex to the North-Eastern Wing on the 8th floor within the hour, and that will be that," The other one laughed.

Thomas had a hard time hearing them clearly from where he was standing. He could not spot any faces either, else the demon would discover him. This gave Thomas an idea.

[Scanning]

[Peter Fenner]

[Race: Human ??]

…

His scan was interrupted by the next thing that would happen, and Thomas turned around by a simple tap to his shoulder.

"What are we looking at?" Peter cackled with a smile and pitch black eyes, right behind Thomas.