Surgery

Despite John being against Dignitas' wishes to give one of his own eyes to Lorelai, the author refused to budge even slightly.

Perhaps this was the first time he had ever experienced such anger and passion. Even when he was killed by one of his fans, Dignitas didn't feel a single ounce of hatred towards the person responsible. This was perhaps one of the few things that truly boiled his blood.

Fighting with one eye would indeed be difficult for Dignitas, but it wouldn't be something he would roll with for the entirety of his second life. Unlike Lorelai, he didn't rely as much as she did with her eyes.

Dignitas' D.V would most likely still wotk even with one eye. After all, it had the word "Vision" in the name, and didn't mean that it would entirely rely on having two eyes.

"The surgery is set to start by tomorrow, so I should prepare myself."

As the first quarterly exam was right around the corner, Dignitas had to prepare for the upcoming major event set to unfold during it.

He hated that he would have to face against demons while handicapped, but that was just how it would be. He had neither the time nor the resources required to go out on another mission.

Alter and Percivale still had theirs, of course. The clock's hands were already beginning to tick, and there wouldn't be much time to prepare.

Currently, Dignitas was resting in his room. He had already begun the first steps into one-eyed combat, and was just about to call the one of few people he knew could contend with the best even with half his vision obscured.

The face of a certain scarface who sold Skill Cards came to mind. Indeed, Bigsby wore an eyepatch for a reason. Having lost it during one of his dungeon expeditions, he had learned to live life forgoing vision in one eye.

For today at least, Dignitas had been granted a single day of temporary absence, with said author using the excuse of mentally preparing himself for the loss of his eye as the reason.

Ring… the faint sound of bells chiming resonated throughout Bigsby's store as Dignitas walked through. The owner of the shop was located directly behind the counter, busy fiddling with some of the compartments installed in it.

"Hey, Bigsby. You look busy."

"Ya think so, kid?" The owner replied without even standing up to look at his customer. "Sorry, but shop's closed for now. Ain't got time to dawdle, especially with how everything's been lately."

"Well, tell me about it." Dignitas said as he took a chair and sat down.

"If you must know," Bigsby replied in between grunts. "I've received word. That some hooligan was planning to harm my niece."

Harm his niece… Curie indeed was going to be the target of the demons during the first quarter exam, but Dignitas felt this was something else entirely.

"Tell me more."

"Bah, don't you have class? Whatever, won't matter either way. It's that damn band of youngsters she keeps hanging out with. Specifically, that blonde fellow."

"You mean John's party? By blonde, then it must be…"

Makarov Zugnav was the only one who fit that description. He was the more battle-hungry out of the five, but held great loyalty to each of his teammates, especially Wesker, the old man and only "student" who was well over fifty.

Dignitas didn't think Makarov the type to aim to cause harm to his friends. And even if he did, there was simply no reason to do so. He was a member of the Zugnav family, a rather well known household that prided itself on being exceptional in hand-to-hand combat.

"That can't be right. Mind telling me more?"

"One of my asssociates tipped me off that he's been hanging around Tetrapine and getting into fights in the Dueling Zone. And the whole time he's been doing it, he hasn't stopped muttering my niece's name."

"No, that still sounds like Makarov. But the latter is interesting." Dignitas nodded.

Indeed, Makarov was famous for usually being the one to start fights. Anyone that got under his nerves often earned themselves a spot at the end of his fist. However, John still kept him due to his battle prowess and, as said earlier, loyalty.

John did so because in his second run, Makarov was the one who kickstarted the Gang Battles, an event where almost every single first and second year student entered into a gang due to different beliefs about a certain subject.

It wasn't related to the story now, so Dignitas saw no reason to focus on Makarov, at least until later when his character began to get more traction.

"I'll check it out for you. I'm kinda interested in whatever Makarov's been doing as well."

"If you do that for me, I'll allow you to choose whatever skill card I have in my collection, below A rank."

Dignitas laughed. The reward was indeed appealing and certainly something that would make even the crippled move, but he wanted something else entirely.

"Nah. Just teach me how to fight like you do."

***

"Alright… so based on the intel Bigsby gave me, the most recent case of Makarov-assault should be here."

There were two reasons as to why Dignitas had undertaken this mission. Firstly, and perhaps the most important one, was to learn from Bigsby.

The second reason was more due to a gut feeling. Dignitas recalled what the one eyed veteran said. Makarov was muttering Curie's name while on his rampage.

It seemed a little far-fetched to think it was connected to Lorelai's case (according to Shib, she had been muttering his name too while he was away), but this clue was as good as any other.

Currently, Dignitas was strolling around the inside of Tetrapine, the biggest mall in the Academy District.

At this time of day, the mall was rather quiet, as the only people who were around were students who skipped school, whether they be for actually good reasons or nefarious ones, and the ocassional professor who didn't have classes at the moment.

However, most shops were still open despite the mall being desolate. Well, those "most" shops were in fact, operated mainly by artificial intelligence and robots.

Tetrapine was a prime spot for delinquents because of its empty atmosphere during the day. This made it a perfect play to hangout when cutting classes.

Dignitas' current destination, and the one he had just arrived to was the Recreational Quadrant of Tetrapine, the area that boasted of having shops that allowed customers to enact any of their favourite hobbies using magic.

Coincidentally, it also happened to have the "Dueling" Zone, and as its name implied, customers could, for a set amount of time, use the facilities to create and customize various dueling arenas.

It couldn't be helped that Illusion Magic was a big part of how this zone worked. Because in truth, most of the shops here only somewhat replicated what Reality Magic could do.

Because unlike Reality, the Illusion Affinity had no way of influencing the body. It was based entirely on the mind.

As such, two of the five senses, namely, Touch and Taste, were oftentimes still the same if people were to experience it in the real world versus in the illusionary world.

"I guess in a way, it's kinda like a more accessible version of the Training Hall the honor students have." Dignitas chuckled to himself.

"Hello! Welcome to Valheim! Would you like to stay with us?"

A humanoid robot instantly walked up to Dignitas the moment he entered the store. It began to tell him the key features of Valheim once it realized it was the first time he had come here.

One of those features piqued Dignitas' interest. Namely, the creator of this shop had the bright idea of allowing customers to access arenas created in the past.

These arenas went with an Upvote-Downvote system, wherein the higher the former was, the higher it would be displayed on the main page when using the "menu" given by the staff when choosing a world.

After paying the robot with his infinite honor student credits, Dignitas was given a small tablet. In it, the various worlds used by customers were ordered from most upvoted to the lowest. There was also a feature that allowed him to create an arena, but he wouldn't be doing that today.

Instead of scrolling through the tablet looking for the arena Makarov was often seen in, Dignitas simply typed in the words "To The Death" in the searchbar and clicked the very first one. The head icon located beside it showed that there was currently one person inside the world. That person was probably Makarov.

Dignitas then turned his attention to the score of the world. At a slight glance, the world wasn't very well received. The upvote to downvote ratio was ten to one, and the overall rating was rated a measly one star.

But it was only when Dignitas scrolled through the reviews did he see why this was so.

Indeed, practically every single review was written in the form of a hatemail towards Makarov Zugnav. They complained about how he had relentlessly attacked them the moment they entered the world, and did the best he could to make their stay there hell.

"Well, sounds like the perfect place to go to." Dignitas simply grinned before handing the tablet back to the robot.