Clubs

I woke up the next day feeling incredibly tired. I knew it was because I had to get used to exercising regularly, but the muscle soreness was intense.

Learning from my mistake the first day, I got ready for school but put my uniform into my bag. I instead wore a tracksuit that the old me had, and headed to the hedge maze.

This morning, the elevators were packed. Thankfully, as the students on the top floor we were the first ones on the elevators, so I had no problems securing a ride down.

After I arrived at the hedge maze, I decided to once again try my luck, and if that failed I would follow somebody else. The reason was because you were more likely to find something hidden in the maze, if you were alone, so I would dedicate some time every day to finding what I could.

I began walking through the hedge maze, and noticed that the layout had drastically change. Not just in the paths, but there were not straight open corridors anymore. Instead, I had to duck and jump over several different obstacles. I was confused at first, but then I thought about how the hedge maze was said to provide aid to those in need.

'Is there... Something intelligent controlling the maze? That would make sense why people get things that they need, but they all chalk it up to chance... Perhaps it's all intentional.'

With that thought, I changed my perspective on the change to the maze today, what I needed desperately was to improve my physical body.

This would definitely fit in the category of what I needed.

With a new found intrigue, I decided to test just how far I could improve with the help of this entity that controlled the maze.

I began running forward, it was simple for now as it was mostly either jumping or ducking, and I began to feel the burn on my legs after about ten minutes of this. However I kept going, hoping that my efforts meant something, with the belief that my hard work wouldn't betray me.

When it felt as though my legs were going to give out underneath me, I turned a corner to find that the corridor opened up greatly, and now there were hedges that I believe I could stand on. Above those hedges, were what looked like thick branches, and if I failed to cross the entire jungle gym I would have to walk back to the entrance of the corridor.

"It seems like you really are here to help me, even being able to tell when my legs are tired... Whoever you are, thank you."

I didn't know if they could hear me, but I gave a sincere thanks anyways. I spent another hour, alternating between upper body and lower body sections, before I finally decided to call it a day. As I was just about to call out to put me back on normal paths, I heard a voice behind me.

"Mr. Kiltec, I am surprised to see you here."

I turned around, and saw the archery instructor from the day before. She was hanging from a jungle gym upside down, but she didn't show any signs of struggle. She walked forward, by moving her feet to the next rung and walking like that.

It was incredibly impressive how effortless she made it look.

"Good morning, teacher. Is there something special about being here?"

She had made her way to me, and with a quick flip she landed on the platform where I was resting.

"This part of the maze is only shown to those who are in desperate want or need of physical exercise. With the look on your face, I am thinking you are in the latter."

I didn't argue with her, as I am sure she knew about my lack of physical stats, she wasn't a hero for nothing.

"Yes ma'am. I am trying to squeeze in some conditioning early in the day."

She looked over me for a moment, before nodding quietly.

"Its not a bad thing to work hard. Make sure you treat the forest with respect, and it will give you everything it can... Also, this path is the fastest. It will bring you to the other side once you push yourself past your limit. So if you're serious about improving..."

She walked up to me, and patted my shoulder.

"Don't give up. You'll reach the other side within an hour at this pace."

She then ran ahead, passing the obstacles in the next corridor as if she had practiced it for years, and didn't slow down once. I watched her retreating figure, and thought about what she said.

'It opens up once I pass my limit... Teacher things I have an hour of this left in me... What if I can do it faster?'

I didn't know why, but I really wanted to see her expression if I did better than she thought I could.

[Quest: Pass your limits.]

[Reward: 50g, quest will be offered again tomorrow, and if you are able to surpass the archery instructor's prediction you will gain a movement skill.]

[Penalty: Archery instructor's opinion of you will drop, quest will not be offered again, and the forest entity will not push you to improve.]

'I guess that ends the conversation of calling it quits early. The benefits are just too good to pass up. I will need to get going if I'm going to complete the quest.'

I began to run through the maze again. I knew that Mary would bug me today, but maybe I'll get a really good movement skill.

As I did the course, my mind began to wander when my body became so drained and I was only moving from my will. I began to think about how much I had worked to get the approval from my parents.

I was drenched in sweat, my breath ragged, but I didn't feel badly like I used to when I tried to do something. What was the difference?

'I think it's because... I don't feel like I need to do this... It doesn't define me, and because of that I can freely pursue achieving my best.'

Because it didn't matter to me, I was able to just purely enjoy it.

My muscles were burning, my breath felt like fire, and my heart was beating so fast my chest hurt.

But I was smiling.

****

A young woman was sitting on a chair looking at a cloudy water basin.

"This year's students have a lot of talent, while also having the lowest overall potential... So many of them are lazy."

Looking deep into the water, a clear picture began to form of a boy struggling to breathe while dragging his haggard body along an obstacle path.

"Well... Not all at least... This one."

She gently touched the surface of the water, where the boy's face was.

"He's worth nurturing."

The woman took one more loving look at the boy, before begrudgingly changing the picture. She still had a role to fulfill, she couldn't focus only on one student.

The picture changed from a handsome blonde boy, to a short girl with a large sword, and so on. All people who had incredible talent, that all needed to be nurtured in different ways.

Quietly, in the center of the maze, a woman looked over a water basic while sitting on the top of the leaf from a flower.

****

[Quest complete!]

[+50g]

I was laying on the ground just outside of the hedge exit, gasping for air and my shirt stuck to my back.

'At least it was worth it.'

[Nimble (D-Rank) skill rewarded.]

It was my first passive skill, which made me move with better efficiency, and while it was simple it was incredible for someone like me.

With increased levels, I would be able to move even more comfortably, and move faster.

Speaking of moving faster, I forced my tired body to get up from the ground, and began trudging along to my class. Besides me, I saw another freshman coming out of the maze, but I noticed he wasn't out of breath. When I looked down the path he took, it was also the same as mine, made up of many different obstacles.

He was walking towards me, and having noticed my gaze he looked at me.

"Is something wrong?"

I looked up at him.

Yes, up. The boy was a giant, easily 7 foot tall, and a mass of muscle.

"I was just wondering how you made it through that, without getting winded?"

"Hm? Oh, it's just running. I am from the Tribe of the Sun, from the South of the Empire, we would run for hours through the deserts. This was honestly just a nice way for me to warm up for the day."

I didn't know why, but this guy gave me the same irritable feeling as a girl who looked like the polar opposite of him.

I nodded and didn't bother continuing the conversation. I felt like if I did I would just get annoyed. If I remembered correctly, this tanned freak of nature was named Barron Thundercliff, who was simply gifted with an incredible body.

He had a near unending reservoir of stamina, and his bloodline gave him a boost to his physical stats in the sun light. To make it even more scary, he had a talent in something called sun magic, which allowed him to unleash a pure form of fire magic.

Another one of the monsters in the hero class.

He soon overtook me though, as I was moving at a snail's pace, and walked off to class ahead of me.

It took me almost an hour and 15 minutes to finish the maze today, so I only had 15 minutes to get to the classroom. With everything I could muster, I urged myself on faster.

****

"50 minutes."

I glanced at a student at the very end of the archery range. He was standing in the proper shooting form, but he preferred not to fire. I watched him several times, as he would go from relaxed to a fully taut bow, then slowly relieve his bow.

While he was not practicing the movements to shoot properly, his form up until then was improving, and he was surely building muscles that conventionally were not trained.

While that was interesting, what was more interesting to me was what he said to me at the beginning of class.

'He finished quicker than I thought. I... Misjudged his willpower. He is more than just a hard worker.'

'Also... His face when he said it. Was neither bragging or a game of politics. It was purely...'

*fwish*

An arrow was loosed and hit the edge of the target.

But the boy wasn't upset, at not having hit the bullseye, instead he was proud of his improvement from not being able to hit the target at all.

'Pride.'

****

My arms were incredibly fatigued, but I knew that when your muscles were exhausted you would get the most benefit from exercise. I focused on increasing the time under tension method to build my back muscles to be able to pull a bowstring better. I did this by allowing myself to tire as I slowly released a taut bowstring.

Others thought I was weird, but complete control over a bow was what I thought would help me the most. I had to control what I could control, and completely.

The wind, the target's movements, those were things I couldn't control and had to react to.

However everything until that point was mine to control, and if I missed I only had myself to blame.

However I saw an improvement on my archery. I was now at least able to judge the distance to the target, which allowed me to improve my hit rate, since I only had to account for horizontal deviation.

It was odd, but with the passive skill [Nimble], I felt like the process of shooting the bow became more natural.

I felt as though the previous strain that was heavily placed on my shoulders and forearms, was now being better distributed through my body. Using my waist and legs to create a good base, along with tension, it felt easier to generate the strength to pull back the bow.

I poured my focus into honing myself today. I felt like archery was oddly rewarding to me, but I also felt good about how exhausted my body was.

Ignoring everything else, other than the sole purpose of improving myself and being the best that I could. If I had to survive in this world with geniuses everywhere... I would become a genius at working hard.

After lunch ended, and we had gathered back in the classroom, Ms. Hilton spoke briefly before Mr. Fleur arrived.

"Before Mr. Fleur shows up, I wanted to announce to you all about the clubs available here at the academy. There are many, and if you wanted to create a club that yet exists you can, however everyone must be in one club. Clubs activities take place on weekends, but some clubs go throughout the week as well. Make sure to check the times when your club meets, and make your decisions based on what you're passionate about."

She began walking around, and handed a form to each student.

"Make sure to turn these in by the end of the day. I will only be here until 7 PM, so you have until then. Ah, here comes Mr. Fleur, give him your respects."

Everyone looked ahead but Mr. Fleur was no where to be seen.

However, after a few seconds of confusion, the door to the classroom opened and the familiar grey haired man entered with a big smile on his face.

"Good afternoon students!"

"Good afternoon Mr. Fleur!"

The class all greeted. Many students already began to enjoy the magic class, as Mr. Fleur not only taught a subject everyone was interested in, but he was also an easygoing person. He was incredibly likable for most.

I simply looked at him as he spoke, he was a good teacher, and that's all that mattered to me.

After class was over, I walked to the cafeteria together with Mary, and for some reason Edmond was following us from a distance.

While we were going to the same place, I just got a weird feeling he was specifically following us.

After we got our food, and found a table to sit at, I noticed that Edmond was watching us as we were sitting down. I put my plate down, and walked up to him.

"What do you want Edmond? This whole following us thing is uncomfortable."

He looked angry, but surprisingly he suppressed it.

He was gritting his teeth, but I could at least tell he was trying to ask us a favor.

"I noticed that you were good at math..."

"Mhm."

I knew where this was going. A common occurrence from my previous life.

"Well... I was wondering if I could pay you to tutor me.."

I looked at him in disinterest. While I didn't still hold a grudge to the kid, I didn't see any reason to really help him. Money was important, this was true in any world, but I didn't know if I could afford the time in my busy schedule.

"I don't know if I can go that far, as to personally tutor you consistently, since it would be a big time investment..."

He looked disheartened, but it was then that I had an idea.

"However, we can do it like this... I'll take notes of the class, explaining things a little more clearly, and I'll give them to you to study. I can meet you on the weekends for about an hour a day, and you can ask me questions then."

Edmond showed that he didn't like how I wasn't agreeing because I felt it wasn't a good use of my time, but he reluctantly agreed. It was probably better than failing math, especially as a noble, when there were commoner students doing better than him.

"We can talk payment when you look over the notes I write, but don't try to rip me off. I know how much more important graduating is, than the money it will cost, so let's cooperate with respect moving forward."

I left him with that, and went back to Mary.

"What did Edmond want with you?"

"Hm? Oh, he just wants help with math. I said sure, as long as he pays me, but I won't spend too much time doing it. Making money is nice and all, but my grades matter more to me."

I then dug into a some pasta. This world's take on pasta was pretty much the same, but it was a little sweeter than what I liked. While still savory and flavorful, I think the tomatoes used were sweeter than normal tomatoes in my past life.

I ate while looking over the list of clubs. Many were hobbies, like a literature club or tennis clubs, but there were some niche ones as well. I was looking for a club that wouldn't require me to do any work outside of the club meeting times, and that would be less stressful.

There were a few candidates that stood out, such as the music club and art clubs, but one stood out the most interesting and least stressful.

I circled it, and passed the form over to Mary for her to see. I didn't really consider myself close to Mary, but we both enjoyed each other's company enough to keep going around together.

Mary looked down at the paper, and then looked at her form. She motioned for a pen, and I rolled my eyes as I handed her mine. She filled out her form, and then gave me back my pen.

After that, we just ate in silence, and headed back to class.

We handed in our forms to Ms. Hilton who was waiting in the classroom. She looked down at the forms, then looked back up at me, then down again before looking at Mary.

"Are you two kidding?"

We both looked at each other, before looking back at Ms. Hilton and shaking our heads.

"Sigh... Mary, you're a talented swordsman... Do you really want to join the 'Foodie Club'? You could join the swordsmanship club, or even the workout club."

Mary just shook her head.

"Those don't sound fun."

A simple refusal.

Ms. Hilton sighed, then glanced at me. I couldn't tell what she was thinking behind her brown eyes, but I don't think she had a very high evaluation of me.

The academy would soon start ranking us, and depending on our ranking we would gain better standing. This would allow us different benefits, and they were significant too. For example, holding a top 3 ranking for a quarter would give you access to an item from the academy armory.

The items in the armory were said to be crafted by renown blacksmiths, and mages, facilitating growth through various magic effects. This was a spot that I hoped to get to, but if I had to guess my current overall ranking, I was most likely towards the bottom. Out of the 28 students in the hero class, I was probably better than none of them physically, which was almost 80% of our ranking. 

This put me as dead last, but I didn't think too poorly about my situation. I needed time to improve. Maybe not this quarter, but eventually I would take a higher ranking.

For now, I needed to focus on my own growth. After we handed in our club selection to Ms. Hilton, Mary and I went to the training field. There were a few students here, but they were not people we were close to.

James Runecraven was practicing his swordsmanship, but the rest of the students were random nobles I didn't know.

Upperclassmen had access to better facilities. There was a gym somewhere on campus, for 2nd years and up, that had a gravity room. The room was capable of increasing the force of gravity, allowing students to train at a level normal humans couldn't handle.

This was not allowed to first years, under any circumstance, because it could potentially hurt their growth.

It was commendable that even though James was the future King of the Empire, he still worked hard in his free time. I watched his stable, and consistent movements. Mary looked in the direction I was.

"His swordsmanship is decent. Good for this age, but he is holding himself back a lot."

I raised an eyebrow.

'Holding himself back? Is this perhaps not the true personality of the crown prince.'

I looked at him for a little longer, before turning back to Mary, and getting into a boxing stance. I didn't really know how to box either, so I was just trying to protect my face and stay relaxed.

The next hour was... A beat down.

However, it was a constructive one. Mary didn't say much, just throwing out corrections to my form, and just punishing me for leaving openings. The first lesson she said she was going to teach, was how to defend myself. Worrying about attacking is pointless if I would die before throwing a punch.

I was drenched in sweat by the end of it, and I was sure I would have some bruises on my body by tomorrow. Thankfully, Mary oddly never hit me in the face, and thanks to that at least I would be able to cover them up with my uniform.