11 Chapter 11 - Becoming stronger!
Zefer turned to see it was Ms. Veronica with a horrified expression on her face. She couldn't help it. What Zefer did seemed impossible. She wanted to make sure that Zefer wasn't possessed by something. When she saw him look in her direction, her expression seemed to shift from horror to sadness.
How could she be happy? The look Zefer had was apathy. It was almost like what he did, didn't even phase him. "Umm.... yes. A fight just broke out in Class 1A. Yes, please send a medical team. Yes. Yes. Thank you." Katie could be seen on call. It seemed like she had called in a medical team.
Zefer looked towards Katie and shook his head. She never called the medical team when Ruth and his gang beat him. Zefer would have left the room; however, Alex had stopped him.
A thrust of his rapier slipped past his cheek. This caused a minor wound to open and a small line of blood to run down the injury. "Where do you think you are going?" Alex asked in a severe tone of voice.
[Cut Resistance Learned.]
[Bleed Resistance Learned.]
Two messages appeared before him but fizzled out a moment later since Zefer's attention was quickly turned to something else, or rather someone else.
Zefer was growing tired of this display. People still trying to inflict fear on him and overpower him. Zefer took hold of the rapier, not caring if his hand would be injured. Alex seeing this, tried to pull the blade back, but the weapon wouldn't budge.
"That's none of your damn business. How about you stay with your pathetic friends and worthless classmates and stay out of my way. Suddenly, when the victim fights back, everyone wants to step up? But when the victim was being beaten, no one did a thing." Zefer's expression crumpled. It was as if his mask was slowly cracking, but truthfully, he was under control. He knew what he was saying and said it clearly without stuttering or raising his voice.
"Funny, don't you think? If you are truly that worried, we can settle this here and now." Zefer said while looking at Alex. A glint of murderous intent in his eyes caused Alex to flinch back a little.
Alex had never been in a life or death situation. Sure, he did spar against many people and often would train on his own. However, a fight to the death was something he never went through. Not to mention the thought of taking a life.
Yet, his peer seemed to speak of death as if it were nothing. As if it was just another walk in the park. "I..." Alex didn't know if he should accept this duel. It wasn't that he thought he would lose, but more so that Alex didn't know if he could kill someone. Zefer would most likely kill him, but he didn't know if he could kill Zefer.
Zefer took this time to inspect Alex's stats.
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Name: Alex Richardson Jr.
Mana Pool: 250
Level: 4
Rank: D
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Fire Specialist
Coins: 950
Affinity: None
Status: Healthy
Stats-
Strength: 9
Endurance: 8
Agility: 8
Wisdom: 10
Intelligence: 25
Luck: 0
Charm: 40
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Zefer noticed that Alex was stronger than Katie, but that was obvious. Alex and Ruth were their classes' strongest. Since Zefer had time, he looked at Ruth to view his stats. He hadn't done so, considering he was mainly focused on completing the quest earlier.
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Name: Ruth Gutter
Mana Pool: 330
Level: 3
Rank: D
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Class: Wind Specialist
Coins: 1250
Affinity: Enemies
Status: Critical
Stats-
Strength: 10
Endurance: 10
Agility: 5
Wisdom: 8
Intelligence: 33
Luck: 0
Charm: 10
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"So, Ruth is a bruiser, and Alex is a physical damage dealer... As for Katie, she's more of a magic damage dealer. Still..." Zefer refocused his attention on Alex.
Seeing all of this, Katie couldn't say a thing. She was scared that Zefer would kill her. Why? Because she tried to kill him. She didn't view Zefer as human. Unlike Alex, she saw Zefer as just a waste of space. Now though, she was afraid of the boy. So, she decided to keep her mouth shut the entire time.
Ms. Veronica felt sadness in her heart. It sunk to the bottom of her being when she heard Zefer's words. Veronica wasn't oblivious to his mistreatment. She never actively partook in it as a means to be rude or mean. However, Veronica also never did anything to stop people from doing such things to him. So, she was just as guilty as those who did such to him.
"You know that isn't why I am stopping you. We just want answers. You went from being extremely weak to being strong. If you had this much power, then why did you hide it?" Alex asked while still holding onto his rapier. He honestly was confused as to why Zefer would hide his strength.
Alex wasn't one of those people who viewed anyone with a lesser Mana Pool as useless, worthless, or trash. Why? Because Alex himself had an average Mana Pool. Unlike Ruth, Alex's Mana Pool was pretty average. Resting at 250, which was the same as Katie's Mana Pool.
The difference was that Alex made up for that with training in martial arts. To say he was blessed to have a teacher like his father was an understatement, but that didn't make Alex arrogant. He knew his weakness and his strengths.
He challenged himself every day to become a better person, but he usually kept to himself because of this. He never actually partook in conversations with others or accepted their hanging-out invitations. Why? That time could be better spent training. Due to this, people nicknamed him the Cold Prince because of how handsome he was; but how cold he could be.
He was also one of those hottest people in school that Katie and her friends talked about.
Zefer's expression returned to its usual apathetic look. "That so? Why should I flaunt my power? If I had, had strength and power from the start, people would have treated me differently. I mean, isn't that how it is right now?"
"All of a sudden, I display my strength, and now, after all of this time, you approach me? Not once have you said a word to me this entire year, nor have you ever looked at me. Funny, don't you think?" Zefer released the rapier and walked off without another word, not giving Alex time to reply.
The Medical team quickly came into the room and took care of the students. Thanks to this, Alex couldn't stop Zefer, and Zefer had already left the classroom. His destination was the library to increase his knowledge or test how such works.
Those in the classroom had various feelings rolling through them. Katie was relieved that Zefer was gone. She finally felt like she could take a deep breath. As for Alex was baffled by what Zefer said, not because he saw it was wrong.
No, it was more because he knew Zefer was right. Not once had Alex approached or even looked at Zefer. He didn't even know Zefer's name until today, and that was because Ms. Veronica said it aloud. Today, he realized just how much he missed out on people inviting him to hang out or the bullying that went on in the school. Simply because he was too focused on himself and becoming stronger.
As for Ms. Veronica, she wanted to chase after Zefer. She wanted to ask him many questions, but before she could, a representative of the Medical Team asked her to answer some questions. Such as what happened here and why these students are in such a condition. It was also to inform her that none of the students were dead.
Zefer arrived at the library and noticed a few other students of various grade levels were there. All were studying, either in groups or alone. Even with the new Val-net system, books were still highly valued. It was just one of the things that never went out of date, no matter how much technology advanced.
Zefer grabbed several academic books of various kinds and took a seat to begin studying. He already knew the knowledge of a few of the books, and as he went throughout the third one, nothing had happened. He wondered if going over material he already knew about would fulfill the condition of the quests or increase his stats, but it did not.
So he ruled that out and began going over material he did not know about. Most of it was combat tactics and warfare tactics. Most students would find it difficult or give up after trying to learn something new from a book in a single session, but for Zefer, it was different.
Zefer was a master at studying. Since he had no Martial Talent or Mana Pool, he focused all his efforts on learning. He became a genius with it. He took notes down with his notepad on this bracelet while taking in material from the book. After about an hour and a half of learning, a ping resounded in his head.
[Intellgence stat increased!]
[Increase your knowledge achieved!]
[Partial Reward of one Stat point will be given into Intelligence!]
Seeing the messages displayed before him, Zefer decided to open up his stats screen to see the changes. When he did, a smirk curved across his face. He was pretty pleased with what he saw.
