THE ONE MONTH

We had arrived back at camp, the trip using the gates a lot shorter than anticipated, with everyone excited for what the king had left them.

"I'm really hoping it's something cool, like a weapon or something," Blade suggested as we walked as a group towards the hall of Mars, every student in their own group.

"Do you really think you deserve a reward? After immediately loosing at the first part of the first event?" Bareth asked him. We all laughed when Blade tried to defend himself that Bareth was the one who gave him the idea and Bareth denying ever mentioned it.

Most of us were in good spirits, including the rest of the other students, but West still looked shocked that they were ranked last in the event. But we all had one thing to look forward for, and it was right here, in the hall.

Since it wasn't supposed to take that long, we were all still standing, while the principal finally came forward to the podium.

"Students, I know that you are all excited for the reward, but remember that the time zones in Mars and Earth are very different, and you all just withstood eight hours of absolute sun beat down, so don't forget to rest up. Tomorrow, there will be no classes because of that. And now.... the rewards,"

She placed her hand on a storage ring, and immediately a large amount of pills had appeared above her, in suspension due to her power. Then, with the flicker of her finger, she distributed them to each and every student. I held my hand out and raised an eyebrow in question. Not the kind of reward I was expecting.

But the fainting and shocked look on most students' faces showed that there was something I was missing from this.

***

<*appraisal (LVL 10) has been activated! *>

–––

<*power pill*>

<*used to provide a permanent strength increase monster once consumed. Are very rare find*>

–––

[Oh, WOW! This is what a powerful pill like that looks like?!]

<You are a little more surprised that expected. What? Never seen in your life?>

[You have no idea just how rare such a thing is! In fact, it is so rare, that even people have gone to war just because of them!]

<Really? Cause at the 'H' shop, you can find them easily, with right price of course>

[Sometimes I forget that there is a literal weapons shop made by a god around that has everything you could ever wish for]

<Not the only thing you are forgetting>

[You're still here?]

<Where else can I go?>

[I don't know, a date or something?]

***

"Alright kids, judging by the reaction on your faces, I'm guessing you've all figured out what those pills in your hands are. And I think we all know that we are risking our lives by just not generally consuming them immediately, so I'd like to ask you all to take them right now, while I'm watching. And no, don't you even think about hiding them somewhere no one can see it. I'll know,"

And the principal did just that, making sure that each and everyone of us had taken that pill, then, we were all ordered to go back to our rooms. The same method to move to the rooms was still around, so after a late supper (seems like the time we arrived on Earth was around twelve in the midnight) and bidding the crew a good night, both I and Jay shouted our room key numbers and we found ourselves back in our room.

"What a day! I'm I right?" I said as I stretched my tired muscles, finally almost getting the rest they deserve, while I watched Jay prepare for a bath.

"I bet you are real proud of yourselves for coming up the winners, aren't you? In fact, what long and trifling job did you do to make you act like you had a longer day than us?" he asked.

I paused in my stretching, then, smiled up at him, "I bet it's the loserness talking. You and I both know that I was the one with the longest day, more than any other student in the entire year!"

"Loserness? That's not even a real word!"

"It is...in your dictionary. And, before I forget, I've got some payback to issue," I cracked my knuckles as I got up from my bed and menacingly approached him. His eyes widened in shock before he slowly started backing away from me.

"Hey! Payback for what?"

"Remember today when I was talking to the med girl? Yeah...one punch to the stomach wasn't really a payback, it was just a test run,"

"Test run?! Now hold on Max, we can talk about this! Let me explain myself at least!" he pleaded as he felt the wall that had just collided with him since he'd run out space to back away.

I acted like I considered the option, but then answered, "Nah, you had your chance. Now it's time to suffer the consequences!"

"NOOOOO!"

–––

It's safe to say that he will never try that again. But as I patiently waited for him to finish with the shower once I was through with him (he must be taking longer because of the punches I threw at him) I heard a soft knock at our door.

When I went over to open it, there was the Principal, who was still in that get up of hers. She looked around our room, then when she noticed that Jay was the one in the bathroom, called me out to the corridor.

"The Beast king told me to inform you that the mission of the elites is drawing close, so you best be ready for it. Oh and, since I couldn't pay you for your services today with money, I actually came up with something even better,"

She took out three red pills and quickly handed them to me. I stood there flabbergasted with the three war bringing pills, then turned back to the principal who smiled at me.

"How?"

"I'm the principal of this school, I have my methods," she answered before walking back to wherever she was heading towards.

"Huh, I guess she does have her ways,"

***

One month was definitely not a long time right after the event. A lot of new interesting things seemed to have taken hold since that day, and good things too.

The second years had arrived much later from their competition, and two South had managed to retain the third position in their competition. Though not as perfect as was required, it was still a start of motivation for them.

They were really proud that we snatched number one though, so another round in the school was already predetermined, the trophy leading us through, which was later placed in a hall of trophies, where it seemed North had been the reigning champions, until us of course.

Now all that remained for the second years is heading over to the secret third and fourth years of the camp, that were still well hidden from the public, bit I'm sure the students would be informed when the time was right.

But back to my class problems, Blade had come up with a nice surprise for us, though ever since the event, we could say that this was bound to happen. He was dating Jessie, and I was really happy for them both. I guess they really must have connected in the event, cause now they were really inseparable.

The rest of us all were still hanging out, and our circle of friends had widened even further with some of the East and North students joining us for lunch sometimes, to discuss irrelevant things about the school and also at their homes.

Emily was surprisingly the most popular out of all of us, after everyone finally came understand from her own mouth that she was indeed being controlled by the Demon king, but she's now free from his control. It took almost a full year for them to finally believe it. Lol.

I had informed Jay of the visit from the principal while he was bathing, and he was hoping beyond hope that wherever we were to go, that both Arnold and Alex would be their so that we could save them.

I remember asking him a good question:

"How do you think the parents of Alex would react after the heard that one of their sons was killed during a hunt for Beast essence and another had been kidnapped by the demons?"

We were in our room while I asked this, just chilling after a normal day.

He looked thoughtful at first before he answered, "I'm not so sure about that, Max. I've never met them nor known them well enough to know how they would react. But their narcissistic personalities might suffer because they lost a kid they could control, and another kid who could have been one of the most powerful wizards in existence.

"Hmm... That makes sense," I said. But something else I couldn't get out of my mind is how Arnold's parents would have reacted about his loss. I'm sure it must have taken a lot from them to even think about bringing their kid to camp, hoping that he would be more protected there, only to have him be kidnapped by a demon general and not know about his whereabouts.

They were already hurt when their daughter had been snatched from under their noses, so this loss must have been a new type of pain for them. I just hope that they would be able to get through this, but I'll make sure to get them their kids back cause they at least deserve that much. And Arnold is my friend.

Though there were not a lot of classes going on during the short month of Dracucember, some clubs in the school became really active. One of them was the martial arts club, and Clive had been chosen as the next representative for the club. I don't even think I saw him during the month, seeing that he was too busy handling all the new members who wanted to join in, no doubt because they saw his performance in the field.

Thankfully, the school also took off the short trips on Friday for hunting beast essence, so we had a lot of free time just to talk and hang with the gang. Unfortunately, the school did NOT allow for phones with students, so I was still to contact Luiz up to this point.

I always felt excited when I think about calling her on my new phone that Flintheart had promised to buy me after guilt tripping him to do so.

But now comes the really important part of the month, me trying to figure out to whose house would I spend the next six months as my holiday.

Yup, that's right. Don't forget your boy was still dirt poor, even with all the achievements I had made. I'm sure while everyone runs to their homes with happiness to meet their parents, I'll be one of the very few who would have to go back to the government house I was previously provided, if it still hasn't been taken care of and emptied.

There were only a few select people who knew of my circumstances, and not one of them were any of my friends. I didn't need them to pity me just because of an inconvenience like that. I wanted them to enjoy their holiday too, without having to worry about a certain parasite that would be leaching off them.

But surprisingly, in the last three days in school, I was offered two places by two grown ups.

"Max, I know where you leave and I know that you don't want to go back there so how about this, why don't you move in with me?" Flintheart asked whike we were having lunch with him at the teachers lounge, which has been a norm for us when I felt like I wanted to spend time with him.

I was still in the phase of trying to forgive him for what he did after I knew the truth, so this was one of the ways.

"What–really? I... I wouldn't be a bother to you?"

Flintheart smiled at me before he answered, "I'll tell you again, you've never been a bother to me in the first place,"

"Oh, I mean sure yeah, of course. But can we put a pin in this? Cause the Beast king has something prepared for me during the coming months, and so I was requested and invited to go to the castle and stay there by Mrs Kelly,"

He nodded his head understanding.

"Yeah, I knew that. But I still asked cause I knew that was a temporary solution. Mine is a permanent request, somewhere no one can disturb your peace, Max,"

"Oh, I guess it's no problem then. If you're down, then I guess I'm down too,"

And that's how I found two places to be during my break. Now, back to the present time, it was the last day of school, and we were with my group of friends, ready to wish each other well on our holidays and exchanging contact information.