CHAPTER 21: Work As A Team

"I heard you gained some really bad injuries. What did you do after I left?"

….

"Your new haircut looks good on you"

….

"Hey answer me."

Gabriel tried initiating a conversation with Levi. He on the other hand just blatantly ignored him. He kept looking out of the window, while Gabriel sat next to him kept bothering him. All of the class's attention was now on the two of them, especially Levi. To them, he looked different. His face and the aura around him took a 180 turn.

"Isn't he quite cute?"

"Yeah! I never knew he had such a good-looking face."

 Most of the girls had these reactions while some boys were jealous.

"Isn't that the freak? Did he get the confidence to finally show his scar?"

"Yeah! It looks hideous on him."

Gabriel and Levi could hear them.

"These people-"

"Don't bother. No matter how much you try to straighten a dog's tail it will always curl."

Levi looked in front and saw Eliza sneaking glances at him. Her fists were clenched and a nerve popping out of her forehead.

She was pissed seeing Levi. He looked away once Irene came through the door and sat with her friends. Levi didn't have anything better to do so he talked with Gabriel.

"So you like the breasts or thighs?"

That….was a weird question. Gabriel too didn't know how to respond. He thought for a while and answered.

"Umm…I'd rather go for personality."

"I was talking about chicken."

"You…..you set me up on that one."

Levi didn't feel the need to have friends. He never felt lonely but it wouldn't take anything away from him to make some acquaintance.

As they were talking Irene lazily entered the classroom and sat next to Eliza.

"Irene. What happened to your eyes?"

Eliza asked her as she touched her puffy cheeks and eyes.

"Didn't sleep well last night."

Irene lied. Of course, she couldn't tell them she cried in the bathroom earlier. Rose sitting next to Eliza cast a heal magic and made her appearance a bit better.

"You should take care of yourself you know after all that had happened."

None of them knew what had happened to Irene. All of them thought Irene wasn't in the building when the attack happened. Well, she was going to her home and while packing her stuff, the villain attacked.

Irene tried sneaking glances at Levi but Rose noticed her odd behaviour.

'Why does she keep looking at the back?'

She too turned her head for a second and saw Levi.

'Was there someone like that in our class?'

Rose had no idea who he was. She never paid attention to him and didn't even try to figure out who was the person, some of her classmates were calling "freak."

'Do these two know each other?'

He was good-looking but not enough to sway the heart of the princess.

'Not my type but he definitely would be a good addition to my collection.'

Irene kept trying to meet eyes when she was talking but when their eyes met, Levi would look away.

'Why is he doing that?'

As she was thinking about that Fiona entered the room and started teaching. She didn't address the attack and taught like everything was normal. At the end of the class, she gave an announcement.

"From Wednesday, you're optional classes will start. Choose your classes wisely cause it will heavily impact your future."

In this world, a person who could use mana was called an awakener. Everyone could use mana but only 40% could use it to create magic. These people were called awakeners and like in every story an awakener on the good side was a hero and the one on the dark side was called a villain or dijin. The heroes had classes according to their weapons and attacking style.

The students could now choose a class that suited their weapon class and train themselves on their weapons. There were the practical classes but they taught the basics that every awakener should know despite their class. There were clubs like the archery club and spear club but it was mainly meant for students to gather and share their insight.

Levi could choose the archery class but he didn't care. The classes were optional and not attending them didn't cause him any trouble. Instead, he had the plans.

Fiona then added something new.

"Tomorrow, you have forest exploration classes, do not be late."

As soon as he said that, the students started grumbling.

"Ahh…I don't want to wake up at 6 pm."

"I hate that class, plus I have weaklings in my team."

Levi hardly knew about this cause it was not heavily pointed out in the story. He didn't know who was in his team nor did he care.

******

[Next day]

"Is everyone here?"

"Yes…Professor"

The students replied to Fiona in a sleepy voice. Most of them didn't have the habit of waking up this early. All of them were now in one of the forests owned by the academy. It was called the stimulated forest as the academy created the monster here regulating mana and using different mana cores. The academy was the only institution allowed to do so cause they could adjust the level of the monsters to train their students.

The cadets were at the entrance of the forest waiting for Fiona to give them instructions.

There was a limit to what type of monsters they could spawn but it was enough for them to train the students.

"Everybody, join your group and make a line."

The students moved and joined their team. There were 24 students in the class so there were six teams consisting of 6 teams. Levi looked around and saw a person missing on a team. He joined the team and looked at the faces of his teammates. There were three boys and one girl in his team. Harper, Jack, him and a girl he recognised from the game. An important side character that was crucial in the plot.

Fiona clapped her hands to get the student's attention.

"Today, you will have to battle orcs. You know the rules. Killing an E rank will give you five points and killing the boss will give you 35 points. The team with the most points in the end wins. Now go."

All of the team moved and ran through the entrance. The training would be for two and a half hours straight and if they win they receive merit points which would boost their academic score. Before Levi's team could move, Fiona shouted at them.

"Perform well, team F. If you come last again, there will be an additional training session for you."

All of them sulked and went inside the forest. They didn't want to get the punishment again.

For a few minutes, they kept on running and didn't find any orcs around. They kept on running without trying to find any clues about where the orcs were.

Harper was the first one to speak.

"This time we need to get more than 20 points. It is not about coming first but defeating our past selves."

He gave a main character-like speech but it didn't affect the team. Jack was scared of Levi now and was still shaking when Levi was near him. The girl and Levi didn't seem to care. They kept running and finally, an orc came into their view.

"Everyone get to your position."

Jack and Harper took out their shield and stood at the front. The pink-haired girl was a few meters behind them and further behind her, Levi stood without any intention to help them. The orc was almost 5 meters tall and carried aboard a sword. 

Jack and Harper launched towards the orc. Harper swung the axe in his hand while Jack tried smashing the orc's head with his hammer. The orc turned its body and at first, struck at Jack. Since Jack was his midair he couldn't block the attack. He blocked the attack with his body but his whole body was propelled to a tree cause of the force of the attack.

'Bam'

Jack hit a tree and fell to his knees. Harper didn't stop his attack hit the orc and managed to cut its arm. It was not a clean cut, the axe got stuck between its arm, leaving him full of holes in his defences. The orc grabbed Harper with its' other hand and threw him like a baseball pitcher.

Harper was about to hit a tree but he rotated. His body blocked the impact with his shield. The girl lifted her staff and started chanting. Magic circles appeared in the sky and blue coloured arrows formed in the sky. She fired it but none of it managed to damage the orc. The orc launched itself to attack her. Within a few seconds, it was in front of the girl.

*Swish*.

"Argh"

An arrow pierced the orc's eye as it screamed in pain. Harper saw his chance. He swung his axe and this time managed to cut the orc's skull killing him. The corpse of the orc vanished and a mana stone dropped from it. Harper took the stone and looked at Levi.

'He never fired a single arrow in our past training sessions and even if he did none managed to hit. Was this a fluke?'

He put his hand on Levi's shoulder.

"That was a good shot. You must be training yourself and trying to get stronger."

Levi didn't say anything and only nodded.

'He isn't getting stronger Harper, he is already strong….a monster.'

Jack said under his breath cause if he said it out loud, then he would be in another world of pain.