Canteen

Leaving the dorm, Kael and Galagar walked side-by-side toward the canteen's direction. Much to Kael's relief, there were many guide signs planted along the way. This lessens Kael's burden as he didn't need to ask for direction from another student. Along the way, as usual, Galagar being a chatterbox, continues to talk, while Kael simply listens to him and occasionally gives him a response.

"Hang on, what did you just say?" Kael asked to confirm what he had just heard was not part of his imagination."I said, I'm capable of turning my skin into steel." Galagar declared with a tone of pride and smiled proudly at him.

"That's a formidable ability, I must say." Kael smiled in return.

Transforming any part of your skin into steel was quite a cheat-like ability in his opinion. Bullets, knives, and most military weapons were useless in front of him. At this point, Kael has forgotten that he actually had eleven elements in total with the secret element.

In the thought of being capable of transforming certain parts of the body into steel, Kael's cheek went red because of his wild imagination. He coughed to hide his embarrassment.

"How about you? What's your ability?" Galagar asked with a pair of curious eyes.

Kael was somewhat reluctant to respond to his question. But after careful thought, he eventually replied to him, considering he was his roommates, "Controlling fire."

"Woah, that's even greater than mine!" Galagar praised wholeheartedly.

Despite finding the non-stop chatting trait of Galagar a bit of a nuisance, Kael actually enjoyed how Galagar fills their journey with his chattering. At least with Galagar around, there wouldn't be any awkward silence situation in the future.

Before they knew it, they finally arrived at the canteen that the academy provided. It was a two-story building with an open balcony on the second floor.

As they lined up to order food, Galagar asked in a low tone, "Should we pack some for Tanaka as well?"

Kael contemplates for a moment and recalls how tired Tanaka looked before nodding his head in agreement.

Seeing how varied the menu is, Kael licks his lip and ends up ordering many dishes in a spur of greediness. The woman who was responsible for delivering the food was also dumbfounded by Kael's order. She keeps glancing at him, wondering if the man opposite of her is a real human being, not a pig-like monster.

Kael is confident that his plates are the biggest of the two. But when he checked on Galagar's side, he was dumbstruck by the amount of his food portion.

"Are you sure you can finish that?" Kael asked while pointing at Galagar's plate, which is piled almost like a mountain.

He thought he already had a great appetite. But it turns out there is a person out there who had a much greater appetite than him.

"This is my usual meal," Galagar answered without bothering to turn his head around as he was still engaged in selecting the food.

Shaking his head in disbelief at Galagar, Kael went up and ordered a portion for Tanaka. After paying for their food, they make their way to the nearest seats. Kael did not eat directly. Instead, he calculated his food cost for a month. He ordered like five dishes, and it cost him 10 credit points in total in just one meal, and you need at least 3 meals per day. That means he had to spend approximately 900 credit points for a month just for the sake of loading his stomach.

That calculation puts him in a bit of distress after remembering that his salary was only 1000 credit points each month. Just then, he noticed Galagar was busy digging his food. Staring weirdly at him, Kael asked, "You know you spend like 16 credit points for a mere food, right?"

"Yweah why?" Galagar replied shortly as he chewed the food.

"And you do realize our salary, to begin with, is 1000 credit points per month, right?"

Slightly irritated by Kael's twisted question, Galagar snapped impatiently, "Cut the crap, what's your point of talking all of that shit?"

Before Kael can explain, Galagar dropped his spoon abruptly and got up with a look of realization. Assuming Galagar understood his meaning, a smile of satisfaction of helping someone gradually crept on his face. But, his happiness didn't last long because of Galagar's next words, "Why didn't you say so earlier?! My food portion had to be worth at least 20 credit points."

Immediately, Galagar rushed to the buffet, leaving the flabbergasted Kael alone by himself. Taken back by what just happened, Kael stiffly glanced at Galagar, who for the second time joined the queue.

'Did I imply something wrong?' A thought couldn't help but develop in his mind.

Since he was famished, Kael didn't wait for Galagar and promptly ate his food. The food he ordered consisted of a couple of braised chicken, stir-fry potato, tempura, rice worth 3 credit points, and a glass of water.

He first dipped the chicken in the stir-fry potato sauce and brought it into his mouth. The second the chicken gets into his mouth, he senses that a missing piece of his heart has been filled. Moaning in delight, Kael grabs a spoonful of rice and delivers it to his mouth.

As he eats, he discovers that Galagar was taking a seat opposite of him with a much bigger mountain of food. Knowing he didn't seem fond of being bothered during mealtime, Kael swiftly gulps down his food and asks Galagar before he can touch his plate, "What do you mean by having a food portion worth 20 credit points? Were you perhaps attracted to number 20?"

Glaring at Kael, Galagar withdraws his hands that are about to touch the plate and huffs loudly, "It's a part of my diet. 1 credit point is equivalent to 1000 Dalant. My instructor always reminds me to always eat food that precisely costs 20000 Dalant. Though I don't know what his purpose for stating such a weird rule was, I always follow his instructions devoutly."

'Isn't diet usually based on the person's weight and other aspects related to it. Why does this instructor use money as the benchmark?' Kael thought to himself confusedly.

"Let me ea-" Kael cut Galagar's words off and asked another question, "can you exchange credit points to Dalant?"

Clenching his fist in annoyance, Galagar exhaled a loud breath and answered with a face full of suppressed fury and hunger, "YES it is! Now let me eat, or I'm gonna eat you otherwise. Such a talker."

The corner of Kael's mouth couldn't help but twitch upon hearing Galagar's last remark.

'You're the one to talk' Kael rolled his eyes inwardly and resumed his eating.

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