Battle Ship

Alex was walking in the hall, trying to calm his nerves and control his frustration. 'Even in a different world, I still get targeted by teachers,' Alex thought to himself.

Alex felt his whole mood dampen after becoming a victim of another teacher's arrogance and pettiness.

After ranting in his mind and cursing the teacher, he finally regained his composure and headed to the academy cafeteria. 'If I look at the bright side of this, I don't need to wait in line to get lunch.'

In the academy, lectures for all classes mostly happened at the same time. That's why when Alex reached the cafeteria, he only saw a few students besides himself, mostly his seniors.

Without waiting, he got his lunch and headed to an empty table near a window. As he began to eat his meal, he suddenly remembered the downside of being kicked out of class.

In the academy, each student year consisted of forty-eight weeks of education. Throughout the year, students were granted a total of four weeks of vacation, split into two weeks after the midterm exams and another two weeks after the finals.

In addition to these vacations, students were allowed eight weeks of absences. This meant that within the 48-week academic year, students had the right to be absent for only eight weeks. Unfortunately, Alex had already used one of his absence rights in mana dynamics when he was kicked out by the professor.

During the course of one educational year, each student took a total of ten classes. If a student utilized all of their absence rights, they could extend their vacations by eight weeks, resulting in a total of twelve weeks free from the academy.

Alex contemplated the idea of skipping the next combat class to balance out his remaining absence rights for both mana dynamics and combat class, which coincided on the same day.

However, after remembering that he had received a mission from BW related to the combat class, he gave up on the thought of ditching class.

After finishing his meal, Alex realized there was still time for his combat class. So he headed to the academy garden to get some fresh air.

In the massive garden that had a lake in its middle, Alex found a quiet place near it and sat down on the grass. He resumed ordering the ingredients he needed from WTCA.

Alex was not sure if Blisswhisper's Venom Serenity Lull had been discovered yet. He didn't know if the dungeon that contained Blisswhisper had appeared.

Alex checked the WTCA and found that the ingredient had started to appear in the past month. It wasn't very popular in the WTCA; it was cheap, and there weren't many buyers.

After placing his orders, Alex increased the order amount to create a stockpile of these ingredients. In the end, he was left with only twenty percent of his original balance.

After finishing preparations for awakening, Alex put down his smartwatch and started watching the lake's clear surface, delving into his thoughts.

Alex snapped out of his daydream when he heard the sizzling sound of fire meeting water, and he found himself eavesdropping on a conversation.

"You were this close to sinking his crusader, Neil," a disoriented, overweight guy remarked.

"This is our last chance. Give me the coordinates, Max," Neil said, his voice filled with determination.

"Based on your previous attack, aim slightly to the right at 6.33 degrees," Max replied.

Neil nodded and raised his hand,while he had turned his back to the water, with his palm facing the lake behind him. Taking careful aim, he prepared to unleash a fireball. However, just as he was about to release it, he sneezed, causing his aim to go off drastically.

Neil heard Max's reprimand, "Bro, I said 6 degrees, not 135!"

"You guys are terrible!" exclaimed Alice and Milo, bursting into laughter.

Suddenly, a voice emerged from their right, capturing everyone's attention.

Alex was watching three guys and a girl talking while casting fireballs into the lake.

'Are they playing battleship?' Alex wondered.

Alex noticed that each team had two people, and the one who was going to attack had turned his back to the lake, while his teammate directed him from the front.

Alex saw that the team about to play was taking the game very seriously, giving each other coordinates and such.

'Are they the geeks of the first year?' Alex wondered, noticing that their uniforms had the emblem of the first years. He tried to remember them from both the TOC and the academy student page, but he couldn't recognize them.

As Alex continued watching, a fireball suddenly hurtled towards him at incredible speed. Reacting swiftly, he rolled to his right, cursing under his breath, and narrowly dodging the fireball.

Afterward, Alex saw the group approaching him and hastily apologized to him. He responded, stating it was not a problem and it was just an accident.

Alex was about to leave when he heard Max's surprised question, "Ah, aren't you the guy from last night?"

Alex saw the three nodding, and then the air around became silent and awkward.

Breaking the silence, Alex said, "So you guys saw me last night getting rejected."

Max said, "We didn't spy on you guys or anything. We were just nearby, and you guys didn't notice. Just as we decide to make our presence noticeable, things moved fast, so we decided not to get involved and hide."

Milo added hastily, "Don't worry, man. We didn't tell anybody. We are not that kind of people."

After seeing Milo overacting unnecessarily again, Alice spoke amusingly, "What were you doing here all alone? Isn't it class time? Were you thinking of drowning all your sorrows in the lake?"

Alex saw Milo poke Alice, and then they started arguing in whispers between themselves, ignoring him.

Neil spoke, "Don't mind that overly enthusiastic love couple."

Neil added, "You must be Alex Hart. We are in the same class. I guess you wouldn't know us."

Upon hearing that they were in the same class as Alex, he was surprised and thought, 'They weren't mentioned in the TOC. They must be extras.'