Traumatizing the Students

Stepping out of the shower, I start clothing myself while thinking about my magic practice the previous day.

The Ancient One is truly a fantastic teacher but quite a strict one. After hearing my claim that my magic would get stronger after using it only a few times, she basically didn't let me leave until I proved it, which resulted in me leveling up the Chains of Restraint that I just got all the way to level 27.

Naturally, she didn't just sit there and watch me quietly but instead gave me numerous valuable tips and teachings that increased my leveling speed immensely. In her words, I went from worse than a novice to a well-experienced sorcerer in just a single training session which is something she had never seen before.

Combine that with the fact that my entire mana pool regenerates entirely in roughly 10 minutes, and she had decided to push me as hard as possible and kept me training until the sun in Kamar Taj had already descended and risen again.

The price of that packed training session is a strong headache that has still not subsided completely. Turns out using up the entirety of your mana over and over is exhausting with or without the system. The routine of that did, however, increase both my INT and WIS by over 30 points, making me wonder how useful a trainer of an equal caliber for my physical stats and skills could be.

Don't get me wrong, Jack Murdock is great, but at this point, I rarely even bother going over to his training hall since I only get a few stat points per training session. I only bother doing it for the hand-to-hand combat training and to keep my eye on him to not fail the quest I had with him.

Having dressed myself while lost in my own thoughts, someone grabs my shoulder and starts violently shaking me. "Earth calling to Peter, are you there? Did that ball hit you in the head too hard?"

I shake off Kurt's hand from my shoulder. The gym was free today, so we decided to use it to practice for the dodgeball tournament by organizing some matches with other teams. Naturally, I was taking part since I was on the same team as some of the Xmen members.

"I'm listening, I'm listening, no need to shake me like that," I say, sitting down on the bench to put on my shoes.

"You say that, yet oftentimes you don't respond to anything I say. Seriously what's up with you staring into space all the time?" Kurt asks me.

Well, usually, it's because I'm just staring at different system panels, but I do admit I tend to get stuck in my own thoughts more and more often these days.

"I was just thinking about how crazy it would be to live life as a crab. I wonder if they think fish are flying."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Anyways, what were you saying earlier?" I ask after seeing Kurt stare at me in silence for several seconds.

"Eh?" Kurt sounds a little surprised upon hearing my voice but quickly shakes his head clear "Oh right, I was just saying that you are unexpectedly athletic. Looking at you, I guess you are quite lean, but I wouldn't have thought you were that fast and strong. I think you sent two guys to the nurse with those nasty throws."

"I'm just playing the long game here. If we can make the enemies scared of us in practice, they may just surrender to us without a fight in the real tournament."

The reality of the situation is slightly different. I had suppressed my true strength a lot to be on roughly the same level as the rest of the Xmen on my team, who, by the way, were also clearly holding back significantly.

The problem is I wanted to stand out, so I decided to be just a smidge better than everyone else.

This evidently didn't sit well with our team leader, Scott, who upped his power by a little to be above me. I responded in kind by upping my power, and well... you can guess how it went from there.

In almost no time, both of us were throwing balls faster and stronger than any high school boy our age could be expected to be throwing and caused a queue to form at the door of the school nurse.

Well, the point still stands that pretty much every team in the school is now afraid of facing us and my reputation among the student body is at its all-time peak.

Finished with tying my shoelaces, I grab my backpack and head to exit the dressing room with Kurt following behind me. The rest of the Xmen, as well as Gwen, are already there waiting for us. The girls had no practice matches today but still came by just to cheer for us, giving us the moral high ground over our enemies.

Kitty is the first to greet us, seeming slightly irritated as she is constantly tapping her foot on the ground. "Finally! It's supposed to be the girls who take a long time getting dressed, not the boys. What took you two so long?"

"I was trying to get this guy to stop staring into space." Kurt, the traitor, says, pushing the blame onto me.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one struggling with that," Gwen murmurs quietly enough that I barely hear it.

[Gamer's Mind has successfully blocked a mental attack.]

An alarming message suddenly pops open in front of me.

Rather than panicking and looking around for who could be the perpetrator, I continue acting as if nothing has happened. After the show I accidentally put on today, it is only natural some people would take notice, and my best guess is that the offender is Jean standing right next to me. She might suspect that I am a mutant now.

"Ugh, whatever, let's just go home already. I'm starving." Kitty complains, and the rest of the X-men seem to agree with the sentiment. All except for one.

"Ah, I actually had some plans to meet up with some friends today after classes, and I'm already late, so I should probably go," Rogue says, looking at the time on her phone impatiently and walking off before anyone even has time to reply. "I'll catch up with you all later, okay."

"Eh? Did she say anything about having some plans today?" Scott asks, looking over at Kitty.

"Don't think so." Kitty shrugs. "Well, she doesn't have to report all her activities to us, does she? She can handle herself fine. Let's just go already."

Scott reluctantly agrees with her, and with a few short goodbyes, the X-men are off.

With the two of us alone now, Gwen says, "I've actually got to go too. My internship interview starts in an hour, and I'd like to be there early."

"Oh, the Oscrop internship you've been talking about all day, right? I wish you good luck with that."

Gwen had wanted to do an internship at Oscorp since before I even took over this body. Now apparently, his father had gotten her a chance thanks to his connections.

"I guess I shouldn't slack off either and go earn my keep in this society."

"I feel our definitions of earning our keep are slightly different." Gwen says. "Well, do your best not to die, alright."