Return

After a grueling, two hour walk back, Klay entered his home and let out a pained sigh of relief. His father had left the house for the day, and he used this to his advantage to change into his own clothes and relax his body instead of attending class. 

Should I go to the dojo today? If I don't Uncle Phoenix might punish me again, but even if that happened at least I'd be more healed than I am now. System, how long until my body feels better and not completely wrecked?

"[It will take approximately three days for your body to stop feeling sore and for most of your injuries to heal. The Regeneration System recommends that you eat more food in order to power the process properly.]"

He nodded and decided to just sleep, and if he woke up in time for the lesson he would go. Klay quickly threw together a collection of food that could be easily prepped and finished it before throwing himself on his bed and going to sleep.

***

A week quickly passed. 

Klay had fully healed up a few days later, despite having been made to do double the exercises everyone else had for missing yet another workout. The day after returning, he checked on Simon and was told about how a couple of bullies had cornered him and took his phone.

This was presumably done under Alp's orders, so both Klay and Simon assumed it was merely to lure Klay in and weren't too worried about it. Given Simon's personality, he had very quickly just handed his phone over to them and left before they had hurt him at all.

As the few days had passed, Klay hadn't seen Alp show up around the school. Even Simon couldn't learn anything about why he had continuously skipped, so with little to go on, Klay crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.

Klay had seen the young freshman bully, Thomas, in the school. Before, he had witnessed the police come and given treatment to the four bullies that had been knocked out by Klay. After that night however, he had no knowledge on what happened to them, and was merely thankful that the police hadn't come knocking on his door. 

With a quick Observation, he noted that there were several new marks and bandaged injuries on his face. Chalking this up to the repercussions of being a bully, he pushed it out of his mind and continued on his day.

Ultimately, the week was mostly eventless, with Klay continuing his schedule and spending more of his freetime exercising on top of practicing under his uncle's tutelage at the Wynne dojo.

Having returned from his morning jog, Klay started prepping for his school day as he was reviewing the system interface that had appeared with his various stat gains.

[Stat increase: +1.4 to Strength, +1.1 to Flexibility, +0.9 to Stability, +0.1 to Regeneration, +0.1 to Stamina]

[Name: Klay Wynne (Street Fighter)

Rank: Peasant (Base tier)

Exp: Level 5, 1/10

Stat Points: 0

Stats: 

[Strength: 23 (22.7)

Dexterity: 20 (19.9)

Flexibility: 22 (21.7)

Senses: 15 (15.4)

Intellect: 21 (20.7)

Stability: 20 (20.4)

Regeneration: 5.5]

Abilities: [Observation Level 2], [Regen Focus (Passive) Level 4], [Strike Level 2], [Contortion Level 2]

Additional Pages: Titles, Hidden Stats]

My stats have been steadily increasing over the past few days, but I haven't gained any Exp. Do I really need to fight people and knock them out to gain levels? Or is there another way?

"[As of now, you have not discovered any clues that show activities that increase your Exp besides fighting.]"

Klay sighed and continued getting ready for school, wearing his red and white uniform beneath his hoodie as usual. Eating some breakfast, he gave a simple departure call to his father and left.

He made his way to Copper High at a moderate pace, letting his mind wander and think about some harder exercises to increase his stat gain everyday until he arrived in the school's library.

"Hey, Simon," Klay called out as he entered. "You find something good to read today?"

He heard no response for a few seconds, and walked around through the room only to find no one in there with him. 

This is odd. Is he late, or maybe just waiting in the classroom? He's never late though. I wish I could've gotten his phone back before, but I couldn't find it and didn't have much time to look around for it. Whatever, I'm sure he's fine. 

Klay spent the several minutes before his class in the library, browsing the selection of books until the warning bell rang out, signaling all the students to enter their classrooms. With the rest of the students, Klay followed along and walked into his first class, sitting in his usual spot beside Simon. Unlike every other day, though, Simon wasn't there.

He wasn't in the library, and now he's not even in the classroom on time? What's going on today?

He ignored the nagging feeling in his gut and prepped his desk for the day by pulling out his notebook and pencil. A few minutes later, the bell rang again and the teacher began explaining their plan for today, which Klay zoned out for and looked out the window over the parking lot mindlessly.

Around a minute into the teacher's words, the door opened and interrupted them.

"Simon? You're late, go sit down. I'll fix the attendance for you in a few minutes," the teacher spoke up and continued what they had been saying before.

Klay looked over Simon, trying to find anything out of place with him, but determining nothing to be out of place after a few seconds of staring. When he sat down, he said nothing to Klay and just continued looking toward the teacher as he pulled out a few items from his bag.

"No book today?" He asked Simon, seeing him only pull out actual school supplies and not a book as he usually would. "Here, you can check this one out, I found it earlier." Klay told him and held out a book from his bag.

Simon looked at it for a few moments before taking it and nodding. "Oh… thanks. I got in late today, and didn't remember to grab my book."

Klay nodded in understanding, turning back to the teacher at the front.

Wait, I was watching over there, I would have seen him come in if he had. Whatever. If he doesn't want to explain, I won't force him to.

The rest of the morning passed quickly, with both boys separating as they had different classes part way through. 

Despite not having had to deal with any bullies over the previous week, Klay remained somewhat vigilant in case they had something else planned for him. In his class away from Simon, he overheard a group of students mention his name.

"Did you hear? Apparently Klay is some kind of insane delinquent type." 

"Really?! He's always so quiet though… I barely notice him if not for his red hair." 

Grimacing at the comments, Klay shifted his focus away from their conversation behind him.

What the hell… I'm not even a delinquent. Just because I fought better than some others doesn't make me a delinquent. Whatever, they can think what they want. Who even spread those rumors though?

With no response from the system, Klay spent the rest of the day ruminating about why the bullies have left him alone for so long, ultimately chalking it up to two possibilities. Firstly, they could be creating some grand plan to get back at him, and are taking a lot of time. The other idea of his was that they figured he was too much trouble to be worth focusing on, especially since he would leave them alone if they left him alone.

Eventually, his classes for the day had ended and Klay began his walk home, following along his usual path past his house. He quickly grabbed his bag and left his house, heading further into the urban city.

I should use my skills more outside of fighting, so I can get better at using them and hopefully level them up more. That will work, right?

"[While you do gain less exp from using abilities when you aren't fighting, the amount you gain from using them in a fight is much greater. However, using them should help you familiarize yourself with them and the Regeneration System more.]"

Passing over the Southeast Bridge, Klay stopped for a moment and looked out over the water of the Scaleman River as he thought about the system's words. After a minute of quietly watching, he nodded and continued into the city towards the dojo.