Academy Life [2]

Sitting on the bed in my apartment, I was trying to learn a bit more about my body and about what had happened to my lightning affinity the day before.

James had left shortly after we promised each other to work hard, saying that he would continue his training. Just a bit later a tall, black-haired, and voluptuous woman, curves almost able to compete with Sarah's, told me I could go home as my vitals had stabilized.

The woman, who I got to know as our health teacher Charlotte Slate, also managed to get the time to rip me a new one. Scolding me, while looking like the devil, about how I had somehow fried my internal organs to the point of risking death if it had continued, the principal didn't seem that scary anymore.

*Brrr*

Feeling a slight shiver climbing my spine, I tried to discard the feeling I had gotten when talking to Ms. Slate. Meanwhile, I checked the time to know how much time I would have to meditate before having to sleep.

'19:24, that should give me about 5 hours of meditation before having to sleep.'

As I was still recuperating, and our first class was at 08:00 in the morning, I didn't want to compromise on sleep just for trying to figure out my internal conditions.

'Now, let's see if my affinity went through some sort of change or got damaged during my 'rampage' yesterday. I don't want to try to circulate or manipulate my mana before getting a better view of its condition.'

Closing my eyes, I quickly got swept up in my inner world. As I looked towards where my little swirl of mana should have been, I was presented with a confusing view. My calm little blue seed was gone, and in its place was a rampaging orb of purple, crackling with thunder and lightning.

My mana reserves and lightning-affinity had somehow gotten fused, leaving me with my mana automatically getting produced as the sharp, purple form it should have after getting converted.

'Did this happen when I assimilated with my purple alter ego?'

While quickly making an assumption, I started to try to manipulate the energy. To my surprise, it responded a lot more attentively than in its previous form, following my directions without any inhibitions. Although it drained a lot more of my endurance to circulate the energy, seemingly demanding more of my body, it went smoother than ever.

Opening my eyes, I tried to cover my fist in electricity. Almost instantly my hand was covered in purple streaks of lightning, illuminating my dark room. I could also hold the energy for longer than previously before my body started to reject my efforts.

'Seems like my mana manipulation is a lot more efficient now that I won't have any waste during the converting process.'

So far only seeing upsides the upsides to my mana getting transformed into pure lightning energy, I couldn't help but consider the downsides.

'This should mean that I can't use my mana in other martial ways, other than lightning endowed techniques. I don't think I can use my mana to stimulate my muscles, with anything other than the inherent characteristics of my energy.

*Gulp*

As my pondering led me to a conclusion, I couldn't help but swallow.

'Doesn't this mean that most dagger arts will be completely useless? Most of the time, general techniques don't include the use of elemental affinities. [Quick Slash], [Triple Thrust], [Eviscerate], I am probably unable to use any of them!'

Even if my current Battle Art seemed incredibly strong, and the upside of not having to convert my mana was extremely beneficial, I couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. I could only pray that my basic knowledge of utilizing daggers, without a combat art, would be enough until I managed to raise my stats enough for it not to matter.

Letting myself fall into a lying position on the bed, I still had a large smile on my face, even in the face of this possible adversity. Thinking about the possibilities of creating completely new lightning-based Martial Techniques, I fell asleep before I could even make one of my imaginary creations.

****

'I suppose this is how it would end up after all.'

I was sitting at my, now, claimed spot in the corner of the classroom. With my bum placed on an extra pillow on the chair, intended to increase my height so I could actually use the table, I could feel the familiar looks thrown at me. As my classmates were conversing with each other they made sure to steal a glance at my tiny figure. Gazes full of apprehensiveness, as if to make sure they held an appropriate distance.

*Haaaaa*

Sighing, I thought to myself.

'Sure enough, after seeing my pitiful status they don't want to get close to me. Seems like my surge of power wasn't strong enough to impress them after all.'

Making a huge misinterpretation of their gazes, I remembered when the first student, excluding me, got to our classroom.

A golden-haired girl, with impossible curves, bounced energetically into the room, making my teenage hormones rage a bit.

Taken a bit aback that Sarah was the second student to arrive in place of James, I got lost tracing her bountiful form.

When our eyes connected, seeing as I was the only other student in class, I was met by a complicated expression.

Just like two days ago, it seemed like she had a hard time placing me into the "cute thing I want to pat-box" or the "stay away from"-box.

After a couple of seconds, it seemed like her mind had chosen the second option. Quickly averting her amber eyes, she ignored me and quietly chose her spot, one of the front seats in front of the podium.

I couldn't help but feel hurt when remembering our lunch break two days ago when she was trying her best to talk to me.

*Haaaa*

Breathing out another deep sigh, I snapped back to reality. Now everyone except for James had arrived. Letting my eyes wander the room I could see everyone else sitting in pairs, except for me and Lindsey, who sat at the table to the right of Sarah.

Bayyan and Arthur were silently waiting for our teacher, with Arthur occasionally glancing back at me wearing harsh eyes. Suzuka and Akane, sitting towards each other, one of their eyes discretely watching at me at all times.

Finally, Brad and Sarah with one of them sparing an occasional glance towards me with pity in their eyes. Needless to say, it wasn't Brad. Although she appeared to be trying hard to ignore me, something kept making her view float towards me. Brad did look at me once or twice, but in comparison to the innocent succubus, it was not even worth mentioning.

Lindsey and Bayyan didn't seem to care about me at all.

'Seems like I'm not good enough for them to even look towards my direction.'

While I was stuck in my self-deprecating mind, the door opened, and in walked prince charming himself. Glowing and wearing his usual bright smile, he scanned the room, seemingly looking for a seat to occupy. When our eyes met he gave me an awkward smile, as if to say he felt sorry he wouldn't be sitting beside me. Instead, he walked up beside Lindsey, who sat at the table in front of me, and asked:

"Do you mind if I sit here? With almost all the others sitting in pairs it felt appropriate for me to sit with someone alone."

Turning her head, and answering James's question with a quick nod, she accepted his request. The cheerful James quickly sat down and started to converse with Lindsey. Because they sat in front of me, I could overhear them talking.

"So, did you check out any of the facilities yesterday? I was amazed by the gravity rooms, I have never seen any going past a 10x gravity level, but here they go up to 30x! How crazy is that?"

Lindsey had politely responded, further crushing my internal picture of her being a swan.

"I also tried one yesterday. Although I could only withstand 16x while practicing my techniques and doing some calisthenics, I was very happy with knowing there is a lot of room to progress."

'Holy shit! 16 times the normal pressure of gravity?! Is she actually also a gorilla in disguise? No, NO! She is a swan! She is a beautiful young girl who enjoys her time drinking tea and taking long walks in the park!'

As I was creating an imaginary backstory, in an attempt to defend my original impression of the girl, the real gorilla walked in. The tall, muscular Mike, wearing his black suit, threw me a gentle smile as he walked in.

'He genuinely wants to redeem himself, doesn't he? Maybe I should have taken him up on his offer to meet him at his office... Never mind, I didn't have time anyway as I had to check the state of my mana reserves.'

Walking to the front of the podium, he started the roll call immediately.

"James Lumari"

"Here!"

"Lindsey Borr"

"Present!"

Going through all our names, I was eventually the last one to get called.

'Please don't do it, I beg of you! Even if the principal seems to think it's a compliment, it's truly not. Gorilla-man, if you do me this favor, just this one time, I will forever be grateful and try my best to help you in any way possible.'

"Little hare!"

'You fucker...'