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I steered my thinking away from the unnecessary thoughts of dating. System did I get any xp from them?

100 xp awarded. 1075/3200 xp until level 13.

I desperately needed a level up at this point. I was getting irritated with my lack of progress. If I had some way to push myself hard enough to forcefully up my stats than I could do that, but that was a wall I just kept running into. I could up my damage resistance by taking damage, but people would question me not taking damage from strong opponents eventually. Sooner rather than later.

Everything was starting to stack up against me already. This was all going to come to bite me in the ass. Focus on the revaluations for now. That was the next big hurdle for now. I needed to figure out how to hold back to a believable amount of strength, or some way to explain my strength.

I couldn't just say it was some sort of ability. They'd want to test me, and see if the ability was harmonizing well with my body. If they did they might find something off about me. I paused outside the boys dorm, and turned around to sit on the steps. Ethan would be here soon.

He might be mad that I'd ditched him earlier, but I doubted it. He knew I was trying to help him become more self sufficient, and overcome his phobia. The stronger our bond got, the better he got at managing his fear. I'd caught a few glimpses of his memories here, and there when we were close. So far I didn't like anything I'd seen.

It wasn't enough to see a clear picture, but I knew that Ethan really hated, and feared his family. His family hadn't sent him to military school for fun. Ethan spent most of his life training both his ability, and his human body. He was skilled enough to already be graduated from this academy. He just couldn't use those skills when someone besides me was around.

I needed him to get over that. I would need that skill eventually.

"What did you stop for?" Savannah sat down next to me.

"I need to figure out how to hold back," I laced my fingers together.

"I thought you already were holding back," Savannah leaned back into the steps to look skyward.

"No," I shrugged, "Most of my.... skills .... are pretty weak. I haven't needed to hold them back, and I'm at half strength most the time because I don't want my face to fall apart. I avoid fighting while in classes, but Magnus, your dad, seems to have taken an interest in me so I don't want to draw anymore of his attention than I already have."

"When did you figure out my dad's name?" Savannah picked some imaginary dust off her shoulder as she pretended not to be interested.

"Pretty soon I'm going to be strong enough that even half strength is going to be too much for the average person," I sighed, "Plus if I get wounded badly enough I go back up to full strength so I'll suddenly get stronger halfway through a fight."

"That's a good point," Savannah pointed ahead, "There's Ethan. Let's take this conversation up to your lair."

Savannah chuckled after she said lair. Lair? Why does she find that funny? I stood up when Ethan got to the steps, and we all went inside together. Ethan glanced at me on the way to the elevator, and looked as if he wanted to say something.

He kept glancing at me that way all the way to the elevator, and started staring at me once we got into the elevator. We were alone in the the elevator. Too many thoughts, and emotions were going through his head for anything clear to get through to me so I had no clue what was on his mind at the moment. I ignored the looks he gave me until we got to the room. As soon as I closed the door I rounded on him.

"Spit it out," I snapped at him.

"What?!?" Ethan smiled nervously as he backed away in a placating manner.

"Whatever you're thinking about?" I snorted as I pulled shirt off.

Savannah, and Ethan both visibly reddened when they saw under my shirt.

"What?" I cocked my head as I swung my shirt over my shoulder.

"If that's just a camouflage shell, then how did you get abs?" Savannah clicked a picture of me shirtless.

"I changed what my camouflage looked like so my body fit my increasing strength," I gave her a skeptical look as I pushed my door open, "Did you really just take a picture?"

"No," Savannah sounded a little disappointed as I went into my room.

I undressed the rest of the way, and switched forms carefully. My clothes went into the shoot to get cleaned, and I had to shift around quite a bit to get so I was facing the door again. I opened the door to both Savannah's, and Ethan's disappointed faces.

"Spit out whatever you were thinking about telling me," I snapped at Ethan, "And why were you disappointed. I can understand Savannah liking a shirtless guy, but you don't make any sense."

"The kids in my class were talking," Ethan looked down as if embarrassed, "And they heard that you told a hot girl that she wasn't attractive so a lot of people in the school think that you're gay, and that we're a thing."

Ethan pointed to me, and then himself.

"And that's a problem, why?" I shook my head slightly.

"Well it's just that we're not a thing," Ethan looked down, "And we're both guys."

"I don't find any humans attractive," I snorted, "So if a stupid rumor keeps girls from bothering me, then what's the harm?" I chuckled, "Plus I might be able to fuck with some of those assholes that like to push me. Appearing to come onto them might be an excellent dumbass repellant." I paused, "That is if I don't run into someone who is actually gay."