C33

Joey spent a few minutes explaining the origin of the golden ring and its near nonexistence drawback to Momo so that it would reassure her. And it's true, it wouldn't be a trouble at all, just a little bit of inconvenience. Momo accepted his explanation with understanding but she ended up finding a loophole in his story.

She was too smart for her own good. In the end, he had no choice and ended up telling her about his unusual growth in magic stats. "Huh? Is that even possible? How curious." This matter piques her interest. So she told him that she would look into the matter herself.

'I had no lead so far but with her help, it might be possible to find more clues. There's no harm in letting her know.' But just in case Joey warned her not to tell anyone about it.

"No problem, I know what to do, Joey. Just leave it to me."

"Okay, thanks in advance then." Joey and Momo smiled at each other.

"Next student!" Shota's grumpy voice broke into their world. "Hurry up! Do you want me to call you by name?"

Under Shota's threat, a small boy walked to the stage. He was tiny even compared to the other students his age. That was when it hit him. This is not his previous world, so he might not be genetically born short, but he's tiny because he's a Pallum!

To Joey who watched Danmachi, it was a familiar term to label the demi-human with a small body structure as a Pallum. But it had totally different meanings in this world compared to danmachi. He read these passages in the library once. His history teacher in elementary school also told him the same thing. Pallum is the same human just like him but the continuous breeding of people with certain mutant quirks in the past caused some miraculous mutation to their DNA.

Pallum might be weak in physical tests, but they're known for their good eyesight and the ability to see better in the dark. The same can also be said about Dwarves and Elves. The mutation changed their DNA and gave them some positive and negative influences on their DNA. And among the three, elves are by far the most successful mutation.

Unfortunately, elves are pretty rare compared to dwarves and pallum. They also suffer from reproduction issues. Even in his school, he could count them with two fingers and these two elves he saw also seemed to be the upperclassmen. So he rarely saw them. It was a coincidence that he even managed to see them in the first place and it was due to him being late.

They are somewhat similar to him in that they possess a beautiful countenance. So they're always famous with both genders. Once again, it's too bad there's no elf in his class. He would like to meet and converse with them as friends.

This time the pallum was even more in a bad situation than the previous students. In Joey's eyes, there's no difference between this pallum and the goblin. They both possess stick-like figures and are shorter than average people.

And as he expected, the six dummies made a short work of the pallum. The same thing also happened to the next student after the pallum. No one managed to beat more than two goblins before they got swarmed and beaten to submission. One student after another leaves the stage with swollen faces until it was finally Joey's turn. All the boys looked at the stage with shit-eating grins on their faces. They can't wait for Joey to get beaten up and show his ugly face to the girls in the class! That would be so much fun~

"Huhuhuhu~"

"Hehehehe~"

Joey got sudden goosebumps when he reached the stage. He wondered for a moment if someone was trying to curse him with some unexplained skills. But then he shook his head to clear his mind from distraction.

"Are you ready?" Shota asked,

"Anytime." Just as Joey finished his words, the goblins started to rush toward him at a speed that was never seen before. The two closest to him attacked first, the one on the left swung its claw at his shoulder while the one on his right swung its claw at his waist. The girls cried out in alarm when they saw this, especially Momo, Jiro, and the twin.

But to their astonishment, Joey managed to avoid both attacks at the same time by shifting his posture and diverting the claws' direction with a gentle fist so they would brush past his body. He then sent out quick punches to their upper and lower joints, breaking their elbows and knees. By the time the last four goblins arrived, the two were already laying on the floor.

Shota saw the smirk on Joey's face and suddenly the goblins started to move even more quickly than before. Facing the four at the same time, this time he didn't rush straight to them in fear of scaring his temporary teacher and fellow students with his abnormal ability. But even though he didn't plan on using them, they might get triggered on their own as a reflex in case those goblins got lucky. So he put in a bit more effort.

Joey played a bit of basic footwork he learned from Himiko on these goblins until they only managed to face him two at a time. He smashed their joints and bend their knees and elbows. As for the last two goblins, he gave them extra love by twisting their neck backward. After the last goblin was demolished, Joey smiled at the audience. The whole gymnasium immediately broke into cheers.

"Whoaaa! that was amazing!"

"It was epic!!"

""Joey! I love you!" a group of girls started to squeal and cheer at Joey on the stage with a loud voice that could shake one's eardrums.

"What the hell, that was awesome man!"

"You can say that again, is he even human?"

The boys who wished for Joey's misery also can't help but exclaim in astonishment. Even though they didn't like him, the sight of Joey beating those goblins was so out of the world for students their age. It was overwhelming. And more importantly, all of them started to celebrate the defeat of the six goblins. With this, they no longer have to get beaten up by some stupid dummies anymore.

"Hooray!!"

"Take that you green uglies!"

Unfortunately for them, Shota took out four more dummies from somewhere. The face of Joey's classmates when they saw four new goblins was a sight to behold. It took a lot of him to hold it in and did not burst into laughter. And soon enough, under the guidance of the pack of green skin, most students ended up spending some extra time in the infirmary.

Joey also visited the infirmary since Momo and the girls also failed to beat all of the goblins. After spending some time with them, he parted with them. But just as he came out of the infirmary, Joey heard Shota's voice from behind him, "Joey Wallenstein, you're hiding your power."

It was a statement, Joey realized. 'Did he figure me out with just that one simple spar with the goblins? No, that's unlikely. I didn't even use my quirk, so maybe he was just guessing wildly and grasping at a straw hoping to find something. That's also why he came to me.'

Joey glanced over his shoulder, "So what?"

Shota's eyebrows dropped as he glared at the boy in front of him. Joey guessed it right. Shota had a feeling that Joey was hiding something, but forget about the proof, he didn't even know what the boy was hiding. However, Shota knew one thing, the boy in front of him is not normal. Something is off with him.

And facing Shota, this super skeptical and busybody guy, Joey felt a bit exasperated. It won't do for this carry-on for a long time. If possible he didn't want to antagonize Shota. So Joey turned and faced him, "Okay fine. You were right, I'm hiding something from... everyone, not just you sir."

Shota raises his brows, clearly unprepared for the boy's sudden honesty. Joey continues, "The truth is... I'm a genius."

Shota blinked, not expecting that to come out of the boy's mouth. He wanted to scold the boy for lying to him but no words come out of his mouth. Although it sounds like nonsense, it was the most plausible explanation so far. Even so, Shota can't help by annoyed by the kid, something about him rubs him the wrong way. But what is it? Shota wondered for a moment before coming to conclusion.

That's right, It was the look on his face! Unlike the other boys, he always looks so relaxed even while fighting against six goblins. It's the flaw that comes up together with talented people, it was overconfidence! He saw plenty of people similar to the boy in the dungeon. Most of which had fallen to their own talent and hubris.

Shots grunted, "Don't let your current accomplishment blind you kid, or you might regret it."

That was what Joey heard before Shota walked away. In the end, did Joey end up pissing him off? He had no idea. Joey shrugged and waited for a moment before Momo and the girls walked out of the infirmary.

"Hey, there you are, Joey! Let's go to the rooftop. Momo told me it had a wonderful view!" Tiona exclaimed cheerfully upon seeing him.

Joey glanced at Momo and she averted her eyes from him. He sighed and turned to Tiona, "Well, it's fine with me but are you sure you're okay? You did take a lot of beating."

She laughed it off, "Pfft, it was nothing to me. Do you know— Ouch!"

Tione the older sister gave her a chop, "That's enough with the bragging."

She then gave the pink-haired female student behind Tiona an apologetic smile, "Sorry about for blocking the way."

"No problem." The girl smiled and walked past them just like that.

Tione turned to Joey and the other. "Why don't we have lunch on the rooftop?"

"Yup, let's go!"

"I brought something delicious today~"

Tione smiled at her cheerful friends but then she noticed that Joey was not responding to her all. He looked distracted. She followed his gaze and saw a lock of pink hair dancing in the air before it disappeared into the corner.