Second day at the academy [1]

My body was in complete shambles when I woke up. Not only did I have extreme muscle soreness, but it appeared that meditating as well put a lot of stress on one's body as I could feel my organs were also in pretty bad shape.

Hopefully, it was just because my body wasn't used to the strain and, just like when lifting weights, it would adapt with time. Unfortunately, that did not make my current situation any better. Even worse, I knew that I couldn't stop either. I was too desperate for my future survival to relax.

"Argh!", Forcing myself to stand up, I made my way to the shower and let the warm water soak my sore body. It also gave me a chance to sort out my thoughts about what plans I had before classes would start in two days. The 1st of January was the day when we would officially become freshmen at the academy and also the day when we would get to know if we got to attend the A-class or the B-class.

Prior to us arriving, they had already sorted the students into either the elite A-class or the less elite B-class. Both of the classes would still be considered to be elites in the eyes of society as it was impressive to just attend Ainu in the first place. From the game, I knew that the A-class would be mostly filled with douches, but also the beautiful elven princess from Aldon.

In the game, Arthur was at first placed in the B-class but managed to climb his way to the A-class in less than a year, even despite all the nobles trying to bring him down. And this was a problem. I didn't know to what extent they had bullied the man as it was in a game. I and Sophie had no idea how nobles actually treated commoners in this world. Which was the biggest reason I wanted desperately to be placed in the B-class.

In the B-class I had a much higher chance of flying under the radar, giving me the chance to cultivate my strength in peace.

Turning off the shower, I staggered into my living room (as well as my bedroom) and put on another set of training wear. Funnily enough, the black set of training wear was also the only clothes I owned, although I owned several pairs of them.

"[Double Trouble]"

My clone emerged from my body, in the exact same state as I, with his hair still a bit wet. This also gave me the chance to inspect my looks more carefully for the first time. My dark brown hair, elegant nose, and mature face were a sight to be appreciated.

Even in my previous life, I had been very attractive. If not for my small problem with social interactions, both my introverted side as well as not being able to contain my impulse to tease people, I would probably have been pretty popular. The only difference in this world was that my stature was a lot smaller, both height and width, but I was still pretty handsome.

"So, partner, are you ready for the day?"

"Shut up! We know how it hurts! Can't we just stay at home today? There was food inside of the fridge that we can eat..."

As I was having an outer inner monologue with myself, I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. I truly did enjoy my own company the best. Sadly, I had things to do.

Letting my main body once again sit on the bed, cross-legged, I walked out of the room with clone-me to get things done.

Walking out of the room was horrible. Now several other students were walking the halls as well, something I disliked a lot. Nevertheless, I made my way to the reception where I was met by Samantha once again.

"Hi, Mr. Jackson. Your weapons are ready for you now. As you still haven't come to get your smartwatch, I took the liberty to put them in there. I assume that you know how it works already?"

Taking the smartwatch from her hand, I felt pressured to lie, "Of course I do! No worries! Have a great day!"

Not wanting to stay and let her figure out that I had no idea what I had been given, clone-me quickly made his way back to our room.

*Bam!*

"Huff, huff..."

With my back to the door, I was breathing heavily because of the awkward situation I had just gotten out of. Not wanting to disturb myself meditating, I started to fiddle with the device in order to see how it worked.

After a couple of seconds, I managed to make a blue projection appear from the watch.

*Inject your mana to synchronize with the device.*

Seeing no need to not do as the polite watch told me I injected some mana into it, which made another screen of text appear.

*Synchronization completed. Have a pleasant day, Mr. Jackson!*

"Oh, why thank you, talking watch!"

It didn't take me long to figure out the rest of the device. It had a lot of very important uses, with the spatial inventory just being one of them.

'I guess I will have to take good care of this...'

There was one very important thing that I had to check before I was done with it though, and that was to check my bank account.

[Bank account balance: 1000 USD]

"Oh wow! A thousand bucks! That's... I don't know..."

Although my intentions had been good, I didn't even know what things would cost in this world. Thankfully it appeared that, for some incredibly weird reason, they were using the American dollar here as well.

"Haaaa... Guess I'll move on then..."

Using my spatial inventory, I could see that three items were stored in it. Two of them were, as expected, scythes, but there was also a third item in the form of a letter.

"Hmm? What's this?"

Unable to contain my curiosity I brought out the letter from the watch and with a small *Pop!* it appeared in my hand. 'Woah! It's just like magic!'

'It is magic, you moron!'

'Oh right...'

Opening the letter, I was incredibly disappointed. It was just a letter of welcome from the academy which contained some information about how the watch worked when at the academy. The watch would contain our schedules and had a GPS function that would lead us to the right classrooms in case we got lost.

Another bust. Luckily, that meant that I only had one thing left to do.

'It's time!'

I brought out one of the scythes, which was conveniently placed directly into my hand.

'Heavy...', The scythe was made out of pure black metal, matching incredibly well with my training wear and, both fortunately and unfortunately, matched very well with my edgy vision of becoming an elusive reaper. Using another function of my watch, I let it scan the weapon in my hand.

[Practice Scythe of Ainu]

Description: Ordinary scythe made by a confused blacksmith who has no idea what the student who ordered it was thinking.

"I'm not upset..."

'But we are upset...'

Dismissing the negative thoughts of an oblivious blacksmith, I made my way to the practice room, scythe in hand. "Set dummy. Unmoving, indestructible. F-rank."

It only took a couple of simple commands for a dummy to rise from the floor. It was a very traditional wooden dummy that carried a sword and shield in its hands. The stage was now set, set for the descent of a reaper!

I quickly swung the scythe with both hands, ready to slice at the dummy in front of me. However, as I was not used to the weight, it ended in clone-me losing his balance and falling to the floor. "Ow!"

This was not what I had in mind at all... This wasn't the descent of the Trickster of death, this was the descent of a clown...

"Practice makes perfect..."

Steeling my mind, I rose once again, and this time I was determined to not make the same mistake again. At the same time, I was still meditating with my main body, slowly but surely accumulating and purifying more mana.

****

[Sophie's Pov]

Lifting my head from my pillow, I instantly remembered the insanely wonderful day I had yesterday. Not only did I meet the real-life Arthur that had saved me in my previous life, we even agreed to become friends!

"Aaahhh!", Burrowing my face in my pillow, I couldn't help but let out an incredibly girly scream. Even though I had beaten his ass during our spar everything had turned out fine in the end. He also didn't seem to have a problem with my size either, making me even more excited for the future!

Letting go of my teenage excitement, which was pretty embarrassing as I was well above the age of a teenager in my head, I made my way to the shower.

Although I had to some degree found some peace in my new body, there were a couple of things that bothered me quite a bit, with two of them being attached to my chest. They were a lot bigger than the pair I had been equipped with previously and it made it awkward to move around like I used to.

As I stood in the shower, the second issue also showed its face, as my face was a bit taller than the showerhead that was supposed to let the water fall on me. "Haaa...", Slightly crouching, I turned on the water and let myself get swept up in the warmth, excited for a new day with new possibilities.