After the eventful morning, Adam went to class. Luckily it's an actual lesson again.

"From now on, sleep for all I care! Just don't interrupt me! I gotta look professional for the principal!"

"Anyways, today we are discussing a little topic called laws of the kingdom. Now listen very well, I made a comprehensive list of everything important in this single book." The teacher made a gesture as if he was taking out a book.

Adam squinted his eyes and didn't see any book on his hands.

"Now the lesson's finished! Now we can go and move on to training! Everyone, follow-"

A loud resounding smack could be heard as the teacher held his head in pain.

"Fine! Here's the book, it's self-study today. I gotta tend to my wounds."

Adam skimmed through the book and slept while the other students did the same.

After classes, Adam and Zane went to the wastelands and trained. Zane was following an extreme routine while Adam was leisurely jogging around.

"This isn't fair! Why do I have to do this while you just have to jog around."

"You are my bodyguard, I am just building up my stamina to run away. Simple as that!"

"Run... away... Shameless!"

"Hey, we had an agreement! You protect me and I get you anything you would ever want within reasonable means."

"Say, Adam, those kids were saying some confusing stuff. Tell me, what's a girlfriend? They said words like did the deed, many fish in the sea and, a few people wearing Anna's face on their flags told me that I made the right choice. The last part was what honestly made me ask, did they really wanna get eaten that much?"

"Pfft. Ahem, they aren't really wrong. Hais, what the hell is the school teaching? Anyways, listen up, a girlfriend is a romantic partner. Someone, you would fall in love with, you don't think about it you just feel."

"Love?"

"When you are with that person, your heart beats faster, you start to feel hot and have a desire to be with them at all times."

"I got it. I didn't feel anything towards those girls so I'll decline."

"Anyways, because of that segment, I'll increase your routine. Work hard, I believe in you!" Adam lazily laid back on the ground and said with a monotone voice while lazily raising his arms. He then opened a book which he brought along, from the massive collection he has brought along.

Adam after taking out another book from his storage ring, Adam look at Zane.

"Aren't you surprised?"

"Not really, I already say this when I go to the doctor from time to time."

"Well, it makes sense. Ask him to give you one, these things are pretty rare and I barely use them since I don't need a lot of stuff with me. Oh, I remember this. Here, it was my previous cloak."

Adam took out a ragged black cloak, considering Zane's physique increased and was similar to Adam, the cloak match him perfectly.

"What am I gonna do what a black rag?"

"Nothing much just looks cool."

"Then why bother?"

Adam shrugged his shoulders and casually said, "I needed the space for more books."

"At least, tell me it was passed down from generation to generation and now as your only friend you are giving it to me so that it may protect me!"

"My friend, this cloak has been passed down generation to generation-"

Zane smacked Adam.

"Can't you take a joke? Of course, it's special! Why else would I have been wearing it? It has been enhanced with invisibility magic as well as a signal of sorts. Just infuse your mana into it and it'll work."

"Cool."

After training, they started to head back.

"What's odd is that you don't know about this despite asking for panties."

"Well, the kids from where I was from said that getting a girl's panties is one of the hardest things to get. So I thought, might as well."

"Easily corruptable, nice."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Hmm? What did you say?"

"Oh, nothing. Wanna get some ice cream before heading back?"

"Sure."

Now Adam properly kept his thoughts to himself, yeah, easily corruptible.

After doing this routine until the next monthly tournament, Zane grew at an exponential rate. Enough to be mistaken with a person that has a trait, well he does have a trait but it isn't useful, or is it?

Adam on the other hand gradually increased the intensity of his workout but was still tame compared to what Zane has to go through. His stamina increased though somewhat.

Adam said something to Zane if he were to ever encounter Richard then to use it.

At the tournament, Adam fought much better than last time but still lost. Adam has to show some kind of improve at least.

Meanwhile, eyes were now on Zane. Although he only got top 2000 last time, it was only because he fought an elite and he did last quite a while too. He didn't fight with any technique but with just how tough his body was.

From the beginning to the middle fights, Zane had been using raw power and had been overwhelming others with complete dominance.

When it was coming down to the top 1000, Zane once again got unlucky. He was now facing Richard.

"Beast King Richard! Grind him to dust!"

"Beast King Richard! I love you!"

"Zane, I hope you won't lose too easily."

Richard and Zane got on the platform before the round started they had a little chat,

"So you've been with Adam for quite a while now. What's your relationship with him?"

"A friend."

"Don't bother with him, he's a trouble maker. Join me instead, I'll help you gain more strength and power than you can hope to imagine! Even this school can't groom kids as good as me!"

"You're only 12 though, what can you do?"

"Isn't Adam also 12 as well?"

"Good point, but sadly I have to refuse."

"No matter, my offer still stands until you do something that I would dislike, I won't beat you too badly."

After the match started, Richard and Zane exchanged blows. Zane got blown back while Richard stood still with any movement.

"Your body is quite strong if you were a normal student your ribs would've been broken."

"Agh! You said you won't beat me too badly!"

"Since you're Adam's friend, you gotta bear some of the weight, right? I have nothing against you, but I do have something against Adam."

Zane stood up and dashed forward. Richard and Zane once again clashed fists but this time the one who backed away was Richard. Zane infused mana into his whole body and punched with all his might.

"Heh, it hurts. I lose, my body can't handle it anymore."

Zane dropped down fully exhausted and thought to himself, now it makes sense why Adam made me use mana reinforcement. It was to show how much difference there was between Richard and me, no matter how much I train there just isn't any way to fight against that.

There wasn't even a scratch on Richard's body when Zane used his all into one punch. The difference between talent and trait was just too much. Adding on the fact that Richard was working as hard or even harder than Zane made that gap seemingly impossible to close.

Cheers sounded out and Zane was carried out by a team of medics. They fully healed Zane up which allowed him to talk to Adam who was inside the infirmary without anyone noticing.

"You get it now, right?"

"Yeah, I just don't know what you want me to do."

"To stay the same path now, later on, you'll be doing the same thing as him. Don't worry, you'll be his equal when on a 1v1."

"Rest up now, I have to go now."

Zane closed his eyes and slept.

Later on, Adam went to Nero's office.

"What brings you here?"

"I am here to offer you a favor, for a favor. I've been in this school for 2 months now, not too long nor too short. Let me cut to the chase, I want to enter the secret library."

Nero slightly trembled when he heard those words. When he remembered that he was backed by the supposedly new king of the underworld, it made sense.

"You know the rules, right? When-"

"I know, only a single hour is allowed per person, no matter age, status, or power."

"So you enrolled just for this, huh? Interestingly, even the king didn't get too much from it but the gains he did get are astounding."

"I know, there is an elemental being protecting that library, so to put it in other words. This school is built above the library and the kingdom was built to protect this school."

"Even that was leaked? Fine, I'll let you in. However, can you fulfill the favor that I need?"

"Try me."

Nero smiled innocently, "There has been a lack of... 'black mineral', we need at least an entire kilogram of it."

Adam laughed hysterically, so that's the catch, of course, it wouldn't be easy. Even right now at hand, I have half that amount. Do I really have to hunt down a demon?

"So, you wouldn't have told me this without a lead, right? That would be dumb, 'black mineral' is only useful for repelling demons. So where is it, the demon that even the kingdom's full force couldn't destroy."

There was another use for 'black mineral' or in other terms, demon's ashes. It was also theorized to be able to summon a demon forcefully but there was no concrete information on it, though this information was what was released to the public.

Those bastards are killing a demon so that they can summon a demon, what hypocrites! I might be lucky and would get some of its voluntary blood, which would help me out a lot.

"It's in the south, hiding in the Mountains of Days Past. It's around this general location."

Nero took out a map that has a certain part encircled.

"Hahaha! Weakening the underworld and having a chance to kill me, indirectly. Truly two birds with one stone. Win and you gain prestige, lose and you still gain my knowledge. Is there anything else I should worry about?"

"Yes, it's not a demon, its a devil. I wish you happy huntings."

"So the 'black mineral' you were talking about were devil's ashes?! You're even more insane than I thought! Same thing but with devils, huh? You better not summon me though, watch out."

Adam left with the map.

Sir Steward was waiting outside and entered the office.

"What was that about?"

"An opportunity appeared and I took it, it's out of our hands now. Adam and the doctor are hunting it."

"HE WHAT?! Does he know what he's dealing with?"

"He does, but he just laughed it off."

"Then what did he want?"

"He wanted to enter the secret library."

"I don't think that's enough to make him hunt down a devil. There's something seriously wrong here."

"He also knows that we are trying to summon a devil."

"This is seriously bad! Do you know the ramifications that would occur if he spread this?"

"He isn't that dumb, it would something that would bother him. He also said something quite interesting."

"What is it?"

"He said, 'You better not summon me though, watch out.' That kid holds so many secrets at such a young age, I want to pry yet I don't want my hands chopped off."

"Let's see if he can do this, if he can then it's good we haven't reported him yet to the king."

"Oh? Such a loyal man not reporting to the king? What a shocking turn of events, you even sold out the head of the Mason family to the king. Why not him?"

"He makes me feel scared. To the point that I would rather deal with that devil than him."

Nero then sighed deeply, "Same here."