My name is Rudwick Roa, an average child birthed from an average family but blessed with wisdom. The quote, “I was hiding behind an umbrella when the gods showered the world with stupidity” might be very fitting for me.

Jokes aside, due to my own volition I remained secluded from society. My attitude coupled with my strange way of talking made me an introvert. Not everyone can follow up in a conversation between philosophers and fools. That’s right, I was branded as a fool.

Due to my own ‘foolishness’ as my classmates put it, just a week the gods have sent me a tribulation but  might have pressed the wrong button causing me to receive the unexpected blessing, the Interface. The Interface is a transparent screen floating in front of me that displays my current parameters such as Health, Mana, Stamina, Chakra and Qi.

That’s right. It gives me the opportunities to become either a Mage, a Cultivator and a Ninja. I was exhilirated that day and immediately tried to use skills.

But before I tried to cast any spells, at the corner of my eyes I saw the skills section. Written there were the meager skills: Meditation, Cultivation and Chakra Control. The skills section were separated into 2: the Passive Skills and Active Skills. I assumed the passive skills were skills that are used subconciously and the active skills were skills that can only be used by activation mirroring its name. Chakra Control fell under passives while the last two were classified as actives.

I hastily scanned the whole interface and read the finals portions, afraid to miss any details: the Class and Skill Point sections.

The Class stated were Mage, Cultivator, Ninja and The Fool. The first three were easily understood but the fourth... let’s just say that there are circumstances prompting it to be there.

The last part is the Skill Points. At that time, I had 3 and counting my skills, it doesn’t take long enough for me to connect the dots. So I hastily trained mediation and cultivation. Using them simultaneously was viable so I entered my room, sat down and concentrated on the skills.

Hours on end, when I was getting bored came the first level ups. Meditation and Cultivation rose to two and netted me 2 SPs or Skill Points. I dumped 5 points to the 0/5 counter next to the Mage because why not?

After my SP were sucked dry, the interface rewarded me with notifications giving me the new skills gust and fireball. I was very euphoric that day and fell asleep with a smile in my face.

The next day, I spammed fireballs and gusts with gusts at the majority due to how ‘mild’ the destructive effects are. I also picked up a flat stick and waved it around then threw it away for a bulkier and heavier one.

The effects were instantaneous. Fireballs became slightly denser and bigger while the gusts got stronger and rougher it can even blow shrubs from the force alone. Raising sword mastery lets me gain a sense for the sword, like having the sword as an extension of my arm. The perceived familiarity with the sword was minimal but it does exist so I was looking forward to the day I become one with it just like the protagonists I read from stories.

Along the way I picked up Deftness. Deftness is basically a skill to make things easier to pick, grasp and swing the sword. Although I’m pretty sure there are other applications of the skill, I shelved it for the time being for future experiments.

After that, I placed all my points to Cultivator and Ninja rewarding me with Qi Circulation and Chakra Circulation respectively.

That was a week ago during the weekends and because of school, I didn’t have the time to train. I have been tempted to ditch school but so far I resisted it.

So my solution was to laze about in school and craft plan to hasten my growth. I also tried to hid any traces of my mana and chakra to the surroundings (my qi back then was negligible) because I was afraid if somebody found out leading me to acquire Aural Suppression and leveled it up to 2. It was because of the presence of mana, qi and chakra that I was able to confirm the existence of fantasial creatures so I laid extra precautions so that I will have ways to easily avoid them.

It was also because of last week’s topic that I have formed my own Dao. It was just a lesser Dao of Life that I miraculously comprehended.

Also, because of my laziness in these past few days, Tina, the class prodigy, who took classes seriously was irate about having me in her team leading to the commotion earlier.

So that’s about it.

I absent-mindedly pushed the coin into the vending machine’s coin slot and pressed the coffee can button. Picking up the can from the hachet, I turned around and headed back into the classroom.

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Sneakily entering the backdoor, I slowly tiptoed towards my seat and sat down. I opened up the can with a pop and scanned the classroom.

The reports were almost done and the last representative is summarizing his report. The class were entirely focused on the ongoing report so I was overlooked when I exited the backdoor. Well, except for one student. Yup, it was her. Christina Forthe.

Due to the location of my chair that was placed at the final row, the representatives at the front corner can easily spot me. Especially her, which can easily be put together judging from her attitude earlier.

I just shrugged at her attempts to glare at me. Ignoring her childish antics, I took a sip from my coffee can and leaned at the back of my chair.

Listening to the reports made me bored so I swiftly drank my coffee, curled my arms above the desk and rest my head over it, accepting the sweet embrace of sleep and a single can of coffee won’t stop me.

 ***

I woke up to the sound of bells. The tintinnabulation coaxed my body to stretch and so I did.

After I regained my bearings, I realized it was already lunch time. I must have slept 3-4 hours. Luckily, the teachers didn’t disturb me.

With a quick grab of my bag, I exited the room and walked the corridors. Descending the stairs, weaving through the dense crowd of students and a few turns, I arrived at the cafeteria.

I sneaked behind some of the students and inserted myself to get a better view of the food lining the cafeteria.

Picking up my purse and dumping coins at the cashier, I brought with me a sandwich and a spaghetti to satiate myself. Not wanting to sit down next to the boisterous students, I left the cafeteria and ate my meager lunch along the way.

Fate must have been playing tricks at me because halfway through my ‘lunch’, I saw Tina and Jean chatting ahead. Hating to deal with them, I turned around and made a detour.

Hiding between the rooms and facilities, I made my way to my classroom and try to seek asylum. On my way there, a hand burst through a corner of a classroom and attempted to grab me. Fortunately, I saw it ahead of time and docked below leaving it dangling above me grasping nothing but air.

Tracing the hand, I saw Tina trying to reach me with her petite hands and Jean beside her, eyes wide. I smiled at them and... run. Yep, I run with all my might with them chasing behind me.

I sprinted through the hallways and burst through the school grounds. People around the school were pointing at us so I made sure to run very fast. I even circulated 3 Qi just to raise my speed by 30%.

Due to running beyond a human’s speed limit, the skill Sprint was acquired.

Widening my eyes at the unexpected skill gain, I immediately used it to raise my speed up a notch.

I led them in circles throughout the school and by the time we arrived at the classroom the bell rang to signal the end of lunch. We were heavily panting and I was trying so hard not to laugh. It’s been a long time since I ran that fast.

Raising my head, I smirked at them between my breaths. They were confused at first but then they realized they haven’t eaten lunch. Jean trembled and with eyes flaring with anger, she stomped her feet towards me.

“Rud, wick... Roa!!”

Each syllable of my name was pronounced with hatred. Apparently, Jean was very conscious about her lunch. Every step of the taller girl were the counter to my impending doom. If not for her apparent beauty, which Tina also had, I would write her off as my end.

I backed away little by little, afraid she might punch me which judging from her hunger isn’t entirely improbable. I forced a sheepish smile and tried to humor her.

“U-Um, Jean was it? W-What do you want from this humble self?”

Which made the situation worst.

Deciding that my plan unanimously failed, I enacted plan B. Full turn retreat!

The heavens must be smiling at me because just before Jean seized me, the blond loli interrupted.

“That’s enough Jean. Clearly he must have been confused why we chased him.” She said. “And you! Why the hell did you run!?” then she pointed at me.

 “Who wouldn’t run when chased?” I retorted, voice imbued with confusion.

She halted her steps and furrowed her brows. My remarks were clearly reasonable and she is trying to find a loophole in my logic. But before she made any coherent thoughts, I interjected.

“And besides, what do you two wanted from me anyway?”

Now she is debating whether to tell me or not. It might be probable earlier but now that we’re here inside the classroom, she is hesitating due to presence of classmates. Or she really doesn’t know what she wants. I shelved that idea later for my next meditating session.

Once again, with impeccable timing, teacher choose the opportune moment to enter.

With the teacher entering the class comes my ticket to salvation so I embraced the chance and chose to retreat and slumped into my chair.

I sighed in relief and watch the two of them walked to their own seats at the very front and sat down. Now that I’ve already exacted my revenge, I slowly replenished the qi I used at my prank earlier.

The evening passed by in a blur. Nothing remarkable happened. The subjects were boring and bland.

At around 4 o’ clock, I felt my own bottleneck. I can somehow know that I needed to compress the strips of gaseous qi floating in my dantian to create liquid qi. Apparently, 10 strips were needed in order create 1 droplet of qi.

Checking my interface and glancing at the parameter section which now has 10 qi, I suppressed the urge to breakthrough. There might be someone who can recognize qi nearby. It doesn’t hurt to be cautious, even more now because I didn’t know what the effects of a breakthrough might bring. Judging from my past experiences of my magic skills, I’m pretty sure it will be eye-catching at the very least

With the silent threat looming above me, I decided to postpone my breakthrough right after class. I needed to find some secluded place for it to ensure my privacy.

***

 “Students, make sure to study and don’t forget your assignments. Okay, class dismissed.”

And with that, the class ended.

I grabbed my bag and exited the room, I sneaked into the corridors until I descended the stairs.

I made sure to glance behind me to make sure that the two them aren’t pursuing me. My ego might be temporarily inflated but I won’t be taking any chances for them to exact revenge on me.

Thus, when I’m of the school’s vicinity, I erased the sheepish and silly smile on my face, hugged my bag, circulated my qi and run towards home. Thinking about the pranks I did today, I released a cocky grin.