Ezra was led to the center of the room where they’d set up a literal soapbox. At a glance, Ezra was able to make out the general feeling of most of the people toward him. Most were fearful of him. Some looked downright disgusted, looking at him with narrowed eyes and expressions of disgust. But a sizable minority were staring at him with admiration. One person was nodding. Well, strength did carry a degree of respect, and Ezra had proven that he was strong.

It was kind of funny. Ezra would’ve never been able to pick that out, before. He probably wouldn’t have cared. Well, he didn’t care too much now, either, but still. Wisdom was influencing his ability to perceive things, just as it had promised. Who would’ve thought that his random pick would be so useful?

Dorian waltzed up to the both of them. She glanced at Ezra with a raised eyebrow.

“Really? You wanted to get in on this?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

Dorian curved a loose strand of hair behind her ear and pushed her glasses back up her face.

“Wipe that nasty thing you call a smile off your face. It’s disturbing.”

The smile was wiped away. Ezra shrugged.

“Yeah, well, I need cannon fodder on my way up.”

“Yeah, that’s a message that’s sure to win hearts and minds,” Dorian said. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

Charles held up a hand. “Hold on, Dorian. Who’s going first?”

Huh, Dorian was in charge of the whole event? Ah, who was Ezra kidding? Of course she was. She was in charge of everything back in school. All the procedures, all the budgets. This was even though she didn’t even hold a formal position.

It seemed she was angling for the same thing here. To be a power in the shadows.

Oh wait, should Ezra try splitting an atom? Perhaps, if he leveled it up high enough, he’d be able to pierce an atom and make a nuclear reaction.

And then after, he would create a secret organization—

“Uh, Ezra? What’s up with that creepy expression?” Dorian said. “I just said we’ll flip a coin. Did you even hear me?”

Ezra looked up at Dorian. “Oh, yeah, sure. That’s fine.”

Flip a coin for what now?

Dorian brought out a coin from her pocket, lined it up on her thumb knuckle, and shot it into the air.

“Heads,” Charles said.

The coin fell onto Dorian’s hand. She slapped it onto the top side of her other hand and then revealed the result.

“Heads. Charles goes first,” she said.

Charles drew his back straight, tilted his chin upward, and squared his shoulders. He marched forward and stepped on top of the soapbox.

Ezra looked at the corner of the room. Had someone left a coin on the ground?

Charles took a deep breath.

“My fellow students. Today, I speak to you about several things. The trials facing us, and the willpower and dedication needed to face these trials...”

Ezra mentally filtered out what Charles was saying. He could almost imagine the American flag waving in the background along with the coronet playing as he spoke. It had been a while since Charles was in form like this. No anger, no rage, no embarrassment. He was calm as he spoke. He brought up something about the injury of one of their own. Ah, he was speaking about that student who was attacked by the Grimwolf, right?

“My opponent does not have your best interests in mind.”

Ezra was broken out of his thoughts by the fact that Charles was pointing at him.

“Ezra Hawthorne,” Charles said. “Before being summoned alongside us, was a loner, well-known for leering at girls like a creep.”

Ah, Charles truly was the consummate politician, wasn’t he? The worst part was that it was working. Ezra could see that multiple people were nodding up and down.

“I mean, I didn’t know Ezra existed before now but that sounds totally believable,” someone whispered.

“Yeah, I agree.”

Charles barreled on.

“Not only is he a creep, he’s a brute as well. He killed the monster, yes. But he did so in the most grotesque, disturbing manner possible. I do not believe that such a man is worthy of leading the future heroes of this land—!”

Ezra walked up to the soapbox.

“Hey, what are you doing—“ Charles said.

“Get off the soapbox right now.”

Ezra continued marching forward.

Charles broke out in a sweat. “W-what?! You can’t just—“

Ezra didn’t halt.

Charles scurried off the soapbox and back onto the ground. “You asshole! Do you think this is gonna help you!? Dorian, stop standing there!”

Dorian smirked and looked down at her nails. “I mean, if you want to try to stop him, be my guest.”

Charles reached into his pocket and squeezed his hand around something.

Ezra stepped onto the soapbox, crossed his arms, and faced the audience.

“Charles offered you something. I don’t know, like, uh, victory and comradeship, right?”

There was a shrug from someone in the audience.

Ezra pulled a hand out of his pockets and pointed at the audience.

“I don’t give a shit about any of that!” he said. “You guys are my tools, stepping stones on my path to victory. As soon as I can, I’ll ditch all of you!”

It was so quiet that one could’ve heard the crickets chirping.

“Uh, that’s not a very compelling reason,” Pete said.

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear you speak!”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Pete winced and nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, you guys will probably be treated like trash,” Ezra said. “But you also get my protection. I won’t let you guys die as long as you follow my orders and do what I say. Probably.”

Half a minute of silence passed. Dorian did a slow clap.

“Excellent work,” she said. “Very compelling. Now then, I would like to say something.”

Ezra’s eyes widened.

Dorian faced the crowd.

“He’s competent.” She pointed at Charles. She then pointed at Ezra. “He’s better. He also happens to be batshit insane, if you couldn’t tell. All in favor of Charles?”

About 90% of the students raised their hands.

“All in favor of Ezra?”

A half-dozen hands shakily went up. Yuki and Pete were among them, surprisingly.

“Charles wins by a clear majority.”

Charles tilted his chin up and peered down at Ezra.

“Well now, looks like things didn’t go quite as you expected.”

Ezra continued to flip his needle around in his hand. Just a bit more…

“Uh, Ezra?”

Come on, come on!

[Needle Mastery] leveled up!

Ezra nodded.

“Perfect,” he muttered.

Charles gave him an incredulous glance. “What the hell?” He shook his head. “Nevermind. I have better things to do.”

He walked off. Ezra squeezed down on the needle.

He wasn’t going to give Charles the satisfaction of seeing him frustrated. He spun the needle in his hand while activating his various other skills.

[Web Trap] leveled up!

The door to the dormitory swung open, revealing Synica’s cool blue eyes. Behind her, Stip Idia followed closely.

“Right then. Apologies for the delay, Otherworlders. I’m afraid that I was… preoccupied with other matters. We will resume training. Please follow me.”

----------------------------------------

They’d moved quickly because of how late they were. The entire time they moved, Ezra continued to train his abilities, activating them under his clothing while spinning his needle. In addition to that, he’d morphed his needle, increasing its size by a half inch. He’d already leveled everything he was training by five or so.

Before long, they’d arrived at the ruins. And ruined it was. There were no grand towers or massive walls. All that was left were stone bricks alluding to a once grand structure.

“The old ruins of Castle Tutar are considered some of the best training grounds around,” Synica said. “Considering your success regarding the Grimwolf, I have elected to advance your training and allow you to fight here. Be warned. This area is considered sacred to the people of Cortia. Do not destroy the ruins any further if you can avoid it. If I’ve found that you’ve caused damage that could’ve been avoided, I will personally make your life very difficult. Any questions?”

It was silent for a moment, and then Charles coughed into his hand.

“Yes, Charles?” she said.

“What happened yesterday? Why did you vanish on us?”

Synica let out a long sigh..

“It was an unfortunate set of circumstances that led us to that point. A dangerous monster was spotted outside our territories. It had already killed over fifty people. Idia was supposed to take you back but he was… preoccupied.”

Synica glanced at Idia. He continued grinning as if he’d done nothing wrong.

“I apologize,” she said. “You weren’t supposed to face something so dangerous. The student who was injured is being taken care of. He’ll most likely recover.”

The mention of the student’s injury instantly brought down the mood. One boy looked at the ground. Another clenched his jaw, clearly holding back from yelling at Synica.

“All we can do now is move on and carry forward the ideal that he fought for. The defense of the Kingdom of Cortia.”

No one said a word. Synica turned around.

Ezra crossed his arms.

“That’s tragic and all,” Ezra said. “But can we hurry up and get to killing some mobs?”

A flash of disgust flew over Synica’s face before it was swiftly crushed. Around Ezra, multiple students looked at him in shock.

Ezra didn’t react.

There was a small part of him that did pity whoever had been injured. After all, that very easily could’ve been him.

But half of these students didn’t know or care about the bastard very much either. They were just scared for themselves, and they had no right to act that way. After all, this is what they agreed to at the outset.

“Very well,” Synica said. “Good hunting.”

----------------------------------------

To Ezra’s surprise, Pete had wandered over in his direction. It was clear that Pete was about to ask him if they could hunt together again—but then all of their classmates glared at him and Pete backed off.

Of course. Coward.

Ezra activated Polymorphism. He didn’t need Pete, anyway. This was still a tutorial area, they wouldn’t be slammed with powerful monsters, and Synica probably wouldn’t allow another Grimwolf to attack them.

Probably.

Ezra crouched low to the ground. He was confident that he could take out all challengers, but he just wanted to be safe—

[Skill “Stealth” unlocked!]

Oh hey, that’ll be useful.

Ezra’s footsteps moved over the gravel quietly, and then he stopped.

His first target.

Wraith - Lv. 7

It was a nasty creature that resembled a human if the human’s skin was rotting and their face was falling off.

This would’ve scared him even just a day ago. The Grimwolf was scarier.

Ezra leaped forward, his needle flying through the air.

Surprisingly, the wraith caught sight of him and dodged. It winded up its fists for a counterattack. Ezra snarled and pivoted on his feet using his newfound Dexterity. He slammed his body weight into the creature—

Only to bounce off like a balloon.

Wait, but that made no sense! Ezra was thin, but not that thin!

The wraith didn’t care and shoved him hard, but Ezra converted the shove into a combat roll.

He’d been expecting an easy fight. Where’d he go wrong? Ah, of course. His strength. He hadn’t put a single point into it.

He twirled his needle around in his hand. Polymorphism would wear out soon. Best to end this quickly.

The wraith flew toward him. Wisdom screamed in his ear about the openings that it had in its attacks.

Well, all those openings were great, but which would kill it?

Ezra took a gamble and aimed for the wraith’s empty eye socket. The wraith pulled back its hand in a desperate attempt to protect itself, but Ezra was faster and the needle pierced through the bone and into the brain of the creature.

The health bar of the monster decreased by half. It staggered and let out a low groan.

Ezra pulled back and stabbed into the thing again. After a second, he kicked it off his weapon and onto the ground.

His exp bar went up by a third.

Ezra spent the next couple of hours grinding away without a care. Occasionally he’d come across another student. They avoided him for the most part, not even looking in his direction. Yuki gave him a shy smile, though, while Dorian smirked. Ezra didn’t quite know how to feel about either of those.

Wait.

A snarky, cold woman, and a shy, emotional one. Both of them bother him at random times. Both of them seem to have an odd interest in him for no apparent reason. No. It couldn’t be. He wasn’t a harem protagonist. No way, no how. Maybe God was a crappy isekai writer, but even he would be above such shameless tropes.

…wait, was he?

Ezra was torn out of his thoughts by the familiar scream of one of the girls he’d been thinking of. Yuki. For a moment, the thought of simply leaving it alone crossed his mind, but the EXP would probably be worth it.

He dashed off making full use of his Dexterity. The first thing he saw was blood. Lots and lots of blood.

Shit.

Large Wraith - Lv. 12

“Charles, we have to call for help!” Dorian said.

Charles twirled his straight razor and stared down the monster in front of him.

“Shut up, I’ve got this!”

Dorian glared daggers at him. Beside her, Pete was on the ground, clutching the side of his stomach. Yuki placed the ripped shreds of someone’s t-shirt onto Pete’s wound.

“Charles,” Dorian said. “Pete’s in danger! We need to find Synica and get him healed!“

Charles clenched his fist around his straight razor.

“We’ve got to take care of this monster first.“

Ezra rushed forward while everyone was distracted, stabbing his needle through the back of the Large Wraith.

The monster exploded into dust, revealing him to Dorian, Charles, and Yuki. Pete was too delirious to notice him.

“Evening, gentleman. Ladies.”

Points for the cool factor. That probably looked super badass.

Charles’s jaw dropped open.

“W-what!? Ezra, did you just steal my kill!?”

Ezra walked past him and looked down at Pete. There was a massive bloody wound on the side of his chest and Yuki was trying her best, but it was clear that it wasn’t enough.

Charles’s face started turning red. “How dare you! I’m talking to you—!”

“Charles!” Yuki said. “Not the time!”

Charles’s mouth clamped shut.

“We need to find Synica,” Dorian said. “She’ll be able to get Pete back to the castle, or maybe she has healing abilities of her own. We don’t know.”

Yuki cursed loudly.

“Why aren’t either of them around when we need them!?” she said. “It’s always like this!”

Ezra mentally went through his abilities. Did he have something that could help?

His eyes flickered over to Yuki.

“Yuki. Do you have any kind of healing power?”

Yuki pushed down on the wound and nodded.

“Right. Use that,” Ezra said.

She was quiet for a moment before she shook her head.

“I can’t.”

Ezra furrowed his eyebrows together.

“What do you mean that you can’t?” Ezra said.

“I mean that I don’t have the ability points.”

But how? “You spent them all?”

“Look, that isn’t important. We have more important things to deal with.”

Ezra shook his head.

“Right, you’d—“

There was a shuddering noise behind him. A swish. A strike. The sound of bone striking bone and something cracking painfully. Ezra flew through the air like a rag doll and hit the ground hard.

Through the haze of pain, he was able to make out something in the distance.

Large Wraith - Lv. 12

Oh.

It didn’t die.