[Mana: 0.138/1 → 0.223/1 (Aberrant Circuit)]
[Current Mana Composition: 99% Hell’s Mana, 1% Natural Mana]
Shai smacked his lips as he leaned against the infirmary’s walls. The demon, Hark’suv, had appeared again.
She was instantly eliminated, however, Arthur had been siphoned of his life force once more.
The wound on his chest was growing.
‘Levinas and the Myrlite guards should have a grasp of the situation at this point. Arthur now has no choice but to continuously cultivate his mana. If he doesn’t move from F-Rank to E-Rank anytime soon, he would die.’
Thinking up to here, Shai thought about how he could help. Although he could survive despite Arthur’s death, he felt that the conditions for an S-Rank Clear would require his continued existence.
This was because Arthur, as his named suggested, was fated towards a certain sword.
Without this sword, a lot of events would unfold in ways that Shai could not predict.
‘I’m bound to this storyline through and through,’ Shai lamented.
If he had a choice, he would have dropped out of the school and used his knowledge of the game to amass resources and climb the Wizard’s Tower.
Unfortunately for him, he needed a select group of people alive.
Arthur Rose.
Aria of House Red Evening.
Levinas Hades.
And a few more.
Without the main party, life would be much, much harder. He even doubted his own survival.
***
The days passed by in an eerie kind of tranquility. The game revolved around Arthur, and thus the storyline’s difficulties fell upon his shoulders.
Unbeknownst to Arthur, lingering just within Hark’suv’s aura, Shai would absorb demonic energy. It was done to help him out, and at the same time collect enough for Shai’s own usage.
Of course, aside from that, Shai regularly went to class, although the gazes were growing to be annoying. Thankfully, he was able to avoid Synthia or he would be beaten black and blue. He was instead a witness to a few of her victims from afar.
Aside from that, he would walk past Levinas every now and then, noting the bags under his eyes. Then, he would study with Aria at night.
…Just like tonight.
“…” Shai’s brow twitched as he glanced over at the two guys who had taken their seat at his table. They didn’t even bring any books, simply sitting in awkward silence. Aria was ignoring them, fully focused on her reading for the day.
Shai decided to do the same.
Whatever Levinas and Arthur wanted to achieve, he would let them achieve it.
Thus, the minutes went by.
Levinas ended up closing his eyes, seemingly to rest. As someone who didn’t fear death itself, it made sense that a little socialising didn’t faze him. He simply waited.
Arthur, however, just stared blankly at the table. The stress that the recent week had wrought upon him was quite immense.
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—Thud.
Shai watched as Arthur’s head hit the table.
‘The poor guy has fallen asleep,’ Shai sighed. ‘It seems like he isn’t fairing well at all.’
He thus decided to speak up.
“Hark’suv is the type to slowly wear down her enemies. Simply cultivating his mana is not enough.”
Levinas’ eyes opened up, with no sign of fatigue. Shining at the mention of the demonic name.
“So what do you suppose we do? The academy isn’t being as helpful as we have been hoping.”
‘That’s because eighty percent of the staff all have strings attached to them. Either by the demons, or other factions vying for the position of Headmaster.’ Shai left those words unsaid. Instead, he feigned ignorance.
“Even at the cost of a student’s life?”
“…Arthur and I are both commoners. We don’t have much say.”
“Ah,” Shai nodded. He too, was a commoner. However, from his perspective, he was basically air in this school. If he didn’t have such an abysmal status of being ‘unawakened’ then nobody would really realise if he ever disappeared.
Aside from that, Shai was still quite amused by Levinas’ setting.
Depending on the mode of difficulty, Levinas would have a different social standing.
In easy-mode, he would be revered as a holy child, marked by the pantheon of Gods.
In normal-mode, he would be a high-ranking noble with numerous riches at his disposal.
In hard-mode, he would be a regular noble instead.
And so on and so forth, until hell-mode, where his status was as low as the main character’s.
This was one of the many reasons why Levinas was hailed as a ‘ghost player two.’
While Shai was musing about such things, another person joined the party. Silently taking her seat beside Levinas.
It was Alissa.
Her soft, green hair was quite the contrast to Aria’s crimson locks. Moreover, with Arthur’s golden curls, Levinas’ skeleton-white braids, and Shai’s jet-black hair, each person at the table had a drastically different appearance from one another.
‘Our heads could be used for painting…’ Shai shook his head, amused.
***
Levinas was at a loss. He didn’t know how to properly approach Aria, and his conversation with Shai was going nowhere.
Levinas’ eyes flitted over to the guy in black.
Shai had built up quite the reputation recently, unbeknownst to him. Although he was an unawakened — automatically giving him abysmal grades in the practicals, which he didn’t even bother joining — he was a stellar theoretical student.
Honestly, it was as expected of a pure ‘scholar.’
In fact, his performance was so high up there that many of the genius students couldn’t help but feel stumped. Thinking to themselves that a person with that much brain definitely deserved Myrlite Academy despite his status as an unawakened.
[ A prodigy only seen in theories ].
That was the nickname that was circling around.
Moreover, rumours of Shai’s friendship with the renowned Top Seat of Class Diamond had been circling as well. Deterring many of those with more foul purposes in the school. Levinas had heard about it all from Alissa.
Thus, with the academy only aiding Arthur with the bare minimum, Levinas decided to turn to the pair who were growing famous for being a permanent presence in the library.
“Shai—”
Levinas was about to speak when a thin book slid towards him.
“Give it a read,” Shai spoke, bluntly and seemingly annoyed. “If it suits your needs, don’t disturb us any further.”
Levinas glanced at the thin book.
“A notebook?” Alissa asked in a whisper, “What’s written inside?”
“Strategies.” Shai answered as he flipped the page of the book he was focused on, “I’ve devised strategies to combat a few of the most common demons. From Hark’suv to Illgar and Ytrima, these [Demonic Names] are quite active, as per the last time I checked. It should do you all well.”
After hearing Shai’s words, Levinas noticed that Aria had stopped reading. A hungry gaze fell upon the notebook in his hands.
It seemed like Aria wanted to see what those strategies were comprised of.
“…” Levinas was speechless. Shai and Aria were a pair that didn’t make sense, and the longer he interacted with them, the more his head started to hurt.
Nonetheless, he hurriedly hid the notebook in his bag. He didn’t fancy have to wrestle for the notebook’s ownership with a high-ranking, Level 2 noble.
“Thanks,” Levinas said as he stood up, dragging Arthur along with Alissa’s help. “I owe you.”
Shai simply waved them off, clearly showing that they were hindrances to his studies.
With a wry smile, Levinas and his companions left.
***
Seeing that Levinas had finally left, Shai breathed a sigh of relief. Given the time, there were only a few minutes left before Hark’suv would appear again. If that demon appeared in the library, right in front of him, it would be bad, bad news.
The weakest link could bring about the severance of the strongest chains.
Shai had no wish to be the weakest link.
[Mana: 0.997/1 (Aberrant Circuit)]
[Current Mana Composition: 98% Hell’s Mana, 2% Natural Mana]
Especially when he was this close to filling up his Aberrant Circuit for the first time.
“One last encounter, and then I can finally begin.” Shai would’ve laughed if not for Aria being present, and the fact that he was in a library with pin-drop silence.
Moreover... Shai could feel something off about the air. There was a bothersome uncertainty quaking within his heart.