As it turns out, the next few days of school weren't so great for me. Before I knew it, a week as already gone by and I'm still the friendless person sitting in the corner of the room. Today was the same as usual, me sitting on the roof of one of the classroom buildings, eating my lunch. Recently, it's become a hobby for me to sit by the edge and watch daily events unfold between other students. Since my life was so dull and boring, I had to find my entertainment by spectating other students.
A student’s first year at this school required them to complete the [General Course], so pretty much all of their classes took place within the [General Zone]. It’s the largest area in the school campus, and it contained all of the general facilities that a school normally has. This includes a cafeteria, the classroom buildings, the library, a theatre for assemblies and performances, et cetera. Since the only open area was the cafeteria, that’s the place that I usually watch for any interesting events to occur. And it looks like I’ll be doing the same thing today, since my usual, friendless self has nothing better to do.
I look around to try and find people to watch, I decide to settle on eavesdropping in on a conversation between a strange group of friends. It was a pretty diverse group in terms of species; most of them are probably from different worlds. As far as I can see, there are only two humans at the table, but who knows, they may also be from another world and just look the same as us. Their age difference doesn't seem to be too far apart either. If I had to guess, they would be around 14 years old, and are most likely my seniors since I haven't seen any of them in my freshmen classes.
“-fault. They all just keep challenging me left and right, as if I was their mortal enemy or something.” One of the two humans, a young male with white hair, was already mid sentence as I finally managed to focus my senses onto this particular group. It seems like I've found an interesting conversation to listen to.
“Well, you are the son of an infamous earl. There are a lot of confident, young nobles who would definitely look down on you. Hell, didn't I do the same thing when we first met?” A young boy covered in fur laughs heartily after replying to the human, his tail waving wildly as he did so. He’s from a species I didn’t really expect to find in this world; a [Werewolf]. They usually never travel away from their packs, and it’s rare to see them outside their homeworld.
“You've definitely improved over the summer though,” A small girl covered in scales joined the conversation, asking the human boy, “What kind of training have you been doing, Ash? You could probably be classified as an [A-Ranked] adventurer to right now!”
“Well, I managed to get my mom to teach me some new spells over the summer. We spent about a month going to an open area near the [Forest of Fire], where I learnt how to use [Inferno Wave] and [Phoenix Pillar]. After learning the initial chants and runes, I spent the rest of the time practicing them so I can improve my control and casting time for those two spells.” The human boy named Ash answers. The girl covered in scales should be one of the reptile races, though I can’t tell which one she’s from.
“Wow man, you're seriously going to reach [Level 5] in the four basic elements. If I could use magic as well as you could, then I would never have to be worried about getting caught.” A boy with purple skin and pointed ears speaks out in envy. His unique features could only fit one race that I’ve read about in books, the [Dark Elves].
“What're you talking about!? You're already a prodigy yourself, with your own special [Class] and everything! You ain't fooling no one here, you overpowered ninja!” The person speaking here is literally made up of just bones. A talking skeleton with a light blue flame burning in one of its eye sockets; the sight of this surprised me greatly when I first saw him. Since this is the first time I’ve seen anything like him, I believe that he is simply a familiar from another dimension.
“For once, I'm agreeing with ‘Dog Food’ here. You're already a genius yourself, Haki, why the heck would you need magic as well?” A girl with the lower body of a snake agrees with the skeleton. Her race was classified as the [Lamia], another race that's often not seen outside of their homeworld. In fact, they prefer the opposite, where they attract other races to their world by seducing them.
“Hey, it's not like I'm as talented as these two here. Ash is a genius himself, but if anyone deserves to be called ‘overpowered,’ don't you think Raina fits that title the best out of all of us?” The [Dark Elf] says.
“Yeah, she's gotten strong to the point where she spars with the senior students and the teachers now.” Ash adds.
“That's probably the reason why she doesn't have any friends her age now, eh? That's why she's always hanging out with us!” The werewolf boy says while patting the human girl’s head. She quickly smacks away his hand, clearly annoyed by the childish treatment.
“Really? I thought she just had a brother complex, since she's always sticking with Ash!” The skeleton says, earning him a backhand to his ribcage. This brought about laughter around the table, and they all continue to interact with each other in a silly manner.
As I listened to their entertaining exchanges and conversations, I notice something strange about the human girl. Overall, she was quite cute, with her petite size and frilly dress. She had extremely similar features to the human boy, Ash. These two were most likely siblings, an elder brother with his younger sister. Just like her brother, the girl had white hair, but it was slightly longer than her brother’s hair. The most unique thing about her though, are her eyes. The left eye held a deep, ocean blue while the right eye was a bright, shining silver.
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Her beautiful eyes completely captivated me, and I held my gaze on her for longer than intended. Most likely staring for too long, the girl turned towards my direction and made direct eye contact with me. Considering that I was on the other side of the [General Zone], the fact that she was able to both detect me and pinpoint my location is very impressive. So those eyes were [Magic Eyes] after all, since I can't figure out how else she was able to find me.
The both of us just remained where we were sitting, just looking at each other awkwardly. As I was wondering what to do, she raises her hand and starts waving at me. Her expression remained neutral though, so it was hard for me tell what was on her mind. Her actions attracts the attention of the others, causing them all to look towards the building as well.
“What're you looking at, Raina? Something caught your eye at the school?” The brother asks.
“It's a bit hard to see, but I think she's waving at the girl sitting on the roof of the building there.” The [Dark Elf] asks as he looks towards me with his eyes squinted.
“You can actually see that far, Haki?” The werewolf asks him.
“Of course! An assassin needs good eyes to find his target, you know?” He replies with a confident tone.
“Ghost, can you see her? I can barely make out the shape of the person, let alone identify them.” The lizard girl says while squinting her eyes.
“Yeah, I can see 'em. No details to make out though, just a kid covered in bandages. Probably a chuunibyou or something.” The skeleton replies. He used a strange term I didn't understand, so I make a mental note in my head to look up what this 'chuunibyou’ thing was.
“So what's special about the kid? I doubt he can see us from that far away, so what're you waving at him for?” The [Lamia] asks the human girl.
“He can see us. He’s been focused on our group for a while.” She responds without hesitation.
“You sure about that? Looks like a lonely kid eating lunch to me.” The skeleton responds. The comment kind of hurt, since it was true. It’s not like I haven’t been trying to make friends or anything, it’s just that no one wants to be my friend!
“If anything, the guy looks suspicious to me. I mean, he’s completely covered in bandages, what’s not to be suspicious about? He might be a spy who’s watching Raina and Ash right now.” This conversation just took a bad turn for me. The [Dark Elf]’s words kind of made sense, my appearance is definitely something that can be considered extremely suspicious
“Now that I think about it, there hasn’t been any assassination attempts recently. Perhaps they’ve finally realized that it’s useless to try such a method to take you out, Ash. Especially with that sister of yours.” The reptile girl says. Although I don’t know the reason why anyone would try to assassinate such young children, this is causing a misunderstanding that’s definitely not good for me.
“That’s true, maybe they’re resorting to just spying on me now in order to find my weakness? Or maybe they’re monitoring my battles to determine my full combat potential. It would explain the reason why I’ve been challenged so many times this week.” As Ash starts making his own inquiries about my appearance, his sister suddenly stands up from the table and steps away from the table.
“It doesn’t really matter what they’re up to. If they’re out to harm you,” A light blue aura starts to surround her as she takes a few steps towards me. “Then I’ll just eliminate them before they can do anything.”
The wind around her suddenly starts converging into her closed right hand. A long rod of ice begins to appear in her hand, created by the water vapour in the area being condensed in her closed hand. A couple of the other students get up to try and get her to stop, but she ignored them and continued her spell. No one dared to approach her as she does this, not wanting to get in the way of the upcoming attack.
After a couple of seconds, the weapon was complete, and the girl raised it over her head. A chill runs down my spine as she starts taking a few steps forward. As soon as she throws the javelin towards me, I slowly close my lunchbox and stood up on the edge of the roof.
During the time it took for her to create the weapon, I could already feel the amount of mana used to make it was at a very high level for a child like her. When the javelin left her hand, it left a trail of rippling wind as it travelled towards me at a terrifying speed. Even though I'm on the opposite side of the [General Zone], the projectile had already covered half the distance within a few seconds. The strength from this javelin could easily rival a [Level 6] magic spell, meaning it was capable of blowing away the gates of a castle upon impact. Not only that, but the accuracy of her throw is on-point. If I remain where I stand, I can already visualize the javelin bursting straight through my chest. This girl was trying to kill me at the moment, without batting an eyelid.
Although this extreme weapon was just about to hit me, I remain as calm as ever. I’ve been in far more dangerous situations as this, so a threat at this level wasn’t much to me. Just as the javelin reaches my location, I simply take a step back and turn my body to the side, letting the high speed projectile fly right by me. It nearly grazes my chest, and the massive gust of wind following behind the projectile does hit me head on, but I was able to stand my ground.
Just as I thought the danger was over though, my instincts flared up again and my body instantly jumps up in reaction. I feel another gust of wind burst past the area where I was just standing, which was probably another javelin thrown by the girl. The first one seems to have been a decoy, while the second one was hidden behind it to hit me while off guard. What surprised me most is that I wasn’t able to detect it earlier. She must’ve thrown it right after the first one, but I didn’t see the action since I was too focused on the first one. I must be getting careless from my new lifestyle, to nearly fall for a simple trick like this.
Thankfully, there weren’t any more dangerous ranged attacks after the second one. I was finally able to relax again. Turning back towards the group of prodigies, I reactivate my [Enhanced Senses] skill and focus my vision on them. The first thing I see is the little sister’s eyes looking right at me again, eyes wide opened in surprise. It's evident that she didn't expect me to able to react so fast and dodge the second javelin.
It seems like her friends were sharing their thoughts about me, but I didn’t have the luxury to listen since this scene clearly attracted attention from other students. I quickly leave the rooftop before anyone came up to investigate. At the same time, the school bell starts to ring, signalling the end of lunch. As I head towards my next class, I make a mental note to myself: Hide myself for the rest of the week.