‘She was strong.’ Dion thought to himself absentmindedly as he watched his other classmates finish up their duels. Afina Astros was a powerful foe that the original Dion would have struggled with even with his generally higher stats.

She had range, speed, skill, and power on her side that made it difficult to fight against her if you didn’t take the initiative immediately. However, like many of his classmates, she was inexperienced when it came to human vs human combat.

She was skilled when it came to fighting monsters but she was far from accustomed to the strengths and weaknesses of humanity. The main thing he utilized was her blinking to make it seem like he was much faster than he actually was.

It was a simple strategy but it required precise timing and immaculate skill to pull off consistently, it wasn’t something most could do which attributed to her confusion. It also helped that she had preconceived notions of what a fighter would do.

In her mind, he was a spearsman and that meant he could either thrust or slash however that was far from true. Many spear techniques could be done with only one hand at the cost of power, a weakness he wasn’t worried about with his superhuman strength.

With a hand free it was easy for him to strike her with it while her eyes were almost completely focused on his spear alone. It was a weakness she would certainly lose over her time at Lux however as it currently stood it was her most prominent weakness.

She was filled with the brim with weaknesses yet that was because of lack of experience and not because she simply wasn’t cut out for combat. Rather, it would be difficult to find anybody more skilled in combat in their generation.

Truthfully, her status was fairly normal for the top seven and even fell behind people like Cyrus and Luna and yet she was still above them because of her skill on the battlefield. She had impeccable instincts, reaction time, and she was decisive.

What she didn’t have in raw statistics she more than made up for in skill. Besides Dion, the only that could possibly compete against her when it came to pure skill was Morgan Lavon, a girl rumored to be the next Sword Saint.

‘Those six are pretty good.’ Dion thought to himself, his azure eyes switching between the five battlefields containing the other members of the top seven. None of them had chosen to fight against one another as it was an unnecessary risk to their reputations.

No matter their performance it would negatively affect their reputation unless they somehow managed to get Dimitri Alden to intervene. The loser will be shamed and the victor would be looked down on for taking so much time.

Even now Afina Astros was getting looks of disappointment and disgust from her classmates who once looked at her in pride and placed their trust in her. Of course, it doesn’t help that she lost to a commoner even if that commoner may be the number one student of their year.

‘They’re all too arrogant.’ Dion thought to himself blandly. They were all taking it easy on their opponents, drawing out the battle for as long as possible. They all had different reasons but Dion couldn’t find it in himself to endorse their actions.

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Cyrus was clearly taking sadistic pleasure in abusing his opponent, Luna was completely lacking grace and merely destroying everything in sight, Rudra was flirting mid duel, and Selim was taunting his opponent for his own amusement.

The only one Dion could even dream of calling reasonable was Morgan Lavon. Rather than playing with her opponent for her own enjoyment, she was trying to learn as much about how human beings fought to strengthen her swordplay,

It wasn’t a poor usage of her time however Dion’s own opinions on conflict contradicted her own. To him, battle wasn’t the time or place to learn, it was a competition that decided the life or death of both participants.

However, it appeared she treated it as a chance to learn more. The drive to learn was a good thing however if you push an opponent into a corner it doesn’t matter if they’re weaker than you, you may die.

‘The Monster Wave will be a cruel wake up call.’ Dion thought to himself calmly. The Monster Wave was the bane of most players of Azure Lotus not only because of its difficulty but also because of its long lasting negative effects.

{On the fifth day, an event known as the Monster Wave will occur in the man made dungeon Rabbit Den. According to the accounts of various staff, the number of monsters bordered on 1000x the usual amount.}

{The boss monster of this event is known as the Gluttonous Rabbit, an irregular monster born from the rabbits cannibalizing and the ploys of an unnamed teacher associated with Cyrus. It is unknown what happened to the teacher after this event though it is speculated he was fired or killed.}

This was where many people believed the game truly began for most, where the players finally realized the hell they were walking into. There were so many ways to die that you couldn’t see them all in a thousand hours.

Even if you defeated it there would be ‘penalties’ depending on which characters die or survive the ordeal. Cyrus especially was important to be kept alive as if he dies the saint would declare war on Lux if Dion, the man assumed to be the cause of the Monster Wave, wasn’t turned in.

It was the first of many turning points in this world that he would have to plan for. The difficulty alone would be challenging but not impossible if he plans ahead, the issue was what would change to the event.

Dion had already proved himself to be more formidable than his game counterpart and he had four more days to prove his brilliance. If the unnamed teacher saw him as a threat would he increase the danger despite the danger for the other students?

In the end, nothing was set in stone now that this was reality. The game may have had clear cut paths and routes that wouldn’t change drastically that wasn’t the case anymore. Humanity was an adaptive species, they would plan ahead and change their plans on the fly.

His opponent would most likely change his plans in ways that Dion couldn’t predict so he’d have to prepare for a wide variety of issues. However, that may not be enough so he planned on utilizing the support of his sponsor.

Ultimately, the issue affected her students and subordinates making it her responsibility. The issue was how he should go about revealing the information to arouse the least suspicious as it was most likely impossible to avoid suspicious completely.

“Class is over you little shits! Get the hell out of here!” Dimitri Alden shouted out, promptly ending the few battles that had yet to end. Rising to his feet Dion quickly vacated the training facility allotted to their class. He had quite a few things on his plate that he truly didn’t have enough time for.

‘That’s the life of an adult.’ Dion thought blandly, not so much as a sigh leaving his lips. While kids played around and discovered how they wanted to live their lives it was the adults who struggled to protect their livelihood.

Adults struggled with time, adults were generally exhausted, and, most importantly, adults paved the way for children. It was an adult's job to make the world a better, safer place as much as possible for the children who will one day become adults.

That's why he was preparing so many countermeasures for the Rabbit Den. Using his connection to Lucille and his rising renown he could easily skip the project and survive without a care in the world.

But if he did that most of his class would die. He may live but he’d have the blood of his classmates on his hands for the rest of his life. It was his role as an adult to avoid that future even if it may cost him some blood of his own.

‘What did he always say? Ah yes.’ Dion thought to himself blandly as he walked through the empty halls of the school, his classmates having dispersed to entertain themselves with the facilities available at Lux at some point.

The man in question was quite a good friend of Dion’s in the past though he wouldn’t deny that his old friend was a bad influence with his crass language and horrid habits that would kill him faster than he can say the word hell.

“Life’s a bitch.” Dion chanted softly, a small fond smile on his face.