Novels2Search
The Monster with no Magic
Chapter 9: First Day Shenanigans Part 1

Chapter 9: First Day Shenanigans Part 1

Author's note: Well here's the ninth chapter. I also drew out a map as well as a concept sketch of Kelp and Snapper head. I drew out the map in order to not confuse the lay out of the school while writing, and  drawing out my characters helps me write my story. I thought I'de share with you guys what I was able to come up with.

http%3a%2f%2ffc01.deviantart.net%2ffs71%2fi%2f2015%2f0...8ei0qz.jpg [http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2015/018/5/4/map_2_by_hetarue-d8ei0qz.jpg] Here's the Map

http%3a%2f%2ffc09.deviantart.net%2ffs71%2ff%2f2015%2f0...8ei0ys.jpg [http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2015/018/a/9/8_by_hetarue-d8ei0ys.jpg] Kelp as I saw him in my head.

http%3a%2f%2ffc06.deviantart.net%2ffs71%2fi%2f2015%2f0...8ei28s.jpg [http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2015/018/d/b/untitled_2_by_hetarue-d8ei28s.jpg] And finally Snapper Head.

******

First Day Shenanigans Part 1

The next day came and along with it, came my first official day of school.

Nanami and I made our way to the main buildings, leaving Quinn behind with Old lady Jumblee, who willingly volunteered after some light asking from Nanami. We passed through the forest trail, walked  across the training grounds and combat sectors  before finally arriving at the courtyard that resided between the main buildings. Once there, we were greeted by a storm of students, both old and new.

As to the reason why so many students had gathered in the courtyard, which despite having an abnormally large size, could barely contain the sheer amount of students, that was because today was the start of the new semester. Apparently, the courtyard which acts as the intersection between the three main buildings is where students can confirm, change, or pick their classes. Although I’m a little fuzzy on the exact process as to how.

Before I could move any further into the courtyard, Nanami grabbed the hem of my school uniform (which was a completely different one from yesterday, considering I tore most of that up), signaling me to stop.

I turned around to face her and with my usual casualness asked,

“Hmm? What’s up?”

“Ah, no Onii chan, this is as far as I’m going.”

“?”

I tilted my head the same way Nanami would.

“Don’t you still have to pick you’re classes?”

At my question, Nanami sheepishly laughed and scratched her head.

“Actually, my classes have already been picked.”

She handed me a piece of paper that looked like a schedule. Or to be more specific, Nanami’s new class schedule.

While I read through her classes, she began to explain.

“You see, the school recommended I take these types of classes.”

I noticed that  most of the classes on the schedule were either advanced courses or upper tier lessons.

Ah, this must be the result of her getting such a high ranking upon enrollment.

“Well, rather than recommend, it’s more like they forced it onto me….”

Nanami made a slightly pained face as she stated this last part bitterly.

“.....Even though I wanted to take the same classes as Onii chan…..”

After seeing this downtrodden little sister, I returned her schedule and patted her head reassuringly.

“Well, what’s done is done, you might not like it at first, but just give it a try and go from there.”

Nanami looked down at first, but after a minute of silent head patting, her mood slowly returned. She looked up and nodded at me.

“O-okay, but I’m more worried about you Onii chan. Will YOU be fine?”

At this my eyebrows arched up in surprise. I smiled gently before replying to the anxious Nanami.

“Don’t worry about your Brother. He’ll manage somehow.”

Although Nanami didn’t look quite convinced, I reassured her with another ear to ear grin.

“...I guess if you say that, I can relax a little bit. Then,”

Nanami hugged me tightly before letting go and walking down a different path, one that led away from the courtyard.

“Bye Onii chan! Make sure you don’t get into too much trouble!.”

With that, Nanami waved farewell as she walked in the direction of Main Building A.

After seeing Nanami off, I changed gears and prepared myself for my own school day.

I sighed before I began to make my way to the giant Bulletin Board within the center of the Courtyard. This particular area was where most of the students congested. At first I looked questioningly at the rather intimidating bulletin board. I honestly had no idea where to start.

After moving back a bit and observing some of the students (especially the ones that looked like freshmen), and some skimming of the Bulletin board, I finally understood the gist of what I needed to do. Firstly, I sighed in relief. Seeing as how the Bulletin was just your standard holographic screen powered by sunlight, and not something completely reliant on magic, I could relax knowing that even someone like me could register safely.

Secondly, I understood that this Bulletin board was basically a list of all available classes. Next to each entry where two sets of numbers. The first number went from 1 to 6 and sometimes it had N/A. I presumed that this was something like grade level requirements. For instance a freshmen (who would probably be labeled 1) wouldn’t be able to enroll in a class labeled 5. N/A probably stood for classes open to all grade levels. The second list was a series of numbers that ranged from the thousands to the dozens. Its value fluctuated with each entry and I noticed that periodically the numbers would go down. Once an entry reached zero, it would dim in color, signaling this class wasn’t available anymore. I presumed that this number was the student limit for the particular class. (so an entry would look like this: Intro to Magic- N/A - 800 )

In short the system operated on a first come first serve basis.

Once I understood this, I immediately pushed my way through the crowd in a rush. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck with terrible or extremely hard classes for the whole school year.

Upon making my way to the front of the crowd, I received a slip of paper from a staff member. The paper indicated what I had to do in order to enroll in classes and explained how classes would work.

In short, it stated that I could have a total of 8 classes.  4 of these classes would be mandatory education (i.e. languages, mathematics, basic sciences, and history). The other four were for me to pick and decide. All in all, Newgrounds was a school that gave a lot of freedom to its students. Of course, in return they ask these students to show results, both in and out of school.

I made my way to the board and began registering. First of all, I got the mandatory education out of the way by enrolling in these first. Core education was even ground for me, since magic was completely useless in the pursuit of worldly knowledge.The real issue for me here is what to pick for the other four.

I briefly looked at the board before groaning at the sight of all the classes with the words “magic” in them.

I wanted to pick the least magic based classes available, since the more reliant a class was in magic, the greater chance I would flunk said class. The problem here was that the vast majority of classes were magic reliant.  

And if I couldn’t pick a class not involving magic, I at least wanted to choose one where I could use my own abilities and pass them off as magic. For this I mainly wanted a class where I could freely rely on [Compress Punch] since this ability was the one which I’m trained the most in and also the one which doesn’t have pesky side effects.

Also, I wanted to avoid anything too advanced. I didn’t have the confidence in myself to pass any of these types of high level classes.  I mean, I may be able to take on a rank SS monster, but I have to admit, I was no genius like my little sister.

Scanning the collection of entries on the board, I filtered out anything with the label “magic” on them and earnestly began to search for classes I could take.

After much deliberating I choose 4 classes which I either had some interest in the subject or I believed it was something easy enough for me to handle.

In the end, I choose Underwater science and history, Monster Taming 101, Intro to Mu: Mu continent geography and research, and an all purpose combat class.

I believed these classes were mundane enough for me to pass. They didn’t seem to difficult and since two out of the four classes were knowledge based and not magic, I could manage somehow. As for the Monster Taming class, I picked this one considering I recently became Timmy’s Tamer.  And the combat class I chose was one where the teachers didn’t judge based on how well one could use magic, but rather by the prowess of a person in combat.

With my classes all chosen and done with, I began to make my way to my first class.

A thing to note here is that, although classes are usually done in an A and B day schedule with rotating periods, since it was the first day of school, the staff wanted to allow the students to be able to experience all their classes with in the first day. As a result, all the classes have been cut in half in order to fit a two day schedule within one day.

For me, that meant that the first half of the day would consist of my A day classes. Strangely enough, all my A day classes consisted of the four core classes I was required to take. Inversely, that meant my B day schedule consisted of all the classes I hand picked. Now, I wouldn’t know whether to consider this lucky or not, but for today, I was particularly glad for this arrangement.

I was a man who liked to do all the tedious things first and leave the fun stuff for last. So getting through the rather boring types of classes first was something I considered nothing short of a small fortune.

While patting myself on the back for this small stroke of luck, I made my way to the “Boring” classes just as the first bell rang.

*******

Well, there’s really nothing much to report.

Currently I was having some lunch (a homemade meal Nanami insisted I take with me) in the courtyard. The space had considerably  less people than this morning. I assumed that this was due to some students choosing to eat inside within the cafeterias the school had. Newgrounds Imperial (to which I will now label NgI) had a total of three cafeterias. For each main building, they had their own cafeterias. These cafeterias each served different types of food. Cafeteria A served Asian cuisine, Cafeteria B served American and Latin cuisine, while Cafeteria C served European dishes.

The courtyard also had the pleasure of opening stands that served a variety of foods, ranging from ice scream to cow liver.

I chose to ignore this collection of diverse foods for today and instead opted to enjoy the homemade lunch box my sister had given me. It was a simple meal, clumsily cooked omelettes, a collection of vegetables, some sausages and a side of rice.

It wasn’t perfection, there were even some burnt dishes within the meal, but all in all I enjoyed it. Mostly since it was my little sister who cooked it.

As for the first half of my day, well, all I can really say is that things went smoothly.

Admittedly, I kinda did doze of in everyone of the classes. I literally slept (although some can argue that it was more like I passed out) the minute I entered the classroom and found an open seat. I guess I can chalk that up to all the accumulated fatigue that I still had from the fight yesterday.

Also, I feel like quite a number of people were staring at me. I didn’t know whether to blame this on yesterday’s apparent events or due to my weird appearance. Currently I was wrapped in several bandages, most of them on my hands and arms, since this was where Nanami found most of my scratches and bruises.

At first I was a bit embarrassed. I felt like someone with an extreme case of 8th grade syndrome and it didn’t particularly help that I everyone was staring at me. But after a while, I got used to it, and in no time I could sleep in a classroom without a care in the world.

Once the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period, I packed up the lunch box and made my way to my first class of the second half of the day, Underwater Science and History. This class was focused on the premise of deep sea life, as well as its exploration, research, and various theories circulating it.

I picked this class since I was mildly interested in the subject. Ever since I fought Snapper head and met Quinn, my curiosity grew regarding their origins. Although my true motive was to learn a little bit more about Quinn, which I could hopefully do in this class.

The class itself was located in main building B. Each building was sort of specialized, where B consisted of classes which dealt with practical research, A dealt with more magic based learning, while C was combat oriented.

I didn’t have a single class in Building A, which I honestly relieved me. My classes were split two in two, where Underwater Science and Mu history were in building B, while Combat practice and Monster taming were in C.

Arriving at my classroom, and making my way to a particular open seat towards the back of the room, I noticed that most of the students enrolled in this class consisted of upperclassmen. I could tell due to the slight difference in their uniforms which indicated a higher grade level.

After some quiet observation, I soon learned that not many freshmen took this course, since most of them were eager to take magic based or combat based classes instead. That’s why it's usually upperclassmen who take knowledge based classes, since they’ve mellowed down after about a year or two in Newgrounds.

Not many people paid attention to me. Being the only 1st year in class, I acquired a spark of interest from the others, but that shortly mellowed down once the actual lecture began.

The class itself went by smoothly and I passed it like I passed the first half of the day, sleeping. Although it wasn’t like I intended too, again the accumulated fatigue mixed with the rather boring and sleeping inducing lecture this sleepy eyed teacher gave, lulled me to sleep.

My next class was my Monster Taming 101 course, which was located in Main building C.

I had intended to pass this class easily, while keeping up the atmosphere I had somehow developed while going by my prior classes, but my intentions were shot down the moment I saw a particularly buff, and muscle ridden teacher in a red jersey.

Profesor Kiryat, the same man who supervised the Entrance exam stood near the door to my would be class. He gazed left in right, as if in search of someone. I confirmed his actions when I walked towards the room and he spotted me.

His eyes shown a glint of recognition, and he made his way towards me, taking large strides that even a horse would find impressive.

“You!”

He roared in my direction.

I followed lamely with a weak response while pointing at my self.

“Me?”

He nodded briskly before stating,

“Come with me.”

He turned without waiting for a reply, causing me to hastily yell back towards his receding back.

“A-actually, I’ll be late for my class so…..”

I stated while moving towards my classroom. Although I didn’t make quite a lot of progress before a hand gripped the back of my collar and yanked me backwards.

“Nope.”

He growled his one word reply while dragging me towards wherever the heck he wanted to drag me too.

At this point, I began to fear for my life. Luckily, a nasally voice stopped my would be demise.

“Oi, oi, Profesor Kiryat, don’t you think you are being a bit too harsh with one of our new students?”

As I turned towards the direction of the new voice, I saw a slender man with a pale complexion make his way towards Kiryat and I. He was a man who could be stated as Kiryat’s complete contrast. A skinny man, pale skin, and someone who gave off a pushover type atmosphere .

Also his voice was pretty annoying.

“Now why don’t you drop the poor lad before he pisses himself. At least explain to him before you go dragging him off somewhere.”

At this remark, Kiryat grunted in response and released my collar, causing me to fall back onto my butt, sending a sharp pain to my coccyx and bruising my already bruised behind.

As I attempted to rub the pain away, I focused on the two teachers in front of me, who seemed willing to explain. Although I wanted to hear their explanations, I couldn’t help but utter a complaint in the process.

“Really Professors’ if we can’t hurry this along, I’ll be late for my next class.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I spoke with my usual trademark casualness, to which the new professor replied,

“Oh, might that class of yours happen to be Monster Taming 101?”

“Uh...yes.”

“Good, since you won’t be attending that class, then there’s no problem if we hold you back.”

“Ah, okay...wait-what?”

I looked dumbly at the teachers. The whole situation confused me.

“Well, I guess proper explanation might be needed.”

The man looked over at Professor Kiryat who nodded as if signaling for the man to continue,

“You see Mr. Kusanagi, Professor Kiryat was quite impressed by your performance yesterday?”

“Huh? Impressed, really?”

“Of course! Although in the end you only managed to scrounge up 1 point, the sheer fact that you were able to bring back such a high level monster, and show such extreme amount of control proves your prowess.”

“Monster….? Ah, you mean Timmy!”

I pounded my fist into my open hand to show I had finally connected the dots to this conversation.

“Yes… “Timmy” as you call that Rank AAA Three horned Boar. Really, quite an impressive find. In fact, only about a month ago did we learn of such an extraordinary existence within Setohanda forest. How on earth did you find one, let alone manage to tame one in the span of three hours?”

I scratched my head and replied lamely,

“N-no, it really wasn’t anything impressive. Just luck.”

“Hohoho~. And modest to the boot. You’re an impressive young lad you know.”

For once, I understood what Nanami felt. Being the subject of numerous praise was a quite embarrassing

“Well, As I was saying.

I’m Theodore Salvatore. A monster tamer who just so happens to teach at NewGrounds Imperial school. Although I am an extraordinary adventurer myself, I feel more sense of fulfillment educating my students. You may call me Mr. Salvatore, or Mr. S, if you wish, I honestly don’t care.

Now as to the topic of our conversation, after Professor Kiryat saw your display yesterday, he immediately ran to inform me of such rare talent. He told me of an unknown 1st year who gallantly came back on top of a Rank AAA monster. Once I heard his tale, I couldn’t help but want to recruit you into my class!”

Mr. Salvatore explained in a long winded string of words.

When I finally interjected, I felt a little bit tired just from his speech alone.

“Er..about this class of yours?”

“Oh that’s right!”

He clapped his hands in excitement.

“It the Monster Taming Advanced Placement A class. I’ve recommended to the school to immediately allow you in. Although it would usually take a few recognitions, or awards, and even 3 years of extra schooling, after I told the higher ups about your achievements, the readily complied. Actually, Professor Kiryat over here was just on his way to show you to your new classroom.”

At the word  recommended, I twitched. Nanami had used the same remark when they forced her into her advanced classes. I cautiously asked,

“So….By chance, I don’t think there’s any way I can refuse this prestigious offer is there?”

At my carefully chosen words, Mr. Salvatore smiled a thin smile.

“Why of course you can, after all it's the students freedom to choose whatever class you want…..Although I do see no point in refusing such an opportunity. After all, not many students have one such as this.”

Although Salvatore’s words were friendly, I could feel a hint of something…..darker in them. As if implying that there’s was no way I could possibly refuse.

Plus, its not like I disliked being invited to a more prestigious class, but usually there's an unmistakable correlation between effort needed and class prestige….

Once I reached this decision, I dejectedly sighed and complied.

“Fine~....It’s not like I’m attached to Monster Taming 101 in particular.”

“Oho~, nice reply there chap! I’m sure you'll enjoy this class quite well!”

After briefly seeing Professor Kiryat off, he led me further and further into a life full of hardships.

*****

A little while later, I arrived at a building located deep within the arena zone. The arena zone was where the school held their competitions and after school mock battles. It was also the only place suitable enough to have tamed monsters fight.

My new “classroom” was a building deep within the heart of this arena zone. Currently it was sparse and barely populated. Not a surprise considering classes are preoccupying most of the students right now.

On the way here, Salvatore explained how the class worked. Basically there’s one rule that makes AP Monster Taming different than all the other monster taming classes. It was the right to hands on interaction and experience with Monsters. Usually a Monster taming class, are only given the right to go over the specifics. Basically, desk work. AP MT lets students interact with the monsters they’ve managed to tame.

This factor was especially convenient considering how close the monster stables are.

As we arrived at the new classroom, Mr. Salvatore opened the doors, and introduced himself to his future students.

“Oho~! let’s see…...35 students this year huh? Quite an impressive haul if I do say so myself. As you may know I am Theodore Salvatore, you’re teacher.  You may call me Mr. Salvatore if you wish.”

With his introduction, Mr. Salvatore walked into the classroom. I followed closely behind, trying my damndest not to attract attention. Although my efforts weren’t exactly successful.

“Mr. Salvatore, sir!”  A straight laced looking student raised his arm.

“Hmm….Yes, you there lad, what’s your question?”

He nodded and the student pointed towards my direction.

“Who’s he sir?”

“Ah, this young man is your fellow classmate and fellow monster tamer. Welcome him warmly. His name is Kelp Kusanagi. A freshman.”

At this brief introduction, a flurry of quiet whispers soon commenced.

“What, really!? A first year? In this class?”

“Oi, oi, he must be some sort of amazing bastard then huh…”

“Kelp...Kelp...I think I’ve heard of that name before.”

“Kelp? Isn’t that the first year who came back with the giant boar?”

“Oh you mean that crazy strong one? The one that’s been causing trouble at the stables.”

“I heard he found the Boar and managed to train him within 3 hours before the exam ended.”

“THREE HOURS!? That’s crazy! It took me a week to train my rank F Night Bat…”

“Yeah...three hours is impossible.”

“What’s more, I heard he kept his monster under control while he was sleeping.”

“Woah...sleeping...that’s like unconscious control...isn’t that supposed to be like a super high level technique?”

Although most of the students here weren’t freshman, and thus weren’t present during the exam, I guess rumors travel fast. Especially if its one concerning monster tamers. I’d fellow Tamers would be a bit more keen on information regarding their profession.

Mr. Salvatore patiently waited for the murmurs to die down. Rather, he looked ecstatic about all the attention I was getting.

Once everyone finally quieted down, he announced his next plan on his agenda.

“Now, as you may now, today is the first day, as such we don’t have a lot of time. Thus both to serve as an introduction to this class and as a sort of meet and greet to your fellow classmates, I’ve scheduled mock battles for the rest of the period.

Come now, everyone follow me to the Monster Arena, your respective monsters are all primed and ready.”

At the Mr. Salvatore’s sudden declaration, the students stood dumbfounded for a second. Nobody was prepared for such an event. After He started to leave the classroom, the rest of the students frantically followed.

****

10 minutes later I as well as the rest of the students were in the Monster Arena. The Monster Arena was a designated stadium specifically built to house monster battles. Of course, magical beings were welcome as well. Rather, the majority of the students’ companions were magical beings, but Monster Arena has got a far better sounding ring to it, doesn’t it?

At the stadium, I reunited with Timmy. It wasn’t necessarily hard to spot a giant Boar, but he attracted far more attention when he dashed over and started licking my face like a dog.

At this sight, many of the students grumbled at what high degree of loyalty I had built up with the Boar, since apparently, none of their own monsters did this to them.

After Timmy’s tirade of sloppy saliva, I examined the faithful Boar.

He was looking a bit healthier. Ever since he ate a part of Snapper head, he was healing quite nicely, although two out of three of his horns were still damaged. It was apparent that this beast was far stronger than his previous self prior to the battle.

If I were guesstimate, I’d say Timmy was bordering on S rank, or a low tier s rank. Quite an impressive rise from his normal F rank status.

While I attempted a pseudo grooming of the boar’s thick mane, the mock battles had proceeded according to Mr. Salvatore’s plan.

After a few rounds of intense back and forth between various contestants, it was finally my turn.

I approached the center of the stadium while atop Timmy’s massive back. While it wasn’t customary for the tamers to be so close to their monster, I couldn’t help but once again try out the comfy fluffiness of Timmy’s fur. As a result, I had opted  to participate in all battles from here on out atop my pet’s back, purely for the sake of it being extremely soft and comfortable.

Of course this course of actions brought on some outrage from the Tamers. Things like, “That’s crazy, to fight while on his Monster!” or “Is this guy insane!” were rampant from the crowd.

As I got to the center of the ring, I looked down at my opponents. It was a shivering white wolf with his master, who looked like he was shaking like a leaf as well.

From the looks of the wolf, who was covered in intricate golden lines across his body, making him look like a Wolf with the striped of a tiger, I guessed that the beast was a siberian Wolf variant. A rank C monster who were usually found roaming the russian outpack in packs of 12 or more.

It was rather rare to see such a monster so far west.

Yet despite this rarity, I could tell the immense level of difference in power level between the wolf and Timmy. And I’m guessing the Wolf could too, considering how much it was shaking just from pure fright.

Worrying that accidentally killing a monster might get me in trouble. I leaned down and quietly whispered into Timmy’s ear.

“Listen here, Timmy, I’ll let you run free and handle things the way you handle. I’ll just sit here on top of you ok? You can do whatever you want during the fight, but just make sure one thing! Don’t kill them okay?”

At my incessant request, Timmy readily replied with a low grunt.

Following Timmy's grunt came a high pitched ring which signaled the start of the match. As Timmy and I waited, our opponents quickly got ready. The young tamer summoned out numerous buffs, and control spells.

Traditional Monster Taming relied not on befriending the monster, in fact its unheard of to rely on a monster as a companion using pure will alone. Instead, traditional monster tamers used binding spells that limited a monsters brain waves while in the mean time making a monster more susceptible to orders and commands. In short, it was minor brain washing. Along side this brain washing, a Tamer would use buffs to supplement a monster’s decrease in skill (which came with the binding spells as it restricted much of a monster’s instinct).

While we waited for our opponent to finish their preparations, I overheard the murmurings of the crowd once more.

“Oi, Oi, what’s Kelp doing? Rather it looks like he’s not doing anything…”

“Is he not gonna activate his spells?”

“No, maybe its….”

“Telepathic magic! He must be controlling the Beast using telepathy. That would explain why he’s not chanting any spells or giving out commands.”

“T-telepathy...Isn’t that like a super high tier monster taming spell?”

“T-that’s amazing….”

At the students’ ridiculous speculations, I could only sigh and roll my eyes. Meanwhile, Our opponent was now well prepared and began a rush towards Timmy and I.

To this, Timmy actively reacted, by charging on his own.

Normally Timmy’s charge would have insta-killed a monster on the Siberian Wolf’s level, and maybe even impaled him on Timmy’s remaining Horn. But since I set the limitation as to not kill any of the monsters, Timmy’s charge held a different meaning than usual.

Once it got within a suitable range, Timmy, relying on his above average dynamic vision, Hauled the single horn of his under the opponents legs and flung the wolf towards the wall.

With a sickening snap sound the flying White wolf smacked into the wall and subsequently landed on the floor with a dull thud.

The impact was limited to the extent where the wolf lived, but it held enough power to knock the beast unconscious, and put it out of comission for at least a month.

With that rather anti climactic end, That was how Timmy and I ended our first mock monster battle. In a similar fashion, this was also how we ended and dominated the rest of the battles that came.

It all ended with the same results, The monster would smack into the wall and pass out. For the flying types, which Timmy couldn’t quite reach with his horn, he showcased his jumping prowess by jumping higher than the monster could fly and body slamming the thing down to earth. This action usually resulted in several broken bones and an unconscious monster.

In the end, Timmy dominated the matches he participated in. As his owner, I felt a twinge of pride, followed by a guilty sensation as I looked down at all the unconscious monsters that Timmy left in his wake.

The students were even more amazed at this spectacular performance. Although fortunately for me (or it may be unfortunate, depending on how you look at it) I did not hog the limelight during this period.

There was another student who, along with his monster, dominated all the matches he participated in.

The student was a brown haired, sullen eyed kid with glasses. Surprisingly, he was also a 1st year like me. Judging from appearance alone, he looked like a depressing person who probably had a quiet personality.

Following him was a short, green monster with red hair. The monster had the proportions of an 8 year old child but with the wiry muscle of an athlete and the canines of a rabid dog. It wore a ragged loin cloth and carried a small wooden stick with it.

The monster was your typical Goblin, maybe a hobgoblin variant, it was a hard to tell. Usually Goblins were F ranked, but going by the creature’s movements and surprising strength which it displayed during each one of its matches, it had underwent the same process of strengthening as Timmy.

It was readily obvious that this Goblin had devoured numerous enemies in order to attain its monstrous strength.

The only difference between mine and the boy’s fight was that unlike me, brown hair issued commands and set strict Binding spells on his monster.

Which I felt was a good thing. Looking at the goblin’s deprived eyes told me it was more than capable of killing everyone within the stadium (aside from me of course). And I had a weird feeling it was more than obliged to do that.

At the end of the period the brown haired boy, whom I found out was named Noir Grime, and I never fought together in a match. Nevertheless, somehow or another, my name became associated with his.

Due to our overwhelming strength, I, along with Noir, were labeled with the title, the “Freshmen Monster Duo,” which consisted of “the arrogant Kelp and his giant mad Boar”, and “the deadly Noir and his agile, quick witted Goblin.”

This was a title which I felt weird owning. Looking over at Noir, I felt he agreed with my sentiment, as his face scowled upon hearing his new title before he walked out the stadium followed by slack jawed goblin close by.

And with Noir’s exit and the end of the mock battles, my 2nd period of the 2nd half of my first day came to a satisfying end.

*******

Author's note: Like always feedback is appreciated.

Previous Chapter:Chapter 8.5

Next Chapter:Chapter 10