Laurent did nothing but simply browse his evolution tree as he endured the class. He also had one hand in his pocket where he kept his pouch, from which he repeatedly withdrew crystals and absorbed energies throughout the back to back five lectures of one hour.
All his pools were at 10 towards the end of the fourth hour, after which he focused on psych and mana, filling them to 15 in one hour. He even sneakily ate his [Experience] evolution fruit and didn’t initiate any other personal evolution as it would be weird for others to see him randomly wave his hand around in the class.
As to why he was still in class? It was to of course build a rapport with his future allies. They were that important? A very big yes. He didn’t doubt one bit that if they hadn’t died, their world might very well be near the middle-top of rankings. Also why he didn’t do anything weird, they wouldn’t want to associate with a weirdo, would they?
There were a few people on his mind that, if not killed or had died midway, would have literally hard carried this world. After their lectures for the day had ended, he left the class, his eyes on Silver Farrington.
There were three people in the top class itself : Silver, Lorcan and Valeria, the young women who had laughed at him. Of them, Silver was quite frankly the easiest target right now, so he decided to follow him today.
It would help him know more about the person, making it easier for Silver to acknowledge him as a friend who could ‘supposedly understand him’.
Laurent slowly walked, keeping a distance from Silver while taking several breaks in between as one could say he had a connection with everyone.
He walked over to a window of the hallway and acted like looking at the sports grounds as he watched Silver interact with nearly everyone from the corner of his eye.
Laurent quite frankly also had an amicable relationship with everyone but it wasn’t to the point he would stop and greet them, a single heads up was enough. They didn’t even converse much out of things related to the university, therefore they knew too little about him.
Exiting the school, he maintained an unsuspicious distance from Silver. Taking a glance around, he watched Lorcan board the bus. He noted down the bus number in his mind and continued tailing Silver with extreme ease.
People living a peaceful life more often than not hadn’t gone through any combat training, including a few anti-tracking methods. They chose to let the law protect them instead of taking control of their lives themselves. They couldn’t be completely blamed though, they had been programmed to think and act like that.
It also helped that as a past life beastmaster, he had trained plenty in hiding. Their main body wasn’t exactly strong after all, the majority of their combat prowess revolved around beasts.
The surroundings gradually transitioned from high rise glass buildings and black suit white collared ‘hustlers’ to residential buildings and aimless workers, eventually turning into 2-3 storey rundown buildings and bottom feeders. As a person who had seen how the future would turn out, he had long seen through the web government had spread over the entire world.
‘Does he live here? I thought he came from a middle class family? Did I remember wrong? No way, everyone from the school knows his background, also why he was so heavily valued. Well, if he came from a poor family, more attention would be put on him. But I doubt that would be possible given the university’s fees.’
Laurent’s focus abruptly zoomed back in on Silver as he watched him come in contact with a young woman wearing worn down clothes—which were common in the surroundings—who looked like she was waiting for a long time.
His eyes widened a little as he watched who it was, the battle healer. Yes, exactly as the name suggested, she was the most talented healer as far as he remembered, also the one who fought on front lines, but her demise was as quick as Silver, exactly after him to be exact.
‘So they knew each other before the Great Awakening?’
Silver was a defense oriented heavy fighter and they often fought together. Laurent had previously thought they fought together just because of complimenting battle styles, and well, they both were in the circle of geniuses which meant plenty of contact to come together. It turned out they knew before even before the world changed.
Laurent glanced around and hid a little better than before as he could see that Calandra, the battle healer, was from somewhat of a substandard household.
As a life filled with struggles, obstacles, and people looking to scam them instead of the rich, people at these levels were more distrustful and alert of others and their surroundings. Of course, that’s if they hadn’t given hope on their life yet.
Both of them seemed to have reached a block as their talks turned heated, increasing their voice. It allowed Laurent to pick up their conversation with his enhanced hearing,
“I need to save my brother, I can’t wait any longer. I’ll sell this to anyone who is willing to fork out the price required for my brother’s surgery.”
“No, you can’t do this, he wanted you to give this to the Hawthorne family. What do you think would happen once they come to know about what you did? Look, I was finally promoted to the top class. Lorcan, one of the heirs of Hawthorne family studies there, I can directly contact him and talk about this.”
“Who the fuck cares about what you were promoted to? Those motherfucking hospitals want money now to start treatment on my brother. They said he is already in a critical condition and the doctor could leave for another city any time. Any later and they might charge extra fees or my brother’s condition may worsen.”
……
‘What? Something needs to be given and that too to the Hawthorne family? What could Calandra even have for them?’
Hawthorne, the family which Lorcan—the backbencher who had been pissed when Laurent glanced at him—came from, was a prestigious family dabbling in the business of alcohol with close ties to the government. They were a behemoth in and of themselves, making Laurent’s confusion valid.
‘This is getting interesting.’
He continued listening in so that he could pick out some details, but they just kept going back and forth when Calandra finally snapped,
“You don’t need to care about me! Just let me do my goddamn work! My brother’s life is on the fucking line and you want to me play by the motherfucking rules to wait?!!”
The battle healer simply stormed off after she said her piece of word. Silver stood there with a defeated expression before chasing after her with a sigh. After a few seconds of surveying his surroundings, Laurent similarly chased after them while keeping a far enough and manageable distance, his increased perception by the basic build evolution definitely helping.
For the next few hours, Laurent followed them while filling all his energy pools simultaneously. He watched as Silver somehow calmed down Calandra and supported her in the decision. They were constantly rejected by the people and some who were interested walked away after hearing the price.
The object looked like a crystal with a yellow luster to it. Laurent had doubts spring up in his mind as soon as he had seen the crystal, unfortunately he didn’t know what it was. He even attempted to [Identify] the crystal but he forgot that he was back in time, his skills had been resetted and his level was just one.
[Identify] was one of the easiest skills and it helped the user with—quite obviously what its name suggested—identifying the target. From what he heard in his past life, the requirements to upgrade it weren’t found as the skill just used to randomly upgrade. There was a major theory going around related to it though, that one needed to explore the universe and come across rare high leveled things to level it up.
Unlike how the majority of the skills worked and how it was portrayed in the novels of the old world about repeatedly using it to level it up, the real [Identify] had far stricter requirements.
The first time, he had tried focusing on the crystal and thinking about getting its information, it was how one unlocked the skill. But probably due to the distance, it hadn’t activated. He had then decided to wait till they met with repeated failure before meeting them.
If he had decided to meet them as soon as they had begun trying to sell the crystal, it would’ve been suspicious and not much sense of ‘help’ would’ve gone through. He was buying that crystal, that much was sure, future two potential geniuses owing him a favor compared to buying something was a profitable exchange. But, he had to wait till they were met with repeated failures so his buying the crystal could be more of a ‘help’.
It was a twisted tactic, but he didn’t know them yet, their condition had nothing to do with him. Would he do this to his family members or those close to him? Definitely not.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Coming out of hiding, he walked calmly on the sidewalk in a particular direction away from the duo, but enough to be in their line of sight. Just as he noticed Silver looking his way, he quickly turned and met eyes so as to not allow Silver to break the connection. With a smile on his face, he waved and approached them as they did some small talk again, possibly another argument based on the slight frown on Silver’s face.
“You? Here?”
It was understandable, this was basically the poor man’s area and him—the rich—had no reason to be here. But given their current predicament, it was a welcome doubt. Laurent approached them with a slight smile as he replied,
“Yup, had some problems crop up at home making me overwhelmed. A walk in a different area kinda eased some of my worries.”
“Must be nice to have a rich man’s problems.”
Calandra rebuked with a sharp tone.
He laughed it off with a slight chuckle as Silver’s face seemed to have shown a sign of relief.
– x – (I’ll be using this for the pov change)
He didn’t know Laurent’s personality yet. He had asked about everyone from the top class so that he could blend in easily with them but Laurent seemed to have a very less presence in the class so very few people knew of him.
But from the looks of it, he didn’t take Calandra’s remark seriously so he should be easy to talk with. He earlier had a slight disagreement with Calandra earlier about whether to sell off the crystal to Laurent.
Being in the same class with Lorcan, if the crystal was an item of high importance, it was likely that both might get into a conflict with him being dragged into it. He would very much like to avoid it as it had taken a lot of hard work to get to the top class, his parents would be disappointed and hurt if something happened to him now.
If he could talk it out with Laurent about keeping their situation a secret, maybe this matter could be solved once and for all. But in the end it all depended on if Laurent agreed on buying the crystal.
“Sorry, she didn't mean that. Is there anything I can help with?”
He laughed along to diffuse the situation and made himself favorable to look at.
Laurent kept his smile but shook his head as he replied,
“It’s alright, not something which I can’t handle. What about you? Why are you here? Hehe, and who is this?”
“Nothing much, just helping out my friend over here to sell the crystal. Not along the lines you were thinking.”
“Oh? Can I look at what you are selling? Maybe I can help?”
‘He is very pleasant to talk to, I wonder why no one knows much about him. Does he keep to himself a lot or just no one bothers him with anything?’
“Sure, but could you keep this a secret? Because my friend here thinks it is a confidential item.”
He glanced at Calandra and to his relief, her expression seems to have eased up a little. Signaling her to take out the crystal, he motioned them to a more secluded side of the street.
– x –
Laurent took the crystal in his hand and immediately used [Identify] on it. Although the chances were that he would not get much with his skill starting at level 1 after unlocking, something would still be better than nothing.
[Identify level ?? has been used by the host. Displaying information.
Planetary core potential crystal : Made by extracting the life force of millions of people through the planetary core. By a stroke of luck, it has also extracted the potential of those people, allowing it to mutate into a potential crystal. Provides the user with a burst of vitality on the first try and a faint connection with the planetary core.
Vitality cap +100 per level ;; Vitality affinity +40%]
His eyes slightly widened but as he was looking down at the crystal while checking it, adding to it his control over himself, no one noticed anything. He tried squeezing the crystal but it was too solid. He played around with while thinking,
‘Something seems to have happened to my identify skill. But setting that aside, this crystal turned out to be a much greater thing than I anticipated. Wait, I am basically a variable in this timeline, does that mean in my past life no one bought the crystal and Calandra used it after the Great Awakening?
So if I buy the crystal here, does that mean I’ll be taking away the future potential of battle healer? Nope, not a good deal. I already have high affinity and necromancer doesn’t have a high vitality requirement anyway. And I don’t know anyone who might be a better fit for the crystal, Lusjardo? No, setting aside if that guy will take it, he was already a very stable fighter without anything, chances are this thing might even ruin some of his future opportunities.
But nevermind, I can still turn the situation to benefit me.’
There was silence while he thought as Silver and Calandra didn’t disturb him. Finally, Laurent looked at their nervous faces and asked,
“Price?”
He was ready to pay any price if it meant bringing Agile Shield and Battle Healer to his side.
Both of them hesitated as this was where most people left after showing interest, but Calandra still spoke out,
“Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
Sure, it was a ridiculous price for most people considering they only get a nice looking crystal, but he had already thought about it, even disregarding the crystal’s original value, bringing these two to his side in exchange for 350000 dollars was a steal.
“Cool haha.”
Both of their faces visibly lit up as Calandra even had tears forming in her eyes. With a face full of gratitude, she bowed and thanked him while Silver silently mouthed his thanks at the side.
Laurent did the online transaction and sent the money to Silver’s account as Calandra didn’t have her own. But just then he lightly flicked the crystal over to Calandra who caught it by reflex. When met with confused expressions of both, he explained,
“I don’t want the crystal. You can have the money though.”
Silver’s face changed into one of a subtle panic as he hurriedly replied, if Laurent didn’t take the crystal, didn’t that mean this hot potato was still with them? As expected, no one at the top was easy to fool. If it kept getting difficult, he was planning to pull out of this mess, he had already repaid enough if he thought about it. The only reason he was even helping was because of guilt.
“Wait, how can that be? We can’t do that Laurent, it’ll be too shameless of us. Please keep it.”
Just when Silver was about to take the crystal from Calandra’s hand however he heard a sentence from Laurent which made him stop in tracks.
“Shouldn’t this belong to the Hawthorne? How do you have it?”
Silver turned to look at Laurent who now had a playful smile on his face. A nervous attempt at laughter escaped his mouth as he forced his smile. Sure enough, it was a big mess. He knew about the terror of the Hawthorne family, they were the only family in their country to ever be able to stand side by side with the Tempest, the family which dealt with the arms industry and had a connection with the government.
Hawthorne controlled the entire alcohol business, or you could say the alcohol business was basically them. It was an entire empire passed down from generation to generation like the Stryders which had their hands in the automobile industry, unlike the Tempest which grew in the recent decades.
Unlike Silver, Calandra who knew nothing about it had a blank look on the side. According to her, giving money was without taking anything was good, but even she knew that there was no free food in the world and sure enough, her eyes turned alert once she heard Laurent,
“Of course, I won’t tell anyone but I want one thing in return. Can I know why you are selling this despite knowing this should belong to Hawthorne? And of course, a favor in exchange since I didn’t take the crystal.”
But it turned to slight bafflement when she heard the simple words, turning to Silver he had the same look as if he had been startled.
This time without waiting for Silver she answered,
“I don’t know where the Hawthorne family lives, we tried the entire day yesterday but nothing came out of it. And my brother is admitted to the hospital because of this same crystal, his situation is critical from what the doctor mentioned so I had to raise money any way possible. I couldn’t care less about the crystal if my brother couldn’t make it. You have my gratitude, and yes, a favor too. I don’t know what I could possibly help you with but I’ll do my best if push ever comes to shove. I just hope it won’t involve my or my brother’s life.”
Laurent flashed her a smile as he turned to glance at Silver. In reality he didn’t know it belonged to Hawthorne either, he was just using what he heard in their talks earlier. It was also a pleasant surprise to know that it was Calandra’s brother who got the crystal, he needed to have a talk with him later after his operation to get to the bottom of it.
“I have nothing to do with this.”
With regained calm Silver faced Calandra and said,
“I have helped you with your situation but I don’t wish to fall further into this, I’ll pay for the medical bills with the money Laurent has transferred and that’ll be all. I ask for your understanding, thank you.”
With that said, without waiting he turned around and began walking away with a speed not too fast nor too slow. Laurent looked at the young battle healer who seemed to have her mood dampened down a little and said,
“Should we follow? I’ll wait for your brother’s operation as I have a few questions to ask.”
She just slightly nodded and strode over to follow Silver with Laurent in the back. By now even she could sense that something was wrong and they both, even her brother, were swept into this. She should’ve just listened to Silver, but things have already developed to this point, at least her brother could now be saved though.
‘In the past life, Silver and Calandra were extremely close, with even rumors flying around about them dating. But seeing how today turned out, he doubted they would progress further, I seemed to have messed up something already. I guess in the past life, they hadn’t found anyone and stuck together till the end. Hmmm, seeing from how there was no mention of the battle healer’s brother, he probably wasn’t able to go through the operation. I guess that is why Silver stuck around? He was called a Saint more than the battle healer after all.’
With a slight chuckle, he shook his head as he continued to follow them. Since he was in the back, he hurriedly opened his evolution tree and kept waving his hand to browse the tree, and found [Expedite] on one branch, of which he quickly initiated the progress. Closing it, he looked at the hospital which came in his view. Being in the vicinity of a borderline poverty stricken area, it wasn’t exactly top tier but had all the necessary equipment. Time to find out what happened.