"Ah! finally done with this damned assignment." Jason sighed loudly in relief as he tossed his notebook into his bag.
"Yeah, finally you guys can leave, why did you have to come do it in my room anyway?" Xenon said as he packed his book and writing materials up.
"Going to the cafeteria or somewhere else would have been a waste of time since the book from the library was already with you." Aoi replied, standing up and heading towards the door. "I’m going to grab a quick meal so I can sleep early and be well rested for our combat classes tomorrow morning."
"And it’s a double period at that – hey, wait for me Aoi!" Jason also got to his feet and followed Aoi out through the door.
"But at least we’ll have both our break time and SSS class to relax!" Xenon said to his retreating friends from his rooms doorway.
"Don’t forget we have Runes after that!" Aoi said amidst a painful groan.
"How’s that so bad, we’ll just sleep through it!" Jason shouted as he and Aoi turned at a corner and out of Xenon’s view.
Xenon smiled, withdrew into his room and closed the door behind himself. "All of this learning and trying to be a teenager is giving me a headache!" He dropped unto his bed and dozed off.
Xenon woke up much later, but just in time to grab a bland dinner before the cafeteria closed for the day. He spoke shortly with Elsa through his necklace, almost pissed himself whilst going back to his room when he saw a pair of glowing green eyes in the dark, and then tried to reread Chapter one of the runes textbook.
"Okay, I give up! I’m definitely dropping this subject next year!". Xenon exclaimed after reading the Chapter over five times – in real time – and remembering almost nothing.
Chained Quest, Stage 1;
Read, understand and memorize
30%, reward +1 intelligence
50%, reward +2 intelligence
70%, reward +3 intelligence
Of Chapter one of ... before next week.
A penalty will be incurred if any of the requirements isn’t met.
"What the heck is this!? Why did it have to be a quest about this damned subject?... and when did the system start giving freaking penalties!?" Xenon eyes widened at the impossible task the system set for him, wishing he could grab it by the neck and squeeze the life out of it. "That’s probably a bad idea." He muttered, his survival in this world still kinda depended on the system.
Quests are generated depending in your circumstances, progress in your studies have been deemed now important. Please complete the quest, I am certain you wouldn’t enjoy the penalty.
"Important my ass! You’re just trying to torture me! And now you’re including threats? Just great you shitty parasitic AI bastard!" Xenon fumes and almost tossed the textbook in his hand away, but decided against it.
"What the fuck is a chained quest anyway?" Xenon asked after he had calmed down to a degree.
You complain when I try to assist you and then ask questions you would have figured out yourselves if you had enough intelligence.
Chained quests are a number of quests that are interconnected, completing one subsequently leads to the other until a specific scenario is completed.
"Nice one system, 1 - 1, so what you’re saying is memorizing Chapter one isn’t the end of it, another stage will begin once I complete this?"
Precisely, have a treat good boy
NAME: XENON PRASEDYMUM
LEVEL: 11| EXP: 14341/51200
Stage: 2 (Transitional)
Spirit Contract: 1 (Kusin)
|Strength: 20| |Agility: 24| |Endurance: 20|
|Intelligence: 22| |Senses: 20|
[Fatigue: 65% | Vitality: 99%] Stat points: 11
SYSTEM SKILL: SCAN (Lvl 3)
SIDE QUEST: Gain full mastery over HYPERCELERITY.
▪︎Meditate for 2 hours. Completed.
▪︎Drink 4 litres of water. Completed.
"What the heck is one exp gonna do? And what is "have a treat" supposed to mean! I am not a dog." Xenon made sure to stress each syllable of the last five words he spoke.
I was simply treating you how you preferred, nicely.
"Wow, good one system, sometimes I wonder if your actually a person, or a demon, or both, cause I’m definitely sure systems aren’t designed with such sophisticated sarcastic programs." Xenon sighed.
He dropped the textbook – gently — and dropped onto his bed to get some sleep.
"I believe this is all of us are here?"
About two hundred out of the two hundred and thirty eight students murmured in assent. All of the two hundred and thirty eight students of the first year were standing together under a cloudy sky on a clearing of which was nothing but white sand, a small wooden building at the far right, a group of trees around the house and a brick fence which surrounded the whole area.
"There will be no murmuring in this space, you either answer with a "Yes, Sir" or "No, Sir". Now I’ll ask again, is this everyone?" Orıginal content can be found at n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
"Yes, sir!" The students chorused.
"Great! I am Herman Braquet, welcome to my class. I know most of you are surprised to see people from other houses here, well don’t be, I will be taking all of you first years at once. I did the same with your seniors who numbered greater than you, you guys will be a piece of cake." A tall brown skinned man with a very fit and muscular body, long grey hair – tied back – and eyes, clad in a tight fitting black trouser and white loose shirt said to the class.
"Now I know this is a combat class, but we won’t just start throwing blows at each other mindlessly. Before you guys are allowed to beat each other to a pulp, there are some training exercises you will go through, and before I can assign training schedules to each of you, I must understand your styles and physique.
"According to what I heard from Franz, almost all of you have bad foundations, so we have a lot of work to do. But worry not, before the end of this class each and everyone of you will have a training schedule specially planned for you in accordance to your body, and abilities.
"How is that possible? I’m sure you’re thinking. All you have to do is just demonstrate on some mannequins under the surveillance of Eyeball." Herman gestured to something that suddenly appeared beside him and jump scared everyone.
"What the heck is that!?" And so on was what welcomed the "thing" hovering close to Herman’s shoulder.
Eyeball was literally giant eyeball. It would have been cool if it was just a floating eyeball, but apparently this one decided that numerous pointy teeth fixed in a permanent smile was the new standards for an eyeball.
"Don’t mind his appearance, he’s actually a nice and very friendly spirit..."
"Do you think Eyeball will let us touch it?" Jeage, who was finally reunited with his cousin through this class said after sneaking up on Xenon, Aoi and Jason.
"Yeah? And let it bite your forearm cleanly off?" Jason scoffed. "First we were exposed to stunning trees, now it’s a fanged eyeball, what next, a fire breathing snail?"
"Calm down, he said it’s nice." Aoi replied.
"He didn’t say it’s vegetarian." Xenon grinned.
"Okay, everyone except the top ten, get into twenty eight groups of six!" Herman ordered. "Each group will have a go at these mannequins one at a time." He pointed at six mannequins which seemed like they were being woven from tread like tendrils that extend out of Eyeball.
"The ten of you will go one at a time." Herman gestured to the top ten students. "You all have one job, battle the mannequins until one of you overpowers the other or I order you to stop, Eyeball will take note of everything you do, and together we will make a training schedule for each of you. Now, which group is going first?"
"How are we supposed to overpower the mannequins?" Siris Houndjo raised up his hand and asked as he was a part of the first group of six.
"They can move dumbass!" Jeage shouted a reply to Siris as the mannequins started to run towards the group while he was asking the question.
Fortunately the group were quick to react and managed to avoid being quickly defeated. Each of the groups of six had their turn with the mannequins one after the other, and soon every group had had their go and only the top ten students were left.
"Now, which one of you would like to go first?" Herman looked at them. "Should I pick randomly or you’ll... hold on, I think Eyeball has a suggestion." Herman looked away from the students to Eyeball who came to hover beside him.
Eyeball faced the students, his teeth parted and a creaky giggle came out.
"Why don’t we start from the ten to one?" Eyeball said in the same creaky voice and closed his teeth which returned to their smiling.