Raven's daily routine continues. He's currently running all around the academy.
"Wow, your stamina is crazy! I've been following you for a long time and you didn't stop even for a second!"
Yeah, this was supposed to be one of Raven's peaceful and quiet mornings.
"Isn't it crazy? Our dorm rooms are just next to each other!"
Blake said as he ran next to Raven.
Raven didn't answer and instead coated his legs and feet with mana. Then he jumped onto a tree branch he passed by and jumped to a wall. Using the wall as footing, Raven jumped again and landed on a facility's rooftop.
"Woah! That was so cool!"
For Raven, what he did just now is child's play.
"And you're doing all of that with weights on? Amazing!"
Blake had been following Raven since the start of his run. And in that span of time, he discovered that Raven had weights on.
"Hey! Can you come back down? I can't jump up there."
"I know, that's why I jumped up here."
Raven replied and jumped onto another rooftop. And soon, he lost Blake.
Raven entered the training grounds earlier and is currently practicing his shooting skills using the gun provided by the academy.
Raven is now on difficulty 10. He's practicing with 30 moving targets that are faster than his bullets.
Fortunately, Blake isn't here to annoy him anymore. The training ground is pretty empty, as always. Only the main characters and some extras are here and training.
The others are already in their respective classrooms.
Also, after this week... The main characters will have their own training place. It's a reward for getting in the top rank 10.
Raven is kind of envious as he thought of aiming for the top rank 10.
But his current strength is just around rank 100. It's a good improvement as his original rank was 2619... But not enough, obviously.
Anyway, Raven is currently preparing himself because this week will be busy according to his memory of the novel.
"Maybe I should increase my training's intensity."
He then muttered as he's still going to aim to enter the top rank 10.
[You really should if you want to reach your goal.]
The system appeared, replying to him.
"You've been pretty behaved since the other day. What happened?"
Raven asked as he shot the moving targets.
[The Higher Being added a function to me. While doing so, I feel like I was sleeping.]
Raven replied, uninterested, and shot the last target.
"This is getting boring after fighting Velcro."
Raven thought out loud.
"Maybe I should experiment with some things."
With that, Raven continued experimenting with guns and shooting styles. His proficiency with using guns increased drastically after his training.
I'm currently in the classroom waiting for class to start. Almost everyone is here too... Almost.
The sliding door of the classroom detected a presence outside and opened automatically. Then someone entered.
He now gives off a more mature aura and seems to be hard to approach than before.
And sitting on top of his head is a cotton-like bird that I'm familiar with.
'It's the same bird that he took out from time to time while the classes were ongoing before.'
He's not even trying to hide it anymore.
I then heard Adelle's questioning voice beside me.
Following her words, Aoi looked at Raven and Eve glanced at him.
"Why? Is there something wrong with him?"
She immediately replied. I looked again at Raven and noticed that he's deeply frowning.
He has this expression that says 'Leave me alone.'
"Maybe he had a bad morning?"
Except for his aura, nothing really changed about Raven. He still has this clean appearance and a bored expression all the time.
I also saw him go to the training grounds earlier. And I bet he still has those black bracelets on his wrists and ankles.
"He's back. I really thought he was dead."
Adelle, Aoi, and I turned our heads to where the voice came from. It was Eve. Her face shows disappointment and annoyance at the same time.
"Woah, he can make Eve do that kind of expression, huh."
Adelle said in an impressed voice.
'I think that's not a good thing though...'
Raven left the academy suddenly about 3 days ago. I planned to approach him and get acquainted, but we didn't even see his shadow. So even I got curious about what he did in those days.
Me? Well, I just holed myself in the training grounds.
"Look, someone's following him."
Aoi said, snapping me out of my thoughts. She was pointing his index finger at someone.
And at her words, we looked at the entrance... Then we saw a student following Raven. It was a handsome young man who had this positive aura around him.
He was talking to Raven but wasn't getting any answer.
"Let's sit near each other!"
The young man suggested to Raven.
"I'm tired. Please stay as far away from me as possible."
Raven responded in a tired voice and sat in his seat.
He didn't forget to cast a magic on it before sitting.
"He's really a clean freak."
Aoi said. Adelle and I just nodded in unison.
"Why are you doing that? Isn't the chair already clean?"
The young man sat down beside Raven while talking nonstop like he didn't hear what Raven said to him earlier.
Raven muttered, looking at the young man with an annoyed look.
Our seat is near his seat, so we can hear and see him pretty clearly with just a bit of enhancement in our senses.
A small laugh escaped my mouth. Not just mine, but also from Aoi and Adelle.
Eve's face is calm, but she's somewhat delighted.
The scene of Raven and the young man interacting with each other is somewhat hilarious.
"So he has a friend, huh."
Adelle said after laughing lightly.
'Friend? I think not.'
I thought, looking at Raven ignoring the young man's existence.
'But I really wonder what Raven is really like.'
I'm a curious person, so when I thought of that, I wasn't able to stop myself and I stood up.
My curiosity was amplified because of me being a mage in my past life.
"I'm gonna try talking to him."
I said, looking in Raven's direction.
"Oh, then tell us when you find out something interesting about him."
Adelle said with an amused expression.
I nodded and approached Raven's seat.
Aoi and Adelle said to me as I was walking. On the other hand, Eve was just looking at me like I was doing something stupid.
Though that didn't stop me. Raven is just near us so I reached him not long after.
I greeted as I arrived in front of him.
Raven looked at me and then frowned.
'Did I do something wrong?'
Why is he looking at me like that?
I was starting to worry when I felt a pat on my side.
"Don't worry. He always frowns like that, it's nothing new."
It was the young man beside Raven.
"Hello! I'm Blake Dunstan, nice to meet you!"
The young man introduced himself.
"Ah, I'm Alec Osmond. Nice to meet you."
I introduced myself and we shook hands.
"This is Raven Obadiah!"
After that, Blake introduced Raven to me.
"He's a bit weird, but he's actually a very amazing person."
I asked as I tilted my head innocently.
I noticed that it's easy to extract information from the talkative Blake.
"Did you know? Raven runs for about 4 hours daily with weights on his wrists and ankles!"
My eyes twitched at Blake's words.
"Yeah! Look, he's still wearing them. See how those bracelets on his wrists have mana? That's because he continuously pours mana into them to change or maintain their weights."
Blake said, pointing at the black bracelets Raven was wearing.
Looking at them, the bracelets really have a lot of mana imbued in them.
'Just how heavy are those?'
I was really curious.
But Blake's mouth doesn't seem to stop. Giving me more information about Raven.
"I tried to run with him this morning, but he jumped onto a facility's rooftop, then soon to another rooftop, so I couldn't follow him."
"Jumped from building to building?"
"Yeah! He's like a ninja!"
Blake's words were like gloating. He was boasting Raven's achievements like they were his own.
'What an interesting person.'
Now I'm also curious about Blake.
"And after that, he always goes to the training gr—"
Before Blake could finish his words, Raven cut his sentence midway.
Following Raven's voice, black mana covered Blake's mouth.
'What a unique and beautiful color for mana.'
I thought, looking at his night-sky-like mana.
"Hmmp? Hmmp! Hmmp, hmmp hmmp."
Blake was trying to talk but no words came out from his mouth.
Raven then asked, looking at me calmly.
"Nothing special, I just want to have a friendly relationship with you two."
I replied. I was completely serious about what I said.
Raven looked at me for a while and then opened his mouth.
"I'm Raven Obadiah. Well, you probably know because of this idiot beside me, but it's still better if I introduce myself."
Then he extended his hand towards me.
I smiled and grabbed it.
"I'm Alec Osmond, nice to meet you."