Slowly. Tsukuru got to his feet. As he did, he heard footsteps approaching him. Taking a glance towards his System's Minimap, he saw a green dot approaching him. He turned around and saw Leo behind him.
"Quite the interesting Beast Weapon you have there, my boy," Leo replied, a knowing smirk on his face. "Some sort of Skill, I presume?"
Leo's words caused the nearby boys to whisper amongst themselves.
"He used a Weapon's Skill?" one asked. "Isn't that the same as cheating?"
"Of course he cheated!" another replied. "How else do you explain him beating her?!"
Tsukuru let out a sigh. This was the same kind of bullshit he had heard when Quinn had first defeated Brandon.
"People never change, do they?" Reiju asked. "I remember having to deal with the same kind of lemmings back when I was in school."
'They really don't,' he thought back. He slid the hidden dagger back into its handle, making it whole again.
He then turned to Leo.
"It's a PassiveSkill," he replied, putting specialemphasis on the word "passive", and catching the gossiping boys' attention. "The dagger's effect activates upon contact without me doing anything." He then snapped his head towards the gossiping boys. "Saying that I cheated is like saying that anyone benefiting from the boosts of a Beast Weapon is 'cheating'."
Tsukuru's words made the boys grit their teeth in annoyance. Not only did they know that Tsukuru had a point, but they were all mad at him. They wanted to be the ones to beat Erin. They all thought that if they could beat her, maybe it would impress her enough to want to date them.
As Erin placed her hand flat on the ground to stand up, she felt a hand wrap around her left bicep. Then, another hand wrapped around her right bicep.
Looking up, Erin saw that there was a military officer on either side of her. It was the same pair who would appear whenever a student was injured and take them to the doctor's office.
Tsukuru looked down at Erin with a smirk.
"You want a Healing Potion so that you don't have to waste time at the Doctor's Office?" he asked in an amused voice.
"Well, I see that somebody has been taking advantage of that Shop function that I included," Reiju said in a smug voice, sounding very proud of herself. "And also, why are you just teasing the girl? Just give her the potion already,"
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
'You don't know this girl, Mom.' Tsukuru thought.
Back down with Erin, she had a look of slight annoyance on her face. She knew exactly what 'Potion' Tsukuru was talking about. She had seen him use it before, after their first match.
She held her hand out in front of her.
'He should have just given me the potion without asking.' Erin thought in frustration. All he had accomplished was making her waste valuable time.
Seeing the extended hand, Tsukuru rolled his eyes.
'Somebody needed to work on her people skills,' he thought.
Suddenly, Reiju's voice rang through his head.
"And you need to work on being friendlier," she replied.
Tsukuru let out another sigh.
'Can I just have one of my Health Potions from my Inventory already?' he asked.
Reiju didn't respond. But a moment later, pixels began to form in his hand. The pixels clustered together into the form of one of his standard Health Potions. There was a bright flash of light, and the potion appeared.
Tsukuru lightly tossed the potion to Erin.
Her hand lashed out and grabbed the potion. She pulled the cork off and downed the potion. Almost immediately, she felt a warm sensation enter her body. The slash wounds covering Erin's stomach began to heal at an accelerated rate.
Seeing this, the two soldiers released Erin,
Not sure what to do, they both turned to Leo.
"You can go," he replied.
The two soldiers nodded. A moment later, they vanished in a flash of light.
Leo then turned to the students around him.
"Alright, everyone!" Leo announced. "Find new partners!" He then turned his gaze to Tsukuru. "Oh, and student Hikiko…"
Tsukuru turned to look at Leo.
"...Please switch to your previous set of Beast Daggers," Leo replied. "The students won't learn anything if they…can't react."
Tsukuru nodded.
"Yes, sir," he replied.
Though he wanted to get used to using his new Intermediate-Tier daggers, even he had to admit that their Passive Skill was a bitunfair. It was like trying to fight while drugged.
Tsukuru placed his two Intermediate-Tier Black Fang Daggers back in his System's Inventory. The daggers broke down into pixels and eventually vanished. As they did, Tsukuru felt his body weakening.
A set of two overlapping System messages appeared in front of him, but they weren't repeated in his head in the feminine, computerized voice of the System. It sounded as if Reiju was reading them out to him.
[Intermediate-Tier Black Fang Dagger has been removed.
-4 Strength, -6 Agility
Strength: 11 [+4]
Agility: 15 [+6] ]
[Intermediate-Tier Black Fang Dagger has been removed.
-4 Strength, -6 Agility
Strength: 11
Agility: 15 ]
He then thought about equipping a set of his Basic-TierBlack Obsidian Daggers.
Instantly, pixels reappeared in his hands. The pixels clustered together into the shape of his old daggers. There was a bright flash of light.
Erin, who had just finished standing up, looked at Tsukuru. As she did, she saw that he was now wielding the daggers that he usually used in their fights. The ones that looked like volcanic glass with the "volcano" pattern.
Back with Tsukuru, a set of two overlapping System messages appeared.
[Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger equipped.
+3 Strength, +4 Agility
Strength: 11 [+3]
Agility: 15 [+4] ]
[Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger equipped.
+3 Strength, +4 Agility
Strength: 11 [+6]
Agility: 15 [+8] ]
Compared to with his Intermediate-Tier daggers, where he had 19 Strength and 27 Agility, Tsukuru now only had 17 Strength and 23 Agility.
'It should be fine,' Tsukuru thought. 'Most of the people in this class are noobs, anyway.'
If Tsukuru had to rank all of the students in the class, he would put Erin at the top, and himself and Quinn not far beneath her.
Tsukuru then walked over to a random student. A boy with short, jelled-back brown hair. Seeing the boy, Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
'Why does he remind me of someone I'veseen in an oldshow from the old world?' Tsukuru thought in confusion.
In the brown-haired boy's hand, he held a sword.
As Tsukuru looked at the boy, his System's vector appeared over his head, and the "Scanning" function activated automatically.
[Name: Nill Zilch
Race: Human
Ability: Acid Spray
Ability Level: 3]
Seeing the information, Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
'Well, it's not exactly an 'Elemental' Ability, but still,' he thought, wanting to roll his eyes. 'People should really think before they choose a Combat Class!'
Tsukuru's eyes then drifted down towards the sword in Nill's hand. It was completely blue, and the blade was curved with serrated edges along the bottom. It looked like the claw of a mantis. Additionally, its guard looked like the head of a mantis, looking directly at the wielder.
The System's "Scanning" function activated again, displaying the information of Nill's Beast Weapon, as well.
[Blueslicer Sword
Basic-Tier Beast Weapon
A Basic-Tier Beast Weapon forged using Glathrium and the Beast Crystals of the Basic-Tier Azure Mantis.
+2 Strength, +1 Agility]
'That has got to be the worst Stats on a piece of Beast Gear that I have ever seen,' Tsukuru thought, deeply unimpressed. Clearly, whoever had made that Beast Weapon was not a good Forger.
Tsukuru assumed his typical battle stance, crossing his two arms in front of him.
***
A boy with short, silver hair swung down a large mace towards Quinn. The mace's head looked like an armadillo that was curled up into a BALL. It was covered in a pattern consisting of numerous scales that was tilted upwards, forming little spikes covering the mace. Using his 16 points in Agility, Quinn easilymoved out of the way of the attack. The mace crashed into the floor of the Beast Weapon Hall, causing a loud BOOM.
Quinn then threw out his hand and delivered a hard gut-punch to the boy.
The boy's eyes widened, and he was sent tumbling backwards. He landed on his back a few feet away from Quinn.
Quinn narrowed his eyes, a look of deep dissatisfaction on his face.
'Still nothing,' Quinn thought in annoyance. 'And he was a Level 3 Ability User, too,'
This was a huge problem. Most of the students in the class were Low-Levels. Most of the High-Level students had chosen other Combat Classes. Typically, only those with low Ability Levels, or Abilities more suited to combat with weapons, took this class. The only people that he knew of who were above Level 3 in this class were Erin and Brandon. And Brandon had diedquite a WHILE AGO, so he wasn't an option.
'Crap…' Quinn thought. 'What am I going to DO?'