Seven days passed fairly quickly, and Nox was finally able to leave the infirmary. Thanks to his high stats, he had regenerated faster than ever.
"Hah, if you would've slept with me, your recovery would've been so much faster," Lina pouted, putting a piece of cheese into her mouth.
"The doctor wouldn't let me," Nox replied nonchalantly.
Her eyes widened in surprise before a wide grin played on her lips.
"Oh? Did you ask her?" she whispered, her warm breath brushing past her face.
"N- No, but she told me when we were meditating!" he clarified, looking at Beatrice and Regea for help.
But they weren't present, not mentally, at least.
"Hah, three days, three days," Beatrice murmured, gazing at them with a dreamy expression.
"G- Guys, I wanted to ask you if you want to… uhm… w- well, you don't have to, but do you want to celebrate my birthday with me?" Regea asked nervously.
At his words, Beatrice frowned, being reminded again that she still hadn't gotten a present.
"W- Will your parents be there too?" she asked.
"Y- Yes."
Beatrice became even more nervous and started fixing her hair as if they were already standing in front of her.
Regea swallowed and looked down at the floor, clearly reconsidering his words.
For a brief moment, no one answered, and the silence made his shoulders tense as he prepared himself for rejection.
"Sorry, it was a weird ques-"
"Of course we'll come!" the three said in unison.
"Really? Thank you, guys!"
Just as Regea was about to burst into happy tears, the principal came walking in.
"Hello, students. Today is the day of the long-awaited ranking!"
"We were really surprised. This time, there were a lot more points collected."
"Remember that the tournament only makes up around thirty percent of all points. However, there were still some unexpected placements because of it," Albrecht shouted, clapping his hands.
The room went silent as everyone searched for their class.
1st year, class A:
1: Bunnies (89210 points)
2: Group of the Strongest (25632 points)
.
.
The gap was so large that the four friends could only stare at each other in silence.
Regea blinked twice, then leaned closer to the screen as if the numbers might suddenly change.
Beatrice opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.
Lina crossed her arms slowly, her expression unreadable. But not for Nox; he could somehow feel excitement behind her blank front.
But maybe it was just Analus's death glare on his back. It felt sharp enough that he didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.
-You have stayed in class A twice
-You have received 800 Yom coins
"We got twice the amount from last time," Nox realized.
"Yeah, it probably adds up the longer we stay in class A," Lina replied.
"Alright, let's move on to the interesting part. The overall ranking!" the principal said, clapping his hands once again.
Overall ranking:
1: Unstoppable (231260 points) Reward: 25000 Yom coins
2: Swifties (181524 points) Reward: 20000 Yom coins
3: Pros (180238 points) Reward: 16600 Yom coins
4: Sunrise (162303 points) Reward: 13900 Yom coins
5: Bombaclats (149347 points) Reward: 11600 Yom coins
.
.
.
9: Bunnies (89210 points) Reward: 7200 Yom coins
.
.
.
"What? We're ninth?" Nox muttered.
He had expected a decent placement, but seeing their name among the top ten still made his chest tighten.
"We actually made it into the top ten!" Beatrice shouted.
"And we got so many coins!" Regea added. He seemed happy but also nervous, as if he didn't what to do with this number of coins.
"Let's go buy something in the Yom store," Lina suggested, raising from her seat.
Before anyone else could respond, she grabbed Nox by the sleeve.
The four of them slipped out while most students were still staring at the rankings.
They quickly ran out of the castle and toward the giant wooden building across the street.
"Welcome to Yom store," the same young lady from last time said.
"Hello, do you perhaps have extraordinary items for around 8'000 coins?" Lina asked.
"8'000?" She mustered them with a scrutinizing gaze, hardly believing first years had that many coins.
"Most extraordinary items cost 10'000 coins, but we should have a few," the lady replied, signalling them to follow her.
She led the group through the empty store into a small, secluded area.
"These are the items that we're not able to sell because they're either ultra-specific or useless," she said, pointing at a dusty old shelf. "You could find something here."
A faint mana residue lingered in the air, weak but strangely unsettling. Some of the items felt as if they were watching them.
"We will give you a forty percent discount for those," she added while walking away.
The four carefully looked through the items. Most of them had cobwebs on them or were broken.
"What's this? My feeling tells me I should get that, but it looks useless," Nox thought, looking at a thin stone tablet.
Name: Mana Rune
Grade: Extraordinary
Type: Rune
Description: Able to see exactly how much mana you have left, how much mana you regenerate per hour, and how much you gain by meditating.
He turned it over in his hands, half-expecting something to happen.
Nothing did, and that somehow made it worse.
"Well, it only costs 5400 coins with the discount, so I'd still have 3200 left," Nox thought, putting the rune into his bag.
"And it's not completely useless, I guess," he added, trying to justify his purchase.
"What do you think of that?" Lina asked, showing him a small stone.
Name: Stamina Stone
Grade: Extraordinary
Type: Stone
Description: You can only equip three stones at once. Everyone, including you, regenerates 0.1 stamina per minute when within a 100-meter radius of you. The effect increases by 0.01 for every one mana stat.
"Yeah, I think it's pretty good for you. You have around 42 mana, which means we would all regenerate 0.52 stamina per minute," Nox replied.
Lina's calm expression faltered; she looked at him a with surprised, but flustered face.
"How do you know my stats?"
"You once said that you have five more mana than me, and we always gain the same amount when meditating," he said, scanning through the shelf.
"Oho, you never seem interested, but it looks like you actually are," Lina realized, stroking his hair. That fact alone, seemed to mean more to her than everything else.
"I- I guess."
"I feel like I should take this, but I don't know what it's for," Nox said, pointing at his rune.
"Of course. You must combine it with the mana ring," she replied as if it were obvious.
"How do you know?"
"Your ring. It glimmers in the same light as the rune when you touch it."
"T- Thanks."
He wasn't sure if he should feel happy or intimidated about it.
"I don't want to lose my modified mana ring, though. I should buy a new one," he thought.
"I don't know why this is here, but I think this would be good for you, Regea," Beatrice said, holding up an old, brown piece of parchment paper.
Name: Skill Strengthener
Grade: Extraordinary
Type: Scroll
Description: You can only use this once. Increases the stats and mana savings of a specific skill by thirty percent.
"Oh, that would be great for my golems!" Regea shouted, stepping closer to Beatrice.
"I- I'm glad."
"But I can't just take this. Don't you want it?" he asked.
"No, it's okay. I have many different skills," she replied. Her gaze went over the shelves once again.
"But I honestly don't know what to take."
She stared at every item longer than necessary, her fingers hovering but never touching anything.
For once, her usual confidence was completely gone.
"Nox, do you see something you could use for combination?" Beatrice shouted.
"I think I could craft you something good with that," he said, pointing at a small stone on the bottom shelf.
"Resistance Stone? It just says that it can be used for crafting, though. There aren't any effects."
"And it costs 8'000 Yom coins," she whined, gasping dramatically.
"You don't have to take it."
"I was hoping for some encouragement. Like, 'something really overpowered will come out' or something," Beatrice sighed, taking the stone from the shelf.
"I honestly have no idea myself," he replied, turning around.
As they walked through the store, Nox picked up a rare mana ring as well.
There were many more people shopping and moving around now.
"Alright, that will be 6'400 Yom coins," the cashier said.
"I only have 2'200 coins left," he thought, placing the currency on the table with a heavy heart.
After everyone paid, the group quickly went outside and hid behind a corner.
"Which one should I combine that stone with?" Beatrice asked.
"Let's try it with your necklace."
Nox grabbed her fire necklace and the newly obtained Resistance Stone.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Nox frowned, already fearing that he had failed.
However, shortly after, a familiar warmth surged through him. Intense mana surged through his veins, stronger than ever before.
-You have combined a new item
Name: Resistance Fire Necklace
Grade: Artificial
Type: Necklace
Description: You can only wear one necklace at once. +20% damage with fire attribute and 90% immunity against basic fire spells.
"90 percent? That's almost complete immunity. So good!" Beatrice shouted, staring at the item as if it weren't real.
"Psst! We don't want to be discovered," Lina scolded her.
"Shit, it's way harder to combine an extraordinary item. I feel like I'm going to pass out," Nox thought, taking the Mana Rune from his bag.
"Are you okay?" Lina asked.
"Y- Yes. Of course."
He took his new ring and slowly moved his hands together.
The closer he came, the more his body started to hurt.
"I can do this!" he thought, trying his hardest.
His hands began shaking, and the rune slipped slightly. But he clenched his teeth and forced it back into place.
Just as his vision was about to blur, a hand was placed on his shoulder.
"You lied to me. I'll definitely punish you for that," Lina whispered as a warm feeling surged through him.
The pain didn't disappear, but it stopped getting worse.
Nox didn't know if it was the mana or Lina's presence which gave him the newfound strength. He pressed the items together, and a bright gray light began to glow between his palms.
-You have combined a new item
Name: Stat Mana Rune
Grade: Artificial
Type: Rune
Description: Able to see exactly how much mana you have left, how much mana you regenerate per hour, how much you gain by meditating, and how much mana each skill consumes. You can also discard or hide skills.
"Oh, that's pretty go-"
Before Nox could finish his thought, his body suddenly felt heavy.
"Always pushing yourself." A voice strict rang out as he was caught by two gentle hands.
The last thing he saw were Lina's strict eyes above him.