The days passed one after the other.
Before he knew it, a week had passed with Garem just consistently practicing this exact training regime. This body was indeed very average in quality, in a normal academy, he would probably be considered a normal student, but in the Blackboard Academy, he would only be at the very lowest level.
If it were not for the Moonfang, he probably would not be able to survive in the academy at all. After all, students with low marks had to pay extremely high tuition fees, it would be way beyond the means of an average-income family like his.
So even though he did not want to use the Moonfang, in order to come into contact with the main power source and powerful entities in this world, he had no choice but to keep up the lie.
His training over the past few days had shown him just how average his body was in quality. After one week, his Willpower had only risen a tiny bit, and if he did not sense it carefully, he would not be able to tell anything was different at all.
He was still impossibly far from the Level 1 standard.
Because his talents were too slow to progress, Garen had no choice but to look for another method to upgrade himself. And the first thing he could think of was his special Ability’s potential points.
Fwah….
The rain poured down outside the window, blowing the branches of large locust tree into a slant. The raindrops fell onto the surface of the leaf, onto the windows and the glass, making a pattering sound.
Garen sat beside the table in the hostel, with a laptop in front of him. It was playing clips of Mech battles, but although Garen’s gaze was trained on the clip, his attention had actually wandered to his attribute pane.
‘Nonosiva Lin — Strength 0.6, Agility 1.1, Vitality 0.4, Intelligence 1.3, potential power 0%. Soul limit 40.’
‘Willpower — Middle Basic Level’
‘Attribute — Void Pursuer’
‘Soul Seed — Northern Trident Frost-Fire True Water Evil Technique, Holy Phoenix Demonic Book.’
‘Secret Technique — Imprint of Steel: increases one’s physical strength and vitality.’
“My Strength has recovered a little bit through this training, it went up by 0.1. My Vitality went up by 0.1 as well. Not bad, considering I don’t have potential points.” The truth was that Garen had been keeping an eye for anything that could contain potential points a long time ago, but unfortunately he had not discovered anything while he was at the hospital nor after returning to the academy.
This terrifying quality of his, even slower than a snail, had completely worn away his patience. If he continued upgrading himself at this pace, he would probably need at least more than ten years to reach Level 2 or 3.
He could not bear having to waste so much time.
“Looks like I need to gather information about this world’s research on the human body, medical studies, and the like. Reorganizing my secret techniques is one thing, but the ultimate power of the secret techniques is really far from the Mechs in this world, it would be best if I could learn about this world here, then absorb and integrate that knowledge. I forgot to do that in the previous world, and in the end I used secret techniques to destroy the entire world’s power system. That’s very disadvantageous towards my gathering my Soul Seed, I was basically retreading old roads.”
Garen mused it over, and came to a conclusion.
To him, normal secret techniques had brought him as far as they could go. The Soul Seed level had already surpassed normal secret techniques, and reached a brand new level. This level absorbed other sorts of understandings, and in turn gathered into different Soul Seeds.
“Secret techniques can only be temporarily used for self-defense, if I want to reach a higher level, the only way would be to absorb the strengths of this world’s power system, perhaps that can bring me up to the next level.” Garen hesitated for a moment, looking at the torrential downpour outside.
“I’ll just make a trip to the flea market here then.”
It was still early, just slightly past two in the afternoon. Since he did not have class in the afternoon, Garen stayed in his dorm to rest and train his “Blackboard Manipulation”, which meant that he had the free time now to check out the flea market near the academy.
The market had a collection of all sorts of small-time merchants and peddlers, creating a small market where they bought and sold. They bought some small items from the students of the academy, and sold them off at a profit.
For example, they would trade in some upper-level students photocopied notes, their training comprehensions, or small components made by the maintenance students, even the scrap metal taken out of the academy warehouses. Anything that could be used or not was thrown here for sale. As long as it had something to do with the Blackboard Academy’s Mech pilots, it was worth a considerable sum of money.
Likewise, these merchants would also bring in materials from outside, or transport some specific items for some students, in a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Sometimes, some of the merchants were even the academy’s own students.
**********************
As usual, Corlan was waiting for his younger brother at the school entrance so that they could go back home together.
After he accidentally sustained critical injuries in the Level 1 test last time, he heard that his father had already settled this matter, and the other side was also punished accordingly, so he let it slide. He had also returned to his regular life, chatting over the phone with his girlfriend, going racing on the streets with his buddies after class, playing Mech simulation battles, and training at night.
The heavy rain pattered at his feet, water sliding down his umbrella, almost forming a veil of water.
“Cor, shall we go back together?” a red-haired boy waved at him and asked in the midst of the shuffling crowd at the entrance.
“Nah, I’m waiting for my bro,” Cor smiled. “Weren’t you guys supposed to go play cards? Are you still going now?”
“My pops asked me to get something all of a sudden.” The red-haired boy leaned in closer. “Oh yeah, I saw that freshman from your test last time today.”
“Oh?” Cor was slightly stunned. “Isn’t he in the hospital?”
“Looks like he’s all better now, I don’t know when he got discharged,” the red-haired boy said casually. “What do you plan to do? You just need to say the word.”
Cor’s smile faded slowly, but he did not say anything.
“You’re at the top of our class, third in the second year! If you don’t retaliate after a freshman sent you to the hospital, wouldn’t just about anyone be able to come mess with our Class b1?” the red-haired boy said angrily.
“The matter of the surgery fees has been settled, so that means case closed,” Cor said simply after calming himself down. Glancing at the red-haired boy who still looked like he had something to say, Cor smiled again. “Alright, go play your cards!”
“Fine fine fine, you sure are generous, the case is closed, just as you said.” The red-haired boy looked at him admiringly. “I sure respect you, if it were me, I wouldn’t stop until I killed that…”
“Alright, alright, hurry on,” Cor interrupted him, patting the red-haired boy’s shoulder. Only then did the boy walk away with his umbrella, still ranting loudly.
Watching the boy leave in the rain, Cor’s smile faded slowly.
He kept remembering the situation that day.
“That shot… was it a coincidence, or…” He could still clearly remember the moment he was shot.
That shot was practically impossible. It was a textbook pose, but the shooter was nearly laying sideways on the floor, the barrel barely moving. It completely ignored the delay caused by the rebound, ignored the slant caused by the difference in position, and he did not even aim, he barely just flinched.
And even then, he could hit Cor’s cockpit precisely.
“Big Bro,” a similarly calm voice interrupted his thoughts.
Cor came back to reality, looked at his younger brother in front of him, and smiled.
“Let’s go, time to go home.”
His younger brother Caus was the top seat of the first year Class c2. He had short cropped blue hair and wore gold earstuds, his body tall and strong, with a faint scar on his right cheek. That was a mark left behind from a brawl in high school.
Caus stood beside Cor, and was one whole head taller than his older brother. He cocked his head slightly, greeting two girls as they passed by. Even when he smiled, he gave off a ferocious vibe.
Cor walked in front and Caus followed behind him. For a moment, neither spoke.
When they went past the main academy gates, Cor suddenly stopped and turned around.
“You don’t have to mind my business, this matter is settled.”
Caus instantly smiled widely.
“I know, Bro, I don’t plan to mess with the guy, do I?”
Cor frowned as he looked at his younger brother, and could not tell if he was lying or not. His little brother had always idolized him ever since they were young, treating him as his standard for everything. This time he had gotten seriously injured, went into the hospital, and nearly died. It would be weird if Caus did not do anything.
“Forget it, let’s go back.”
He turned around, flagged down a levitating cab, and darting inside.
Caus smiled very brightly.
“I’ve been rather busy with some troublesome matters myself as well, so I don’t have the time to bother with your stuff. I’ll do as you say.” He ducked into the cab as well, but no one saw the ruthlessness in the depths of his eyes.
*********************
The flea market
There was a rectangular silver rain cover beside the academy, blocking off the heavy downpour outside.
Under the cover, there were many small trolley stalls set up there. There were even more merchants with their wares on the floor further inside, and some people had even hung up some cloths beside the cover at the academy’s outer wall to form small stalls. It was a sea of colors inside, with all manners of items inside.
It was raining heavily, so even the usually crowded market was relatively empty, with just a few students and outsiders wandering around the stalls, mostly merely window-shopping.
Garen mingled in with the crowd, and examined each of the stalls one after the other.
As long as there was anything with potential energy within five meters of him, he could be able to sense it. But he had been here for over a dozen minutes, and walked past a dozen stalls, and still he did not sense even the tiniest hint of potential energy.
After walking past a small cart, Garen’s gaze fell slightly onto something on the cart.
“Come come come, look at the newest Butterfield Butterfly Steel Piece, it’s perfect as a Mech’s buffer piece, it’s just two hundred points per piece,” the cart owner instantly greeted him passionately. “Just put one of these where the wear and tear are the worst, and you’ll surely be able to buffer it perfectly.”
Garen glanced at the cart, there was a row of white things that looked like garlic hanging on it, strung up into circles. He had no idea what they were, but there were many metal and wooden bottles arranged underneath it, as well as other small knick-knacks.
From Mech components to feminine skin care products, or even man-made crystal jewelry and small snacks, there was practically everything you could ever want or need.
The cart owner was an older man in his forties, his mouth flapping endlessly without pausing even for a second. After greeting Garen, he caught the attention of three or four more customers, and for a second there business seemed to be booming.
Garen’s gaze swept across the cart, but he still could not find any hint of potential energy. Feeling slightly disappointed, he prepared to leave.
But suddenly he seemed to remember something, and he abruptly looked back at something beside the stall.