For the rest of the day, Lake attended classes as usual. Since his points had been wiped clean, if he wanted to use any of the academy’s facilities, he would have to start gathering them again.
Attending his classes didn’t give him many points, but it was enough for him to use most facilities and get three als a day.
After all classes were completed, Lake was planning his next step in the students’ training program. After the exam, they had gained enough battle experience that Lake wouldn’t have to worry about them against opponents of a similar level, but he still needed to increase their base level.
’I can boost everyone’s mana capacity using the mana gathering field, but I’ll have to teach them sothing else to speed up their refinent process...’
While Lake was walking out of the classroom, lost in thought, he sensed soone fast approaching him from behind, as the sounds of rapid fluttering rang out loudly in his ears.
Without pausing his steps, Lake casually leaned forward, causing the speeding person to fly right past him. Raising his head, he saw the person turn around midair before flying right up in front of him.
Who else could it be but Sylph?
"Lake!" Sylph called out to him while tears threatened to fall from her eyes.
Seeing her reaction, Lake couldn’t help but sigh as he reached out his hand, grabbing her by the shoulder before gently bringing her down to the ground.
"Sylph, why are you crying?" Lake spoke as he wiped away the tears at the corner of her eyes.
Sylph sniffled as she tried to reply, her voice slightly shaky. "Hic, I-I heard we got disqualified..."
"Ah..." Lake had a look of realization as he suddenly rembered sothing.
He hadn’t seen anyone else the entire day since their classes didn’t mix up, so he had completely ignored the fact that his other teammates were also disqualified because of his actions.
Raising his hand, Lake gently patted her head. "It’s fine, Sylph. It’s just one exam. We can just make up for it in the next one, so there’s really no need to cry about it."
"B-But we worked so hard..." Sylph spoke softly, trying to keep her voice steady. "Kate led everyone, Bramble and Iris assisted on the battlefield, and even I was able to contribute! Not to ntion you, who allowed us to win in the first place..."
Sylph lowered her head. "I just feel like our efforts were wasted."
’So that’s what this is about.’ Lake couldn’t help but sigh when he realized what this was about.
Sylph wasn’t acting like this because she was upset that they got disqualified, but because she felt like everything they did ant nothing.
Lake wiped away the tears that fell down her cheeks as he lowered his head to see hers.
"What do you an wasted? Didn’t we kill the serpent in the end? Didn’t we protect the bay from the beast tide? Didn’t you heal everyone who got injured, allowing us to end the fight with almost no injuries?" Lake spoke softly as he gently smiled. "I say we did our best, and our efforts proved significant in the end, even if they weren’t acknowledged."
As Lake spoke, he couldn’t help but feel a little strange. No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out why he was doing this. Just why was he going so far to comfort Sylph?
If it were him from a few days ago, he would’ve turned tail and run the mont he sensed that Sylph was even remotely close by. Yet, this ti, not only did he not run away, he even stayed behind and took the initiative to comfort her.
The only reason he could think of was that it was an effect of integration.
’I really need the system to co back online so I can figure out what changed.’
Luckily, Lake’s efforts weren’t wasted, and Sylph seed to have cald down sowhat, though her eyes were still a little teary.
Lake tried to remove his hand from her head, but Sylph was quick to catch it. She slowly lowered his hand, not letting go as she kept her head down.
Seeing this, Lake sighed before he gently grabbed hers. "I was heading to the training field to prepare for tonight’s lesson. Do you want to co with ?"
"Mhm." Sylph nodded her head slightly without speaking. Lake couldn’t tell if she was lost in thought or simply too tired to talk, but he didn’t question it and started to walk off, Sylph following closely behind him.
However, perhaps because he was too focused on Sylph, Lake failed to notice that their entire interaction had been seen by everyone nearby, sparking widespread discussion.
****
Lake rested Sylph on a nearby rock while he prepped for the lesson. At so point during his preparations, Iris appeared, grabbed Sylph, and hurriedly took her away, giving him a death glare as she did so.
Lake only shook his head at the sight. Soon he had everything ready for the lesson and was left reviewing everything over again. He used the digital copy of the material he had created on his wristwatch.
’The second and third Chapters have been written. It should be enough to get everyone to Low-Rank Martial Warrior. After that, it’s just a waiting ga.’
Lake reviewed the two new Chapters in his training guide. He had already shared the first Chapter, "Principles of Flow Path," with the students and planned to distribute the other two during this lesson.
Beep.
While Lake was reading through everything, he received a ssage notification on his wristwatch.
[Kate: The eting has been set for Sunday. Don’t worry about the Academy, it will be taken care of on my side, so just clear your schedule for the evening on that day.]
Lake saw the ssage and was slightly surprised at how quickly Kate had organized everything.
’Either she’s being strangely efficient, or her parents are just that eager to et .’
While pondering this, Lake sent a simple reply and closed the interface, but as he was about to get back to work, another notification rang out.
[Liam: et by the transfer station at midnight.]
Looking at the cryptic ssage and the identity of the sender, Lake frowned. He hadn’t expected Liam to already seek him out after only eting this morning.
He didn’t have a good impression of this financial advisor to begin with, and seeing him send this ssage only further unsettled him.
Knowing he couldn’t do anything about it, however, caused Lake to sigh as he checked the ti.
’It’s only 5 p.m.’
Everyone should arrive in the next hour, so that ans he only had six hours to accomplish what he originally planned to take the entire night to achieve.
"I guess I’ll change this from a theory class to a practical one," Lake muttered, cracking his neck with one hand as a subtle smile appeared on his face.
****
Seven hours later, Lake left the training ground, leaving behind a wailing crowd of students lying in the blood-infused grass.
"K-Kill , now..."
"G-God, I—I think I see, the light."
"I-I can’t breathe—"
All of them wanted nothing more than to pass out from the pain. They couldn’t move an inch because of the pain, yet they couldn’t even pass out because of the damned recovery effect of the mana gathering field.
"T-That demon... It’s barely been... a day after the exam... and he’s already... trying to kill us..."
"Why is it... always the strong ones... that are so evil? Why can’t it ever be so scrawny guy... that even I could beat up?"
"Maybe because... everyone else... is bigger than you?"
"Fuck... you."
As the group of boys continued to squabble amongst themselves, one of them turned to look at their leader, who had been lying flat on his back for a while now.
"What do you think, Conner?"
"...."
"...Conner?"
"Did he... pass out...?"
"That’s impossible... We’re still within the recovery field."
"Then why isn’t he replying?"
"SNORE!"
Suddenly, a loud snore sounded out, startling the group as they turned to look at Conner’s bloody and swollen face.
"This fucker..."
"How the hell could he fall asleep in that condition?"
"Heh, you guys know the drill?"
"Hehehe, of course."
"As soon as I can move, I’m going to make him regret falling asleep in the open..."
****
Lake arrived outside the transfer station a few monts before midnight.
The place was dark, with only a few security guards near the entrance. Lake looked around for a bit, even using his Sixth Sense, but he couldn’t find any sign of Liam.
"Looking for ?"
"!" Suddenly, Lake heard a voice behind him, causing him to jump in surprise.
’How the hell did he...’
Lake stared warily at Liam, who continued to smile while observing his reaction.
"Catch."
Lake instinctively reached out and caught the duffle bag that was thrown at him. Opening it slightly, he saw that it was full of strange equipnt.
"These are..." Lake instantly recognized most of the equipnt in the bag, leaving him both surprised and confused.
"There’s a suit of clothing inside that bag. Change into it quickly, and then et inside the station. We’ll be making a small trip for your punishnt this ti," Liam spoke, still maintaining his foxlike smile.
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