Having heard the boy, the first thing Erix did was to check his level.
His prior worries evolved into fear when he realized the boy was a level 4.
The boy had blonde hair that fell past his collarbone. His blue eyes looked completely void with terrible black bags under them.
He had a pair of headphones hung around his neck.
"Hi, there? Why were you standing out there for so long?...... Anyway, I'm Ronin Shin, but you can call me Rin, and nice to meet you." Rin said as he pulled out his hand for a shake. Erix quickly accepted the handshake. He didn't want to make a bad first impression.
Who knows, the boy might bully him more if he does.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, please enter." Rin apologized as soon as he realized his wrongdoing.
He quickly stepped aside to let Erix in.
For the second time that day, Erix was shocked beyond measure.
He had a mixed reaction. One was surprised and the other was amused.
'What the f**k is wrong with the high levels here? First was Shota and now is Rin. I guess it's a new trick to make the low levels fall prey, fast. Too bad, I won't be among their losers.' Erix made a decisive mental remark.
"Hi, my name's Erix Miller. I was lost in thought when I got to the door, sorry about that." Erix finally responded with a slight bow before stepping inside the room.
"No, it's alright, I didn't mean it that way. You've done nothing wrong to be apologizing." Rin quickly made his words understandable.
However, Erix isn't succumbing to his words.
Rin grabbed the doorknob about to shut it close after Erix entered, but all of a sudden, someone grabbed the doorknob from outside.
"Huh?" Rin muttered in bafflement.
He pulled the door with more vigor, but it didn't budge, instead, it swayed open to the other side, even under his clutch.
The door opened up to reveal a purple-haired boy standing outside.
When Erix heard the loud pivoting sound of the door, he turned back.
"W-Wait, Shota? Is that you?" He asked in puzzlement. He said that because Shota was the only purple-haired person he knew in the school.
Their room was situated in the blind spot of the hallway so only a faint portrayal of the person was visible.
His face was dark, gloomy, and filled with rage but none of the boys noticed it due to the insufficient light there.
With his messy hair and rumpled cloth, he looked like he just got out of a fight. His glowing red eyes added more terror to his outlook.
In all, he was fuming in anger.
Why?
Nobody knew.
"Why asking? Yeah, It's me, Shota. You found the room quicker than I expected, that's good," Shota said, quickly taking a 180° turn in expression before stepping inside the room.
He bothered not batting an eye at Rin.
"The rooms were all arranged accordingly so it didn't take too long," Erix replied, surprised to see him. The two boys continued to discuss.
Rin, on the other hand, wasn't himself after Shota entered.
The moment Rin saw Shota, he felt all the hairs on his body rise.
Not only that. An inexplicable fear began brewing inside his mind.
'T….This feeling. I know this feeling. I had it once when I was being questioned by the clan leader,' Rin thought. 'Who the hell is this boy to make me feel the same way?' Rin thought, finding it hard to believe.
'I must find out who this boy is. For now, I will make sure to never get on his bad side, and if I can do that, I must be polite and respectful.'
Having quickly made up his mind, he said,
"Hello, you can call me Rin, and I'm very glad to meet you." He pulled out his hand for a shake.
"Shota Grill. Nice to meet you too," Shota simply replied, accepting Rin's hand for a shake.
When he shook with Shota, he managed to have a glimpse of his wristwatch.
'What? Level 6?' Rin wasn't satisfied with what he saw. He was expecting a level above 6.
The feeling he had moments ago wasn't something a typical level 6 could put on him unless perhaps, the boy was holding back.
'Wait, is he hiding his strength? Ha, that makes the investigation even more fun.' Rin reckoned.
"Looks like you two are my missing dorm mates." Rin finally said before withdrawing his hand from the shake.
"Yep. Actually, we should have been here before now if we hadn't gone out to take a look at the beautiful city outside the school, right Erix?" Shota asked with a smile that was in pretty much contrast to the expression he wore earlier.
'Is this guy some doppelganger or something? I think I will have a real hard time finding out the real him,' Rin thought in concern.
For Erix, he didn't notice anything weird in Shota.
"Yeah," Erix finally answered.
"Alright, hope you guys had a pretty good journey while coming here?" Rin said, before locking down the door and walking back to his bed.
The room was very spacious. Inside it, there were three consecutive beds, three cupboards that were beside each bed, and three tables meant for studying.
Even with all the stuff in the room, there was still reasonable space left.
The military constructed the rooms in such a way that students would have enough space to practice when they don't feel like doing it outside.
"Pretty tiring, to be honest?" Shota answered.
"Same with me." Erix seconded.
"By the way, your names are pretty," Rin smiled.
Everyone nodded awkwardly in agreement with Rin's remark even though they found them pretty stupid.
After that, the three boys then decided to have a 'male bonding session' to get to know each other better and deepen their bonds.
They discussed many things about their lives and their plans for the future.
As Erix already knew, Shota was from an Original noble family, but he chose not to mention his family's ancestral ability.
Original noble families were known to have a common ancestral ability they learn within themselves and didn't share with the public.
He said he was once a stuck-up bully back in elementary school but an incident happened that made him change his perspective.
He didn't go too in-depth into the story and wanted nobody to pry any further to respect his privacy.
He also said his dream was to change society for the better no matter the cost.
'But this doesn't explain the feeling I had earlier about him. As a matter of fact, I have come across many nobles and not a single one of them made me react the way he did. The name Grill seems foreign to me which is weird. Anyway, I will inquire about that later. I highly doubt he was completely genuine with his explanations earlier.' Rin thought.
Rin was like an entire encyclopedia, so if anyone should have recent records on the Original nobles it should be him but surprisingly, he didn't know about the Grills.
Erix admired Shota's dreams and ideas. But, he still doesn't trust him yet.
He thought it was too good to be true that a high level befriended a low level without any ulterior motive.
He will have to observe him for a while before making his final judgment about him.
If what Shota said about his dream was true, then he can see them becoming good friends in the future.
Rin was the child genius, and unlike Shota, he wasn't from a rich family, though from a powerful clan.
While explaining, he said, 'My family is not rich. I only managed to get this far because of my high IQ and ability.'
Rin's ability enhances his brain strength, allowing him to do anything that requires mental strength much faster than others.
His ability also allows him to control gravity, although it wasn't that strong.
In school, Rin was never interested in making friends because he was always busy learning and experimenting new things.
His family was poor, and after struggling for many years, managed to get him a level 4 gravity ability orb.
With the big dreams he had as a young lad, he didn't want to be limited because of his background, so he studied hard to be successful.
However, that was when he uncovered his suppressed potential which was the reason he had a very high IQ compared to his peers.
His newfound potential widened his brain cells, making him reason more than an average human could.
After he discovered his hidden ability at the age of 11, he became the human encyclopedia in his class. An inventor of many things too.
However, from being the most brilliant kid in his class, he became so prominent around their clan that their clan leader recognized him.
For obvious reasons, he was selected to be among those that will be sent off to earth to be trained under the military.
At the age of 13, he knew almost everything that he ever wanted.
But at some point, he got bored and wanted to make friends. But due to his not talking to people in his early days in school, he never learned how to socialize well or make friends, so he was alone.
Because of boredom, he grew to love VR games, since that was the only thing that kept him busy.
When he found out he would be sharing dorms with 2 other people, he was ecstatic because it was a great chance to finally make friends. He currently had no other plans in life.
Also, most of the time he spends his time spying and investigating strange people.
All Rin said sounded completely genuine. But even still, Erix didn't completely trust his words at face value. He will wait to evaluate him based on his actions.
Rin has not tried to get stronger or smarter since after 13 years old. This means he was a level 4 at only the age of 13.
If he actually tried again, who knows how much smarter he would have gotten.
Finally, it was Erix's turn to talk about himself. He decided to tell them the truth as it really would not matter if they know it or not.
Of course, he kept out the system part.
At the end of Erix's story, Rin's face was almost teary.
"That's terrible. How can people do such things?" Rin said while sniffing.
Rin never encountered bullying in his whole life, so he was touched when he heard Erix's story.
Shota, on the other hand, showed no reaction at all.
Either he didn't care about Erix's story or he was just too used to the topic since he was once an object of bullying.
"Tell me who's doing it to you, and I promise, I will beat the shit out of them," Rin said, with a ball of fists.
"There is no need for that, Rin. I will always be there for him," Shota said with a straight emotionless face. His countenance changed the very moment he realized Rin was from Norxus clan. Why? Nobody knew. Erix was flabbergasted by their strong reaction. He did not expect his story to resonate with them so deeply. "Fine guys, I can take care of myself. You don't have to worry about me," Erix said, trying to calm them down. "If you ever get into a problem, and Shota isn't there, please do let me know. We are roommates now, or maybe friends if you don't mind," Rin said, wiping off invisible tears from his eyes. In Erix's mind, he was thinking the word friends was a huge stretch. He would consider them as on the 'not gonna bite soon' list at most. He'd yet to grasp if they were being truthful or not. For now, he will try to stay on their good side and see how things play out, never letting his guard down a bit. "I once said it, don't worry about him, I will always be there f
The canteen was a large hall that was quite plain. It was filled with large tables that could seat four people on each side. There was no set of seats in the canteen meaning students were free to sit wherever they liked. However, that doesn't mean the high-level wouldn't set their own rules. Erix noticed that low levels sat next to other low levels while the high levels sat with the high levels. School had barely resumed, yet the social norms appeared to have already been established, just like they had been in his old school. Erix stood at the back of the last person in the queue. However, while waiting patiently for his turn, a boy came late into the queue. He nonchalantly nudged Erix out of line, and smuggled himself into the line. Erix was surprised by that abrupt push, and because he wasn't expecting something like that, he lost his footing and butt-kissed the floor. If it wasn't for the 1 point he added to his agility, he would have smooched the ground entirely. "Oh,
Erix's eyes widened the moment he saw the quest on the green screen. He's never hurt a fly before, let alone a human. 'This must be a joke, right?' Erix said to himself. 'What do you mean I have to kill him? How on earth am I gonna do that?' He asked the system but it didn't answer him. The system didn't give him any further information besides the killing quest. To confirm he wasn't seeing things, he decided to review it again and it turned out to be the same. As much as he was dying to pay back Bones for all he did to him, he'd never thought of killing him. Erix was someone with no ability, unlike Bones who had a blink ability, so that made him worried. But if the system really instructed him to kill Bones, then it must have ways of enabling him with it, Erix thought. 'Since it's the system's quest, I must do my best to accomplish it?' He mentally resolved. "Are you afraid? Come on, it's just a little time together like buddies. Alright, could you at least pay me your w
"What are you talking about, bro? Yours is way cooler. Spatial ability is very much impressive and I think it goes very well with combats at far range," Rin said as Shota went forward to finish off the last member that was still held prone by Rin's gravity. After a moment, the entire group was down, and people were now talking about what had happened a while ago. "Let's go check how Erix is," Shota said with a scrunched-up face. He was pissed at his recklessness. He blamed himself for what happened to Erix. Perhaps after seeing him hang out with Erix, the high levels got angry and wanted to prey on the poor level one. One thing was making friends with a low level and the other was protecting him to avoid getting intimidated by the boisterous high levels. Many hierarchy hassles came along with being friends with low levels. Though he promised he would protect him, he couldn't be there at all times. "Sure, but we should grab some burger for him because I doubt he had eaten much
Hearing what Erix said, Shota and Rin were kind of sad. They didn't expect this type of serious answer. And if what he said was true, then Erix must have suffered terribly during his childhood. Shota was sadder than Rin. He blamed himself for what happened to Erix. If he hadn't let him alone all by himself to the canteen, those bullies couldn't have done what they did to him.Shota decided to be more mindful of Erix. He had already once said something that wasn't appropriate, and even though Erix was always saying that it was nothing and that it was normal, in reality, it wasn't. For high-level people, it was a normal thing and a daily occurrence, but for the low levels, it wasn't something amusing. "Anyways," Erix said. "Can we go now? We have less than ten minutes left before classes begin." Shota and Rin nodded, and they headed to their classes. Rin also proposed a burger to Erix but the latter refused. Burgers contained plenty of vegetables so he didn't want to throw up like h
It wasn't that he didn't know what was awaiting him. No, on the contrary, he knew, since he had experienced the whole thing again and again. But today was different. He wanted to stand up for himself. Also, he was on a mission now so he planned to defend himself with all that he had, whereas before, he just got a beating, and didn't do anything. He didn't have any will to change before since he thought the military could resolve everything, but when he saw that he had just drowned in illusions this entire time, he chose to change. And this change could happen now, after punching this guy. Though he still has the kill quest to carry out tomorrow. 'But wait a sec, what the fuck is wrong with you, Erix? A few hours ago, you accepted a goddamn murder quest and now you're preparing to go head-on with a level three who could just kill you with only a swift of his ability. Just how many crazy things are you gonna do? Damn it! I should have realized this earlier, the system has its ways o
Erix was shocked but he was also pleased. The skill seems to work by just thinking of it. He read through the information that was given to him and was pleased to see that it gave information on someone else's ability. It told Erix what type of ability someone else had, which would be very useful in a fight. There was one piece of information the system gave that Erix found quite strange and that was the 'Blood type'. It was weird for the system to give him information about such a specific thing and Erix also wondered how on earth this would ever help him in the future. He decided to look at his stats. The system said his stats have increased after his level up so he wanted to see for himself how much it increased. [Status Screen] [Host: Erix Miller] [Race: F-Human] [Level: 2] [Experience points] -[Quest point: 6/100] -[exp: 0/200] [Health Attributes] -[Mana: 60/60] -[HP: 15/15] [Physical Attributes] -[Strength: 10] -[Agility: 12] -[Stamina: 10] -[Vitality: 10] [Men
"Anyway, you will need to choose one of these. Though you can still go around and take a few lessons with any class of your choice, you should know that you can't be in two places at a time. As for the exams in those classes, your future teachers will explain them to you in detail, but you should at least know that they won't happen on earth." Joe finally concluded. Once again, all the classes went into discussion and this time, Joe attempted not to stop them. It was about their future, anyway, so he let them discuss and decide with each other. And what they were taking was about the exams. If they weren't taking place in the earthly realm, it means they will be taking place in the savage realm since the two realms were the only ones in existence. And the possible outcomes on planets within the savage realm were the students fighting magical beasts. Though rumors once had it that there were other realms besides the earth and savage realm, because no one got to testify to it with evi