《Beta Testing for Implementation of Status and Power》 First Day on The High School By the end of winter and the start of spring wasin full swing. There was one thing that I needed to tell you, today was the day I said goodbye to my gakuranand started wearing my new school uniform. ¡°As I thought, this school uniform really suits me well, maybe.¡± I stood in front of the mirror, watching me wearing a white colored blazer, a same coloured trouser, a black shirt, and a red necktie. It was a normal uniform indeed, but despite that I couldn¡¯t help but to comb my newly painted dark red unkempt hair while repeteadly thinking whether or not I should wear my tie neatly or should I loosen it. Yeah, this was the so called high school debut. It wasn¡¯t like I had a bad time at my middle school, I just wanted to do something different, maybe. Just when I was in a dillema, my sister, Rin, who was walking on the corridor suddenly stopped and gazed at me with serious eyes. I turned towards her and asked her opinion about my new look. ¡°So? What do you think? Loose or near?¡± ¡°....¡± She only gave me a cold stare, like she didn¡¯t even care about my appearance. ¡°If it near it kinda giving the diligent vibe, right? But I don¡¯t think it suits me, considering I paint my hair red.¡± I said while playing with my hair. ¡±....¡± She didn''t say or comment anything, but despite that I¡¯m still her big brother. I could immediately tell what she was thinking just from her actions. Like now when she stared at me, she was definitely thinking the importance of my experience was lower than a cockroach. ...yeah, that was my cue to zip my mouth. So, I responded by facing against the mirror and loosening my tie as our mother calling us from the lower floor to eat our breakfast. ¡±You¡¯re going to be late, both of you!¡± ¡±On my way.¡± My sister said as she walked away. ¡°In a minute.¡± I said as I tightening my tie... Yeah, I couldn¡¯t help but felt anxious about my new look. There was another reason though. ¡±Open status.¡± I muttered. [Level 0 Shield(regen per hour): 10(1) Force(regen per hour): 8(1) Stamina(regen per minutes): 12(1) Might: 4 Defense: 4 Vitality: 4 Endurance: 3 Mobility: 4 Dexterity: 7This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Perception: 5 Presence: 3 Special: 3 Restoration: 2 Dominance: 3 Resistance: 4 Status condition: None Skills: Archery Lvl 2, Technology Lvl 1, Stealth Lvl 1, Cooking Lvl 1, Fishing Lvl 1, Common Language Lvl 1. Powers: -] Yeah... what did I expect, there was no way my level or skills could rise up by lazying around the whole vacation. Then again,I should¡¯ve spent my vacation trying to increase this and that... wait, I felt like I would be going in a circle if I kept thinking about this. Anyway, still in front of the mirror, I decided with loose tie and descended the stairs. While eating the standard toast and egg as our breakfast. ¡°You¡¯re now a high school student. Make sure to behave well in the opening ceremony.¡± ¡±Yesh mohm.¡± I replied while munching the bread. ¡°You too, Rin. You should stop playing hocky since since next year you will be in a high school.¡± ¡°I know, I know.¡± Rin said, rollies her eyes and silently took the boxed lunch. She went out all by herself, leaving us without saying any word or finishing her food. Well, shewas still in middle school, so this was what they called as rebellious phase, maybe? Finishing my coffee, I also took my boxed lunch and left. As I arrived at the entrance of my new high school, I noticed that the entrance gate looked far too pompous for what it was. In fact, gates in general seemed to do that, but this one especially so. Red bricks, black wrought iron and gray plaster, assembled into a whole that didn''t feel welcoming at all. I wondered if it looked like what a gate for a school should look like, but couldn''t really decide. Probably no. Of course I didn''t want to get stuck on thinking about the gate for too long while the gate itself was beingrustled by many new high school students. As soon as I entered with a brisk pace I was given a school emblem to attest on my chest pocket. I was led to the gymnasium where I had to take a seat and wait for the opening ceremony to begin. But surprisinglymoving forward felt good. The grounds were incredibly lush, filled with green. It didn¡¯t feel like the kind of grounds a school would have, more like a park, with a clean walkway going past trees and the smell of fresh-cut grass and all other park-like things. It still surprised me how I could get accepted into this place. However, good places didn¡¯t mean interesting entrance ceremony. Itwould appear that there were very few differences during my middle school entrance ceremony and this. ¡°What do you want to study here in Hachiman High? It would be different according to each person, but I hope that the teachings here will be used to benefit society. The knowledge and the skill you learned would be useful at various fields...¡± Urgh, regardless of what school I was in, all the headmasters spoke for too long. Trying to hold my yawn, I silently opened the [ Mission ] function from this screen.... well, considering how my family didn¡¯t look surprised when I opened it in front of them, I made the assumption this was private, or maybe only the other participants could see this. A new screen appeared, showing off my ID number: 6101170-HUM-42110-TERRAN and my rank: Z-99. If you were wondering about my missions, most of the time it was collecting sample such as ¡®gather 10 felis domestica¡¯ aka a stray cat and leaving them on designated location. As for why, it didn¡¯t tell me anything, maybe the cat gotteleported to a space or being used as a fuel or food, who knew, but completing the mission wasn¡¯t the only way to increase our level. The others were: killing, achieving something, developing a new technology or getting donation from another member of the association... let¡¯s just called them alien from now on. As I scrolling through the missions which was surpringly far more enjoyable than the current speech, before I knew it the entrance ceremony was over. Upon exiting the gymnasium, I just noticed a fewbig buildings loomed behind the leafy canopies, too big and too many for just a school. Everything seemed off; it''s different from what I thought I knew about schools. This place was an uncanny valley. Even though I knew this was my my new school, in the back of my head it didn¡¯t feel like one. The trees hummed with the wind and the green hues flashing all around me caught my attention. Abig sign that stood in front of freshmen¡¯s class arrangement had been erected. But the freshmen¡¯s reactions were varied, some were checking out the classes immediately, some were having a friendly chat, and a lot were asking question about who was the most good looking freshmen. Meanwhile, I was walking to my class while looking at this view absentmindedly.My heart was pounding in my chest and it kept me thinking about whether or not it was a good choice to wear a loose tie as I walked through the corridor. I stopped at the third door down the first corridor which was marked as the classroom for class 1-3. I opened the door and entered. Normal School Day, maybe? I silently went into the classroom and looked around. It was pretty spacious; the ceiling was unusually high and there were lots of space left over around and in between the desks. An entire wall taken up by blackboards and the high, old fashioned windows only make it seemed larger. The students'' desks were just standard wooden desks with a shelf underneath for books and wooden chairs with metal frames. Simple and efficient. I noticed a flash of dark hair and saw that someone was looking at me. A girl with really long, straight hair that was pretty eye-catching. As she saw me looking back at her, she covered her face with her hands as if it would make her invisible. There was one boy with an orange hair leaning against the lockers at the rear of the class. It was weird seeing someone with an orange hair, then again mine also eye catching. Another girl seemed to be peered at me over the rims of her glasses, then went back to whatever she was doing. She was kind of cute. So was the peach-looking girl with pink hair sitting next to her. She was really hard to miss; I didn¡¯t know how I didn''t notice her the moment I walked in... But as I expected, blue, yellow, brown, even rainbow. Everyone was painting their hair like crazy... Well, considering there was no regulation about this I personally thought this was normal. Anyway, since I already knew my personal number, all I had to do was checking the black board to find my seat in the top left corner. I walked to my seat that was already designated and waited for the class to start. Then again, top left corner huh. Based on my experience, it somehow was easy to be found out sleeping at the top left corner seat, since the teachers usually always roamed around at the left side. Though, it would also hard to fall asleep when you were this far from the sunlight. Alright, let¡¯s ascertain how comfortable it was to sleep on it. I placed my face on the desk and took a comfortable sleeping position. A few moment later ¡±Good morning everyone, sorry I¡¯m late.¡± The sensation of the desk under my arms came rushing to me, and I slowly opened my eyes. The buzz and rustling of conversation died around me as I lifted my head to watch our teacher walking into the classroom. A tall man with messy brown eyes, eye bags and, bad posture already stood in the middle of this room. So this man was our teacher huh. Somehow looking at him making me felt unmotivated. Drowsiness continued to stab at me and my head began to sink back towards my desk, but I made an effort to keep watching him. The teacher began to ramble some introductions, but all I really heard was ¡°Mado Kenji¡± or maybe that was the only thing he said. He stood there awkwardly in silence as his speech went on, stealing quick glances at different students, his expression varying from surprise quickly followed by flat to confusion. It was a little jarring actually. Despite the natural tendency to listen when someone was talking to you, I tuned out the teacher''s speech halfway through while he introduced himself to the class... Then again, this was a speech rather than actual talk. ¡±Well then, let¡¯s get along from now on.¡± The teacher finished his speech, and everyone began to clap. Screw it. I placed my face on my desk, brought my hands over my head, and clapped along with them. After everyone was done, silence fell, and I felt my senses begin to dull. Yeah, waking up from the middle of your sleep really annoying.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! But it ended up being a moot point, . I pulled my head up again, blink several times, and then heard something. ¡±Well then, everyone here will introduce themselves following the number turns.¡± Yeah, I somehow forgot we also need to introduce ourselves. With Mado¡¯s instruction, most of the class smoothly finished their self-introduction. ¡°I-I am Ka-Ka-wamot-to H-H-Hiromi. I c-coul-dnot attend the e-ent-trance cerem-mony b-because of my bad h-h-health, however, p-please l-let¡¯s g-get along. It is n-nice t-t-to me-meet all of you.¡± It was the dark haired girl from before. I couldn¡¯t help but grin and cringed a little at the same time. Was she really nervous on her first day? Or was she always stuttered like that? I dunno. I couldn¡¯t really blame her if that was the later.l But still. It wasn¡¯t like anyone here was going to bite. Or would they? The boys in the class began whispering something like, ¡±this girl is cute, isn¡¯t she?¡± after hearing Kawamoto¡¯s introduction. Though, in my opinion she was more like pretty type rather than cute. I personally thought she was between first and second in class when it came to appearances, no maybe between the second or third? Considering the first place must be that peach looking girl... What was her name again? ... Now that I think about this, I didn¡¯t pay attention when they introduced themselves huh. ... ¡±?¡± After Kawamoto finished her speech, there was a brief silence that nobody seemed to want to be responsible for breaking. Usually, there was applause or something like that, but this time we were just whispering. The teacher soon realized that he should say something about getting along and beckoned me from my seat and to start mine. I stood up and a collective silence told me that I should open my mouth now ¡±So... I¡¯m Natsume Soseki.¡± Then what? I was being so boring. This was exactly like every self-introduction ever. I should say something more. Something more exciting. ¡±My hobbies are hunting and sleeping. I hope to get along well with everyone even though I''m a new student." ...what the hell was wrong with you my brain? We were all NEW student. After the applause I somewhat didn¡¯t deserve, the teacher picked up from there. Though, everyone seemed to be satisfied even with what little I said. A few girls were whispering to each other, throwing glances at me. Not bad, It could''ve gone worse... I listened to the teacher as he droned about getting along and school rules while letting my gaze swept across the classroom. Everyone seemed to be listening to him intently and when he was done, they clapped their hands again which felt like a weird thing to do. The rest of the day went by fairly quickly, and I managed to stay awake. Not too bad at all. School was over, so let¡¯s went back home. As I decided to leave, I picked my bag and stood up. Ah... I needed to come to their archery club huh. So I went firstly to go to their archery club. Yeah... both of me and my sister were from a mountain. We were what you called as adventurous kid? Or maybe jungle child? Mom herself would go back to the village either tomorrow or the day after. Anyway, the archery trainer of this school was someone from my village and I guessed I should greet her first. But... walking around at new school kinda giving me an adventurous feeling. As an example, what would happen if I turned around at this corner? ..... ¡°...What?¡± I tilted my head. The jungle folded around me like it was taking possession of me. I turned back, leaft arms fell over the way I¡¯d come and blocked his vision in every direction. Every view was unique but the same all at once. ¡°Welome to your first test.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Another screen appeared in front of my eyes. First Test: Survival. Planet: Netilia-F Objective: Survive for 12 hours or until all the other participants are incapacitated. Rule(s): No fire based power, no explosion based power. Participant will have 1 minute to prepare themselves. 59... 58... Test Begins Test Begin Along with the cue was a roar, I wasn¡¯t an animal expert but I knew that was a tiger roar... maybe. I didn¡¯t know what was going on but I was sure this related to that transparent status screen. Normally, I would freak out if... I got teleported to somewhere else, beach, desert, another city, who knew. But, since this place was forest, I somehow felt a little bit calm. Didn¡¯t want to brag, but living on a mountain and hunting in a forest with my dad and gramp really paid off this time. And I knew one thing after being a hunter. Waiting still would only make you as an easy target, both rules were implemented to both of the hunter and his prey. After taking a few deep breath, I decided this was another normal jungle and went scouting the surrounding area. A small meadow among towering trees. The fern-like "grass" was beaten down in waves by the breezy wind as I strolled around the ground. The forest engulfed me in emerald gloom. The shadows were alive with the chittering sounds of unseen alien wildlife. Ah? Did I say normal? The streaks of light were staining the sky. 4-winged birds began singing - at first in ones or twos, but gradually swelling into a general, joyous chorus. Occasionally, while I was searching for a perfect branch, one could be seen flitting between the well-spaces trees, in search of food. I moved through the foliage, hyper- alert -- looking around like a tourist in Hell. A blue monkey-like creature leaping from limb to limb overhead, flashing through the sunlight streaming down in shafts. A plant with swaying tendrils which reached toward me as I passed. This forest was more alive than the one on my village, with plants that reacted and moved like animals. I gulped as if every shadow conceals razor-fanged death. ¡±Right... Weapon.¡± That was my first thought after walking around for about an hour. Somehow I couldn¡¯t believe how slow I was in situations like this. So I spent about an hour looking for something. I thought this would be easy at first. That was true. In this jungle, finding 1.7m branch free of knots, twists or limbs was an easy task. The problem was breaking it without any tool and finding one who would strong and flexible enough. With a sigh, I tried to step on the 11th branch. ¡±Oh?¡± Never once in my life I was this surprised, not only this branch was strong enough to hold my body weight, it also very flexible, enough to bounce back as soon as I stepped on it. ¡°This will do it.¡± Actually, it would be more helpful if this branch was thick at its center, but hey, beggar couldn¡¯t chose. Using the vines that I bit off and collected while was searching for this branch, I started making the preparations for it. My third hour was spent by biting off the vines, flexing the bow, and strung it away. In the process I also created stone hammer by tying down round rock with thick branch. Why not made a spear? Well, good luck carving the spearhead without any knife. On the fourth hour, I managed to gather 12 branches good enough to become arrows... Maybe. Normally, I only needed a straight branch. But once again, because of the lack of tools, it was necessary for me to search a straight branch with natural pointed head for the sake of saving times. With feathers that I collected from the local bird, I put the fletching as the finishing. I really went back to the primitive way huh. Speaking of creating a bow, it was funny that every country had their own version of bows; Like Japanese bow, European hunting bow, Native American bow or African bow. Even though none of this place was related to each other back then, yet they had their own version of ¡®bow¡¯ Maybe because deep inside a human knew they couldn¡¯t fight at a close distance with beasts and they all created the same ranged tool. No. Wait. I let my mind wandering around again. Okay deep breath, deep breath. ...Hey, if this was another planet how could I breathe normally? ...Right, concentrate first, think later. Moving forward, I, unaware of the advancing doom, was still bracing forward when I suddenly heard a guttural snarl behind me. I spun in time to see -- three tons of rippling tiger like creature launched over me, landing between me and the tree ahead. The ground shook. The tiger emitted an earsplitting roar, enraged that I entered its territory. It twisted on itself, turning to face me, and bared its fangs with a lethal hiss. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. It was a black six-limbed tiger from Hell, with an armored head and massive distensible jaws. Seeing the amount of saliva dripping from its mouth, I bet this thing could eat a T-rex and had an elephant for desert. Run. Definitely RUN! I bolted as the six-limbed tiger leapt after me and rather than bit me off it somehow hit me with its giant paw, launched me between two large trunks. ¡±God... That hurt... Huh? It¡¯s not hurt.¡± Actually, just forgot about being hurt or any wound, my clothes didn¡¯t even rip even though I was getting hit by its paw. Shield is broken. Oh? A notification? Now that I thought about this, from the top left of my vision, I could see an empty bar. I guessed this shield thingy was protecting my body? But since this was already broken that meant I didn¡¯t have protection any more? Wait... That was a good thing to know, but I had more major problem. The beast was forcing itself to claw its way around to the side while I scrambled up, around, over a tangle of roots and SK-RASH!! ¡±Holy!!¡± Claws slashed the air behind me, exploding the bark off a trunk as I willed myself forward in a frenzy. With rippling muscle the beast was airborne again, blacking out the sun but ¡±SUGAR HONEY ICE TEA!!!¡± With a shout, I dove under a massive root system, and CRASH! Kindling rains around me as the beast teared into the root-trunks above me. Claws slashed down next to me as I rolled and crawled. Glistening jaws smashed and snapped against the barrier trunks, sending chunks of wood flying. It was spittle sprays across me, jaws inches away as. ¡±ASdf!!¡± I blurted out some unknown word as I rolled onto my back, nocking an arrow and fired it forward... But it only reflected back when it made contact with its skin. Once again, I nocked an arrow but this time I targetted the inside of its mouth. ¡±Hah! How bout that!?¡± I shouted as I watched my arrow getting stuck on the beast¡¯s mouth. The beast screeched an ungodly wail of pain and rage and ripped the entire trunk away... seemed like I¡¯d just provoked it. I scrambled to escape but glistening jaws lunged downward, snapped shout and the creature ripped me out of the tree, shaking me like a junkyard dog with a rabbit, only It had me by the backpack, so I removed it and flew free as the beast ripping the backpack with its teeth. Giving me a moment to sprint away, but with a hideous bellow the beast crashed after me, splintering the trees. ¡±Guh! How persistent!!¡± I ran in a blur, dodging between trunks as a glistening black tornado shredded the forest behind me and I saw a water ahead. Behind me was tiger¡¯s mouth, in front of me maybe a crocodile¡¯s mouth. But MAYBE was 100% better in this situation. ¡±KYA!!¡± I doved with all my might while shrieking like a girl. Behind me, the beast jaws snapped shut inches behind me as I flew out into open space. ¡±U-Waaa, unclefu-!¡± Clenching my bow, I posed as a superhero prepared to do their landing and I splashed down into a strong moving river. Curled into a ball while knowing what it felt like to be a dirty laundry in a washing machine, I managed to raise my head back to the surface. ¡±You¡¯re kidding me, right!?¡± The beast, persistent as it didn¡¯t want to lose its toy, leapt down after me, pursuing from rock to rock, its claws swiping like grizzly fishing for salmon. And here I thought that cat supposedly hated water. I swimmed around and started ducked under as... FWHOOSH! Black claws slalshed past my face amid turbulent bubbles. How could I avoid that? Was I a good swimmer? No. Then how could I swim this fast? I opened my eyes and saw another waterfall ahead. I was swept over the falls rather than swimming, with the beast swiping at me from a rock, just touching my hair and I once again fell down the throat of the thundering cataract. ¡±FU-¡± My clothes got drenched, tangled up and becoming heavier than my body. ¡±-Ck!¡± I gargles as I was trying to remove my blazer and my shoes, throwing the stone hammer aside, my head finally able to burst through the surface, and gasped for breath. I was carried along by the current, but managed to grab a limb on a fallen tree. Weakly pulled myself up, and just lie there gasping on the trunk. Above me, on the cliff, the beast bellowed a roar which echoed across the jungle. ¡±Fuh... That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about bitch!¡± I shouted as the beast turning its back against me. Though... I, wet and bruised, crouched under a screen of giant leaves. Without any rest, I manically checked my bow... magically, it didn¡¯t break and I didn¡¯t even let it go even after the whole ordeal. That was good, I couldn¡¯t afford 2 or 3 hours gathering the tools and creating another now. But... I couldn¡¯t help but curled a grin. Of course, I was afraid and shaking like an idiot, maybe even peed a little. But the adrenaline... The thrill of the hunt and being the hunted really got on my nerves. Back on earth, there was no way that kind of beast existed, heck even if it existed... Wait, concentrate first, think later. After shaking my body like a wet dog, I walked through the forest like it was a minefield, carrying my bos white-knuckled. I was freaked, excited and hyper-alert The trees in this area were a hundred meters high, blocking out the sky. A few pencil beams of sunlight filtered down into the emerald gloom. I didn¡¯t know how many hours I¡¯d been walking, gathering branches while avoiding any beasts, but the sky hadn¡¯t turned dark at all. Well, that was good actually. Considering my phone was broke after that whole diving sport. ¡±Hm?¡± I saw a shape moving with liquid grace in the shadows behind me. I caught only glimpses; a glint of eyes, a slinking black movement. Then silence. Am I being stalked again? It was true some animals had the tendency to hunt for sport, that black tiger might be one of those types of animal. But from the sound of the ruslting leaves, this one seemed lighter than the black tiger, so might be something small? Nocking an arrow, I pulled the string and swiftly spun around. ¡°D-d-don¡¯t Sh-Sh-shoot.¡± It was a human? Going back It was the dark-haired girl from my class. The one who stuttered a lot at the classroom earlier, coming out from the bush while raising her hands up in the air. I stood silent for a moment, trying to think how I should react, or if I should react at all. Should I have tried to say something? Would it have been awkward if I had? Her sudden appearance raised all sorts of whys in my head... I kinda already know the answer though. We didn¡¯t need a conformation about why both of us were here. Before I knew it I was walking towards the long-haired girl. I guessed there was no harm in talking with her considering our situation. As I walked the girl starts, looking scaredly up at me from underneath her fringe. Ah right. I slowly releasing the nocked arrow, as I did that the tension and stiffness from her face somewhat gone. I walked closer, she glanced at me, and our eyes meet. Underneath her long, dense bangs, my eyes were immediately drawn to her dark purple eyes. It took too many seconds to collect myself and remembered what I walked up to her for. ¡°You must be... Ka... Kata... Katamari?¡± ¡±K-Kawamoto.¡± Her speech was still stuttering and so quiet that it was barely audible even in the still forest. ¡°So you are. Sorry, I¡¯m bad remembering people name.¡± ¡±T-th-that¡¯s F-f-f-ine.¡± I didn¡¯t even have time to respond before she asked a question. ¡±U-um... H-how abo-about t-te-team-teaming u-up w-w-with me?¡± I could see this taking some time. ¡±Teaming up, eh? Sounds fine by me.¡± She opened her status screen and nodded from behind it, but stayed silent. She looked kinda tense. A bit like when we did the introduction earlier, but in a different way. More like... confused, I''d say. We stood there for a few seconds, like a Mexican standoff, until she finally broke the silence. ¡±U-um... Na-nat-tsu-tsume, ca-can y-y-you al-also s-show m-e yo-your sc-screen?¡± ¡°Ah...¡± I thought teaming out by working together, but it seemed like there was also a feature for that. And so I did as she said, showing off my screen to her and she leaned forward, scanning my screen with hers. 899990-HUM-54428-TERRAN Lvl 2 Rank: Z-92. Has became a party. Kawamoto was looking me right in the eyes. From the expression she was showing on her face, it looked like she was disappointed after the notification appeared. ¡°U-um... N-n-atsu-natsume... Y-you hav-have n-not fin-finish-ed a si-sing-single m-m-mission, r-right?¡± ¡°Yeah, something wrong with that?¡± I tried not to sound accusing. Kawamoto nodded, but immediately shook her head. ¡°N-no... t-that¡¯s f-f-fine.¡± She said that, but I sensed that she was putting both a mental and a physical distance between us. I thought this might be my fault. Or maybe it wasn¡¯t mine. But with every second passed, the situation got more and more awkward. The only way out of this, as far as I could tell, was to try to get a normal conversation going. Okay, let¡¯s just said something, don''t mess this up. But now I was thinking about how horrible it would be if I said something stupid. ¡°So... what happen with the cats?¡± I asked as we began to walk across the forest. ¡°W-w-what?¡± She glanced at me a little bit. ¡°You know, most of the mission is collecting samples like cat, right? So... since I never done any, I kinda wonder what they did with the cat? Maybe they use them as experiment? Food? Or...¡± Ah... I couldn¡¯t bear myself to say more stupid words. Her face slowly turned pale, maybe paler than a ghost. Her expression alone clearly told me ¡°What have I done.¡± ¡°I mean... ehh... I didn''t mean it like that... Sorry, I didn''t mean to scare you.¡± ¡°It... it''s okay.¡± The girl certainly didn¡¯t look like it was okay. ¡°Or maybe the keep the cats as their pet? Yeah, I mean, cat is cute right?¡± And yet I almost got killed by one of the cats. She glanced at me from the side, stalling a little before replying. ¡°I-I-I k-know, r-r-ight?¡±Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ...All that effort just to say that. We then remained silently walking. I was occasionally taking quick glances at her, with somewhat guilty feeling. After a while I realized that she was doing the same,but both of us didn¡¯t show any sign of starting a conversation. This was pretty awkward. ¡°U-Um¡­¡± Kawamoto suddenly halted her steps and addressed me. ¡°I a-am so-sorry f-f-for b-be-being s-so ru-ru-rude ear-ea-earlier.¡± So she herself noticed she was being rude huh? Well, couldn¡¯t blame her though. I, myself was kinda annoyed when someone at lower level joining my party when I played mmorpg. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was all she wanted to say, but Kawamoto couldn¡¯t endure looking at my eyes for longer and casts her sight downwards. Anyway, being awkward wasn¡¯t our only problem though. As the sky turned black, and I somewhat managed to create fire and torch just right on time. The torch created a pool of light surrounded by pulsing, leaping shadows. We turned warily as we moved along the trail. ¡°Crap...¡± In front of us were several pairs of reflective green eyes. Another pair flanking us beside the trail. Black-on-black shapes which seem to flow like liquid. I looked up -- saw one cross a limb overhead. Another on my opposite flank. Then a hideous sound, like a hyena''s psychotic laugh. The wolves like creatures were hunting us from the ground and the trees. ¡°Tch...¡± Kawamoto might have a higher level, yet she was the one clinging on my body. Well... she might not uses to this kind of thing, and it wasn¡¯t like I didn¡¯t like the feeling but I couldn¡¯t pull my bowstring if she kept acting like that. ¡°Oi, grab the torch and stop clinging at me.¡± I started giving the torch to her and to my surprise, she began to follow, quivering a lot though. The torch illuminated green eyes cutting ahead of us across the trail. The wolves had us encircled. The psychotic barks become more intense as they signaled each other, getting excited. One made a run at us, angling on our legs from behind but I whirled just in time, shooting the arrow in its face. It yipped and went past... tch, I knew it the arrow didn¡¯t have enough piercing power. As I protested like that, another moved in -- I wasn¡¯t robin hood that could shot the arrow rapidly, so I forcefully grabbed the torch from Kawamoto and slammed it at the wolf. It snarled, retreating, baring its fangs. Now half a dozen were circling us in the open, and I saw what we¡¯re up against. The wolf-like were six-limbed, two of their limbs were sticking out from their shoulder blades which a little bit looked like primate arms, they had shiny chitinous skin, their paws leathery black. Intelligent eyes. Glistening black teeth in dead white gums, seemingly could run like a dog and climb like a monkey. I realized that we were making our final stand. I gave the torch back at Kawamoto, telling her to whirled in on arc while firing another arrow, at least for now we were keeping them at bay. Until I felt a rush of adrenaline. It went through me like a lightning bolt and the fear was gone. My heart was beating faster, my teeth were clenching against each other. ¡°Come on!¡± With snarls and a blur of motion they attacked. I let loose another arrow on one, then spun my bow as another leapt at us and he smashed its face with my bow, striking true, but the momentum wrenched it from my hands, and using its primate arms, it grabbed the bow and sent it flying. Left without any real weapon, I took the torch and one sharp branch as a wolf lunges, sinking its teeth into my arm.... which thankfully got blocked by the barrier. For the bar, it seemed one bite did damage somewhere around 8. He yelled in adrenaline, stabbing with the sharp branch which stuck deep into the beast''s shoulder and it went away. Running obviously wasn¡¯t an option. Or it might be... if I was alone... though, seemed like my boner couldn¡¯t left her alone. Hora A snarling wolf leapt, grabbing Kawamoto¡¯s wrist with my open hand. I used her as the shield. ¡°Eeek!!!¡± She shouted. But once again, the fangs made a loud noise as it collided with something that looked like a barrier that had appeared out of nowhere, lost its momentum, and bounced backwards. ¡°Hah! These guys really don¡¯t hold back at all huh!¡± I shouted as three wolves charged at once. The nearest leapt at my throat just as. ¡°E-ener-energy b-bolt!!!¡± Shouted Kawamoto. THUNK!! A blue light energy pierced its chest. The wolf landed on us, already a dead weight. ¡°....oi! What¡¯s that?!¡± I shouted as I pushed the corpse away from us. ¡°Actually! Don¡¯t answer! Just shot it!!!¡± ¡°En-energy b-b-bolt!!¡± She shouted and shot, but this time it missed very far. ¡°What the hell?!¡± I shouted, face completely facing her. ¡°I-I¡¯m b-b-bad a-at a-aim-aiming.¡± Said Kawamoto. ¡°Gaaaah!!¡± I moved to her back and grabbed her wrist from behind. A huge, huge blush spreads on Kawamoto¡¯s face and her eyes widen far larger than I thought it was possible for eyes to do... whatever you were thinking right now, I was just trying to help your aim. ¡°Shot! Shot! Shot! Shot!¡± I... I lost it. Seeing bluish hadouken like ball flying from her palm finally made me lost my calm. She shouted and another bluish light ball emerged from her palm. I directed it then another unearthly yowl of another fallen wolf could be heard. Your level is now 1. Time¡¯s up. Four testers left behind. Giving 300exp for each tester. Your level is now 2. And in the next instant... My surroundings was filled with darkness for a moment, but as soon as it cleared up, I saw that my environment had changed completely. I could see a faraway range of mountains on the other side of the tall fence that surrounded the area, and the crimson light from the sun that was setting behind those mountains was illuminating the residential district. I could hear the voices of students going about their club activities from the windows beside me. This... was the school corridor, right? I kicked the ground beneath my feet several times, as if desperately trying to understand all the different things I had gone through. .... I still wearing my shoes. My blazer was neatly places on my body. My phone didn¡¯t broke. There was no bruises or scratches on my body, yet I still felt the pain. .... ¡°...Right, let¡¯s ask Kawamoto...¡± I said while cradling my confused head as I walked searching for her whereabout. Chapter 5 The library was surprisingly big. Ambling down the narrow aisles, I reached the end of the aisle and found a collection of desks, set up for study or personal reading. Going a little further, though, I discovered a nice quiet corner at the back. While the rest of the library had the odd student sitting at a desk either reading or stealthily sleeping, the back was pretty much deserted. As I glanced around, I saw someone who I recognized sitting on one of several beanbags. ¡±Yo.¡± I greeted Kawamoto while wondering why the hell student would go to the library at their first day of school. She gently nodded and at the same time hiding her face behind the book. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Seemed like staring at each other without saying anything had become our greeting. ¡°So... what was going on back there?¡± I said, deciding to break the silence. ¡°I-it¡¯s t-t-the te-test.¡± ¡°Yes... I get it that was the test but then why is my wound healed?¡± I said. ¡°Why am I still wearing my blazer? Why¡¯s it still noon? What¡¯s the deal with that Kamehameha?¡± Maybe because there were too many questions that I asked, her eyes started spinning around. But to simplify it she only gave me a note. ¡±What¡¯s this?¡± I raised my eyebrow. ¡°T-the s-s-second p-page.¡± Second page of what? That was what I wanted to say but it seemed like it would be faster to just read this. ¡±Okay... so... do you mind if I sit here?¡± She seemed to be very uncertain whether it was okay or not for me to sit, but finally, she nodded, just a little... right, I actually forgot how awkward it was talking to her. ¡±O-okay.¡± I took a seat next to her and she hid herself behind her book... and here I thought we would at least have some kind of bond or at least the distance between us had been narrowed a little bit, but that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. Anyway... I opened her notebook. ¡±So there¡¯s the second page.¡± I facepalming my face really hard... from what I read from my her notebook, it seemed like there was a second page... No... A Second screen, maybe on the invitation screen, and she wrote it all on her note... damn girl, you were diligent... And how the hell I could notice if there was the second page... Not to mention all the information on second page seemed to be crucial. To sum up her notes, we would have a test once for every month. Time and physical injury wouldn¡¯t get crossed over after the test was over, but the mental fatigue, experience and et cetera would get crosses over. To sum it up, our body when we were doing our test wasn¡¯t exactly our real body... but an artificial body made from Force that precisely copied our current appearance and belonging. Next was about winner and loser, the winner would get several rewards after completing their test, some of the examples was: Experience points, the right to choose when and where your next test would be, the detailed information about your next test, or the right to skip one test. As for the loser: You must join another test each week until you won. Seemed like there was no other penalty by failing the test. ¡°....¡± Wait... so I got worked up for nothing? I meant, it wasn¡¯t like I was going to die... it still hurt and annoying though.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. The rest was basically about levelling up and the status description. Hee... she really wrote everything in here huh. I glanced at her in amazement and our eyes met when she also glanced at me from behind her book... hm... seemed like this happened a lot. ¡°Don''t let me interrupt your reading. I''ll... just check my status if you don¡¯t mind.¡± She nodded a little and sighed a sigh of relief before continuing reading her book. But damn... she even made the plan on how opening and managing status screen without ever getting caught or being weird. ¡±Status open.¡± From what she wrote, for one level a person would get 1 power and 2 skill points, 5 status points, and 10 (shield/force/stamina points and the regeneration to freely spent.) Then I clicked on the power tab and it showed me three options, just like what she wrote on the book. The first category would be power based on your stats and skills. Mine were: shooting, hunting, arrow construction, trap construction, food enhancement, and stalking. The second one would be a general power, which meant every member of your species could use it, the list for humans was: Inventory, Appraise, Analyze, Map, Message, and Pet. The third one would be random power, it completely random and would change every time you levelled up. In my case, my random powers this time was: Mist and Push. This was pretty easy actually. First of all, the most useful power would be Inventory. At least for me, this power had the most utility both on normal life or not so normal life. About the other point, Map seemed useful. After all, knowing your target location was the major point to determine your hunting success or not, but... if I picked this I think I wouldn¡¯t enjoy the thrill of hunting anymore... no, I just needed to turn it off, right? Yeah, let¡¯s picked Inventory and Map. [Inventory Lvl 1 has been learned.] [Map Lvl 1 has been learned.] Next would be skill points, first of all, regarding skill. A Lvl 1 skill would mean one had trained on the said skill, level 2 meant that one was proficient, lvl 3 and lvl 4 was first class, lvl 5 and 6 meant expert, 7 and 8 meant master, 9 and 10 meant legendary... Or that was what she wrote. And lvl 2 skill needed two skill point, three skill point for lvl 3 and so forth. Anyway, picking Archery seemed so wrong, considering I did that for fun. So single-mindedly I rose cooking and common language to Lvl 2. Status point might be a little bit tricky, but in the end, status point was just enhancing your initial body power. The last 10 points were for increasing barrier, stamina, force and their regeneration. After thinking for some amount of time, I decided to go with this strat. [Level 2 Shield(regen per hour): 16(2) Force(regen per hour): 13(2) Stamina(regen per minutes): 18(2) Might: 4 Defense: 4 Vitality: 4 Endurance: 3 Mobility: 4 Dexterity: 7 + 3 Perception: 5 + 5 Presence: 3 + 2 Special: 3 Restoration: 2 Dominance: 3 Resistance: 4 Status condition: None Skills: Archery Lvl 2, Technology Lvl 1, Stealth Lvl 1, Cooking Lvl 2, Fishing Lvl 1, Common Language Lvl 2. Powers: Inventory Lvl 1, Map Lvl 1.] By the time I finished, the chime had already rung out to signify that it was five o¡¯clock in the afternoon. ¡±Ah... Crap, I forget to see her at the archery club.¡± Well, it wasn¡¯t like I needed to see her today either... Hm? I looked to my side and found Kawamoto still looking intently at the book she was reading while twiddling with her hair. From the looks of it, the book had been halfway finished, nevertheless. I cleared my throat to get her attention, but not startled her so that her concentration wouldn¡¯t break. ¡±I guess I''d better be off. Are you going to go home or what? And where should I put this book?¡± I said while spinning her notebook with my finger. ¡±....¡± 5 minutes later she was still ignoring me. ¡±....¡± 10 minutes later she was still ignoring me. Hey, somehow I was patient enough to wait for her huh. ¡±....¡± 15 minutes later she finally looked up at me, and for a second I could see that she was a little bit surprised by my presence. ¡±So... Thanks for the book,¡± I said as I handing it over to her. ¡±Y-yes.¡± ¡±Okay then.¡± I felt like I should say something more to her, but it was hard to come up with anything. In the end, without saying more word I took off and hurried out of the library. Chapter 6 Back at my house. The first official day of school had ended. Currently, I was heading to the house where I lived together with Rin and mom. ¡°I¡¯m back.¡± ¡°Welcome back, Soseki. Oh my... you look tired. Hard day at school?¡± Hmm... to tell the truth it was kinda hard to answer her question. My body was fine, perfectly fine, but my mind been active for more than 20 hours... so yeah, was there a word for I wanted to fall asleep but my body didn¡¯t want to? Still any moment now I was expecting to be facedown on the bed and fell asleep. ¡°Nope~ just your feeling mom. I¡¯m perfectly fine.¡± I said while punching the air, hey, couldn¡¯t make her worry, right? ¡°Is that so... Well, Dinner is almost done, so put away your things and get ready.¡± ¡°Ok~ Will come back after I change.¡± After I spoke with my mom, I went to my room, placed my bag on the floor and jumped in bed. As I laying in my bed, I began recalling about Powers. Kawamoto used it by saying its name... so I guesses I should just do the same. ¡°Inventory.¡± ... Weird, nothing happened. Did Powers could be only used when we were doing test? Or because I didn¡¯t really thinking or even trying about using it when I said that? Okay, let¡¯s try the former. Inventory huh... if this was a video game then... I grabbed my pillow and this time thinking about it being stores into some kind of very big bag. ¡°Inventory.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± The pillow was twisted and getting sucked into a mini black hole. Then about taking it out... I should¡¯ve just thought about the other way, right? Yep it came out... though, it seemed always came out either from my palm or in front of me. Alright, let¡¯s tried Map. When I was thinking about Map, it was radar on the top right corner or bottom left corner of your vision... oh? How should I put this... It was like I was looking at some kind of map and yet at the same time I wasn¡¯t... nothing blocked my vision and yet I was sure I could see it on my mind. What a weird feeling. But hey, it appeared even when I didn¡¯t say anything. So thinking and imagining about using Power was the key huh? Kawamoto didn¡¯t seem to know about this... yosh, let¡¯s told her tomorrow. After casting Inventory after Inventory, Map after Map for a while, I¡¯d finally started to get the hang of it, and only stopped after my Force had run out. Yeah... Unlike the video game, it seemed like opening and closing Inventory or Map also cost some Force, but to put it in the simplest way, seemed like every 100m radius or every 10 minutes of Map costed 1 Force, for inventory it was either 10 kg of things or 30 cubic centimeter. And seemed like no matter how small the radius of my Map or how light and small things that I put into Inventory, it seemed like using them 10 times also cost 1 Force... and taking out things didn¡¯t cost me anything. Well, that was good to know I guess. The rest of the night passed by at a blaze, or a crawl, or like watching paint dry, it was all the same. Maybe failing the test really put a mental toll on your mind. After dinner, I blinked away sleep, and whatever might have come before was gone in an instant. My dream slipped away from me before I could even think about chasing it. Light was filtering through the window of my bedroom, but to me the world consisted entirely of the pillow pressed into my face, the mattress beneath me, and the warm web of my blankets wrapped around me. In this moment, I was completely sure that I had never been more comfortable in my life... yet it was kinda scary knowing I would immediately fall asleep for a moment and the next thing that I knew it was already morning. The alarm on my phone continued and I was just as sure that I might never get this feeling back again. I could only manage a groan in response as I grabbed my pillow and buried my head beneath it, thinking about all the things I would do if only it meant I could go back to sleep. And yet I still stood up. Outside my window, birds were chirping. I stared at them with eyelids composed of pure lead, the morning sun''s rays stinging painfully. ¡°Grr... Birds shouldn¡¯t chirping in the morning.¡± Though, I managed to get ready for the day without any further delay and did our routine as usual... then again, mom was going back today, so I guesses I should wake early tomorrow to prepare our boxed lunch. The next day, it was same as the previous day, I was taking a nap every now and then whenever I had the chance. One thing that I found was that Mado¡¯s lesson especially boring. It was, in his typical style, quite a boring one, and before long at all I felt my eyelids began to droop. I tried to shake it off, propped my head up with one hand, squinting to make out the words the teacher scrawls over the blackboard. It was all getting a bit fuzzy. I tried to blink a couple times, but everything seems to get a little darker each time. Sorry teach... but could I eat waves? If not I just didn¡¯t care knowing about it. And so I slumped into my desk... waking up just right on time for the lunch break. Weirdly enough, even though I didn¡¯t speak or do any attempt to make friend on the second and third day, somehow I still able to join a group... maybe this was what they called as guy¡¯s power? It all started from the simple talk about comic book, and escalated to the most beautiful girl in our class. When we talked about this topic my eyes wandered around the classroom looking for those unmistakable pink girl, but came up empty. Anyway, in front of me was Nakano Izumi, shoveled down rice as fast as humanly possible, at the center was Mizuhara Toma, the orange-haired boy, slowly nibbling at his bread, face buried in a book. ¡°Are we allowed to eat at the rooftop?¡± I thought out loud from our of nowhere. The weather seemed nice and it was kinda fool to not to eat outside at a time like this. Izumi, munched on some sort of pretzel for his dessert, his expression thoughtful. He shrugged. ¡°I chonno. Whychdo youf ask?¡± He didn¡¯t even bother to swallow before replying. ¡°Are you the type of a fool that like watching the city from high place?¡± Toma said without even looking up from his book. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°...No, I was only asking.¡± It seemed like I already took the tittle of sleepyhead in my class. I took another bite, and then accidentally, my eyes were drawn to Kawamoto. Who poked at her food as if she was dissecting something for science class. ¡°Oi~ Kawamoto, would you like to eat together with us?¡± ¡°Eh? Um...m...I...¡± ¡°It would better than eating alone you know?¡± A huge, huge blush spread on Kawamoto¡¯s face and her eyes widen far larger than I thought it was possible for eyes to do. Uh-oh. Did she interpret my lame attempt at small talk as a feeble attempt to pick her up? I still looking at her while she still restlessly stabbing at her lunch. ...Urgh, I should¡¯ve just left her alone. Now she didn¡¯t give an answer, it would be rude if I decided to throw my face away and I would look like forcing my intention if I kept pushing it. Then again, it might be weird to suddenly eat with three unknown guys from out of nowhere, so I kinda understood how she felt... maybe. In the end, Kawamoto who looked confused politely declined my offer. ¡°You¡¯re a carnivorous type huh?¡± Said Toma while carefully folded the wrapper of his bread. ¡°Ho~ is that so? That¡¯s bad you know, You should eat more vegetables you know, it¡¯s good for you body.¡± Izumi said, thumping his dense, solid belly. And the rest of the day peacefully ended. Club activity introduction was still hype in my school and this time I managed to find the Archery dojo. Peeking inside, I saw all of the student all wearing their dogi and sat in seiza, while the big sis from my village, Higashi Hinata also did the same thing. ¡°She still does that huh.¡± I thought on my heart. The atmosphere was very still, almost felt like even the slightest noise would crumble this stillness. And It seemed like besides me, there were several other students that also not wearing the dogi nor brought a bow, so I guesses they all were the student that wanted to join? All of them seemed to be choked by this stillness. Suddenly, the mood changed. Hinata-nee stood up and gave the ¡®hit in the middle¡¯ stare. Fired. Hit. Continuing, nocked another arrow. Hit. The third shot was right in the middle. It pierced the arrow before it. Somehow, though. Damn... she was still a beast. I bet it was far harder for her to not hit the bullseye rather than hitting it ten times in a row. Though, it seemed like it would be hard to greet her when she was in the middle of club activity, and so I only stared and nodded from a far when our eyes met. Yeah, I still had something else to do. Opening the mission screen, like usual there were a lot of them, but for today I decided with ¡®cat collecting.¡¯ After I took the mission, it told me the mission objective, reward, and the delivery coordinate. I strolled around the city and it didn¡¯t take long for me to find the first cat, it was an abandoned kitten sleeping inside the cardboard box. Supposedly, it would be far more efficient if I gathered all the five cats and delivering them in a single journey, but it was freaking hard capturing the other cat while bringing a cat with you. If I left them they would just wandering around. If I tied them with a rope I might just say goodbye to my social life. Not to mention the chance for them to fight against each other, so after some attempts I decided it would be best to deliver them one by one. When I took the first kitten to the designated coordinate, I found it was a small hidden abandoned yard. Putting the cat, I opened the mission screen once again and touched on the ¡®deliver¡¯ button. ¡°Oh?¡± The kitten body was wrapped in floating pattern like a cocoon and it disappeared. With the milestones also increased to 1/5. Second cat was some cat on this neighborhood, it happily followed me when I gave it some food. Third cat was kinda fierce, it scratched me when I tried to grab it, the Shield blocked it though What? Was I cared about the cats? Not really... I meant, hunting a boar or rabbit and collecting a cat didn¡¯t differ much, right? Then again, this was the first time I hunted something not for food or because they started becoming a pest, so it kinda gave me this weird guilty feeling, like I just did some kind of illegal but still right things. Fourth cat was another kitten, sleeping on the street. ¡°...Ah, right... I should¡¯ve bought some food ingredient.¡± Since mom told us she would go back after we went to school, I did not think she would make a dinner for us. At shopping district. Because that boar talking I somehow bought pork for our dinner. And sneakily, while facing the empty alley I used Inventory to store them away. Though, it would be better if I was able to store living thing. Not like I couldn¡¯t able to store it, but since the skill explanation said it was a vacuum space, I personally thought living things wouldn¡¯t be able to breathe inside. ¡°Hm?¡± In front of me, Kawamoto was standing still, gazing to the sky. Coincidence or not, should I greet her? No, of course I should, she was a classmate after all, not to mention she sat next to me... then again, it would be weird if she thought I really tried to hit on her huh? But I thought this might be my chance to clear it up. Did I mess up last time? Maybe it wasn''t my fault. But it would be if I messed up this time. ¡°Yo.¡± I walked and greeted her, waving my hand. ¡°What are you doing?¡± No... stupid, that was the most oblivious question ever, of course she was doing some shopping. She replied with a nod and pointed upward. I followed her finger from the side. ¡°Oh? On a mission?¡± I said with a grin. It was ash colored your everyday normal cat or should I say kitten? Somewhere between them maybe, so teenage cat? Teencat? Catteen? Wait... concentrate first. Seemed like it was getting stuck on the roof, and its body was quivering like crazy... well, I guessed this kind of thing always happened, I meant, from my personal experience I knew climbing up was easy but getting down was hard. ¡°What a poor cat.¡± It meowing but seemed like nobody seemed to care. Well, nobody except Kawamoto actually. Once again, Kawamoto took a glance at me, opening her mouth and closing it down for so many times, it was obvious enough she wanted to ask me to help the said cat but hesitant to do so. Not to mention somehow my sense telling me she would climb it if no one was helping the cat. But falling from there obviously wasn¡¯t a laughing matter. Still... It was a cat so I guessed this killed two bird with one stone? Not to mention this was the last cat, so some sort of challenge should exist, right? Without saying any word, I climbed the electric pole up... yeah it was easy considering there were stepping on the side. ¡°Uncle... what¡¯s that person doing?¡± I heard some kid asked something from down the street. Well, I might be looked like this, but thanks to 10 Points in Perception my senses was two times sharper than me from yesterday. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll leap over there.¡± I muttered after reaching the sufficient height. Eyes staring at the edge of the roof. Yeah... this distance wasn¡¯t a problem. I¡¯d been jumping farther than this when I was a kid. ¡°Whhoaaa!!¡± And yet I still shouted something like that. Rolling in the roof and perfectly landed like some kind of acrobat... I bet they didn¡¯t realize my legs were shaking right now. Oh? That kid was taking a photo of me? Wait... I wasn¡¯t ready, no wait... let¡¯s just save the cat first. ¡°Meow!!!!¡± ....It tried to scratch me... not like it succeeded since Shield managed to block it. ¡°I¡¯m trying to save you, you know that!?¡± I forcefully grabbed the cat and thinking why was I yelling at it. But... ¡°Jajaja~ Mission complete.¡± I said, in more ways than one while showing the cat like it some kind of trophy or something like that. ¡°Oh?¡± Up here, it was like looking down at the world. I could see the sun was hiding behind the building, the grey and red roofs, the sea of cars and concrete with a slight amount of greenness, and the many busy people going on about the day. Up here it was like standing on a giants back exploring the world with awe. Indeed I usually did the same back on the village, but doing this in the middle of the city kinda gave different vibe eh. Maybe Toma was right about me being like in a high place. Wouldn¡¯t say this was beautiful but it wasn¡¯t bad. But the moment I climbed down. ¡°Meowww!!!¡± That cat tried scratching me again and ran away. Maybe it knew my intention ? ¡°...damn that cat.¡± I said. Then I noticed Kawamoto looking rather amazed and yet also displeased. ¡°T-t-that¡¯s d-danger-dangerous y-you k-know.¡± Kawamoto exclaimed while turning her sight to a different direction. Hey, her angry attitude was pretty cute. But leaving her cuteness aside. She was giving the vibe she would also climb that, dangerous or not. Though, from the way she was acting at school, I had her pegged as a bookworm but she might have an adventurous side too? ¡°Eh, that height isn¡¯t a problem for me.¡± ¡°N-no i-it¡¯s n-n-not t-the height. I-it ju-just t-that ca-cat s-scratches ev-ev-every s-s-s-stranger i-it see-sees.¡± That was what you worried about?! Sigh... seemed like she also had this airhead vibe. But I guessed I should search for another cat before dark. ¡°Well, bye then.¡± So I left Kawamoto behind and went straight searching for the fifth cat. The last cat was some random cat I found on the steer. Grabbed it. Went back to the designated location and. [Congratulations! Your mission is complete! First time reward! 100 Exp and 100 Credits! Your rank is now Z-98] Chapter 7 I somehow managed to stay awake from the lessons that threatened to lull me to sleep, and just when I thought today was going to be another mundane day. ¡°N-n-natsume... c-can we g-go som-somewhere a-af-after s-s-school?¡± Judging from her squirming eyes, I could tell she was nervous but I was the one that really dumbfounded by her action, enough to make me startled a little bit from my chair and went silent. ¡°U-um... or do y-you h-h-have a-any ot-other plans?¡± ¡°Ah...¡± I thought about this for a while, trying to remember whether or not I had a plan. ¡°I guess no?¡± ¡°T-then, I¡¯ll w-wa-wait f-for y-y-you at the s-school gat-gate.¡± Said Kawamoto, she then turned around and patiently eating her boxed lunch alone. But I never agreed to go with? Still, there was no way I could say ¡®no¡¯ I think and why didn¡¯t we just go right from the start? We were sitting NEXT to each other. ¡°Hey. Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Soseki, what sort of relationship do you have with her?¡± Izumi and Toma didn¡¯t say any word, but I could tell from their gaze that that was the question they wanted to ask right now. To tell the truth, since she asked me I guessed her business must be related to the ¡®test¡¯ or maybe confession? Nah must be the former. As soon as the school ended, she packed her belonging and left the classroom. By the time I arrived at the front gate. Kawamoto was already waiting there, running out of her breath and she tried called out to me as soon as she spotted me. In any case, so she walked to the mountain behind school along with me. After confirming that there weren¡¯t any people nearby. ¡°E-energy B-bolt!¡± She let out a yell, and at the same time sent the bluish ball of energy flying towards me. The ball cut through the air and was on the verge of colliding with my forehead. However, the ball made a loud noise as it collided with something that looked like a barrier that had appeared out of nowhere, lost its momentum, and disappeared. When she did that, a red, cylindrical gauge appeared at the edge of my field of vision, near the top right corner. It looked like there was only 5 durability left from my shield. ¡°W-what the hell!?¡± although I was a little taken aback. I somehow managed to question her action. ¡°S-s-sorry... I-I j-just w-wanted t-t-t-to t-test som-som-something.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°By shooting it at me!?¡± I shouted, and her expression seemed turned downward as her voice gradually turned thinner when she explained her action. To summarize it, she just wanted to test what was the actual damage from her Energy Bolt and whether or not she could control the output. In a sense, she just wanted to compare her stats to someone else stats.... by testing it without any experiment of confirmation. I sighed... not because I was mad but because I suddenly felt tired. ¡°E-e-energy b-b-bolt!¡± This time she directed it to the nearby tree, and with the same amount of power she shot another energy bolt. An arm-thick tree got chipped away as if a human just crunched on a baguette. And Kawamoto seemed somewhat a little bit happy when she did that... she might be a little bit dangerous. So the question was ¡®is she does 11 point of damage¡¯ with her Energy Bolt? to me yes, but considering the tree didn¡¯t have Resistance from what we knew, she just did 15 amount of damage. After that she started going on explained about calculating it with pound of force, the speed, the angle and orders of magnitude... while stuttering like crazy. ¡°T-there-therefore I-I as-assume one p-p-p-point of d-d-d-d-damage is eq-equal to-¡° ¡°...Sorry, I don¡¯t know to ruin your fun, but you already lose me at the thrusting and dragging part.¡± Yeah, normally it was hard enough for me to understand that kind of thing, and she did that while stuttering. Not like I hated it, but my brain just couldn¡¯t endure it anymore. ¡°O-oh... s-sorry.¡± And she suddenly went silent. That was actually the longest sentence I ever heard coming from her and it wasn¡¯t like she forced me to understand her either. maybe she just having fun by explaining it. urgh... I felt kinda bad ruining her fun. ¡°So... how much does a human punch do?¡± ¡°M-m-maybe o-one or t-t-two? I-it a-also d-depends on t-the s-s-speed...¡± Seemed like Kawamoto wanted to say more but decided to stop, she¡¯s also pretty considerate huh. ¡°U-um... w-w-why d-don¡¯t we-we ju-just try i-it?¡± She said, turning against me and closing her eyes. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± Kawamoto slowly opened her eyes and peeking at me. ¡°U-um... m-my shi-shield is s-s-s!!!¡± I clenched my fist and swung it to her face. However, when the tip of the fist was hair-wide close to making contact with her head, a dull sound rang out and my fist was stopped mid-swing, as though it had hit an invisible wall. ¡°Hyikes!!!¡± At the same time she let out a very weird sound... but, her reaction was kinda slow, wasn¡¯t she? Kawamoto dropped to the ground even though my fist got repelled, and I could hear her heartbeat beating like crazy. ¡°Sorry~ sorry~ I just want to startle you a little bit, just consider as the payback from that surprise energy bolt.¡± I said, then offering my hand and helping her stood up. She seemed wanted to protest but immediately swallowed it back. ¡°So...? How much damage?¡± I took a bottle of water from Inventory. Her eyes widened and she pointed at me. ¡°Y-y-you¡¯re n-n-ot s-saying a-anything?¡± ¡°Ah... yeah, I want to tell you but I kept forgetting about it.¡± I said, opening it and handing it over to her. ¡°Anyway, how much does it do?¡± ¡°T-two... b-but s-since m-my d-d-d-defence is t-three, i-it s-should b-be fi-five, b-but it a-a-a-also de...¡± And there she goes, explaining everything about the theory behind it. Summing it up, basically she said; on the normal situation (without shield) depending on where my punch landed, it should be higher or lower, and something about two 500 pound of force wasn¡¯t equal to 1000. Likewise, we continued by throwing rock, kicking, biting, using club and et cetera until both of our shield got reduced to zero. As speaking of which, as we separated I kept grinning while looking at my phone screen. Only three days since school started and I already received a girl contact number, not bad at all, considering I needed around two months to get a girl contact info back when I was in the middle school. Chapter 8 It was night, and I was on the inside of the convenience store, there was a new Real Time message from Kawamoto. What is your dinner? I raised my eyebrow. That was a rather weird thing to be your first message. I messaged back. Curry. Her reply was immediate. Same as me! ¡°Huh.¡± I turned off my phone and strolled around the cabinets to grab two yogurts for both of me and my sister, Rin. And saw a familiar figure wearing my school uniform stood at the front of convenience store food section. Now that I thought about this, she was hanging around in the same shopping area, so I guessed her house must be nearby? Nonchalantly I gently poked her on the shoulder while hoping she wouldn¡¯t freak out or something like that. Kawamoto turned her head mechanically to my direction, ending up staring at my face. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± And here came our usual staring /greeting. ¡°....O-oh... i-it¡¯s Na-natsume.¡± Kawamoto was the one who broke the silence this time while trying to hide something on her back. ¡°An astute observation.¡± I said. ¡°So... curry, right?¡± I took a peek over her shoulder, indeed it was curry. ¡°...Th-this b-brand ta-tastes g-good.¡± But I didn¡¯t say it taste bad nor care enough about it. ¡°Sounds good. I guess I¡¯ll just go back to my curry.¡± Yeah, it wasn¡¯t my problem for what she ate as her dinner. I turned around to look at the cashier and immediately felt someone was poking me. ¡°U-um... W-what d-d-do yo-you use i-in yo-yours?¡± I turned around again, like a spinning top and looked down at two options; Katsu-curry or Normal-looking curry. I didn''t really know anything about this kind of food though. I looked at Kawamoto, she looked emptily back at me. ¡°You know... I''m going to make you a one-time-only, super extra special dinner offer. So why don¡¯t you just check it by yourself?¡± I said something completely out of character... at least in front of her I never acted like that. But there was no harm for inviting her, I guessed. She looked hesitant for a while, yeah... you should be, we barely knew each other. You never knew what some weirdo with an agenda would do if you accepted their invitation to their house. But she nodded. ¡°S-Sounds deli-delicious.¡± She said. ¡°T-to w-w-what do I owe this h-honor o-of be-be-being invited?" That was pretty surprising considering it was coming out from her... was she trying to keep up with my act? ¡°Eh, you stood there looking really lost and sad so I thought you could use some company."If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Ah, I blurted my mind out, that was probably the worst reason imaginable. But I guessed I just kinda feeling sorry for her huh. Guh... whatever, let¡¯s just going with this play. ¡°So how about it? You''re probably really lonely and would eat that convenience curry all alone, otherwise.¡± Argh... my mouth... stopped making this worse. ¡°E-eeh...¡± She kinda gave me a weak, almost complicated like smile. ¡°I¡¯m kidding...¡± And now I saw shadow was casted on her face. ¡°Y-yeah... I gu-guess I-I t-take Gol-golden c-c-c-curry for m-m-my din-dinner.¡± Said Kawamoto, her voice gradually became flatter and quieter with each words. ¡°Oh? So you don¡¯t want to come?¡± Did I just hurt her feeling? Kawamoto tilted her head. ¡°B-but y-you s-s-said you¡¯re j-j-just kidding.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about the other part.¡± I pinched my glabella as I said that. ¡°I¡¯m serious about the whole inviting you though.¡± Great, now I looked like someone who was trying at his best chasing after her. She stopped moving for a while, muttering something to herself... I wondered if she also stuttered when she muttered like that. After a few seconds or maybe minutes, she looked into my eyes. ¡°Su-sure I w-will h-have your d-din-dinner offer. With pleasure.¡± Maybe she just let the issue slid from her mind and decided to act nice... at least we could leave that awkward conversation behind. Anyway, with Kawamoto joining our dinner, I took another yogurt. Hey, couldn¡¯t eat curry without yogurt right? At least that was how it went on my family. We made our way to the register and the line, thankfully, was almost nonexistent. It was not long before I¡¯d paid for our yogurt, and were out the door, leaving the cashier that was giving us this warm smile and shouting off. ¡°Ah, the spring of youth.¡± From his aura. Hardly wanting to bring any awkward conversation up, I remained silent as we quietly continue to walk down the quiet road, the quiet tapping of our shoes against the sidewalk were all that could be heard. My paces carefully slowed to remain beside her. Compared to my usual walking pace, hers was quite a bit slower... I guessed back when we were in that ¡®forest¡¯ I didn¡¯t pay much attention to her huh. Before I knew it, I''d relaxed so much that a loud yawn escaped before I could control it, it spread like a wild fire to Kawamoto and to the office worker that on his way home. Arriving at your normal two story house, that matches other house in this area, I put the key in and turned the knob. ¡°I¡¯m home.¡± I said. Immediately walking to the dining room. I saw Rin lazily sitting on the couch, watching TV while scratching her belly. ¡°...Where do you buy that yogurt? Hongkong? Mars?¡± Yeah... seemed like I really took a lot longer than your usual 5 minutes walk. ¡°Ah, I¡¯ve brought a friend by the way.¡± Rin turned her head, facing toward us. ¡°...Girlfriend?¡± Kawamoto flinched a little bit when Rin said that. ¡°Nope~ just a friend from my class.¡± Rin had turned her gaze towards Kawamoto, completely studying her. ¡°What kind of man bring his friend to a dinner on their third day at school?¡± Like brother, like sister... seemed like my family or maybe just us had the problem to blurt something out from our mind... Though, the awkward silence lasted only for a few seconds until Rin decided to shrug it off. ¡°...Let¡¯s just eat our dinner.¡± I said then moving out to set our food. While Rin was preparing the plate. ¡°Are you waiting for me to feed you? Watching it won¡¯t fill your stomach, you know.¡± I was beckoning Kawamoto to just sit and join us. I seat myself directly facing Rin and Kawamoto joined me on my side. ¡°E...erm...y-your p-p-parent?¡± Kawamoto said while glancing around the house. Meanwhile, I saw for a moment that Rin made some kind of mischievous grin when she heard Kawamoto¡¯s stutter. ¡°They¡¯re in a far away place.¡± ...Rin wasn¡¯t wrong but there was a more proper way to put it though... then again, it seemed she did that on purpose. ¡°O-oh... s-s-sorry.¡± Said Kawamoto, trying to hide her grimace... urgh, now I should clear this up. ¡°Whatever you¡¯re thinking about, it¡¯s wrong. Both of our parent and four of our grandparent are still alive and kicking in our village.¡± I said. Conversation died off as I immediately set about the business of feeding myself. Taking a few bites, I glanced up and noticed... no... I was distracted from my act by the sight of Kawamoto tearing into her plate as if it had insulted her ancestors. ¡°You seem pretty hungry.¡± Kawamoto looked up, mouth half full, and swallowed before nodding. I,!myself at least thinking she should at least show some modesty... maybe... I didn¡¯t know... I did feel happy knowing someone gulping my cooking like that... a little bit modesty maybe? But once again, she might not be the shy type of girl that I thought she was.