Souta slowly opened his eyes. He found that he was still in the cave. He was lying in Yuko's fluffy fur.
He slowly stood up and held his head. He still felt a little bit of pain in his head. He looked at Yuko and saw that she was sleeping.
"Thanks, Yuko!" Souta said as he caressed her head.
"Mn." Yuko opened her eye when she felt his hand.
Souta looked around and saw the [Vajra Sword Saya] on the ground.
"This...?"
Souta recalled what happened before. The [Vajra Sword Saya] tried to possess his body back then. The voice of a woman echoed in his mind back then. It means that the red woman that he fought before was still living inside the [Vajra Sword Saya].
This was what he feared before. The [Vajra Sword Saya] taking his body. There were no settings like this in the game. The difficulty of real-life was many times harder than in the game. There were many things he could do in this world and he wasn't restricted anymore, but the danger was clearly higher.
"I really shouldn't lower my guard in front of the sword," Souta said in a low voice. He sighed and shook his head.
He then approached the sword and hesitate whether he should grab it or not. In the end, he grabbed the sword and he heard a strange laugh in his head.
"Ufufufu..."
Souta could only smile wryly at this. He placed the sword on his waist and looked around.
Yuko approached him and stuck out her tongue. She licked his cheeks.
Souta smile at her and he walked towards the entrance of the cave. He saw that it was already dark outside. It seems that he was unconscious for a few hours.
...
The two went back to Ladros City. Souta immediately went to the market and found a blue grade white gloves. He bought it for one hundred gold coins.
He doesn't want anything to see the appearance of his hands. People would start thinking that he had a relation to a monster especially since he was a Tamer.
Souta and Yuko went straight to their house after Souta bought ingredients for dinner.
...
Souta woke up early in the morning. He wore his clothes and picked up the [Vajra Sword Saya]. He went downstairs and a meal for his breakfast.
Two days had already passed since he evolved into a Goblin Corruptor. He only cut his hair to match the length he had before evolving. It would be strange if his hair grew longer in just one day.
"Hmm... Should I hire a maid? Cooking took a lot of my time." Souta muttered while cooking. He doesn't want to waste his time in cooking. He should've in the institute right now enjoying the taste of the coffee.
He really likes the taste of the coffee in the institute. It's perfect to have that in the morning.
He prepared fried rice and egg for his breakfast. After that, he called Yuko, and both of them ate their breakfast.
He then bid farewell to her before he exited his house and walked towards Ladro Institute.
He arrived at the Ladro Institute and went straight to the cafeteria. He bought a cup of coffee before he went to the class.
In the class, Souta found that Alice was already in her seat. Bryan was not here and the class rep was also in her seat.
"Morning class rep. Morning Alice." Souta greeted Lumilia and Alice before he sat down in his seat beside Alice.
"G-Good morning." Lumilia was in a daze and he called her, so it surprised her a little. She looked at him and said, "Tell me first, if you're going to visit Cl.u.s.ter."
"Okay." Souta nodded at her as he placed his coffee on the top of his table. He grew closer to Lumilia in these two months. She could be considered his friend.
"Morning." Alice glanced at him before she went back to look outside the window.
Souta looked at her and smile. Alice too was slowly opening towards him and Bryan. He and Bryan were the only people that Alice talked in class. She wouldn't even talk to other people except him and Bryan.
He took a sip of his coffee and he turned his eyes on Lumilia. In the past two months, Lumilia joined the ranking battle and she managed to raise her rank up to rank 40 in the whole first-year division. She got stronger in these two months and the Mystical Light Cherry really help her in her mana control.
Alice was different from her. She didn't strive to become the top ranking. She just maintained her rank in the top 60. She clearly has power but she lacks motivation.
Bryan was the most active in their class in the ranking battles. Almost every day Bryan would fight two or three people. Currently, Bryan's rank was higher than Souta. Bryan was rank 12 among all the first year in the institute.
While Souta was thinking about the rankings, the door was slammed open. It was Bryan's doing.
It caused the class rep to stood up and pointed her finger at him.
"How many times do I have to tell you that don't open a door like that?!"
"Sorry, sorry about that, class rep." Bryan apologized as he scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression.
"Hais... " Lumilia could only sigh helplessly. She knew how difficult to handle Bryan. The problem student of their class.
Bryan walked towards his seat and greeted Souta and Alice. "Yo! Souta! Alice!"
"Morning." Alice glanced at him before he once again looked outside the window.
"Do you have a plan after the class?" Souta asked him.
"Nope," Bryan replied quickly.
"Then, we will visit Cl.u.s.ter later," Souta said to him. Since Bryan said that he doesn't have any plan then he had no reason to refuse him.
"Okay. I will buy a cake for her." Bryan nodded and said. He then held his head with both of his hands while saying, "Ah! I remember that I don't have any money left! I haven't taken a quest for a while now!"
"Don't worry about it. I will pay for it." Souta said with a sigh.
George and Joshua entered the room. Bryan chatted with them giving time for Souta to enjoy his coffee alone.
"It's a lively class..." Souta said as he took a sip of his coffee.
Soon, the sound died down as teacher Bargan entered the classroom. The first thing he said stunned the whole class.
"We're going to have a special test." was what he said.
The class became loud as various voices sound left and right.
"What?!"
"You didn't tell this to us before!"
"Teacher, what's the meaning of this?"
No one could understand anything as they were all asking at the same time. Lumilia stood up and tried to stop the class but everyone ignored her.
Souta looked at his left side and saw that Alice wasn't commenting. He then turned to his right side and saw Bryan looks like a monkey.
"Ohohoho!" Bryan raised both of his hands in the air. It seems that he's having fun with this situation.
"Pft! A monkey..." Souta managed to hold back his laughter. He shook his head and took a deep breath.
The class was still giving their opinions. Bargan was in front of the class waiting for the students to calm down while Lumilia was trying to say something but her voice got overwhelmed by the class.
"Okay, I'll help you this time. It's hurting my ears so I should stop them." Souta muttered as he closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of him.
The atmosphere around him got colder as he released his mana. He's trying to put pressure on everyone's shoulder. His [Mana Manipulation] skill was level 3 so he could at least do this much.
The classroom turned quiet as they felt the pressure that Souta was trying to put up. They turned their head and looked at Souta in the back.
Souta slightly opened one of his eyes and looked at them. He opened his mouth and said, "Don't talk at the same time. You can raise your hand if you want to ask a question."
No one say anything. They just looked at Souta.
Lumilia looked at Souta and slightly bowed her head. She's thanking him for handling the class.
Bargan smiled as he saw that everyone went silent. He forcefully coughed to gather everyone's attention.
"Cough! Cough!"
The students looked at Bargan, and Bargan didn't let them ask anything. He opened his mouth and said, "I will explain everything. This test is different from all the tests that you took before. The Mage Class 1-B will take the quest along with the other classes. This test will determine the points that you will receive per month."
Souta smiled when he heard this. It's a battle between classes this time, not the individual battles of the ranking.