Clay stood up once he had heard the word 'dismissed' coming from Professor Tilda, however, that was a big mistake.
Because Clay stood up so suddenly, almost everyone turned their attention to him.
Heads turned and locked their eyes on Clay's standing figure.
It was to be expected really, Professor Tilda had just finished speaking when suddenly a student shot up from their seats?
It would be hard to not to draw attention after that.
"Yes? Do you have a question, young man?" Professor Tilda raised an eyebrow at Clay.
"U-uh, no, s-sorry." Clay stuttered, rigidly going back to a seated position.
Only now did he realize that he was a bit too hasty that he didn't really think it through when he stood up.
"Well, okay then." Professor Tilda shrugged her shoulders and promptly left the classroom with unhurried steps.
All the other students also began to head out the classroom seeing that Professor Tilda already left.
Meanwhile, Clay buried his head in his arms, his shoulders trembling from time to time.
'.... That was so embarrassing... Why did I even do that, arrghh, nation of dams!'
Clay's thoughts were in turmoil. He still hasn't recovered from the embarrassment of stuttering and doing all that in front of the class.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Clay flinched at the sudden voice on his left.
He turned to the source, only to find a charming girl with purple hair tied in a ponytail, her vibrant violet eyes staring at him, a concerned look adorning her beautiful face.
Clay froze, he was never this close to a girl his age, she was only at arm's reach away.
He would always freeze up when a girl got close enough or talked to him, and this? This was the closest a girl has ever been.
Clay opened his mouth slightly, lips trembling, trying to find words but failing.
No sound came out of his mouth, not even a wisp.
Clay could only swallow a mouthful of saliva, almost choking in the process.
The two stared at each other in silence for an awkward amount of time until Clay, after mustering some courage, nodded his head once.
The girl blinked, her mesmerizing royal violet eyes vanishing from the world for a heartbeat before they returned with all their beauty.
"Alright."
The girl turned around and also proceeded to head out of the classroom.
"Haaahh." Clay let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding.
Clay panted, trying to catch his breath after that terrifying encounter.
Everything just kept going wrong ever since he got separated from the others.
Clay stayed seated until he had recovered just enough to meet up with Josh and the others, after all, there was no use crying over spilt milk.
Sigh
Clay sighed as he began dragging his body to the cafeteria.
...
..
.
"Hey guys, I'm here." Clay placed down his tray on the table.
"Hey, Clay! We were waiting for you. Sure took your sweet time, huh, something happen?" Josh teased.
"Urgh, don't even remind me of what happened a while ago."
"Wait, something did happen? It's literally only the first class of the first day." Josh raised both his eyebrows in surprise.
Clay rolled his eyes, ignoring Josh and focusing solely on devouring his food.
Josh, seeing that he was being ignored, shook his head helplessly before dropping the matter as well.
They all ate their meal, their chatter mixing in with the other students living in the same moment.
Once they had all finished eating, Clay bid farewell with the others and headed back to his classroom to prepare for the next lecture.
Since there were still slightly over 20 minutes before the next class started, Clay decided to spend this time fiddling with his system.
He would've played with his maps if he could, but that would only draw attention, so the next best thing was his system which was not visible to other people other than himself.
'Open system.' Clay gave the command.
*Ding!*
[Stats]
[Quests]
[Achievements]
[Shop]
[Abilities]
'Hmm, open abilities.'
|Abilities|
\View your passive and active abilities and upgrade them, you can unlock abilities by doing certain actions repetitively, upgrade abilities by spending EXP/
[Dishwashing lv.1]
[Sprint lv.1]
[$^)%#$%'s Gift lv.?]
[Basic Combat lv.1]
Clay scanned the short list of abilities he had, pausing on the newest addition that he still hadn't checked.
'Basic combat, I got that from the fighting quest, right?'
Clay tapped on [Basic Combat lv.1].
|Basic Combat lv.1|
|You have the experience of a fighter who has received basic training in martial arts.|
|Upgrade Requirements: 10 EXP|
[Upgrade?]
[Yes/No]
'10 EXP just to upgrade? That's so cheap, maybe this skill isn't that good?'
Clay rubbed his chin.
'Eh, I'm not really gonna lose a lot of EXP anyways, might as well.'
Clay tapped on the yes button.
*Ding!*
<[Basic Combat lv.1] has successfully upgraded to [Basic Combat lv.2]>
Clay read the system message before feeling if there were any changes to his body.
'I don't really feel anything'
Squinting his eyes, Clay tried feeling if something had changed, but to no avail.
He then took a look again at the ability.
|Basic Combat lv.2|
|You have the experience of a fighter who has received basic training in martial arts.|
|Upgrade Requirements: 10 EXP|
[Upgrade?]
[Yes/No]
'Nothing here changed as well except for the level...'
'I guess I'll keep upgrading it until theres a change, it's only just 10 EXP anyways.'
Many taps later...
<[Basic Combat lv.10] has successfully evolved to [Advanced Combat lv.1]>
Clay's eyes glinted at the new system message that was different from the others.
'Finally, that took quite a while, so abilities evolve once past level 10? Let's check it out.'
Eager to check out the upgrade, Clay tapped on [Advanced Combat lv.1].
|Advanced Combat lv.1|
|Armed with experience far more advanced than any fighter, you are able to swiftly end fights, before your opponents have any chance to recover.|
|Upgrade Requirements: 50 EXP|
[Upgrade?]
[Yes/No]
'Oooh, that sounds cool, I'm kind of itching to test it out...' Clay felt that the description of the evolved skill was now much more serious than its previous version.
But before Clay could do anything else, a familiar instructor walked into the classroom.