"This is insane.... No boy should be able to have this much power..." Sir Andwelf muttered under his breath.
Although he had seen Clay break the testing stone, he thought that he could still handle that much power.
Oh boy was he wrong.
Not only did he severely underestimate Clay's strength, but he also suffered the consequence of doing so.
The consequence mainly being getting his arms broken, though even if his arms are now more or less healed up, it still didn't erase the memory of the pain.
Clay looked around, uncomfortable with all the stares that he was getting.
It was fine when he was getting all the stares yesterday, that was because he knew that Josh and the others were there, for some reason, when Clay knows familiar people are around, the social anxiety doesn't affect him that much.
However, now that there was no one he found familiar around—people he was close to, the nervousness and anxiety struck him hard.
Seeing that everything went silent for a while, the other students pausing their spar due to the sudden commotion, Sir Andwelf tried to speak up to make things less awkward.
After all, it was much more embarrassing for him, an adult who was brimming with confidence a while ago and suddenly getting both his arms injured as a result of the clash.
Very embarrassing.
"Ahem." Sir Andwelf pretended to clear his throat.
"You surpassed my expectations young man! I believe sparring further would be useless!" Sir Andwelf spoke, nodding to himself repeatedly with 'hmms' of approval.
He was a thick skinned person, shamelessly calling the earlier interaction a spar.
Sir Andwelf then turned towards the other students who were still staring at the both of them.
"Well? What are you guys doing? Get back to sparring, I'll be observing each and every one of you."
Hearing that, the other students turned their attentions back to their partners, resuming their sparring session.
Clay finally got a hold of himself once everyone else had turned away.
'Why do I always keep freezing up? Just a little attention and I turn into a statue..? I hate this.... I hate this feeling.'
Clay thought to himself as he gritted his teeth, his fists clenched without his realization.
Suddenly, the air around the training grounds felt a little heavier, leading to a few students looking around in confusion.
The air trembled for a moment, everything disappearing as fast as it came.
Clay sighed.
'If only there's a way to deal with this problem...'
A voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Clay, right? You have a bright head on your shoulders." Sir Andwelf approached Clay.
"I wonder... how high, really, is your strength stat?" Sir Andwelf asked.
Clay didn't know how to answer the question.
Should he come clean?
Or should he hide a few things so that nothing drastic would happen?
In the end, Clay decided with the truth, after all, if they knew how strong he was, wouldn't that mean that they would see how valuable he is?
And in turn, wouldn't that increase the protection and support on his family?
It goes without saying, power rules everything in this world.
And if he shows power, enough power that could make anyone think thrice before messing with him, wouldn't he basically own the world?
Wait, what was he even scared of?
No one could really do anything to him, heck, the system said that he was 'eligible for the title of the strongest human on the planet'.
So what was there to fear?
Social Anxiety? Could people even hurt him? If not, then what's the point of social anxiety?
Armed with this new enlightenment, Clay straightened his back, his entire being now radiating firm confidence.
Clay looked at Sir Andwelf in the eyes and replied.
"My strength stat is over a thousand."
Upon hearing this, Sir Andwelf couldn't help but be shocked at the sudden drop of information.
Don't get him wrong, the headmaster did indeed say that Clay had over a thousand stat points in strength, however, hearing it from someone else is vastly different than hearing it from the source itself.
Sir Andwelf had some doubts on whether the headmaster was speaking the truth or not, but that all disappeared upon hearing Clay's answer.
The proof was right there after all, his injured arms and the broken Öbedanite, all suggesting that Clay's claims were true.
However that did lead to one question.
If Clay did indeed had over a thousand strength and was already overwhelmingly superior compared to him.
What could he—a person far weaker than clay, possibly even teach him?
It's not like he could train him, Clay was already leagues beyond his level in strength.
This left Andwelf stumped on what to do next.
A moment of silence passed between the two.
Sir Andwelf pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed.
'Whatever, let's just focus on the other students for now.' Sir Andwelf thought to himself.
This was far too big of a matter to involve someone like him, he wasn't even getting paid enough anyways.
The number of people who had over a thousand points in a single stat could be counted with one's hands, that is, at most, only several people among billions.
"Alright, for now, just observe the others." Sir Andwelf turned his attention back to the other students who were still busy sparring amongst themselves.
The scene around the two was very colorful due to attacks flying left and right.
With some of the attacks even landing near them.
However, the fights looked slow in Clay's eyes so he quickly got bored of them.
'I wonder how the others are doing, do they also have combat training right now?' Clay wondered.
If only he had a map of the Adurep Academy could he see what was going on in other places.
Speaking of which, when was the quest for making a tier 3 map going to appear?
Ding!
Clay glanced weirdly at the notification that had an impeccable sense of timing.
'Open quest.' Clay affirmed with a nod.