A few days had passed since Isaac had transmigrated into Soren's body.
Over the past few days, there was nothing much of worth that happened, and it will probably stay that way for a while.
The nearest event is the first mock duel, but that's still a few weeks away, and as a member of class F, it probably won't be that challenging even with Soren's awful stats.
Granted, that didn't mean Soren wasn't going to put in any effort.
He may not want to save the world, but there was no way Soren was going to live with F-rank stats forever.
"Today, we will be performing a joint exercise with all of the other first-year magic classes to get you used to casting. Please group up into pairs. Once everyone is paired up, I will explain what we are doing today."
The only thing of note that has happened in the past few days was that Soren had learned some new things about his skills, like the status window, his unique skill [Library of Memories] and magic in general.
On the status window side of things, Soren found the discoveries pretty exciting.
One night, he got bored and started saying random menu names that appeared in TKS, and luckily, he discovered some new ones.
First, there was the quest window, this one is self-explanatory for the most part.
Although Soren has yet to receive a quest so there wasn't much else he knew about it.
The idea of having quests was fun for Soren, though.
Being the type of person who works harder when there is a tangible reward, it was perfect for someone like him.
Next up was the store window.
The currency is [Points], and it looks like they can only be gained from quest rewards, which makes sense.
[Points] are used to buy 1 of 2 things from the shop: Skills or Items.
Skills are ranked F when you buy them, but you can immediately use them.
Finally, Items.
The shop sells 2 different types of items: Single-use and Permanent.
These are self-explanatory, though.
"Once again, please group up into pairs, and then I will explain today's lesson."
Then there was Soren's unique skill [Library of Memories].
At first, it seemed like it was just a simple memory skill with an overly fancy name, but the more Soren found out about it, the more he realised that wasn't the case at all.
[Library of Memories] is split into a passive and an active skill.
The passive skill is the cheat-like perfect memory skill that he already knew about and has been actively using.
The active skill, on the other hand, was strange.
Upon activation, it transports Soren's mental body into a circular library with shelves filled to the brim with books as far as the eye can see.
Each book in the library is a memory of Soren's, or to be more precise, Isaac's.
By opening a book, Soren can experience that memory as if he were living it in real time, experiencing the same emotions and same thoughts as the him of that memory.
When Soren stumbled upon this, he immediately tried to find books related to Soren Arden, but unfortunately, there were none.
"Anyone who doesn't have a pair will be automatically assigned one, so I recommend you find a partner soon."
Finally, magic.
As Soren discovered through demonology classes, the differences between a game world and the real world are immense; the biggest difference so far, though, was magic.
When playing through TKS, basic magic such as [Aqua] was almost laughably useless, which often led to physical characters being overwhelmingly popular in the early game.
Basic elemental magic like [Aqua] or [Gaia] was used to apply that specific element to an enemy, making them vulnerable to certain other elements.
An example of this was that an enemy hit with [Aqua] would gain the water element, which would lead to them gaining a weakness to lightning spells.
Of course, there were uses for this, but especially in the early game, where basic magic is all you have, it was considered useless thanks to having to waste an entire turn for next to no damage.
But now that TKS was a reality, there were a lot of changes in how magic is used and applied, from minor changes like the colour of a magic circle giving away the element someone is going to use, to major changes like how much more control somebody has over their magic.
Now, instead of just pressing a button for a predetermined result, it was possible to be a lot more creative with spells.
In this way, Soren had already discovered a new way to utilise one of his spells, [Gaia].
Since [Gaia] was a spell that simply altered the ground, it was possible to do things like changing the ground into mud to slow movement, or if you had a high enough proficiency, create dirt walls and the like.
'Though those walls won't be that strong..'
Basic magic is still basic magic after all.
One of the other major differences is that magic in this world was notoriously difficult.
The process of casting a spell is as so:
Picture the magic circle in your mind → Create the magic circle → Infuse mana into the magic circle → Chant → Release.
Throughout this entire process, you need to concentrate heavily while infusing mana; even the slightest drop in concentration will cause the magic circle to shatter due to receiving too much or too little mana at once.
Even worse, if you're using a spell that needs to stay active, for example using [Aqua] to hold a water ball in the air, you would need to keep infusing mana into the spell the entire time, meaning you would have to keep your concentration focused the entire time and it would be continuously draining your mana.
For this reason, magicians in this world tend to be stationary, moving around at all while casting is highly likely to break concentration; the slightest graze of a weapon or the smallest piece of dirt touching their face could be enough to completely break a magician's concentration, thus shattering the magic circle, depending on their mental strength.
The problem with that?
Since magicians are stationary, they're usually expected to use AOE or high damage single-target spells.
What does Soren have?
2 low proficiency basic spells.
'As a magician, I'm completely useless.'
"I will give you one more minute; if you still haven't found a pair after that, I will place you into pairs myself."
'Nope.'
'I didn't hear a thing.'
Soren shut his eyes tightly in a desperate attempt to distract himself from what was going on around him.
But it was no use.
He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, muttering.
"...Why do group exercises exist?"
Both on earth and here, Soren found it impossible to enjoy them.
Even more so here, thanks to his lack of friends.
'I'm pretty sure the only time I've spoken to people since transmigrating was the nun from the infirmary, and during roll call with Lilliana.
'I can't even remember my own voice…'
'…Well, actually that's a lie, I wouldn't be able to forget even if I wanted to.'
He looked around and sure enough, pretty much everyone had already formed groups.
Soren had already accepted the fact that he would be placed with the leftovers at this point.
"This A+ rank charm is a fucking lie."
The higher a character's charm, the more likeable they're meant to be, yet here Soren was, bordering on S-rank charm as a 1★, yet he can't even find a partner for a simple joint exercise.
He couldn't help but think that the world is unfair.
"Soren Arden, come here."
'Shit.'
"Yes, Miss Rose…"
"Umm.. You can pair up with him over there."
Seeing the direction that Lilliana was pointing made Soren rethink his idea that she was an angel.
'How could you trick me with that pure, adorable appearance!?'
He felt betrayed.
But alas, someone like Soren couldn't talk back to Lilliana, so instead he resigned himself to his fate.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
The closer Soren got to his assigned partner, the more he wanted to cry.
'He looks exactly like a stereotypical NTR protagonist…'
'Well… he doesn't just look like one…'
'「Information」'
.
.
[Felix]
Age: 18
Gender: M
Race: Half-Elf
.
.
Felix, or better known by his multitude of nicknames such as Scum, Trash, Playboy, Garbage, Womaniser, among many other names of a similar variety.
The person standing in front of Soren was the type of person to hit on any remotely attractive woman, lovebomb them, play with them and then toss them aside when he's bored.
He has never been in a relationship; if anything, it's the opposite, the second a girl falls for him, he immediately loses interest and chases after a new woman.
'He even hits on the protagonist's childhood friend and the main heroine, Saintess Olivia of all people.'
What else could you call this man if not Trash?
Soren was worried that his image would fall even further if he stayed near this guy.
But what choice did he have?
Soren couldn't argue back to Lilliana.
When he had finally slogged his way over to Felix, he opened his mouth reluctantly.
"...I was told to pair up with you."
"Hmm…"
'What is he doing?'
Felix scanned Soren from top to bottom before nodding to himself.
Shudder
'…I should clear things up to be safe.'
"...Just so you know, I'm a guy."
He wasn't sure how he appeared to others, but with his long hair, androgynous voice and shorter than average height, he was worried that he might have been mistaken for a woman.
"Hmm? Oh, were you worried I was going to eat you up? Pfft, you wouldn't be my type even if you were a woman, don't worry."
"Do I even want to ask what your type is?"
"Big boobs."
Soren's face contorted in disgust.
'Who responds like that?'
"...Gross."
Soren had nothing against people having preferences, but the way Felix said it was, as he said, gross.
"Kahaha! You're pretty interesting."
"Once again, I am a guy."
"You know what? I think I'm starting to realise why you weren't able to find a partner."
Throb
A vein bulged out of Soren's forehead.
'Going right for the weak spot?'
He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a deep breath to calm himself down.
Then Felix stuck his arm out and greeted him.
"Anyways, I'm Felix, class B, but you probably already knew that."
'Wow, what an ego.'
Soren reluctantly took his hand and greeted the human trash back.
"Soren Arden, class F."
"Ohh, you're the sickly looking one that people keep talking about."
Soren tilted his head in confusion at Felix's words, but before he could even ask about it, Lilliana's voice called out.
"Alright, now that everyone is in pairs, I will explain what we will be doing today—"
The class, as said by Lilliana, was essentially glorified target practice.
Everyone would split into pairs and practice casting magic against their partner.
Of course, this wasn't duelling practice, so Lilliana had warned the students repeatedly.
There were also priests on standby in case anyone got injured, which seemed somewhat likely with Class A students participating in the lesson.
Once Soren and Felix reached their designated area, Felix called out to him with a smirk on his face.
"Are you sure it's safe to hit you? You look so frail that you'd crumble from even my worst basic magic."
'Why does he keep provoking me?'
It wasn't in Soren's nature to just keep receiving, so he smiled back at Felix.
"Don't worry, I will make sure you need those healers by the end of the lesson."
"Puhahaha! I guess we'll see, won't we?"
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
10 minutes had passed since Soren had said those words.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Needless to say, Soren had been humbled within that timeframe.
"Hmm… you're kind of like a hedgehog, aren't you?"
'What is this guy going on about now?'
Soren looked up at the guy in front of him with tired eyes full of confusion.
"You're so small and prickly, so a hedgehog is fitting, don't you agree?"
'Ah, this guy really pisses me off…'
He forced his trembling legs to stop and glared at Felix.
"Huff… I am so going to kill you."
Clap clap
"Come on, little hedgehog! You can do it."
Soren felt that he had to land at least one good hit before the end of the lesson.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Unfortunately, by the end of the lesson, the situation had not improved whatsoever.
Even until the very end, Soren was never able to leave so much as a scratch on the human trash standing in front of him.
"Didn't you say I was going to be dead? Funnily enough, I'm still completely intact. Hmm… whatever could have gone wrong, little hedgehog?"
"Will you please shut up?"
"Phuhaha, sure. I'll even give you an extra service on the house."
Woooongggg—
A magic circle began to form around Felix's hand.
Then…
"「Clean」"
He used [Clean] on Soren.
"Uh… thanks?"
Soren wasn't sure how to respond to the guy who had been provoking him all lesson, suddenly acting nice.
"No probs. Wanna grab lunch together?"
He stared blankly at Felix.
'…Is this guy for real?'
————「❤︎」————