It was a few hours until everyone else was released from their own classes, spending his time outlining plans for each possible situation was worthwhile by his judgment, there was little training he could do by himself after all. Although depending on his target the general outline of his plan would change drastically, the beginning would be the same no matter what; avoid Zen.

Having befriended her to a considerable level, the expectation of eating lunch again was set up by social norms, neither had spoken to others in their free time and thus the setting was one that gave a natural transition to eating lunch with each other again. That was easy to recognize, the problem came in the form of Damien’s perceived lacking social skills, traversing two people at the same time would be too difficult. He had run into a similar obstacle recently, if he was to target either Donovan or Jane, he had to go to them alone.

Leaving Zen alone for today might leave her in an awkward position since she had no other known acquaintances or friends, but he would be able to get away with it since they had not verbally agreed to have lunch again. It would dim their friendship a bit but it was not in the realm of creating a huge issue, this was a loss he could take. To ditch her he would simply have to sit with either of his targets, she was not outgoing enough to follow him without an invitation of some sort.

The next thing to think about would be choosing his target, even though Jane and Donovan were both the best possible people to pick from, that did not mean that they were going to be easy to talk to. There were pros and cons to each, for Donovan there was the fact that he was aiming to be a leader, he might be slightly resentful about his missed opportunity. If that was the case then he would be wasting his time talking to him, the only reason he was considered a possible choice was from the fact that he had accepted Admin’s refusal of his candidacy for leadership without a fuss, he had a much calmer mind that his deceivingly large frame would have you think.

Perhaps with the right reasoning, he would be able to come to an understanding with him, still, from that, it would be an even harder task to get him to show him his Status screen. The next point of contention came from the matter of Donovan’s performance in the Monster Hunter event. He had earned the most points right after Jane and him, which meant that he was the most desirable party member to purchase, it would do him well to get along with Donovan for the sake of efficiency.

On the other hand, Jane was also a viable target with her own individual pros and cons. On the downside of things, she was his direct competitor so approaching her would be on the grounds of showing each other their respective Status screens for mutual benefit. That would mean that she would earn her daily points and be able to see his personal information, of course, this would be balanced out by the fact that he would receive the same information and points from her. While it could be called balanced, it would be more accurate to say that the way the information was used would prove one side more or possibly less profitable from the interaction than the other.

It would be up to him to use her Status information more intuitively than she would use his, that is if he managed to convince her that was, after all from the prideful nature she displayed she would be hard to come to terms with. Furthermore, it would also depend on her being unable to sway another Climber and be desperate enough for points considering her loss from yesterday. If she managed to talk to someone and actually get to a point where they showed her their Status screen, he would be forced to go to Donovan.

Realizing he already had made up his mind, he headed out for the Dining Hall.

Upon entering the large room, the once lively atmosphere died down to hushed whispers. It seemed that he brought a heavy enough presence for others to grow carefully around him, if it wasn't for Zen he wouldn't have anyone to talk to. Everyone had been brought together by their time in their classes, warriors with warriors, mages with mages and so on so forth. With the exception of several outliers that was, people like Jane and Donovan were eating by themselves.

Even though they were both part of the warrior class, it seemed Jane was too prideful to approach others with the intention of making friends, and Donovan looked more at peace by himself.

The anxious expression on Jane's face was all he needed to make his decision, whatever her situation was right now, it probably wasn't good. After yesterday's failure, she had overextended herself and created a rift between her and the other Climbers. It would work in his favor.

Walking through the tables filled with clusters of small social ecosystems made Damien feel like a pariah, at his approach the individuals on said tables would lower their heads and eye themselves nervously. Despite him being the number one Climber in this place, he didn’t think his presence warrant such a reaction, perhaps there was something his keen eyes were missing.

While others were shying away from him, the person directly in his path neither averted her sight nor cowered in the slightest. Jane the red armored warrior stared him down as he made his walk towards her, emerald stalked his every step and grounded his path into a sluggish march. If it weren’t for the current setting, and he had encountered her in the wild of the world, he would have taken his blade into his hand and prepared for a fight by now. With a final heavy step, he stood in front of her table.

“What do you want?”

Despite her delicate face, her words flowed like knives to his ears, she was upset and he was the only outlet available, it was a bad start.

Using the information at hand, he crafted his words, "Hello to you too, I wanted to talk to you about your daily task," his informal greeting furrowed her brow.

She gestured for him to sit down and lower his voice, there was reason to be wary of speaking about this particular matter.

"What are you crazy," she began in a whispered tone, "Don't you remember that if someone finds out what are tasks are, we will lose those points? That might extend to us as well."

Damien smiled neutrally to ease the conversation, "I remember, but I'm pretty sure you and I can know our tasks," he replied evenly.

Her annoyance at him and his relaxed disposition were visible, "Oh yeah? What makes you so sure?"

Giving a cautionary look to his sides to ensure nobody could overhear their discussion, he answered, "Seeing as how I was able to figure out your task from yesterday with ease, I doubt the System would make it so we could sabotage our opponents so easily."

His response stiffened the red-haired teen, "What do you mean figure out? Were you watching me?" her cold voice came as an icy blade.

Having the decency to look a bit abashed, he rubbed the back of his head as he spoke a small apology, "Well yes, sorry about that I guess."

"You guess!?"

Her suddenly loud tone drew the attention of everyone in the room, everyone stared at the tense situation with an eerie silence.

Extrapolating the reason for her outburst was not very hard, anyone would be upset if they found out that they had been spied on and the culprit was unapologetic. Finding a solution, on the other hand, was a whole different beast, her volatile personality was difficult to manage. Thousands of responses flashed through his head as he thought back to all he knew about her, there was a path to get through this, it was small but his brain worked overtime to find the best words.

"I guess, it's because I'm not really sorry," his counterintuitive answer finally came. Although he was retracting his apology Damien was not worried about agitating Jane any further, that was because, through his intense brainstorming, there were two features he was safely able to know about the mysterious girl. One she liked or respected straightforwardness, for instance, she had put aside her displeasure at losing the first Phase to him when he openly introduced himself and let her know that he was taking the competition between themselves seriously. She had responded well to that, which led directly to the next thing he was able to put together about the warrior.

She liked competition, or at least disliked losing, a sign of self-pride. It was found within her eyes, intensity born from a winner mentality, she became clearly upset from her loss in the Monster Hunting event. Using these two factors, he was able to see the best course of action, there was a flaw, but he would just come to him in a form he would be able to manage.

"You're not sorry? What are you talking about?"

Grimming slightly he answered, "I kept an eye on you because I consider you praiseworthy competition, keeping you in my sights is only natural if I respected your strength and took you seriously, don't you think?"

By admitting she was a strong opposition in his statement, he made Jane subconsciously want to agree with his statement, a subtle but effective tactic. Jane's expression lightened slightly, gauging she was at the very least mildly pleased with his explanation, he waited and didn't push any further.

Her response came a moment later, "I get it," she relented before she continued, "Well what do you want to talk about exactly then?"

The moment of truth, he needed to get his point across without sounding pitying or patronizing, "How about we help each other? Share our Status screens with each other, we can both benefit and not have to worry about today's task."

Fortunately, she didn't immediately physically reject the idea, her eyes narrowed slightly, "Want to share our Status screens? Sounds too risky, we'd be helping each other after all, we have no desire to do that. Not to mention that one of us will run a great risk," she stated flatly.

She was right, one of them would have to show their Status screen first, they ran the risk of the other person backing out of the deal and leaving them without points. In Damien's eyes, this risk was almost nonexistent, he had no intention of betraying anyone, and he had a decent grip on Jane's character. The possibility of betrayal was low, but for Jane who didn't know Damien well, it was a very real outcome.

"I'll go first then, besides aren't you curious about my stats too?"

Not giving a verbal response, she gritted her teeth slightly, the information would serve both of them greatly. It was a tempting proposal, fighting the idea briefly she remained silent. But with the small amount of deliberation, she came to a conclusion.

"Fine, you got a deal. I'll show you my Status screen after you show me yours, don't try anything tricky," her voice was hard and cold, she was desperate to get some points but she wouldn't concede any weakness to Damien.

A small smile on his face, he spoke, "Perfect, no tricks, here you go."

Within a moment, a blue screen appeared in front of Jane.

Class: Rogue

Name: Damien

Rank: D

Species: Human

Title: Bold

Lvl: 12

Passive Skills:

N/A

Active Skills:

Shadow Strike Lvl 5 (MAX) (10 MP)

Shadow Step Lvl 5 (MAX) (5 MP)

Assassinate Lvl 4 (15 SP & MP)

Lateo Jump Lvl 3 (10 MP & SP)

Bond:

Familiar Core A+

HP: 115/115

MP: 75/75

SP: 105/105

Skill Points: 18

STR: 51

EDR: 13

VIT: 17

AGI: 49

PER: 11

DEX: 11

INT: 31

WIS: 17

FAI: 0

Status Effects:

N/A

Blessings:

N/A

EXP: 4%

Fighting Style: Quick Strike

Staring at the stats of the person who was supposed to be her biggest competitor all Jane could feel was a growing sense of disappointment. It wasn’t that his stats weren’t impressive, they were, but it wasn’t good enough to compete against her. She would love to have a rogue like him in her party, but she wasn’t able to see an opponent in equal footing in him. She committed his important stats and skill names to memory before she gazed at her own Status screen.

Class: Flare Blitzer

Name: Jane Arian

Rank: F+

Species: Human

Title: Lucky Star

Lvl: 12

Passive Skills:

Constitution Lvl 5 (MAX)

Velox Step Lvl 5 (MAX)

Active Skills:

Flame Punch Lvl 5 (MAX) (10 MP & SP)

Flame Fury Lvl 5 (MAX) (15 MP & 10 SP)

Hellfire Immolation Lvl 5 (MAX) (15 MP & SP)

Dragon Strike Lvl 3 (25 MP & SP)

Bond:

N/A

HP: 120/120

MP: 65/65

SP: 120/120

Skill Points: 0

STR: 48 (+10)

EDR: 46 (+15)

VIT: 32

AGI: 22

PER: 17

DEX: 18

INT: 21

WIS: 15

FAI: 0

Status Effects:

N/A

Blessings:

N/A

EXP: 74%

Fighting Style: Ignis Rush

Congratulations, you have completed your daily task! +50 Points.

Not wanting to break her part of the deal, she sent her Status information to him. She hoped that seeing her numerical superiority would give Damien perspective of his current situation, but his face remained impassive as always. It infuriated her.

She wasn’t shallow and in need of him to awe at her strength, but Damien was an opponent she was having slight difficulty with, not in the way she traditionally does, however. She was confident in her power, if a problem came her way she would tackle it head-on with her powerful fists, but Damien was different, his eyes said it all. Or rather didn’t say anything at all, they were very quiet and gave nothing away to you. Despite her focus on physical strength, she was very perceptive of people, they often gave away their intentions with their eyes; trickery, hatred, jealousy, falseness, it was all easy to see in their eyes. But not him, it was hard to get under his skin and know what he was thinking. Even now where she thought he would show a little caution or weariness, he gave nothing away.

She wasn’t going to admit it, but she was grateful that he had approached her with this proposal, she had failed to get anyone’s trust and was likely not going to get someone to show her their Status screen if he hadn’t come along. But it was a defeat in her eyes, although it benefited her, it felt like a charity. There was only one way to restore her wounded pride.

“Let’s fight.”