Chapter 3:

After a few more rounds, the preliminary rounds were over and we were led back to our classrooms. Waiting for us there, were two women in nurses outfits. After sitting down at our desks, the room glowed green, and a calm feeling of a summer day blew over me. I felt my fatigue fading, as well as a few bruises from the fights. After a few more moments, the nurses left.

“Good job today everyone!” Mrs Z grinned. “Our class had 6-4 rank one preliminaries over their class.”

Excited mumbling erupted through the room, though it was quickly settled down by Mrs Z.

“Anyhow, today we will be expanding our knowledge on the last spell we learned, allowing us to see the stats of those around us.” Mrs Z said. “This is very crucial for combat since it will allow you to figure out whether or not to run.”

On the board, she started writing out of her teacher’s textbook in the ancient language. With the final stroke, she walked away from the board. The burning sensation of new knowledge being ingrained into my brain made me shudder, and I looked around. There were now basic stats listed alongside everyone’s levels and names:

Name: Alexander

Level: 1

Strength: 1

Power: 3

Speed: 1

Name: Rich

Level: 1

Strength: 2

Power: 0

Speed: 2

Name: Amber

Level: 1

Strength: 0

Power: 2

Speed: 2

Of all the students, their statistics were the most interesting. All of the other students were left with either 0’s in most categories or a one and zeroes. Of course, my stats were pretty impressive too:

Name: Atch

Level: 1

Strength: 1

Power: 1

Speed: 3

I heard footsteps from my right and turned to see Amber walking up to me.

“Hey, you’re Atch, right?” she said, standing a foot away from my desk. “I’m Amber.”

“Yea, what’s up?” I asked, confused as to why she came up to me out of the blue.

“I noticed your stats…” she said, smiling. “I was thinking of making a group of other strong people, wanna join?”

“Hmm…” I looked out the window for a second, then back at her. “No thanks, not interested.”

She kinda stood there for a second, processing my answer. Then she spoke once more.

“Wait, please reconsider, even Alexander said he’d join,” she pleaded, staring me in the eyes.

I laughed, “Even more reason to not join you.”

I shooed her away with my hand and rested my cheek against my hand.

She sighed and turned around, “I won’t give up on you!”

“Yea, yea,” I looked out the window, waiting for lunch break to start. “Lucifer, wake up!”

“What is it?” Lucifer asked, tapping his foot against the endless white floor. “I’ve got a date to meet.”

“Oh, uh, just wondering if I could learn another skill or something for the tournament,” I said, inspecting Lucifer’s stats.

Name: Lucifer

Level: 666

Strength: ???

Power: ???

Speed: ???

“How cliche,” I thought to myself. “The Devil’s level is 666.”

“Here,” Lucifer said, floating a piece of parchment paper to me. “That’s the spell Demonic Claws, it does what it sounds like it does.”

“Thanks,” I said, the spell burning into my mind.

“Get out of here kid, I got to go!” Lucifer waved, fixing his bowtie.

Just like nothing ever happened, I was back in class. Staring at my left hand and flexing it, my fingertips changed into razor-sharp, black claws. I grinned and closed my hand into a fist, my fingers reverting back to normal.

“Last thing before lunch!” Mrs Z spoke up, quieting down the classroom. “We’ll be going into the school’s hunting ground after lunch.”

Mrs Z studied the room, making sure everyone was listening closely. “After watching all the fights today, I’ve come to the conclusion that you are all more than ready for the kindergarten hunting ground. You may also know the place as hunting ground 0.”

Rich raised his hand, “Is the hunting ground the place we learn to fight monsters?”

“Correct, Rich,” Mrs Z smiled. “As you all may already know, outside of most cities, monsters roam freely, it is the duty of the Knights to defend the city and serve the greater good.”

“Serve the greater good,” I thought to myself. “Yeah right, I was here to make this world mine, and take out my vengeance upon it.”

The bell rang and everyone started standing up and heading toward the door. Grabbing my lunchbox, I headed over to the curb where I sat with Rich yesterday. Looking through my bag I pulled out a sandwich and some tangerines. Peeling the tangerines, the sweet, refreshing smell wafted to my nose. Breathing in, I ate a few slices.

Rich walked over and sat down beside me.

“What’s up,” I said, continuing to eat my tangerines.

“Eh, I’m kinda bummed I lost the match today,” Rich sighed.

“Oh, yea, that was too bad,” I replied. “But don’t worry, that ice boy was really strong.”

“Yea, he even put up a decent fight against Alexander,” Rich laughed.

There were some footsteps behind me, and I turned around to see Alexander and his crew walking over.

“Speak of the Devil,” I stood up. “What do you want, Alexander?”

“Just saying hi,” Alexander grinned, looking us down.

“You want the homework or something?” I shrugged, fishing through my bag.

“Nah, I actually have a better idea,” he grinned. “I’ll drop the homework thing if you guys are able to kill more monsters than us in the hunting ground. On top of that, I’ll do your homework for the year”

“And if not?” I asked, intrigued.

“If not, then you’ll drop out of the school,” he chuckled, his friends snickering behind him.

“Don’t do it, Atch,” Rich warned, frowning at Alexander.

“I’m down, but how do we track how many monsters we kill?” I grinned.

“Don’t worry, the school’s got that covered,” he smiled back and turned around.

He and his crew walked away, back to their lunch table. I turned to Rich who looked at me, confused.

“Why, Atch?” he asked.

“I dunno,” I laughed. “Just trying to have some fun.”

He looked at me in a confused worry, “But, how are we supposed to kill more than their whole group?”

“Not a problem,” I cracked my knuckles. “We’ll just have to go recruit some more people.”

“Who though? The only other notable classmates are Amber and her group, and they've already partnered up with Alexander,” Rich sighed. “It’s a lost cause.”

“Well, I actually had some other people in mind,” I grinned. “However, all this banks on my gut feeling that we’ll be entering the grounds with the other class.”

Rich’s eyes lit up, “I see, that could work…”

We walked over to the first of the wooden play structures, seeing Brett sitting there with a few friends. They were laughing from the upper story, sitting in the shade of the arched roof of the tower. There was a roped net that was climbable to the top, so I quickly grappled on and made my way to them. The climb was maybe ten or fifteen feet, nothing much, and I easily made it to the top.

Peeking my head in, I could see all their stats. Brett was the only one notable:

Name: Brett

Level: 1

Strength: 1

Power: 2

Speed: 2

“Hey, you’re Brett, right?” I asked, grinning.

“Yea, who’re you?” he asked, putting down his lunch.

“I’m Atch, from the other class,” I said. “I saw your fight, you look strong.”

He pursed his lips and frowned, before lighting up,” Oh! You’re the one who beat Greg and that fat boy! You look pretty strong too, wanna fight?”

“Nah, I’m not here for a fight, just wanted to ask you a few questions,” I smiled, having no reason to fight the boy.

“Oh, well go on then,” he sighed, taking a bite out of his rice ball.

“First question, is your class going to hunting ground 0 after lunch?” I asked.

“Yep, are you?” he replied.

“Yea, second question,” I said, looking him dead in the eyes. “I’m trying to form a group of strong people from our grade. You in?”

“Hmm…” he scratched his chin and looked at both of his friends, they said nothing. He then shrugged, “Yea, why not, I guess.”

“Cool, see you there,” I gave him a thumbs up and jumped down from the rope web, landing gracefully on the soft wood chips below.

“How’d it go?” Rich asked from his sitting position next to me. “Is he in?”

“Yea, he’s in,” I grinned, helping him up. “On to the next member!”

Surveying the playground, I saw ice boy riding on one of the play horses, running around the track. I looked at Rich with a sheepish grin, and he looked back at me. Then we both headed over.

Stopping in front of Ice Boy, I held out my hand, “Hey, I’m Atch, from the other class.”

He stopped and shook my hand, “I’m Evan, Evan LaGetz. Nice to meet you.”

Name: Evan

Level: 1

Strength: 1

Power: 2

Speed: 1

“Hey Evan, I’m Rich,” Rich said, holding out his hand and shaking Evan’s. “We didn’t really get to meet during the fights.”

“Hey, Rich, it was fun,” he replied.

“Yea, anyway, I’m here with a proposition for you,” I started. “I saw your fights and you looked pretty strong.”

“Thank you, even though I lost to the fire boy,” he grinned. “So what’s the deal?”

“Basically, I’m making a group of strong people from our grade for the hunting grounds,” I repeated what I said to Brett. “You in?”

“Yea, of course!” he laughed. “I don’t have any other friends anyway.”

“Okay, we’ll see you there,” I turned around and headed back to the curb.

Upon arrival, I sat down and finished my lunch. Rich sat next to me and ate as well.

As the lunch bell sounded, we quickly packed up and ran back to class. Standing

outside the door was Mrs Z, who was waiting for all the children to come. As everyone walked over and stood around her, she counted us to make sure everyone was there. After nodding her head and confirming, she spoke up.

“Alright class, we’ll be going now,” she said, making her way through the crowd of small people.

We followed her for a minute or two, walking through the playground and out a half gate to the right of the classroom. Walking through the school’s garden, we stepped along a few stepping stones, going under many old, wooden arches. A few moments later, we arrived at another small wooden half gate. Past the half gate was a spiraling, light blue portal that sat between a stone arch.

“Here we are,” Mrs Z said, entering through the portal. “Everyone follow me inside.”

As students started filing in after Mrs Z, I turned to see the other class come up behind us. Their teacher was a middle-aged man, probably around 42 to 45 years of age. I looked around for Brett and Evan, before seeing them somewhere down the line. Turning back, I entered the portal.

Instantly, my body was on the other side, in what seemed to be a vast, green, plains clearing with a small forest to the left. Rich was already waiting for me inside, and he nodded to me as I entered.

“Hey,” I said, taking in the surroundings. “We’re just waiting on the other class to come through.”

“Okay, sounds good,” he sat down on the soft, light green grass.

I sat down next to him. The clearing was empty of the so-called monsters, I didn’t even see one. Though, in the distant trees, I felt the ominous presence of something. I turned my head to Mrs Z as she cleared her throat.

“Okay children, it seems like all of our class is here,” she said, placing her hand on the floor.

A smooth, square, stone monument, about three feet tall, shot from the grass in front of her. There were a few unreadable engravings on it in the ancient language. Mrs Z then placed a small slip of paper on the top of it. The monument glowed a bright orange along the engravings before the light beamed up from the top of the stone. A large hologram now shone above the monument, listing each of our names and the number 0.

There were a few oo’s of awe from the crowd before Mrs Z spoke again. “This is the ‘scoreboard’. The number next to each of your names is the number of monsters you’ve slain.”

I looked over my shoulder to see the last of the other class enter and the portal close. They all sat as their teacher did the same as Mrs Z, creating the stone monument from the earth. I turned my attention back to Mrs Z.

“Anyhow, have fun, and make sure to travel in pairs of two or more!” Mrs Z smiled. “Be back by sundown... and good luck, children.”

I heard rustling from my left and turned to see Alexander and his friends stand up and walk to the forest. A few of his other lackeys also stood and followed him.

“Time to go then, huh,” I stood up and turned my head over my shoulder, seeing the other class finish as well. “Let’s go, Rich.”

“Okay,” he grinned standing next to me.

A few moments later, Brett and Evan walked over.

“Hey guys, we ready to go?” Brett said, grinning. “I’m pumped!”

“Yea, let’s go,” I smiled, turning and walking toward the forest.

Upon entry, Rich snapped a thick branch from a tree and flipped it in his hands.

“This should work,” he nodded to himself.

“Hmm?” I asked.

“Oh, just needed a weapon,” Rich said. “I’d be pretty useless without it.”

I turned back to the forest, trudging through the thicket and passing through the trees. Minutes passed, before we ended up at a large clearing. At the center of the clearing was a large group of green slimes, exactly like the ones seen in video games.

“Slimes, huh,” Brett said. “Easy enough.”

“Should we come up with a plan?” Evan asked.

“Nope! Let’s do this!” Brett yelled, dashing from the trees and heading toward the slimes.

Behind him, above his right shoulder, was a small orb of water, probably only four inches in diameter. I sighed, and followed him, shooting out of the trees. Flexing my fingers, they turned into the demonic claws. Brett was a few feet ahead of me, and he reached the pack of slimes first. With the swipe of his hand, water shot in a blade like arc, cutting into one of the slimes. The slime gyrated its body, trying to restore the gash Brett made. Before it could Brett superman punched the slime, shooting water and slime everywhere. I grinned, it looked like Brett got stronger after that fight with Alexander. Maybe he picked up a few of Alexander’s techniques.

Dashing forward, I cut through the nearest slime. The cold green slime cut like jelly through my fingers, slicing with ease. Stopping my momentum, I launched a quick flurry of attacks, eviscerating the slime. With a splash, the slime disintegrated into water along the grass.

Turning right, I saw Rich, jumping wildly into the air with the stick raised above his head. A small purple charge of electricity vibrated the air around the stick. As Rich’s feet hit the floor, he stabbed the stick down into the slime. The slime shuddered as the stick pierced through its core and into the dirt. Rich ripped the stick out and flung excess slime to the dirt. As he did, the slime melted into water.

“Hell yea!” Rich yelled, readying his blade for another go.

I threw him a thumbs up, before seeing Evan run in from behind him with his ice gauntlets equipped. Upon reaching the closest slime, Evan punched out, chunking a huge piece off of the slime in one hit. Gripping both hands over his head in a fist, he smashed down, completely destroying the slime.

“Just so you guys know!” Rich announced. “You don’t need to focus on destroying the slime, just the core in its center!”

“Ah, that makes things a lot easier,” I grinned, dashing forward once more and into the large group of slimes.

Running through them all I pressed my fingers together, only poking at each slimes core. As I passed, slimes seemingly exploded behind me, each of their cores destroyed.

After a few minutes, all the slimes were cleared out and we all sat down on the cool, damp grass. Strangely, it felt like the grass was drying by the second. Looking at Brett I watched as water from the earth pulled up, pooling and expanding his orb.

“Woah, you can do that?” Rich exclaimed. “That’s so cool!”

“Yea!” Evan grinned. “That’s so cool!”

Brett smirked, standing up, “We ready to keep going?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” I said, also getting up.

We proceeded deeper into the forest, venturing forth I looked up at the sky, making sure the sun was still high. Grinning, I pushed forward through the brush, cutting through the branches and leaves in our way.

After a few minutes of walking, there was the faint sound of fighting at the other side of the clearing. Quietly, we hid behind some trees at the edge of the clearing. Standing inside the large clearing was Alexander and his friends. They were in the middle of a fight with a bunch of slimes. Brett started moving forward, but I stopped him.

“Wait,” I said, holding my hand to his chest.

“Huh, what?” Brett said, confused, though he stood down.

“I’ve got an idea,” I said, whispering my idea to the group.

“Alright, let’s do this!” Rich grinned.

“Ready, Brett?” I asked.

“Ready, Atch,” he replied, smiling as he held his hand extended before him. “Time to get some revenge on that fire boy!”

“Good!” I laughed, dashing out of the brush, kicking up leaves in my wake.

As I ran forward, Evan and Rich followed a few feet behind me in a triangular formation with me at the front. I watched as columns of water shot up from beneath Alexander and his friends, knocking them off guard and to the floor. As they fell, we shot past them, finishing off every last one of the slimes in a quick few seconds.

Turning, I grinned down on Alexander, “Thanks for the kills.”

He stood up, literally steaming as his clothes instantly dried. “Atch, are you really looking for a fight?”

“Hmm, I think so?” I mocked, throwing him a thumbs down to rile him up.

“W-wait, Atch,” Evan whispered to me. “I’m didn’t know we were gonna fight them.”

“If you don’t wanna, you don’t have to,” I whispered back, still staring Alexander down.

“You talkin smack?” Alexander yelled, rushing toward me with hands ablaze. “You’ll regret this!”

“Better make up your mind soon,” I said to Evan, rushing forward with my claws out.

A foot away before colliding with Alexander, I dropped to a slide. Spinning under his grasp, I clawed out, cutting into his legs. The 1/10 of power I gained from him surged through me. As Kenny and Jordan rushed me, Rich jumped in front, blocking both of their attacks with his tree branch. Turning back to my fight, Alexander thrust his arms out, singing my shirt as I rolled to the side.

“Those claws sting a bit,” Alexander said, peering down at his clawed shins and calves.

“Want me to let you in on a quick secret?” I said, dashing forward.

We collided, Alexander gripped my left shoulder tightly, burning through my shirt and onto my skin. I grabbed Alexander’s right shoulder digging my claws into his flesh.

“You’re too much of a threat to my power at this school,” I whispered to him. “You want me to kill you, or do you want to drop out?”

“Stop bluffing!” Alexander yelled, pushing me off of him.

My left shoulder throbbed with pain as my skin steamed, still burning. I grinned at Alexander, then dashed forward. Taking one of his punches to the face, I stabbed up, piercing through his right arm near the elbow joint. Trading blows and holding our ground, we fought. However, each time I hit him, I got stronger.

With the tenth blow, I quickly side kicked him, sending him flying into the nearby brush. I was beaming with power, while Alexander was fully drained. I dashed over to him, my footsteps light and quick. I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d have this power, so I had to make it count.

I picked him up by the collar, “Leave the school, or death?”

He winced, though he was unable to move, “I-I-I swear I’ll leave the s-s-school!”

I threw him roughly against a tree and walked back into the clearing, gracefully passing over the brush. By now, all of Alexander’s friends and henchman had been defeated, they all scurried away into the trees. I walked over to the team and held my fist out. At first, everyone stood, not knowing what to do. Brett was first, he grinned and took a step forward, touching knuckles with me. Then Rich, then Evan.

“Nice work guys, I was right about you all,” I laughed. “They’ll think twice before messing with us once more.”

“Yea,” Rich nodded, then looked at Evan. “It was for the best.”

Evan nodded back, “I hope so.”

We broke the circle and headed back into the trees, the sun was beginning to set.

An hour later, we arrived at the large clearing we started at. Most of the other groups were already there, including Alexander’s. Alexander was a mess, his bloodied face and body made others around him sick. I guess they were just unfit for the crowd though. The nurses were walking around, healing everyone individually.

“Pretty gnarly wound you got there,” a nurse said to me, hovering her hand over my shoulder.

I only nodded my head in response, watching as a small, green glow emanated from her palm.

“Alright, all better,” she smiled at me, then turned away to help others.

I rolled my arm in its socket, testing to see if it was fixed. It was, it felt brand new. Looking at where the gash would’ve been, the skin was all healed, not even a scar.

“Pretty powerful,” I thought to myself. “Just imagine how much this would’ve helped back in my old life.”

My thought was cut off by Mrs Z, “Okay, it looks like everyone’s here, so we’ll be going over the scoreboard.”

I had totally forgotten about the scoreboard, as I looked over at her in anticipation.

“Would you look at that,” she said, making a large arc over her head with both hands, expanding the scoreboard to the top ten. “Great work everyone, the top three will be receiving some prizes back in class!”

The first place number had a large golden crown surrounding the number 1, the second place had a silver crown, and the third had a bronze one.

The leaderboard read:

Rank 1: Atch Leaf - 20

Rank 2: Evan LaGetz - 13

Rank 3: Alexander Lilar - 11

Rank 4: Maximus Eden- 9

Rank 5: Amber Kayn - 7

Rank 6: Brett Mester - 7

Rank 7: Kenny McIck- 7

Rank 8: Rich Breeze - 6

Rank 9: Abby Viola- 5

Rank 10: Diana Moon- 5

“Maximus Eden, who’s that?” I asked Rich.

“Oh, Max is in our class, I think he transferred in today,” Rich replied, scanning the crowd.

I shrugged it off, and looked back up at the board.

“Well, looks like I won anyway,” I chuckled to myself, turning back to Rich. “See, it all worked out, didn’t it?”

“Lucky, lucky,” Rich sighed, then scratched his chin. “Though I didn’t realize you guys killed so many more than I did.”

“Okay class, we’ll be heading back now,” Mrs Z said, closing the leaderboard. “Even if you didn’t make it on, you all did well!”

She placed her hand on the floor and a blue portal swirled into existence. Stepping to the side, she ushered everyone in. We walked for a few minutes back through the school grounds, before making it back to the classroom. Sitting back in our seats, we waited for Mrs Z to come back with the prizes. Everyone waited anxiously for her return.

Upon arrival, the class was silent. Mrs Z was wheeling a large, heavy-looking, stone box on a cart. When she finally made it to the podium, she sighed and placed the box on the floor.

“Okay class,” she wheezed. “Time for the prizes! Would Atch please come up first.”

I looked around, seeing all eyes on me. Standing up, I slowly made my way from the back left corner of the room to the front.

“Inside the box is an infinite space, filled with training catalysts ranked 1-9. 1 being the worst and 9 being the best.” Mrs Z said. “When you place your hand inside, activate your magic and one will come to you.”

“Okay,” I replied, taking my last steps up to the stone box.

Upon arrival, the stone lid magically slid back, leaving an opening into the pitch-black insides. I wearily placed my hand inside and activated my claws. I felt something fly into my palm, and I pulled my hand out. Sitting inside my hand was a round, green pill, about the size of a marble.

“Rank 3 magic pill,” Mrs Z said. “It’s your lucky day!”

“How is rank 3 lucky?” I asked, ticked off by the low ranking pill. For some reason, I had expected greatness.

“Well, rank 3 is pretty uncommon to get from the chest as a matter of fact,” she replied. “It’s only a 20% chance.”

“Eh, whatever,” I turned around and headed back to my seat. “What do I do with this thing anyway?”

“When you get home, eat the pill and meditate,” she said. “The effects of the green pill will greatly boost the rate in which your magic power level grows for a short time.”

I nodded and watched as Alexander stood up to get his prize–– as he had gotten third and Evan wasn’t in our class.

Alexander turned and looked at me, slightly frightened, before placing his hand in the chest. A few seconds later, he pulled his hand back out. Sitting in his palm was a sandy, tan color, cube-shaped pill.

“Wow!” Mrs Z applauded. “A rank 2 strength pill!”

“Still worse than mine,” I mumbled, staring Alexander down as he turned. “That pill will be mine by the end of the school day.”

A few minutes later, the school bell rang, signaling the end of the day. As the students started getting up, I walked over to Alexander’s table.

“Hey, Alexander,” I smiled.

“H-hey, Atch,” he replied.

“So, that pill,” I stared him down. “Hand it over.”

He looked sadly back at me and lowered his head. Fishing through his pocket he pulled it out and placed it in my hand.

“Thanks, maybe you can re-apply to the school next year,” I laughed, turning back around and heading back out the door.