A Petty Competition

(Third Peron Pov)

A week passed and students found themselves to have formed groups, Noah and Julianna were in the group of outcasts, albeit for different reasons. In Julianna's case, it was mostly due to her inactivity in making any conversation and her appearance while Noah had earned the ire of the boys in his classroom for quite stupid reasons and the girls in the classroom were unable to talk to him or approach him, his A- charm was in full swing and he was mostly sleeping in class, well, pretending to be asleep.

Of course, this had led to quite an unpleasant situation for Julianna.

Alas, she had already realized her mistake, she hated attention but by acquainting herself with Noah she had just done that.

Thus, she decided to distance herself from Noah after being confronted by some girls of the class.

Nothing good is going to come out of it, she thought.

As a result, Noah and Julianna both sat at different places now.

They did exchange a few greetings from time to time whenever passing each other by but that was all.

Julianna had focused herself on trying to understand more about the academy.

As the week ended, Julianna had noted quite a few things.

The teacher's non-intervention during the classes even when the students are using their phones or talking with each other in the middle of lectures.

The seniors who usually avoid talking to the first-years.

The importance of keeping as many APs with her as possible. She didn't yet know what use it might have but she needed to keep them with her.

And Noah had broken through his rank

He is now an F- ranker, the same as me...

Julianna thought to herself while playing with the tips of her hair.

Well, Noah's true rank is E+ but there was no need for others to know this.

Noah had simply decided to show his rank increase for obvious reasons. He planned on increasing his rank slowly and steadily inside the academy while his true rank would remain unknown to them.

The strength that Noah had shown to the academy in the training grounds was far higher than something a mere G+ ranker should have.

Noah is already in quite a tight scrutiny of the academy.

But as far as he was concerned? Damn, what is this? My popularity phase?

That's all he thought about his situation.

The lunch bell rang and many students stood up from their seats walking up towards the cafeteria. Julianna on the other hand simply pulled out a lunchbox from her bag. She had made herself homemade food.

On the other hand, Noah also pulled out his cheeseburger and started eating it.

And so, their daily schedule continued and the classes ended.

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Just like any other regular day, Julianna went to the training grounds and she found it to be quite filled with students.

Over the days, the increase in number of students has slowly spiked.

Today, she was sure the number of students was above 100.

Maybe, I will find a good sparring partner.

She thought, dueling with Noah was by no means fun. It was just one-sided.

Hell, unlike their first fight where she managed to land an attack on him, she had never again managed to do so.

She could feel it, Noah was growing stronger each day, far far stronger and way faster than anyone she had ever met in her life.

The more she learns about Noah, the more weirder he becomes in her eyes.

Well, enough about that.

Today, she was going to look for a duel partner, someone in her grade.

Someone she could learn from!

She scanned her surroundings, observing students to see who she might learn the most from. An axe user? A beast tamer? A scythe user? A brawler? A swordsman?

Soon her eyes fell on a boy with dark aqua-colored hair.

Did he get back the picture?

She thought as she recalled the incident when she had accidentally bumped into him, she had provided the picture to the 'Lost and Found' center.

Just as she was about to look away, the boy met her eyes and waved his hands.

Huh, does he remember me?

Julianna started looking behind her to make sure she wasn't just confusing with someone else.

That would be embarrassing.

She refused to have such a memory.

The boy started walking towards her.

Julianna was now sure, he remembered her.

Maybe, because my face is half burnt it left a memory. Still, I am wearing a hoodie and covering my face.

She thought.

"You are the girl from before, right?" The boy said and then started "Again, I am really sorry. By the way were you the one who-"

"Ah, yes" Julianna replied before he could finish his sentence, already guessing what he was going to say.

"Thank you!" The boy said with a smile.

So he did get back the picture.

"It's alright. Don't worry about it."

Julianna replied ready to leave.

The boy's enthusiasm was just too much for her to handle.

"Oh!" The boy exclaimed as if remembering something and then continued "Sorry for the late introduction, my name is Aqua, a first-year."

"Julianna, a first-year as well"

"There he is!"

Julianna looked towards the source of the loud voice, only to find a boy with red hair and caramel-colored eyes walking along with a girl with green hair and saffron eyes, walking towards them.

The boy was carrying a war hammer while the girl had a bird, sitting on her shoulders.

Must be his friends. I should get going.

Julianna thought activating her silent footsteps skill, ready to flee but before she could Aqua addressed her.

"Julianna meet my friends! He is Aleister Jones and she is Emma Woods, both first-years like us" He said turning towards Julianna, all she could do was give a nod, and by then they both had arrived, and she couldn't flee anymore!

"Dude, why haven't you been picking up your phone!?" Aleister complained

"Ah, I forgot it back in my dormitory," Aqua replied.

"Who forgets their phone!?" Aleister complained once again then turned towards Julianna "Oh, Let me introduce myself one more time, I am Aleister Jones, a first-year, an E ranker, and a hammer user. My class is Warrior and my charm is D-." Aleister said showing his white teeth, his mouth showing a smile.

"Ouch!"

"No one is interested in knowing your charm besides there's someone here with even higher charm than yours, absurdly high charm, Oh, I am Emma Woods, an E ranker and my class is beast tamer," Emma said giving Aleister a head chop as she turned her eyes on Aqua.

Aqua does have a high charm. Julianna thought.

"Julianna, F- ranker and a first year as well" She kept her introduction short.

"Nah, there's someone with even higher charm than me, I met him on the first day. What was his name again... I think his name was ...uh, let me think" Aqua said rubbing his temples.

"Talking about charms, this hot guy is going viral on the group chats of first-year students and let me tell you he is fucking hot," Emma said as she quickly took out her phone from her pockets.

"Even higher than Aqua? I am kinda interested, show me." Aleister said sliding closer to Emma and looking over her phone. 

Soon after some scrolling she found the photo and showed it to the group.

"Yeah, that's the guy I was talking about, the one I met at the entrance ceremony!" Aqua exclaimed

"That's Noah," Julianna said finding it quite an expected outcome but felt quite surprised that Aqua knew about Noah. She looked at him and so did he.

"You know him"

"He is my classmate."

"He is!" Emma exclaimed, jumping towards her, the bird on her shoulder flew away and disappeared. Julianna found herself surprised as she tried to look for the bird.

"Oh, don't worry about the bird, it can turn invisible, more importantly, tell me about him," Emma said, Aleistar pulled her back by grabbing her collar.

"Calm down, you are scaring her"

"You are just salty you are not the most handsome."

"Of course, I am!"

"Blegh, not cool"

Do they know each other from before? Julianna thought to herself observing their close relationship then shook her head as she spoke up.

"Well, you can just see him for yourself," Julianna said pointing towards one of the training sections that is filled with nothing but slimes.

"Um, what's there and why are there so many slimes," Aleister asked confused just like the other two.

"I don't know, there's been that many slimes for a long time," Aqua said, confused he had come here some time ago but every time he looked in that direction, all he saw was a field filled with slimes.

"Watch carefully, charm isn't the only thing he has got for himself," Julianna said turning towards the slime-filled section.

They all waited, interested to see what would happen and it happened for a single second, just a second they caught a glimpse of a boy with black hair and black eyes with a scythe on his back.

And then the section was once again filled with the slimes.

"Hey, did you see it..." Aleister asked rubbing his eyes.

"Wait and you will see it again" Julianna replied.

This time, with more focus, the trio looked towards the slime-filled section, in about a minute or so.

They once again caught a glimpse of a boy.

For just a moment.

"Noah has put it on auto. The slimes will keep pouring out until there's nothing left. That's where Noah is fighting and you know what it means if you can even catch his glimpse, right?" Julianna explained.

"Crazy," Aleister said as he felt sweat trickle down his back.

The fact that Noah's image was visible even if for a mere instance in a situation where the slimes were pouring out with no stopping meant Noah was killing them with an absurd speed in a space that is quite confined.

"Just what is his rank?" Emma asked.

"F-rank." said Juliana as she shrugged her shoulders.

"What?" This time it was Aqua who found himself surprised, he knew Noah was strong on the very first day he met him, and he was expecting him to be same rank as him so the news took him by quite a surprise.

"He became an F- ranker just last week"

The trio gasped, finding themselves surprised.

"Hey, can you do it?" Emma asked turning towards Aqua, expectations and curiosity clear in her eyes.

"Ah, maybe? I don't know I haven't tried but I should be able to."

This time it was Julianna who was surprised.

What's his rank? 

She wondered.

"He is a D- ranker. Crazy, right? But not as crazy as that guy." Aleister said.

Julianna simply nodded.

"Well, let's try it." Aqua suddenly said.

"Try what?" Emma asked surprised.

"Whether I can do it or not. No, I need to be able to do it even faster than him after all I am a higher ranker than him." With a grin, Aqua said in quite a nonchalant manner but all three of them could feel it, his eyes were serious.

Aqua, the original protagonist of the novel is quite competitive.

With his sword in his hand, Aqua started walking towards his section and put the same settings as Noah for his training.

The moment Aqua was done with enabling the settings, transparent walls emerged around Aqua's training section to ensure that no slimes were to go out and disturb other students' training.

Soon after slimes started pouring into the field, the protagonist waited for them to fill the entirety of the field and once they did, the swordsman began his fight.

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In about 4 hours, both the slime field sections were empty.

The original protagonist of the book and the current protagonist, both simply killed all the slimes that the academy had to provide, they will have to renew the batch once again.

"So, was I fast?" The protagonist asked huffing and puffing lying sprawled on the floor, drenched in his sweat.

"Yup, you were. Way faster than him" Aleister said.

"But he doesn't seem as tired as you are" Emma chimed in looking at Noah who had sweat tickling down on him as he used the towel to wipe it away, compared to Aqua who was drenched in sweat and sprawled on the ground Noah seemed to be in completely fine state.

It was only natural though, even with his sword technique what Aqua was trying to do is to fight off against a swarm of monsters in a closed space. He wasn't even able to swing his sword properly not only that the constant barrage of attacks were consuming his stamina and damaging him.

While is he a D- ranker and the slimes were mere G- rankers, it was still quite a hurdle to face off against a whole swarm of them all at once.

On the other hand, Noah has been working towards fighting off these slimes for a week. He knew the most efficient way to move in the situation and the most lethal spots of the slimes.

Aqua looked in the direction of Noah. This time instead of a scythe he took out a sword, Noah's eyes for a moment looked towards him, only for a moment.

Then Noah's fingers played with the keyboard.

And the walls once again emerged, this time filling the field with Goblins with armed weapons on them. Goblins are G ranked monsters.

Aqua grinned as he stood up and spoke.

"Tell me who wins this time"

The trio felt confused and then looked towards Noah who seemed to be starting with new monsters to fight, in understanding they all sighed.