Genius

I didn't remember falling asleep, but when I woke up I felt incredibly refreshed. In the morning, after I had finished getting ready, I started walking towards my class. After checking my phone, I saw that my first class of the day would be math. While walking to class, I remembered who the girl I ran by yesterday was.

Nicole Smith, one of the heroines of the story, and one of the people who were more talented than the hero with magic.

The hero, Collin, was a pretty balanced character. He had a natural talent at everything, but he wasn't able to reach the pinnacle of anything. Nicole would reach the level of Archmage, while Collin only ever became a Master.

Collin would reach the level of sword master, but he could never reach the level of sword saint. This all led him to having to build relationships, and develop strategies to win fights. He wasn't overwhelmingly powerful by himself, to the point of being able to run through the entire story by himself.

However, I was the person who had completely cleared the game without strategies like that. Instead I liked relying on my own abilities to win fights in the game. I had once beat the game relying only on basic attacks, no skills at all.

However I was worried, after meeting the Hero, he didn't seem like such a good guy. He also seemed kind of stupid, which didn't bode well for the progression of the story. The story followed as this, from what I remembered.

A bunch of stuff would happen during the freshman year, that would bring the hero together with his main party. The events they would go through would strengthen their connection, and as a player you would select your party. However would the current hero be able to do that without someone controlling him?

Sophomore year would be about honing one's skills, and having interactions with the different evil forces that would be prevalent through the rest of the story. Such as the Fanatics, a religious group that wanted to usher in the apocalypse.

There was the Rebel Army. A group of commoners who wanted to flip the status quo, to put everyone on the same level. Basically they didn't like that there were certain people with long lineages, like the Black family, that held incredibly influence over the government and had several fortunes worth of money.

There were also the Demonic Army, multiple criminal organizations, and the other races. There would be plenty of enemies to meet, but that was only from the perspective of the hero in the game. I was now a resident of this world, which meant that I was able to do things differently.

First, I wasn't exactly opposed to certain criminal organizations, as they didn't hurt people. They simply broke the law. The biggest example would be The Hand. This was an information gathering organization, which focused solely on collecting information, and they were even involved in many charities. This was all due to the leader, who was an orphan themselves, which made them want to give back to the community.

This was one criminal organization I would be willing to work with, but the Hero adamantly refused to work with them at all. Even with the knowledge that they did good work with the money they made, and they treated their employees well. I always though that was a little stupid.

I suddenly stopped in place.

"Wait... Since I'm not the hero... I don't have to act like one either?"

With that thought, a smile crept on my face. I was free from the restrictions of the game, which meant I could enjoy myself to the fullest.

I started walking again, with renewed vigor. I wasn't going to be a third rate villain...

I'll be the best.

****

Mathematics was my first class, and I had somehow overslept so I was sprinting to my class. Along the way I could hardly see anyone, other than fellow late students, which was disheartening.

'I should have set the alarm for earlier! That way even if I slept a little past my alarm at least I would still be early! I knew I shouldn't have stayed up watching that cooking show!'

As I was running, I was reprimanding myself, when I turned a corner and ran into someone.

"Ow ow ow! HEY! Shouldn't you be hurrying to get to cl-"

It was when I looked up that I noticed, sitting before me, was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. He had deep black eyes, and beautiful flowing hair. He didn't have any particular expression, but he looked incredibly calm. As if the world ending would not have bothered him at this moment.

He turned his head up, and looked at me while smiling gently.

"I'll make sure to walk a little faster from now on."

With that, he began to stand up and turned to walk away, but he suddenly stopped in place.

He turned around slowly, looking me up and down, before making his way to my eyes. It felt as though he could see everything about me... As if my body were bare before him.

Then he said something that caused me to stop being able to think.

"Your name is Amanda Linnette, right?"

"Huh? Uh.. Yes?"

He then flashed an extraordinary smile at me, and said the next words shamelessly.

"I want you."

****

I was walking to class slowly, taking my time, when some idiot ran into my back and knocked me over. I turned around to look at who it was, when I realized it was some nerdy girl with glasses and brown hair.

She said some snooty comment about walking faster, so I said a sarcastic reply and got up to leave. That was, until I realized who she was. 

'Amanda Linnette? The future Saintess.'

I turned to her, and without thinking said an incredibly easy to misinterpreted sentence.

"I want you."

Immediately I realized my mistake for choice of words, when I noticed her face had turned bright red, along with her ears getting noticeably pink as well. She looked down embarrassed and replied.

"I... We don't even know each other very well yet... But maybe if in the futu-"

Before she could say something embarrassing, I interrupted her.

"I meant that I wanted to get to know you. I'm sorry, I said it in such a weird way, but I have heard of you before. You're very well known for having incredibly potent Holy magic."

Immediately she showed a look of realization, and at the same time she became even more flustered.

"I-I'M SO SORRY I THOUGHT YOU MEANT..."

She didn't finish her sentence, instead she gave a small whimper and ran off.

I watched her run down the hallway, and enter a room further down.

I laughed a little because I knew all the Freshmen would be in the same classes, so I was also heading to the same room as her.

I did mean it though, that I wanted her, but I didn't mean it in an intimate way. She was undoubtedly the best healer in the game, and she was incredibly helpful against undead enemies.

Although... She wasn't unattractive in the slightest, however for now everyone was too young for me to show any interest in them.

Even with me going through puberty currently, I still had the memories of my past life, and I just couldn't see my peers as adults. They were only 16 year olds, and in a modern society 18 was what was considered an adult.

So these were children to me. I could already predict how this dissonance would cause problems in the future, but it was fine. I would just people I wasn't ready for a relationship currently, or that I wanted to focus on training my strength instead of flirting.

As I was thinking about some small things like this, I had already arrived at the door Amanda just went through, and I walked into the classroom. Immediately upon entering, I noticed Collin on the ground by the teacher's podium, doing a headstand with his legs on the ground and his arms behind his back.

The teacher was none other than Professor Friese. Yes, the muscle headed combat instructor also taught math. That was because he liked it, as he felt it was straight forwards, just like how men should be. He currently was in a track suit, explaining a problem on the whiteboard, when he turned to me as I walked in.

"You're late, Mr. Black."

Was all the professor said. He offered no other hint as to what I should say, or do, but I knew what he wanted.

I put my bag on the ground, and took off my blazer. I dropped to the ground and began doing push ups.

Everyone else in the room was confused, but I didn't care what they thought.

I knew that he wanted to see some 'sincerity'.

With that, I would do push ups until he told me to stop. Which shouldn't take long, because I had terrible stamina and strength.

And true to my predictions, when I got to my sixth push up, where my arms were trembling and my breath was ragged he called for me.

"That's good enough Mr. Black. Go to your seat, and don't be late tomorrow or you know what will happen."

Struggling to stand, I barely managed to push myself up. I grabbed my bag, dragging it on the ground, and turned to the professor.

"Thanks for the leniency, sir."

With a nod from the teacher, I turned and walked to my seat. Even though I was covered in sweat, it didn't diminish my good looks in the slightest, as I had all eyes on me as I walked to my seat in the very back.

It was the only open seat, and I chuckled a little as I sat down.

This was because of who sat next to me.

Nicole Smith. The future Archmage, was sitting in the back alone. This was because she was terrible at socializing, and because of her blank expressions she was perceived as cold.

When in reality she was just socially inept. She only silently glanced at me as I sat down, and didn't say anything.

'Yeah, I shouldn't expect anything anyways.'

With that thought, I began to try and control my breathing. It took a few minutes, but during that time I was caught up to the current math lesson. It was simple trigonometry, and thanks to my past memories I was more than familiar with the subject.

Since that was the case, I decided to slack off, but there was only one way to be allowed to slack off in Mr. Friese's class.

"Does anyone want to come up and try to solve this question using the formula I just explained?"

The room was dead silent, since most people here were combat oriented admits, they didn't care about their academic studies as much. No one wanted to embarrass themselves on the first day of class, except one.

Professor Friese noticed a singular hand raised, all the way in the back of the class. He looked at the person, and motioned for them to come up.

So I walked down, and went up to the whiteboard. I then began to work out the problem on the board, and showed my work on how I got there. It was all very clean and orderly, and I was very satisfied when I saw Collin's look of shock as I effortlessly answer a question he was completely lost on.

After I was done, I took a step back, and let the professor look over my work. After a brief moment, he nodded and spoke.

"Very good Mr. Black. It looks like you grasped the equation completely. Take a seat."

With that I went back to my seat, and instead of organizing my notes to get ready for the next question, I pulled my back onto the table and used it as a pillow.

I was soon fast asleep, but I knew the teacher wouldn't bother me at all. I already proved to him that I knew the subject he was teaching, so he would let me do whatever I wanted.

****

'This kid is quite the character.'

I was currently standing at the front of a classroom filled with freshmen, as I did every year, but this was the first time I had someone openly sleeping during my lesson. On the first day as well.

Atlas Black. Rumored to be a worthless degenerate and womanizer, but I couldn't disagree more. I watched his fight yesterday, and I knew he was not as simple as he would seem. He was really shit at fighting... But he didn't give up easily. 

Also he improved tremendously during the fight, even though there were only a few blows exchanged, he adapted faster than I had ever seen someone learn. He adjusted his strength to accommodate for his terrible stamina, and used the minimal amount of movement to exert more strength. He also didn't bother trying to exchange punches with his opponent, instead he went for a grapple.

His arm bar was incredibly well executed. He was able to pull his opponents arm back, even though he was much weaker, due to his proper use of leverage.

Now he just solved an advanced trigonometry question, which is usually only solvable if you knew the rest of the equation, since I only taught them half of the equation. This meant he has already learned this. 

But the rumors were that he skipped all his lessons to philander around at bars.

Then how could he know the subject so well?

The only explanations would be that either he was pretending the whole time to be useless... Or he was a genius. A genius that was wasting his potential.

'And I can train him into an incredible fighter.'

I was now looking much more forward to this year of teaching.

****

I woke up when class was ending, and quickly gathered my things for the next class. The rest of my classes were not going to let me sleep during them, so I would need to actually pay attention.

As I was walking to my class, I noticed that there was someone walking next to me the entire time.

I glanced to the side, where Nicole was matching my pace. I didn't say anything, since she wasn't bothering me anyways, and simply allowed her to walk with me.

I thought about her character in the game, and it was definitely possible this was her attempt to become friends with me. I simply let it be, and silently walked to our next class together. It was history, which I closely paid attention, since unlike the game I needed to learn the setting in this world.

We started with the establishment of the country, and I found out that there were 13 founding families, all of which held considerable influence in this day and age. There were five descendants of those 13 families in this freshman class. 

Smith, Linnette, Tudor, Rondel and Black families. Nicole Smith and Amanda Linnette were two people I have already interacted with, but the other two were people I didn't care about to get close to.

Reed Tudor was an asshole, who was incredibly insecure and was a bit of a snake. He was a cunning little bastard who was engaged in a successor battle with his two brothers. I knew that in the game he ends up ordering successful assassinations on both his brothers.

He wasn't important to me, or the story, at all. So I wasn't going to bother talking to him.

The other one was almost just as bad. Michelle Rondel, a vain bitch who was a gold digger. The Rondel family were powerful, but they didn't have much money. Instead they raised their daughters to become seducers, and they would marry the rich or influential. Barely keeping their family relevant. 

She would try to seduce the hero later, when he steps into the limelight as an upcoming pillar of the country, but at that point he has already chosen his love interest. So there is no chance for Michelle to weasel her way into the hero's circle of friends.

Two useless people when compared to Nicole or Amanda. I listened with great interest, and before I knew it the class was over. I had taken extensive notes on my laptop, but I would have to do more research on my own if I wanted in depth information of the current state of things.

News about politics were outdated within minutes, so it was important to stay current. After our history class, we would begin our combat lessons for the day.

I walked next to Nicole to a sports field. Once we got to the sports field, we sat on some bleachers and waited for Professor Friese to arrive. It didn't take more than a few minutes, but by that time all the students had already arrived. The class quickly began the lesson with a basic conditioning exercise, but for me it was the hardest part of the lesson.

We were meant to run ten miles as a 'light' warm up. Of course, for me I was barely able to even do one, but thankfully the professor walked up and told me that I could call it there. If they were to wait for me to finish ten miles, there would be no time for sparring.

I thanked him, through my desperate attempts to catch my breath, and walked over to the other students who already finished their running.

We were then told to find a partner, and spar for the remainder of the time. We would spar with our partner until close to the end of the class, when we would then have a sort of class ranking tournament. This would decide our class rankings and would change every week.

I half expected people to flood towards me, because from my terrible stamina it was obvious that I didn't train often. This was the perfect opponent to try and make themselves look good, however the first person to approach me was a surprise to everyone.

"Please spar with me, Atlas."

It was Nicole Smith. A genius with the sword, and the person everyone expected to be ranked number 1 in the class. I looked at her with interest.

'This might not be a bad thing. If I could fight her, I could grow much faster than normal.. Okay let's do it.'

"Sure."

With that, to everyone's surprise, we walked to a fighting ring. Along the way Nicole grabbed a wooden katana, while I simply walked into the ring unarmed. She looked at my empty hands and raised an eyebrow.

'You're going to fight me unarmed?'

I looked back at her and simply smiled while nodding. She nodded lightly after that, and got into position. Unlike other fights, Professor Friese was personally refereeing this spar.

"Aim to subdue your opponent, and any attempt to maim or kill your opponent won't be allowed. Do you both understand?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"Get ready... START!"

The moment he shouted, Nichole rushed forward. The gap between us was shortened instantly, even though she was only a freshman and hadn't learned to harness her mana to empower her body yet. I couldn't see her move, but I knew the attack pattern she displayed the most during her first year in the game.

'Upward swing to the opponent's head.'

I tilted my head back by two inches, and immediately the wooden katana brushed past my face. She immediately disengaged, creating distance between the two of us, and she became increasingly wary of me.

I touched the tip of my nose, where I felt blood begin to drip from the skin that was shaved off with just her simple swing.

However instead of getting scared... My blood was boiling.

I was so happy to be able to fight, and against someone so incredibly strong.

However the disadvantages of fighting unarmed were going to be hard to overcome. Nicole's next attack would be one of two things: either a horizontal slash at the waist, or a stab fake into a horizontal slash. I waited for her to take a position, and depending on what she did I would make my move.

We were both watching each other closely, and so was the rest of the class. Everyone was engrossed in our spar.

However I didn't see any of these people. I was completely focused on the opponent standing across from me.

Every movement of Nicole's entered my eyes, and I knew all her attack patterns.

Nicole then slightly raised her shoulder, and I immediately knew she was going for a stab fake. She once again instantly closed the distance between us, and started to stab towards my chest.

'With this I will end the fig-'

However I didn't dodge the strike, instead I lowered my body and dashed forward.

I could see her become flustered, and as her sword was in line with my head, she pulled it back. Afraid to hurt me, so I used that.

When she tried to pull back, it was too late. My hand grabbed the side of her uniform, and I pulled that down as hard as I could. She leaned slightly to the side from the force of the pull, and I abused that loss of balance. I lowered my entire body, and turned around, swinging my leg and sweeping her leg out from under her.

But I knew the fight wasn't over.

As she was falling, and everyone thought I had gained an advantage, an impossible to track brown blur slammed into my head.

As my head was thrown to the side from the force of the hit, I made eye contact with Nicole. She quickly used her hand to catch herself, and get back to her feet. She then jumped back and got back into position.

I could feel blood beginning to flow from the side of my head.

With a crazed look in my eyes, I stared at Nicole, to which she visibly flinched.

"I'll make sure to get you back for that hit, crafty bitch."

The spar would continue.