A conversation with the protagonist.

"Thanks. Usually, each student has their friends in the ranks, so you just saved me."

Lucas said as he sat across from me and set his bowl on the table.

The other student next to him looked hesitant, but as soon as he caught Lucas's gaze, he also sat up and he stared at me.

If asked if the Triangle's way of protecting students was right, I would say absolutely no.

And Lucas agreed with that.

That was why his goal was to change how the academy was being run. The problem was that he alone was not enough, he had to have people by his side.

But not the weak ones, even if he is strong if he is the only one it will be useless as he will face the wrath of many students who like the current management of the academy.

He needed at least one other Grade A student. By this time, he must have spoken to everyone, even the two characters I entered with.

But none of them accepted, even Raisel, the main heroine only accepts to join his faction when Lucas becomes an S-class student.

"You should already know why I'm here."

He said as he continued eating.

If it weren't for my memories I wouldn't know.

I was an outcast in Class A, Lucas was only treated differently from me because he was the strongest.

I nodded as he continued to eat my food.

"Look, you must have seen how the academy works. People who have powerful identities are already creating their factions to help each other, so we who are just normal people should help each other too."

Lucas said while looking at me seriously.

"If you say..."

I replied. Lucas wasn't going to say his goal of changing the academy, despite being a protagonist he wasn't dumb.

But for him, it was easier to recruit unknown people with no past, just like me.

The boy beside him, noting my clear indifference, dropped his fork onto his plate.

He then turned to me and frowned.

"Hey, even if you are Class A, you are weak. Many others in that class are stronger than you, being on the wing of the strongest student in Class A would only increase your status."

He was wearing a blue-trimmed uniform, and he didn't seem to mind that I was Class A.

This is Arlo Stanford, the student with the most points in Class B.

Lucas recruited him to his faction after he defeated him in a fight.

Unlike Lucas, he was from an influential family, despite not being from the main family, he was from a branch of the Stanford family.

Due to not being able to use his family's main skill, he was left with a branching skill called 'Stealth'.

It was a level 6 skill branching from the level 10 Stanford family main skill 'nonexistence'.

"Do you believe in these points?" I asked him back, "having the most points doesn't mean you're the strongest."

"So you're saying you're stronger than him?"

Even though I read about him in the novel, it was annoying in the real world. So I started to ignore him.

"If you think you're that strong why don't you fight him!?"

"Arlo, that's enough. I'm not here to pick a fight, so our chances of recruiting you will decrease," said Lucas.

"Tsk, whatever," Arlo muttered softly.

Lucas then turned to me and smiled, "I understand what you mean Dreyden, so what should I do to prove my strength to you?"

Lucas wasn't the strongest in the Triangle, but he was without a doubt the most talented.

It wasn't his strength that was a problem, it was his current mindset.

If I agreed to faction with him, I would have the same position as Arlo in his head.

Our relationship would boil down to master and subordinate, and I couldn't accept that.

I needed to step in at the right time, Lucas needs to see me as a friend, someone he can trust and have the same status as him.

"The problem isn't you, it's me."

I replied to Lucas before accelerating the speed at which I was eating the food.

In addition to having no subject, being in front of the protagonist gave me the chills, so I devoured my meal and got up quickly.

Lucas was silent as I stood up. With no strings attached, I started to leave the cafeteria with my hands in my pockets.

*****

"Finally a combat lesson!"

Looking at the character created by a reader, I couldn't help but laugh.

Riven hated studying, but when the class was about combat, there was no one more excited than he was.

At that moment, he completely forgot about the exchange of intense glances between Dhara and Raisel.

Dhara felt extreme inferiority towards Raisel, not only because she had the main skill of the family and was not an offshoot.

But also why Raisel managed to get into the Triangle using the family name when she had to do it herself.

Raisel, on the other hand, found the existence of a Silvius in her class a great annoyance.

Especially when the latter is not of the main lineage.

So they would compete in everything, even this class.

Combat training.

Just as the name suggested it was combat training against monsters. The monsters were mana puppets created by the Triangle A.I., but their appearance and destructive power were real.

Combat training mainly served to teach students how to behave in a dungeon.

"Meet in 15 minutes!"

The teacher's voice sounded making me hurry.

After 15 minutes, all the students were already on the training ground. With all the students present, the place seemed quite crowded. Several students were separated into groups, some nervous, others anxious.

As for me, I was the only one alone.

Today's class option was ordered. Every 10 minutes a new wave of monsters would appear, so it was a team class.

When I noticed that no one wanted to be with me, I sighed heavily.

Even the protagonist looked at me strangely before going with his group.

It was stressful.

"No time for chit-chat, now go!"

The teacher watched the students talking in a group, and waved his hand causing everyone – including me – to disappear.

"Shit..."

Swoosh!

I felt my body disintegrate in midair as I found myself in an unfamiliar location.

It was an oval office. I was right in the middle and the walls around me had several big doors.

With an entrance in the ceiling, a screen was lowered and on it, it was written: Dead monsters 0.

If it was before I got control of magic, I would have scored a few points. The more magical energy I used to reinforce the flames in my fists, the more my energy was spent.

So I mainly focused on how many times I could use this skill and not on its power.

One of the biggest problems with my ability to copy other skills is that I would make a lot of enemies if I made it obvious.

People are pretty obsessive about their abilities. If someone outside a family learns their skill, that person is automatically targeted and hunted for life.

If I just copied someone's ability and made it obvious that I did it, I would die before I did anything.

Because I didn't have any support, and even if the Stella family supported me, it would still be insufficient.

To use my skill freely, I would need at least one esper in the top 10 of the world rankings.

But with 'Action and Reaction' it would be different.

As I positioned myself, the doors began to open from the bottom up.

"Okay, I'm ready."

And as soon as the door went up far enough, the first monster ran towards me, it was some kind of dog with two heads.

"Keeeek!"

The dog advanced towards me at speed when the others started later.

BANG!

A thunderous sound rang out and the first monster that ran towards me evaporated into thin air as it ran into my fiery fist.

Just as my fire fist blasted the dog, another one coming in the opposite direction intensified its speed.

Grr!

The dog jumped up aiming one of its mouths at my leg. Tensing my body, I lifted my left leg as he walked right past it, and following him, a fiery fist flew up behind him.

As soon as it landed, the dog turned around and received the fiery fist to its head.

I lifted my eyes to the screen, and there it said: Dead monsters 2.

"If it continues like this, I can kill a lot more, when the monsters get strong I will have to fortify my firepower and it will cost a lot of magic energy."

The first order had been completed.

*****

[Group 7 - Rounds completed: 12. Monsters killed: 56. Rank: 5/100]

5 out of 100 teams.

Although there are people with abilities stronger than fire fist in room A1, I had managed to get taller than Raisel.

His expression seeing his result must be very complicated, especially when Dhara also comes out in front of her.

Of course, the biggest explanation for my high ranking is the fact that I'm hunting alone. Despite being able to form teams, assessments are individual assessments.

The most remarkable thing is to know that 4 people managed to kill more than I even being in a group.

As soon as class was over, I appeared outside the training hall along with the crowd of the class.

"How much did you get?"

Hearing Dhara's question, Raisel smiled confidently as he replied:

"8th place. Damn, I wish I had stood in front of Jayden."

"..."

Watching Dhara's strange expression, Raisel couldn't help but smile, feeling more confident.

Little did she know that Dhara was trying her best to hold back her smile, hence the strange expression.

"And you, what position did you get?"

"I was... in sixth position."

Raisel nodded with a sympathetic smile.

"Congratulations."

And then she turned and walked out of the room with his fists clenched.

As Dhara watched Raisel turn and walk away, she smiled as brightly as ever.

This was the event that would mark the beginning of the girls' great contest.

The results would become public tomorrow and would surely change what people think of me. Even though I already knew who was in front of me, I didn't care.

Leaving the place, I headed towards my dorm. Despite having increased my body's maximum energy capacity, it still took a lot to use stronger fire fists and even keep the weak ones for a long time.

So I needed to increase my magic energy. With my current magical energy ability, I was easily in the top 20 of the class.

But the difference between each in the top 10 was the problem.

My goal was to reach S-Class before finishing freshman year, I knew it was impossible to do it before Lucas, but I would be one of those who would.

Entering my room, I again sat on the bed and closed my eyes. Circulating my magic control through my body, I began to train.