24 Scheming

The rain masked the sound of his footsteps as he started approaching the location where he last saw the trio and the protagonist head. As he drew near he hid behind a tree and expanded his senses through mana and started listening carefully to what was going on.

Yes, breaking to D-rank, an awakened can expand his senses through mana and be able to 'see' with his senses without alerting the other party, on the condition that they are at a lower rank.

Michael broke through yesterday night but he didn't inform anyone about it, once again being reminded of his father's words when he told him that he should keep a low profile whenever he could, not hide his strength, or act weak, just don't flash anything about your power, or your life in general cause hardly anyone wants what's best for you.

Now his stats looked like this,

--- Status ---

Name: Michael Dacre

Age: 15

Rank: E+ --> D-

Strength: D-

Agility: E+

Stamina: E+ --> D-

Intelligence: E+

Mana: D-

Charm: A+

--- Profession ---

Swordsmanship lvl.3

Mage lvl.2

--- Techniques ---

Draconic sword art:

(A powerful and versatile sword technique made by Nathaniel Dacre, an ancestor of the Saint household.)

Ice Domain:

(A technique that allows the user to create a domain of ice. The more mana is used, the bigger the domain and the more skills the user can create.)

'Since taking over this body it seems like breaking through became easier, so my original hypothesis that his talent got a boost may be true. Anyway let's focus on them now,' thought Michael and immediately activated his senses, taking a risk actually from being discovered by the protagonist's system, not only that he was spying, but also that he is at D-rank right now, nevertheless he still took it.

"It seems that having an A-rank talent made you braver. Do you think just because of that you can act all cocky with me? You should learn your place, trash," said the main one as he placed his foot on the neck of Alex.

'Is anyone in the perimeter?' asked Alex his system.

'I can sense some mana fluctuations in the area but it's normal considering we are inside the academy,' replied his system.

'That's good, let me give them a taste of what's about to come to them tomorrow,' said Alex as he suddenly jerked his body, removing the foot from his neck in the process.

"Playtime is over, Daniel. You thought just because a let you have your way these last two years I would always stay below you? You couldn't be more wrong," said Alex as he send a punch straight to the solar plexus of Daniel getting him on his knees coughing from trying to catch his breath.

Then he took out a sword from his inventory, startling the remaining two with the sudden appearance of the sword.

"We only followed Daniel's lead, we didn't mean to hurt you all those times. You know how Daniel forced us to his bidding," pleaded one of the young men.

"Then let me get rid of all the painful moments he caused you, and replace them with new ones," said Alex with a smile as he readied himself with the first stance of his sword move, Thunderous Vine, and immediately small zaps of lightning can be seen dancing on the blade resembling a vine.

After that, he took off from his position and reappeared in front of the two young men cutting through the right hand of the one and left of the other one.

Immediately after that painful cries were heard from the duo, and both of them started clutching their missing arm so as not to let any more blood leave their bodies.

"Don't worry it was a clean cut. You may be able to reattach it if you manage to get on time to the infirmary," said Alex as he waved his sword trying to get rid of the blood that stained his blade.

His words though fell on deaf ears cause the pain that he caused by cutting one of their limbs completely overwhelmed them. Not giving any more attention to the duo he approached Daniel who was still coughing on the ground while crying from the shock of witnessing this gruesome sight.

"Cough-Please, I was wrong, Cough-Cough, I promise I won't ever bother you again," said Daniel amidst his coughing.

"I know you won't bother me again Daniel, but I will," said Alex as he approached Daniel without a sword in his hands this time.

"Let me make this evening memorable for you, as you've made many of mine," said Alex as he started punching and kicking Daniel who was on the floor, bleeding from the repeated beating.

After a couple of minutes of merciless beating, Alex stopped, and said to Daniel, "This was the appetizer. Tomorrow at the battle royal will be the main dish," and after that, he sent another kick to his chin knocking him out.

"You two should probably check that out," said Alex as he left the scene leaving behind two handicapped people and one knocked out meanwhile the screams of the two were still going strong.

'He sure is vindictive. As expected of the protagonist, and judging by the fact that he didn't notice me, his system might not be so omnipotent, or maybe it grows with him, who knows,' thought Michael as he 'watched' the scene from the sidelines.

'Should I help them and make them take their revenge tomorrow at the battle royal? As much as they can since they are up against the protagonist. Hm, let's do that,' thought Michael and immediately went to the two young men who were now sobbing.

"Let me help you," said Michael in a deeper voice trying to mask his face and voice by wearing a hood and making his voice deeper.

"W-Who are you," said one of them in a husky voice.

"Don't worry I'm here to help you, only if you do something in return for me," said Michael standing behind them.

"Save us and we will do whatever you want," said both of them in unison.

After that Michael immediately froze their hand where it was cut and told them, "I've frozen your hand so that you will not lose any more blood. Now also take these potions they will make you advance a sub-rank. What I want you to do is a tomorrow's battle royal I want you to kill the one that made you like this."

As soon as he finished speaking both their eyes lit up with anger and determination thinking that their chance of getting revenge was getting closer.

"Don't worry about that. We will make sure he suffers," both of them said once again.

"Take with you the one that is knocked out and also give him one potion when he wakes up," said Michael and then left silently.

Did they become loyal to him after Michael helped them? The answer is of course no, they just thought that they used someone who gave them a precious potion. What they didn't know was that after consuming the potion they would die after an hour. Michael did that because he didn't want someone to trace back to him that he helped them. Even though no one was a witness when he helped them, not many had ice affinity in the academy so after some search everything would lead back to him, something that he didn't want.

And of course, he made it so that the ice that froze their hand will melt after some minutes so that no one witnesses their frozen hand.

'Scheming sure is hard,' thought Michael as he walked back to the dorms.