Chapter 2

"Damn it…! I knew it wasn't a good idea to let out my power." In seconds, the silver-haired boy had become regretful of the day's events, thanks to the consequences his actions had wrought upon him.

Currently, Vali kept his hands within his trouser pockets while walking through the campus late at night. The reason why he had decided to do this at night instead of after classes had ended, was because once he'd unleashed his powers in class, Vali did NOT anticipate what had followed. After the measuring, he had begun getting CONSTANTLY proposed as a boyfriend or even fiance by girls his age and even some older ones. Of course he had refused and had to pressure them with his power, but that only seemed to incite them further. Heck, he had even heard the damn teacher (with his almost superhuman hearing that he had discovered he'd had when he was younger, and thus promptly used to hear Zora from a distance therefore escape her manipulations) ramble on under her breath about herself planning on having her niece marry Vali.

A niece who had been through three previous marriages so far, according to what he'd heard.

Therefore, Vali had decided to put off exploring the Campus till night would claim dominion over the skies, where most students would be sleeping inside the girls/boys' dorms resulting in him having more freedom to move about. During his nightly travels, Vali had found some classrooms that were in the game sections, one with consoles, one with graphic designs, even a classroom filled to play with in order to learn. On the other hand, he found an arena where they fight each other in order to see who is the strongest, another Arena for fights using various robot armors like some sort of Gundam anime or video game, as well as an Arena for fighting using the human body.

Though speaking of the human body, Vali DID recall something interesting that he had heard when he had defeated five senior students when he had been just about 12 years old. Apparently, the Sword Saint, someone who had been considered a master swordsman and a MALE too, would be coming to this place, not to mention that one of his relatives would be studying here as well. He can't wait to see if he can try and fight this Sword Saint of his relative, to see if either of them could satisfy his bloodlust.

By the time that he had explored the majority of the Campus, Vali then decided that enough was enough, and exited the academy to head over to the forest near the Campus grounds. Apparently, the Forest was part of the Academy's territory, but only those with special permission from the School could go in… well, at least that applied to the kids in the Elementary Division, the Highschool Division didn't have this requirement posted to them due to them having already been (or currently being) trained to fight at a satisfactory level.

Not something Vali was worried about though since he believed he could use the practice to satisfy his bloodlust for the time being. That, and what the staff doesn't know won't hurt them.

Once inside the forest, Vali glanced around, his gaze shifting from side to side on his search for any monsters to relieve his stress from the women who demanded to be their boyfriend or fiance. Overall however, he didn't find any monsters in the forest, which seemed rather… strange, to him. Especially since the Monsters of Gamindustri had the respawning feature to them which ensured their numbers would always be quite troublesome to deal with. Hence why Quests sometimes showed up in bulk according to what he'd learned from his father.

'Maybe someone from the academy or a class must've killed all of them?' the boy wondered, gritting his teeth at this development whilst proceeding to take a break by jumping onto a large tree. He sat down on one of its thicker branches, then proceeded to lean backwards with his hands behind his head, legs crossed over the branch. "Dammit, now I have to wait for them to respawn again. Now, what should I-" All of a sudden, the boy stopped his whining, a slight gasp escaping his lips before putting his hand on his ear to hear more closely when he heard something in the distance.

"-l it looks like we got-"

"-ink we can get-"

"-ool! Don't say tha-"

"-ch a fortune an elf-"

"-r the boss he'll-"

He couldn't hear completely since he was quite far from them, about 20 minutes normal walking distance he'd guess. His superhuman hearing had its limits in terms of range, but from what he deduced from the snippets he DID get, Vali had heard about elves and fortune. Inside his gut, he began to get a feeling that it might be bad or something, so being a curious child he got off the tree branch, landed on the ground below, and then snuck through the wilderness towards the location of the voices.

"Hahaha, look at these pathetic elves! Oh wait, I'm sorry I meant a half-elf, now THOSE are worth a fortune!"

"Yeah once we sell them we can finally live sky high!"

Once Vali had found the location, the boy found it to be a rather small campsite, one consisting of a bonfire and a couple of tents with what looked like a merchant carriage without horses to move it. Around it were wooden crates and boxes, likely filled with all sorts of goods that these men had likely pillaged. Though, the carriage could still be seen by a group of men in the center.

In order to not draw attention to himself and have them discover his presence, Vali hid on one of the tree branches behind the leaves and saw those men mostly gathered around the campfire, whilst some were guarding a… well, a Cage, now that Vali had a proper look. Though he couldn't see what lay within, since the Cage remained concealed by some sort of blanket.

"Well, it looks like a bandit camp... ehh, this will do."

With that, Vali decided to himself, that if there were no monsters to relieve his stress, he'd take it out on the bandits. After all, no one would care if a bandit lives or dies. He decides to do the world a favor….one done by coldly ending them.

The moment that Vali decided this, the boy took a deep but silent breath, exhaling just as quietly so that he wouldn't be heard. Whilst he did this, the boys' eyes had been closed, but then when he finished his eyes opened, and a silver glow began to emanate from them. Their pupils also turned into slits, like the eyes of a cat or a fox, a side effect of whenever he fully let out his Mana like this. Speaking of which, the Mana inside of him began to rise up from its slumber, answering his mental call and awaiting his further orders. His senses felt like they had been supercharged right now, and for the first time in a long while, Vali truly felt like he was 'awake'.

Now, if one wanted to know why he didn't feel anything about killing people… Vali wouldn't be able to answer them concretely. One might think that it was to do with him not liking people much, especially women who try to chain him to their service as a knight, or the more recent boyfriend/fiance things, however inside of him, Vali would feel like those were merely... superficial reasons. It wasn't like he didn't know COMPLETELY, cause as he had grown up and learned that society thought killing people was wrong, Vali himself never really felt… anything, towards killing, not like he had experience in killing people before now though. He didn't shudder in disgust at the thought of taking a life, nor did he get excited about it like he would whenever a fight came for him. No, in his view, killing was simply that… killing, nothing more, nothing less.

It didn't seem very important, or rather it just FELT unimportant to him, like it was completely natural for him to kill.

Hence, whilst this would be his first time killing someone, Vali doubted he would lose any sleep over it.

First kill at 10… that'll be something interesting.

Part of him wondered if his preference for the night had something to do with the sensations he felt when using his power at night, as well as his views on killing.

'Enough thinking, the time to kill has come…' Vali thought suddenly, shaking his head to get rid of these thoughts as his silver, glowing slitted eyes narrowed at the Bandits from his hiding place.

From his estimate, there looked to be about 16 Bandits, with 4 around the covered Cage whilst the other 12 remained joking and laughing around the campfire. What those two groups had in common however, was that neither of them were aware of his presence… even though his power flowed through his veins like a miniature storm waiting to erupt.

Thus, to this end…

Vali gathered his energy into his legs… and jumped.

"Hahahahaha, good one man, wonder if we can-"

SQUELCH!

"...Eh?"

When one of the men at the Cage had attempted to say something… a darkened blur flew through the air and landed behind him, hands flexed in a claw-like motion with one on the ground and the other thrown to the side. The Bandit didn't have much time to think, only mutter that one confused sound… as he found his vision becoming horizontal. His head had slid clean off his body, falling onto the ground with the last of his life force being used for him to wonder what the heck had happened.

Not like anyone answered him due to how shocked and silent his buddies became, resulting in him dying in confusion.

"... Like I thought, I feel nothing…"

The bandit's killer, a cold and emotionless Vali, whispered under his breath before he jumped into a reverse 360 roundhouse kick, slicing through two additional Bandits and decapitating them at the same time. They too had ended up dying the same way as their brother did, whilst Vali finished off the last one by punching a hole through his chest with his right hand, ripping out his still-beating heart from it. After a quick crush, a resounding SQUELCH accompanied the heart's destruction, causing the Bandit who it once belonged to fall to the ground dead, still having a stunned silent expression on his face.

"...?! WHAT?! AN ATTACKER?!"

"IT'S A KID-WHO CARES ABOUT THAT, HE KILLED OUR GUYS!"

"GET HIM, BOYS! KILL HIM FOR OUR BRETHREN!"

Turned out that him crushing a heart resulted in them coming back to their senses, for the leader who seemed to be wearing leather armor with a large sword, had yelled to his subordinates to attack him. Vali mentally had to commend him for that at least, he seemed like the sort to keep a cool head in situations like these. Not like it would change anything though, Vali mentally mused as he held his right hand out, gathering his Mana and forming it into a sphere the size of a hand inside his palm. His glowing silver eyes narrowed into even slittier versions of their current states, as he waited for his foes to get close enough for him to strike…

Which didn't take very long, only a couple seconds.

His first victim from the 12 remaining sods, a man wielding an Axe, got done in when Vali flung the ball into the man's stomach, which then erupted into an explosion which utterly VAPORIZED the man, leaving only ashes and a bit of clothing behind. This technique, he liked to call the 'Mana Bomb', which basically did what the name suggested. It was something he had developed when he first read of something called a 'Grenade' during the studies that his father had imposed on him when he was younger.

Vali then created more MB's (Mana Bombs) and launched them towards his opponents, dealing with about 3 more this way before they managed to wise up and start avoiding them.

One of the Bandits switched to an old-fashioned-looking Rifle, aiming it towards Vali's head wIth the intent of performing a headshot. "Eat lead, punk!" he declared, about to pull the trigger… only for a beam of silver energy to go right through his head before he could do even that, one which had come from Vali's left hand. The ray succeeded in killing his foe… as well as obliterate his body AND a good portion of the Forest behind him, causing the boy to sweatdrop mentally. 'More control training is needed, that Mana Ray needs to be perfected so that it only kills what I want it to… without collateral damage.' Vali thought, remembering that the Mana Ray had been another technique he'd come up with to try and practice his Mana Control.

None of these were rather 'Magical' in the traditional sense, per say, rather they were simply crude techniques which Vali had devised himself as a way of using his large Mana reserves somewhat against his enemies.

Though with the use of the Mana Ray (MR) which turned out to be WAY faster than his MB's, Vali managed to dispatch all but the Bandit Leader, who looked to have become downright PURPLE with the rage flowing through his system. Not like Vali cared though, as he currently jumped through the air to finish him off.

"YOU FUCKING BRAT, I'LL-"

The Bandit didn't have much else to say when, with wide eyes, he saw Vali raise his right arm to the skies and allow his Mana to come out there, completely encasing the limb in a silver glow. Not a second later, did it form a Nodachi-like blade from the top of his forearm about the length of a human limb. With this energy blade, of which the boy called it his 'Mana Sword' or MS for short, Vali sliced down towards the Bandit Leader's head, to which the said man quickly brought his sword up horizontally for defense.

SCULUCK!

"Hmph."

Shame for the Bandit Leader, cause if it were any ordinary technique used by the Mana of normal people, he likely would have been able to block it then form a counter-strategy. However, because of Vali's lack of control over his power, the MS had the strength, endurance, and sharpness of a good quality blade. One wielded by someone built like an expert bodybuilder… hence, the metallic sword which the Bandit Leader had wielded got sliced in two only after a couple seconds worth of struggling, followed closely by the Bandit Leader's own body.

"Well…...that was boring. Now, let's see what these bandits have in store."

With that said, after powering down with his aura vanishing and his eyes returning to normal, Vali began to go through the loot where the bandits have. He sees a lot of credit points, the currency that Society was run with. From what his father said about credit points, they were used normally to purchase equipment, items, costumes, etc from the store. It could be commonly found as rewards from defeating monsters or selling items. That must've been the reason why there were no monsters back in the forest, these Bandits had killed the whole lot of them for the Credits that would spawn from their defeated forms. As he went through the loot, he opened up another crater and sees a tomoe which he picks up, when he opened the book his eyes went wide open before chuckling

"Hehehehe, finally something that can help me with my mana control, I'll keep this."

He puts the Tome in his inventory, a special little pocket dimension which acted so much like a Game Menu. He'd gotten it from an implant put inside all young children, around 7 years old or so, in the form of an injection that creates the whole Inventory system, one which stores items, weapons, and armor.

He then looked towards the Cage covered with blankets, and with a curious mind he walked to it, wanting to see what lay inside. He'd once heard from some of the family members that Bandits liked to tame monsters and use them for their own purposes, or they would use cages to transport children to other areas for various purposes. Mostly slavery though. When he got close enough, Vali reached forth with his right hand and took the blanket, flipping it upwards and uncovering the cage. What he saw at that moment, caused his eyes to go wide with shock.

'Thi… this is…!'

There, inside the cage, there lay was a beautiful young girl with long silver hair and purple-blue eyes. But, that wasn't what caught his attention, what did one might ask? Whelp, the fact that there was another occupant in the Cage with the girl, this occupant being barely shaped like a human at all, could be a start. The occupant looked less like a humanoid being and more like a lump of rotting flesh, to the point where he could only BARELY tell that it had a female gender. He saw black marks that were almost spreading across her arms, legs and head, with her being unconscious as well.

'What the hell... is this...?'

"Mi-mister are the band-it's go-gone?

Vali blinked when he heard the silver-haired girl's voice when she spoke to him, her lips trembling whilst her voice remained all stuttery. Clearly she had gone through a rather dark time and had been scared stiff as a result. "...Yeah, they're gone. But, can you tell me what's happening to the other girl?" he questioned, deciding not to tell her that he had all but slaughtered them in cold blood. She'd been scared enough already, that would only make things worse.

"She-she's cursed mister. They said that once you're cursed, then you'll die."

"...Well shit, maybe I-hmmm?"

Vali stopped when he was about to give a burial to the half-dead girl... when something inside him started to churn, causing him to stop what he was saying immediately. His eyes widened slightly in surprise, as well as confusion as he sensed his powers were almost resonating with the blond-haired girl. He decided to see what would happen if he transferred his Mana to the other girl, who knows perhaps it might be able to help save a life for once instead of just destroying things. "Well... might as well give it a shot, at least. But first, let's get you and the girl out of this cage."

"THANK YOU, MISTER!"

"Your welcome, now stay back."

With that said, the silver-haired girl then stood up before taking a few steps back towards the back of the cage. Only after this had happened, did Vali act by pointing his finger towards the lock. He then prepared another MR, it did the trick but also destroyed another portion of the forest as he sweatdropped at the destruction he had caused.

'...I REALLY need to control my Mana once I get back to my room and read the Tome… at least those two weren't injured...'

"Alright, it's safe. Now, get out."

"Wow mister, that was a cool thing you did there!" The girl exclaimed, stars LITERALLY replacing her eyes as she gazed in awe at him after exiting the Cage. She didn't even notice the destruction that Vali's little slaughter had caused, such was the level of amazement she expressed at what Vali had been able to do.

Something which OBVIOUSLY had an impact on the boy, who jumped a little with a surprised look on his face. This… wasn't something which he was used to whenever he used his Mana. Nope, not at all, he was more used to the whole look of desire and arrogance/fear whenever his power got put on display. Nothing this… genuine, pure and honest. This girl… she DEFINITELY split herself off from the rest of the girls who tried to take his hand by force. This caused him to smirk smugly, yet with a sense of joy and pride filling him with the urge to chuckle like the kid he was. "Heh, it's cool. Now, bring that girl to me."

"Wha-what are you going to do, mister?"

Oh yeah, she didn't know his name. Perhaps that could be changed when things settle down, Vali internally mused, though he didn't show this and instead put on an expression of nonchalance. "I am going to see if I can do something to help her."

"YOU WILL?! THANK YOU SO MUCH, MISTER! It will mean a lot to me!"

"No problem… and you are, by the way?"

"Oh right, I haven't told you my name, it's Emilia Satella. As for my friend here... I don't know.."

This caught Vali's attention. He had thought these two knew one another, but here this girl was, admitting she didn't even know the other girl's name. "Why doesn't she have a name?"

"She….she was banished from the village when she got the curse and her parents took it away from her. Me and my aunt were taking care of her before being captured by the bandits, but she never said what it was to me." the girl replied, looking down sadly as she recalled memories of when they had first met the blonde girl.

Vali pondered on this for a moment, concluding that there must be more to this than meets the eye."...I see, lay her down and I'll see what I can do."

"Okay, mister."

When the girl Emilia her name, put the blond hair girl down in front of Vali, allowing him to kneel beside her on the ground, reaching out to put his hand on the girl's abdominal area. Well, he THOUGHT it was her abdominal area, he wasn't too sure due to her mostly deformed state. Once he found it, Vali began to transfer his Mana to the girl as his body got bathed in his signature silver aura. When he did so, she too glowed in an aura, though this one turned out to be a dark purple one.

On the side, Emilia could only watch in amazement as she watched Vali's Mana resonating with the blond hair girl. Both auras proceeded to collide with one another, trails of silver spreading gradually over the purple like plant roots whilst the purple one tried to resist. However, Vali's power would NOT be denied, and it continued its current course of action like it had no equal to it. At the same time, the blacks were beginning to crumble into black particles, rising up from her body and dissipating into nothingness. Before long though, the marks dissipated from her completely, allowing here form to return to what it had once been: a lovely-looking young girl with long, blonde hair though her eyes remained closed and unseen for the time being.

Though, on a side note her ears got revealed to be elongated, making Vali realize that she had been of the Elven race, one of MANY Demihuman races throughout Gamindustri.

When the process got completed and Vali was able to retract his Mana back into him, the boy heaved and panted heavily as he fell onto his backside, looking like he had been drained of all will to live. His brow became covered in sweat just like his forehead, and his hair had become damp alongside it. 'Wh… whew… that was a close one…' Vali thought to himself, furrowing his brow whilst his mouth hung open. His thoughts continued as he reflected on this experience. 'This curse… whatever it was, it was NOT easy to subdue, and it took WAY more power than I have ever used before to deal with it. This 'curse' may become quite problematic in the future, I should probably look into it when I get the chance to…'

Meanwhile, groans escaped her mouth as the blond hair girl began to regain her consciousness. Her eyes tightened themselves before slowly starting to open, revealing their blue orbs formerly hidden by her eyelids. Once her eyes had been completely opened and her vision returned to normal from a brief bout of haziness, she saw a silver-haired boy staring at her, much to her confusion as she set about getting into a sitting position with her knees.

"Wha...what... happened...?"

"YOU DID IT MISTER! YOU DESTROYED HER CURSE!"

"No problem, Emilia."

"Wha-what do you mean you destroyed my curse? No one can even dispel my curse, even the CPU's can't even destroy it."

"If you want proof, look at yourself."

Upon being prompted by Emilia who'd jogged up to her with happy tears in her eyes, the blonde girl looked at herself and was surprised that there was no black mark spreading towards her vital areas. Where she'd expected marred flesh, the girl saw the unblemished skin which she had seen herself sporting her entire life. As a result, a surge of happiness, relief and joy erupted within her chest, so much so that she let tears out from her eyes, finally she was cured from the curse that ruined her life she did something that made Vali very surprised, she hugged him

"Thank(sob)…...thank you so much(sob)."

This little predicament completely threw Vali for a loop, as evident by how he just stiffened up with a look of complete befuddlement onto his face. Poor guy didn't know what to do right now, he has never been in this situation before, especially from a girl of all people. However, shortly into the hug, Vali's eyes shot open once again (they did that alot tonight, didn't they?) when he remembered something.

The warmth which he felt from this girl's embrace…

It reminded him of his mother, whenever she expressed delight in his progress in his studies, or whenever he wanted to have her attention. She would always hug him and let him know things would be alright for him, that she would be there for him just like his father would be. He'd always hug back though, having learned that hugging back REALLY made his mother happy. Therefore, wouldn't that be also true for this girl who, odds were, hadn't had much affection in a long while?

With that in mind, Vali mentally nodded to himself, his eyes becoming determined as he wrapped his arms around the blonde girl, pulling her in closer and embracing her properly. One arm was wrapped around her waist and the other wrapped around her upper back, his hand resting on the back of her head as he rested his chin on her shoulder. All the while, he listened to her sobs and, remembering again what his mother would do when he had been in a similar state a few times, rubbed the back of her head soothingly.

"It's….alright, can you tell me your name?"

When Vali asked her that question, he felt her shake her head strongly whilst her hair fluttered about behind her. "I…..don't have one... I don't want to remember the people who cast me away..." she replied, Emilia looking down when she remembered the story she'd been told by her when they'd first met.

That, Vali could understand. He'd never in a million years consider someone who mistreated him, his father or his mother (especially his mother) in any kind of horrible way. Hence why he didn't like Zora, she could do all she wanted to him that would be bad enough. But sometimes she would go for his mother whenever his father came up short for whatever reason. Hence, he could relate to her plight. "I…...see, what should I call you then?"

For a moment, the girl remained unresponsive, and briefly Vali wondered if she and him were hugging too much. He didn't dare split away from her though, he remembered how he wanted as long a hug as possible from his mother sometimes so right now, the boy could guess she wanted to savor this warmth as much as she could. Finally, she asked him a question, one he did NOT anticipate from her. "Can...can you give me a name?"

At this, Vali frowned though the blonde elf girl couldn't see it. He wasn't so good with naming things, let's just say that, but since she had asked him so nicely and she didn't seem like the rest of the girls who he'd known at school… he'd at least try. "...how about….Alpha?"

"Alpha? I…...like it, from now on my name is Alpha."

"Alright then, Alpha...can you let go of me?"

"...A little longer, please?"

"... fine."

"HEY, NO FAIR! Let me join, too!"

'Hhhhhaaaaaa… how troublesome.'

(Somewhere in the multiverse a pineapple haired boy sneezed before going back to sleep)

Back in Gamindustri, Vali stayed like this for a while before managing to pull the girls away from him, then proceeded to look at his watch which lay strapped to his left wrist. Turned out that it was almost midnight, something which made him frown. He likely didn't have as long to sleep, not to mention he can't be late for tomorrow's class THIS early in the term. He then pulled back his hug as he looked at the two of them

"Alright, it's getting rather late, you two. I have to go, can't be late for tomorrow's class."

"A-are you sure, mister?"

Vali nodded at the now sullen-looking Emilia, who's mood had dimmed at the thought of parting from the boy. "Yes I'm sure Emilia, can't have my parents(not that bitch Zora) be disappointed in me because I was skipping classes." He explained, plus Vali wasn't someone who could be capable of enrolling the girls into the Academy either, he had his own problems to take care of. They'd have to rely on one another for a while yet, unless they could reunite with someone whom they knew.

As much as Alpha didn't want to leave the said boy, she couldn't help but admit that Vali had a point. She didn't want to make problems for him or the family whom apparently he wanted to not disappoint. "O-okay….will we meet you again?"

"...Maybe. If the two of you manage to enroll in the academy, we might meet again, Alpha."

"Alright…..can I ask your name before you leave?"

"...its Vali, Vali Fou Bartford."

"...Thank you, Vali."

"Don't mention it."

With that said Vali began to leave the two Elves, walking back into the forest and out of sight. Whilst they watched him disappear, leaving them alone again the two girls made to head out themselves… However, before they could, Emilia and Alphas' ears twitched upon hearing another voice which they recognized.

"EMILIA, EMILIA WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"I'M HERE, AUNT FORTUNA!"

Not long after Emilia had yelled out, the woman named Fortuna came from the east side of the camp, looking worried as all heck. If one wanted to know about her, then the woman known as Fortuna shared similar familial traits to Emilia such as silver hair although short and purple eyes with a sanpakugan. She wore some kind of elastic white and purple outfit, not to mention she was looking around frantically, before seeing the two Elf children she immediately ran to them as she engulfed them in a hug, pulling them real close as if she feared she would lose them permanently if she didn't.

"Oh, thank the CPUs, both of you are safe!" The woman cried, burying their heads close to her chest. Fortunately, the girls had experience with this since they apparently managed to angle their faces so they could breathe properly.

Still, Emilia felt it necessary to explain the situation and reassure her aunt of their status, and she did so with an excited smile on her lips. "We're fine aunt Fortuna, we were saved by a boy named Vali."

Hearing this, the woman blinked in surprise, before a smile formed on her face. "Oh really? Well, if I ever were to find him I might give my gratitude for saving you two."

"But that's not all aunt Fortuna, he even cured Alpha of her curse!"

"Alpha? Oh that's the name you took? That's fine, now Emilia you know it's impossible to destroy her curse."

"She's not lying aunt Fortuna, look!"

"Okay whatever you say so-?!"

The moment that Fortuna managed to get a good look at the blonde Elf, Fortuna gaped with wide eyes as, instead of having black marks all over her body, she looked as smooth as the rest of her race would. Not to mention that she had such healthy skin, now. The woman had become so lost in her total surprise that she broke her hug and looked all over her body, inspecting whether it was an illusion or not. By the time that she figured out that it was for real and that it was true, Fortuna became dumbstruck. "H-how is that possible?! Not even a CPU could even destroy your curse...!"

"Oh-oh, let me explain Aunty!" Emilia exclaimed, bouncing up and down on the spot whilst raising her hand like she was a student begging to answer the teacher's question. "When Vali saw Alpha's body, he thought about something before destroying the cage. When I laid her down to the ground, he did something to her body where he glowed in this silvery Mana, to which she started glowing purple. It was then that curse started to go away and then she was cured!"

"I see."

Fortuna thought about the boy who had apparently been able to dispel Alpha's curse with... Just... his... Mana... It had to be downright impossible, but the proof was right there standing in front of her. If what Emilia had said was true, then this boy's Mana must be a special variant, special in a way that many other women would want him for if they knew of it. Women always want husbands with good connections, money and power, to the point where even if a man had one of those things then they'd be hunted down and forced into a noblewoman's household as a damn babymaker. It didn't matter their age or ethnicity, hence how Emilia's father, her brother, had gone through a similar experience although he did still love his Daughter till the end.

Therefore, the woman made a decision in her mind. She decided to keep this knowledge of this powerful Mana a secret, it was the least thing she could do to the boy for saving her niece and Alpha.

"Okay you two let's go home, it's getting late right now."

"Okay Auntie….oh, can we be enrolled in the academy he goes to, Auntie?"

Now THIS got the woman's attention, as a sneaking suspicion wormed its way into her mind as to the girl's intentions. Her niece was always someone whom she could read, though she kept her thoughts to herself for now as she asked with a slight smile. "Oh? By Academy, You must mean the one which owns these grounds... The one with all those pampered rich kids, men and women alike." She didn't let it show, but the mention of those bratty noblemen and women, more the women than men, really soured her mood inside. She never liked those humans, especially after what one of them had done to her brother. However, she didn't want this to taint her Nice and her friend since her mother DID treat him like a loving wife did. "Why do you want to go there?"

Confirming her suspicions unknowingly, Emilia answered with the most innocent, purest smiles a girl could produce. "Because I want to see Vali again. He must be there and his last name is Fou Bartford."

Whilst the older woman mentally grinned at what could possibly happen between her niece and this boy in the future, she did pay attention more to the name which he was associated with. "Bartford?...ooohhh, those families, I see." She now knew that Vali comes from the Bartford family, a family she knew owned a fair amount of land, mostly floating islands, despite not being nobility.

However, over time, more and more people began to move over to their land, causing their wealth and fame to grow all the more for it. Not just people either, but demihumans did too, resulting in a rather mixed and diverse community. Eventually, things ended up where the Bartford family got given the title of Baron by the higher-ups from Leanbox, the land of which they were affiliated with, to which they couldn't refuse. This was due to the fact that there was a lot of 'potential' in this land, thanks to the efforts of the man who'd been at the head of the family, of which the higher-ups felt like they had been threatened politically by his growing popularity. Hence, they had him both promoted as well as married off to a woman of great prestige, Zora. Fortuna didn't like the woman, she'd seen her for herself a few times and she just SCREAMED terrible.

One good thing about this family however, was that there were many other species living in their territory despite Zora's insistence that they be forced out. The reason why this had been so was officially due to the head liking their work ethics, but in reality Zora just didn't like Demihumans, another down point for her in Fortuna's book. Not to mention aside from Zora the Bartford family were not racist.

A rarity in this world, sadly.

"Hmmmm, I'll think about it later Emilia, right now let's go home you two."

""Yes Auntie!""

Time skip Couple months later

A couple of months later, things changed yet again for Vali. Since that display of his power, he'd been always pursued by the girls and women who had been trying (or to be more specific, demanding) him to be their boyfriend or fiance. At this point, he had to curse his own idiocy, since by this point he REALLY wished that he didn't show his powers, perhaps then he could have maintained a low profile better.

It wasn't that much better with the male population, either. Even the guys had been so jealous of his apparent 'popularity' that many of them had demanded a match to show that they were more superior and stronger than Vali (most likely wanting to get a girlfriend or a wife more faster since men beyond 20 were left to the old ladies in the world) which he gladly accepted. Gave him a means of venting his frustration out on them instead of going out at night bandit hunting, although he had sometimes still done that.

So far he beat all of them and managed to control his magic better when he learned how to control his Mana, largely thanks to that Tome he had found which had also been why he'd continued Bandit Hunting in the Forest. It had given him a detailed training method in controlling Mana whilst also explaining concepts about it to him like a university professor, made understanding it a bit difficult at times but it wasn't something a bit of research couldn't fix, and Vali would NOT neglect his studies for his own love of combat.

But that's not all he learned from the Tome, when he tried to use Mana around the skin and the results…...he created something that improved his physical strength, speed and defense. Not to mention that it went quite well with his own self-developed techniques, though Vali wasn't so sure about elemental attacks since he never developed much on that field, not finding much interest in it. He first used this when he had been combating Julius, known to be the next sword saint for robot combat and cousin to the human body sword saint. He had managed to defeat him(despite Julius calling him a coward instead of following the chivalrous traditions). Vali'd taken to calling it his 'Mana Skin' due to how the technique coated his flesh with his silvery Mana when he used it.

So for now, his list of Techniques were as follows:

Mana Skin

Mana Sword

Mana Ray

Mana Bomb

If one wanted to know why he named each one to do with his Mana, Vali did so because that was the core concept behind it, not to mention it related to their functions and specs. Heck, he believed that perhaps he could call his original techniques the 'Mana Series' if he developed more of them.

Nevertheless, in time, Vali had managed to receive the title 'the most wanted man for marriage', 'the man who rejected thousands of proposals', the 'loner' or better known as the ' unbeatable silver hair arena prince'

But still the days has been normal to him, as he was listening to Shen Xiu(who is still trying to get that boy marry her niece) was explaining the fundamentals of 'a beginners guide to the games' before pausing when a knock sounded on the class door. After she beckoned the person in, who seemed to be a staff member, said the staff member walked inside and handed her a letter before promptly leaving. This made her open the letter up, skim through its contents, before facing the class again. "Alright students we are receiving some special transfer students who are coming in today from here on, you two can come in now."

As soon as she said that, the doors to the class slid open, allowing the said two students to walk inside the classroom. All eyes (including the dumbstruck Vali's) were on them as they proceeded to introduce themselves in a polite manner.

"Hi, my name is Emilia Satella."

"And my name is Alpha, pleasure to meet all of you"

When they finished introducing themselves the whole class then started a loud conversation about them.

"Sweet, new ladies! two to be specific!"

"Ah man, will they accept my proposal?"

"Forget it man, they will be better off with me."

"Come on man, at least let me have one of them!"

As one might expect, upon seeing two new 'goods on the market' as it were, each of the boys seemed to have become practically ECSTATIC, looking upon them like they were two angels descending upon their unfortunate souls from the heavens above. It helped that the two girls were wearing the school's uniform which clung to their developing frames, Emilia's having white stockings on her legs with black ones on Alphas, hence they looked like prime marriage partner material.

Meanwhile...

"Tch, now two more women are here."

"Let's hope they don't near my Vali."

"Your Vali? He's better off with me!"

"Oh hell no, bitch! He's mine!"

"Nu-uh, he's mine if it's the last thing I do!"

… the girls in the class acted like a bunch of beasts sizing up their newest 'rival' for a certain someone's rival. One could pretty much FEEL the animosity being directed at the two, although Emilia seemed to not notice it at all whilst Alpha just seemed to ignore it.

As for the object of every girl's desire, Vali just put his hands on his face while really wishing that his life can't be more complicated than before. 'Hhhhhaaaaa I really wish that my life can't be more complicated. Now I wonder what happens next...'