The next day, I couldn’t help but notice how the other students inched their desks away from mine. When I turned to them, they avoided eye contact. Some left the room and never returned.

  “What’s going on?” I muttered. “Some of these people are fifth courts.”

  “Yes, well, you have no Exp, right?” Sip asked. “And you did basically a thousand damage anyway. Put two and two together, Grind. The moment you start leveling up, you’ll be unstoppable.” He grinned to himself, leaning back in his chair. Despite feigned leisure, he had shifted his chair away from me as well. “We’re friends, right?”

  I smiled. “Yeah.”

  When class ended, I checked my account.

  Still hopelessly in debt.

  I poked Sip and he jolted. I ignored that. “Hey, think you could buy me lunch?”

  “Huh? Oh! Yeah sure!” He said, nodding a little too fast. “Hey, buddy, why don’t I buy you some desert too!”

  Five minutes later I had a shake and three jumbo-size burgers, all to myself.

  Maybe I could get used to this.

  Sip fidgeted in his seat, eating nothing. “So, how’d you do that?”

  “Eh?” I grunted.

  “That thing at the end. That was an ability, right?” Sip asked.

  “Yeah, it makes emotions into little bombs. I don’t really know how it works, since strong emotions don’t seem to do more damage.”

  I took a bite of food.

  Sip waited patiently until I was finished before he started talking again.

  Yeah.

  I could get used to this.

  “But you don’t have any Exp,” Sip said. “So how’d you get such a strong power?”

  I briefly considered explaining my time-traveling powers, but considering how fast word of my ability spread last time, I’d better not risk it. Not until I understood how safe the Union actually was.

  “Scrolls,” I said. “Well, scroll, singular. It was legendary.”

  Sip nodded. “I see. And what about the other things you did? The healing and the crystallizing? I didn’t sense any mana.”

  “That was a command.”

  He went silent.

  “You’re joking, right?” Sip whispered.

  I just looked at him.

  “You’re not?!” He hissed, grabbing the sides of his head. “Geez, Grind! There’s first courts who can’t do commands during combat! How long have you been in the second area?”

  “A month?” I guessed. “No, two weeks. Three weeks? I don’t have a good sense of time.”

  Sip gawked. “To think you’d develop this kind of power all on your own! You’re already one of the strongest students in the lower four courts, and you’re still only a Dirt!”

  “I’m afraid it’s much worse than that,” a stranger in black interrupted. He had a bright gold badge pinned to his chest and a certain looming presence which made it very clear that the next word he’d say was not a question. “May I sit down?”

  Sip jumped up from the table. “I’m not involved in this, right?”

  The man shook his head, and Sip scampered off.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “A servant of my Master,” he sighed, sitting beside me. “I assume you are Grind? I am Verinaldo.” He folded his hands. “It has come to her attention that you have used extraordinary mental ability during the seventh court fight. For that reason, she would like to become your benefactor.”

  “Benefactor?” I bit my lip. “Sorry, but four other masters are already teaching me—”

  “A benefactor is not a teacher. However, the contracts you take will cut into your learning time.” He smiled. “My lady has spoken to your teachers and they agree with her decision.”

  “This isn’t one of those optional things, is it?”

  Verinaldo shook his head. “Not really. But it is a good thing, especially for one as new as yourself. Many students wait a year before they start getting contracts.” He rose from the booth. “Now, if you would follow me, my lady would like to meet you. ”

  He led me through the halls, to a large elevator in the center of the campus. Here, two guards recognized him, backing away from the entrance.

  The inside was gold plated, with jewels embedded every few inches.

  “These were summoned, right?” I asked.

  “Very astute,” Verinaldo said, inserting a key into the side and pressing the button for the highest floor. “We have enchanter trainees make gemstones as practice, since it’s very easy to catch their mistakes. As for the gold and precious metals, my lady is rather fond of them. Normally it’s temptation for smugglers, but my lady—”

  “She had the whole estate covered in gold?” I asked. “The union let her do that?”

  Verinaldo smirked like he knew a good joke. “My lady owns the school. She built it herself, after all.”

  He stepped into the hallway. “Suffice to say, I would suggest being polite.”

  We walked forward, past expensive paintings and sculptures.

  Unlike the walk to Terror’s office, which felt gaudy, the wealth she displayed seemed perfectly natural.

  “She built the whole school?” I whispered. “How long did that take?”

  “Three minutes.”

  I swallowed. “What’s her name?”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “It’s pronounced, ‘Zoe-ay,’” Verinaldo said. “And it’s good of you to ask.”

  There was a large name plate over the door, covered in gibberish characters.

  “And what’s that?” I whispered.

  “Her real name, I’m afraid,” Verinaldo muttered. “She spells it as ‘Xoiae’ these days. Before that she was known as Xoiaenasieaoyi.”

  “Xoiaenasieaoyi?” I massaged my jaw. “Hey. Why’d my mouth go numb?”

  “You will address her as Headmaster Xoiae,” Verinaldo said, grabbing the thick doors and pushing them outward. “And I would strongly advise against pronouncing her full name. If your mouth cramps up, you’ll look like an idiot.

  “Thanks—”

  He pushed me inside, shoving the door closed.

  I huffed. “Rude.”

  “Merely doing his job,” The Headmaster said. She sat in a big swivel chair, overlooking the entire campus through a crystal window larger than a two-story home. “It’s not wise to leave the door open for long.”

  She spun around, smiling.

  Headmaster Xoiae looked to be in her twenties, with a long white dress that spilled over her chair and into heaps on the floor.

  There was an overpowering energy around her, physically weighing on the desk, chairs, and carpet. Just breathing around her was taking steadily more effort.

  Her whole office was enchanted, likely just to contain her own power.

  For whatever reason, white cat in her lap seemed to be doing just fine.

  “You’ll find that, after a certain point, gaining stats becomes dangerous,” Headmaster Xoiae sighed. “Of course, you probably won’t experience anything like that for a long time.”

  I glanced over her head, finding nothing. “Ma’am, I’m wondering…”

  Xoiae beamed. “Oh? Are you curious?”

  ~unmasked~

  {Xoiaenasieaoyi}

  [Platinum]

  [1.2b Str, 1b Hp]

  Hang on.

  B? As in a billion? As in, she has a billion hp? As in, she’s on the same scale as Kizota, the turtle with a city on its back?

  That billion?

  I felt suddenly dizzy.

  Her stats flickered away. “At the moment, I am only one of two people in the second area who has that level of power. But don’t worry, most people enter the third area in their first million. You have a long way to go, but not so long. Few need to stick around here.”

  The cat shifted around, nuzzling into her lap. Xoiae kissed him on the head, before setting him gently on the floor. “Now, show me what you can do.”

  I nodded. “What would you like to see?”

  “The three basics. Summoning, commanding, and enchanting.”

  She summoned a block of wood. “Make this into metal.”

  “Done.” I said, barely registering the output of mental energy.

  Xoiae blinked, and it was steel. “That was…incredibly efficient. You must have a clever system.”

  She squeezed her hand, turned the steel bar into wine. Before it spilled over her white dress, I summoned a cup to catch it.

  Immediately, there was a spike of pain as our wills opposed. Then the cup appeared, filling to the brim.

  “Good reaction time, but…” Xoiae clicked her tongue. “You’re summoning is not nearly as efficient. We will work on that. Make this wine sweet.”

  I focused, repeating an internal thought several times in the moment before she took a sip.

  Xoiae immediately spat it out. “My! How strong was your enchantment?”

  “I did four or five of them,” I admitted. “Too much?”

  “Yes, it’d say so,” she chuckled. “It tastes like a shot of corn syrup.”

  And then the cup was gone.

  “I have three suggestions. Learn to use mana in your summoning and strength in your commands. Your enchanting is fine as is, but you could use mana there too, if you’re in a rush.”

  You can do that?

  I suppose it made sense. The two systems were supposed to be used together, after all. Stats should have a direct correlation to mental output.

  But how was I supposed to make that happen?

  “My second tip is more of a hunch,” Xoiae continued. “But you need more physical exercise. There is a zeroth system, that of the human physique. Training would double your total output in all regards, not just the command system. And third, your focus wobbles, resulting in deformities within delicate processes.” She leaned forward, training her eyes on my chest. “You’ve countered this by using additional commands to naturally fix your mistakes, but that’s dreadfully inefficient.”

  Scarring in my tissue suddenly vanished, and my whole body felt lighter. More flexible.

  “Can you feel the difference?” Xoiae clapped her hands. “Other than those things, you’re pretty good! Just keep practicing!”

  I almost turned to go, before Headmaster Xoiae summoned a massive sphere, filled with rotating glass pieces.

  “We’re not done yet, Grind. Come here,” she ordered. Once I was close, she took my hand and clamped it beneath the contraption. “As I’ve heard, you weren’t able to be properly tested back at the initial evaluation.”

  “Sorry about that—”

  “Oh hush hush, you’re fine,” she whispered. “But now that you’re here, I’d like to know what kind of base mental force you have.”

  “Is that important?” I asked. “Exp makes your mind better, doesn’t it?”

  “Oh it’s exponential,” Headmaster Xoiae explained. “The more willful you are, the more effective increasing your capacity is. Multiplicative combat is essential to growth. Now, we measure this capacity in terms of people. A capacity of one means you have the mental power of the average untrained player. Most people in the union have a two point three or a two point four, though a couple have three point or higher.”

  “And you?”

  Headmaster Xoiae smiled. “Well, if you must know, I have a nine point twenty-three, but that’s neither here nor there.”

  The contraption chimed, outputting numbers on a nearby screen.

  “Here we go—zero point four?” The headmaster scrunched up her face. “That’s not quite right. You’ve got to have at least a five point four to achieve these results.”

  Xoiae smacked her forehead. “Ah! Sorry, I forgot to tell you. You need to concentrate, or the machine is going to think you’re an idiot.”

  “Ah,” I said, concentrating. “Sorry, it’s just the last time I tried—”

  The machine exploded in my hand.

  Xoiae clicked her tongue, erasing the old one and summoning another. “Did you use mana?”

  “I don’t even know how to do that,” I admitted. “Why are these things so fragile?”

  Xoiae grabbed the new machine and closed her eyes. She whispered a single enchantment, creating such a force as to knock me to my knees.

  “Sorry, but we needed something durable,” Headmaster Xoiae stated. “Try again.”

  I clenched my teeth, using a little mental energy so I could stand, and fitting my hand back into the scanner.

  Xoiae perked up.

  {Error}

  [Local_System.NumStack : Overflow]

  “Is that bad?” I asked.

  “Well, you have a mental power higher than ten.” She tapped her lip. “Anything above that goes into new territory.”

  Xoiae clapped her hands and the machine vanished. “Do you understand what that means?”

  “Uh…no…not really.”

  She beamed.

  “It means you’re hired.”

  // {Notice} //

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