The Author's POV

It's been about two weeks since I had officially entered the academy, and I couldn't say I was particularly excited about classes.

Not only was it hard for me to train, due to the constant stares, but for the theoretical courses, I really couldn't understand a thing.

Although they were interesting, because of how advanced all the material was, I didn't even know how to solve the easiest questions.

What was the point of them being interesting when you knew nothing about them?

I didn't even have the basic foundational knowledge.

It was like presenting an integral calculation to a kid who had just learned how to perform additions.

It was totally ridiculous!

I just realized, at this rate, I might actually not make it past my first year!

Although the lock mainly focused on nurturing heroes. In order to pass the first year, you still needed to pass all your courses.

If I couldn't pass a course, my chances of graduating, let alone pass the first year were extremely slim.

This was a huge problem!

That was because the second year was the main year of the academy arc!

It was the year where, after the protagonists who have all settled down and adapted to school life, suddenly came face to face against villains!

It was the most impactful part of the academy arc which helped the protagonist and his friends grow in both strength and character.

Missing such an event would be detrimental to my growth, as not only did I lose access to the top-end facilities provided by the academy, but I would also lose my chance to gain experience fighting against villains.

"Alright guys that marks the end of the lesson, I hope you enjoy yourselves at the elective fair"

disrupting my thoughts was Donna's enchanting voice.

'So today is the day, huh...'

Today was the day the elective fair was held.

The elective fair was an academy-wide event where the third and second years tried to recruit new members to their elective.

Once an elective was chosen, you couldn't change it until the start of the new year.

There was a wide selection of electives available for each student to choose from.

There was a 'Specialised combat' course, a 'programming' course, a 'dungeon exploration' course, and many more activities to choose from.

This was also the time when first years would come to contact with the senior years.

Because the first, second, and third years were separated they didn't have many chances to interact with one other.

Electives were a great chance for the seniors to interact with their juniors.

Moreover, the more first years they manage to recruit to their elective course, the more budget they were granted by the academy.

So every year, the first years found themselves getting assaulted by all types of seniors looking to recruit new members.

Furthermore, there was another thing one needed to be careful of when taking into consideration what elective to join.

That was...they had to watch out for the 'hidden politics' in certain electives.

Factions existed inside of the academy.

A good example was the 'Blood supremacist' faction that Gilbert used to be a part of back when he was still a student.

Many electives were secretly a recruitment process for certain individuals to their factions.

Therefore, one should be careful when choosing an elective as choosing one faction means being an enemy to all other factions.

Fortunately for me, I was keeping a low profile.

Since I was fairly unnoticeable, I was almost certain that I wouldn't be dragged into this senseless conflict.

However, although I may not encounter any problems during the elective fair, that didn't mean others would have it as easy as me.

Take Kevin as an example.

Because he stood out too much, he would not only have to face the endless number of people requesting for him to join their elective, but he would also have to fend off against factions who were eager to have a talented person like him in their group.

I could already imagine how miserable his life would be for the next few days.

Actually, I didn't need to imagine, I already knew.

Moreover, since I already knew what would happen in the next few days, I also knew that this was the period where one of the main scenarios for the first-year academy arc began.

Seniors vs. Juniors.

The first major event that Kevin encounters since joining the lock.

An event which even if I didn't want to participate will be forced to join.

'Ah...why did I even...'

encountering more arrogant characters was

I still had Donna

her beauty which was more mature compared to the main heroines who were still

"..."

was busy admiring her, she turned her head around and met my

remember much after that, as I felt my body

even lift

-Bang!

heard the sound of the door

sweat, I tried my best to

this donkey getting caught looking at

"hahaha, how pathetic"

she's beautiful but how is a bottom ranker like you worthy of

I was sitting,

"What's going on?"

suddenly picking on

it felt like they were coming at me more aggressively than ever before. It was like they

ah...

Right.

How could I forget?

to the left side of the classroom, I could see Arnold sitting with his arms crossed

going on? Cat got your

a rather lanky individual that seemed to

are you looking at professor

way to deal with these kinds of

"..."

deaf or something?

you couldn't fight in schools, I could just ignore him and

you're caught fighting in school, depending on how serious the violation was, you could potentially be expelled from the

since my ranking was so low, I doubt they would bother keeping a troublemaking student like

I'm talking

"..."

you, I think he's just too terrified to

"Yeah, what a moron"

"..."

you want, just don't

myself, I stood up and packed

"You leaving?"

"..."

on my back, I stepped to

who told you I'll let your run like

at him with cold eyes, I

"Move"

nearly dying inside of the dungeon, my demeanor had become

my response, the leader of the group laughed "Hehehe, who do you think you

Sigh

I tried to push my way through the trio but it was

you can

me, I

but since I couldn't afford to be expelled,

phone, I loaded a game and started playing

initially smirked with a sense of superiority, but as soon as I started playing my game their smiles faded away,

"Y-ou"

pointed his finger at me,

him, I tilted

"Need something from me?"

MAKE

lost all sense of reason, the leader of the group tried to assault me, but just as he was about to hit me, his two friends held

you might get expelled

"Don't do this Richard!"

his name

Mhhh...

Never heard of him.

being restrained by his friends, Richard managed to calm

will pay for making fun of

"Hold on a second"

brows, I let out another

me get this straight. You're mad at me because

for a second, Richard processed what I said before looking down

lowly ranker, you think you're worthy

you clearly were angry. Even a stupid person could

"I'll kill you!"

"No Richard stop!"

"Ghhhhu, stop Richard"

stared at Richard being

sort of

all minor characters supposed to be

"Huff...Huff...I'll remember this!"

was seemingly out of breath, threatened me with a third-rate

"Please don't"

"I'll kill you!"

"Richard don't!"