The Author's POV

"Huuu..."

Taking a deep breath and calming my emotions down, I took out a pen from my dimensional space.

With Aaron following me, this was the only option I had at the moment. If I lead him to Kevin, things might worsen.

"Please work."

Channeling my mana into my fingers, I decided to make some changes to the book.

Unfortunately...

"Damn it!"

My grip on the book tightened. The changes that I had made to the book disappeared within five seconds.

It became apparent to me that I was still too weak.

Even though I could make changes to the future with the book, the changes were only proportional to the amount of mana I had. At this moment, my mana was only at the level of a rank. It was pitifully low. The only changes I could make were not something that could help Kevin.

'Calm down...calm down, I need to calm down.'

I repeated inside of my mind.

Repeating the process a couple of more times, and once again failing miserably, my breathing started to get rough as panic started to set in.

"...I have no choice." My teeth clenched tightly. "I'm going to forcefully breakthrough."

Though I was breaking through a couple of days before I was supposed to, this was the only way I could save Kevin at the moment.

As long as I broke through to rank, there might be a chance for me to change the future a little bit.

Clenching my fists tightly, I took out a small pill from my dimensional space.

"Ugh, I was saving this up for later but..."

Throwing the pill in my mouth, I closed my eyes and waited for it to enter my system completely.

The pill that I took was nothing really special, it had the ability to help one breakthrough when they felt that they were near. Originally, I had planned on using this pill in about a week's time, but given the circumstances, I had no choice.

"This is probably gonna hu'”khuak!"

Not even a second after I said that, an electric current ran down my body as all of my muscles spasmed uncontrollably. This was the consequence of forcefully breaking through.

Immense pain followed by potential future repercussions. The reason for this was simple. Because my body was still not fully capable of withstanding the huge increase in power that would come from a rank increase, by forcefully breaking through I was putting my body under immense strain.

If you put too much stuff inside of a box, the box will overflow. What I was doing was essentially the same thing. Stuffing my body with items, or in this case, energy.

My current body was still not fully capable of withstanding the large amount of energy. Hence why the unbearable amount of pain.

...but I did not have time to think about those problems. My main priority right now was saving Kevin.

"Haaa...haaaa..."

Fortunately, the pain didn't last long. Within half a minute everything was already over. With my body splattered all over the floor, I took massive breaths as I forcefully pushed my body up.

"...Please work."

With trembling hands, I opened the book and once again tried to make changes. Making the opponent miss, Making Kevin's attack land, Making the opponent trip...I tried everything.

"Khuak!"

Eventually, as if my soul was getting sucked out of my body, the book slowly changed.

"It's working."

My eyes lit up. Slowly but surely the future was changing...but my joy did not last for long.

'”Thud.

Falling face-first on the ground, Kevin's heart stopped moving.

On this day. Kevin Voss died.

"What? Dead again?"

Dropping the book on the ground, I covered my face with body hands and ruffled my hair.

Once again Kevin died.

The only difference was that he had managed to stay alive for eight more minutes.

"Damn it!"

escaped from my lips as my jaw

everything that I did useless? Was there really no way in saving

No.

Taking a mana replenishing potion from my dimensional space and swallowing

With my newfound strength, I should be able

'”Sha!

and aimed for my head. Fully on guard, ducking down,

me was Aaron who

to face me

I don't have time for

my muscles relaxed

going to

slightly, and glaring at Aaron that had finally caught

"Monarch's indifference."

***

at the area they first engaged with each other, the area where five students lay on the ground passed

all done

at the five students on

witnessed the whole fight from the very beginning. There were

was a watch where they could spectate some of the matches the students were having. The instructor saw Ren's whole

flawless performance. From first targeting the two strongest individuals before taking out the weaker three.

let's get

his hand, magically, all of the students

"Hm?"

feet abruptly paused.

to a certain area, he tilted his head to the side. From where

"What the..."

was, the instructor froze. Squinting his eyes, he bent down and dug the ground. Not even a minute after he started digging the ground, the instructor took out a large

seconds, the instructor's eyes opened widely as a curse escaped

"Shit'”!"

his watch, the instructor flusteredly sent a message to the

Red. We've got

***

'”Rustle! '”Rustle!

rustling sound of vegetation being pushed to the side echoed across

was Ren's cold figure, whilst on the other side was

me caught up

Aaron playfully smiled.

Ren's face remained indifferent as

out of the

"...Oh? Why should I?"

"..."

Ren did not respond.

of

"Hmmm"

Ren's body, Aaron's

SHIIIIING!

Aaron reappeared right in front of Ren. Thrusting his dagger forward, he aimed

totally unexpected

stood still. He made no effort in dodging the attack at all.

'”Click!

"...What the!"

the clicking sound rang out, the back of Aaron's

right before Ren's throat, Aaron disappeared and reappeared a couple of meters back. At the exact moment he disappeared, a lightning-fast sword appeared

sweat trickled down his forehead as he stared at Ren

kill yourself to get

in a flustered manner. Had he not dodged at the last moment, he would've without

applied to Ren who merely stood still and watched

"No."

shook his head as

defend yourself from my

you

calling me

"Yes."

of his sword. Slowly, he was

was trying

sigh escaped from Aaron's lips. "To think that

with the palm of

didn't know that

'”Fwuaa!

green hue suddenly shrouded Aaron's body. Bending his body slightly,

been doing the same thing. Let's see

slashed diagonally