Cedric's POV
——
Inside Cedric's dorm room, I sat on the floor with my back against the cold wall, wallowing in a toxic mix of depression and anger.
I couldn't tell how long I'd been sitting here; only that it was now night.
As for why my mood was so bad, part of it was the empty room stretching out before me. It had no furniture, not even a bed, only a small, old wooden box in the corner.
At first, I thought it was a joke when I asked my map to lead me to Cedric's room, and it pointed to a dorm for low-level workers and servants, not even cadets. But when I got here, I realized that it was not a joke, and my despair only deepened when I saw that the actual room wasn't even in the main building but in the cold, dark basement below it.
This meant that not only did the other cadets treat Cedric poorly, but even the Academy couldn't give a damn about him, seeing as they didn't care to even assign him a proper room.
This injustice was the reason why I'm so furious and depressed. Because now I had nowhere to sleep.
I had come all the way here to sleep on a proper bed, but here I am, sulking on the floor.
'I hate this bullshit.'
I sighed and gently hit the back of my head on the wall.
'I hate this academy.'
I sighed again and hit my head on the wall again.
'I hate this game and all the NPCs in it.'
I sighed again, but just as I raised my head to hit the wall a third time, an angry, familiar voice echoed in my head:
'Aisssh! Goddamnit! What is with these random bursts of woe is me?!'~~
As soon as I heard her voice, I immediately snapped my gaze to my right arm. But before I could even say anything, wisps of black smoke flowed out from the spaces in my sleeve and coalesced in front of me until Aika materialized with her back to me.
She seemed to be breathing heavily, like someone who was annoyed after being disturbed from sleep, and her fist were clenched as if she was trying so hard to stop herself from punching me in gut. After a moment, she ran a hand through her hair, took a few deep breaths to calm herself, then turned to me and said in an exasperated tone:
"Listen here. I can't deal with this depressing mood! So stop behaving like a Cornish hen and snap out of it. Haven't you heard the saying: 'If life gives you lemons, eat it, or throw it away'?"
I stared at her in stunned disbelief for a moment, then blinked a couple times and said, "I'm pretty sure the saying is, 'If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.'"
As soon as I said that, I saw her face twitch, which made me realize that I should have just kept my big mouth shut.
Aika scoffed, "Whatever! My point is, you've been in this mood for a few hours now. So I think it's time you snapped out of it." She turned and threw up two fingers in a dismissive gesture. "In the meantime, I'll go have a smoke. Don't wait up for me. I might not be back anytime soon." She stepped out, shutting the door behind her, and leaving me in the room's dim quiet.
I sat reflecting for a moment, then chuckled. "When life gives you lemons, throw them the fuck away, huh?"
I liked this version better.
Also, Aika was right. It was time for me to snap out of it.
I had a lot of things to do. This bullying wouldn't stop until I made it stop, and to do that, I needed to grow stronger.
But this was not the only reason why I needed to grow stronger. This world, unlike Earth, was a world filled with terrifying and unreasonable monsters. They were not just scary, or dangerously huge, but also terrifyingly powerful. Even a Grade One monster, if not restrained quickly, could deal enormous damage to a city. It was the brutal difficulty of this game that made it popular back then, and made me shiver right now.
I couldn't afford to keep remaining the weakest cadet in the academy. Things were only going to get worse from now on and keep getting worse in the future, especially when we begin journeying to the world beyond the veil, which was the home of these monsters.
Sighing one last time, I slapped my cheeks with both hands and straightened up.
To be truly on the path to strength, one must first know oneself.
And so, right now, I needed to know about the tools I had in my arsenal so I could figure out how to strengthen them.
'Status.'
As soon as I thought that, a screen materialized in front of me.
~~~~~~~~ UI ~~~~~~~~
Character Name: [Cedric Martini]
Age: [17]
Level: [9]
Grade: [1]
Element: [Darkness]
Exclusive Class: [Gamer]
Exclusive Class Attribute: [Gamer Privileges]
Bond Name: [Aika Soryu]
Bonded Ability: [Chrysalis]
Exclusive Skill: [Flames of decay - Lv1]
EXP: [500/10,000]
Karma Points: [400]
~~~~~~~~ === ~~~~~~~~
I already knew a bit about almost everything listed, but there was one entry I still had no idea about, and that was my Exclusive Skill.
All Dominants received an Exclusive Skill upon entering a new Grade. The higher the Grade, the more skills they gained. These skills were derived from the Dominant's element and only grew stronger by being used repeatedly.
Looking at mine still at Level 1, I couldn't help but frown. I felt a pang of jealousy toward Leon, who already had one skill at Level 10 and his second close behind.
After a short while, I took a deep breath, exhaled, and put that needless feeling away.
'Is there a description for the flames of decay?'
A different screen popped up beside the main one.
[Flames of decay <—> Offensive]
[Description <—> These flames, born from the chilling void of non-existence, are the ultimate opposite of preservation or creation.]
"Woah… what's up with this scary-ass description?"
I could feel a chill run down my spine just reading it.
…But at the same time, I could also feel myself getting excited.
I then raised my right hand to figure out how to use my skill.
"Flames of decay."
…For a long moment, nothing happened. I blinked at my extended arm, then called out again. "Come, flames of decay."
Still, nothing. At this point, I was beginning to cringe.
'How do I it?' I stared at my arm for a moment longer. Still, nothing came to me. I had no idea how to use the skill.
Of course when I used to play the game, I used to see how the characters spammed their skills. But watching from the screen and trying to do it now as a character were two completely different things.
I scratched my hair for a moment thinking. Then after a few frustrating minutes of trying to figure it out, I grew tired and decided to ask for help.
"Aika?" I called in a soft tone.
It was quiet for a bit. Then her voice echoed in my head.
'What?'~~
"Oh… uh… I'm trying to figure out how to use my skill, but I'm completely stumped."
I could somehow hear Aika puffing out smoke, and after a pause, she replied:
'Try focusing on your mana core. Then, expel some mana from it while simultaneously thinking about the skill.'~~
Oh… So that's what I was missing!
After awakening, a mana core formed in the center of a Dominant's chest to store mana, which powers their skills. I already knew this, but I thought all I needed was to call out the skill's name and it would automatically activate. Turns out, that wasn't the case.
"Thank you, Aika."
I closed my eyes and tried to feel my mana core. It took some time, but I finally located it. It felt like something cold, dark, and tangible in my chest. I then tried to expel mana from it while focusing on my skill.
Less than a few seconds later, a notification popped up.
[Flames of Decay]
Then almost instantly, a black magic circle began to form on my outstretched arm. The runes on it slowly connected until ten were formed.
Barely a second after they did, black flames appeared, hovering above the runes.
I couldn't contain my excitement as I watched.
Magic… I was doing magic!
Who would have thought that I'd ever be able to do something like this?
I didn't even realize that my grin was stretching from ear to ear.
I decided to play around with the skill.
I sent out more mana, and the flames grew a bit larger. I then sent out even more mana and tried to see if I could control the form and shape of the flames… and it worked!
The flames rose higher and began to move through the air until a large ring of black flames hovered in the center of the empty room.
"Ha…"
My excitement grew as many thoughts on how to apply the skill crossed my mind. But then I noticed something that caused my excitement to crack:
The flames were not hot, but cold… so very cold. And the more it burned, the darker and gloomier the room became. It was almost as if it was not just sucking up the light, but even the very life from the room...