Chapter 4:

“Aoi,Yoshito, you both are the last! Get ready!”

I heard my name being called so I passed the crowd. Before going to the arena, I looked at all the weapons stocked beside the arena and asked Mr Yuu something important.

“Mr Yuu, is there a limit of weapons I can take?”

“No there's none, you can take whatever you can carry. Not going to use your own?”

He said to me as I gave a quick glance at him before taking a few swords and dragged them to the arena with me. They are probably wondering or confused why someone needs this many swords. I had a plan to win against the MC, but I didn't know if this would work so I need to try it.

I stand near the edge of the arena, the swords I took. I drop them in front of me as I take one from the pile and get into my stance of standing straight relaxed with the sword on my right hand at thirty degree angle from my thighs. Opposite of me, my sparring partner, the dumbass Yoshito. He hasn't taken the sword out of its sheet and just stared at me relaxingly, what he planned to do?

“Can I borrow one?”

Is he for real? He already owned the ego sword and yet he wants to use a normal issued sword? What's wrong with him?

Well, it isn't like I am to blame for picking this many swords, so I replied with a solid “No”.

Depressed by my response he walked away from his position to the edge of the arena walking towards the weapons stash. 

“No leaving the arena until the sparring is over! You never gonna have a chance to get back and take precautions after meeting your enemies in a real fight! Now fight!” Mr Yuu shouted as Yoshito was about to get down from the arena to take a sword.

As I see Yoshito sighing externally and ready himself and unsheathe his sword, revealed the hero blade “Sword of Light”. Well right now it just looks like another fancy sword that had no difference with regular sword, but that sword already on its first awakening. Which means the first fragment already absorbed into the sword together with the first ego.

The question is, which ego is it?

Each run I do there's one of the four egos you can get from just starting the run. From 99 runs there are three simple egos that usually appeared and one ego that only appeared once. The three egos are Lux helping with using light magic, Ventus helping with using wind magic, and Ignis helping with using fire magic.

The one I'm really hoping he didn't get is Providentia. Unlike those three egos, Providentia is connected with the owner, giving them passive ability to see just a bit into the future. That ego can grow as well, making the foresight even better. 

If only I knew sooner that ego is the best starter, I would not let myself die to that thing! Agh, whichever he got, I don't care! I’ll just do my best here.

“...”

“...”

So… he hasn't moved an inch after making his stance… Is this guy waiting for me to make the first move? I am thinking the whole time and he is just holding his form… unbelievable.

I put my right foot under the stack of swords and launch the swords up and kick them towards him. Most only scattered around the arena, and only few actually reached him, just to be deflected. 

Now the plan is in motion. Starting with the closest ones, I throw them up into the air, one by one, as I advance towards him. My plan is to keep him  moving while the swords in the air fall down and  I keep attacking him. If a sword lands nearby, I use it as an offhand weapon. If the sword I'm holding breaks, I can just take another. And if I only need one, I throw them up in the air again, continuing the loop.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Swoosh! Swoosh!

My sword clashes with his multiple times. I strike fast but he just parried everything, and that included the falling sword that goes straight to his position. Sometimes he dodged it just as it was about to hit him as well, which confirmed the ego he currently had. The most annoying ego to fight against, Providentia.

He also started to adapt to the loop which is bad, reminding me with randomizer early game perk. It was so random that I learned every single one of the available perks, and from what I observe from our current fight are [Adapt] and [Fast Learner]. There's three or five starting perks that he possibly had, two is confirmed by how fast he adapted to a new style of fighting quickly.

Swoosh!

“?!”

That was close! He slowly got the upper hand in this fight… I can only use five swords left… remember the adrenaline on the guild exam… I can do this.

I run to the three swords lying on the arena and throw them straight to his direction then at the same time all the swords are flying together. I am coming for the opposite side of him. I and the swords come together to end this fight.

I got him cornered.

He was in a pinch from my attack.

Boom! Crack!

…

…

…

Was…?

Right…

He is not a normal person…

He is the hero.

“Guh! Ack! Hah… hah…” 

Why am I… outside the… arena…?

What… just happened…?

That stance… he just kicked me…

The swords… planted near him…

I can't… move my body…

My consciousness… is fading away…

“Ugh…”

I opened my eyes slowly and saw a ceiling. Of course… what else there gonna be when I pass out.

“Awake already?”

New voice, women, I'm lying on bed. This is the infirmary, no doubt.

“Yeah. Thank you for the care. If I may ask, who carried me here?”

“The one who kicked you to the wall.”

“Yoshito, huh. So I failed…”

My made up spot plan failed, if he didn't have those two perks I probably would win. But well, it is what it is, he is the hero after all. But now I know the skill he already has.

 [Blindspot], contradictory with its name, this skill lets him see his own Blindspot in real time just for a short amount of time. Combined with the ego Providentia, he is basically untouchable by regular adventures. 

I heard steps coming closer to me. I look at the owner of the noises. White long hair wearing a nun outfit, with purple eyes, she is tall, and has a badge of the academy on her chest.

“Awake already? I'm Sister Lily, is there any place you still feel discomfort with?” 

She introduced herself to me.

“... Pardon me, I should introduce myself as well. I am Shizuki Aoi from class 1-A. I'm fine now, thank you Sister Lily.”

“My pleasure, may Lady Hera bless your journey.”

“???”

What is Sister Lily talking about? Lady Hera? Is she the goddess in this world? This is the first time I ever heard of that name. Wait… thinking about it again, I read it once on one of the few scattered papers on the Church stage.

“Is something wrong Aoi?”

“No-nothing.”

Wait what? Since when did I stand up? Huh?

“Well then, I hope your day is blessed.”

“Yeah… see you next time Sister Lily.”

Leaving the infirmary and Sister Lily behind I took a few detours. But I am still really suspicious of Sister Lily, just a hunch but it feels like I forgot something important about her.

Put that aside for now, what time is it?

I looked through the windows searching for the clock tower, which showed me it's 10:58 right now and the sun is still shining. That means it's about time for the magic class to start, aka the magic tutorial. 

The tutorial steps consist of, showing place of interest outside and inside Academy, combat tutorial, study minigame tutorial, magic casting tutorial, rest bar tutorial, thirst bar tutorial, hunger tutorial, cooking tutorial, and the most important thing the interaction with character tutorial.

Magic is complicated. Someone needs a high amount of intelligence to be able to use magic and you need to remember the chant to use it as well. That is why the ego weapon is praised highly, the ego can help cast and control the magic just by the user's will.

The magic statue that is gonna let me see my own character sheet should be around this corner on the left, after I check myself I will then head back to the class. It was placed so far on the building that only a few people go there by design or the principal just forgot about the statue. 

“is still as anonymous as ever…”

The statue leaked dark clouds behind it. Meanwhile there is a moving liquid that looks like slime that is constantly moving on the entire statue, then there is the tentacle existing on the statue from below it. That tentacle is covered by some kind of liquid I can’t even describe, and that is where I should touch it to be able to see my character sheet on the stone tablet that is cracked to multiple pieces right now. When a person touched that tentacle the pieces combined to one and then showed the character sheet, well I was just being shown the image and not seeing it moving… ugh. 

The statue… is unpleasant to look at or even touch with those things moving so nonchalantly, but I must… I must… I must do it so I can see my character sheet!