First period was quiet, which gave me time to think about the quest the system just gave me.
The counter showed me the time left until the burst, but the biggest problem was that the burst would occur at the same day Nadia told me the New Dawn would attack my school.
So I was being forced to choose whether I was going to save the regular kids here, or I was going to perform that stupid quest and keep the whole town safe.
I sighed while thinking about it, and then I saw a little paper ball flying in my direction. It was probably shot with quite the strength, but my reflexes were a lot better, so I watched it like it was in slow motion.
But as I reminded myself, even if chief Leblanc was dead, the monitoring division still had their eyes on me, and I couldn’t know if there was any, I don’t know, spy or whatever in the classroom.
So I just let it hit my face.
The whole class laughed as I raised my head to pretend I was looking for the culprit, to find out the teacher was looking at me with a reproaching face.
"It seems that the world inside your head is far more interesting than the current class, right Mr. Blake?" The teacher mocked.
He was a man seemingly in his later thirties, with glasses and a few wrinkles on his tanned skin, and his short hair made him look like a soldier.
But what troubled me the most was that I didn’t remember him being a teacher there before the break, and even more.
He had the strong presence of a wielder.
"I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to disturb your lecture."
He looked at me with a surprised gleam in his eyes, and for a second, I felt the threatening aura that erupted from him gradually softening.
"It’s okay. But in return, I want you to explain to your classmates how the coming of the Calamity shaped society, one hundred years ago."
I got up and the other students all paid attention to what I was about to say.
That’s one thing I liked about this school. Despite being kids, everyone was very quiet when in class.
"It’s still unknown to the scientists, what the components of the meteor that fell in Australia are. But what’s known to them is that ever since it touched the ground, a series of dimensional gates began appearing all around the world, from where came what we now call Beasts, and they started wrecking havoc all around, killing millions of people and destroying everything they found.
As if the Beasts weren’t enough, people had to hide and live in the underground for years, because of the natural disasters and the sudden winter raised after the impact.
Weeks went by until something happened, and the first awakened emerged to fight the Beasts.
As time went by, even though they were still very few, more and more people awakened and stepped forward to fight for mankind.
It took ten years for the awakened to reclaim the surface and control the breaches that we now call Nests.
From then on, society knew that we needed these specially powerful individuals to keep the unknown menace of the Nests at bay, and after the first guild was created, it didn’t take long for the Association to be founded, so that the awakened could be bound to rules, since they were so powerful that they could easily be corrupted by their own power..."
At that point, I noticed the teacher slightly glaring at me, but I chose to ignore him and went on with the assignment.
Once I was done, my classmates applauded me and the teacher nodded in begrudging approval.
The other periods went as smoothly as possible, until someone knocked at the classroom’s door.
It was an unremarkable man, wearing the monitoring division uniform.
"Mr. Teacher, the student Kurt Blake has been called at the principal’s office."
Everyone looked at me like I was in trouble, but what did I do to be summoned to the principal’s office right in my first day back to school?
I looked at the teacher and he nodded, so I got up and left the classroom, following the monitoring division agent.
But when he turned on a corridor that didn’t lead to the principal’s office, I already knew he lied.
The man turned around and faced me.
"My name is Liev." He stated, as if it was something important. "Nikolai’s father put me in the position of new leader in the monitoring division after Laurent Leblanc died. He left me a file about you, but that’s not important right now. All you need to know is that you’re a person of interest for the monitoring division, and they want you dead, or made an example of, but I’m here to help ’you’."
Shit, if only I had a lie detection skill!
It didn’t mean that his name and him mentioning Nikolai’s father didn’t sound true. But I needed more.
I needed to find someone with a lie detection skill, so I used [PRYING EYES] on Liev, just in case. But as I imagined, he didn’t have any skill that deemed useful to me.
"And how can I believe you?"
Liev’s answer caught me off-guard, but that was the best and most honest answer I think I ever got from someone.
"You can’t. There’ll be times where I’ll need to fight you, and times where we’ll be able to talk in private, like this. But you’ll never be able to know if you can fully trust me. After all, that’s my job here."
I couldn’t help but laugh. That definitely was the best answer I ever heard from someone.
"Okay, you got me there. Now what?"
"The monitoring division is trying to locate the source of activity that helped you rebuild your register, so protect what you have at all costs. They’re moving soon, but this time, it’s going to be big, the masked guy got them panicked."
’Good to know.’ I did my best not to smirk at Liev’s words. "I’ll do my best. Anything else?"
"No, you can go back to class. I’m sure the teacher is eager to have you back." He smiled cryptically.
"Right?" I smiled back and turned around to leave.
When I entered the classroom again, a few students swarmed me to as what happened, if I was in trouble or what.
I wasn’t used to that kind of attention, because there were even a few girls all giggly and excited to know about my venture to the principal’s office.
So I just made up some excuse and went back to my place, noticing that the teacher wasn’t there.
It gave me goosebumps when he suddenly reappeared out of nowhere, taking all the students by surprise.
"And this, my young students, is a unique ability of the Assassin class, called Stealth." The whole class murmured in awe, probably because they never saw anything like that.
But the problem was that even I didn’t feel his presence until he revealed himself again.
It looked way too much like [SHADOW WALK] for my taste, so I used [PRYING EYES] on him to check it out.
[NAME: Johan Lenox
RANK: S
AGE: 28
CLASS: Assassin
STAMINA: 500/500
HP: 800/800
MP: 1300/1300
BASIC STATS
Strength: 120
Dexterity: 300
Agility: 300
Perception: 230
Intelligence: 500
Vigor: 450
EQUIPMENT
Silent Blades – HIDDEN -
SKILLS
Poison Blade
Vicious Barrage
Conceal Presence
Mirage Walk
Shadow Walk]
Luckily, my shock was overseen by the ringing bell, announcing the end of the classes for the day, I got up and tried my best to not make eye contact with the teacher.
’Stealth my ass...’
But how did he have a skill with the same name as mine? I had to throw the thought away for a while.
Using [SHADOW WALK], I ran up the stairs towards the rooftop to meet Evellyn.
She was already there, having lunch and looking at the birds.
I uncloaked myself and walked towards her.
"Before you say anything, there’s something I need to ask."
I knew she was going to get back to the topic we were talking about before class, but I had to get ’it’ out of my mind first.
"What’s it?" She smiled. "Do you want some?" She offered me her lunchbox.
I wasn’t hungry, so I politely refused and started talking.
"The New Dawn guild is planning to attack the school in less than six days. I need your help to stop them."
"You’re asking ’my’ help or the guild’s help?" Her eyes were serious at my request, and the more I looked at her, the less I understood how she functioned. "Also, how do you know?"
"I came across some interesting connections, and they’re helping me track the New Dawn’s actions."
She scratched her chin for a while, looking at the sky as if she was deeply pondering something about my request, and after a few minutes, she finally answered.
"There’s something wrong within the guild, but I’ll see what I can do. I know some reliable people there who can be of help."