"Today drained me," Aika mumbled wearily as she opened the door to the suite. After stepping inside, she could see Cedric sleeping in a seated position on the couch, with his head tilted back against the headrest.
She walked over, then sat beside him, before lying down to rest her head on his lap. Then she took his hand and wrapped it around her torso.
Once she felt relaxed, she pulled up his stats to study them:
~~~~~~~~ Character Profile ~~~~~~~~
Character Name: [Cedric Mortimer]
Age: [18]
Level: [22]
Grade: [3]
Element: [Darkness]
Exclusive Class: [Gamer]
Exclusive Class Attributes: [Gamer Privileges]
Bond Name: [Aika Soryu]
Bonded Ability: [Chrysalis]
Exclusive Skill: [Flames of decay - Lv10], [One with the Ravens - Lv10], [Ten Kleshas and Kushalas of Karma - Lv2]
EXP: [5,690 / 10,000]
Karma points: [N5000 / P650]
~~~~~~ ============== ~~~~~~
She looked through everything from the name that had been automatically changed by Gamer Privileges, to the Karma points.
After a moment, rather than satisfaction, a deep frown creased her brows.
’I always wondered why gaining negative Karma was so easy in comparison to gaining positive karma,’ she thought.
Unlike positive karma which was a bit tricky to gain, negative was incredibly straightforward. For instance, the duo could just steal over and over again with the intention of gaining negative karma, and they would get it.
’I almost even believed that we’d be able to gain enough negative karma to have so many lives that we’d never have to worry too much about death.’
She bit her inner cheek in frustration.
’But I was wrong. It turns out, there was actually a restriction. It seems that we cannot accumulate negative karma past five thousand, which means Cedric is capable of only having ten lives at a time.’
She clicked her tongue.
"Tsk."
And her expression dimmed.
’Although I kind of expected a limit coming, it’s really frustrating.’
She sighed as she tightened her hand over Cedric’s fingers, which were still resting against her waist.
After a moment, she tried to feel Cedric’s essence core.
’I noticed that after a point, I began to receive essence any time I did something bad today. Since I still received karma notifications despite reaching the five thousand mark, it seems that the excess karma points were converted to karma essence which trickled into Cedric’s essence core.’
Hm...
’So it was not a waste then.’
Her eyes returned to the profile and they grew half-lidded.
’But is ten lives enough? Especially for the next ring? Cedric did say that he plans on becoming a weapon master during this coming eclipse. Which means we’ll have to do lots of hunting quests to level up when we get to the second ring. Dangerous and outrageous as that sounds.
’Not to mention, we have to be careful because unlike the first ring, the second has quite a number of creatures who specialize in soul attacks as well.’
Aika felt herself grow worried and her frown deepened.
But after a few seconds, she shook her head and sighed.
’I’ll protect him...’
She closed her eyes, and before she knew it, she had already fallen fast asleep.
***
The days passed by really quickly.
In the mornings, Cedric went to classes as usual. Of course, there wasn’t much about the Second Ring introduced to him that he didn’t already know. However, regardless of that, he still attended the classes and paid attention.
In the evenings, he dueled with Aika as he did every day to gain a little bit of both experience points and combat experience.
After a few days, he sent his reply to the vice dean through Leo, just as he said he would. In response, he was given the names of the cadets meant for execution.
Two of the girls were daughters of counts, one boy was the second son of a marquis, and another was the third son of a count.
As for those who would be carrying out the executions, just as Cedric had suspected, Leon was involved. But although the princess knew about it, she was not going to kill anyone herself.
Others from the top ten who were part of the execution team included Vivienne and another third-year student who went by the name Lucky.
’It’s a shame that all the members of a family have to suffer in cases like this. In reality, it could be that the only people who committed treason were the noble heads, but now even the children will be wiped out.
’Missions will even be given to eliminate the heirs who are currently in the rings.’
The thought left a bitter taste on Cedric’s tongue over the following days.
At this point, he had grown really curious about just what could be the real reason for this war. And why the Evrarel empire had first tasked their cadets to get rid of the noble children from his empire.
He just couldn’t understand it, and this sort of thing had not happened in the game he played so he was completely in the dark.
Also, the news did not state the real reason and instead, all the papers just blamed the escalation of hostilities on the disaster that happened with the cadets in the first ring during the last eclipse.
’Since even Leon doesn’t seem to have answers, it means that the only people who really know the real reason for this war are those who are Elders or even Monarchs.’ Cedric finally concluded.
Shaking his head, he put the unanswered questions aside and just focused on his training.
Eventually, the day to depart for the Triad’s Annual Supremacy Game finally arrived.
***
...
..
.
Some time around mid-morning, a large airship could be seen docked at the highest platform of one of the bastion’s northern towers. It was a massive, sleek vessel armored in polished silver plating, making it look less like a standard transport and more like a floating palace.
Intricate mana-conduits glowed softly along its hull, fueling the heavy engines, while the expansive upper decks featured glass-canopied observation lounges designed for the high-ranking nobles.
After it had been fully boarded by the instructors and some of the cadets, including Cedric, the massive craft began to ascend into the open sky. Turning smoothly as it left the bastion behind, it set out for Isola Bella.
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