An Extra's POV

779  Classroom Incident

"You there… R'ai, was it? Could you answer the question I just posited?"

Almost as soon as soon as the question was raised, Rey snapped out of his deep thoughts and slowly returned his gaze to the Instructor who stood still and smiled at him.

Her smile seemed rather scary, not the kind and soft one she usually displayed.

Instructor Kar'eena was infamous for getting pissed at students who weren't paying attention in her class, and it was clear she had caught Rey spacing out. Still, since he was a newcomer and she was quite merciful, she gave him a saving grace.

If he could answer the question she posed—which was asked when he wasn't paying attention—she would let him off the hook.

And so, she stood there and waited for his response.

Tension easily soared in the class as Rey's classmates turned to look at him, their faces displaying multifarious emotions—mostly giving eyes of empathy.

It was clear that a few of them had also fallen victim to the same tactic by this Instructor.

"I believe you asked about the method of properly stabilizing a newly formed Mana Circle once it has been created." Rey suddenly said as he rose to his feet.

Gasps and surprised reactions filled the classroom.

There was no way he would have been called if he was listening in class, especially with Kar'eena smiling the way she was, which meant he must have been absent-minded.

Yet, he was able to perfectly replicate the question the same way she asked it.

"Yes. And can you tell me the answer to that question?" The slightly surprised Instructor still doubled down on her question, despite Rey's response.

After all, it was one thing to remember the question, and it was another to pay attention throughout the class.

Fortunately for Rey, he surpassed the expectations of his Instructor.

"According to what you were explaining, the most natural way to do so is by learning to control Mana Flow, and then focusing directing Mana close to the heart for an extended period of time, so the newly created Mana Circle eventually becomes self-sustaining. The more efficient method is to use Enchanted Items—like the one this Academy has—to insert secondary Mana into the body, which takes on the form of the individual's own Mana in order to feed the Circle and make it stable. There's also the Liquid Supplement version being devised at the moment, but since it is still incomplete—particularly the stabilizing aspect of Mana Integration—the product still causes instability when introduced to a person's body."

The smile on her face vanished entirely, and instead she looked at Rey with wide open eyes. She wasn't the only one, too.

Every student was staring at him that way.

Instructor Kar'eena had never once failed in calling out distracted students, and that meant everyone in the classroom knew better than to space out. Yet… Rey completely broke the record and shattered expectations.

"I believe that answers your question, Instructor."

"Y-yeah… you may sit."

"Thank you." Rey bowed his head and sat, heaving a sigh of relief as he did so.

That was a rather close one he just had, and honestly, he would have been super screwed if it hadn't been for Emil.

'Thank you so much, Emil! I owe you big time!'

~Hehehe! You're very welcome! That lady, though… she wanted you to fail in front of the whole class. The nerve of her!~

'I deserve it, though. I got distracted during her class…'

Not only was his central consciousness occupied with thoughts, but other layered aspects of his mind were also occupied with other things that he didn't pay the lecture much mind. To him, it was just noise that he had silenced.

But… who would have expected Emil to have listened to all of it?

'Even Lucielle seemed rather fixated on it. I suppose I should take school seriously for the duration of time that I spend here…'

All of this reminded him of his time on Earth, and that wasn't a necessarily happy time for him.

'Still… to preserve my disguise, and also to make life easier for me in this highly competitive space, I'll need to take these things relatively seriously.'

Hopefully, he wouldn't be spending too much time with the Dragons anyway.

'That said… I still can't get over what I saw.' Rey's mind ultimately went back to what he was thinking about right before Instructor Kar'eena interrupted his thoughts.

'What exactly are those glitches in Adonis' Status Windows?'

There were two glitches that he noticed when he observed the system panels, and they were puzzling to him.

'What are [&$@?3$$!0n] and (R@&^$**@!)?' He had no idea.

'Esme said she noticed some glitches in Status Windows, so I guess this is what she was referring to. Of course, this isn't the first time I've seen it…'

The only other time he saw a glitch was on Ater's Status Window, and when he asked… the Familiar gave his usual response.

"I can't remember."

Now that he was witnessing the same glitch in Adonis' Status Window, and Esme told Rey that she could see a glitched Skill in his own Status Window, he had to figure out a similarity that they all shared.

'Well, we are both Otherworlders, so… maybe that's it? No…'

Esme didn't see the same glitch in the Skills of the others. She also never met Adrien, so he couldn't have confirmed his suspicion on that.

'Or could it refer to something SSS-Tier? Does that mean Adonis has an SSS-Tier Skill? No, he would have used it already if that was the case.' Rey rubbed his chin as he fell deep into contemplation once again.

Of course, this time, he was also paying rapt attention in class by using a certain portion of his layered thoughts to process the information.

'In any case, I don't think I can find the answers right now… unless I rely on pure speculation.'

And that was a dangerous way to go about deciphering information.

As for the safest way, Rey already had it figured out.

'I'll have to ask him directly.'

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* n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

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[A/N]

Thanks for reading!

I want to begin a Mass Release from tomorrow, so make sure you support me a lot during that period.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

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