Capítulo 14: The Protagonist
Coming from a portal gate designed like a giant mirror was a youngster in his 16s. His straight and silky hair was as white as snow, combined with his golden eyes and pale skin that were like the sun shining on the snowfields could attract the opposite sex's attention.
Lots of whispers came from the girls who were mesmerized by the boy's face making him slightly uncomfortable.
"Oh my, look at him…"
"He's handsome…"
"Definitely my type."
The boy was not just a normal human, he was an Enhanced, and his senses were also sharper than any young Enhanced his age; he could hear voices being spoken in a whisper or see so far outside the range of a normal human's vision could see.
Ignoring the voices, the boy named Lux Virtus looked at the statues of eight heroes. Among them, he especially saw a statue of a sword-wielding woman whose finger traced gently over the blade.
"So, this is Octagram Island?" he said.
Unexpectedly, a voice was heard that responded to his supposed inner monologue.
"No, that's not. That's the statue of the eight heroes, duh."
Lux turned around and found a girl around his age standing a few meters behind him smiling.
"Grace."
The girl named Grace smirked, she puffed her almost non-existent chest (for a girl) as she walked forward and hug Lux around the shoulder.
"Nice! It's not that hard to call me that now, right?"
Lux scratched his cheek. "Well. It's still a bit hard to call you by name, master…"
"Then you should get used to it. It'd be awkward if you call me "master" at the academy."
"I'll try, mas– I mean Grace."
They walked out of the building.
From the outside, the building was a plain square. The outside area around it was very wide and was always crowded because the area around the building was the city square. There were also eight statues of the heroes, which were placed in a row along the road straight to the entrance of the building.
The building was called the Octagram Transport Center; which was shortened to OTC was a place for dozens of warp gates that connected Octagram Island with various places around the world.
Fascinated by the city square which was crowded with people doing different activities and some food stalls, Lux was running around like a countryside kid seeing the city for the first time, which was true.
Lux was from the countryside, but it was not mean that he never visited a big city. But, Octagram Island was a different case, as an island and the most developed city in the world, of course, the experience of living there was not something that was easily forgotten even by rich kids who lived in big cities.
"Don't run around, Lux. You might get into trouble…"
Right after she said that, the trouble really came upon Lux. He bumped into someone in the crowd, if it was an ordinary person he bumped into, there wouldn't be any trouble. But, unlucky for him, the one he bumped into was a famous figure.
"Oh. I'm sorry, miss…" Lux said in the utmost politeness as he extended his hand.
The girl with the same hair color as Lux nodded and reached for Lux's hand, but then there was the problem came.
The boy who was walking with the girl smacked Lux's hand and helped the girl up. He stared at the girl passionately before then he looked at Lux in disdain. The girl could only shake her head at the boy's impoliteness.
"Hey! Don't you have eyes?!" The boy shouted.
Lux was stunned for a moment before smiling at the snow-white-haired girl like his, the only difference being in the color of their eyes. If Lux's was like the sun, then hers was like the bright blue moon that lit up the winter night sky.
Ignoring the boy's babbling, Lux asked
"I'm sorry miss, are you okay?"
"I'm oka–"
The girl's eyes narrowed when she found the rude boy standing between her and Lux.
"Hah…" She shook her head in disbelief.
"How dare you talk to her when I'm right here?" said the boy annoyed, his veins visible because of how hard he tried to suppress his anger.
"Sorry?" Lux said cluelessly.
As the dispute continued, someone in the crowd surrounded the three youths seeming to be enjoying the argument with knowing faces.
That was Zio Varrez.
***
It's been a week since the flash dungeon incident.
As many as 56 people died in that incident. Of the 44 survivors, 6 of them were Enhanceds including me. Unlike the scenes in the novel, Jin and the other five heroes were not sanctioned and remain heroes.
Nado, the demonic human, died at my hands at the last moment. With his death and the Avatar Mask in my hands, it was certain that Jin would not betray humanity. However, what would Jin become in the future? I'd leave that for the person himself to decide.
When I got home, Shannon was very worried about me that she cried. But, after that, I got a very long lecture from her.
I was using the free time of a week before the entrance exam by honing my talent and skill, thanks to that my dual-wielding and swordsmanship talent had leveled up to level 2.
With the dual-wielding reached level 2, I got more options of weapon choices other than the sword.
===
[Dual Wielding Lv.2]
Users will be able to wield two weapons at once even if their proficiency in said weapons was low. Learning dual-wielding techniques will be easier.
Available dual-wielding weapons; Sword, Dagger.
===
Dual-dagger sounded more like a type of assassin or rogue talent combat style. With so many techniques that could be learned for assassins and rogues as a dual-dagger user, I decided to hone my dagger skills and learned techniques that I could learn for free.
The reason I preferred daggers over swords was that the assassin's and rogue's weapon techniques were dual weapons, namely daggers. With this, I could also improve my dual-wielding skill easier than using dual swords.
The sword talent was divided into two types; swordsmanship and dual-sword. Swordsmanship techniques were not suitable for dual swords, and vice versa, that was why.
For example; My talent was both swordsmanship and dual-wielding/sword, and because dual-sword techniques were rare and expensive, I had to learn swordsmanship techniques instead. I mastered the swordsmanship techniques, but when I changed to dual-wielding, those techniques would be rendered useless as they won't work for dual-sword.
Instead, if I was to learn assassin and rogue techniques which both used dual weapons, I could also apply those techniques to my dual-wielding talent that used daggers.
But, unlike when I first learned swordsmanship from Shannon and got the talent because of that. It didn't happen when I learned the assassin and rogue dual-dagger combat style. The reason for that might have been because Shannon has a [Bestowal] skill; it was a skill that gave her the power to bestow her knowledge of what she'd learned upon her disciple, an apprenticeship-type kind of skill.
Well, thanks to the dual-wielding talent, I didn't need to have an assassin or rogue talent to be able to wield dual-dagger.
The city square was crowded; many people outside the Island has come to this place. It was to be expected because Today was the day of the Octagram entrance exam and I felt confident I would pass the exam with my current skill.
On my way to the Octagram Academy, I stopped briefly at the town square to see the faces of my would-be classmates, especially the arrival of the protagonist and one of the main female characters in this very place.
"Hmm, it seems like I just need to wait for the scene to happen," I said while looking at my watch. "I don't even know when they will come out."
While waiting, I wasted my time (and money) at food stalls. There were lots of street foods that I could try. Apart from being cheap, the taste was no less delicious than restaurant food.
A half hour had passed since I tasted the food, any more than this and my wallet would be crying.
Just as I was done contemplating, a ruckus happened on the other side of the city square.
Using my Clairvoyance - Pathfinding, I could see the images of three youths arguing while being surrounded by the crowd. Without wasting any more time, I went to the scene.
When I got closer to the crowd, I heard an angry voice coming from the center of the crowd.
Sneaking through the crowd, I stood where enough for me to see the drama that was unfolding.
It was a boy I didn't recognize that shouting at the other boy, his bland appearance didn't match any character description I remember, he was probably the extra in this scene so the protagonist could stand out. The other boy though, with striking hair and eye color, must be Lux Virtus.
Standing behind the extra boy, was a pretty and dignified-looking girl that looked like she was coming from a rich and noble family that uphold tradition. Her face looked anxious, probably because of how big the commotion the boy had caused.
Her long snow-white hair was tied back in a bun, held up by hairpins decorated with cherry blossoms. Her blue eyes restlessly observed the crowd's reaction.
"Ayano Fuyuki…"
Ayano Fuyuki. That was the girl's name. She was born into a rich family of Japanese family that upholds tradition. Being born into such a family made her an ojou-sama or young lady or young mistress type character; strictly educated to be polite and well-informed, but her lack of experience in dealing with the outside world made her a curious person at times.
Because of that, her friends were few almost non-exist, and in the end, it was Lux who became her first friend and lover.
"You! I'll teach you how to behave in front of us!" said the boy with a full fist ready to hit Lux.
'That's what a third-rate villain character would say…' I thought. Looking at Lux and Ayano's expressions, it seemed like they also thought the same.
"Stop!" Ayano shouted but the boy didn't stop.
Having a full fist launched toward his face, Lux dodged it with minimal movement and grabbed the extra boy's wrist, and twisted it.
"ACK!!!" The boy screamed.
The boy looked at Ayano with pleading eyes, his bravery from earlier was gone now that he experienced pain came from a broken arm. Ayano was speechless, she could only shake her head and then bow to Lux.
"I apologize on behalf of my attendant."
"Oh? Ah, no. It's should've been me who sorry for bumping into you, miss."
My reaction to that was a full round of yawning.
"Lux!" A girl's voice came somewhere amongst the crowd.
"Mas… Grace."
It was a girl with long dark green hair and a pretty face. I recognized her immediately the moment she appeared.
She was Lux's sword teacher. One of the eight heroes who excelled in swords, all of her techniques were flashy and should be suitable only for performance. But, with her complete understanding of swordsmanship, she was capable of doing the impossible possible.
Due to a curse, her growth has been going backward. She received the curse in 2010 at the age of 36, and since then her growth has been reversed; who should be 56 years old this year, she became a 16-year-old girl again.
Well, at least the title of the youngest of the eight heroes still applied to her.
"Time Reversal curse, huh…"
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