บท 28: Fame

Axel stared at the ceiling above him and sighed. Looking over at his sleeping companion, Stella, he mentally said, "Status."

[Name: Axel

Age: 15

Gender: Male

LVL: 11

LVP: 37%

HC: Injured

MP: 3000/3000

STR: 19

AGI: 18

STA: 33

INT: 30

DEX: 19

MEN: 33

LUC: 10

CHA: 20

Status Points: 20

System Points: 28,310.]

Thanks to this world being relatively peaceful, Axel's stats and level came to a stand still. However, Axel felt that it was fine considering the benefits he's already gained.

"System, show me my skills." Said Axel.

[Skills: Cooking, Appraisal Magic, Nature Magic, Harvesting, Apollo-style Archery technique: Orion, Apollo-style Sword technique: Savant, Apollo-style Dagger technique: Luna, Fire Magic, Ice Magic, Lowest Magic Affinity, Tame, Summon, Persona, Wildcard.]

A frown appeared on Axel's face as he silently complained, "System, the skill menu is somehow REALLY annoying to look at. Can I change it?"

It took a couple seconds before the system said, [Yes.]

With a long yawn, Axel muttered, "Then separate skills by Physical, Magic and Passive."

Without a reply from the system, the skill screen appeared with the new changes applied.

[Physical Skills: Apollo-style Archery technique: Orion, Apollo-style Sword technique: Savant, Apollo-style Dagger technique: Luna.

Magic Skills: Appraisal Magic, Nature Magic, Fire Magic, Ice Magic, Tame, Summon, Persona.

Passive Skills: Cooking, Harvesting, Lowest Magic Affinity, Wildcard.]

Nodding to himself, Axel did the last objective on his mind as he said, "Finally, use the 'skill upgrades' on ice and fire magic."

After a couple seconds, a screen popped up that said, [Congratulations, host. For upgrading: Fire Magic to level 2, Ice Magic to level 2.]

Feeling content with himself, Axel flashed a satisfied smile before closing his eyes and drifting off to the land of dreams.

---

(POV Change)

Axel's body once again found itself in the realm covered in blue and black. However, unlike last time, his body didn't twitch at all as a small smile could be seen on his face.

Suddenly, the entire realm began to quake as an eerie voice muttered, "So this is humanity's endless potential… No wonder that long nosed freak decided to place his bet on them."

A multitude of hands sprung into existence and attempted to grab Axel. Yet, each attempt only ended in failure as each hand phased right through him.

A small chuckle rang out as the eerie voice whispered, "I don't know how he managed to gain a persona or the wildcard but this will only make the game more interesting."

The sound of chuckling continued to ring throughout the realm as Axel's body slowly floated upwards…

---

(POV - Axel)

Axel lay curled up comfortably on the couch as a small smile could be seen on his face.

Stella had awoken long ago as she… and Makoto watched Axel with a smile on their faces. Sae sat on another couch, opposite Axel, while drinking a cup of coffee with an amused smile on her face.

She knew that inviting Axel to stay the night was… weird, considering they had only just met. However, she felt no aversion to the idea of him staying, which baffled her to no end.

Just as she finished her coffee, Axel slowly sat up and yawned. After rubbing his eyes, he scanned his surroundings with a hazy look and muttered, "…Good morning."

Setting her cup to the side, Sae slightly smiled and said, "Good morning, Axel. We were waiting for you to wake up. Would you like me to drop you off somewhere or would you be fine on your own?"

Axel fell into thought for a couple seconds before asking where everyone was going, to which Sae replied she was taking Makoto to school.

Because they were chatting yesterday, the pair were aware that Axel was accepted into Shujin so Makoto worked up all her courage and stuttered, "M-maybe you'd like to come with me and check out Shujin?"

As if a lightbulb turned on inside his head, Axel smiled and nodded. The trio and Stella hopped into Sae's car and began chatting up a storm as they made their way to Shujin.

After about 10 minutes, Axel saw a flood of students wearing the black and red Shujin uniform. While he was distracted by the amount of students, Makoto giggled as she opened the door and practically dragged Axel into the school building.

With a wry smile, Axel silently thought to himself, 'They really are sisters…' as Makoto proceeded to drag Axel around in the exact same fashion as her sister.

Suddenly, Axel found himself in the teachers lounge as Makoto stood by his side with an excited smile on her face.

Makoto peered around the teachers lounge until she came to an abrupt halt. She excitedly dragged Axel to a teacher and said, "Kawakami-sensei, I've brought a new student with me. Would you please welcome him to our school and show him around."

Kawakami gave the pair an unenthusiastic glance before sighing. She flashed Makoto a forced smiled and said, "Okay, Makoto. I'll show him around."

With a bright smile, Makoto bowed before excusing herself, leaving Axel behind as he and Kawakami shared an awkward glance. In an attempt to clear the awkward air, Kawakami coughed and muttered, "So… your a new student? Name please."

After easily provided her name as she silently started browsing her computer. After a couple minutes, she gave Axel a small smile and said, "Here we go. Axel… huh, you have no family name? Oh well, not important. Your… hey! Your in my class! Ok then, I'll give you a brief tour during break."

Standing up, Kawakami dusted herself off as she said, "Since your here, you might as well sit in on class. Come with me."

Axel was obedient as he followed Kawakami all the way to her class. She signalled Axel to stay outside as she opened the classroom door and exclaimed, "Okay everyone! Queit down! We have a new student with us today. He's smart enough that he's jumped an entire grade."

Once he recieved the OK, Axel slowly strolled into the classroom. The boys showed grim and painful expressions while the girls had stars in their eyes and a deep blush on their cheeks as everyone stared at the new student.

Axel slowly peered around the classroom as he noticed two people he recognised from the game. However, before he could continue thinking, Kawakami tapped him on the shoulder and said, "This is Axel. I hope everyone tries to get along with him. Now… Axel, you can sit… hmmm, next to Takamaki. Ann, could I ask that you share your text books with him for today?"

Thanks to Kawakami, Axel slowly made his way over to his seat while sneakily observing one of the heroines from persona 5.

She had bright blue eyes and wavy platinum blonde hair styled in a bushy pigtail. Axel noticed that unlike everyone else, she wore the standard black blazer over a varsity-like hodded sweatshirt. With a sneaky glance downwards, Axel saw she was wearing red tights and brown boots. She stared out the window with a bored expression while occassionally glancing at Axel.

Half-way to his seat, a student from the back row suddenly shot up from his seat with his eyes wide open. He stared at Axel with stars in his eyes, which creeped out Axel to no end, and screamed, "YOUR THAT STREET MAGICIAN!!!"

Half the class were confused by the sudden outburst of their classmate. However, the other half had unbelieving expressions on their faces as they quickly pulled their phones out. A couple minutes later, half the class had stars in their eyes, which made Axel shudder as he watched everyone whisper and chatter about him.

Once the class quieted down, Axel broke into a cold sweat from the heated gazes of his classmates. He quickly made his way to his seat, only to find Ann staring directly at him. Before he could say anything, Ann flashed him a smile before turning to face the front.

Axel sighed heavily as he felt that this was the start of a very long day.