Knock Knock!

The subtle sound of knocks resonated in the drowsy Luke’s ears. He wasn’t asleep. In fact, he had woken up an hour ago, but for some reason, he couldn’t shake off his sleepiness.

I should read in moderation, less sleep means less focus. He covered his mouth with the back of his hands as he yawned.  For some reason, even his yawning looked pleasant. “Yes, I’m coming,” he replied as he stood up. He was wearing a loose white shirt and pajamas, his hair a beautiful mess.

He walked towards the door and put his hand on the doorknob. Opening the door, he saw the small and slim figure of the receptionist girl standing close to him. Since she was considerably smaller than him in height, it seemed like Luke was looking down on her.

Eeek! She made a surprised sound as she backed off instinctively, the tiny heart in her chest beating like drums as blood rushed to her rosy cheeks. She couldn’t help but think about all those overtly and otherworldly handsome main characters she had read about in those romance novels and imagine herself as the meek little female protagonist.

“What can I help you with?” Luke’s crystalline blue eyes seemed to be staring right into her soul as she took a moment to calm her wild thoughts before gulping and spouting meekly, “The breakfast buffet has been prepared for everyone downstairs, it’ll end in two hours.”

“Ah, is that so?” Luke seemed a little surprised by the fact that they had breakfast buffets here, “Can I not get food sent to my room? You see I haven’t even changed out of my pajamas yet.”

The girl took a long look at Luke from top to bottom in his frilly pajamas and her heart couldn’t help but beat again as she said with her head down, “I am sorry dear guests, the breakfast model is the same for even the VIPs, I hope you understand.” 

Luke scratched the back of his head as he made a disappointed face, “It can’t be helped then. I’ll be down after a bath,” he gave a polite smile to the fawning receptionist before he closed the door and sighed loudly. 

Fuck this sleepiness! He sighed again loudly as he entered the bathroom. To his surprise, this one had pipes and a proper water tap as well as a shower that was connected to normal knobs. The no-pipe water supply must be a super rich only thing He wondered as he took off his clothes and hung them in the hanger. 

Looking at his body in the mirror, he didn’t know if he was hallucinating, but it seemed more ‘ripped’. Like it had gotten more shapely in the mere week he had spent in this world. 

Nah, it’s probably just my imagination. The changes didn’t look too severe, so he shook it off as his delusion. After he was done bathing, he wore a different pair of clothes and neatly folded the used pair and put it in his other suitcase.

He only had a few pairs of traveling clothes, and his other clothes would mostly consist of the academy uniform, so he didn’t bother over-packing stuff.

After combing his hair and putting on some perfume, Luke gave himself a final check before finally descending the stairs to the ground floor. 

There was a large number of food varieties placed on tables near the huge pub counter, and hoards of people chatted as they placed food on their plates and found themselves a seat.

As soon as Luke descended, some people glanced his way and then continued doing what they were doing, while some of the female population kept taking glances again and again while smiling and talking amongst themselves.

Let’s just have something light and get ready to leave. He didn’t want to waste much time in the hotel as he was aware that it’d take at least another two days to reach the academy.

Finding himself a fancy clay plate, Luke put three pieces of what looked like sausages, a glass of some yellow-colored juice, and some bread as he started looking for a seat.

Looking around, most seats looked occupied. He noticed a seat with only one person sitting with their back toward him and decided to claim the other end.

He put his place down, and then it finally came to him, the person sitting in front of him, “What a coincidence,” Lucas chuckled mischievously as his eyes squinted playfully.

Of course, my goddamn luck, Luke’s brows knitted together for a moment before he adopted his poker face. Without saying anything, he sat down and used the fork and knife neatly placed on the table to peacefully eat the sausages.

“Hey hey, don’t ignore me,” Lucas blurted out with annoyance before he coughed and sat back in his seat.

After some time in silence, he said calmly, “I was drunk last night, sorry for what happened yesterday,” his tone seemed forced but the sincerity was still visible.

“It’s alright,” Luke said as he took a sip of the juice, and his face distorted in disgust, ignoring the weird taste of the juice, he asked, “ So do you usually like to test people’s patience when you’re drunk?”

Lucas seemed surprised for a second before he smiled and shook his head, “Nah, I was just curious about the ‘trash’, no offense intended,” he raised both his hands in a ‘surrender’ motion.

“None taken,” Luke said as took off the plastic covering the glass of water placed on the table and immediately drank the water to get rid of the bitterness in his mouth as Lucas watched all this in amusement.

“Name’s Lucas Atredius, the 4th son of Count Atredius from the Atredius county. It’s about seventy miles from Virendale,” the purple-haired young man introduced himself formally for the first time as he drank his crimson-colored drink with visible pleasure.

Luke gave an envious gaze to his drink before flatly introducing himself, “Luke, the ‘trash’ that everyone’s talking about.”

“Aww come on man, stop sulking,” Lucas couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed. If people currently saw the two of them chatting, they’d feel like these two have been long-time friends with each other.

“It’s Luke Raynott, the candidate of Viscount Virendale,” Luke took a bite of the soft bread and finally got rid of the weird aftertaste of the yellow-colored drink, “So, what is it, what was yesterday’s fiasco all about?”

“A fiasco, huh?” Lucas couldn’t help but smile, “Well, you must have heard of the saying, ‘birds of a feather, flock together’, right?”

“Yes, I have,” Luke ate his bread while looking at Lucas with the corner of his eyes, already knowing what the latter’s intentions were “What about it?”

“I’ve heard a similar saying too,” Lucas smiled mischievously as the both of them looked at each other properly for the first time, “Trash can sniff out trash.”

===

I should make a habit of checking everyone’s status. Luke affirmed in his mind as he followed Garhan’s knights back to his carriage.

After having a surprisingly eventful meeting with Lucas the ‘pretend young master’, he was ready to leave for the academy. 

After sitting in the majestically decorated carriage, Luke couldn’t help but think about Lucas’ stat window.

Lucas Atredius

Alignment: Neutral (Gray)

Title: None

Class: Mage

Specialty: Riling up (Passive)

Strength- 4 (Normal) | Agility- 9 (Rare) | Intelligence- 15 (Rare) | Divinity- 2 (Normal) | Luck- 4 (Rare) | Wisdom- 9 (Rare)

Skills- Wind-creation (1⭐), Wind Blades (2⭐)

Abilities- Silver tongue

Overall rating- Disappointing

He understood what he meant when he said ‘Trash can sniff out trash’. Not only was he weak, he didn’t even have a single Epic stat. Although his stat composition was still better than Luke, his overall rating was just ‘Disappointing’ instead of ‘Extremely Disappointing’.

So I am like trash amongst trash? Another disappointing revelation that mattered as little as the first one to Luke. The important thing was what he talked about with this purple-haired fella.

First of all, he was going to the same place Luke was headed, The Academy of Berch Gyara. He was also a first-year at the academy similar to Luke, the only major dividing factor among them was he was an Eldorian nobility. His lineage was purely Eldorian, and there were no other-worlders in his family apart from the candidates that his father picked once a decade.

Lucas also talked about how Luke would instantly be isolated from everyone else considering his reputation as the trashiest candidate this year, and how it’d be better for him to stick with Lucas so that they can have each other's back.

Luke was well familiar with such a situation and knew what exactly Lucas’ offer meant.  It was an alliance invitation, it was an invitation to join him during the period they’d be studying at the academy. To Luke who knew nothing about this word and was sure to be treated badly, it wasn’t a bad offer, but he didn’t take it immediately.

Binding himself to someone who he just met was as dumb as it could get. 

More importantly, he had no plans of staying the weakest forever. When he thought about that, Luke’s eyes couldn’t help but wander towards one of his briefcases aligned in front of him.

It was a small briefcase, approximately 1.5 feet in width. However, this small briefcase contained something that was essential for Luke’s growth.

It was a Gun that Garhan had arranged for him.

In Eldoria, Guns were in a weird position where they were considered valuable and trash at the same time. To be specific, a gun was more of a valuable decoration in this world.

It has been an old tradition in Eldoria to put Guns as showcases in one's house if they wanted to show off wealth. These were Guns that were elegantly designed and adorned with ornaments, they were meant to be used as showpieces rather than a weapon.

That didn’t mean Guns weren’t utilized whatsoever as weapons, in fact, they were heavily utilized, but not by powerful people. Average flintlock guns and rifles are used as weapons by the armies of various kingdoms. Only the cannon fodder and foot soldiers who had no talent at all in mana wielding and swordsmanship were given guns to fight in battle. 

The current state of development in regards to firepower and guns, in general, was stuck at flintlock guns and rifles just because they were only usable till the point one didn’t have enough mana. After a person or a beast had an elementary level of mana, guns were as useless as toys when used as a weapon.

Mana was an all-powerful source that inhabited Eldoria and many other worlds. Sadly, Earth wasn’t one of them. A beginner beast's body was strong enough to stop any kind of bullet from penetrating its defense. The same was true for everyone that could use mana. Anyone can create a thin layer of mana with magic and stop bullets.

And hence, no one even bothered to take Gun-crafting as a whole to any other level. It was far too inefficient when the all-powerful mana existed, something that allowed people to use magic, even without a catalyst.

 What a dilemma. Luke silently shook his head as he kept studying more in the carriage. Two days went by like a passing breeze, and at dusk of the second day, the carriage finally stopped. Luke had fallen asleep while reading a book, so he wasn’t able to feel the sudden stop.

Knock Knock!

A knock at his carriage’s door immediately woke him up as he shook off his drowsiness, “What’s going on?” he asked, trying to sound as awake as he could, but he failed miserably.

“We are here at the South Academy Gate station. This is as far as we can escort you,” A knight’s voice came from outside the carriage. Luke finally got a hold of what was happening and immediately straightened his clothes and hair, wiping his face with a handkerchief before opening the carriage door and getting off.

What greeted him was a place filled with hordes of people and Semi-people.

Amaan_S.

The Eighth chap! I am soon going to start cross-posting this on Royal Road! Leave a heart if you liked the chapter. Some reviews and comments would be much appreciated :D