Trudging through the Whisperwood forest, Penelope grumbles to herself. She has been doing this since the start of class and hasn’t let up. When do I expect her to stop? Most probably when I’ve died from old age. So, fifty years.

  “Explain to me again why the two of you angered Lupin?” she asks for the third time.

  “Well, you see, we really wanted to piss you off and personally made it our mission to find out how best to do that,” I say sarcastically.

  She shoots me a glare. “You’ve done it!” she exclaims, “Lupin is one of the worst second years to have on your bad side. He’s sadistic and brutal. Sadistically brutal!”

  I shoot an exaggerated look of shock over to Hopper. “Hopper, why didn’t you tell me this? What are we going to do?” I say sarcastically.

  The small hint of a smile hides on Hopper's face as he turns away.

  Penelope catches it and remarks, “Oh, I don’t know what you’re laughing about, Hopper. Based on what you told me, he’s going to be coming for you first. I don’t need to remind you how that’s going to pan out.”

  Hopper looks away bashfully. “I understand the seriousness of the situation, Princess, but I’m more worried about what I can do rather than what I’ve already done,” he says, looking right at me.

  With a sigh, Penelope rubs her temple. “Ok. We have a month to get you into fighting shape.”

  “You think he’ll beeline for Hopper the moment the Class War starts?” I ask as I munch on a cookie.

  “Knowing his reputation, yeah,” Penelope says.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask, but what kind of reputation does he have? I know he’s ‘Sadistically brutal’, but what else do you know?” I ask as I finish my cookie.

  “Well, from what I know, he clawed his way into the advanced class during his first year,” she says.

  “That’s impressive, but I thought anybody could do that,” I ask, somewhat confused.

  “Anybody can, but the way he did it was special. Over the course of a day at the beginning of the second quarter, he challenged ranks 25 to 20. He beat every single one so badly that they dropped out of the advanced class. Those who saw it say that it was a bloody affair that he could’ve finished in minutes, but stretched it out for hours. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him the worst second year to go up against, especially when you’ve angered him,” Penelope explains.

  “Well, it seems like an uphill battle,” I say as I start to stretch.

  “Already throwing in the towel?” Penelope mocks.

  “If I stopped moving at every challenging thing in my life, I wouldn’t be here now. After all, I am The Chosen One,” I [Lie] giving her a wink.

  Hopper clears his throat. “If you're done, what are we going to do to get me into ‘fighting shape’?” Hopper says, hiding his nervousness.

  “Obviously, we have to get your [Level] as high as possible before the fight, and we need to see your [Stat Window],” Penelope says, shocking both of us.

  “You really like making people show you their [Stat Window] don’t you?” I ask, remembering the first time we met.

  “Listen, we need to see it, so that we know what to focus on. If it makes you feel any better, Hopper, I’ll show you mine as well," she says.

  Hopper hesitates for a minute before looking over to me. With a nod, I reassure him. She may be a pain and weirdly uptight, but from what I’ve seen, I can trust her to help Hopper. She’s also willing to show her own [Stat Window], which gives her a lot of goodwill.

  As Hopper closes his eyes, his [Stat Window] appears in front of us.

  Well, that’s a big gap between our [Attributes]. I’ve seen him use most of these [Skills] except for [Freeze], but I can’t focus on that. Why are his [Attributes] so weird? I remember him saying that his [Blessing] gave him two points to his [DEX] and [CON], but what about the rest of his [Attributes]. They seem relatively low. Don’t they go up at all?

  “These are really good, Hopper. Is [Freeze] the skill you got at [Level 5]?” she asks.

  Why isn’t she making a big deal? Is it normal to have your [Attributes] that low? What do Penelope's look like?

  “Thanks. Yeah, I thought it would be a good idea to get a [Skill] that used MP. I may not have a lot of it, but I thought I should use it,” Hopper says.

  “You’re right about that. Let me show you mine,” Penelope says as she brings up her [Stat Window].

  Odd. She also has the same weirdness going on as Hopper. Her [Blessing] gives her three to her [STR], [CON], and [INT], but the rest of her [Attributes] are low. What gives? Well, even with that weirdness, they’re still impressive. The only thing I beat them out in is [CHA] and [LCK]. Not the most useful for combat or studying, but I make do.

  “As expected from you, Princess. I assume [Light Beam] is the [Skill] you chose for [Level 5]?” he asks.

  “Yeah, I haven’t had the chance to check it out yet, but it has to be strong if it costs 50 MP to use,” she boasts.

  “I haven’t had the chance to use [Freeze] yet either. So, what do you think I should do?” he asks.

  “First, we should see what [Freeze] does,” Penelope says as she gestures to herself.

  “Do you want him to use it on you?” I ask, worried.

  “I’ll be fine. I should be able to tank it. No offense, Hopper.”

  “None taken, but are you sure? I’d… rather not attack you,” Hopper says as he readjusts his glasses.

  “You can’t use it on him,” she says while pointing at me. “There’s a good chance you’d kill him, and using it during combat is reckless. So, hit me.”

  I walk over to the nervous Hopper and give him a pat on the back. “You heard the women. Hit her,” I say, hiding some childlike glee.

  With a pained expression, he goes up to Penelope and shakes her hand. The moment his hand touches her, a light blue light appears, and ice starts to form around her hand. Hopper pulls away as Penelope's hand is encased in a block of ice.

  Penelope looks at her hand and gives a nod. “Not bad. This could be really useful in combat if you use it right. Although you’ll have to be wary of the enemy's MP,” she says.

  “Why’s that?” I ask, trying to hold in laughter at the sight of Penelope.

  “The more MP a person has, the greater their resistance to magical effects like this. If I had less MP, this would’ve gone up to my elbow, and it’d hurt a lot more,” she says, pointing to the block of ice.

  “Are… you okay?” Hopper asks, pointing at her hand.

  Penelope flexes her hand, and the block of ice shatters. “Yeah. So, based on what I saw, the best course of action for you is to focus on [Leveling Up] your individual [Skills], mainly [Shoot] and [Freeze]. To do that, we're going to have to kill a lot of things out here, and even when we're not, I recommend you practice in your spare time,” Penelope says.

  “Thanks, Princess. Although I had hoped that [Freeze] would have a greater range. I’m not built for close combat,” Hopper laments.

  Looking at the ice on the ground, I think for a second and then turn to Hopper. Watching them talk, I grab an arrow from his quiver and then slash his forearm.

  Hopper yelps in pain and turns to me. “What was that for, CJ?!” he asks.

  Holding the blood-covered arrow, I walk over to a nearby tree and stab the arrow into it. “Testing out a theory. Use [Freeze] on the arrow,” I say as I walk back to them.

  “Didn’t you hear me? I need to be touching some-”

  “Just try it,” I interrupt.

  Grumbling, he faces his open palm to the arrow and then squeezes his fist shut. A light blue glow grows in his fist, and then ice starts to form from the arrowhead. Hopper looks confused while Penelope nods her head in understanding.

  “How?” Hopper says.

  “It uses the same principle as my [Imbue]. Your blood is technically an extension of yourself. So, when you use [Freeze] the range extends to where your blood is. It’s a difficult technique to pull off,” she says as she walks over to the arrow. “After all, the effect is greatly diminished by using this workaround. The only real way around it would be to increase the amount of blood, but that comes with its own drawback.”

  “I understand, but since I can only use it twice before running out of MP, it might be worth the damage to myself,” Hopper says as he looks at the cut on his forearm.

  “Well, since you can’t do that anymore, we should go out and hunt something. After all, you need to work on your [Shoot] as well,” I say as I start to walk further into the forest.

  As I walk, I see Penelope give me a curious look.

  “What?”

  “How did you know about that workaround?” she asks.

  I can’t exactly tell her that when smelly Doug used to throw shit at me, he would also light it on fire with his [Skill], now can I. Which led me to think that if it worked with smelly Doug and his shit, why not try blood?

  “I’m The Chosen One,” I [Lie].

  She rolls her eyes as we go deep into the forest.

  Sitting in the cafeteria, I look over at the exhausted Hopper. In one hand, he has a frozen cup of juice and in the other an uneaten bowl of carrots. Ever since earlier today, he has been using [Freeze] anytime he has enough MP. Which has led to this state. Feeling some pity, I slowly take a cookie from my pocket and slide it across the table. He slowly grabs the cookie and begins to munch on it. The moment he’s done with that cookie, I slide another one over.

  “They’re good, aren’t they?” I ask.

  He weakly nods his head as he takes another bite.

  He wasn't like this in the Whisperwood forest, but I guess the combination of [Leveling Up] and constantly using up his MP has taken a toll. Speaking of, we managed to get the jump on a couple of goblins, so even I [Leveled Up]. In fact, the only one who didn’t was Penelope. She's apparently reached the point where it takes more to [Level Up] compared to Hopper and me.

  Looking around the cafeteria, I’m surprised not to see her. Must be busy.

  “Hey, Hopper, you good?” I ask as I feed him another cookie.

  He weakly nods his head up and down.

  “Yeahhh, you're definitely good.”

  As I go to crack a joke, the sound of high-pitched squeals sends me reeling. Looking over at the source, I see a small group of students at the entrance of the cafeteria who seem to be mobbing somebody.

  Well, that’s none of my business. I look back down at Hopper, who’s slumped over the table. I swear to the Gods if I have to carry him back to the dorm-

  “Chosen One?” A man's voice calls out.

  Turning to my left, I see a human man with shaggy blond hair, blue eyes, and a healthy tan. Based on his uniform, he's a first year, but I don’t recognize him. Must not be part of the advanced class. Behind him is the same mob of students who were squealing earlier.

  Taking a bite of my beef bowl, I answer, “Yes?”

  “I’ve come to challenge you!!” he yells out as he slams his hand on my table.

  “No.”