Standing outside in the field, Raymond thanked whatever deity he could think of in charge of the weather.
With the cloudy and windy weather today, despite it being nearly afternoon. The temperature was bearable and even slightly pleasant.
Normally, this wouldn't have been an issue for Raymond. He studied ice magic for a reason after all—except he didn't have permission to cast any magic at all. The entire academy was covered by an anti-magic field which disrupted any magic cast from sources which it didn't identify. Teachers, workers and certain buildings were allowed but other then that it was tough luck.
Something Raymond found totally unfair, how come only mages had this restriction? Whereas the warriors only had a stern warning to not use their strength to blow through walls or whatever.
Staring at his new teachers arms however, Raymond was pretty sure this guy could just walk straight through a building and collapse it with one punch.
With arms that resembled tree trunks more then actual limbs, his hulking two meter tall height combined with his muscles made for a terrifying sight.
Standing out in the middle of the field with his arms crossed, he looked across each of the students there. Carefully analyzing each and every one of them.
With a devilish grin on his face, his voice boomed. "I thought I was supposed to be in charge of teaching class A and the special class. Yet you all look like a bunch of little weak sods!"
Incredible, Raymond almost thought he was using some sort of hidden speaker to amplify his voice. It didn't even sound like he was yelling, he was just speaking really, really loudly.
"Where's your energy and your spirit? Where are all your muscles? I don't see any determination to grow stronger in any of you!"
He tutted at them, tapping his boots on the ground impatiently. "All of you, on the ground one thousand pushups now!"
One person cautiously raised his hand, "Teacher did you just say one thousand pushups?"
"First off, call me sir during my class. Secondly, you got a problem with doing one thousand puships?"
"But sir, I'm a mage! I'm not as physically strong as them!", he tried to explain himself.
The moment he heard that, Raymond already knew it was a game set for the poor guy when he mentioned he was a mage.
His devilish grin seemed to grow wider, "A mage? Perfect, you'll do double the amount then. You need to grow more then the others after all."
Quietly doing his pushups on the ground, Raymond mentally thanked himself. Sticking out was never a good thing after all! It only painted a target on your back.
After nearly an hour of continuous pushups, the first few students who managed to complete it collapsed onto the ground almost immediately after finishing. Naturally, they were all warriors or some sort of other class that required strength.
Raymond was still on his fourth hundred something, carefully timing it so that he would finish it by the end of the class. If you still had leftover pushups needed after his class ended—he would double your remaining and force you to stay until you finished it all. The students who finished too early weren't safe either as they also ended up doing extra pushups as well!
It was a lose-lose situation for everybody. The best option was to just lose the least.
One student tried bluffing her amount, only for him to call her out on it and triple her original one thousand. Another poor bastard who tried to cheat the system, something Raymond couldn't understand. This teacher might not have been an S-rank like Camila Veradawn, but he was still an A+-rank on the verge of breaking through to the S- rank.
Catching someone lying about their pushups done was light work for someone like him.
But while doing his pushups however, although Raymond had his eyes on the ground. He could feel his gaze bore into him.
Sweating internally, he intensified his signs of struggle—purposefully shaking more and taking deeper breaths with each pushup.
By the time the two hours of this class finished. Raymond felt mentally tired as hell. Although he hadn't acted on Raymond, he could feel his gaze constantly on him.
Raymond's acting skills weren't the best, but that should have been enough to stay relatively low profile in his class. He didn't want to stand out and end up punished for it!
Letting out a relieved breath, he followed along Ellen to the academy cafeteria. After paying 2 points for a plate of pasta, he sat down wordlessly next to Ellen who was also eating something similar.
"I'm never coming to school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays ever, " he complained.
She raised an eyebrow, "Just because of the basic fighting skills class? It wasn't even that bad. "
"You're an archer, you may not be as strong as warriors but you're way stronger then me right now."
Raymond couldn't wait for the day when he regained more of his strength, judging by how he unlocked his race bonuses again after four years. Maybe he would regain some of his skills after another four years?
Raymond would have been fine with just regaining even a few of his skills. But every single one of his skills were locked. Every. Last. One.
She waved her hand at his last statement, "Oh please, if anything I'm probably the strongest in terms of physical strength right now."
Raymond stopped eating to think about that for a moment, it made sense logically. But it felt wrong.
"You two mind if I sit here?"
A voice soon broke him out of his pondering, looking up he saw Thomas's radiant face. With his gentle eyes, as Raymond stared at him—he suddenly understood why so many people flocked to him.
It felt so simple, Raymond felt like a fool for not understanding it earlier.
'Of course! There's different types of good looking after all!'
Raymond mentally thanked Thomas, who seemed a bit surprised at his sudden cheerful mood.
He gestured, "Sure, no one is sitting there anyways."
Smiling gratefully, Thomas set down his tray. Letting Raymond see that he had a surf-and-turf—with lobster and steak.
Curious, he asked. "Isn't that one of the most expensive dishes in the academy cafeteria?"
"Is it? I simply mentioned to one of my friends how I had never tried a surf-and-turf before and she generously decided to buy it for me."
'... Do more people prefer the gentle and kind handsome over the cool, mysterious handsome?'
Watching his innocent face as he chattered on about his new friends, Raymond felt a surge of disbelief.
'I know you're a newly born angel that just descended and all, but you can't be this dense!'
Turning to Ellen, he made eye contact with her. No words were spoken—yet hundreds of words passed between the two of them.
Turning back to Thomas, he probed him a little more. "Wow seems like you have a lot of good friends, what's their names?"
Hearing the list of female names that seemed to go on and on, Raymond mentally added each name on his hit list.
"By the way, since we're all in the special class. I'm planning on having a get-together with the other special class students. We all live in the same apartment complex after all. " he added in between bites of his meal.
"There's only five of us in the special class no? Me, you, Ellen, Noelle and Audrina. "
In the previous timeline, Thomas and Audrina were the only members of the special class. After the mid-year exams however, Noelle was admitted into the special class as well. Ellen soon followed suit after the end of the first year final exams.
And finally Zachary and Lin Qingyi joined the special class at the start of the second year.
Now however, all five of them were admitted into the special class straight away. With only Zachary who was still in class D, the lowest class. While Lin Qingyi was still training at her sect before transferring to the academy at the start of the second year.
"Well, there may only be five of us but since we need to complete several missions and classes together I figured we should get to know each other more. "
Ellen nodded after hearing that, "That makes sense, when are you planning on having it? Me and Raymond will go. "
"Probably sometime during the weekend. I haven't asked Audrina or Noelle yet."
Ellen made the choice for him. Although Raymond didn't mind it all that much.
Finishing his plate, Raymond wiped his mouth. "Thomas, what floor do you live on? I'm on floor 12 and Ellen is on floor 11."
"I'm on floor 14, I assume this means Noelle or Audrina lives above you."
The special class dorms had twenty floors, with one floor per student. Why did the academy start from floor 11 rather then just giving the first five?
He shelved that thought for a later date. Now wasn't the time to start daydreaming.
"I heard that there's a really good restaurant in the mall area with really good barbeque! We should go there for the get-together. "
Raymond didn't actually hear about it, he knew the restaurant from his occasional visits to the academy back when he was still disguised as Nutte Sachs.
He couldn't enjoy it often back then since he only made 300 points monthly back then. But with his now 7500 points per month he could indulge himself as much as he wanted now!
The academy really was too stingy with its points. The third to first place made 500,750,1000 while fourth and fifth made only 400 points. The top 100 would make 300 and everyone else made a flat 250.
If everyone bought Raymond's basic plate of pasta for every meal that was a minimum of 60 points every months already!
That was only for lunch, including dinner as well it would be 120!
Of course the academy offered free food and water but Raymond would rather die then eat such bland and tasteless food.
Food was such an important part of life, how could Raymond ever abandon the pleasures of food!