After training for a couple of hours, Cassian checked his stats again.
Stats
Strength 6.8
Agility 5.4
Stamina 7.5
Intelligence 5.3
Free Stat points: 0
A total of .4 points spread across strength, agility, and stamina.
He had grown a lot that day as well. However, he had an inkling that something about his growth was suspicious, and he already had his guesses about what it could be.
That night, he dragged himself back to the torture building. It looked normal, even desolate on the outside, but the inside was already packed full of terrible memories.
"Hello, Cassian, what a pleasure to see you today as well."
Cassian nodded; he refused to speak to the demon.
After walking into the room, he dropped his backpack and stripped down to his underwear again.
"Are you so eager to begin?"
He ignored the demon and walked further into the room.
"Today we have something particularly fun."
Cypher smiled widely, a sight that had already become an inner demon for Cassian. Whenever he pictured Cypher's face, he could feel his spine go cold.
Chains grabbed his legs and held him upside down, high up in the air.
A glass container full of water appeared below him, and he was slowly lowered into it.
At first, it was fine, slightly refreshing even. However, blood quickly rushed to his head and built up pressure.
The desire to breathe grew greater every second, and two minutes later, he started thrashing violently. He needed to breathe.
'I'm going to die.'
All the previous tortures were just extremely painful; nothing felt quite life-threatening. However, this was entirely different. He felt like he was going to burst, but even worse was the fear of death.
'Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit. I will die, I'm dying.'
The pressure was excruciatingly painful, and his vision turned red. He could not control his emotions; he could resist pain, but his aversion to death was very much still alive.
Another minute later, he could feel something warm spreading around the inside of his head. It felt comfortable, but that comfort was quickly replaced with pain.
'Somebody save me.' He begged over and over.
It cycled, again and again, the pressure built up until he was at the limit, then the warm feeling intruded, giving him a moment of rest. Then the pain quickly took hold again.
For hours, all he could think of was his death; it was the terrifying feeling of leaving the world behind.
Throughout all of this, Cassian eventually formed the thought, 'I am afraid.'
Three hours later, Cassian was pulled out of the water. He wasn't breathing; even pseudo-immortality would not allow him to survive without oxygen forever.
But with a snap of a demon's fingers, Cassian was revived.
Cassian seemed different after regaining consciousness, calmer, but more threatening. The bags under his eyes also grew deeper. Hostility was hiding behind his expressionless face, but it could be seen in every movement.
"I like that look," Cypher admitted with a smile.
"Let's change things up for the second half." He removed the outer part of his suit.
Another snap of his fingers, and Cassian was unchained, and the water disappeared. However, instead, Cassian was on fire.
The pain was enormous, but his strength was reinforced.
"A man never fears anything; fear is only doubting yourself."
Another of his father's phrases, they didn't mean much when he said them, but there was a reason he never forgot them.
Cassian sat down and placed his chin on his hand, as if he were bored. Instead, he was training his willpower against the pain.
The heat was one thing, but the feeling of his skin and flesh burning away was horrifying. It was like the fire was consuming him, eating away at his soul and leaving only the pain.
'I have already died once, why fear pain?' He dissociated his body from himself. The pain wasn't his anymore; it belonged to his body but not his mind.
"You're no fun," Cypher exclaimed.
The second half of the torture ended in no time. Cassian dressed himself, took his backpack, and left for school. Like it was a normal thing, as if leaving behind torturous demons could ever be easy.
'I guess that confirms it.' His hypothesis was true.
'Torture increases stats, must be because of the strain on the body.'
Strength 7
Agility 5.7
Stamina 7.8
Intelligence 6.3
Free Stat points: 0
His stats had increased by almost two whole points. That was incredible for the time put in; six hours for two points was by no means small.
Since leveling became exponentially more difficult, increasing stats was the same way. Once you had trouble leveling up, your stats would as well. Many professionals physically train with the best methods, and from what he had heard, he was doing no worse than them.
Arriving at school was dramatic; everybody ignored him, and he had to go to the front office as soon as he arrived.
The plan was to rearrange homeroom classes based on rank. However, when the school planned how they would split the classes up, there was no mention of what they would do with an F-rank.
"You will go to E-rank class 2, and will join the lower weapon class as per usual." The person at the office spoke coldly.
With this, Cassian walked to his assigned homeroom class and opened the door. Half the class was already there, but the first thing he noticed was light blue hair.
'Alizée.'
She immediately noticed him as well, but held back from speaking.
"What is this bastard doing here? Screw back to the streets F-rank." A particularly rambunctious brown haired boy made a scene.
Several other students began to join in cursing him out.
Cassian did not give a hint of a reaction and walked straight past them.
'Just a bunch of children.'
The brown haired boy grabbed Cassian's shoulder, and immediate calculations went through his head.
'The average stat awakening of our school is three. E-ranks get five distributable stat points when awakening. Unless he puts all his points in strength, he shouldn't be stronger than me.'
Just as he expected, Cassian grabbed the boy's wrist and pulled it off. Everybody in the room was surprised. An F-rank, the weakest, had just overpowered an E-rank, something unheard of.
"Don't mess around." Cassian glared at the boy, who, in response, took a step back out of fear.
Cassian took a seat at the back of the class and immediately put his head down on the desk. While he didn't have much physical fatigue because of the pseudo skill, he still had great mental inflections.
He hadn't slept in several days, and he didn't think he needed to, but his mind was restless.
With his head down, nobody else noticed his presence until the class began.