Chapter 16 - 16: Commotion

Bellick and the other representatives from various explorer guilds currently had their jaws drop almost to the ground.

"What just happened?"

"I just saw a golden blur..."

"Did anyone see what happened!? I wasn’t looking at that student"

Hearing the words of one of the representatives, Bellick immediately curled on his seat and checked on the black ball in his hand.

"Did you record that?", he hurriedly whispered as he tapped the ball, "Play it!"

As soon as he said that, the eye inside the ball lit up as a ray of light hovered in the air, projecting the scenes of what happened earlier.

And, just like what the other representatives said, he almost instantly disappeared from his spot. The ground and grass behind the boy folded backward as he started to sprint.

The eye was only able to keep up with the boy’s silhouette due to it recording from a distance. Bellick could not help but furrow his eyebrows as he repeated the recording over and over again.

’2 seconds’, he thought. It took about 2 seconds for him to reach the end of the field. According to his knowledge, the length of the field was about 260 meters.

260 meters in only 2 seconds.

Bellick could not help but gulp. Sure, he knew people that were faster than the boy. But this little boy is a freshman in the academy, so he was most likely not even higher than level 5.

Heck, he may even be a level 1.

"!!!"

With that thought, Bellick quickly stood up from his seat. He must talk to his guild so they could do their best to get this boy. But for now, it was too late. The showdown might be over by the time he gets back to the academy.

He would use his own resources now and just reimburse it from his guild later. He was sure that they won’t mind once they know what he spent it on.

***

"Uhmm... Miss Healer?"

Van could not help but tilt his head as he stared at the healer in front of him. She has been staring blankly at his arm for quite a while now, even though it has already fully healed.

The healer still could not believe that his arm healed that fast. Sure, she was able to heal even a mangled limb or a dismembered leg. But that would take time.

To heal a broken bone in just under 3 seconds? That was too fast. And it was not like she leveled up or had gained a new skill in the previous days, so it was definitely not her.

So... ’This boy... does he have some kind of Regeneration skill?’

"Agnes! Is the fish alright?"

A loud voice pierced her ears from behind, completely awakening her from her thoughts.

She quickly shook her head to clear her mind, "Ah, yes!", she said as she slowly stood up, "But just for safety, he should rest now. I am not allowing him to participate in the next games"

"W...what!?", Van quickly stood up as he heard the Healer Agnes’ words.

"No... I can still--"

"Sorry, fish", before Van could even finish his words, Mr. Jacobs placed his hand on Van’s shoulders, "Healer’s words are absolute. You need to sit this one out"

Mr. Jacobs’ warm hand made Van flinch a little as he looked down, his jaws trembling from feeling Mr. Jacobs’ large hand. But he quickly calmed his breath as he once again looked straight at Mr. Jacobs’ eyes.

Mr. Jacobs could not help but sigh. In truth, when he saw how Van won earlier, he could not help but shiver in his spine. He wanted to see how Van would perform on the other games.

But of course, most importantly, he wanted to see Lang’s pretentious calm demeanor completely shatter. Van is his student, not Lang’s-- Jacobs could only get excited as he imagined the racing thoughts on Lang’s mind due to this fact.

"Mr. Jacobs, please...", Van pleaded, his eyes unwavering, "...I can still move properly"

"Van..."

Both Harvey and Beatrice, who were quietly standing on the sides, could not help but sigh as they look at Van.

Seeing Van’s dedicated eyes, Jacobs could only grunt as he looked at Healer Agnes.

"This...", Agnes could not help but pinch the bridge of her nose. But finally, after a few seconds, "Fine...", she said, "I am allowing you to participate in the last game. However, I will be... healing you, so forget participating in the next game"

"O...okay!", Van immediately bowed towards Agnes, "Thank you, Miss Healer!"

In truth, she could detect that Van was already fully healed, she was just curious as to the how.

"Alright, fishes!", Mr. Jacobs signaled his students to gather up. Some of them still have bruises on their faces as the other healers have not finished tending to their wounds yet.

"We will be taking a short break", Mr. Jacobs said, "Use this time to recover your SP and heal up!"

After he said that, he quickly approached Mr. Lang... to gloat.

Van’s classmates immediately hovered around him as they asked him countless questions.

"That was awesome!"

"How did you do that!?"

"Was that some kind of Skill?"

"What type of System do you have?"

"What level are you!?"

Van’s eyes could not keep up as he looked back and forth across his classmates. "No...", Van meekly muttered, "It’s not..."

"Alright! Alright!", Harvey quickly pushed their classmates to the side, "Our superstar needs to rest! You can ask him questions later!"

"Let’s go to the side, beautiful madam", beckoned Harvey as he cleared a path for Healer Agnes and Van to walk through.

"...Okay", Healer Agnes awkwardly said as he passed through with Van.

Harvey and Beatrice followed them to see what Van’s current condition was.

***

"Quick! Hurry to the freshmen’s field!"

"Is it true!?"

"I wonder if they will notice us!?"

"...What’s the commotion all about?"

Gerald and his group were walking around the academy when they noticed that there were a lot of people running around.

"Why are there so many students outside?"

Gerald could not help but furrow his eyebrows as he asked one of his friends.

"Seeing as it’s the first day of the freshmen...", one of his friends answered, "... it is probably Jacobs and Lang’s showdown"

"This many people?", Gerald could not help but be curious. He was in Jacobs’ class last year and also participated in the games, but it did not really gather this much attention.

"I heard more than ten explorer guild representatives have come to watch"

"Really?", Gerald could not help but click his tongue. If only they had that many sponsors last year. "Let’s check it out"

historical

It didn’t take long for Gerald and his group to reach the field even with all the people running around. After all, they were avoiding him.

One of his friends could not help but whistle as they saw the number of guilds that were watching the showdown. "Maybe we should go introduce ourselves to them?"

"Pft", Gerald only scoffed in response as he looked at the freshman students. The only reason that the guilds would be coming here is that they were interested in someone.

But who?

Gerald squinted his eyes as he scanned the freshman students.

"Hm?", his eyes then settled to a particular group-- Van and the others.

"That... isn’t he?"

He released a slight sigh as he recognized one of them.