Chapter 160: Changes [2]   Carrying my tired body out of section B, feeling the nice spring breeze brush past my skin as I walked around the academy campus, I decided to enjoy the fresh air and the scenery as I slowed down my footsteps.

Staring at the students walking along the academy road, I fell into deep thought as I looked back at what happened the past month and a half.

Honestly nothing much happened.

…it was a fairly uneventful month and a half. This was considering the fact that ever since arriving in this world I've never had a proper day where nothing happened.

Be it demons or conflicts with the professors or arrogant young masters, nothing of the sort happened during this month and a half.

Shocking if I had to be honest.

Perhaps it was because at this point in time in the novel there was a time skip, or because of the inter academy exchange that was about to happen, no trouble came my way.

…and thanks to that, I was able to finally take a proper breather and focus on myself.

A lot of the stress that I had built up during the first five months that I had arrived here had significantly diminished as I was now feeling better. Both physically and mentally.

If I had to be honest, I really needed that. Perhaps because I was too focused on keeping myself alive and improving my strength, I never really bothered taking care of myself.

It was only after things slowed down that I realized how fatigued and tired I was. Had I not taken the rest and things had gone at the same pace as before, it wouldn't be long before I would've broken down mentally.

…fortunately, I realized this before it was too late.

Either way, if there was a notable change that happened during this past month and a half, it would be that my strength has seen a noticeable boost.

With me reaching the greater realm of mastery for almost every art I practiced, I had now almost caught up with most of the top first-year students.

…if I had to evaluate my strength now, it would definitely be within the top 10 of the first years.

Considering the fact that I had only been in this world for around seven months, that was nothing short of outstanding.

Still, although I was now within the top ten, that didn't mean I had caught up with Kevin.

…no, I was still quite far from him.

But it was understandable. It had to be noted that Kevin had a system with him.

There was no way I was going to catch up to him in that short period of time. Especially not when he had a system aiding him at all times.

Moreover, just because I was getting stronger didn't mean that the others weren't also getting stronger.

In fact, everyone apart from Melissa found themselves breaking through a rank.

Amanda, Emma had both reached rank, whilst Jin rank.

Once news of their progress was made known, the academy was in a small uproar as such strength at this age was almost unheard of.

Regarding Kevin, he was still rank.

Though he had unparalleled talent and a system with him, he still needed a couple of more months before breaking through again.

Anyhow, strength aside, there was another development that took place this past month…and it was the fact that Melissa had almost finished the first prototype of the magic card.

According to what Melissa told me (via text, as she specifically told me that she didn't want to see my face) was that currently, although fully functioning, the efficiency loss of the card was still too high.

Meaning that it was still not commercially viable as a product. At the moment, It could only be used for investment purposes as the first proper card would still take her quite a bit of time to fully develop.

…but that was enough.

The prototype was enough for me. Once I got my hand on it, I would immediately give it to Amanda who would then present it to her father and the board members of the guild.

…after that, everything was up to fate.

If they chose to not agree to the terms that I had proposed, I would be left with no choice but contact someone else.

Although the demon hunter guild was the best guild in the human domain, there were still alternatives out there. If they chose to not accept the deal, I could very easily go knock on someone else's door.

Still, there was no need to be that pessimistic, from the way I saw things, the chances of that happening were low.

After all, I myself knew just how influential this product would be in the future. Thinking along those lines, my lips curled upwards as I felt my mood brighten

'Everything is progressing smoothly…'

…

"Pudding!"

After walking around the campus for ten minutes, snapping me out of my thoughts as I arrived at my dorm was a high-pitched voice coming from the distance.

Turning my head towards where the voice originated I soon spotted a rather young-looking girl staring at a tall tree before her. On top of the tree, a black cat quietly rested.

Holding onto a treat, the young girl once again called out.

"Pudding come here, I've got a special treat for you"

Hearing the young girl's voice from below, the black cat that was on top of the tree lazily opened its eyes for a brief moment before closing them again and going back to sleep.

…it looked like it wasn't interested in the treat.

Seeing that she had been ignored, the young girl's expression became crestfallen as she softly mumbled.

"Another failure…"

"No use trying, she's a shy one"

Just as the girl was about to leave in defeat, she heard a male voice coming from behind her. As a result of this, caught off guard, the young girl ended up screaming as she jumped up in fright.

"hiik-ah!"

"Oops, sorry"

Seeing that I had scared the girl, scratching the back of my head I apologized to her.

Placing her hand on her chest, the young girl, Ava Leafz, took a few breaths before glaring at me and saying

"Ren, you almost scared me to death!"

Seeing that she was mad, I once again apologized as my lips faintly curved upwards.

"Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to"

Seeing my lips curl upwards, Ava glared at me even more fiercely as she said

"You think it's funny?"

"Sort of-"

However, just as I was bout to finish my sentence, noticing her glare becoming more intense, I could only helplessly raise my hands up as I relented.

"Alright, I'll stop, I'll stop"

"Hmph, you better"

Snorting, Ava crossed her arms and looked away. Although she looked angry, in reality, she wasn't.

If not for the fact that her ears were slightly red from embarrassment, one could've easily thought that she was angry.

…it was a pretty amusing sight.

If I had to be honest I didn't mean to scare her like that.

Who would've thought that she would be that frightened from just hearing my voice?

Was my voice that scary? I knew it wasn't my face that scared her as my G+ charm could topple countries, so I guess it really might've been my voice.

Jokes aside, another thing that has changed this past month was that my relationship with Ava improved. Using Angelica's cat form as an excuse to interact with her, I was able to get closer to her.

With her being a monster tamer, she was naturally attracted to animals. Therefore, whenever she saw Angelica, she would immediately come over and try to interact with her.

Thanks to this, I now had more things to talk about with her.

Although we couldn't be considered close friends, we could be considered close acquaintances borderline friends as I would see her at least twice a week as she tried to interact with Angelica, albeit unsuccessfully.

During that time, I would make small talk with her and as time passed, we were now no longer uncomfortable with each other as we would occasionally joke around like now.

[Human you're back]

Noticing my arrival, swiftly jumping down the tree she was on, Angelica slowly walked in my direction before jumping onto my shoulder.

Staring at Angelica who made herself comfortable on my shoulder, I inwardly shook my head as I thanked her.

'Thanks'

Lazily licking her paw, Angelica snorted and said

[Hmph, I'm not doing this for you human, I'm merely doing this because of the deal we've made]

'yeah, yeah'

Hearing Angelica's voice, I helplessly nodded my head.

…it was true.

In order to get to know Ava, I had made a deal in advance with Angelica.

…and the deal was that if she interacted with Ava more, I would cut off a month from the five-year contract.

Although it didn't sound like much, considering the fact that she didn't have to do much, the deal was fair.

Angelica didn't need to be pet by her.

All she had to do was get her interest. After that, I would use that chance to strike up a conversation with her and get to know her better.

The plan was that simple.

…at first, Angelica refused the deal as she thought one month was too short, but after a bit of thinking, she realized that all she had to do was just get closer to her, nothing else.

Thus after she weighed in her options, Angelica could only do as I said as she occasionally played with Ava.

After Angelica got on my shoulder, I soon saw Ava staring at me with a tinge of envy on her face.

Noticing this, a faint smile appeared on my lips as I knew that the plan had worked.

Honestly, it was well worth the investment as now I could comfortably talk to Ava without any problems.

Thanks to Angelica, I was now one step closer to recruiting her to my mercenary group.

…and once she was in, I would then legally be able to perform missions with my team.

"Thanks for taking care of her Ava"

After making sure that Angelica was on my shoulder, I thanked Ava.

"You're leaving?"

"Yeah, I'm busy today so I have to leave early"

As I was tired from my lesson with Donna, I decided to go back to the dorm.

Seeing me leave, whilst still looking at Angelica who was on my shoulder, Ava waved her hand and said goodbye.

"mhm, goodbye Ren, goodbye Pudding!"

"Yup, goodbye"

Waving back to Ava, I slowly walked back into my dorm.

I was honestly in a bit of a rush.

Aside from the fact that I was tired, there was another reason as to why I wanted to quickly go back to the dorm…and that was because I needed to make preparations for next week.

After one month and a half of peace and quiet, the peace that I had enjoyed would soon once again be broken.

…and the reason for this was because a week from now, I was finally going to go to Immorra.

Although I had been preparing for this for the past two months, just thinking of what was two come in a week's time, I became slightly nervous…yet that wasn't the only thing I felt, as a part of me was also feeling very excited about the trip.

Although the main goal of my trip to Immorra was to find a cure for the mind breaker curse…that didn't mean that it was the only thing I was after.

No.

Just because that was the main goal didn't mean that it was the only thing that the planet had to offer…no, rather, that was just the tip of the iceberg.

If things played how I wanted them to play…I might get to see a very interesting show very soon.

…one that would make me reap a lot of benefits.