Chapter 87: Sports Festival (1)
The Sports Festival was confirmed to start two weeks later, and those two weeks flew by in flashes.
I went to the dungeon after confronting Shinso, and it was a disaster.
Mursha and everyone else was shocked since I truly appeared just a second after vanishing, just as I had said, but they didn't question a legendary High Human.
The disaster happened when I led the army of Orcs and Ogres to fight another faction. There were random monsters all around the southern jungle, but there were only 5 intelligent factions.
Each of them had one of the Save Stones in their hold.
I already had two of the factions sabotaged, the Ogre Village and the Fishmen Lake.
My plan was to clear the entire Southern Part, aka Floor-1, before the Sports Festival. That's what led me to my demise.
In a hurry, immediately after I returned to the dungeon, I led the Ogres and Orcs for another hunt. They did protest, but I just threw them some stamina potions, I had a lot of those to spare.
Mursha then led me to the closest village. A village of Cyclops.
I assumed it would be another easy hunt, but it wasn't. Even though my faction won against the 33 Cyclops, we lost 30 of our people, lowering our numbers to 21 people.
That was… a great loss. Though maybe it was a coincidence or just luck even, now my army only had women. That meant there won't probably be any more challenge for the throne. But the bad thing was; girls are usually weaker than boys, even these monster girls.
So, since I now had a lower number who were weak as heck, the next two weeks whenever I entered the dungeon, rather than hunting on any of the factions, I made the girls hunt random monsters instead.
Their level rose, and they became more obedient to me when they actually levelled up beyond their cap.
Mursha was now level 250, her level cap increased after a bit more of… drinking.
I noticed that unlike me, the monsters level up faster. Which was sad, but eh, I am still stronger.
I didn't let Mursha level up much. If she became too stronger than me, she might start getting weird ideas. Instead, I levelled up the other girls.
All in all, after two weeks of levelling up, I now had a [Level 250], 9 [Level 200], and 11 [Level 150] and beyond.
They could honestly just gang up on me and keep me as a breeding slave. But I have shown them some of my items' abilities just to subtly suggest what would happen if they tried such a thing.
It worked.
I also gained 6 more levels. Now I was level 116, and Kurai was level 90.
She is catching up, oh no.
I could also feel our "Synergy" getting stronger. As the system said before, to use <Fusion>, we would need very high synergy. We already had it very high, but it seemed it wasn't high enough even now.
But we were close. I could feel it.
—★—
That's all that happened in the past two weeks. Neji still had two more Save Stones to grab to clear Floor 1.
But before that, he needed to come first in the Sports Festival, because he was looking to win a certain hero's attention.
"So, Neji, you have to give your all! Okay?"
Nejire stood with her hands on Neji's shoulders.
"I wouldn't be able to watch since I have my own Festival in the 3rd year quarters, but remember, Onee-chan is always with you!"
Neji smiled at her.
There were three areas, each for a year of students. The Sports Festival happens at the same time in all areas. So Nejire didn't have any way to be there to cheer Neji as he takes the medal—as she believed he would.
"I will get going then, okay? Or do I stay here for a bit more?"
Nejire stared at his eyes fondly.
"Just go, or the both of us will be late."
Nejire nodded and turned to leave. Waving at him for another minute, before entering her campus.
Neji turned to meet Kimi in the car and gave her a smirk. "You have nothing to say?"
She gave him a blank stare. "Not until you tell me about those new scents on your body that appear on you every day after school."
Neji laughed, leaned over and kissed her lips softly, before turning and walking away.
Kimi's flustered face looked around, making sure nobody was watching before she sighed in relief.
Neji's future hero carrier will take a blow if he was seen in a relationship with an ex-hero, who was much older than him.
Though Kimi wouldn't have thought such a thing if she knew—Neji never plans to be a hero at all.
—★—
Mt. Lady ate meatballs as she observed the crowd, muttering,
"Wow, the crowd is really huge this time around. Guess that's why they called heroes from all across the country, huh."
Kamui Woods nodded at her words. "The crowd is larger in the 1st year quarter. Usually, people go to watch the 3rd year students, since it's more fun seeing kids putting their experience into strategies. But this time because of the USJ incident, the 1st years have successfully gathered the nation's attention."
"Mhmm…" Mt. Lady continued eating her balls, just when her eyes caught something. "Oh, a reporter is causing trouble."
From far in the crowd, a female reporter was chasing a silver-haired boy, who shrugged her off every time. She seemed to be asking for pictures.
"Hey, come on! Didn't you see the response that your picture got last time?! Let me take another few pictures, you will be famous!"
It was the same reporter who had taken Neji's winking picture last time.
Neji finally stopped and sighed at her. "I am busy, Miss. I don't have time for a picture right now… But if you are eager, give me your number, we can meet later."
"Really?"
"Hey, what's happening?!" Mt. Lady walked between them, frowning. "You, reporter! Why are you disturbing a student? He has his exam in a few minutes."
The reporter was about to say something, but as the hero pressed a button on her hand, a few security guards came running and took her away.
Then Mt. Lady smiled at the strangely hot boy. "Oh hey, nice to meet you. You should learn how to deal with reporters sooner than later. Based on that face of yours, I can tell you will need it more than any other heroes."
"Hi." Neji smiled too. "I have my game soon, as you said. So yeah, I guess we will talk later if fate allows us to meet again."
Without waiting for a reply, he scurried off to the distance. Mt. Lady stood there, frozen with meatballs in her mouth.
A teenager actually ignored her.
...What the hell?!
—★—
When Neji entered the class 1-A waiting room, he was met by a worried Momo.
"Hey! I thought something happened, why are you so late! Only 5 minutes remain!"
Neji calmed her with a wry smile.
"Don't worry, I am here now, aren't I?"
Momo sighed and rubbed her nose. Such a big event, he should have come here a bit early to prepare mentally. Then again, as far as she knew, he was always mentally prepared.
"Neji."
Suddenly, a chilling voice called from the back. Turning around, Neji met the fiery cold gase of Shoto Todoroki.
"Oh, hi."
Todoroki gave him a challenging stare. "I have heard about your feats in USJ, but I was unfortunately too busy with myself and missed the chance to watch it with my own two eyes. So I don't believe the rumours, as they are often exaggerated."
"Huh? Oh… okay." Neji blinked. "The point you're making is…?"
"...I just wanted to say, I will beat you."
Neji gave him a stare more blank than his.
'Look at him.'
He couldn't care less. Maybe if it was Bakugo, then it would have been a fun challenge. He would have slowly broken his willpower and ground his bones to dust. But Todoroki wasn't that fun.
"We will see about that."
Neji held up a fist. Todoroki stared at it blankly, confused. To not make it awkward, Neji used his telekinesis to raise Shoto's fist in the air and give his knuckles a tap. A fist bump.
"Good luck. You will need that."
Then, before Todoroki could say something, a loud voice called from outside.
["And now, please welcome the Class 1-A!"]
Exchanging glances, every student started walking to their life's biggest opportunity until now.
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