Lucas stood and walked to the mirror.

The person staring back at him was unrecognizable.

The mask's dark material seemed to absorb light, making his face appear as nothing more than a void with glowing eyes.

"System, test the voice modulation."

[Adjusting voice parameters...]

"Hello," Lucas said. But it wasn't his voice that came out.

It was a deeper, older, mafia like voice that made him sound dangerous.

He tried different voices. A woman's voice. A child's voice. An old man's voice. The mask adjusted perfectly each time.

"This is incredible," Lucas said in his normal voice.

Then he thought about dismissing it.

The mask dissolved into shadows and vanished, absorbed into... somewhere.

He wasn't sure where it went. But when he thought about summoning it again, it immediately reformed on his face.

Perfect. I can switch between Lucas Estellan and Shadow instantly now. No more carrying around disguises. No more worrying about someone recognizing me. If only I had this back when I saved Celeste.

Lucas dismissed the mask again and sat back on his bed.

"System, show me my complete inventory."

=====

[STORAGE SPACE]

Current Capacity: 3ft x 3ft x 3ft

Contents:

- Throwing Knives (x8)

- Leklass Fruits (x7)

- Rainberries (x12)

- Curved Dagger (Common Quality)

- Shadow Sovereign's Mask (Epic Quality) [BONDED]

- Various romance novels (for the girls)

=====

"And my current skills?"

=====

[SKILLS INTERFACE]

Active Skills:

• [Intimidating Presence] - Rank: F | Level: Novice (73/100)

• [Basic Swordsmanship] - Rank: E+ | Level: Novice (58/100)

• [Mana Circulation - Flowing River Style] - Rank: S | Level: Novice (0/100)

Passive Skills:

• [Greedy to the Bone] - Rank: D | Level: N/A

Title Effects:

• ["Born Survivor"] - All stats go up one rank when fighting a opponent two ranks higher than you.

=====

Lucas leaned back.

In the span of five minutes, he'd gone from barely-scraping-by Copper rank to having epic-tier equipment and an S-rank mana circulation method.

And his mana capacity and regeneration had increased so dramatically that he could actually sustain combat for extended periods.

But it's still not enough, Lucas thought .

Veronica toyed with us. Even with Celeste, Damion, and Zacard all fighting, we barely survived. And she's just a Leader. There are Captains, Majors, and Generals above her. Not to mention the Head of the Legion.

And I still feel like she hadn't shown her true power. It felt like she was holding back for some unknown reason because no matter how I look at it, even if she was playing around with us, she should have absolutely wafflestomped us

We were way too lucky in that fight for me to feel comfortable with winning.

A knock on his door interrupted his thoughts.

"Lucas? It's Lydia. Can we talk?"

Lucas quickly stored the mask in his inventory and opened the door.

Lydia stood there along with Marie, Charlotte and Raymond.

"We need to discuss what happened," Lydia said. "About the Legion's attack and..." She paused. "And how you managed to form a core in the middle of combat."

Right. I never did explain that, did I?

"Come on in," Lucas said, stepping aside.

The four of them filed into his room. It was cramped with five people, but they managed.

"Before we start," Marie said, "I want to say thank you. All of you. We survived because we worked together. We managed to fight together despite never fighting together before. If even one thing had went wrong...."

"Don't mention it. After all, we just got lucky," Lucas said . "If that retreat signal hadn't sounded when it did..."

"But it did," Charlotte said. "And we lived. Six students from the academy didn't. Forty-three civilians didn't. We owe it to them to make sure their deaths meant something."

"Agreed," Lydia said. "Which brings us to the point. Lucas, how did you form your core so quickly? If we know, it could potentially help us out in getting stronger."

Lucas had been dreading this question. He couldn't tell them the truth.

Which was that he'd done it hundreds of times in a video game and knew the process by heart.

But he also couldn't just refuse to answer. After all, these people had fought beside him and trusted him with their lives, not some rando's.

"I've been studying core formation theory for years," Lucas said. "Reading every book I could find and memorizing every technique. I never actually tried to form one before because I knew it was illegal before sixteen and dangerous without supervision."

That much was technically true. He had studied it extensively. Just... in a video game.

"But when we were surrounded, when I realized we were going to die unless something changed..." Lucas shrugged. "I took the risk. The theory was all in my head. I just... followed the steps."

"That's insane," Raymond said. "The failure rate for unsupervised core formation is over seventy percent. And you did it in active combat?"

"Like I said. Desperate times call for desperate measures." Lucas said.

Lydia gave him a look that suggested she didn't quite buy his explanation. But after a moment, she nodded.

"Well, regardless of how you did it, it saved our lives. So thank you." She said.

"Speaking of cores," Marie said, "have you thought about what element you're going to specialize in?"

"Element?" Lucas said in confusion.

"Once you reach Mid-Stage Copper, you need to choose an elemental affinity," Marie explained.

"Fire, water, earth, air, lightning, light, or darkness. Your choice affects what spells you can learn and how your mana develops. It's a permanent decision, so most people spend months thinking about it."

Oh right. The elemental specialization system. I'd forgotten about that.

In the game, choosing your element had been a major decision point. Each had strengths and weaknesses, different spell trees, different combat styles

"I haven't decided yet," Lucas said. "I literally just stabilized my core yesterday. Elemental affinity is still a ways off."

"Fair enough," Lydia said. "But start thinking about it. The choice will define your entire combat style going forward."

They talked for another hour. They didcussed everything from the Legion attack to what they had eaten in the morning.

Eventually, everyone filtered out and headed back to their own rooms.

Lucas closed the door behind them and sat back on his bed.

Two lottery spins. Two epic-tier rewards. The luck stat might say F-, but apparently, the universe is looking out for me. At least, this time.

He pulled up his status one more time, just to confirm it was all real.

=====

[STATUS]

Host: Lucas Estellan

Villain Level: Novice Villain – Rank F

Age: 17

Race: Human

Rank: Copper (Low-Stage)

Villain Points: 63

Health: C+

Mana: A-

Strength: C

Intelligence: C+

Agility: B

Charisma: E+

Luck: F-

Overall Grade: B-

=====

His overall grade had jumped from C+ to B- just from the mana increase alone.

I'm finally in the big leagues. I'm nowhere near the SSS, Z, ZZ and ZZZ class powerhouses of the endgame but I think I'm powerful enough to match some students in the A class and maybe even the S class.

Slowly but surely, I'm closing the gap of power between myself and the important characters.

Lucas lay back and closed his eyes, letting the Flowing River Style mana circulation technique activate automatically.

He could feel his mana reserves slowly refilling. It was faster than they ever had before.

Five days until midterms, Lucas thought. It's time to train harder than I ever have before.

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