In Henry’s papers, there were a number of interesting spa brew variants. Ultimately, Freddy settled for one that was a bit easier to make, a bit more potent, a bit more expensive, and a lot more poisonous.
In the arguably most spoiled rich kid move he had ever made in his life, he commissioned a soda company to specifically make him a super sugary, unreasonably caffeinated soda in a variety of flavors.
Downing his spa brew, swallowing a pill, and then washing it all down with “soda” that was nearly as thick as syrup, he plopped his ass down before a desk, and got to studying.
Ignoring the feeling of his heart wanting to implode took some getting used to.
And, well, as advertised… the combo most definitely worked. It wasn’t like he suddenly transformed into a super genius or anything, but the information definitely stuck better. The most noticeable difference was that he made much broader connections between the new stuff he learned and the stuff he already knew. It was a subtle difference. How much it would help, he would have to wait and see.
Sighing as he realized that the books aren’t going to magically study themselves no matter how many tricks he pulled, he got comfortable in his seat and got to work.
The days started rolling by.
Several exams came up. As expected, he failed to catch up with all the stuff he started in the middle, but thankfully, that did mean he could finally take the classes from the very beginning.
In those he started from scratch, he fared much better.
He passed Null-State Combat with flying colors.
Dr. Jeffrey made a lot of rules to ensure that nobody cheesed the test by pulling up in overpriced gear. Everyone was given the same storage ring with the same set of consumable supplies to further even things out.
Freddy held back quite a bit, focusing on deploying consumables and trying his best to pass in the spirit of the class, rather than using brute force alone. He faced waves of random monsters in a simulated battle scenario, only losing at the fifth wave, where thirty mid-ranked three-star monsters came rushing at him.
He didn’t use the Cycle Scythe, spirit abilities, or expensive gear, so, naturally, he couldn’t put up much of a fight. By his own standards, at least.
The test was streamed on a screen before the rest of the class, and everyone who watched him take it gawked in absolute disbelief once he left. It made sense. He had put up one hell of a fight.
In the end, only one person did better than Freddy—David Asshat. Not only did the prick have an overpowered physical boost, he actually had a second talent, which he had kept hidden. Most likely, the only reason he even revealed it was because he wanted to outdo Freddy.
The man’s second talent conjured a simple-looking sword. Simple-looking, and anything but in practice. The sword cut through right about anything like butter, and it gave him the power to do these incredible dash-and-slashes that were too fast for even Freddy to reliably avoid.
The combination of bullshit physical talent and bullshit weapon talent took the guy pretty far—all the way to the sixth wave, which pitted him against fifty high-level three-stars. That was just too much.
Once he lost, he left the pod with a smug expression on his face, smirking at Freddy with an all-too-pleased look in his eye. It didn’t last long.
“For the record, David, you failed.”
He whirled on the teacher. “What!? How did I fail!?”
Dr. Jeffrey sighed. “You didn’t use absolutely any of your consumables. Not one thing left your ring for the entire duration of the fight.”
Clenching his fists, he spat through gritted teeth. “Because I didn’t need any of it.”
“Yes. Yes, you did.”
“I made it way further than anyone else here!”
“And you fell way short of how far you could have made it had you taken anything I teach to heart.” The look in the professor’s eye turned dangerous. “My class is about learning how to make the most out of the null state, not simply being the strongest in it. Had you relied on your tools, you would have made it to the final wave less exhausted, and with traps to rely on to buy time.
“In a real fight, the difference between living and dying is often tragically miniscule. And you, as far as I’m concerned, are doomed to lose your life in the stupidest way imaginable.”
David chuckled sardonically. “That’s it. I’m tired of your shit, professor. This is the last straw. I’m filing an official complaint with the faculty.”
“Good luck with that, Asshat. I’m banning you from ever taking another class with me again.”
Growling furiously, the man marched out, slamming the door behind him.
Freddy shook his head, all-too-used to seeing such stupidity among his classmates.
The days continued marching by. Freddy spent most of his days split between classes and studying, but he took more time off for personal reasons. Most often, he would either go delving or participate in the arena. He enjoyed both quite a bit.
When it came to the arena, it didn’t take long for him to grow rather infamous. His stupid over-the-top persona was perfect for the anonymous category, naturally creating a number of hilarious exchanges, and often leaving trolls deeply frustrated. He didn’t actually win every fight—far from it. His win rate was only about seventy percent.
There were simply too many spirit ability abusers. Given how little Freddy actually relied on, it was a miracle he could even put up a fight—and people caught on to that pretty quickly.
There were three major turning points with his arena career.
The first was when he encountered the man who went by Spirit.
Spirit was a massive figure in the Starhold Arena, and easily one of the more popular fighters. In many ways, his gimmick was similar to Freddy’s, just in the opposite direction. Through a mixture of the light, death, and holy affinities, and a talent that let him summon copies of undead, he terrorized opponents through guerilla tactics.
The undead he copied was this absolutely freaky, skinny thing with hollow eyes. Through a mixture of supercharging the copies with blessings and making them invisible, he could turn any fight into a short horror movie.
The man’s showmanship was top-tier, and his power was nothing to scoff at, either, making him perfect star material in the arena.
The match between him and Freddy just turned out really interesting. They lucked into a creepy map, and Freddy played the perfect victim. In fact, Freddy was astonished at just how strong Spirit really was. The man had to be a genuine super elite, which added a good deal of mystique to his whole persona.
Over the course of five long minutes, Freddy ran through the spooky old castle, barging into rooms with reckless abandon and occasionally getting jumpscared by an invisible foe. Due to his insanity sense, Freddy could occasionally pick up on a hint or two about what Spirit was doing, which was just enough to let him put up a decently good fight.
It ended up being the perfect blend of goofy and horrifying, and through a mixture of luck and skill, Freddy put up a fantastic fight, showing that he was no slouch, either.
He took down four undead and even found Spirit hiding in a corner. The man managed to slip past Freddy, only to leave him trapped in a room with three of his supercharged undead. They exchanged a few cheesy lines, with Spirit playing up the baddie persona as his trio of goons tore Freddy apart.
The recording of the fight went super viral, and this was the first time Freddy’s persona was noticed. People gave him the nickname Inquisitor. It was obvious, both in regards to his equipment and lack of ability use, that he was holding back quite a bit, and this was the first time people caught on, with many wondering exactly how much he was hiding.
The second major turning point was when Freddy used Tsunami Strike for the first time. He faced a giant opponent and met a massive fist powered by a Tectonic Strike with an attack of his own. Despite Freddy’s gauntlet trapping most of the force, his attack still overpowered the incoming blow in such a dramatic fashion that it instantly turned into a viral clip.
His opponent had a gigantification talent that made him around five times taller. At around nine meters tall, the man utterly dwarfed the average opponent, and that included Freddy. In fact, the man’s fist alone was bigger than Freddy’s entire torso.
And yet, when their fists met, it was the giant who was flung back.
The exchange was so absurd that it left analysts baffled as to how it was even possible. They pieced together that Freddy used a kind of Flowing Strike, but they simply had no clue how it could possibly exert that much power.
Freddy couldn’t blame them. Nobody sane would build an attack like this.
And then, finally, there was the third turning point: a scene Freddy had been waiting for for a long time.
Freddy coughed dramatically, clutching the stump of his missing left arm as he took a shaky step back. “You fiend… You may break my body, but you will never shatter my spirit!”
“Is that so?”
The man he was facing was another infamous anonymous category figure—Leopold Kranz. Unlike most people in the anonymous category, he made no effort to hide his real identity.
His glittering green hair draped down his stylish outfit, red eyes boring a hole into Freddy’s soul. A crystalline sword hovered in the air beside him, ready to flash forward at any moment and claim a second arm.
This person was another genuine super elite, the son of an Overlord, and a rising star who was using the arena to build up his reputation. Even Freddy had to admit that he would have to put in some real effort to beat this man in a serious fight. The ability to control that crystal sword at a range made him especially nasty for Freddy to cope with.
Digging his nails with a disinterested look on his face, Leopold scoffed. “I’ve seen that clip of you meeting that punch. That was pretty impressive. Most people don’t seem to realize just how incredible of an attack that really was. You…” He smiled. “You’re no ordinary person, are you?” He snickered. “I’ll give you a choice. Either take me seriously, or I’m going to hurt you in a way you’ll feel even when you leave this place.”
“Silence!” Freddy raised his sword with his remaining arm. “Your wicked ramblings are most unpleasant!”
Leopold shook his head. “All right then. You’ve asked for this.” The man’s crystal sword flashed forward, taking Freddy’s second arm off in the blink of an eye. Then, it proceeded to sever both his legs, leaving him immobile.
The fight would end automatically if he didn’t move for ten seconds.
Rather than torture him, Leopold simply stepped forward. And then, he kicked the helmet off of Freddy’s face. It looked like he wasn't just exaggerating—he was intending to reveal Freddy’s identity.
A brief flash of surprise passed through the man’s eye as he spotted the mask. “Ooo, creepy,” he said jokingly, then bent over to take the man off. It didn’t budge. He frowned, pulling harder. And harder. He braced a foot against Freddy’s neck and tugged with all his strength until—
With a horrific ripping noise, the mask came off, pulling the bulk of Freddy’s face off with it.
Leopold released a surprisingly high-pitched shout as he threw the mask away and leaped back, obviously caught entirely off guard.
Freddy, having waited for the longest time for this to happen, was prepared. He used Hydraulic Flex on his neck muscles, pulling them so hard that he snapped his own neck, lifting his head up in an odd, horrifying angle. Then, in a strangled voice, he muttered. “Evildoers… never escape my wrath.”
The ten seconds elapsed, and with that, the match was over.
For five whole minutes, Freddy laughed hysterically at the look on the man’s face at the end there. That was the look of a man genuinely worried for his safety.
Finally, after a good deal of waiting, he finally got the scene he had been waiting for.
Mask rippers weren’t unheard of in the arena, but they were quite rare. Torture? That was tolerable. Revealing someone’s identity? That was just too far.
Regardless, the way things turned out suited Freddy perfectly fine. Not only did he meet a mask ripper, it was someone with serious fame. There was no way in hell that clip wasn’t going to go absolutely viral.
“Time to take a sudden hiatus and let the mystery cook…”
There was nothing he could do that would possibly be better than… well, doing nothing. He would let the audience stew and wonder where he disappeared to, and then, one day, when the time was right, Inquisitor would make another appearance.
During this period, Freddy’s studying was going… fine.
The cocktail of studying aides did a great job of letting him study more efficiently, and as time went by, the effects only became more noticeable. That which he learned under the effect of the spa brew simply integrated a lot more smoothly into actual understanding of the subject. And as he built on that firmer foundation, the process became that much smoother.
However, he couldn’t exactly say that it had magically transformed him into a model student.
He tried his absolute best to absorb as much of the content as possible during the lessons, but as for studying outside of class…
Yeah.
His excuse was that, given the return of his emotions, he wanted to focus more on enjoying his life and taking things slow. The reality of it was that the return of his emotions included frustration, boredom, and a plethora of other complex and unpleasant feelings that sprung up while struggling to catch up with years worth of academic knowledge.
More than anything, he couldn’t shake off that feeling of being an outsider.
He could see the others communicating and bonding in a way that came from having so many years of shared, or at the very least, similar experiences. The vast, overwhelming majority of the students in the university came from cushy backgrounds and rich families. They had gone to private schools as kids, then academies as teenagers, and then finally, university as adults.
While he could close the gap in knowledge with hard work, he could never change the fact he came from an entirely different world than them.
Add to that the fact that most people were fully convinced that he was a certified fossil, and the alienation only got worse.
While his emotions had still been muted, he hadn’t cared a bit. But as much as he wanted to ignore the welling sense of loneliness, he couldn’t. And it sucked.
He missed Sophia. Hell, he’d even settle for seeing Lucas or Travis again. The only “friend” he really had was Vladimir, and they didn’t exactly talk much. Freddy knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from bring up Vlad’s history with the organ trade. The man probably had a good explanation for it. Maybe. But if he didn’t, Freddy wasn’t sure what he would do. But it wouldn’t be pretty.
A part of him wanted to reach out to Lily, maybe invite her to visit. But that girl had been through enough. A selfish part of him wanted to see what would happen if she got the right education and a chance to learn somewhere she could safely experiment with that soul construct of hers. But he really didn’t want to put her in danger.
He did write her a letter, though. She responded relatively soon, sharing some stories of how her life was going. She had been reunited with her parents, somehow, even though Freddy wasn’t sure how exactly they were allowed to leave the Northern Belt. They were still adjusting, but for the most part, they were happier and safer than ever before.
With her letter, she had also sent a couple of aurels charged with blood essence. They came with a note:
SORRY FOR ONLY BEING ABLE TO SEND A FEW! THEY’RE PRETTY EXPENSIVE! XD
BUT I WANTED TO THANK YOU SOMEHOW FOR ALL THE HELP YOU’VE GIVEN ME. REMEMBER, IF YOU EVER NEED ANYTHING, MAKE SURE YOU CONTACT ME! HOPE STARHOLD IS AS AWESOME AS IT LOOKS ON BC (AND I HOPE YOU AREN’T GETTING UP TO TOO MUCH VIOLENCE).
ANYWAY, IF YOU STILL NEED MY HELP, DON’T BE SHY! BUT I MIGHT HAVE TO START CHARGING YOU A BIT MORE :P.
Rather than consuming the coins, he stashed them away into his storage ring.
His soul healing was progressing smoothly.
“No massive leaps, but you’re still progressing rather quickly,” the doctor concluded. “It might be time to wrap things up soon.”
“How soon?” Freddy asked, nervous.
“I can’t make any promises, but soon soon. You’re in the final stretch. Don’t lose patience now.”
Freddy nodded slowly, leaning over in the chair with a contemplative look on his face.
It looked like it was time to finally start getting ready to ascend to the third star.