A week had passed since then.
Since discovering what he looked like, Soren had started taking better care of himself.
It sounded ironic, considering how worried he had been about his appearance causing problems, but at this point, he didn't care.
With a face like this, it would be a waste not to look after himself.
Thanks to that, the dark circles under his eyes had faded a little, and he looked less frail than before.
Of course, that wasn't all that had happened in the last week.
Ever since the joint class with Felix, Soren had been thinking seriously about the future, specifically, the upcoming mock duel.
At Stellaris Academy, there were two mock duels each semester: one before midterms and one before finals.
The first was automatic: your opponent was assigned based on rank, skill, and other factors to make things fair.
The second was free-form: students received two duel tickets and could challenge whoever they wanted, as long as the person ranked higher.
Each student could participate in only three duels, and it was first-come, first-served.
In ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱, the first mock duel was a significant event; it was the moment the protagonist, Alex, revealed his unique power, [Divinity], to the world.
That single duel cemented his identity as the Hero of Light, the saviour prophesied to fight the Demon Lord.
According to the game's lore, the Order of Aryn had received a divine message:
– 「When the Demon Lord of Darkness descends, the Hero of Light shall be born and bring salvation to all.」
Generic prophecy or not, it drew the entire world's attention to this generation, soon to be known as The Generation of Light.
When Alex displayed his golden [Divinity] during the mock duel, the prophecy seemed fulfilled overnight.
The Order immediately began preparations to unseal the holy sword, Clockwork.
That duel also signalled the start of one of the heroines routes.
After witnessing Alex's [Divinity], Amelia, the Beastkin princess and one of the three main Heroines, began to take an interest in him.
In-game, her route was nearly essential, since her tanking abilities were unmatched in the late game content.
Of course, none of this mattered to Soren.
'I mean, come on, I'm just a guy with an A+ Charm stat. I'm not even in the same league.'
Even if he wanted to replace Alex, which he didn't, he would never be able to.
[Divinity] was a power granted by the gods; it wasn't something you could earn.
He also couldn't steal Amelia's route.
The only ways to attract her interest were to be exceptionally strong or utterly unique.
He was neither.
'…And honestly, I'm not interested in NTRing the protagonist anyway.'
The idea made his stomach twist.
He always enjoyed reading about the scenes where the Heroines crushed on Alex, each in their own cute ways.
To ruin that would be inhumane, Soren thought.
Still, he wasn't thinking about any of that because he wanted fame or glory.
He was thinking about it because of one simple, glaring problem.
"I'm too weak."
Before fighting Felix, he had assumed the mock duels would be easy, a warm-up at best, thanks to his mind still viewing his surroundings as a game, but that assumption had shattered the moment he saw how pitiful his abilities really were.
He had no offensive magic, no defensive magic; at best, he could stall slightly, but that would be useless if he couldn't actually defeat his opponents.
As the 96th-ranked student, he would probably have weak opponents, too, but the idea of losing as a transmigrator was unbearable.
Soren didn't want to be that pitiful.
He opened his status window.
"「Status」"
.
[Status Window]
Name: Soren Arden
◈ Stats
Stamina - 0.2 (F)
Strength - 0.3 (F)
Agility - 0.4 (F)
Mana - 0.4 (F) [Increased by 0.1]
Divine Power - 0.0 (F)
Charm - 8.4 (A+)
.
In the time since transmigrating, the only stat that's changed was his mana stat, and that was only by a single point.
With stats as low as these, the best he would be able to do in the mock duels was to squeeze by tightly.
Sure, if he put his mind to it, he could likely find a way to deal with his opponents without much strength or skill.
After all, Soren had an immense amount of knowledge about this world, but that rubbed him the wrong way.
He didn't want just to get by; he wanted to win, clearly, so clearly that it was always obvious who the winner was going to be.
It was a thought that directly contradicted his previous thoughts of staying quiet, but pride was a hard thing to shake off once it had taken hold.
So he made a plan.
In TKS, there were hidden secrets scattered all over the world, obscure items or quests that only the most obsessive players ever found.
Some were brutally complicated.
One required you to kill every monster in a specific area, unlock a hidden dungeon, then clear it in one go for the reward.
Another demanded the perfect combination of character, item, timing, and location.
'That one was awful…'
But the one Soren was after now was simple, or at least, simple for someone who already knew where it was.
It was hidden in Rena Forest, right beside the academy.
Usually, players had to spend hours mapping out every inch of the forest before receiving a quest marker that led to a small cave at the edge of the map.
But Soren didn't need to map anything.
He already knew the cave's location by heart.
And inside that cave was a hidden item: Stella's Apple.
As hidden pieces went, it wasn't amazing, just a mid-rank, while most others were high-rank, but it was something Soren could realistically get his hands on.
Eating Stella's Apple permanently increased all stats by 0.3 points.
That alone made it worthwhile, but there was more.
Consuming it also granted the title [Stella's Secrets].
In-game, the title was mediocre at best: it tripled HP and MP recovery.
Normally, that didn't matter since the player always had Saintess Olivia as a healer, not to mention hundreds of potions and items in their inventory.
But this wasn't a game anymore.
Here, items cost money.
What about healers?
Even more expensive, and they needed protection too, making them harder to rely on.
Most importantly, mana recovery was painfully slow in reality.
Through trial and error, Soren had measured it.
When his mana stat was 0.3, it took roughly 15 minutes to fully recover after draining his pool.
After increasing it to 0.4, the recovery time jumped to about 25 minutes.
If even that tiny increase made such a difference, higher-ranked mages, with C or D-rank mana, probably needed hours to recharge naturally.
[Stella's Secrets], however, could cut that recovery time enormously.
And even though faster healing wasn't a priority, it was still a nice bonus.
'In other words,' Soren thought, 'it's perfect for me.'
There was only one catch with all of this, though: Stella's Apple was an item that Alex was meant to take.
But after careful deliberation, Soren concluded that this point was moot.
Why?
Because Alex was… well, Alex.
The world's densest protagonist.
A happy-go-lucky idiot who lived by a four-step routine: eat, sleep, train, repeat.
TKS had romance systems, affinity meters, and love events, but none of them ever went anywhere because Alex was too focused on grinding to notice.
'I remember how mad people got about that,' Soren thought with a smirk. 'All that effort just for the guy to say "training is more important than love."'
And from what he had seen these past weeks, that personality had not changed.
They had shared a few theory classes, and every single time, Alex either slept through the lecture or gave answers so wrong that even the professors gave up.
In-game, it was a running joke that Alex always scored the lowest on written exams, no matter how strong he got.
Seeing it in person just confirmed it.
'So yeah, he's not finding any hidden pieces on his own.' Soren decided with a nod.
Which meant Soren could take them, guilt-free.
If Alex never found them, it wouldn't affect the story at all; they were optional after all.
And if Soren did find them… he would finally be strong enough to live the life he wanted; free, safe, and comfortable.
That was all he wished for.
All he needed.
He smiled faintly.
'Sorry, Alex, but I need these. You'll understand, right?'
————「❤︎」————