Chapter 177 Setting off for the academy
In the blink of an eye, one week had passed. After Rio's appearance in the entrance ceremony everyone knew he was back. With Artemis answering questions about how they found him and how he was now fine.
She also announced that he would be joining Zenith academy again as a fresher, along with Amelia too. This caused quite a stir but after hearing principal's explanation about why that was so, they all understood the reason. But the surprise was still there, as everybody knew how Artemis blamed the academy for the incident 2 years ago.
They even remembered the rumors about how she had stormed into the academy and even fought and nearly killed their staff who were watching over the tournament and the dungeon. If not for the principal's timely intervention, she would've killed them for sure.
Some bold reporters even questioned her aboit them but her cold gaze was the answer they got. And that was enough to shut them up.
When asked about how he survived, if some God helped him or not, she gave the answer Rio had told her "He became the avatar of Nyx and she protected him."
This was another shocking news, but with this reveal the theories about some new evil God popping up to help him were lost, as no one wanted to question a primordials choice and power. Obviously this created another debate, and people who were claiming to be the followers of Nyx started lining up in front of their manor to meet the chosen one of their goddess. But just like the previous month, no one was allowed entry and they could all just sigh in wait.
After the first few days all these storming reveals calmed down. As the day of academy sessions came near, the news of comparisons between Rio and Leon started spreading across the whole continent. No one knew about Leon being Apollo's avatar, so many praised him to be superior, since he even broke the record set by Rio.
This only fueled more competition to start as literally their names were spoken everywhere. Since the invention of mobile phones was a new discovery here, there weren't any social entertainment sites or options like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, but still something similar to whatsApp, where conversation between friends or a group, could happen were easily made. This app was was called Whisper.
And currently, on whisper, everyone was only chatting and talking either about the entrance ceremony or him.
Many people and companies have been working on technology similar sites and stuff,?after learning stuff from the people of modern and sci-fi world dungeons. But implementating them was still hard.
[But that will take too much time to explain, so I'll tell ya some other time. Now back to chapter]
While the people in his family didn't care about any comparison or record, Rio had paid special attention to everything. Especially the interview of Leon after the entrance ceremony, where he was asked questions about Rio.
Till that point Leon had heard some stuff about Rio, and remembered him. When asked what he thinks about his reappearance and joining the same classes as him, his reply was simple that he was happy for him. Answering about who was superior in talent or who would rank higher among them his reply was even simpler - "He can't be sure and that they'd know the answer when the first semester ends."
Rio had watched the clips of Leon's face filled with confusion when he first entered the ceremony, and from that he could guess, the guy had no idea who he was.
He didn't even remember the guy who saved his mother's life now, but in the novel, he remembered Amelia who only showed him the way to princess, who saved his mother.
He couldn't help but laugh at that fact - were the feelings of gratitude only for the heroines? And he who did the same thing got nothing, not even a recognition.
It was really funny. Was it plot or just Leon being horny for girls - Rio wasn't sure, but ohh well, not like he cared about that.
'Lisa's reaction was enough of a blow for Leon and the more he learns about me, the more he'll feel stressed and be wary of me.' Rio thought.
'He actually hasn't suffered anything yet, so he's still gonna be arrogant and would act as a high horse for a while. Obviously that only lasts until he gets a taste of the bullyiny and the different treatment of nobility and elite families. That would've kept him busy for the whole semester, but now Rio wasn't sure because of 2 things - Lisa's behavior. And Apollo's blabber.'
Thinking about Apollo, Rio couldn't help but smile and mutter "That guy knows about me well enough, to warn his chic to be on his alerts. And now Rio just needed to see what the protagonist would do Or how he'd act with that knowledge.
[You're overthinking about him, host.] System who was hearing all his thoughts, came out and said- [Protagonist isn't the only problem you got in the academy. Don't forget about your mess ups of last time. Some staff and students already hate you to the bone.]
"Those bitches can't do shit to me. They're too scared to act in light, and I'm practically the blinding sun out there. And besides, with my current power, I can handle them even if they come for me." Rio said, glancing at his status window.
[Hehe now you know the true extent of my powers. Do you still dare to take me for a joke.] System said haughtily.
This host always liked to make fun of it before, calling it useless, and a tenant, who lived in his head but didn't pay rent - but after he looked at the items in its shop, he couldn't even close his mouth for a while.
(Ohh how funny that sight was) system thought and smiled again.
Rio too this time said nothing, as this system really was too much. He wasn't surprised by the items in shop, as he read ton of novels and knew that it would have all kinds of stuff there. He got surprised when he saw the list of skill section, which recorded the skills of the protagonist. Along with every skill, ability, artifact written in the whole novel, no matter the rank, ownership or origin, this system had a copy of everything.
So he did what every villain who had a ton of points to spend could do, he copied everything.E
Every skill and blessing Leon got from Apollo or his gang of minions, Rio had it too. Obviously he also bought skills which could perfectly counter those things too.
So now he was someone who could even act as Leon, based on skills and perfectly oppose him too.
Rio even wanted to buy the skills of Gods, but sadly he couldn't. He could only buy skills of mortal characters for now. To get the skills/items of gods, which they didn't even give to their avatars, he would have to upgrade the system to level 3.
(It would be nice to buy some reassurance before emergence phase 2 starts. I'll be more prepared to face them that way.) Rio thought.
In the shop, there wasn't any limitations, like he could only buy stuff which would suit his rank or something according to his level, so he even got some skill slips and artifacts for this new family of his.
This dungeon death, might have thwarted some of his plans but it also made some things easy, like now Amelia doesn't question him much about where he gets all the free stuff he gives her. After the last time she asked too many questions and fought with him, he ended up dead in a dungeon, so now whatever questions she gets, she ignores them, instead of bothering him.
Unlike her,?whatever he gave to Artemis, she took it thinking he got it with the knowledge of his blessing. She would've doubted some items origins and the risk he had to take in acquiring them -but after she saw Rio actually pulling out skills from a tree trunk, or buying pills from a roadside, and mythical artifacts at a sloppy auction houses- she gave up on common sense.
In her mind, she always thought good things will be hidden and only gotten after clearing some trials and through risks, but whenever she took Rio out to roam around the city, he would do something like this, just to spite her and then laugh at her surprised reactions.
So she now even stops questioning him, she just takes whatever he gets for her and his father. Yes, he doesn't give his gifts to Agnus himself, he can't fool his father or tell him about his blessing of fate. So he just hands them over to Artemis, who in turn passes them over to her husband.
Myra, Esme and Erza looks at him in doubts sometimes, but he just starts to flaunt his status as heir of a duchy, and they stops asking anything.
Ohhh i almost forgot about our alchemist, Ayla, he had wrote down some recipes of potions for her and she had successfully learned them now.
As he guessed years ago when he saved her, she didn't have the drive to learn alchemy as in the novel. She wasn't desperate or dedicated enough to try everything, so her talents sucked. But with his subtle hints and her father's guidance, she was still average.
Thus Rio wrote down some recipes for her in a book and passed them to her as a gift on her birthday. That was the last he remembered of her, as after that he got trapped in the dungeon, yet looking at the message on his phone which said, "She had mastered everything, and couldn't wait to show him the results." he couldn't help but smile.
It seems him being away, could also motivate her a little to try harder.
'Everything is prepared and?so am I. So let's leave.'
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His status window will be shown in next chapter and so is the academy. He leaves his house and goes there in next chapter too.
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