3 The beginning 3 (1/2)

The class was about to end but Garen still hadn’t decided on which attribute to enhance. At this point, he finally believed this supernatural ability was actually real.

”Riiiiiiinnngg”

After the crisp sound of school bells, the etiquette teacher collected his rosewood box and left the classroom. The class went from complete silence to chaos.

Garen remained seated in his desk, startled by the mess. He straightened his back and let out a relieved sigh. Suddenly, he felt his belly deflating and quickly covered it with his hands. A sense of hunger -- never felt before -- came from his stomach.

He bent down and looked around, checking to see that no one was looking at him. He reached into his pockets and took some blue papers out, each of which had either the numbers 1 or 5 printed on them. Counting the bills, Garen slightly knitted his brows.

”Only fifteen dollars to spend... this is far from enough for one week. Also, I remember eating breakfast just now, but when the potential reached 100% I started feeling hungry again. It seems like the potential wasn’t just draining energy from the gem, but also from my body’s digestive system.”

At that moment, someone patted him on the shoulder. ”Garen, same old spot for lunch?” A young male voice came from behind him.

Garen turned around and saw the white-skinned hand of a freckled boy laying on his shoulder.

”What old spot?”

”The one close to the windows.” The boy’s name was Kalidor, one of the students Garen was most acquainted with in his class.

”Last weekend the cafeteria had jasmine tea and dim sum. I wonder what’s on the menu today?” Another teenager joined them and murmured, ”If they still have that specialty dark purple fruit jam, I’m ordering it.”

”All right, I’m going to get the goat milk for everyone, so give me your money. Five bucks each.” Kalidor extended his hands. All the students had the habit of drinking hot goat milk before lunch.

Right after Kalidor reached out, a dozen students gathered around him one after another, placing five dollar bills in his hands.

”I’ll have one!”

”I’ll have one too.”

”Same for me…”

These students were nowhere to be seen just now, but when they heard someone was willing to fetch the milk, they all showed up out of the blue.

Kalidor counted the money in a hurry. ”There’s money here for twelve people... Garen, don’t you want milk? In case you want something else I can bring it for you instead of the milk.”

”It’s okay, you know I don’t like goat milk.” Garen quickly refused. He pretended to look indifferent, but the truth was that he had no money, so even if he liked it he had to say he didn’t. The small amount of money he had was to be spent on more essential things. After all, the old Garen had always used that pretense as an excuse for not buying milk, so the new one just followed his lead.

However, Kalidor had no idea of his true thoughts and always just believed that he didn’t like goat milk. ”Come on! Try it once, it’s delicious! I can bring you one. What are you afraid of?”

”It’s okay, I really don’t like it.” Garen refused again.

”Try it man, it’s great!”

”No thanks, I’m good. You guys go ahead!”

”Fine then…” Kalidor shrugged his shoulders and jogged out of the classroom.

After a little while, the students chattering all had a carton of goat milk in their hands while Garen had to pretend he was focusing on his school work. He lowered his head and started taking notes. Over the last few days, he had started exercising more frequently. The amount of money he had on him was far from enough to satiate his new highly active metabolism. As he smelled the fragrance of the hot milk, his belly started growling again. Fortunately, the loud chattering noises covered it up and no one heard it. He shook his head helplessly, then suddenly noticed the girl on his right, Ai Fei.

Just like him, Ai Fei was pretending to be studying with her head lowered. She strained as she sucked her stomach inward in an obviously unnatural position, trying to prevent her belly from making a sound.

Ai Fei seemed to have noticed someone staring at her and looked over. When their eyes met, both Garen and Ai Fei blushed. They roughly understood that they were in the same situation and thus a sympathetic feeling rose between the two.

After drinking the goat milk, Garen and the other boys left toward the cafeteria, laughing and chatting.