31 Chapter 31: Prestige (2/2)
”Tch!”
Stan clicked his tongue and fired off a rapid series of shots. His guns were blazing faster now, apparently because he had finally finished casting an acceleration spell.
I sprinted across the ring, staying just a couple of steps ahead of Stan's shots, and then wove through his firing pattern. Suddenly I feinted to the left, luring Stan to shift his aim. His shots went wild, especially when I abruptly changed direction and dashed from the right, taking him by surprise.
”Gah!”
Stan threw down his pistols and grabbed a gatling gun. Its rotary barrels spun around rapidly, getting ready to fire an unending stream of high-velocity energy projectiles that would tear me apart if I allowed them to hit me.
Unfortunately, Stan made a fatal error. He had hoped to lure me in so that he wouldn't miss with his most powerful gun, but he had underestimated the time needed to charge and fire it. Even if he didn't, I could have easily dodged it anyway.
As it was, before he could fire off a single shot with his big gun, I kicked the barrel away. Stan staggered, caught off guard, and I pressed Castor's black blade to his throat.
”Good job,” I told him. ”But that was a fatal mistake. The gatling gun is too slow. If you want to use it at close range, you need to have it already charged up. You would have done better if you stuck to your pistols.”
”I still couldn't hit you!” Stan complained, his frustration evident on his slightly handsome features.
”Yeah…another thing you might want to learn against a moving target is anticipation. Don't just shoot at where you see him. Try to predict my movements, where I would go to, and fire at that spot ahead of time.”
”…oh!” Stan's eyes widened and he nodded. ”Thank you. Shall we try again?”
Before I could agree, Dong Fang Yue Chu stepped into the training room, looking aghast.
”Bad news,” he told me grimly. ”I couldn't get the level booked for our Ultimate Outcasts Society.”
”Why?” I was genuinely curious. ”Are they already claimed by other societies?”
That would make sense, given how this room originally belonged to the Black Roses Society. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the rooms on this level were still under the ownership of the Black Roses Society.
”No, they are free. But that isn't the problem.” Dong Fang Yue Chu gritted his teeth. ”The problem is that we don't have enough prestige.”
”Prestige?” Harvey parroted as he came over with Wang Fei, the two of them training at another corner of the room. ”What's that?”
”You know, like how the Black Roses Society is one of the four Great Societies?”
The six first-year students nodded, all of them gathering around Dong Fang Yue Chu. He sighed heavily.
”Prestige is like…a currency, I guess? The greater the standing or rank or status of our society, the more prestige we have. Right now, we're considered a new, beginner club, so we don't have the same privileges that other societies with a longer history and more achievements do.”
”How do we earn prestige?” Stan questioned, to the point as ever.
”Ranking battles.” Dong Fang Yue Chu nodded. ”Your Senior Richard over there already helped us gain a bunch of prestige points after he team-killed the Iron Fist Society. So we're actually doing very well for a newly started society. However…” he swept his gaze across the six first-year students gathered in front of him.
They stared at him expectantly.
”…you should be seeing how ruthless this school can be. Once the Protection Period is over, all the seniors will target you first-year students. Unless you can win, you'll most likely lose to them and lose the prestige points we've accumulated so far.”
Right. I had mentioned this before, having been a victim of this last year. The second and third years often resorted to targeting the freshly enrolled first year students before they had any measure of combat experience and beat them up in order to improve their own rankings. Of course, this wouldn't just affect the individuals' rankings but also the prestige of the society they were in.
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Fortunately there was a Protection Period where none of the second or third year students were allowed to challenge the first year students during the first month of their first semester. However, about a week had passed since school started, which meant there was only three weeks of the Protection Period left.
This was not looking good. Especially if the seniors of Jing Tian Academy began their newbie-hunting once it turned February, it was very possible that we would lose a bunch of prestige points after a series of defeats.
However…
”Don't worry. Leave the earning of prestige points to me. The rest of you should just focus on training, and do your best if you get challenged next month. Don't worry about the results, just learn from each battle. Winning or losing isn't important. What's important is you learning from those fights and making use of them to become stronger.”
Again, those admiring gazes. Bloody hell, were they taking my word as the Gospel or something?
”What do you intend to do?” Dong Fang Yue Chu asked a little hesitantly. ”Are you going to challenge all the other second and third years, and defeat them to earn as much prestige points as possible over the next three weeks?”
”Oh, no.” I shook my head and grinned slyly. ”There are other ways of earning prestige points, and I'm thinking of trying them out.”