Upon waking, Elijah threw off the white sheets and blue patterned quilt to begin stretching.
"Ahhggg!" Wincing from the soreness in his lats and arms, he began to soak his body in healing water magic.
"Seems like last night took a lot out of me…"
Currently on his body were his clothes from last night. Elijah's mood was soiled as he realized his sheets desperately needed to be cleaned now.
It was not his feces, but the dirt and grime from the Jungle that stuck to his clothes. As well as a few hairs of a shadow panther.
Once showered and cleaned up, Elijah put on his personal navy blue shirt and long white pants. On his feet were black shoes that he wore to knock on Niko's door.
"How did it go?" Niko asked once the door opened.
"Really good, can you come to my dorm?"
Niko nodded and followed Elijah out of his dorm.
Before the door closed, two boys of similar age were seen.
This fact begged Elijah to ask, "how are your roommates?"
"I'm going to be honest with you, one of them was really pissed he couldn't get a room with a window. They are both fine, but I think one of them is a noble, and sulking about it…" Niko explained while avoiding eye contact with the people walking through the long hallway.
Elijah wasn't necessarily surprised as nobles would always assume they can take everything they want. However, this isn't totally true. It was obvious in Astraea that some families groomed their children with proper manners, while others taught them to make fun of the weak and poor.
Now, the same thing is happening within Gion, and is likely far worse with a larger population…
Ten orange beast cores and three yellow beast cores were seen on the kitchen table of the dorm room. Around the table sat Elijah, Niko, and even Lith.
Something about Lith felt good — a trustworthy person who wouldn't take more than they were given. A commoner with an exceptional power depending on the situation.
"Ahhhh…" A satisfactory sigh came from Lith's mouth as he adjusted his black goggles. "I love looking at beast cores. If I zoom in to the max, I can just barely see the mana particles and crystalline structure of the core."
"What?! Really?" Niko and Elijah were both shocked.
Lith picked up a yellow beast core and threw it up in the air — almost dropping it on the brown wooden table. "H-how did you guys get these anyway?"
Elijah almost lost his cool when he remembered Lith's flaw. He didn't want to answer the question, and didn't need to since Niko knew his plan, but nonetheless was saved by the opening of the door.
Immediately, Elijah reached over the table to grab the yellow beast core, while also grabbing the others and stuffing them in his spatial storage from underneath the table.
Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough to put every beast core in his spatial storage even with Niko's help.
Standing proudly with wide shoulders was a blonde-haired boy with blue eyes. A patterned leather backpack was slung over his shoulder, as well as a runic spear that was attached to his back. "Well well well… What kind of game do you guys have going on here?"
"Hmm… do you think they placed us in the wrong dorm? These could be runic engineering students." Next to him was someone of a similar build. Wide shoulder, but brown hair and burning red eyes. This boy was not holding onto a weapon at all, but a large briefcase and similar backpack.
The blond-haired boy whispered to his friend, then proceeded to address the situation. "Impossible, one of them has a fire affinity… There are three of you here, which would mean this dorm would be overfilled. Does one of you not belong to this dorm?"
"Yes, you are exactly right. I am just visiting a friend." Niko stared at Elijah oddly, insinuating something was off.
"Hmph… My name is Marcel Augustine, do you mind leaving our room?" Marcel, the blonde, lifted his backpack off over his shoulder and proceeded to walk towards Lith's room.
Niko shot another glance at Elijah while lifting his eyebrows. "I'll leave whenever I want, but thank you for asking."
Meanwhile, the other boy known as Phillip Meander who introduced himself in passing, walked towards Elijah's room.
"What in the gods?! Why is there shit on my bed sheets?!" Phillip pronounced.
Marcel turned his head towards the other side of the room after opening the bedroom door. "Haha a beast must've gotten into your room just like mine! There are clothes scattered everywhere in this place!"
"Elijah? Are you gonna do something?" Lith begged.
Elijah knew exactly what was going on. There was only a very small chance that these nobles were idiots as they were parading around the place like no one lived here.
"Both of those rooms are taken! Do yourself a favor and drop the act please! My chest already hurts from laughing far too much last night."
Slam! Phillip grew tired of the people sitting at the table, and walked quickly towards Elijah to tightly grab his arm.
Elijah just barely flinched — instinctually, but then proceeded to stare into Phillip's eyes unbothered. As of right now, an extremely small amount of mana was exploding within the cells of his arm, giving him strength to resist the strong forearms of Phillip.
Marcel only watched from a distance with a smile, and even set his spear against the navy blue wall that only resided on the wall with the window. Every other wall was a very bright grey — closer to white.
"Are you finished playing your little game? We aren't giving up our rooms." Elijah's tone was brutal to be in the face of. There was not an ounce of fear, and when combined with the struggle to squeeze Elijah's forearm, Phillips confidence only waned.
Of course, Marcel stood in the corner next to the living room window like nothing was happening, believing in the fact that his friend would win whatever battle was happening.
"You are tougher than you look…" Phillip released his grip and backed off in disgust.
Once next to Marcel, he whispered in his ear with his back turned towards the kitchen table. "I say we let it be, the counselors wouldn't even agree with us…"
"Are you crazy? These kids are merely commoners! We should get priority!" Marcel whispered loudly, attracting the attention of the room now filled with an awkward silence.
"Hahaha, hahahahaha, haha…" Elijah couldn't control himself. "How about this, if one of you beats me in an arm wrestle you can have the window rooms."
The reason for this proposal was Elijah's knowledge of the strength-training course in the skill and knowledge-advancement section. It was obvious these two people were in that class, and had spent years developing their body from a young age. It was something that would immediately set you apart from the rest, and gives one an entirely new set of limits.
While Lith protested, Marcel grew a wicked smile. "Are you really that stupid? Sure… Let's do it. This will be easy."
Elijah and Marcel were set up across from each other on the table. Despite Marcel's developed muscles that far outweighed Elijah, he was unable to cause even an inch of movement.
A brick wall!
"Dammit!"
Bam!
Marcel's fist was slammed against the table. Not violently, but enough to shut him up.
"If your family raised you with manners and a sense of common intelligence, maybe you wouldn't be crying about the rules you can't break." Elijah walked up to his room after blowing his palm with a quick breath. A black card with a blue diamond was seen making contact with the spherical door handle.
Later, a locking noise resounded, affirming the idea that Lith and Elijah's rooms were not up for sale.
"This is stupid." Marcel muttered while clutching the back of his hand tightly.
Both Marcel and Phillip took their stuff and went into their windowless rooms with faces of disenjoyment.
On the contrary, faces of shock and amusement were pointed towards Elijah.
"So… Where did you hide those other beast cores?" Lith asked.
Knowing the truth shouldn't be revealed, Elijah jokingly said, "You don't want to know…"