How To Survive A Calamity

"Hey, i know you promised you'd give him a good punch, but don't you think you hit him too hard? Now he's face is all messed up and swollen." Deandra said as she awkwardly fidgeted around Don's broken and injured body.

The aloof, cold and up-straight class president was unusually flustered and embarrassed in these kind of cases, just like before with Chelsea.

I dismissed my thoughts and turned indifferently.

"No way. Don has had this one coming for a long time since the beginning. You take care of Don for now while I'll go check on the other three."

The whole place was in shambles after Bizzaro Don ran wild and there were piles upon piles of rubbles everywhere.

I hoped those poor kids weren't buried alive.

I shifted through the wreckage with my aching body while applying the small ointment on the bleeding wounds and cuts across my arms and face.

Suddenly, a familiar string of texts appeared before my eyes, only for me to see.

•[Quest Alert!]

•[Type:- Survival]

»Name: Classless Messiah

»Description: Prevent Alexander Crossfield from dying.

»Duration: ...

•Reward:

»Location of a fragment of the God-Slaying Spear, Goliath.

»+1 Instant Rank-up (Mortal Rank --> Eta Rank)

»???

•Penalty:

»Death, ???

....

————End of Quest————

===

I almost forgot about this... My movements halted and i grimaced at the screen.

"Is something wrong, Victor?" Deandra said from behind, "Have you found the other cadets? Are they okay?"

I didn't immediately reply to Deandra's probing questions and lingered for a few second before slowly turning.

"I was just thinking, we should start moving quickly and meet up with the others. They might be in trouble if other Cadets are rampaging like this."

Deandra drew a weary gaze before responding with Don's head placed gently against her lap.

"Yes... Yes, that's true." Her voice sounded vague and ambiguous, it was evident that Deandra was deeply exhausted.

Despite it was both the two of us who fought together, Deandra had been the one to use up a lot more energy and Mana than i did. Especially, after unleashing two powerful spells in succession.

There was aslo the point that she had already been in a confrontation with bizzaro Don and the other three cadets before, alone, for who knows how long, before running into me.

Meanwhile, i on the other hand had also used up a considerable amount of Ether throughout the course of the day. But as a result of my constitution and Attribute, i could recover my lost energy faster than normal, and require smaller amounts of Ether than usual to fight, due to the density of my aura.

So on that note, i was faring far better when compared to Deandra's state.

But the book she used earlier was certainty powerful.

It managed to draw out immense powers from her already dwindling reserves.

I glanced at the thick covered book placed next to her.

"What is that?"

Deandra shifted her gaze, matching mine and reached out to retrieve the book.

"It's a Grimoire."

"Oh..."

Deandra's response made my eyes flicker slightly.

I more or less expected it, but it really was a Grimoire. It seemed like a powerful one, too.

For Mana users generally like Mages, Spells could be learned or acquired just like Skills.

Magic was a complex matter dealing woth circuits and rules and all that arcane mumbo jumbo; you could spend extensive amounts of time trying to learn a simple fire ball spell by first of all trying to understand the underlying principles that governed and rules of the concept,

Or you could just get yourself a Fire ball Spell book and absorb it once, mastering a new Spell as easily in the process.

Spell books were just like Skill books in that manner; they made mastering a new skill, or ability as easy as it took to breathe.

But Spellbooks took it a step, or even multiple steps further.

And that's where powerful items like Grimoire came in the picture.

A Spellbook usually taught only one available Spell for a single time mastery, but a Grimoire was different.

It contained various numbers of Spells and Mana techniques and, sometimes, even Arts. All in one at the same time.

I stared at the thick covered mysterious book of the Grimoire in Deandra's hands with interest. I never thought I'd see a Grimoire like this.

It was already a part of my future plans to get one eventually, so I'm kind of surprised.

Hmm, i wonder if she'd let me borrow it.

I already knew the answer to that question though: probably not.

For one, Deandra had no reason too.

Secondly,

Skill books, spell books a d Grimoires couldn't be 'borrowed' and hoped to be return. That is because, once the corresponding Skill, or spell, or information has been absorbed, they cease to no longer exist.

I think there was also a type of law for this...?

But on the other hand, Skills could theoretically be extracted from a body, but i wasn't sure if the same was for Spells.

My knowledge over Magic and Spells were only limited to the basics i made from researching Magic over the last year. Even despite some of the subjects being taught in class touched upon that area sometimes, i wasn't that deeply knowledgeable about it.

All i knew was that, Grimoires came in different grades and were more priceless than regular Spellbooks.

They were convenient for a Mage to raise their ability quickly without the unnecessary stress of the usual process.

The same way Skills could be acquired by mastery over repeated actions, so could Spells be learned by Mages, although much harder. That was why Grimoires and Spellbooks were highly sought after and convenient.

But they were also almost priceless, and crazy expensive!

Some could even call it rare. Discover hidden stories at My Virtual Library Empire

So Deandra having one in her possession like this was kind of surprising. It was my first time seeing a Grimoire in front of me like this

I wanted to whistle in envy. As expected of a Princess, i guess. She had more resources than i could ever imagine.

"Let's find the other three students first, then we'll go look for Trise and Chelsea."

"Yeah..."

Deandra urged and rose to her feet, clutching her midsection.

She seemed to have broken her ribs during the fight, now she was struggling to move properly.

I set aside my thoughts about Deandra's Grimoire and earlier thought process before turning to the immediate matter at hand.

We shifted through the wreckage of rubbles for a while and eventually managed to pull out the three other cadets that were unfortunate enough to be caught up in Don's attacks.

Fortunately, they all seemed alive and breathing, albeit injured and unconscious.

"So...what now?"

I stared at their dust covered faces. I felt pressed and pressured by the System quest despite not showing it, so i really wanted to get out of this place quickly.

Deandra and Don's unexpected sudden arrival had been a stopgap and a significant distraction, but now that that issue had been resolved, only more problems arose in succession.

"We can't just leave them behind like this can we?"

'Why not' i barely stopped myself from replying bluntly by biting down the tip of my tongue.

I was too emotionally and mentally occupied to be thinking and worrying over just about any cadet in trouble i may run into like this.

But i also knew Deandra was right.

But at the same, i couldn't wait patiently while twiddling my thumbs for them to wake up to wake up at some point.

I graoned impatiently, and under Deandra's watchful eyes, walked up to the three unconscious cadets,

"Wake up!"

And slapped them in the faces.

"Hey! Hold on a minute, what are you doing?!" Deandra retorted from behind.

I pretended to hear nothing and raised my hand a second time—

"Ah. Great, one's waking up."

One of the three cadets began stirring with a red imprint of my palm against the side of his face.

His eyes quietly fluttered open slowly as he groaned and his eyebrows twitched. He shifted his head slightly and attempted to lean forward, half awake.

"What..."

"This is great." I reached out for the male cadet's collars and pulled him at me, close enough for me to stare him dead in the eyes.

The male cadet was immediately taken back by this and attempted to struggl futilely in my grasp.

I awarded him points for his instincts and reflexes, at the very least. Not many would be able to react as he did just after waking up, but it was to know avail.

"Rise and shine, princess." I held the cadet's collars tightly in my hands and interrupted coldly before he could whine.

"Who are...!"@@novelbin@@

Tsk.

I don't have much time to waste for any of this.

"Now listen here," o glowered menacingly, bringing my face closer to his enough so the tips of our noses were almost touching. "You're going to tell me every single thing you know from now on, hmm?"

A cold smile plastered on my face as i felt Deandra's shocked and bemused gaze drill into my back from behind.

"Make it quick, i... We don't have all day." I side glanced backwards at Deandra with a smile.