I woke up early the next morning. While my body was stiff, it wasn't as bad as I'd thought, so I changed clothes and went out for a run to get more familiar with the different parts of the campus. Then I took a short shower before making breakfast and putting the academy's uniform on. Picking up my bow and quiver, I left the dorm behind.

During the morning I'd looked around the academy forums on my smartwatch and found several training guides that I was planning on trying out to help with my training. My goal right now was to increase my body's attributes as quickly as possible and get another Talent. I started with too large of a disadvantage, so I had to prove that I was capable if I was going to make it in this place. Considering that my physical aspects would take some time to catch up with the other students, my only choice was to excel through my archery skills instead, when it came to combat at least.

The shooting range was a long, oval-shaped building about ten minutes away from the dorms. When I got there, I could already see other students entering the building. The inside of the building was split up into traditional archery ranges and several training rooms. I hadn't entered any of the training rooms yesterday, so I was a bit curious as to how they looked inside. I'd learned my lesson not to waste it as it was a limited ability, but I decided to use [The Watching Eye] for just a short moment to get a glimpse inside.

Focusing on my vision, I peered through the walls into the training rooms. There were several different types of obstacles that covered the floor, and students stood in the middle of the room shooting arrows at small insect-like creatures that skittered around the floor. I recognized the students in two of the rooms. One was the blonde girl from the day before, who was currently firing away magic arrow after magic arrow at the small critters with high speed, and the other one was a tall boy with bright red hair. He was the student from my class who could infuse his arrows with magic, and it looked like it was what he was doing now too as every other arrow he shot was followed by a tiny explosion.

That felt like a waste of arrows. I don't think the school will pay for it if the students destroy their equipment.

Shaking my head, I stopped focusing my vision and walked over to the more traditional practice ranges. I don't think I'm at the point where I could moving targets that small just yet.

Instead, I began my practice on these targets immediately. These targets were convenient because when I ran out of arrows, all I had to do was press a button and the target — which was affixed to a kind of railing system — would move over to me, letting me gather all of the arrows again. If you missed your target, however, you might have a hard time getting the arrows back if other students are shooting nearby. But I doubt many people at this school had that problem often. I didn't, at least. I was only shooting from thirty meters away at the moment, after all. I definitely wasn't a master with the bow, but I wasn't that bad. Hitting the target — I could do that much with a good amount of certainty.

Like yesterday I had to take many breaks, but I stayed at the shooting range until lunch and managed to get a lot of practice in. It was shocking how much a good night's sleep let my body recover. To the point where it almost felt supernatural.

After leaving the shooting range I headed back to the dorm to eat lunch. I was planning to get back to the range for some lighter practice after that before heading to one of the academy's gyms for a short introductory pass during the evening when my wrist suddenly let out a high beep.

I looked down at my smartwatch in wonder. Someone had messaged me.

Student ID: 9483172, Jean Bradford

-Hello, my name is Jean. We’re in the same class. I’m gathering the people from our class to meet in the evening and wondered if you were interested in joining?

I read over the message. This guy...He was too friendly for my taste. I was used to strangers being hostile — or at the very least wary — of each other so it didn't feel right when he acted so familiar. The only people that acted like this back in my world were the devils.

Monsters in human disguise. That's essentially what they were. But far as I was aware, those bastards didn't appear until after the first citadel appeared. Of course, that was only when we first learned of them. They might have been around longer than that without us knowing. And just the possibility of that being true left me hesitant of interacting with too many people.

But I guess that, for regular students, this might be considered ordinary behavior. However, I still chose to decline his invite.

-Can't. I'm busy.

I didn't have the luxury of wasting any time making friends right now.

His reply came soon afterward.

-Ok, I understand. Good luck with your training!

After reading his text, I turned off the watch and left my dorm for the shooting range again.

The first four days passed by quickly. I was currently eating breakfast after having had my morning run. While my body had recovered faster than usual lately, it was still aching a lot. The training regime I'd started following was pretty extreme, but it was worth it.

“Hope, show me my stats.”

[Kim Hooper]

[Strength: 1.99]

[Stamina: 2.11]

[Speed: 2.24]

[Endurance: 1.96]

[Perception: 3.36]

[Magic Force: 0.44]

[Talent: The Watching Eye]

From just four days of training, most of my attributes had already increased by 0.05 or 0.06. Before I got here, they only increased by about 0.03 from one week's training. The difference was unmistakable.

"How come I'm growing so much faster now? It can't only be because of my new training methods, right?" I asked the wall of text in front of me.

[The Lemorth Academy of Monster Subjugation is built on top of a natural gathering of mana flows]

[A small part of that mana escapes and diffuses into the academy grounds, increasing an individuals’ growth]

[The Authority of Hope helps Kim Hooper’s growth be above that of an ordinary human. The increased flow of mana in the environment allows the Authority to increase Kim Hooper’s growth further]

"So what you're basically saying is that this island is built on a natural well of mana, and the exposure to that mana helps me grow faster?"

[Correct]

“Will I keep growing this quickly?”

[Unlikely. Kim Hooper’s growth will abate as Kim Hooper grows stronger]

“Right, I guessed so. But still, with this, I might have a decent chance of catching up to the others in half a year or so.”

The tips of mouth curled upwards slightly. Unlike when I'd only been here for a week and was hesitant about accepting the Authority of Hope's mission to "save this world", I wasn't as averse to the idea anymore. After thinking about it for some time, I realized that I didn't have anything else that I wanted to do. What was the point in me living a normal life now? A future with a nine-to-five office job wouldn't do anything for me. I don't think I can go back to the kind of life that I used to have.

Monster fighting, though? Yes, I could do that. It fit me much better. And there was another reason for it too.

I don't hate monsters. One'd think I would, after everything I went through — and I did. There was a time when I genuinely felt hate for everything that they were, to the point where I sometimes didn't think clearly.

But somehow, despite even more of the people I knew being killed by them, that hatred faded away eventually. I realized that most of the monsters were more like animals than anything. They hunted us out of pure instinct. One wouldn't hate a wolf for hunting a deer.

Did I like monsters? No. If I saw one, I'd kill it on the spot if I could. But did I hate them? Not anymore, no.

What I hated were the ones responsible for the monsters. The beings that were actually aware of what they were doing. Generally, we just called all the different beings monsters. Most were beast-like ones that acted out mostly on instinct, but there were intelligent ones. Ones who enjoyed the killing. Those always disgusted me. But the worst ones were, without a doubt, the devils. Not only did they enjoy the killing, but they did everything in their power to facilitate it. To manipulate, control, and utterly destroy our spirits. I didn't know if they were truly the ones responsible, but if I ever got the chance to ask one, I'd ensure that it wasn't a pleasant conversation for them.

So I would try it. I'd become a hero and fight against the monsters. And maybe if I do that for long enough, I'll find some answers. And then I'll decide my path from there.

I finished my breakfast and put on my uniform, then left the dorm and locked it behind me. It was time for class 1's first lesson.