While watching students questioning internally their life as my little buddy wrecks any possible chance of getting first place, I contemplate something about my skills.

I wonder what would happen if I [Master's Gift] [Lexicon] to Duchess. Would she gain the [Scholar] title as I did, or would it not work at all? Hypothetically, if she could access the skill and exploit the system as I did. Wouldn't it kill her?

It almost killed me, and I am resistant to dying, except for that one time. Even if I [Martyr], I might not survive the backlash. I'll shelve this idea for another time.

I want Flash Gordon to participate in more events, but that lazy sack of stone wouldn't do it unless I commanded him to. He's lucky that there isn't anything I 'need' him to do.

I check in on Val, who uses the events as a chance for repeated training. She seems fine. I make my rounds to where the rest of my team is scrambling for events, leaving the healer's area for last.

Since I already revealed so much, I might as well make some waves. For the next event, I decide to steal points in the healer event. The same system as before, an automaton will register a numerical value, and the higher the number, the better. If I dump all my mana, I'll heal over 5,000 health at once.

I don't know if that's a lot for healers at my level, but it feels absurd since the most average level 100 would have around 500 health. Actually, it would be closer to 520 health.

To be safe, I use abuse [Broken Blood] to maximize healing I can do to give the automaton the nice even number of 10,000 health points healed. That'll definitely give me first place.

The rest of the events aren't easy and won't guarantee free points. They will need skills from another team member to do so. There is an agility course that I could have Rob do, but he is still clumsy even with his stats. He has no sense of self-preservation. If a log trap swings at him, a normal partaker of the agility course would dodge it, but Rob would take it head-on and reassemble. He thinks it's more convenient.

After lending him my stats, It took a few tries before Rob got the hang of it and got a score we both were happy with.

Rob pulls on my gi and points over at another individual taking the agility course. They are drabbed in dark clothing and effortlessly dodge obstacles on rickety platforms.

"What's up? What's wrong?"

Rob chatters his jaw and pulls out a shovel from his bag, vaguely threatening that figure with his tool.

It took me a second to connect the dots. That must be the same person Rob spotted in my room, or he wants his bones. Either way, I wait for the guy to stop speedrunning the event. He completed the event, and I noticed his time was faster than Rob's. We combined our stats. His skills and techniques are of a higher class.

I'll have Rob practice on this course since only the best time is used. I confront the figure when they leave.

"Hey, buddy." I step in front of him, blocking his path. They most likely have the skills to circumvent me, but they stop. They're over a foot shorter than me.

"What's the matter, friend? Have we met? How can I help you?"

"Don't play coy. Why were you in my room last night." I jab his chest, but he steps back effortlessly.

"Buddy, I don't know what you are talking about. You must be mistaking me for a different person."

I stare at them. I also activate [Scientic Insight+]

[Evasive Weirdo Lv 100]

"Stop staring at me so intensely. You'll give other's the wrong impression." He's very playful for some reason.

Even if he admits it, I can't do much besides report him. I don't think they would do much anyways since nobody was harmed.

I decide to let it go for now. But if this weirdo appears in my room again, the institute can't fault me for his death since I was 'scared' for my life. I look at his clothes and realize he has a captain pin too.

"Oh, interested in what institute I'm from? I'm the captain of the prestigious Silvervein institute."

I have never heard of it. That's not even in the top three. I pull out my phone and double-check the message the dean's assistant gave me regarding the school ranking after the first few weeks. It should update again after the next group event.

Silvervein Institute

"Cool."

"Anyway, if you're interested in talking with some other captains, we are meeting up at a restaurant on campus tomorrow night. It's the barbeque joint just off the main road-"

I leave mid-conversation. I used enough of my time here, might as well continue getting points since the day after tomorrow is the next group event. After that, there are only two scheduled events left.

These events are kept secret, unfortunately. But I should prepare nonetheless. First, I'll retake the protection event to grind for more resistance, then work on my martial arts. I think I'm close to getting another skill.

I ran through the event, and my score is still flawless. Then I go to my room to enter my mansion after checking if the close is clear.

The skill I'm close to obtaining is one called [Iron Hide], which I think is redundant for me. The description is "gaining armor without gaining armor." There are two ways to look at this ability. Either it will increase my resistance, a niche and rare subset of attributes, or give me another defensive measure. It feels like learning this is a waste of time when I can self-mutilate to gain a better defense.

Plus, if I wanted metal to represent my toughness, I would pick something better.

It feels like cheating for a martial arts based around self-bodily harm to have a skill that makes it harder to harm yourself, but it isn't unreasonable. It still doesn't give "armor," so no principles are broken, maybe. It'll help me upgrade my martial arts skill from C to B if I get more skills to master.

This still feels like something all followers of the broken body martial arts would get naturally. The method to acquire it is to take various types of damage and heal from it, allowing your flesh to adapt. Then you cycle your mana in a particular way through your body. One mistake, and you're paralyzed from the neck down, so that's fun.

There is an extra step to make the skill stronger or more personalized to specific damages. However, I won't get the default skill if I follow the last step. I need to bathe in the high-quality blood of a "resilient animal." I'm just going to use my blood.

Cycling my mana will take the rest of the day and the next morning, so I started now. I'm sitting naked in a large bucket, feeling the tingly sensation coursing through my body. It turns from hot to cold, to acidic to venomous. It doesn't hurt, but it's uncomfortable.

I half expected my body to deconstruct and reconstruct stronger, better, and golden, but that didn't happen. After a lengthy meditation and a regretful bath, a system pop-up appears before me.

[Iron Hide

Tempering your body with your own blood brings benefits, one of which is the gift of enduring. The user is tougher depending on their level.]

I quickly pull up my resistance stats.

Slashing

320 (220 +100)

Ice

200 (100 + 100)

Piercing

400 (300 + 100)

Acid

225 (125 + 100)

Blunt

799 (699 + 100)

Poison

505 (4015 + 100)

Fire

560 (460 + 100)

Lightning

200 (100 + 100)

Mental

183

Radiant

300 (200 + 100)

[email protected]#%

1

Force

350 (250 + 100)

Necrotic

189 (89 + 100)

Exhaustion

150 (50 + 100)

Holy SHIT! That's great! But I wonder how this interacts with gaining new resistance. It gets harder to grind a stat the higher it is, making me find more extreme sources of damage to break thresholds. The way the bonus is represented implies that it is adding to the base value but not "modifying" it. Does that mean the increase isn't calculated in the stat gain curve?'

Maybe, maybe not. Regardless I'll need to take more damage to level up my resistances since I take less damage than before. At least the skill will only get better with time.

~

I repurposed my bath blood into fertilizer for my garden. It isn't hard to make blood meal, and since my blood is more "nutritious," I might as well utilize it. I taste some of it. It's chalkier but sweeter at the same time. Maybe I should sell my blood for money at a commissary stand. Ignoring the health hazards and the permits, I can make a fortune.

I make my rounds at various events and break my record for tank events. The sun starts to set, and I decide to check out that restaurant. I've been eating nothing except peanut butter sandwiches, and I want some free meat. I also want to see the top captains to gauge their strength. Later, I can single them out in competitions.

A parking lot next door accommodates flying mounts, so I'm going to park my tamed beasts there and only bring Flash Gordon with me. There is a 'closed' sign on the door. I enter inside.

The restaurant has a cozier atmosphere than I thought. The walls are lined with stone bricks, and the floors are high-quality wood panels. There are multiple tables with built-in grills. I guess it's one of those restaurants.

Eight students sit at one table, but only a few are eating. They seem to be discussing something. Their attention falls on me. I recognize the weirdo from earlier since he is wearing the same clothes.

"Oh! That's the guy I was talking about! HEY, OVER HERE!"

I look over at the other people. There is a goliath of a man in full-plate armor eating while his helm rests on the table. A man with a little monkey on his shoulder that he is feeding, a woman with multiple weapons laid out next to her, a man covered in crystals, a woman wearing a robe, a guy with a sword and a shield, someone who is only not naked because of a loincloth, and of course the weirdo.

The weirdo pulls a chair out from another table and slides it next to him, gesturing for me to sit down. His friendliness is offputting and makes me suspicious. I sit between him and the naked guy as the weirdo continues his conversation.

"Alright, as I was saying, I have some inside information about the next competition."

"Wasn't your insider information wrong last time? You also never answered my question of why you would even share this information since we aren't allies." Responded the woman with too many weapons.

I take some raw meat from a tray and put it on the grill. The armored guy is just eating it raw.

"Now, now. This tournament is for fun, so why not have even more fun? Yes, there are benefits, but that adds to the fun." says the weirdo with a cheeky tone.

The armored guy points at me and says, "Who's that guy? He's eating my meat."

The attention turns back on me. Before I can answer, the friendly weirdo answers for me.

"Oh, that the captain that didn't arrive with his team. His little skeleton caught me snooping, so I invited him."

That's not what happened. The heat from the grill doesn't bother me, so I flip my meat with my fingers after checking if the grill is hot enough.

"Tough guy, huh."

The nudist said that, as he also cooks meat barehanded. Coming here seemed useless. I could ask for all their names, but I'm not here to make friends or perform background checks on them. I decided to speak up.

"Hello, I'm the captain from Bluefield Institute. Nice to meet you guys."