A week had passed since then.
Since discovering what he looked like, Soren had started taking better care of himself.
It sounded ironic, considering how worried he had been about his appearance causing problems, but at this point, he didn't care.
With a face like this, it would be a waste not to look after himself.
Thanks to that, the dark circles under his eyes had faded a little, and he looked less frail than before.
Of course, that wasn't all that had happened in the last week.
Ever since the joint class with Felix, Soren had been thinking seriously about the future, specifically, the upcoming mock duel.
At Stellaris Academy, there were two mock duels each semester: one before midterms and one before finals.
The first was automatic: your opponent was assigned based on rank, skill, and other factors to make things fair.
The second was free-form: students received two duel tickets and could challenge whoever they wanted, as long as the person ranked higher.
Each student could only participate in three duels total, and it was first-come, first-served.
In ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱, the first mock duel was a significant event; it was the moment the protagonist, Alex, revealed his unique power, [Divinity], to the world.
That single duel cemented his identity as the Hero of Light, the saviour prophesied to fight the Demon Lord.
According to the game's lore, the Order of Aryn had received a divine message:
– 「When the Demon Lord of Darkness descends, the Hero of Light shall be born and bring salvation to all.」
Generic prophecy or not, it caused the entire world to focus on this generation, soon to be known as The Generation of Light.
When Alex displayed his golden [Divinity] during the mock duel, the prophecy seemed fulfilled overnight.
The Order immediately began preparations to unseal the holy sword, [Clockwork].
That duel also triggered one of the key heroine routes: Amelia Einhardt's questline.
After witnessing Alex's [Divinity], Amelia, the Beastkin princess and one of the three main heroines, began to take an interest in him.
In-game, her route was nearly essential, since her tanking abilities were unmatched in the late game content.
Of course, none of this mattered to Soren.
'I mean, come on, I'm just a one-star gigolo with an A+ Charm stat. I'm not even in the same league.'
Even if he wanted to replace Alex, which he didn't, he couldn't.
[Divinity] was a power granted by the gods; it wasn't something you could earn.
He also couldn't steal Amelia's route.
The only ways to attract her interest were to be insanely strong or utterly unique.
He was neither.
'…And honestly, I'm not interested in NTRing the protagonist anyway.'
The idea made his stomach twist.
Still, Soren wasn't thinking about any of that because he wanted fame or glory.
He was thinking about it because of one simple, glaring problem.
"I'm too weak."
Before fighting Felix, he had assumed the mock duels would be easy, a warm-up at best, but that assumption had shattered the moment he saw how pitiful his abilities really were.
As the 96th-ranked student, his opponent would probably be weak too, but the idea of losing as a transmigrator was unbearable.
He opened his status window.
"「Status」"
.
[Status Window]
Name: Soren Arden (1★)
◈ Stats
Stamina - 0.2 (F)
Strength - 0.3 (F)
Agility - 0.4 (F)
Mana - 0.4 (F) [Increased by 0.1]
Divine Power - 0.0 (F)
Charm - 8.4 (A+)
.
In the weeks since transmigrating, the only stat that's changed was his mana stat, and that was only by a single point.
With stats as low as these, the best he would be able to do in the mock duels is to squeeze by tightly.
'But I don't want that.'
He wanted to win, not scrape by, win.
So he made a plan.
In TKS, there were hidden secrets scattered all over the world, obscure items or quests that only the most obsessive players ever found.
Some were brutally complicated.
One required you to kill every monster in a certain area, unlock a hidden dungeon, then clear it in one go for the reward.
Another demanded the perfect combination of character, item, timing, and location.
'That one was awful…'
But the one Soren was after now was simple, or at least, simple for someone who already knew where it was.
It was hidden in Rena Forest, right beside the academy.
Usually, players had to spend hours mapping out every inch of the forest before receiving a marker that led to a small cave at the edge of the map.
But Soren didn't need to map anything.
He already knew the cave's location by heart.
And inside that cave was a hidden item: [Stella's Apple].
As hidden pieces went, it wasn't amazing, just a 5★ item, while most others were 7★ or 8★, but it was something Soren could realistically get his hands on.
Eating [Stella's Apple] permanently increased all stats by 0.3 points.
That alone made it worthwhile, but there was more.
Consuming it also granted the title [Stella's Secrets].
In-game, the title was mediocre at best: it increased HP and MP recovery by 200%.
Normally, that didn't matter since the player always had Saintess Olivia as a healer, not to mention hundreds of potions in their inventory.
But this wasn't a game anymore.
Here, items cost money.
Healers? Even more expensive, and they needed protection too, making them harder to rely on.
Most importantly, mana recovery was painfully slow in reality.
Through trial and error, Soren had measured it.
When his mana stat was 0.3, it took roughly 15 minutes to fully recover after draining his pool.
After increasing it to 0.4, the recovery time jumped to about 25 minutes.
If even that tiny increase made such a difference, higher-ranked mages, with C or D-rank mana, probably needed hours to recharge naturally.
[Stella's Secrets], however, could cut that recovery time by two-thirds.
From 15 minutes to 5.
And even though faster healing wasn't a priority, it was still a nice bonus.
'In other words,' Soren thought, 'it's perfect for me.'
There was only one catch with all of this, though: [Stella's Apple] was an item that Alex was meant to take.
But after careful deliberation, Soren concluded that this point was moot.
Why?
Because Alex was… well, Alex.
The world's densest protagonist.
A happy-go-lucky idiot who lived by a four-step routine: eat, sleep, train, repeat.
TKS had romance systems, affinity meters, and love events, but none of them ever went anywhere because Alex was too focused on grinding to notice.
'I remember how mad people got about that,' Soren thought with a smirk. 'All that effort just for the guy to say "training is more important than love."'
And from what he'd seen these past weeks, that personality had not changed.
They had shared a few theory classes, and every single time, Alex either slept through the lecture or gave answers so wrong that even the professors gave up.
In-game, it was a running joke that Alex always scored the lowest on written exams, no matter how strong he got.
Seeing it in person just confirmed it.
'So yeah,' Soren decided. 'He's not finding any hidden pieces on his own.'
Which meant Soren could take them, guilt-free.
If Alex never found them, it wouldn't affect the story at all; they were optional after all.
And if Soren did find them… he would finally be strong enough to live the life he wanted; free, safe, and comfortable.
He smiled faintly.
'Sorry, Alex, but I need these. You'll understand, right?'
————「❤︎」————