The Author's POV

—Ding!

"This game is bugged! Bugged I say!"

A sudden smartwatch notification clogged up the game screen at a crucial moment. Monica, who was resting on her sofa, roared and threw her phone across the room.

"You lost again?"

With her eyes on her laptop, Donna raised her hand and the phone stopped mid-air.

"Donna! The game bugged, I swear!"

Jumping on the sofa, Monica protested. Donna's face remained stoic.

"That's what you said last time"

"Ghhh...this time it's for real!"

"Sure, sure, whatever you say"

This was the fourth time Monica said the same thing. At this point, it was plain to see that Monica was just a sore loser.

—Plack!

Closing the laptop, Donna leaned back on her chair. With her arms crossed, Donna skeptically looked at Monica.

"By the way Monica. how did you get permission to teach the students so early?"

Even though Monica had told her she would be coming this week, she should've gone to an instructor training camp for the first two weeks. It was odd for her to suddenly show up unannounced inside of a classroom.

Despite Monica's power, it didn't matter if she was powerful or not. What was the point of being strong if you could not teach?

You couldn't just have someone become an instructor without adequate training.

"Didn't I tell you I was coming today?"

Calming down and putting her phone away, Monica slumped on the sofa and rested her feet on the tea table in front of her.

"You did, but you still did not go through training. I can't have you teach the students without adequate training"

Pausing, Donna's eyes narrowed.

"Don't tell me you've bribed some of the teachers..."

"Don't know what you're talking about"

Opening her eyes widely, Monica turned her head to the side and feigned ignorance. Her acting was terrible.

'As I expected'

Donna massaged her forehead.

Monica had obviously bribed someone in order to come to class today. She should've known better. Especially given the fact that she knew Monica's character quite well. This was definitely something that Monica would've done.

"Haaa...Monica, you know that you have to follow the rules right?"

"Ugh, stop being uptight. I'm Monica Jeffrey, 27th in the hero ranking! What is there to teach me!"

Standing up, Monica clenched her fist in protest.

Donna shook her head and ignored her pleas. This was for the safety of the students. Given how erratic Monica could be at times, Donna refused to let her anywhere near them without any adequate training.

"Until you've completed your training, I'm not letting you anywhere near the classroom again. Do you understand"

"Fine..."

Lowering her head, Monica gave up. Out of all the people in the human domain, Donna was the only person that could force her to back down. If not for Donna, Monica would've been a loose cannon terrorizing everything.

"As long you understand..."

Satisfied, Donna closed her eyes and leaned back on her chair. Not even a day had passed since Monica had arrived and she was already experiencing a headache.

'Just great'

"Ah Donna, I forgot to mention this but when I was in the classroom teaching today, a couple of students caught my interest"

Recalling something, Monica's eyes lit up. Instantly she recalled the faces of some of the students that had caught her interest.

'I wonder what would happen once I get a closer look at them...'

In particular, there were a couple of students that she was really interested in. Especially since her instincts told her so. She always trusted her instincts.

Hearing Monica's comment, Donna's hand froze and her brows knit. Staring at Monica, Donna's voice became stern.

"I'm warning you already Monica, don't have any funny thoughts about my students. No recruiting until they graduate"

This was Donna's bottom line. Even if they were close friends, Donna could not tolerate others poaching her students. Not only would it distract them from working hard, but it could also cause them to slack off.

With their future secured, why would they need to work hard? To make matters worse, it could also create further segregation within the academy. Donna did not want this.

"Hey! Of course, I won't. Although they interest me, the union isn't interested in recruiting newborn chicks"

Monica instantly raised her hands.

Although the students interested her, she wasn't here to recruit them. She just wanted to get a better look at them because they looked really promising.

Only once she got to know them better would she start poaching.

"Well, as long as you know..."

Though she did not trust Monica, Donna ended the conversation there. She did not want to worsen her headache.

With her palm on her forehead, Donna thought to herself, 'I guess I'll have to keep a closer watch of her...'

She couldn't allow Monica to roam freely as that would only spell disaster. Staring at Monica who was once again playing on her phone, Donna sighed.

"Haaa...just who would be so stupid to agree to let Monica come here?"

She really wanted to know.

...

—Click! —Click!

Laying down on my bed, I fiddled with a black watch in my hand.

"Hmm, let's see it should be this..."

Pressing on a specific button, a large interface appeared before me. On it were many different listings with pictures depicting different things.

===

Fire flower seeds - 300 Merit points

Poison Ivy - 500 Merit points

Ice scroll - 1000 Merit points

G ranked beast, winged rabbit egg - 800 Merit points

[{F} Flame fist] - 10,000 Merit points

===

"Oh? They even sell skills? How generous of them..."

Scrolling down the list of the rewards that could be acquired by using the merit points, I was shocked by some of the things that I could buy.

Especially the skills. Given how rare they were I thought that they wouldn't give them away but I was wrong.

The Monolith was a far more generous organization than I thought they were. In fact, as I scrolled down, I saw more and more skills being listed on their interface.

'How many merit points do I have? With the merit points earned from killing Jhanna, added with Thibaut's points I should have quite a lot no?'

Without hesitation, I checked my balance. I wanted to know how many points I had with me.

'Do I perhaps have enough to purchase an F ranked skill?'

Just the thought caused my heartbeat to quicken.

===

Balance - 2300 Merit points.

===

"...what?"

Staring at my balance, my mouth twitched.

"Just how incompetent was Professor Thibaut?"

Since Jhanna's bounty was already completed, 2000 of those 2300 were from me. This meant that originally Professor Thibaut only had 300 merit points.

Just what did he do in the time he was here in the Lock? He could've at least have left behind 10,000 points for me.

"Damn it, I guess I should work out more ways to earn more merit points"

—Plack!

Scrolling through the list for another minute and not finding anything interesting, I tossed the watch away.

So far all the things that interested me were too expensive for me to purchase. Therefore it was best if I didn't look at it.

If in the future there were people I killed or had to kill that were on the bounty list, I should definitely report this to earn some points.

Perhaps in the future, before I realized it, I would have enough merit points to purchase a strong skill.

—Ring!

"Hm?"

Suddenly my watch vibrated. Tilting my watch slightly, I realized that Smallsnake was the one calling me. Without hesitation, I picked up the call.

"What's up?"

—Ren, I've received the money. What do you want me to do with it?

"Ah, about that. Don't touch that money"

—Why?

"Because I'm going to be spending it all in the auction that is happening in the next few weeks"

—You're attending the auction?

"Yeah, I've got the tickets"

To be precise, every student in the academy got tickets. Not just me.

—I see, so do you have in mind anything that you want to buy?

"I in fact do have something in mind. It will be extremely useful for me in the future"

The whole purpose of attending the banquet was to get that one item that I desperately wanted. If not I would've never have attended such events as I hated crowds. In response to my answer, Smallsnake sighed on the other side of the phone.

—Haa...I guess I'll make do with the money that we will make from the stocks though it will probably take around a month to arrive.

"Do you need money urgently?"

—I in fact do. Especially since we need to recruit Ryan.

Right.

He did tell me that Ryan had contacted him. Smallsnake had a point. We needed money to hold up our end of the deal. Else Ryan would lose all trust he had with us.

"Actually, you don't really have to worry about the money. I've got it sorted"

Massaging my forehead, I calmly responded. Smallsnake's confused voice entered my ears.

—Why is that?

"You can just use some of my money"

—But aren't you going to the auction?

"I am, but what I have is enough. I'll give you 50 mill, give it back to me after you've sorted the stock thing"

The stock manipulation was going to take a while for it to bear fruit. Therefore, at the moment the only cash available was the one that I could provide. After a month, once everything was sorted, Smallsnake could give me the money back.

—Noted.

"Alright goodbye"

Tak!

Turning off the call, I took out a couple of things from my dimensional space. They were the items that I had acquired from Immorra.

"Let's see, what should I sell..."

Given that I was about to give smallsnake about 50 million U, the item should be around the price range.

"I guess I'll go with this"

After contemplating for a couple of minutes, I chose to sell the seduction Ichor and a couple of other items. The reason why I was selling the seduction Ichor was because I had no use for it. My charm was enough.

By selling those items I would be able to make up for the money I sent to Smallsnake.

'Thank god everything worked out just fine...'

If not for my plan working, I would've been in a serious predicament with regard to money. This would've been especially troublesome in the future when recruiting new members as they were an endless pit of money. The more I expanded the more they sucked the money away from me.

"Haaa...alright, now that everything is sorted I can peacefully rest"

Having sorted everything out, I decided to go to bed. Tomorrow morning I had to wake up early and practice with Donna.