The Survival of the Third-rate Villain

After agreeing to the terms, Kyle and I signed a written contract.

He thanked me so much that my ears almost bled...

I left as soon as we finished.

Kyle said he'd close up for the day to focus on preparing the shop expansion.

I told him to do whatever he wants since I'll leave the management of the business to him since he knows more about it than I do.

'So all I need to do is just stay on the sidelines and earn money...'

Moving on...

Tap- tap- tap–

I'm currently on my way back to the library.

And floating in front of me...

=====

Sub Quest: Out of Cash, Out of Kebabs: We're Skewered! (Complete)

=====

Is the quest completion message.

It hasn't disappeared this whole time. It's still there because I haven't claimed the rewards yet.

So with that...

"Erm..."

"Claim rewards...?"

I awkwardly mumbled those words.

Bing-

=====

+2 stat points have been given to you.

=====

=====

Kyle's products will now have double effects on you.

=====

Then two new bluish windows appeared, displaying my rewards.

'So it's voice-activated, huh.'

Looking at the rewards, they're not bad for a sub quest...

From now on, anything I buy from Kyle will have double the effect on me. In short, I can replenish my stamina for less money.

Then there's the main reward...

The +2 stat points.

It's nothing big in the game, but for Raye, for this body... It's a blessing.

"I'd probably need to train for weeks just to increase my stats once."

I muttered.

But now, I have 2 stat points I can allocate wherever I want.

And I already know where I want to put them...

"Put two stat points in speed."

I said.

Swoosh-

And immediately after, I checked my stats...

=====

Name: Raye Alvah

Age: 18

Year Level: 1

Race: Human

-----

Stamina: 4

Intellect: 3

Mana: 2

Strength: 3

Speed: 6

Talent: 8

Luck: 7

-----

Overall Grade: F-

=====

My speed stat went from 4 to 6.

"Sweet."

I quietly said with a smile on my face.

'This is one step closer to not being beaten one-sidedly by the protagonist.'

I thought.

Anyway ...

"Quests..."

Now I know that I can receive quests...

I can get stronger using this method.

But the thing is...

'Sub quests aren't actually that common.'

Certain conditions have to be met for one to appear.

Also, I need to be careful not to do any quests that will affect the protagonist's growth or, worse, affect the story...

In Kyle's case, whether I did his quest or not, his shop would remain open. It doesn't play a big role in the game.

His shop is just a stamina refill station for the protagonist. The gold coins Kyle gives aren't the protagonist's main source of income either.

The protagonist hunts monsters and animals, sells their parts to merchants, and earns money and experience from it.

I already considered all of this before completing Kyle's quest.

So basically, sub quests can't be my main way of getting stronger.

In the end...

"I need to train for real, huh."

It sounds like a pain, but it's better than messing up the story.

If the story changes, the future I know will change too.

If that happens, surviving in this world will become much harder...

"Brrrr... sniff.. sniff..."

It's cold outside early in the morning.

So I hurried my way back to the library.

Tap- tap- tap-

...

*****

...

After returning to the library, my drowsiness disappeared for some reason.

It's about 5 AM now, so going back to sleep isn't really a good idea anyway.

'I'd just wake up with a bunch of people watching me and gossiping.'

So instead, I started planning my future moves.

First...

'I can't sleep in the library forever.'

I need to find a place to stay at.

Then second...

'The 50 gold coins I have will disappear before I even know it...'

And after that happens, I'll be starving to death...

These are just the beginning.

Being all alone comes with many problems, and unless I solve them...

"Forget about graduating, I wouldn't even survive."

And so...

I started racked my brain for solutions.

I tried to remember every quest I did in the game and analyzed which ones I could do without affecting the main story.

I know I said I shouldn't rely on the quests, but this is all I know that can help me right now.

Also, I'm just planning to do enough for me to survive...

...

...

So after about half an hour of thinking...

I finally found a few sub quests that could help me in my situation.

'Though temporarily, it's way better than nothing.'

I thought.

I also already made sure that they're not relevant to the main story, and that it won't be a problem clearing them.

Thinking so hard was mentally exhausting, so I decided to rest for a bit...

"..."

Then my eyes landed on the books in front of me, the ones I used as a pillow last night. One of them was a magic theory book.

Then it hit me...

Raye is a student in the Magic Course.

'Can I use magic?'

I wondered as I looked down at my hands.

"There's only one way to find out..."

So I closed my eyes... And I imagined a bright light.

'But where is it coming from...?'

I asked myself...

Then I thought of a light bulb.

'Yeah, let's imagine the bright light coming from a light bulb.'

After imagining it, I opened my eyes.

"[Light]"

I mumbled with intention to manifest it.

Swoosh—

Then a bright light emerged from my right hand, lighting up the surroundings!

"Whoa..."

My heart raced as the light appeared in my hand. A smile crept up on my face.

'Magic... I really did it!'

I thought.

Then after thinking of canceling the spell...

Poof-

The light disappeared.

"..."

I didn't say anything, but I was grinning from ear to ear.

What I used was just a basic spell from the game, but still, it didn't change the fact that I could use magic!

I stood up from my seat.

Started searching for a book on basic magic.

And after a bit of looking around...

"I found one!"

I returned to my seat and read through the spells.

And then, I tried them out...

"[Ignition]"

A small flame appeared at the tip of my index finger as I imagined fire coming from a candle.

'Warm...'

After that is...

"[Wind Blade]"

I managed to summon a ball of wind about the size of a baseball.

Though, it wasn't strong enough to cut anything. At best, it was just a condensed gust of wind, blowing my hair back.

Nevertheless, I'm still happy with the result.

...

I tried a few more basic spells after that.

I failed to manifest some, but it's expected as I'm new to this magic stuff.

So I continued to try some more...

'Alright, next is...'

Though, just as I was preparing to cast another spell...

"Huh?"

I suddenly felt dizzy.

Swoosh-

A bluish window then appeared in front of me.

And after reading through it...

=====

Mana Exhaustion:

You have exhausted all of your mana reserves. Due to your low stamina, you will be forced to pass out.

=====

"Shit..."

A curse involuntary came out of my mouth.

I was so excited about the fact that I can use magic...

That I forgot that Raye's mana stat is only 2!

"Fucking... hell..."

I weakly mumbled as my vision went black.

And soon after... I passed out.

...

...

...

...

...

"Ugh..."

'So bright.'

I thought. I squinted my eyes tightly as bright light filtered through my eyelids.

I'm still sleepy.

But it was then...

"Oh, he's awake."

"Did he really sleep here?"

"I heard he got kicked out of his dorm."

"Karma finally caught up to him."

I heard murmurs around me!

It made me remember that I passed out in the library!

My eyes then shot open.

And after looking around...

"..."

I saw a lot of students staring in my direction, whispering to each other.

"..." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

I didn't say anything. Instead, I stayed calm, ignoring them...

"It's morning, huh."

I casually said.

After that, I got my bags, returned the books I used...

Then I quietly left the library.

Tap- tap- tap

I calmly walked away, pretending to be unbothered by them all.

"..."

Though, in my mind...

'... fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck...'

I was cursing a lot because of embarrassment.