Zero to Hero (Prequel/prototype)

Chapter 33. Keyword

"Ken! Time to get up and go grab some breakfast!" Seraphina said happily as the girls gathered outside of Ken's room on a typical Monday morning.

Even though Serapina's common room was in another wing, with her name registered in the two rooms Alice and Clare are paying for, she had been staying with Ken's group for the majority of the semester so far despite the initial complaints.

About three months had passed since the start of the semester and the school year went along smoothly and quietly without any major incident and the group mostly focused on getting stronger and studying for the written classes so they could continue their easy life at the academy.

"Happy birthday Indra!" Ken said with a yawn while greeting all of the girls.

"Thank you Ken for remembering my birthday." Indra replied softly.

Born on April 22, Indra became the third of the group to turn 17 but unlike when Emma and Alice turned 17 earlier this year where Ken showed much affection, his relationship with Indra really hasn't grown much beyond just good friends.

For Emma's birthday, Ken remembered her request and got her a cheap aquamarine gemstone like he did for the other girls and since Alice already had everything one can ask for, she asked the other girls to leave the two alone for a hour but ended up settling for 30 minutes as the two snuggled and kissed.

While Indra was determined to try and get closer with Ken and even resolved all of the misunderstanding about her being a commoner by letting everyone know that her father is actually the god of her kingdom. Her timid personality made it hard for her to talk over the rest of the girls and while Seraphina had only been around Ken for three months, the dragoon girl had gotten much closer with Ken compared to herself.

As the group walked towards the dining hall for breakfast, Ken talked about wanting the girls to skip the night classes so they could go to town and celebrate Indra's birthday with a feast and cake with Clare getting annoyed at the thoughts of skipping class.

After arriving at the dining hall, Ken and the girls were greeted by many commoners from the now second year students and since words traveled fast. It didn't take long after the semester started for most of the first year students to cling onto Clare as their lifeline and her number of servants about doubled while the new students were able to spend their days much happier compared to what most of the older commoner students had to go through.

After breakfast, Clare, Indra and Seraphina headed to their respective morning classes while Ken along with Alice, Genesis headed for the library to study and Lovetta headed for the training facility and Emma off to work her shift.

The group gathered back up for a small lunch and Ken was able to convince Clare to even skip her afternoon class as the whole group headed for the training facility.

With Ken now at least on par with the majority of the second year students, he was finally starting to get into the more advanced materials and actually started combat training and not just trying to catch up with the basics and solely working on his enhancements.

From the magic side, he learned that there are actually five basic elements not four and every single type of spell is derived from those five basic elements. However, because most people could not understand the concept of space magic, it wasn't until advanced level before any space related magic like teleport or healing was even discussed or studied and that is why teleport artifacts and high level healers can demand such high pay for their services.

When it came to actual combat, unlike target practice where Ken just needed to concentrate on the element he wanted to use and focus the energy from his palm or anywhere else like Seraphina shooting out fireballs from her mouth. As long as one can understand the basic element they are trying to produce, they can conjure the element and depending on their level of expertise, create an effect like shooting out a small fireball to light up some firewood for a camp fire or a fireblast that can melt a person in seconds.