Life Of A Nobody - as a Villain

Chapter 84 Hellish Days - Learning Theory

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— After finishing 2 hours of his morning training with Luke, Rio has to freshen up and then get ready for breakfast with his family. After spending all his energy on that training, obviously he needed to eat a lot to fill his stomach to recharge himself. Plus the food always tasted so good that he couldn't eat less even if he wanted to. 

— At 9:00am, a different type of hell starts. His theory classes, for 3 hours straight he needs to sit and listen to different people coming and going, teaching him about Arcadia's history, world affairs, dungeons and monster anatomy, basically all kinds of stuff he should just know by heart, if he wants to live well. The teachers who came to teach him were obviously very knowledgeable and experienced. 

Now this may sound easy since Rio already knew some stuff before from the novel, but it's not. He had just eaten his fill and his body needed sleep. Keeping his eyes open during this period was a mental torture. 

(Every time he fell asleep either a pat on his head or a basic water spell greeted his face.) 

"According to what we know of mana and its connection with the world, it is believed that unlike aura, mana has no form. It is a simple energy that can be sensed, felt and used, but cannot be seen. Now if you wonder if mana has no form then why can we see it while using the spells or how some high rankers control it to their wishes - well that's cause when we use spells or any element, we don't use pure mana, we take it in and try to change it into something we wish for." 

Rio's eyes began to droop with weariness. The exhaustion from his training and then him eating too much was making it difficult to stay awake and fully focused. His eyelids fluttered, repeatedly closing and opening in a struggle against sleep. Just as he was about to succumb to sleep, a small gust of wind slapped his cheek, rousing him. He shifted his attention back to the teacher, hoping they hadn't noticed his momentary lapse. Meanwhile, the teacher continued his explanation, seemingly unfazed by the interruption.

"As for how high rankers can control the mana, that's because as you reach higher in ranks your body gets attuned with mana, after years of progress just like everything else mana too becomes a part of it. Giving you a sensory feeling which is far more enhanced than anything else, making them more sensible to mana. Since they can sense every property of mana better than others, it is easier for them to control it. Now if you understand it all, then we'll proceed to the next topic, beginning of spells."

Rio's eyelids grew heavy once more, his focus slipping into sleep. He wanted to stay awake but this was all too damn boring for him, he already knew this stuff. Maybe he didn't but who teaches anyone just after they've finished their food. It's like they're begging the student to fall asleep in class. 

This time instead of ignoring Rio's sleeping struggles, his teacher waved his hand and a small water bubble started floating towards Rio's face. As soon as Rio's hand slipped and his face fell, the bubble hit him, startling him awake. Rio blinked rapidly, trying to look around if anyone saw him. He glanced at the teacher, who wore a subtle smile.

"That is me using a basic spell of water element called 'water bubble'. Now let's continue."

 Rio straightened his back and started doodling in his diary trying to look focused, while cursing his luck. 

— After living through that boredom and repeating that cycle for 3 hours, now it was 12:00 am, time for his most annoying class :Noble's etiquette. A 30 something old dude named Eckart teaching him about how he should behave. He taught him about how he should act according to his status, graceful movements, how to talk in social gatherings, how to manage political speeches, what to avoid and who to respect, basically all kinds of shit that makes no sense. 

We live in a world where monsters and dungeons exist, and yet this guy wasted one hour today teaching him about how to maintain his appearance, about how he should dress and always look like a noble. He even gives tips on how to woo girls at parties, like what the fuck dude. Let me sleep if you got nothing useful to teach. 

— After this 1 long ass hour of boring stuff, comes something interesting at least - Lunch. 

'Ohhh how I've missed the taste of food.' Lunch always tastes extra delicious since that E cart bastard would sometimes give him something to eat in the middle of his chapter, just so he could see what his table manners are. Shiva who basically survived on instant noodles back on earth, could never satisfy his keen old eyes, which always picked out faults. 

— After eating his lunch, he gets 2 hours of break time, which he happily spends playing around with Amelia and Rebecca. Erza, Esme's little sister also became friends with Amy, and she keeps her company while Rio's busy. 

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 ***Erza's sickness Ratten was only in the beginning phase so it got cured easily, after giving her some high level monster blood and healing potions. Looking at how Rio especially asked to save her, Artemis probably thought she was someone important and decided to keep her alive for now. 

Esme too was brought back by Alphas she sent some time ago, and she's been forgiven a little. Obviously Artemis didn't trust her fully again, so she gave her the ultimatum of death or slavery, Esme happily chose to sign the slave contract with Blake family. Esme has also taken mana oaths and blood oaths so she can never harm anyone from the Blake bloodline. 

Now she was back at being Rio's shadow. Even though her freedom was done for, unless the protagonist does his halo magic, she was still happy about it. 

Her sister, which is why she went nuts in the novel, was safe and sound, happy too as she got a new friend in Amelia, which helped her get over her experience in slave mines and the Belmont family. 

Esme's wish to be free from her burdens and happily living together came true, if it costs her one oath which she would've done anyway - she's okay with it. 

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So where were we - ohh so what comes after the break 

— At 4:00pm he has alchemy class, which is somewhat better and more interesting than other ones. Since Rio knew recipes of tons of potions, and knew locations of where to find more, he was really interested in learning this. Since he wasted too much time and effort into making pura corpus potion despite knowing everything about it, he had decided to take this a little bit seriously. 

After all, doping is a thing in this world. And besides, what better way to power up than just eating some pills as candies. 

His teacher for this lesson was a famous alchemist named Riona Pabbit. A halfling, she has a part rabbit bloodline, Rio never heard of her in the novel, so he was curious about her life, but she doesn't talk about it, since she had to leave her clan to join alchemy association. 

After one hour of making and mixing potions, trying to learn and identify different herbs and their uses, Rio could finally get out of that place. 

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A/N - So how was it? Any idea. I see some y'all complaining about slow pace, so all I wanna say is after the first even of Rebecca's birthday, there'll be a time skip.