Zero to Hero (Prequel/prototype)

Chapter 10. Liar

"Ken! Rise and shine! Hurry up or we will be late!" Alice shouted while knocking on his dorm door with Lovetta by her side.

Soon enough, they heard movement on the other side and not long after, Ken opened his dorm door while yawning like he usually does.

After exchanging their typical morning greetings, the three met up with Clare and Genesis in the common room and headed for breakfast on a typical Sunday morning.

Two more months have passed and for Ken and the group, it's already been four months since the first day of class. With the last week of the academy semester dedicated to the biannual tournament. Only 2 more weeks of class until the students get to have a week to study and then it's time for the midterm.

Thanks to Clare, the group were able to stay relatively trouble free. While people like Xandrian and Dimitri will come and bother them every once in a while, due to Clare's status, verbally taunting them is the best strategy they could come up with.

After months of the same harassment, Xandrian and Dimitri and their groupies have become more like annoying flies that kept buzzing about and won't leave you alone but for the most part, they have been deemed mostly harmless.

For the past two months, Alice has become Ken's private tutor. Unlike Clare who will always help Ken understand things he's got a question on but still mainly focused more on her own studies. Alice does not care at all about making any progress herself and spends all her time with Ken, helping and teaching him new things that's not yet taught in his beginner classes.

Unlike Ken, who is now easily able to keep up in class and with Alice's tutoring getting way ahead of the curve. Lovetta is struggling hard with all of the written classes and even with constant help from Ken, she is not making much progress.

"Three more weeks and I can finally get rid of all those zeros! I can't believe it's taking this long for me to finally be able to prove to those that's looking down on me that I am at least better than a few people." Ken said excitedly

"How many is a few?" Genesis asked curiously as the group ate their breakfast.

"Well, there are 1022 total in our class right. I checked all the scores and the 785 from the 10 major kingdoms and the nobles and royals from the other kingdoms have all passed at least the beginner level.

There are only around 100 of us that are still trying to pass the beginner level and obviously I don't think I can pass it just yet so hopefully my overall score will be top 1000!" Ken answered hopefully.

"Eh. Why are you getting so exciting for maybe passing up 25 people." Genesis wondered out loud.

"Genesis, you know how much catching up I have to do to just be on the same starting line with most of the people here?

I am not going to town for fun, not going to parties, not sleeping as much as I like. Spending all my waking moments studying and training just to make up for the 10 years of falling behind.

Clare, Alice and you have been going to school and studying since you were what like 5 years old? And I am supposed to suddenly catch up after not even 5 months of studying?

I am more than happy to be in the top 1000 by midterm and hopefully by the end of the school year, I can catch up even more."

"Hey Genesis! Don't be rude to Ken! You know how hard he is studying and training! He just need time and eventually he will be great!" Alice quickly came to Ken's defense.

"Sorry, I wasn't trying to be rude. Just forgot how far behind he is."

Genesis Feirvenn, born in the kingdom of Feirvenn, the second largest human kingdom and fifth largest overall has been part of Ken's group due to her friendship with Alice.